#sexism in manga

[kookoofufu]

Not to be a manga-only pretentious dweeb but every time I see one piece fans talk about terrible pacing or being annoyed by a beloved character I start vibrating in my chair frothing at the mouth shaking uncontrollably bleeding from my eyes bleating like a goat read the manga please just read the manga the issues you have with one piece are with toei animation please pick up a book PLEASEJUSTREADTHEFUCKINGMANGA

[paulilily]

And just like that, sexism was defeated.

[weaponsofclairvoyance]

these pages are making me so crazy!!

shoko has lived her life wading through the gore and horror of a society that has so much of it they don't even hold funerals anymore and she's done it alone.. She was the only girl at the technical school and getou & gojo - the only people she called friends - were too obsessed with each other to give her any real attention or intimacy, her underclassmen were also boys who were mostly just friends with each other, and she couldn't even join any of them on the field because she's too valuable to lose, so their lives were completely different. She had utahime who was a little older so she wasn't actually in her class, and while I'm sure they're still friends I don't think we ever even see them interact as adults. She has no life outside jujutsu society but she's not really IN it either because she's treated as a get out of [death] free card instead of a real person, and her medical license isn't even authentic so it's not like she could really go anywhere else. Her addiction is bad enough that it's kind of an in-joke among staff and students that she's always drunk, even while performing surgery. Her role in jujutsu society is kind of like gojo’s rct constantly refreshing his brain - it allows sorcerers to keep working and keep being abused, eliminates the need for rest because it doesnt matter if you are healthy as long as you are alive (which is why it doesn't matter that she cheated thru med school), because if you are alive you can be exploited. You can actually be exploited even if you aren't.

She's neglected and permanently dissociated and her oldest friend (who's still more like a lifelong acquaintance because theyre both so closed off and he's so myopic and self-absorbed) just got cut in half and she's expected to scoop the brain out of his still-warm corpse so a suicidal teenager she's also in charge of can puppeteer his mutilated body & she does it because there's never been room for her to feel anything. so she doesn't. And it makes me want to throw up blood

[morallygay]

Witch hat atelier being seinen is peak demonstration of how ridiculous demographics as manga categories are. Ah yes witch hat atelier,, aimed at adult men,,, and clearly not meant for children or women or god forbid young girls —famously the opposite demographic of witch hat atelier. That would be incidental and accidental bc you see it being seinen means the author wrote it for adult men specifically and exclusively!!

[voidoftheotherside]

Gege Akutami likes yuri & trans stories too!

No this isn’t click bait, this is from the official jjk character guide. You can read a fan translation of the relevant parts here.

I know the fandom talks a lot about Gege Akutami (mangaka of jjk) publicly endorsing yaoi, and I’ll probably discuss it at some point but we really should also talk about how in the same page he endorses an author who writes yuri and trans stories! Her name is Takako Shimura and her most popular works are “wandering son” and “sweet blue flowers”, which focus on trans issues and a wlw relationship respectively. I haven’t read or watched either yet but they are certainly on my list. The fact that one of these gets discussed a decent amount and the other two are rarely mentioned kinda seems like sexism and some transphobia to me. So I’m doing something about it!

It’s also worth noting that much like him engaging with and enjoying yaoi likely influences and informs character dynamics like satosugu and itafushi and should be considered when discussing how he writes them, him engaging with enjoying yuri and trans centric media likely influences and informs character dynamics and choices, particularly Kirara but also various dynamics between women in jjk, and we should remember it when discussing them! It also opens up conversations about other characters, for example junpei (I may or may not elaborate on him later, lmk if you wanna hear)

Anyway, take Gege Akutami’s advice, Read more yuri and trans stories!

[takeshitakyuuto]

i hate an "its not that deep" bitch. sorry for believing that artists put thought and effort into their works i guess

[kashilascorner]

You know that one post that goes viral every now and then about (supposedly) children being asked what love means to them and one of the replies is from a kid who says love is when you feel your name is safe with someone? So this is basically the same, but a bit more extreme

[slickartier]

i like how fans take arguably very racist and sexist (and percahnce weird in other regards) animes and make it fun and cool and give the characters redesigns!!! (cough cough... one piece)

makes me dread going back to source material cuz I will NOT watch one piece (as an example) not for the life of me but the fandom and fanart tempts me!!

