Fans of my post on Japanese pronouns will be interested in Kaori Shoji’s article on pronoun usage in the contemporary Japanese dating scene.

She describes an ojou-sama who can’t stand men who call themselves “ore” (and would never permit anyone to call her “omae”.) But another woman confesses that she keeps falling for ore-users after having divorced a man who called himself “boku.”

The consensus seems to be that boku-users are boring indecisive “grass-eaters,” while ore-users are exciting, sexy and dangerous.