Women representation in Japanese media thought
Friday, 7 March 2025 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
michifuguA bit rambling, but it’s really weird whenever I see Western anime fans wanting more female protagonists or female characters in the spotlight in Japanese media. As someone who has consumed a lot of Japanese media for more than a decade, this has never been an issue for me?
Like, Japan has a lot of media aimed at women, with female characters as the main lead or in the spotlight. But then again, when Westerners say this, it often turns out they consume a lot of fucking shounen genre or animanga series, which are generally aimed at teen boys and have predominantly male casts. It just makes so much sense, lol.
Like, no, for real, I get annoyed whenever people say Japanese media underrepresents women, as if Western media isn’t guilty of the same thing. In fact, I dare say Japanese media is very women-friendly because you can find A LOT of series with majority female casts, female main leads, female perspectives, or those targeted toward women. Shoujo, Yuri, and Josei are right there. Even BL, with all-male casts, is often authored by women and occasionally offers unique perspectives on masculinity/manhood through the lens of women, sometimes even including feminist (A lot of BL omegaverse has this) & homophobia commentary. Like, I’m begging you to please lurk more and explore genres outside freaking shounen and mainstream stuff.
It’s not just that, even most media targeted at male otakus often has a lot of female characters in focus and the spotlight, with many well-written female characters as well!
As an otaku myself who’s mostly into bishoujo/danseimuke media, it’s bizarre whenever I hear Westerners saying, “Japanese media has a woman representation issue.” What do you mean? Anime is overwhelmingly feminine and dominated by female characters, lol.
“But it’s for the male gaze!” Sure, but there’s Shoujo, Josei, and a lot of Yuri authored by women. And even if it’s for the “male gaze” or “aimed at men,” there are still well-written female characters, and these series often focus on women. Don’t get me wrong, I also understand the criticism of male-gazed female characters, and it’s valid if people don’t like it!
But I just don’t like people generalizing entire genres and mediums as trashy just because they cater to specific audiences or dismissing them as “invalid.” Even if you’re not into it, there’s still good work out there in those genres/mediums. For example, I’ve found some compelling queer and feminist-friendly messages in trashy ecchi manga and moe anime aimed at men.
It’s also very ironic when these same people hype up Shoujo Kakumei Utena, Madoka Magica, Gundam Witch from Mercury, Ghost in the Shell, etc., as peak feminist works because they focus on female leads, even though those series are created and written by men and targeted at male demographics. (Nothing wrong with these series, btw, I love them too.)
TL;DR: If you want more women in your animanga, please read/watch works that feature women, are written by women, and are targeted at women. Also, trying to dismiss works by women just because they have a lot of male casts doesn’t make you a feminist, you’re still being sexist by undermining female-authored works, btw.
Like, Japan has a lot of media aimed at women, with female characters as the main lead or in the spotlight. But then again, when Westerners say this, it often turns out they consume a lot of fucking shounen genre or animanga series, which are generally aimed at teen boys and have predominantly male casts. It just makes so much sense, lol.
Like, no, for real, I get annoyed whenever people say Japanese media underrepresents women, as if Western media isn’t guilty of the same thing. In fact, I dare say Japanese media is very women-friendly because you can find A LOT of series with majority female casts, female main leads, female perspectives, or those targeted toward women. Shoujo, Yuri, and Josei are right there. Even BL, with all-male casts, is often authored by women and occasionally offers unique perspectives on masculinity/manhood through the lens of women, sometimes even including feminist (A lot of BL omegaverse has this) & homophobia commentary. Like, I’m begging you to please lurk more and explore genres outside freaking shounen and mainstream stuff.
It’s not just that, even most media targeted at male otakus often has a lot of female characters in focus and the spotlight, with many well-written female characters as well!
As an otaku myself who’s mostly into bishoujo/danseimuke media, it’s bizarre whenever I hear Westerners saying, “Japanese media has a woman representation issue.” What do you mean? Anime is overwhelmingly feminine and dominated by female characters, lol.
“But it’s for the male gaze!” Sure, but there’s Shoujo, Josei, and a lot of Yuri authored by women. And even if it’s for the “male gaze” or “aimed at men,” there are still well-written female characters, and these series often focus on women. Don’t get me wrong, I also understand the criticism of male-gazed female characters, and it’s valid if people don’t like it!
But I just don’t like people generalizing entire genres and mediums as trashy just because they cater to specific audiences or dismissing them as “invalid.” Even if you’re not into it, there’s still good work out there in those genres/mediums. For example, I’ve found some compelling queer and feminist-friendly messages in trashy ecchi manga and moe anime aimed at men.
It’s also very ironic when these same people hype up Shoujo Kakumei Utena, Madoka Magica, Gundam Witch from Mercury, Ghost in the Shell, etc., as peak feminist works because they focus on female leads, even though those series are created and written by men and targeted at male demographics. (Nothing wrong with these series, btw, I love them too.)
TL;DR: If you want more women in your animanga, please read/watch works that feature women, are written by women, and are targeted at women. Also, trying to dismiss works by women just because they have a lot of male casts doesn’t make you a feminist, you’re still being sexist by undermining female-authored works, btw.
