#but other than gendered titles like 'girl' or 'son' etc most gendering in japanese happens by the speaker regarding themself

[buffintruder]

on the scale of 'monolingual english speakers assuming gender in all languages works the same way it does in english' this is so low in the importance scale that it doesn't matter

but sometimes i see people making posts on tumblr about japanese speaking characters using they/them or it/its, and like those words barely exist in that language, and any words you could use would just be weirdly convoluted and odd when its so easy and normal to not use any pronouns at all

like i know it's a joke but it is fun to imagine those conversations happening in japanese and being utterly baffled as to how it would actually work

[drinkyourfuckingmilk]

Do you have any particular documentaries you like ?

yes I have a list!!! I’ll copy and paste an old one I’ve used and updated recently. though a lot of the documentaries I watch are crime/psychology related so some of these are going to be morbid, just a heads up. 

the crime/psychology list

- Making a Murderer: this one is on netflix, looks at possible police corruption, wrongful imprisonment and analyses a current murder trial. it’s pretty damn popular and it’s brilliantly well done (though frustrating on a lot of levels) so check it out. it’s about a current case too so there’s still new information to look up. 

- There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane: a family tries to investigate what really happened the day diane schuler fatally drove into oncoming traffic with 6 children in her car. this one haunts me for some reason, not a lot of it makes sense in terms of her character. 

- Dear Zachary: A Letter to His Son About His Father: very tragic story but good insight into how the justice system and child protective services need constant reevaluation and scrutiny, and the story also features probably the bravest and most supernaturally compassionate and strong couple I’ve ever seen like if you want just an example of two incredible human beings then pay attention to the mother and father. 

The Boy Who Should Have Lived: looks at the story of a boy with a mental illness, his parents struggle to get him help and how the system utterly fucking failed him. 

The 9/11 Faker: a woman who got away with pretending to be a survivor of 9/11 and the aftermath of her actions within the survivor group she totally fooled. 

The Imposter: amazing documentary on a man who pretended to be a long lost missing child and disturbingly fooled a lot of people. I didn’t even think this one was real until the end. 

- Back From the Edge: documentary on borderline personality disorder that interviews people living with the disorder (women AND men which is good, because borderline can seem like it presents quite differently in either gender).

- Boy Interrupted: about a boy named evan who suffered from bipolar disorder from a very young age. it looks at the genetic influences, how it affected the family in the aftermath, and it’s heartbreaking to see how the illness manifests itself in such a young child. 

- Just Melvin, Just Evil: this one is centered around a large extended family and how child sexual abuse has affected its members. it’s got very triggering content for abuse survivors so avoid it if that’s a problem for you, but it’s actually a really important insight into how abuse contributes to poverty, alcoholism, dysfunction, self-harm, mental health issues and how that cycle is perpetuated)

- Child of Rage: looks at the rehabilitation of a child suffering from reactive attachment disorder which is when a child fails to develop emotional attachment or empathy for others (sometimes being the foundation of sociopathy/psychopathy), in this case due to sexual abuse and neglect. it involves recordings of therapy sessions with a young girl who experienced this and how she is treated for the disorder.

- Interview with Expert FBI Criminal Profiler: basically just an interview with one of my role models John Douglas who probably has one of the most extensive careers as a criminal profiler and conducted a huge body of research that contributed to the most effective methods of catching killers and preventing crime.

Love Crimes of Kabul: follows several women in a Afghanistan prison and their stories of what “crimes” had them imprisoned (just dont look through the comment section. this applies to all videos obviously but this one in particular). 

History of the Capital Punishment: kinna self explanatory but really awesome because crime AND history.

Broadmoor: documentary on a psychiatric facility in Britain that contains violent offenders who suffer from mental illness, and looks at the rehabilitation process and at the morality of treating or punishing the patients/offenders)

India’s Daughters: documentary on the issue of rape culture in India and the sociopolitical aftermath of the rape and murder of a medical student, Jyoti.

