Clearly the medium of anime is too varied to make many absolute generalizations about a topic as broad as gender and anime. Even the fundamental notion of a gendered division between shoujo and shounen is more and more questionable these days, as things like action and reverse harems (think Ouran) appear in shoujo, and a focus on “relationships” and “feelings” enter into shounen. Different people will no doubt approach the topic in quite divergent ways. Below, I’m going to discuss gendered stereotypes of women in anime, but different approaches from the perspective of others on the subject of Gender and Anime can be found in the following places: Anime Diet, tsuntsun, a stone and a small ripple, Drastic My Anime Blog, The End of the World, and Heterochromia. Also at Renegade Anime Blog and Stuff Happens.
While there are many adaptations of shoujo manga into anime form, and the female doujinshi and FYG cultures are well developed, I think that the largest percentage of anime intended for otaku is still geared towards a male fan audience. At the risk of over-generalizing, I think we can say that this audience consists of a significant proportion of socially awkward adolescents. I have read in various places that Japanese boys, even in High School, are often not as comfortable around girls as perhaps those of a similar age in some other cultures are. This may be a false stereotype, but most societies do have their share of nerds, and late-night anime is clearly designed to appeal to that segment in Japan. For such an audience, women could more easily be seen as somewhat distant objects of reverence, and much of anime and otaku culture takes advantage of this situation.
Think of Megami magazine: girls from a variety of series, in different genres, are depicted, but they share in common the fact that they are the fetishized objects of male desire. Figures take this even further, even down to the thrill of seeing a character’s panties. In feminist theory, much is made of the “male gaze” and of the notion that the very act of “looking” is something that’s gendered as a male activity. Its prevalence in film forces audiences to take a male heterosexual view of female characters in a way which denies agency to women. Anime’s use of standardized female types, as well as the fan obsession with collectibles like trading figures, all serve to turn women into objects.
To socially inept male otaku, who range from merely shy geeks in school to the extreme form of hikikomori, real women can be a threatening concept. For any male, images of women in porn, for instance, are just that: they are mere representations of something real that can thus be easily possessed. For otaku, figures and representations in Megami go even a step beyond this: they are representations of girls who are not even real to begin with. Male otaku are therefore even more removed and insulated from the potentially dangerous reality of flesh-and-blood women!
Turning to representations of women in anime series geared towards male otaku, there are many character types that appear, for example, in harems. These women are effectively tamed for the otaku because they have been categorized within a range of acceptable types, just like different models of giant robots or trading cards. No matter how independent they seem, they are reassuringly attached to the male hero, no matter how weak or socially awkward he is. Another type of reassurance appears even in action-oriented dramas, like Shana, Fate/Stay Night, or Claymore, where a weaker male hero seeks to support a strong female fighter. These males struggle to play their “proper” gendered role as defenders of women, but these tough young girl warriors are also the personification of the threat male otaku feel around women. In a strange reversal and reimagining of medieval chivalric romance, where a knight is inspired by his pure love for a woman, female warriors in these series need the male hero both to become more powerful and to keep in touch with their humanity and femininity. Raki’s love of Clare is able to keep her soul human, when she is in danger of giving in to her yoma side, and Shiro links Saber to her feminine side by taking her on a date.
Mai, from Kanon, is similar to these warrior women as well. I have also written before about the way Kanon takes away the threat of women by making them childlike and dependent. Yet another approach is to personify a male longing for a “traditional” Japanese female, like Aoi in Ai yori Aoshi. And even the notoriously unpredictable and moody tsundere is really no threat to awkward males in anime, as she is really in love with him. There is often that moment when they accidentally come into physical contact and she is momentarily disarmed and blushes. The implication of these scenes is that she would easily give in to the guy’s desires if he only got a spine and made a move. But if he did, that would make him the worst type of cad and therefore unworthy of the girl. He could not be respected by the male otaku viewer, who would not want his male hero/stand-in to do things he couldn’t do, unless it was porn or an ero game. Most standard TV anime, even when based on an erotic game, can not take that path. An exception is School Days, and I think a lot of the hatred people have for Makoto, and their desire for a “bad” ending, derives from the fact that he crosses the line and does take advantage of these girls. In an older series, like Kimagure Orange Road, sex only comes after a love triangle is resolved. Now there is School Days, where the hero even goes beyond the triangle. This may happen a lot in real life, but in anime a bad end for him is almost required to right the horrible wrong Makoto represents to the natural otaku balance.
Another approach in anime for reducing the anxiety caused by women is to focus a series on cute little girls. An iyashikei series like Ichigo Masimaro can be easily misunderstood as lolicon or sexual, but for most otaku I think the pleasure comes from watching the antics of innocent little girls who are decidedly non-sexual and therefore non-threatening. Even the adult woman in that series, Nobue, who seems jaded, rides a motorscooter, and likes to smoke, is rendered harmless and safe because she seemingly spends all of her time only with little girls and has no boyfriend: she is associated with their cuteness and innocence. Nobue is also a good example of the dominance of the “male gaze” in moe anime, because she is effectively a stand-in for male otaku through her own obsession with these cute little girls. In Lucky Star, Konata’s otaku ways and frequent commentary on her friends, represents a similar “safe” linkage of a female to male otaku norms.
One could argue that shoujo has its own genre conventions, with tomboyish heroines in romance stories having to deal with difficult guys, who are really like male tsundere, or shows like Ouran Host Club, that feature ditsy guys (including a shouta, the male version of a loli), and a girl who poses as a guy. I have chosen to focus on the male side of this topic, because those gender conventions are more often the ones presented in the official commercial products that form the backbone of the otaku-pandering industry. Female fandom seems to be much more centered on the self-produced doujin culture at this point. It is most often the expectations of male otaku that Japanese animators seek to satisfy in productions that typically present an unusual reversal of traditional Western and Japanese gender roles in an effort to reassure adolescents to whom women are a dangerous unknown quantity.