[laurierthefox]

As in the MeToo days, cis women, trans women, non-binary women, etc., in support of what feminist activists have been saying for decades, and what is happening with the Pelicot trial, are talking about what they have experienced and what they continue to experience on a daily basis.

I felt the need to write about the sexist and sexual violence I've experienced since childhood very quickly, a bit on the fly, without going back over my drawing too much.

I've only made 10 slides for instagram, but I still have a lot of anecdotes about the assaults I suffered at the hands of my partners or male friends.

For Trigger Warnings I talk about paedophilia, vi0l, sexual vi0lence, street harassment, blackmail, incitement, threats of m-rt, threats of vi-l, transphobia…

I'm sending us strength, support and pride in our ability to survive in this patriarchal, heteronormative society.

FR - - - - - - - - - -

Comme au temps de MeToo, les femmes cis, trans, non binaires..etc pour appuyer ce que les militantes féministes disent depuis des décennies, et ce qu'il se passe avec le procès Pelicot, parlent de ce qu'elles ont vécues et ce qu'elles continuent de vivre au quotidien.

J'ai ressenti le besoin de mettre un mot sur les violences sexistes et sexuelles que j'ai vécue depuis mon enfance très rapidement, un peu à l'arrache, sans trop revenir sur mon dessin.

Je n'ai fait que 10 slides pour instagram, mais j'ai encore beaucoup d'anecdotes des agressions que j'ai subies de mes partenaires ou amis hommes.

Pour les Trigger Warnings je parle de péd-philie, de vi0l, de vi0lences sexuelles, harcèlement de rue, de chantage au sui-ide, inc-ste, menaces de m-rt, menaces de vi-l, transphobie...

Je nous envoie de la force, du soutien et de la fierté à nous toustes pour survivre dans cette société patriarcale et hétéronormative.

[studyingfornclex]

Would anyone be interested in reading the essay I wrote about the romanticization of abuse and sexism in LGBTQIA manhwa and manga?

Edit: posted it

[fancylala4]

Anime or Japanese games in a nutshell:

Female characters who hate men: only hate them because of their awful experience with their fathers and refuse to interact with them.

Male characters who hate women: hate them because they believe that they are all gold diggers and interact with them to hurt them.

[thenightwinggraveyard]

"I devour his flesh in the name of survival, it was his time and now it is mine, my teeth will forever be stained red, and the taste shall never leave my mouth"

// [ a wip of mine i thought i'd share :)) ]

Sakura Haruno was the weakest link, a fact she came to accept in her so far short life.

The moment her naive mouth declared she wanted to be a shinobi, was the moment her fate was sealed. Sakura was a clanless kunoichi, destined for the slaughterhouse. Hell, she even had the pig-pink hair to really seal the deal. 

All she had in her arsenal upon graduating from the academy, upon becoming a ‘real’ shinobi, was the bare bones lessons from the academy– why would they need to go in-depth when all the clan kids already knew all this information and more? (they were the only ones worth anything after all)– and what little she was able to grasp from the low-access library books.

That's not even mentioning the fact that she only graduated thanks to her teammates. 

Naruto, the ‘dead-last', was so far ahead of Sakura; it wasn't even close. She had always wondered why that was the name used in the whispers. Had no one else paid attention to the fact that while not book-smart, he was able to keep up with the likes of Sasuke? Naruto had heaps of energy, stamina and chakra. He was leagues ahead of those whispering kids, ahead of Sakura.

Sakura had stared at the dozens of clones he summoned during the bell test, the sheer determination he held, and she couldn’t find it in herself to feel anything but envy. Naruto didn’t have a clan either, so how was he still so far ahead?

Then there's Sasuke. Once upon a time, when she was a small insecure child; she had latched onto him as some higher power to worship. Ino had recalled stories of how strong each of his hits was, how handsome he was, how unearthly. 

When she first saw him, well she had to agree. He was strong in a way Sakura never was. He stood high and mighty and fought as if he was born to do just that. 

Then he put her in her place.

