October 4th, 2012
Rape isn't love, shoujo.
Anime Relations: Nazo no Kanojo X, Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun
(Spoilers are to be expected.)
"No funny moves. Make one peep and I rape you.”
And then move on, everything's cool, whatever, no big deal, teehee he's so awkward and d'aww he's so bold just forcibly kissing her!
I didn't expect this line to make as big a splash as it did. Perhaps because it's exactly emblematic of why I just initially groaned at the line, the greater issue of rape culture and rampant sexism in anime and manga, and especially shoujo, that this has received such attention, not just for its own awfulness (and it is awful, to be sure), but for being a symptom and a symbol of the wheel it is but one tiny cog in. For this is not an aberration. Oh no, this isn't new at all. Anime has been giddily objectifying women, treating them as trophies, as decorations, as meat to be fed to the male gaze, infantilizing them, reducing them to collectibles, showcasing them as weak, as victims, as explicitly “for” men, living under their auspices, constantly on defense against their aggressions and on and on for decades at the least, and probably longer. To say there’s “some” gender issues with anime is to say there’s “some” sand at a beach.
I’m not even talking about hentai here. Nor is this at all limited to just the ecchi show(s) of a season. It’s pervasive and no demographic (seinen and shoujo aren’t genres, by the way) is free of it. But one of them can be worse. One of them can just be plain old terrible. One of them is shoujo.
There’s two reasons I basically don’t read shoujo. One is certain art style matters that seem common among shoujo that I don’t like at all. But I can move past that. What’s unacceptable to me is a pervasive trope in shoujo manga: misogyny. Which is particularly saddening when you consider that many of these are written by women, for women (or girls). Let me clarify what I mean.
You could look at my manga list, see a lack of shoujo, and declare that I’m talking out of my buttocks with no idea what’s actually in shoujo manga. Well, my manga list is an incomplete mess. I’ve actually tried many times to give shoujo manga a shot. I’ve tried dozens, many of them suggestions from self-professed shoujo lovers. And every time, disturbing themes come up, often pretty quickly, too. Hey girls, your worth is solely determined by your ability to get a boyfriend! Anything’s okay so long as he’s attractive! It’s okay if he doesn’t get your consent, because he’s a guy and you’re a girl. He’s only terrible to you because he loves you. They not only hold being in a bad, even abusive relationship as better than no relationship (the horror), but as an ideal relationship. You’re not intended to view these as abhorrent, but to self-insert, to squeal in delight. Stalking, abuse and sexual assault are just a regular part of the mating dance in the world of shoujo.
Is it any wonder so many girls use magazines like Shounen Jump as a supplement or even an outright replacement? For how imperfect those manga may be in depicting women, it’s generally a step up from systematic glorification of rape, abuse and assault as no big deal, normal, even good. It should come as no shock that something which glorifies violence against women, which is so dismissive of consent, which so actively demeans the individual value of women, has alienated some of those women it so actively condescends to in patriarchal gender ideas that seem woefully out of touch.
This is not to say this represents all shoujo. I’m sure some aren’t awful about this. Nor is it to vindicate all non-shoujo as innocent of this. Mysterious Girlfriend X has scenes of outright sexual assault that’s just brushed aside and issues with possessiveness, objectification and other matters, albeit presented in a somewhat different way (framed for a male demographic rather than a female demographic).
But as bad as shoujo may be in this area, as stated earlier, sexism is pervasive. You might not even realize how pervasive it is because it’s just so de rigueur that it’s as incidental, but not as innocuous, as big eyes or unusual hair color in anime. It’s not just the rape culture aspect, but the constant sexual objectification, the embracing of gender roles with a few, appreciable exceptions, (“Eh? And you call yourself a man?” when someone fails to live up to the male gender role of violence or protecting the woman, who, of course, is too weak to defend herself. Unless she’s masculine, then it’s okay. Otherwise, her job is to be ~so feminine~, even if she’s supposed to be a soldier or a swordsman, but especially in highschool shows. Of course, homosexual characters act in the opposite sex’s gender roles because that’s how homosexuality works, right? Obviously I’m generalizing a bit, but it’s true enough for too many anime. And there’s many more examples, as well.) and the just overall poor representation of female characters. It’s not a problem exclusive to anime, but it’s certainly endemic to it.