Thin: follows several women in a treatment facility for eating disorders.  

and if you’re just interested in crime and profiling etc then you can find most good 30 - 40 min crime documentaries on youtube from Crime Investigation Channel but keep in mind these can be quite full-on since some of them have “dramatic reenactments” of crime (and tbh some of them go over the top to the point where I feel like it can get disrespectful)

some history yaaaayyyy

Nanking: an interesting documentary that revolves around the foreigners who stayed behind in Nanking to create a Safety Zone for 200,000 chinese residents fleeing from the atrocities committed by the invading japanese military. It uses narration by actors and interviews with actual witnesses and survivors of the time. 

Sorrowful Homecoming: a korean documentary (with subtitles) that follows a japanese journalist Takashi Ito who has been interviewing and advocating for korean survivors used as “comfort women” during wartime by japanese soldiers. this one is very upsetting and has a lot of sexual violence described so keep that in mind before you watch it.  

The Romanov Dynasty: mini documentary series about each tsar and tsarina who ruled during the 300 year long romanov dynasty. IT’S SO WELL DONE and was made with so much love. 

Marie Antoinette Documentary: one of the best documentaries on the historical bae who has always been grossly misunderstood and misrepresented even in modern history classes. 

Mystery of the Romanovs: looks into the discovery of the remains of the Romanovs, insight into what happened the night they were murdered and investigation into the potential survival of Anastasia and/or Alexei.

Catherine the Great: the title says it all, gurl was great. amazing leader who knew exactly how to play the political/royal game and told all the men who tried to oppress or abuse her to sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up y’all best recognize.

Servants: The True Story of Life Below Stairs: really cool little doco series on the people who served the upper class in the UK back in the day (Victorian, Edwardian eras etc) and what their daily lives were like and what kind of people they were.

And Man Created Dogs: how wolves/dogs evolved and bonded with us and became the natural BFFs of humans like god bless the power of evolution and oxytocin.

less morbid documentaries in general

- Babies: this is a lovely documentary (FOR A CHANGE). it doesn’t use interviews or voice overs, it just follows the development and differing parenting of four babies from four different nations: Japan, America, Namibia and Mongolia. it’s really interesting and excruciatingly cute.

- My Heart Belongs to My Dad: looks at 3 men doing their best to raise their children as single parents. 

Nomadic Tribes of the Sahara: basically the title sums it up! the narrator is kind of annoying but it’s a really awesome look at how the tribes of the sahara adapt to live in such a scorching climate. 

- Poor Kids: follows children in the UK who live below the poverty line and how their family’s make do from day to day

Search For Habitable Planets: because space is hella and maybe one day we’ll end up on one of these bad boys like not in my lifetime at least but hey.

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life in Space: mini videos about Chris Hadfield doing adorable and informative shit in space

Cosmos: everything you’ve ever wanted to know about everything that hurts your brain to even think aka the entire universe brought to you by Carl Sagan

Killing Us Softly 3: absolute favourite look into how advertising and the sexual objectification of women creates a horrible climate of low self-esteem, eating disorders, and violence etc against them

Planet Earth: if you haven’t seen david attenboroughs planet earth series then holy sHIT get on that because it’s so beautiful and the footage of the animals and landscapes and how he explains all of it is just perfect seriously I’ve watched this series more times than I can count.

The Union: Business Behind Getting High: super entertaining doco on the history and politics of weed and how we would benefit if it was legalized and how we should be goDDAMN USING HEMP AS A HUGE NATURAL RESOURCE.

and obviously if you haven’t checked out any of louis theroux’s documentaries then GET ON THAT

- list of some of his doco’s 

youtube channels with more awesome documentaries

- Real Stories

- 20/20

- BBC History Documentaries Playlist

[some of the links might be broken as youtube is want to remove every good video from existence but just do a new search in youtube/google and you’ll probably find all of these]