#if you think this is about feminism

[anomalys-bane]

anyone else straight up existentially and ontologically severely traumatized by the sheer staggering scale of the pervasive inescapable system of male brutality that has existed in societies across continents since time immemorial....lol

[dickgraysonsptsd]

i am writing someone an explanation of how fandom acts about devin grayson and why they act that way, and within less than 20 minutes of skimming the devin grayson tag i am so overwhelmed by disgust at people's malice and derision towards her that i have to take a break. the level of vitriolic hatred on the leftist fandom website for a woman who wrote a sexual assault arc rooted in her own experiences of being sexually assaulted is unreal.

for reference and so it's clear how abhorrent the last two screencaps are, she changed her name to distance herself from her family after she was sexually assaulted and changed it years before she even thought about working in comics. she was open about this from the time of her first interview with wizard magazine (in, i believe, the 1990s) and they chose not to publish it because it was "a downer" to bring up sa. the following quote was published on cbr, a major comics website, in 2005:

fascinating that people continue to choose to claim that devin grayson's entire life revolves around her supposed desire to personally rape dick grayson literally two decades later. i can understand why she seems to want nothing to do with dc or its fans these days when people are so giddy and delighted to make her entire existence about their own bizarre obsessions with framing her as a pseudo-rapist.

[r-osehips]

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two days before her new album was launched, musical icon Vivir Quintana was behind barbed wire at a women’s prison in Mexico. The singer had spent the past 10 years visiting women incarcerated after defending themselves and, in doing so, killing their abusers.

Their stories became part of “Cosas que Sorprenden a la Audiencia” (Things that Surprise the Audience), Quintana’s latest album, released Thursday.

It tells the story of 10 such women but in a first, Quintana does it through “corridos,” a typically male-dominated and controversial Mexican music genre that’s soared into the spotlight in recent years...Quintana’s corridos turn the genre on its head, paying tribute not to violence or criminals, but to women who have been criminalized for defending themselves.

[...]

The songs are meant to raise awareness about soaring levels of violence against women across Latin America — human rights groups estimate that an average of 10 women are killed in Mexico every day — and a justice system that many believe protects abusers and silences women’s voices.

In many cases, women like the ones in Quintana’s corridos are charged with “excessive legitimate self-defense,” charges that have fueled outrage among many in Mexico.

[...]

With each song, Quintana would follow local news reports, interview the women in prisons and spend time with their families, hoping to capture their personalities — and not just the violent act that transformed their lives.

“It’s something painful that the state tells you that if you defend yourself, we’re going to punish you,” Quintana said. “It’s like up until what point do we care about women’s life?”

[catmug329]

As a college student I cannot STAND the hate female professors get. You’ll meet a professor that everyone has been saying is too strict, stuck-up, and bad at her job and it’s like oh… she’s just an intelligent woman who doesn’t let you do fuck all in her classes because she values the education you are paying thousands of dollars to receive.

Meanwhile male professors always receive so much praise for doing the bare minimum at their jobs. A man has to be just slightly charismatic and everyone forgets that he kind of sucks at what he does

[avicecaro]

“The abusive man learns early in life, from his surrounding society and beyond, that when he becomes an adult he has the right to swallow a female whole, and that in this way he will fill the vast emptiness inside of him and feel empty no more. He learns that the female of his choosing owes him her life entire in this fashion, that it would be wrong of her to fail to sacrifice her life and herself in this way. Not only that, but he learns that this self-erasure will be her greatest joy.

He gets these messages all over the place, from his own unhealthy relatives all the way up to police responses, courts, and Disney movies.

All of what he learns is a lie. It is a moral lie, meaning it’s a lie about what’s right and what’s wrong; no woman’s life should ever by martyred to fill a man’s (or anyone’s) emptiness. But not only should this not be done, it also cannot be done. Thus it is not only a moral lie but also a lie about the nature of reality. A human being cannot be vacuumed into the inside of another person and become part of that person, in some kind of twisted reversal of the birth process. It’s absurd that it’s even necessary for me to state this.