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Very well observed. Women in anime often are, exactly as you say, completely safe to the audience because fundamentally they don’t physically exist. There isn’t the same degree of ‘responsibility’ to honour reality when you’re making animated pictures, so the level of consideration isn’t as imposing as say film or live action TV. The amount of criticism levelled at loli-centric anime would be nowhere near the outrage if someone made a live-action equivalent. Thank fuck it’s never happened, too. I still really can’t believe loli anime gets away with as much as it does.
And anime definitely seems intent on protecting these established practices; obviously because they know where the money is, but also (I say with moderate ignorance) because Japanese society has never allowed its women to progress in the same way Western culture has. I’m hesitant to use the whole ‘art reflects life/life reflects art’ coinage, but I would love to read on any research done on how anime as a medium reflects the lives of Japanese women — or even if anime, being such an ingrained medium in that country, has directly effected how women behave there. I have enough experience to know that, comparatively speaking, feminist sensibilities in Japan are still wallowing in the 1950s. Who knows if anime has a degree of responsibility in perpetuating these backward attitudes?
A great read, DS. I was especially impressed with the way you highlighted how female characters are often marketed literally as sex objects in the form of figurines. As much as I’d like to think thy’re bought as something cool to put on your mantelpiece or computer monitor, those with visible panties and so on are pandering to the otaku. After all, you can look all you like at a figurine, she’s there all the time, she won’t complain if you don’t shower…goddammit, I’m cynical! :p
The concept of tsundere is marginally less annoying for me than the submissive female stereotpye, but as you said it’s the same thing, just with a different facade - kudos for pointing out that the said facade is in itself appealing, because it never occured to me before.
I suppose the stereotypical female character we’re talking about here is merely an example of what a lot of film and TV entertainment sets out to do: it’s escapism.
Yup, I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head. (It echoes a lot of what I observed in my own article.) “Childlike dependence” is pretty much what moe is. And it’s no conspiracy, it just happens to be what the audience wants, or has been massaged into thinking they want. Though in a way, it can be read as an expression not of power but of powerlessness on the part of the audience, since most of these kinds of shows are very clearly unrealistic fantasies. I agree with Martin; it’s escapism, and I’ve long believed that escapism is not too inherently harmful so long as you’re not escaping from actual relationships and people to whom you need to care for.
This article is a good explanation on why anime can cater to who they (usually) do; it makes things easy where real life doesn’t. Nice perspective on it. :P
Bullseye on the “reassurance” observation. I’ve never actually looked at it as reassuring per se, but more of like humanising what would otherwise be a superhero thing; with the emphasis on the “super” rather than “hero” part (or in this case, heroine), the viewer would be alienated and bored rather quickly. A good example here would be Ah! My Goddess, which would be the epitome of why such humanising traits are a must.
>> “It is most often the expectations of male otaku that Japanese animators seek to satisfy in productions that typically present an unusual reversal of traditional Western and Japanese gender roles in an effort to reassure adolescents to whom women are a dangerous unknown quantity.”
One could probably make the assumption that some of this is because largely anime/manga is produced and created by males. There are notable exceptions like CLAMP. Still, we get something like Chobits from them, which–the anime–is geared toward males in a decidedly shameful manner. I can’t comment on the manga.
There is always the financialfactor, if money makes the world go round then the results are plain to see in the types of anime/manga that get produced.
Absolutely great post, specially the part about the Stronger female leads. It makes lot of sense.
That makes me remember another stronger female lead who don’t need men, but got atached to one weaker man in a very psychological way too: Revi from BLACK LAGOON. Another very good example would be Roberta.
Hige >> The way that many women (like tsundere) behave in anime has often seemed directly at odds with how Japanese women are expected to act in “real life”. Suzumiya Haruhi is often depicted as pointing, which I think must be an even ruder gesture in Japan than in the west. Such women’s behavior is part of the unreality of anime which is what makes it so appealing to otaku.
Martin >> I could have gone beyond Megami Magazine and figures to Dakimakura as well, but I’m not yet ready to contemplate what hug pillows represent @_@
As for tsunderes and submissive females being similar, I’m reminded of something I read somewhere about a tsundere cafe opening alongside all the maid cafes: those tsunderes are just another variation of the submissive meido fantasy.
Mike >> “escapism is not too inherently harmful so long as you
I couldn’t read it all. It was “…Shirou and Saber on a date.” And then that was it.
I might have to stop watching anime all together if this is the type of crap that’s gonna get dumped into the overseas market.
I watched Claymore because it kicked butt, and for the big-sister-little-brother relationship of Claire and Raki. Not for someone to say, “This is that strong-women-weak-men fetish geared towards the Japanese audience only.” WOW!! Just muphuqin wow!
Other cultures, if Japan plans on making money off of them, aren’t gonna eat that crap! Rather; something like Zombie Loan and Host Club, where there’s no such thing as weak males or weak anybody. Just entertainment. Most of what comes from out of Japan anyways is just like the rap music that’s on your radio nowadays: They’re all suck (and not the good kind that atleast sucks you into the movie theatures).
Very good, I think this is the article with the best insight in the ring. I’m very thankfull to you for linking the concept of “male gaze”, which is crucial in undestanding harem anime. Of course, I must once more enfasize that your conclusions, as true as they are, do not apply to anime in general, as most readers seem to understand and you suggest at the begining, but only to harem and some of shonen anime. There’s still a lot to say about gender roles in different shoujos, which might be even more complicated than this issue.