sexism even in manga?
So, I was just thinking about this …
in the latest episode of Bleach, BleachSociety translates a line as something to the effect of “even though she’s a woman, she rose to the third seat” (so basically the person below the vice-captain of a court guardian squad).
This is … interesting, because it implies that there weren’t a whole lot of women who had attained that rank or higher. And got me thinking …
Among the captains, only the 2nd division (the spies and assassins) and the 4th division (the medical team) have female captains. So 2 out of 13, and they’re characteristically female roles (the “seductress” role and the “nurturer” role).
Then, among vice-captains, there’s Hinamori of the 5th division, Nanao of the 8th, Matsumoto of the 10th, Cute little Yachiru of the 11th, Nemu (if you can call her female…) of the 12th and that’s it. So of 11 known, 5 have made it to vice-captain. Which is actually pretty decent representation, all things said and done. Sure, it’s not half … but it’s pretty close!
Still, the overall underrepresentation of women, and the representation of the few women that are there in stereotypical roles … this could be pretty easily construed as sexism. Or it could just be that men are physically stronger than women, but as we’ve seen with Yachiru and Hinamori, raw physical strength alone is NOT enough to make a good captain.
As another interesting note, even in the manga, we haven’t seen a single female bankai. And I think we’ve only seen what, one female even release her soul-slayer at all (Hinamori). While it’s presumable that Yoruichi and Soi Fong (being captain-class) have attained bankai (since supposedly the only captain who couldn’t is Kenpachi), their fight didn’t involve any such sort of release… the only things they brought to the table were raw speed and crazy ninja techniques.
Just a thought…
September 18th, 2005 at 1:25 pm
Now this is just my personal view of things …
Japan has a much more male-oriented society than the US and Canada, where companies will forego hiring someone more qualified (within reason) who is white male if a “minority” applies. That would not fly there. There are signs of change there but it is happening ever so slowly. Remember that Japan has one of the most ethnically homogenous populations in the world, so it is quite a shock when a non-Japanese male is appointed to a high position.
Whether that sexism translates to manga and anime, I’d say not quite as badly but to an extent yes. Not because it’s inherently sexist (or racist, as I’ve noted on a few occassions) but because it’s a byproduct of the society the creators grew up in. Their saving grace is that they typically don’t think the same as everyone.
Crazy manga writers.