The abusive man hates the woman for continuing to exist outside of him. No matter how hard she may try, in her terror and in her trauma, to disappear inside of him, she simply cannot do it. (And if she gets some support in her life, she may even attempt to refuse to continue trying.) He hates her for this, for still being there, because he was taught that to disappear inside of him is her unlimited obligation and will make him whole.

When you find yourself wondering why the abuser hates you – as most abused women do at one point or another – this is why: because you continue to breathe, because you have skin, because you eat food and then move with the energy of that food, because by getting out of bed and standing up in the morning you have once again demonstrated your failure to become him.”

Ever Wonder Why Your Abusive Partner Hates You? blog post from Lundy Bancroft, on his website lundybancroft.com

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Now I have to ask- WHY do you hate Pacific Rim?

Okay, fair warning, this is about as bitter and salty and small-minded as day-old caviar. But. My bitter, salty (probably fishy) opinion:

Pacific Rim is only a good movie because it's a well-written story about robots punching monsters.

That's it. That's all there is to the movie.

I started out merely disappointed by Pacific Rim. We went gaga for the preview materials that promised these unique well-rounded character pairs and trios with these idiosyncratic robots from all these different Pacific nations... And then the movie itself is about some bland white American guy who pilots a robot named a racial slur, the second most fleshed-out team is bland white Australian guys, and the Chinese team is there, kind of, in the background, but don't worry they're going to die first. The "character-driven story" turned out to be "various characters take turns punching aliens" but, sure, whatever, I love the MCU so why not.

The day I went from "Pacific Rim is overrated" to "Pacific Rim is the worst thing that has ever happened to human civilization, I'm extremely normal about this" was the day I saw a Tumblr post suggesting we replace the Bechdel test with the Mako Mori test. Because Mako Mori has her own plot and doesn't kiss North Carolina at the end, making her a whole new type of feminist icon.

To which I was like:

We are talking about the same movie here, right? The Pacific Rim that can't even pass the Bechdel test? The Pacific Rim that's all about might-makes-right, the Pacific Rim that has ONE speaking role for ONE female character in its (from IMDB) 50-person cast? The Pacific Rim that repeatedly puts its only female character in danger and has her rescued by first Idris Elba then North Carolina? THAT Pacific Rim?

Is there a different Mako Mori I haven't met? Because the one I've seen a) has a character arc driven by deciding whether to obey her father or follow her heart, which is as inoffensive and stale as an unblessed communion wafer, b) does nothing that Ellen Ripley didn't do 30 years earlier, but with about 5% of the character depth Ripley got, and c) stands there in silence looking sad as two men punch each other over the question of her virtue.

Any post assuming this movie invented the idea of "small Asian woman kicks monster ass" needs to learn its damn history. Especially the ones acting like her being physically small is somehow a feminist bonus. There's something embarrassingly ahistorical about the whole thing.

And look. I get how we got here. I know how easily Tumblr backs you into a rhetorical corner of "calling a story Good can never mean merely 'enjoyable'; calling a story Good must mean 'virtuous'". Until next thing you know you're arguing that actually, shipping Obi-Wan/Darth Vader is a net good for all of society, because gay divorced middle-aged tyrants who use supplemental oxygen and murdered their exes in a custody dispute over the one kid (out of two) they actually care about deserve to see themselves in sci fi too! You only end up in that corner because half the time you're arguing against someone who says that shipping Obi-Wan/Darth Vader is literally the same thing as supporting father-son incest, so your real reasons for shipping them (1. foe yay, 2. old man yaoi) seem wildly insufficient.

Much of what I see about Pacific Rim seems neck-deep in the "it's not allowed to be a Good Movie unless it single-handedly dismantles the patriarchy" fallacy. There's nothing progressive about shipping two dudes best known for chopping off each other's body parts with laser swords. And there's nothing progressive about a movie having its only female character hug the male protagonist at the end instead of kissing him. You're allowed to like a thing just because it's well-made, without acting like a bog-standard normatively-broey action flick somehow invented a new form of feminism. Anyway, "Pacific Rim is a perfectly fine movie" is the hill I will die upon, heretical though it may be.

