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time to go back to josei and shoujo, then
May. 15th, 2011 08:22 am
I've started thinking about simply not reading any more shounen manga.
There are so many shounen manga that call to me, with plotlines I enjoy or characters I love or concepts that fascinate me. (Nurarihyon no Mago, for example, is an absolutely genius youkai manga, and Katekyo Hitman Reborn is the very height of shounen ridiculous.) But if I let myself start thinking about it at all it becomes immediately apparent just how sexist they all are. The female characters are strong fighters! (But not strong enough to win an actual fight.) They're training to become stronger! (But not as strong as the male characters.) They want to get better and make a real difference. (But the best way for them to make a difference is by using their ~feelings~ to inspire the main character. Or get kidnapped.)
It feels like a physical, material thing, a wall between me and my enjoyment of these stories. They are so many things I love, but I can't love them as long as this blatant sexism is there. I want to break it down, with anger and disappointment and my own two hands—but oh, wait. Even if it were right in front of me I couldn't, because with shounen manga girls don't get to win.
I am being perhaps a tad unfair to things like Nurarihyon no Mago and Detective Conan here. Girls do get to win fights now and then, even if the plot is pretty much dudes dudes dudes.
This rant is brought to you by Yuki Onna's kidnapping and the aftermath thereof, as the manga had previously managed to mostly stay out of these tropes.
There are so many shounen manga that call to me, with plotlines I enjoy or characters I love or concepts that fascinate me. (Nurarihyon no Mago, for example, is an absolutely genius youkai manga, and Katekyo Hitman Reborn is the very height of shounen ridiculous.) But if I let myself start thinking about it at all it becomes immediately apparent just how sexist they all are. The female characters are strong fighters! (But not strong enough to win an actual fight.) They're training to become stronger! (But not as strong as the male characters.) They want to get better and make a real difference. (But the best way for them to make a difference is by using their ~feelings~ to inspire the main character. Or get kidnapped.)
It feels like a physical, material thing, a wall between me and my enjoyment of these stories. They are so many things I love, but I can't love them as long as this blatant sexism is there. I want to break it down, with anger and disappointment and my own two hands—but oh, wait. Even if it were right in front of me I couldn't, because with shounen manga girls don't get to win.
I am being perhaps a tad unfair to things like Nurarihyon no Mago and Detective Conan here. Girls do get to win fights now and then, even if the plot is pretty much dudes dudes dudes.
This rant is brought to you by Yuki Onna's kidnapping and the aftermath thereof, as the manga had previously managed to mostly stay out of these tropes.
