Praying your parents don\u2019t see anything weird when they\u2019re dropping you off
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Yelling \u201cbuttscratcher\u201d and at least 10 people yelling back.
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Org XIII cosplayers as far as the eye can see
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\u201cThe Game\u201d
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Free Hugs
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Glomps
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The banning of Glomps
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The paranoia of cosplaying Sauske, Naruto, Sora, or Riku because you know someone has a Yaoi paddle and they\u2019re watching your ass like Wile E. Coyote watches the Roadrunner
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Homestuck invasion
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Not being able to cosplay or enjoy One Piece without some asshole screaming the 4Kids theme at you
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Cat ears
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Seriously how did Yaoi Paddles stick around for so long? You would never get away with that today. You\u2019d probably go to jail for that behavior
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not to be a lil kid or nothin but what the fuck is a yaoi paddle
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You\u2019re not the first person to ask me this. I once made a post all about them, but I will reiterate because the past must not be forgotten lest we repeat history
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I\u2019m mostly copypasting from my original post on this:
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The yaoi paddle is\u2026an odd yet fascinating relic of the \u2018weeabo\u2019 phase\n everyone went through, specifically prevalent throughout the Naruto and\n Kingdom Hearts fandom in thy early days.
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The Yaoi Paddle was literally a small oar with the words Yaoi, Seme, or Uke written on them
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\nTheir function was to slap people\u2019s asses.\u00a0
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Now you would think this would be something reserved for say an after dark or +18 panel, but no, it wasn\u2019t. This was a very real thing people carried around with them on the convention floor
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People would go up and slap each other on the ass with these in public, in front of everybody.
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Not only was this acceptable behavior, it was downright expected! Something that by today\u2019s standards would be considered sexual\u00a0harassment was acceptable
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\nThis was a real thing that happened for a long time at conventions, as \nyou can tell by the timestamp this photo. \nIf you thought random hugs were a violation of personal space then \nyou\u2019ve gone soft in the absence of these unholy weapons.
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\n if you wore a\u00a0Naruto, Sauske, Sora, Riku, or Org. XIII cosplay from 2006 to 2009, you \nwere officially fair game and you might as well have been wearing a \ntarget on your ass, regardless if you were in to that or not.
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Nowadays they are but a distant memory, a forgotten part of convention culture that a lot of people want to pretend never happened; with good reason mind you
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So there\u2019s your history lesson!
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I used to cosplay Iruka from Naruto and honestly a Kakashi cosplayer with one of these in hand still haunts my dreams sometimes
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