[lesbianjackies]

hold my hand and say it with me: jackie taylor is not a femme

[gothra]

I’ll never forget when I was arguing with a person in favor of total prison abolition and I asked them “what about violent offenders?” And they said “Well, in a world where prisons have been abolished, we’ll have leveled the playing field and everyone will have their basic needs met, and crime won’t be as much of an issue.” And then I was like “okay. But…no. Because rich people also rape and murder, so it isn’t just a poor person thing. So what will we do about that?” And I don’t think they answered me after that. I’m ashamed to say I continued to think that the problem was that I simply didn’t understand prison abolitionists enough and that their point was right in front of me, and it would click once I finally let myself understand it. It took me a long time to realize that if something is going to make sense, it needs to make sense. If you want to turn theory into Praxis (I’m using that word right don’t correct me I’ll vomit) everyone needs to be on board, which mean it all needs to click and it needs to click fast and fucking clear. You need to turn a complex idea into something both digestible and flexible enough to be expanded upon. Every time I ask a prison abolitionist what they actually intend to do about violent crime, I get directed to a summer reading list and a BreadTuber. It’s like a sleight-of-hand trick. Where’s the answer to my question. There it is. No wait, there it is. It’s under this cup. No it isn’t. “There’s theory that can explain this better than I can.” As if most theory isn’t just a collection of essays meant to be absorbed and discussed by academics, not the average skeptic. “Read this book.” And the book won’t even answer the question. The book tells you to go ask someone else. “Oh, watch this so-and-so, she totally explains it better than me.” Why can’t you explain it at all? Why did you even bring it up if you were going to point me to someone else to give me the basics that you should probably already know? Maybe I’m just one of those crazy people who thinks that some people need to be kept away from the public for everyone’s good. Maybe that just makes me insane. Maybe not believing that pervasive systemic misogyny could be solved with a UBI and a prayer circle makes me a bad guy. But it’s not like women’s safety is a priority anyway. It’s not like there is an objective claim to be made that re-releasing violent offenders or simply not locking them up is deadly.

[roseworth]

explaining to tumblr users that their preferences are results of larger issues and their choices don’t exist in a vacuum

[kxrta]

and now some famous onna-musha (or female warriors)

- Tomoe Gozen (1157 – 1247 assumedly)

While Tomoe Gozen* was mentioned in the Tale of Heike, she may have only been a character, as she doesn't appear in any primary sources on the Genpei War.

*'Gozen' is not a name, but rather an honorific title, thpically translated to Lady

- Niijima Yae (1 Dec 1845 – 14 June 1932)

Born Yamamoto Yae to Yamamoto Gonpachi, a samurai and official gunnery instructor in Aizu Domain. Her family claimed descent from Takeda clan's retainer Yamamoto Kansuke, also known by his formal name Haruyuki, who was a brilliant strategist.

Yaeko was skilled in gunnery having been taught by her father, which is fucking sick. A legend is told of her dressing in her brothers garb in order to fight, though I couldn't find much on that.

After divorcing her first husband in 1871 due to him becoming a prisoner of war, she moved to Kyoto in search of her brother, and became a sub. teacher at Kyoto Women's School, acquired her tea master qualification in 1894 and became a tea master.

She re-married to Rev. Joseph Hardy Neesima [in 1875], a former samurai who lived in the US to seek higher education and promoted for women's rights. Neesima was in the motions of building a Western School that promoted Christianity (which was not appreciated by Buddhists and Shintoists). After the marriage, Yaeko was dismissed from her teaching position, and she volunteered to assist running the new school.

Yaeko played an integral part in the founding of the Doshisha English School. The couple (alongside help from Alice J. Starkweather) later opened a Joshijuku (small girl's school) named Doshisha Branch School for Girls and then Doshisha Girls' School.

After the death of Neesima (1890) shifted her focus to nursing and became a member of the Japanese Red Cross later that same year. Yaeko joined the army and was stationed as a nurse in Hiroshima during the First Sino-Japanese War. Her efforts in improving the social status of trained nurses was recognised in being awarded her first Order of the Precious Crown in 1896.