Let’s face it. If you want to watch anime, you are axiomatically signing yourself up for witnessing sexism in the media you watch. It would be very difficult and very limiting to simply try to avoid it. I’m not naive. Sex sells. The male otaku yen will turn out for that Gainax bounce. Well, at least in higher numbers. And anime is made with profit in mind, not just as a purely artistic statement. I don’t expect bouncing breasts or skimpy outfits to vanish from anime, nor am I even suggesting they should. What I am pointing out is two things: 1.Sexism very much does exist in anime and manga, and it’s pervasive. Let’s acknowledge that instead of trying to deny or excuse its existence. 2. While I’m not saying stop people from getting their jollies with fanservice, the promotion of sexual assault, harassment, the intimidation of and violence against women and all the other openly, deeply misogynistic elements are not okay. A threat of rape is not some throwaway bit of humor. Rape’s pretty serious, you know? And I’m not saying you can’t bring up rape in your narratives. I’m not saying that at all. But when you depict a rape threat as benign rather than, more realistically, having the threatened person be horrified, that’s undeniably rape culture territory. When violating consent is glorified as superior to getting consent, that’s part of the problem as well! When these things are not held as creepy, as awful, but romantic and desirable, even ideal, that’s a terrible message.
But I’ll still watch this show so long as it steers away from this direction in the future. Because, you know, it’s bad, but it’s not unique to this show. It’s just par for the course. Just something to hope isn’t too bad this time around so that the good parts of the show can still be enjoyed. And that’s what I find sad: that this is the usual.
***
More that's totally worth reading on this matter:
Altair and Vega
Gar Gar Stegosaurus
What About the Waifuz?
"No funny moves. Make one peep and I rape you.”
And then move on, everything's cool, whatever, no big deal, teehee he's so awkward and d'aww he's so bold just forcibly kissing her!
I didn't expect this line to make as big a splash as it did. Perhaps because it's exactly emblematic of why I just initially groaned at the line, the greater issue of rape culture and rampant sexism in anime and manga, and especially shoujo, that this has received such attention, not just for its own awfulness (and it is awful, to be sure), but for being a symptom and a symbol of the wheel it is but one tiny cog in. For this is not an aberration. Oh no, this isn't new at all. Anime has been giddily objectifying women, treating them as trophies, as decorations, as meat to be fed to the male gaze, infantilizing them, reducing them to collectibles, showcasing them as weak, as victims, as explicitly “for” men, living under their auspices, constantly on defense against their aggressions and on and on for decades at the least, and probably longer. To say there’s “some” gender issues with anime is to say there’s “some” sand at a beach.
I’m not even talking about hentai here. Nor is this at all limited to just the ecchi show(s) of a season. It’s pervasive and no demographic (seinen and shoujo aren’t genres, by the way) is free of it. But one of them can be worse. One of them can just be plain old terrible. One of them is shoujo.
There’s two reasons I basically don’t read shoujo. One is certain art style matters that seem common among shoujo that I don’t like at all. But I can move past that. What’s unacceptable to me is a pervasive trope in shoujo manga: misogyny. Which is particularly saddening when you consider that many of these are written by women, for women (or girls). Let me clarify what I mean.