…

Sakura watched starstruck as Sasuke won his spar in what seemed mere seconds. As he stood in front of the boy he won against unyielding, she truly understood Ino’s obsession with him. 

Then Iruka-sensei called the next match-up.

“Sasuke Uchiha against Sakura Haruno.”

Immediately, everybody turned to her. Their vicious eyes picked her apart and gazed at her mockingly. 

“This’ll be hilarious,” she heard someone whisper.

Sakura looked at Sasuke. Those dark eyes of his stared at her from head to toe, before turning away and scoffing. 

 Her ears were duly ringing, all those wolfish stares caused her eyes to water as she looked down.

“Enough, everyone. Sasuke, Sakura, get into positions”

She walked over with hesitant steps and settled into the standard academy form.

Sakura stared at the viscous look Sasuke wore as he settled into what must have been an Uchiha clan form.  A gaze once so godly when directed at others, was now the look of a predator about to devour its prey.

“Begin!”

He immediately rushed her, and all she could do was bring up her hands to block in some hopes of prolonging the inevitable. Sakura was hit with fist after fist, only able to partly dodge for seconds of relief before the barrage continued.

She was left lying in the dirt, bruised and slightly bloody, staring up at the sky with a shame far stronger than anything she had felt before. Sakura didn’t even bother listening to her classmates mocking taunts, or Sasuke’s scoffed remarks.

All Sakura amounted to was prey.

… 

Sasuke was the predator, and to see someone as strong as him be defeated so easily by their sensei, all it made her do was shake. Each hit was blocked with a sharp calculation, every counter-attack an obvious showing of restraint. 

Sakura was on the bottom of the food chain. Their sensei must have been leagues ahead of even Sakura, and even then she knew that there were those far stronger out there. 

She shivered under the moonlight for more reasons than just the chill of the night. Hours after she officially became a genin, and all she could think was how utterly hopeless it was. Why did she insist on her naive stubbornness? 

When she had determined to become a kunoichi, it had been mostly thanks to the kunoichi Ino dragged her to see. The blonde had already been gushing about her for a while, and when faced with the opportunity to show Sakura a true kunoichi in action when sparring, she took it. 

The woman’s long hair lagged behind her as she moved gracefully around her opponent. Then once she got close enough to hit, she did so with an unstoppable strength. 

Sakura quietly laughed at her past naivety mockingly. The memory of the kunoichi’s spar was hazy, yet perhaps to make herself only feel worse, she attempted to recreate the position the women had started in.

She stood on the grass with her feet spread apart, the bruises on her knee from when she tumbled during the bell test twinged, preventing her from truly spreading her weight evenly. Nevertheless, she brought her hands up in front of her chest and curled her soft hands into fists. 

The memory of the kunoichi immediately dodged the punch heading for her jaw as she twirled around her opponent, Sakura’s small feet clumsily recreated that image with her eyes closed. The kunoichi and Sakura then kicked upwards as a counter move, hitting the opponent’s brought-up blocking arms. Sakura almost lost her balance after the kick. Then, she jumped back from an attack in time with the image of the kunoichi. 

Attack, Dodge, Kick, Hit, Block; the fuzzy sequence played out as Sakura’s limbs followed uncoordinated and sluggish. She had no idea how long she played that scene out before her bruised knee gave up and she collapsed in a sweaty heap on the grass.

She started up at the full moon, the hundreds of twinkling stars, and all she could hear was the cricket’s cries as she tried to regain her breath. 

Sakura knew she was a civilian parading as a shinobi, they all whispered that, and yet her heart had screamed that they would be proven wrong. As of now, her lungs were shouting their disagreement. 

That dreaded voice finally decided to speak up;

You’re nothing but canon fodder, after all. 

Be quiet.

You couldn’t even play at being a kunoichi without failing.

Shut up.

They were right about you. They will always be right about you.

Stop.

Weak, useless little girl, who are you trying to fool? Yourself? Everyone knows it, your sensei barely looked at you. Sasuke doesn’t even remember beating you, you’re not worth it. 

YOU’RE NOT WORTH ANYTHING.

STOP. STOP. STOP IT STOP IT STOP–

Sakura let out the harsh breath she was holding. Her mind torturing her was nothing new, every word used against her was adapted into her vocabulary of self-loathing. She closed her watery eyes with a shaky exclamation. 