After the war, Yaeko became an instructor in nursing schools. Then she rejoined the army for the Russo-Japanese War (1904) and as a volunteer nurse in Osaka. This earned her her second Order of the Precious Crown and was further awarded a silver cup at the inauguration of the Shōwa Emperor in 1928.

This diva girl-bossed her way through history right up until her death. Hell yeah.

- Nakano Takeko (Apr 1847 – Oct 1868)

Nakano was born [in Edo] to Nakano Heinai, an official of Aizu, and Nakano Kōkō, daughter of Oinuma Kinai, a samurai in service of Toda of the Ashikaga domain. She was well educated and from a powerful samurai family.

She recieved training in martial arts, in literary arts on Chinese Confucian classics and calligraphy, and was later adopted by her teacher Akaoka Daisuke. Nakano also taught students younger than her, including her younger sister.

Nanako's certification, or menkyo (teaching license) was in Hasso-Shoken, a branch in the major of Itto-ryu*. She both served as the secretary for and taught naginata to the wife of lord Niwase, whom she was employed under at Itakura estate.

She left her position in 1863 when she was adopted by her master, but later reunited with her Edo family.

In 1868 she was in Aizu for the first time, and spent time teaching women and children naginata in Aizuwakamatsu Castle, as well as capturing voyeurs in the women's bathrooms.

At 21, Nakano participated in the Boshin War where she, alongside other women, took the front line without permission, as the senior Aizu retainers disallowed their participation as an unofficial part of the domain's army. This unit was later called the Jōshitai (Girls' Army). This ad hoc group included her 40 year old mother and 16 year old sister, and was lead by Nakano under Furuya Sakuzaemon.

In October of 1868 Nakano led these women to face enemy forces at Yanagi Bridge equipped only with their naginata while Meiji troops had firearms. When the men realised their targets were women, the commander ordered them not to be killed. This allowed to the Jōshitai to kill many enemies before the attack continued. She was downed by a bullet to the chest.

Instead of allowing imperial forces to mutilate her corpse, Nakano had her sister cut off her head to avoid the humiliation, to which she agreed. She passed with her dignity and her head was buried at the family temple where a monument was eventually erected.

*one-sword school, ancestor school of several japanese koryū kenjutsu styles.

further reading

japan's warrior women, Chris Kincaid, Aug 9 2015

a long history of japanese women warriors, Kallie Szczepanski, Jan 22 2020

samurai warrior queens, a drama documentary based on the life of nakano takeko (imdb)

nakano clan, Sumiko Nakano

in conclusion

Sure. I would have loved to continue the narrative of Jin Sakai, as it felt for me as though the end of the game was not the end of the story of the Ghost of Tsushima.

In saying that, Ghost of Yotei shouldn't be blacklisted just because it features a woman. If you don't wanna play the game due to a feminist movement that only might have something to do with the choice of a female lead, then don't play it. Simple. No one is making you buy it. No one is telling you you have to enjoy it. There is no gun to your head.

There is nothing that I have seen so far that makes me think this game should be thrown to the side. The trailer visuals look just as stunning as Ghost of Tsushima and two swords sounds mad. Just because I'm excited about a new story, does not mean that I enjoyed Jin's journey any less.

Also, eat rocks. Onna-musha are fucking awesome.

Ghost of Yotei Summary

They made her a female samurai, which did not exist. At all. It's not like Northern Europe that had rare but extent shield maidens.

And they hired a Feminist cunt to play her. While Disney is still reshooting Snow White, because they hired a Feminist cunt to talk about how terrible the original was, and are regretting it.

Some people say to give it the benefit of the doubt, but nowadays, games do NOT get the benefit of the doubt. They have to prove they are not girlbossing.

They also have her dual-wield, because of course she has to be better than Jin Sakai.

Addendum: And "if you don't like it, don't buy it" does not work in convincing us it will be good. Especially after all of the other times it's been done, and then we're called -ist for not buying it.

[antics-of-a-spiteful-stickbug]

"You can barely even talk to women these days without worrying about SA allegations!!"

Notice how these men never are worried about SA allegations from their male acquaintances.

Maybe stop treating every woman you come across solely as a potential increase to your body count. Then we wouldn't have this problem.

