Monday, May 25, 2020

Rest in Power, Hana Kimura

Institutional cruelty caused her death
Photo via Getty Images
Hana Kimura, up-and-coming STARDOM wrestler, died Saturday, May 23, at the age of 22. She took her own life after facing a wave of cyberbullying that arose from an incident from the Japanese reality television show Terrace House, where someone shrunk her wrestling gear in the dryer and the obsessive fans of the show took to social media to hurl vitriolic messages at her. She posted pictures depicting self harm on Friday, but they were removed, presumably at behest of STARDOM Wrestling. However, Saturday, she was found dead in her home. Kimura was beloved by her peers and her fans alike, and her death set off a touching wave of mourning. She was primed to be the next ace of STARDOM for good reason.

Kimura was the daughter of joshi legend Kyoko Kimura. She actually won her first title at the age of 12, the famed DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship, before losing it back to her mother. She followed in those footsteps and trained at the Wrestle-1 Academy, where she graduated to professional status in 2016. While she would not join the STARDOM roster full-time until 2019, she was a high-profile freelancer as early as 2017 as a member of Kagetsu's Oedo Tai stable. Kimura gained a massive following in STARDOM especially after Kagetsu had to retire and she led Tokyo Cyber Squad. With the old guard of joshi either retiring or moving off to WWE, she had the opportunity to become supernova.

She also had somewhat of an acting career, which was limited to talk shows and reality television. The aforementioned Terrace House was where she gained even more notability, but an incident where a housemate had washed his clothes while her gear from New Japan Pro Wrestling WrestleKingdom 14, where she and Giulia wrestled Mayu Iwatani and Arisa Hoshiki in a live-crowd-only match, was still in the wash. It led to shrinking of her gear, which led to a confrontation where she got physical with the male housemate. The altercation set off "Japanese idol culture" fans into an abusive spiral on social media, which is what led to Kimura's depressive episode. Idol culture is better known as stan culture in the United States, and if you don't think it's as severe here, ask Demi Lovato, who has had a public battle with self-harm over abuse she's taken online.

Of course, to say that the abusive, entitled social media users who virulently urged Kimura to die or kill herself is only part of the story. Young celebrities are often marketed as "accessible" to the public as a way to drive up interest in them. It's a practice that has been in place as long as there's been a popular culture industry. If you remember The Simpsons episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" when the record company told the Be Sharps to hide all their relationships, it wasn't fantasy. The Beatles themselves were told to do that until they got so big that they didn't really feel beholden to record executives anymore. Impressionable youths, especially women/femmes, are not as lucky to be encouraged to exert their agency in such a way, and thus they are more vulnerable not only to the pressures of ignorant bully fans but also of predatory record executives. It's not just the femme-presenting stars who fall victim, of course - look at Corey Feldman and Corey Haim - but they often face the brunt of it in much more violent fashion, especially in countries were women are still treated as second-class citizens, which is basically everywhere.

It's not to take any blame away from the individuals who feel emboldened to send hateful messages to those they feel they should control, whether they be celebrities or at-risk children at school. If you see cyberbullying, say something. At least report the messages on whatever social media platform where they're occurring. However, targeting only the bullies and not the superstructure that produces them feels like those comics where the hero wantonly shoots the foot soldiers to kill but then starts feeling like they have a moral obligation not to kill the main villain lest they become just like that they swore to defeat. You can start small by maybe scrubbing hateful podcasts in the lower spheres like The Jim Cornette Experience and work your way up to misogynist reality television producers or school administrators who operate their districts and countries like they're some warped Darwinist hellscapes, but it feels like there's a lot more work to be done for Kimura, for every victim of bullying, than just yelling at Twitter accounts who are more than likely sock puppets for larger-count users who shield themselves from criticism through online subterfuge.

As for Kimura, her death remains a tragedy on every level. She was too young to die. Everyone who came into contact with her loved her and being around her. It sucks that her depression hit her so severely that she felt death was the only way out. It sucks that there will still be a Greek chorus of right wing chuds who will yell about how suicide victims are selfish instead of having some fucking empathy. No matter what, a person who didn't deserve to be tortured into death is gone, and that void is never going to be filled. There are a lot of people hurting right now, and I think they need the most comfort, her peers, her mother, her family, friends, even her orphaned kitten. So many people are hurting right now, so let your love be their comfort in this time of utter devastation. Rest in peace, Hana Kimura. Rest in power.