| So... this is a topic I've been discussing with quite a few friends of mine on and off the site, and I don't think I've reached a real conclusion despite the time I've spent thinking on it and talking about it, so forgive me if I ramble a bit here. The recent discussion on Berzerk pushed me along a bit in posting this, but it's something I've been thinking about for a while. Just about everyone who has joined this club can agree that works promoting feminism and positive messages about gender and orientation are a good thing, and that works that are insulting towards women and perpetuate negative ideas and stereotypes are a bad thing. The heart of problem I am mulling over is this: given that anime and manga are works of fiction, and by the very nature of fiction, are open to interpretation, to what degree can we determine that a work is feminist or anti-feminist? Obviously, some works are a lot less ambiguous about their messages than others. When Fist of the North Star's characters directly state that a person cannot be both a woman and a warrior, and then do absolutely nothing to challenge or undercut that idea through dialogue or through action, it's pretty clear that it's sending sexist messages. Furthermore, when a harem series presents us with a broad variety of female characters, all of whom are obsessed with the male protagonist to the point that this overshadows any personal ambitions they have, that's also pretty unambiguously sexist. That said, I think that the majority of anime (and fictional works) are less clear about the messages they send. More than once, I have seen works attacked by feminist critics as being sexist while other feminist critics praised the same work for being wonderful and empowering. If I had to select a single anime I have seen embody this type of conflict, I would have to name Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Aside from the room left open for the interpretations of the characters and their actions, the discussion around the series is also muddled by comments made by the director, the ambiguous continuity of the Rebellion film and by the myriad of 'Madoka clones' that took the grim, horrific elements of Madoka and dropped most or all of the positive messages. Going by the presence or absence of certain kinds of content can definitely be an adequate approach to filtering out sexist and otherwise offensive anime, and for those of us who prefer to avoid seeing certain types of graphic content, this may be enough. Personally, I'm probably never going to read Berzerk, despite all the praises I've heard for it, simply because I don't like graphic rape scenes. That said, the presentation of a particular subject usually has as much or more to say about the work's message than that subject. The Jessica Jones television series is centered very heavily on rape, but the rape never occurs on screen, is never presented as anything other than horrible, and does not rob the protagonist of her strength and agency except in a temporary sense. Forgive me if saying, "A work is not automatically sexist because it has rape in it," is obvious. I'm merely drawing attention to the fact that interpretation of the messages of a work is not as simple as glancing at its subject matter, which may be an obvious statement in and of itself, given that I am posting this on our club. Fairy Tail is on our list despite being a fanservice laden Shonen, and Panty and Stocking is on our list despite being filled with fanservicey transformation sequences and sexual humor. Obviously, some interpretations of works are much more credible and grounded than others, but the fact remains that multiple valid interpretations exist around most anime, and this makes it pretty difficult for me to confidently stick the 'Feminist' or 'Sexist' labels on most of the works I've watched, especially the ones I loved the most. What are your thoughts on how the reality of interpretation plays a part in of feminist critique of media? Like, really, I want to know, because I'm a little lost here. Should we take the club's "Sexist Anime' and 'Relationships Lists' as merely a collection of single interpretations, forming and voicing our own interpretations all the while? Should we strive to collaborate and form a sort of ''Feminist Litmus Test' that can be used as a guideline for labeling anime pro-feminist or sexist? |
| "Bang." -Spike Spiegal "Everything... is connected." -Lain Iwakura "Life is too short to watch bad anime. Long Live the 1st Episode Drop." -InkSpider "Anime fans make me embarrassed to be an anime fan." -InkSpider |
| The core of a feminist anime is that it presents feminist themes either as their main theme or as subtheme. What these themes are can be a bit vague though because not every feminist group has the same ideas and sometimes they even contradict eachother. The sexuality of certaun characters for example might be loved by one sect for pushing their agenda and loathed by another one because they think sex is bad. The best you can say is that some guidelines are accepted by everyone (bichtel test) while others are open for debate. |
 |
| Yeah, it's hard to make a science out of it with a set of rules, there are always people that feel empowered by sth while others feel uncomfortable because of it. Only Bechdel test is dependable but it's such a bare minimum. We can only count on democracy in cases when it's ambiguous whether a work is feminist or not. And on your personal impressions and feelings as a woman (I'm not even a woman so I can't depend on this but I still can clearly notice certain patterns I guess). |
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