And don't even get me started on the fucking "friend zone" so many men seem to fear so horribly. Imagine instead thinking you've made a genuine friend only for it to turn out that he was only sticking around in hopes of getting access to your body, because that's the only thing about you he finds even a crumb of value in. Imagine that.

[khattikeri]

you ever think about how japanese villainess stories overwhelmingly tend to follow the trend of "everyone calls her a villainess but ACTUALLY she's a genuinely kind, downtrodden, misunderstood girl whose actions and intentions get maliciously twisted by her enemies!!!" and then ponder the beautiful parallels between that and japanese war crime denialism

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Results from the ‘Who is the tallest MDZS Character poll! Thank you all for voting!

[ofpd]

what I need everyone to understand is that men and women are the same

[ecoterrorist-katara]

The only stereotypically masculine thing about Aang…is his romantic arc

There’s a really popular post on Tumblr called “Avatar Aang, Feminist Icon.” The thesis is basically that Aang, unlike his female teachers and friends, is actually not a badass. He listens, he defers, and he respects women. He seemed to have no problem with Katara’s crush on Jet, despite his own crush on her. He chooses love and kindness and friendship and pacifism. He’s not tall and handsome as hell or buff. He wears flower crowns!

And I agree! This is Aang for most of the series and I love those qualities (though I do think the bar is in hell if those traits make a character a feminist icon, as opposed to a person who simply sees women as human beings). Anyway, I just think there’s a glaring omission. And that’s Aang’s romantic arc in season 3.

Bryke managed to take the worst of both worlds: Aang’s romantic arc retains the male-centricity that make most romances so problematic, while retaining none of the characteristics that make problematic romances compelling to women.

Aang falls in love at first sight with a beautiful girl. For the majority of their friendship, he remains respectful and supportive. As his crush hits an all time high, however, it gets distinctly more stereotypical: he kisses Katara at the invasion, and when she didn’t want to talk about that kiss, he firebends at her (the fact that this comic is canon, and was published years after ATLA’s conclusion, only demonstrates that the creators still don’t understand critiques of their romance). Aang considers Katara “his girl” and becomes furious (“I would be in the Avatar state right now!”) when the actress version of Katara didn’t like him romantically, and then he kisses her again — this time explicitly against her wishes. Throughout the show, people reassure him that she will come around, continuously reinforcing the idea that Katara is “his” and he just has to be patient. And even though Ka/taang is supposed to be endgame, we never hear directly from Katara how she feels, even though we’re no strangers to her opinions and feelings on other topics. It’s almost like the creators wanted Katara’s feelings to be a mystery because we’re meant to resonate with Aang. That’s…a male-centric, action hero romance.

In addition, the friendship dynamics between Katara and Aang feel pretty gendered. The distribution of emotional labour between Aang and Katara is quite skewed: Katara takes care of Aang much more than he takes care of her. She’s the one responsible for calming him down from the Avatar State. She’s the one who cooks for him and performs a whole lot of domestic chores. Post-canon, Katara’s storyline revolves around Aang, and she’s treated as his accessory and the keeper of his legacy instead of her own person, to the degree that she’s not even recognizable in LOK anymore. A beautiful, badass, independent woman who dedicates her energy and intelligence to a man’s needs? Wow, that is definitely something I’ve never seen in media geared towards men!

A lot of gushing about Aang’s lack of stereotypical masculinity seems to also hinge on how Aang is not conventionally attractive, but that’s…not true. Aang may not behave like James Bond, but he has plenty of admirers. Meng and On Ji liked him even without knowing that he’s the Avatar. Post-series, Acolytes descend en masse to steal Katara’s man. And of course he grows into a tall, buff dude. Aang’s romantic arc is not about becoming attractive to women, or finding a woman who loves him despite his looks. His romantic arc is about getting the girl who’s hard to get, because she only sees him as a friend or a little brother / babysitting charge.

Bryke do not deserve the credit for creating a “feminist icon,” not when the only stereotypically masculine traits they gave him are in relation to his romance arc. It honestly feels more insidious this way, because it’s like, “see? You don’t have to be masculine to reap the benefits of performing masculinity” — the benefits being, of course, “getting” the girl you want.