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My take on Dakota Rose (Kotakoti)
I first heard about her it was from people mentioning her on Tumblr, and when I wanted to learn more the source I was directed to was, of course, the ED article which needless to say left me with a bit of a biased view point and concreted in my mind that she was ‘racist, homophobic, and elitist’. Not because that was my first hand experience with her, mind you, simply because that’s what I was told.
After a little deeper digging I found out that all those racist, homophobic, elitist comments she made were blown completely out of proportion. I repeat, they were blown completely out of proportion.
So, I would like to address every “Kotakoti problem” personally:
She’s homophobic: This is one of the most common defenses used against bashing her, and being bisexual myself this is the one I was most disgusted about when I first heard it.
The root of this comes from comments made on her live Stickam shows, as well as on Twitter. Now, the majority of these comments consist of her saying she is not a lesbian and that’s disgusting, or calling people fags as a basic insult (not specifically because they are gay). Offensive? Yes. However, there is a difference between the behavior I just mentioned and, for example, having an out spoken opinion against gay marriage and a belief that gays will burn in hell. Dakota’s behavior was annoying, but very typical of a young teenager. She has recently apologized for it, and has tried to explain herself by saying that she was being harassed online by two lesbian women who were trying to convince her that she was gay. She admitted she handled the situation immaturely. When somebody is trying to prove they aren’t gay, they will often exhibit very homophobic behavior. Whether or not you want to accept her apology is a personal choice, however I see no reason for her to have to bear this cross on her back for the rest of her life.
She’s racist: Well then so are Reina Takanka, Sayumi Michishige and Kamei Eri because they did exactly what Dakota did, stretch out their eyes to look slanty and post a picture online. However, these girls apologized and it was over. Nobody even remembers it anymore. We need to keep things in perspective. Stretching out your eyes does not make you racist. Yes, it is offense, but as with the homophobia comments her actions have been blown out of proportion. Now, there have been reports that she has done other things in addition to that, but the eye pulling picture is the only one people can actually prove.
She hates fat people: She wrote this on her MySpace when she was about 14, and has since denied that she hates fat people. Honestly, I think this one is kind of silly and a perfect example of how the anti’s will scour her past for any slip up they can use against her as if she had to be perfect from the day she was born. But, while we are on the subject: have you all heard of Nozomi Sasaki? Like Dakota she is a model, but Nozomi is known in Japan as “No Mercy” for her repeated atrocities against any model she considered ‘fat’. I can’t recall anybody condemning her behavior.
She modifies her pictures and then lies about it: Yeah, she probably does. Yeah, it would be nice if she would be honest. However, she does not have to tell us everything she does. She is hardly the first model to lie about editing their photos, and yet she takes the most heat for it. Besides, having seen her on Japanese news we can tell that her irl appearance is not dramatically different from her pictures.
She lies about her age: Yep. So do lots of women. Especially when you are entering the modeling world. Once you reach a certain age the offers stop coming in, Dakota probably just wants to extend her career by a few years. It’s very common. Shirley Temple, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, Agyness Deyn and countless other have all taken a few years off their age to prolong their careers.
In conclusion, people need to stop viewing Dakota Rose as this insane homophobic-racist-liar and learn the real facts. She’s not perfect, but no one is. It’s important that you do a bit of critical thinking when it comes to stories like this, and try and understand both sides. Is it right for Dakota to lie to her fans? Is it right for the internet to drag a young girl through the mud and reveal all her personal details online? Is Dakota really a racist homophobe, or are people only seeing what they want to see? These are the questions you need to ask yourself before you judge her based on a hate-blog or an ED article.
1936.
