Brianna, the soft spoken 19-year-old student from San Diego whose Youtube videos about “hoeing in Japan” sparked a minor uproar, is not here for your judgment.
Her videos, posted under her Youtube name “Morena in Japan,” detail some of her takeaways on size stereotypes and cultural differences, like her surprise over some unusual foreplay, or the fact that Japanese college students “dress to the nines” to go to school and take showers everyday, unlike their American counterparts. Starting with just a couple of hundred subscribers, her story was like catnip for today’s click-hungry Internet and spread quickly. Within weeks, she had 26,000 followers and almost 800,000 views.
There were comments, too. Some were of enthusiastic support, including people who said her actions have been no different than actions most men are praised for. But others said they were appalled by her age more than her gender, and questioned her judgment, including her decision to talk openly online about her sex life. She even received a number of death threats.
I first heard about Brianna when a friend sent an article outlining some of the details in her videos. By then, they’d already been viewed over 200,000 times. Watching the videos, it appeared to me that she had a specific point of view on sex, and made them with both awareness and humor about how that point of view would be received.
The videos are laced with profanity, with fair warning—”This video is not safe for work…unless you want to be hearing me talk about dick in the fucking office,” she said to kick off “HOEING IN JAPAN 101,” in case the title wasn’t a dead giveaway. In “WHAT IS DICK LIKE IN JAPAN,” she makes fun of her critics, including those on “Spiritual Twitter,” where she said people commented that she was letting “dick into my body, and affect my spirit, and my soul, because apparently that’s what dick does.” (For her part, she believes sex is just sex.) She also takes shots at critics who say she’s being “ran through,” or taken advantage of. “First of all, I fuck THEM,” she said. “I’m a hoe. Find something else to argue about.”
Curious about this young woman whose sex life has sparked generational, gender and ideological debate, I reached out to Brianna to get her take on some of the comments about her channel and her character, and to find out how she was dealing with the surge in attention.
What was the original idea behind your channel, and how did you come up with the idea to make the hoeing 101 video?
I made my channel in May 2017 before I was even in Japan. I had so many ideas of what I wanted to portray. The main idea was empowering young Black women, making people laugh, and making videos that have not been made about Japan before. I’m very open sexually and I just want to normalize it.
You mentioned in your video that you felt comfortable with your sexuality well before Japan. Was that always the case?
My family never talked about sex—everything I learned was from the Internet. I discovered I was pansexual when I was in middle school but mistook it for being bisexual. Then I learned more from social media. I always found my own body unsexy until I was about 17, when I finally started going out with people. Sex made me love my body a lot more, I think.
Who would you consider to be your greatest influences in terms of sexual identity, and what were your sources of sex education growing up?
Cupcakke, Rihanna, and Lana Del Rey. All musical artists empower me sexually. I remember in middle school we would have sex education classes. They would give us sheets of anatomy as homework that we had to fill out with our parents. My mom felt awkward with me but we did them anyway. She answered all of my questions, but I still had more. I typed in ‘sex education’ on Google and, next thing I know, I’m watching porn. That’s basically how I learned what sex actually was. Then social media helped, and I realized porn wasn’t actually real, but still nice.
How do you feel about the response and media coverage your video has gotten so far? Did you expect it?
I truly did not expect men threatening to kill or assault me because I like sex. The women who are angry at me aren’t comfortable with themselves. I freaked out at first. It happened overnight. My mental health was rocky. Now that it has died down I think it’s fine. I can laugh about it now.
Overall, have you felt more support or more criticism?
The criticism takes a bigger piece of me. People just have the wrong idea of me and it’s annoying. What they say doesn’t annoy me, but the fact that they came to a conclusion without knowing my character is gross. The support is nice, it’s great to know people want me to succeed.
You made some interesting observations about cultural differences, including one where you criticized people who exclusively target or have sex with specific races. Can you elaborate on that? Do you notice that happens a lot, and is it any different in a place like Japan where society is largely homogeneous?
People hide their fetishes under the word “preference”. White men especially have the tendency to go on tours across Asia just to have sex with Asian women. African men tend to do that as well, especially in Japan and Korea. People thought I was engaging in that when it’s simply not the case. I did not shift my entire life to have sex with Japanese men. That’s ridiculous. I had a lot of sex back home, I have a lot of sex now. They just happen to be Japanese.
One of the comments you frequently get is that your stance on sex is similar to that of men.
It’s definitely a double standard. Men assert their power differently though. I don’t pressure men to have sex with me. Sex is a mutual and fun decision. Men somehow always seem to make sex completely unsexy and awkward when they ask for it. I just take advantage of being a beautiful young woman. I get what I want, they get what they want, that’s it.
Another common comment I have seen on your videos is about your age. What do you think about those comments?
Teenagers have sex. I personally didn’t have sex until I was 17 about to turn 18. This really isn’t new. These comments really just made me realize how ignorant the general public is.
Do you think there is any change in attitudes about sex between generations?
It hasn’t changed. It’s just been passed down. Sex is still seen as shameful even though former generations have 12 kids and there wasn’t an issue. But if I have protected sex with multiple people it’s an issue.
You’re studying Japanese politics. Do you think the criticisms and judgements you get could affect you in any way, in your studies, professionally or in your love life?
I really don’t care. Everything I do I’m great at it. If my sex life makes a company reject me that’s truly their loss. As for my love life, I’d rather air out all of my sexcapades online so they know what type of person I am. I’m not hiding anything. If someone doesn’t want to date me because I have consensual protected sex, I really don’t want to be involved with them either.
Do you have any plans going forward for the direction of your content? What is your long term goal for the channel?
I hope I get to work with people like Cupcakke. I want to be the girl that people talk about positively instead of in a derogatory way. I just want people to understand that being comfortable sexually is okay.
