Japanese professional Tekken player believes that men under 170 centimeters tall have no human rights
On Tuesday afternoon, the Japanese professional player Burial sent an invitation to his fans to join his latest live broadcast. The 29-year-old wasn’t going to show off any new combos or recent strategies for the Tekken game, which she specializes in. Instead, she was going to answer some questions from her fans while she made a cake in the kitchen. It sounded like the perfect recipe for a run-of-the-mill broadcast. However, at some point in the stream, Tanukana began recounting the time she ordered something from Uber Eats.:
“…So the delivery guy was this guy, and after he delivered the food to me, he just stood there outside my door. So then he rings the bell again, and when I ask him what’s going on, he says ‘I’m sorry, but would you be willing to give me your contact information?’”
Clearly to Tanukana he didn’t like it very much that the young man tried to get his number:
“All I could feel was terror. And so, it was a complete headache that he knew where he lived. I would really hate for him to come back and set my house on fire if I rejected him out of hand.”
Despite everything, the professional player did not mention during her stream any subsequent revenge after rejecting the dealer, indicating that the young man took it very well. However, she was apparently still upset about the situation, but not because she thinks it’s wrong for a delivery guy to try to pick up a customer. No. She just thinks it’s wrong for a guy to do it. if it turns out that he is also short:
“He was short, maybe only 165 centimeters. Maybe it was even lower than 165! As soon as I saw how short he was, I was like ‘noup’. If he had been tall and had a really muscular body then there would have been an opportunity to give him my number.”
The sudden change in tone of the conversation made her streaming audience feel less empathy for Tanukana, but seeing the reactions her comments about height were having, she reiterated:
“165 centimeters is tiny. Not well. Honestly, if you’re under 170 centimeters, you have no human rights. If you are a guy who is below 170 centimeters in height, please live your life with the idea of ’I have no human rights’ in your mind all the time. Please research bone lengthening surgeries. Type ‘bone lengthening surgeries’ in the search engine. Once you are 170 centimeters, then you will start to have human rights.”
While people in Japan tend to be outspoken in expressing their opinions about what they do and don’t find attractive in a potential romantic partner, calling those who don’t meet your expectations sub-human was, to their audience, overdoing. After one of his viewers commented “Hey? Did you hear what he just said?” Tanukana kept insisting:
“Yes, I am saying it. Short kids obviously don’t have human rights. Know your place. I’m tough on shorties. But let me say this: I’m good with chubby and bald guys.”
Hours later, Tanukana felt the need to apologizeand appeared on Twitter to say the following:
“My stream content is being called hate speech. That was not my intention, but apparently there are many people who felt uncomfortable, so I take back what I said. I apologize. I wanted to say that I like tall guys… but in my broadcasts I always talk like I’m talking to people very close to me, so the words I used were harsh, I’m sorry…”
Unfortunately for Tanukana, unlike in video games, simply going back to a previous checkpoint when things don’t go your way isn’t enough, and the cold tone of his apology wasn’t helping much either. On Wednesday, Cyclops Athlete Gamingthe Osaka-based esport team that Tanukana was a part of, posted an apology directed at fans and sponsors, one of which, Red Bull, removed Tanukana from its list of brand ambassadors on its Japanese website. On Thursday, the team would then announce that they had canceled Tanukana’s contract, commenting:
“Our company finds the inappropriate attitude and comments [de Tanukana] during its broadcast on February 15, 2022, unacceptable… We recognize discriminatory or hateful comments, including those made on social media, as unforgivable, and we value the diversity of all people. To prevent such situations from happening again, we will strengthen our team’s player education and guidance systems.”
In the end, if Tanukana had simply said something like “I only want to date tall guys” o “I have no interest in dating short guys”, this probably wouldn’t have been blown out of proportion. However, to try to equate height as a requirement to be considered human is to lack common sense or even decency.
WITH INFO FROM SORA NEWS 24