You could look at my manga list, see a lack of shoujo, and declare that I’m talking out of my buttocks with no idea what’s actually in shoujo manga. Well, my manga list is an incomplete mess. I’ve actually tried many times to give shoujo manga a shot. I’ve tried dozens, many of them suggestions from self-professed shoujo lovers. And every time, disturbing themes come up, often pretty quickly, too. Hey girls, your worth is solely determined by your ability to get a boyfriend! Anything’s okay so long as he’s attractive! It’s okay if he doesn’t get your consent, because he’s a guy and you’re a girl. He’s only terrible to you because he loves you. They not only hold being in a bad, even abusive relationship as better than no relationship (the horror), but as an ideal relationship. You’re not intended to view these as abhorrent, but to self-insert, to squeal in delight. Stalking, abuse and sexual assault are just a regular part of the mating dance in the world of shoujo.
Is it any wonder so many girls use magazines like Shounen Jump as a supplement or even an outright replacement? For how imperfect those manga may be in depicting women, it’s generally a step up from systematic glorification of rape, abuse and assault as no big deal, normal, even good. It should come as no shock that something which glorifies violence against women, which is so dismissive of consent, which so actively demeans the individual value of women, has alienated some of those women it so actively condescends to in patriarchal gender ideas that seem woefully out of touch.
This is not to say this represents all shoujo. I’m sure some aren’t awful about this. Nor is it to vindicate all non-shoujo as innocent of this. Mysterious Girlfriend X has scenes of outright sexual assault that’s just brushed aside and issues with possessiveness, objectification and other matters, albeit presented in a somewhat different way (framed for a male demographic rather than a female demographic).
But as bad as shoujo may be in this area, as stated earlier, sexism is pervasive. You might not even realize how pervasive it is because it’s just so de rigueur that it’s as incidental, but not as innocuous, as big eyes or unusual hair color in anime. It’s not just the rape culture aspect, but the constant sexual objectification, the embracing of gender roles with a few, appreciable exceptions, (“Eh? And you call yourself a man?” when someone fails to live up to the male gender role of violence or protecting the woman, who, of course, is too weak to defend herself. Unless she’s masculine, then it’s okay. Otherwise, her job is to be ~so feminine~, even if she’s supposed to be a soldier or a swordsman, but especially in highschool shows. Of course, homosexual characters act in the opposite sex’s gender roles because that’s how homosexuality works, right? Obviously I’m generalizing a bit, but it’s true enough for too many anime. And there’s many more examples, as well.) and the just overall poor representation of female characters. It’s not a problem exclusive to anime, but it’s certainly endemic to it.
Let’s face it. If you want to watch anime, you are axiomatically signing yourself up for witnessing sexism in the media you watch. It would be very difficult and very limiting to simply try to avoid it. I’m not naive. Sex sells. The male otaku yen will turn out for that Gainax bounce. Well, at least in higher numbers. And anime is made with profit in mind, not just as a purely artistic statement. I don’t expect bouncing breasts or skimpy outfits to vanish from anime, nor am I even suggesting they should. What I am pointing out is two things: 1.Sexism very much does exist in anime and manga, and it’s pervasive. Let’s acknowledge that instead of trying to deny or excuse its existence. 2. While I’m not saying stop people from getting their jollies with fanservice, the promotion of sexual assault, harassment, the intimidation of and violence against women and all the other openly, deeply misogynistic elements are not okay. A threat of rape is not some throwaway bit of humor. Rape’s pretty serious, you know? And I’m not saying you can’t bring up rape in your narratives. I’m not saying that at all. But when you depict a rape threat as benign rather than, more realistically, having the threatened person be horrified, that’s undeniably rape culture territory. When violating consent is glorified as superior to getting consent, that’s part of the problem as well! When these things are not held as creepy, as awful, but romantic and desirable, even ideal, that’s a terrible message.
But I’ll still watch this show so long as it steers away from this direction in the future. Because, you know, it’s bad, but it’s not unique to this show. It’s just par for the course. Just something to hope isn’t too bad this time around so that the good parts of the show can still be enjoyed. And that’s what I find sad: that this is the usual.
***
More that's totally worth reading on this matter:
Altair and Vega
Gar Gar Stegosaurus
What About the Waifuz?
Posted by IssacandAsimov | Oct 4, 2012 4:07 PM | 0 comments