Nag Nag Nag: “Ugly is Awesome”?
|If you’ve been married a while, “Nag” may make you think of your spouse. If you came from a goth/industrial background, “Nag Nag Nag” calls to mind the song by Cabaret Voltaire. If you collect rarified, weird-ass Japanese toys, the images below are your Nags.
I haven’t posted about Nag Nag Nag here before because the toys are so astoundingly ugly that I don’t particularly want to look at them (and I’m my blog’s Chief Demographic). If I stretch my mind, I can get the appeal of the Iggy Pop/Prodigy allusions of the two middle figures above. But as far as the folks who’ve told me they like these because they are “so rare” or “so well-made” or “ugly is awesome”…seriously? I don’t follow that ellipsis with judgment so much as with incredulity. I’m trying to understand, I guess. Super7’s Brian Flynn once explained to me the history of Nag Nag Nag, and now that I think back, it seems not unlike a hipster trap.
The Nags above belong to Greg Mishka, who is both a collector and a collaborator on the twisted toy line. Mishka produced an alternate colorway of the Violent Siamese Caveman Nag in 2009, with header art by Lamour Supreme. To quote a comment on their blog post for the Siamese Caveman, its header art depicts: “Shitting a girl in half…that’s a new one.” The header for the forthcoming Nag Nag Nag x Mishka Boryoku Genjin (shown at the top of this post) is once again by Supreme. Ugly is awesome, maybe, but a bound woman being approached by a wrench-bearing mutant gynecologist? Not cool. I guess it figures that Mishka, a Brooklyn-HQ’d company known for its ironic T-shirts, is affiliated with this. Is the header art offensive? Does it even matter? I don’t have the answers, just the questions.
How do you explain that irony has nothing to do with the reason I like this…. Take a look at folk art, get out of the city and check out some countryside art spaces. You would most likely find a nagnagnag there, aborting it’s youngling. Seriously though being offended is for people who were never bullied, if you got bullied when you were younger your skin got thick enough for shit to not bother you anymore… If you were with the cool crowd… More than likely your going to be offended… P.S. I’ve had an abortion, how about you? Oh your a man, I forgot?
How is he supposed to explain the reason you like the Nag without you even being a factor in this article? And who’s to say this image is an abortion piece? He could be planning to twist her clit off or help her with a splinter. Maybe he lost his copy of Robocop and is looking to get it back. And really? Being bullied somehow makes someone numb to see this kind of imagery? Is empathy that dead in the world? Jeremy obviously feels uncomfortable with the picture and now he’s a ‘cool’ dude and a total square. I had my ass kicked everyday in school and I hate to see people suffer. But I guess that makes me uncool since you know more about suffering since you had an abortion. Do you use that when defending everything you like is criticized? “Hey that band is totally awesome because you just don’t know! I had an abortion!” “You don’t understand how awesome this book is blah blah blah abortion!” The weight of your statement might be worth something if it weren’t blatant you just don’t give a damn. Anyone I’ve spoken to who has had an abortion have said it was a pretty important event in their life. It’s doubtful they’d just throw it out there as a defense for a toy.
I also happen to like Dayglo Abortions, It’s funny that 2 men feel they have the right to talk about misogony, it’s akin to a slave owner speaking at a human rights rally. You don’t know what it’s like to be a slave/woman therefor you have no right to sit there and dictate what we find offensive.
An abortion isn’t some life changing thing, it is what it is, a minor surgery, the reason for the process is what changes a person life i.e. rape, incest, a crack habit, a night filled with a million bad decisions, children that would be born with birth defects. If it were anything more than that it wouldn’t be legal, but it is legal because in reality it’s akin to wearing a condom (a step you use to decline making life).
In regards, your first stated reaction to what I wrote shows just how far off you are, In fact trying to explain why others like this was all he was trying to do, with reasoning like “I can get the appeal of the Iggy Pop/Prodigy allusions of the two middle figures above” It’s clear that he has no bearing on “The scene” that these figures come out of. The Iggy Pop/Prodigy/Andy Warhol aspect of these toys are the reason that I (as well as others) continue to step back and reassess our feelings for this particular Genjin.
If anything merely mentioning the allusions to those singers cements what this toy is doing… It’s playing dressup, Now it just happens to be a doctor, but hey who knows, next week it could be ??? Andy Warhol, wait what????
It’s a role, and that’s being filled, so forget about misogyny why don’t you try and get my number so you can cum massage me…
BTW I’m way cooler than you, but abortion has nothing to do with it, that’s just silly…