(no subject)
Date: Saturday, 8 March 2025 11:43 pm (UTC)Especially now, even translated works have tons of female (and sometimes queer!) leads in genres other than shojou. But if all you read is shonen, which is aimed at teen boys… idk what folks expect. And yeah, I’d almost hazard western (especially American) media is actually WORSE about female characters. It’s all girlboss gaslight gatekeep with us. :/
It’s the “Watch/read something other than [blank],” where [blank] is usually BNHA. :T
(no subject)
Date: Monday, 10 March 2025 09:38 pm (UTC)You're so right, Western media is much WORSE when it comes to female characters. most of the time, female characters are either reduced to nothing more than a male character's bicycle or a girlboss mary sue w/ the personality of a plank.
also, western queer media kinda sucks because it feels like a PSA or hidden Christian propaganda, it's like I'm being punished for being a ''pervert freak'' & thinking about sexual stuff lol.
There are some good ones, sure. But it feels like Western queer media tries so hard to focus on making documentaries about LGBT folks rather than just creating characrers who happen to be queer in ficitional story. everything has to be ''realistic'' & ''accurate"
(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 11 March 2025 06:12 am (UTC)I don't like terms like "mary sue," I think it's often used as a weak criticism of female characters, but I DEFINITELY agree; the west loves their bicycles/girlbosses/byciclegirlboss combos, and it's annoying as hell. Media that cares to flesh out their female/AFAB characters were few and far between in the mainstream, but THANKFULLY were getting more common (with how things are right now, idk if that's going to be the norm soon). A lot of 90s-2010s cartoons for kids were shockingly good with them, but Hollywood movies? Live action? Anything made for a more "general" audience? It's like nails on a chalkboard. Of course, there are outliers, but I'm meaning to speak generally.
A lot of times it does; I think it's the "We're trying to be palatable to 'normal' people!" white folk desperately cling to, where "normal people" are actually white supremacists. If we focused more on community and less on "looking good to 'normal people," we'd probably make more progress. :/ Not to undermine the progress that HAS been made, or those who understand this, but it's definitely not what's in the public eye.
I don't read a lot of western books about queer people because of this, honestly. I know it's important and GOOD that we are seeing queer characters, even if they're portrayed like cardboard; it's a step in the right direction for sure. But it's nearly impossible to relate to them for me. Works which are grittier, like Manhunt or stuff by Chuck Tingle (yes, really) are works that I would recommend that don't follow the usual "queer people have to be palatable" problem.
(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, 11 March 2025 06:44 am (UTC)I like Hannibal for that exact reason, it’s a pretty unconventional queer work that explores the dark psyche of human nature and the disturbing relationship between Hannibal and Graham. It’s not explicitly queer, but I love the gay subtext, and they clearly went all-in on the homoerotic imagery. Since it was made by a gay man (Bryan Fuller), most of the homoerotic elements were intentional.
I feel like people are too extreme when it comes to queer representation. I think palatable queer rep isn’t bad, but neither is unpalatable or “freaky” queer rep. The problem is that many—especially Western queers—want everything to be completely unproblematic because they don’t want harmful queer representation, which is valid, but at the same time, infantilizing LGBT people isn’t the way to go either. I think depicting “problematic” LGBT characters is still important because it allows queer people to explore the darker or more disturbing aspects of their identity. There are also queer people who relate to some of these so-called problematic LGBT characters. If we want to humanize queer people, we need to start treating them like real human beings, which includes acknowledging the messy, ugly parts too.
“But what if cishet people think we’re bad?”, that’s their problem?. If a cishet person generalizes an entire marginalized group based on a fictional work, then that’s something wrong with them, not something queer people or questioning/ally cishet should have to fix by avoiding problematic queer characters in transgressive works, lol.
People act like any LGBT work with fetishistic or transgressive elements automatically contributes to homophobia, which is kind of dumb? It’s not comparable to cishet people who intentionally perpetuate harmful LGBT stereotypes out of homophobia. And again, there needs to be a balance between “wholesome” and “problematic” LGBT representation. More variety is always better, imo.
(no subject)
Date: Wednesday, 12 March 2025 05:29 am (UTC)I have heard some CRAZY things about Bryan Fuller, not the least of which being the whole "proship" debacle. Good for him, honestly. I kinda hate when folks claim Hannible is "queer baiting" when, no, I really think the censors just wouldn't let him go all in. Or, if it did go all in, it might've gotten TOO dark... who knows? I'm not super interetsed in live-action, so I won't likely watch it, but the whole thing sure is interesting.
Agreed! It has a lot to do with western Religious Trauma, something tons of us are suffering from (the study points out that the findings are a "conservative number"). It's so profound that it completely alters the way certain psychiatric illnesses present-- such as illness where you have visual or audio halucinations. In the west, these illnesses present in profoundly negative and harmful ways (death, rapture, murder, rape, torture, sin, hellfire), while in other cultures (according to my current reading), we see that much less. Here's a tidbit on that, if it happens to interest you!
It's probably why I like Eastern queer media so much. A lot of westerners today (this was not so much the case until these types of media broke into the mainstream) just talk about how "problematic" eastern queer media is and... yeah? Life is problematic? Bad things happen? People live fucked up lives? Give me more of that, actually. (They also conveniently ignore the kind of queer rep they want unless it's part of their argument... man, I wish subcultures had stayed SUBcultures.)
The thing that a lot of young queers don't understand is that nothing we do will be good enough. We can't be "unproblematic" enough. The fact that we fuck, or exist, is the problem to them. Being "unproblematic" doesn't do shit for us. They will find any excuse to wipe us off the face of the earth, like they have for hundreds of years. And maybe once babyqueers understand that, we won't have so many weird antis/terfs/whatevers around. TL;DR The problem is always fascists, not queer people and their art.
Correct, correct, correct. No notes, you're just Right.