I am a horrible weeaboo and I want to decorate my desk at my workplace with weeaboo faggotry, but I don’t want to creep out my co-workers or get fired or anything. What sort of things might you recommend?
The key word here is moderation.
When you are looking to decorate your workplace (or generally anywhere- your apartment, your car, anything out in the public), one of the biggest rules is to moderate whatever you do- to not go overboard with one key theme, be it anime, sports, gaming, or the like.
So yes, you can have geeky/weeaboo stuff- but it has to be moderated, held back, and done in a way that’s restrained but classy.
First off, decide what would be feasible to do. I would avoid anything too ridiculous (i.e. bringing a bunch of figurines and loading the place up with posters and jpop music)- try to come up with a happy balance. Even if it’s as simple as a wallpaper- you have to be careful. Avoid anything that could even remotely be considered sexual (that includes most women with big breasts- fully clothed or not), anything that could be taken as violent (swords, guns, blood, etc), and anything that’s just perceptibly odd (schoolgirls). A lot of the nasty connotations that come from stuff with Anime is usually along the violence/sexual lines, so try to avoid that at all costs.
A key factor here is artistic value. If you can, try to enjoy something muted and artistic (like a painting of a scene from some show you like) before you do something blatantly cel shaded and fake. In more anime-related terms, Imperial Boy stuff will be taken much better than some run-of-the-mill CG fest.
One trick you can employ to warm up your co-workers is to do something rather palatable (i.e. something more familiar) before you go into the crazy stuff. If you want something specifically anime/gaming related, there’s nothing wrong with starting off with something simple- like a small piece of art. Hell, even if it’s something culturally viable- for example, I’d personally love to get my hands on an old fire fighting poster from japan with the RX-78-2 on it. The more “normal” and acceptable it is, the easier it will be for others to accept, and thus, the less likely it will be that you’ll be unreasonably scrutinized.
Another thing I recommend you do is to do more than just hobby-related stuff. If you have an office (or even a cubicle), try to add some more decorative stuff around if you can- avoid just having a single theme. Depending on the theme of the anime stuff you want in your workspace, you could always accent it with asian decoration, medieval type stuff- you name it. Work with what space you have, of course, but avoid being a one hit wonder, design-wise.
Finally, remember that everyone has quirks and hobbies, and yours doesn’t have to be a travesty if you don’t let it. If you handle the hobby maturely (by doing some of the things above and avoiding the drive to make your workspace look like some sort of Hikkikimori apartment), it can be something really damn cool. Don’t try to hide the stuff you ad or pretend to be ashamed- that will make it worse- just try to make it mature and you’ll do fine.
Tags: decorating, office, work
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One good rule of thumb is to ask of any anime, gaming, or otherwise nerdy decoration the question of “Would someone put this up if he or she was not interested in whatever nerdy subculture this comes from?” Basically, whatever you decorate with should have artistic merit on its own. Enjoyment of the decoration should not require being familiar with some anime or video game.