Why was she just agreeing? Why was she just lying down and taking it? What happened to the little girl with a fiery heart; the one who declared she’d prove everyone wrong?

Where did that little girl who grit her teeth while she stood back up on shaky legs go?

…

The ringing in her ears dulled enough for the sound of her wheezing breaths and Iruka-sensei’s concerned voice to break through. Sakura guessed he was asking if she was okay, or if she needed help standing up. 

She lifted her head to see Sasuke’s back turned. Ino was several steps away from him, looking between her and Sasuke with a conflicted expression.

‘Weak’ his body language seemed to spit at her, ‘Useless’.

Iruka-sensei lightly touched her shoulder, “Do you need me to carry you to the nurse’s office, Sakura?”

His voice was tinged with concern. Behind her, she heard the shrill sound of girls giggling.

She clenched her teeth together painfully and began to sit up with trembling limbs. Iruka-sensei kept his hand on her shoulder, but as Sakura continued to rise she tried to subtly push it off of her. He let go with a concerned frown as she reached her knees. The rocks underneath dug into her skin, leaving imprints. 

Sakura eventually raised to unsteady feet, and with all the scratches and bruises and wild hair she was sure she looked vaguely feral. She couldn’t bring herself to feel ugly for it. She stumbled away from the sparring location, and with clenched teeth she couldn’t help but glare at the Uchiwa fan on the dark haired boy's back. 

…

As the memory of her resilience resurfaced, Sakura wondered why she had forgotten about that part. When did the terrifying act of standing up after being pushed down become unimportant to her?

When had she stopped trying? 

[cottoncandytrafficcones]

I love you manga that takes a girl and turns her into a weird horror monster that becomes a queen of the darkness.

[shinyasahalo]

BAKUMAN and Women's Place in Shonen Manga [CC]

It’s about Bakuman and the sexism in the manga industry, but the discussion about how the female characters were written made me think about other manga series.  

[studyingfornclex]

The Romanticization and Normalization of Abuse and Sexism in LGBTQIA+ Stories

The popularization of stories with LGBTQIA+ main characters is in no way a bad thing. Diversity is important, and the more stories like that, the better. But when the story becomes sexist, or when a story starts to normalize abuse, it becomes an issue.

In the popular manhwa Killing Stalking, The main character was drafted into the military, and was incredibly unlucky as to where he had been placed. He fell in love with one of his comrades when he helped him. After both of them got done with their service, the main character stalked his former comrade, and then the main character breaks into his house, and then gets trapped there. After that, the main character suffers horrifying abuse by the other character. The fanbase does not view this as the psychological horror that it is, though. They view it as a romance.

Visit any fan page for this manhwa and you’ll see the people wishing for the “romance” that they have, and saying that they’re so cute together. I was researching this book, and I came across a threat on Pinterest of ten year olds saying they loved their relationship and thought it was adorable. Mind you, this was the same “relationship” where the main character was hung from the ceiling and trapped inside the house and forced to eat from a dog bowl. 

In a similar case, the popular manhwa Jinx has a similar relationship. There is an extreme power imbalance between the two characters, and the fanbase considers it adorable and says that the “love interest” (who brutally assaults the main character on many different occasions) is improving (no, he is not) and that their relationship is so adorable. This romanticization of abuse is not uncommon, and you will find many popular tropes that follow this, like a mafia boss kidnapping the main character (in fact, this was so popular in the 2010s that people now make jokes about it being the only trope on a website that independent writers can publish their stories on. This also leads to people avoiding the website like the plague, and writers who just want to share their work getting a bad reputation for it. 

This romantiziation of abuse also affects real life, too. The writers on the above website are not the only example of this. When people in fiction are idolized by ten year olds for the abusive relationships they have, they won’t realize that it isn’t normal, and that it’s horrible to have a relationship like that. This will lead to a generation of children who will believe that what they read was good and normal, and that they should want a relationship like that. The other side is that the children will read it and see people who will want that type of relationship, and model themself after the abuser. This, in total, leads to a generation of children idolizing the wrong relationship. 

In these novels, there are not many female characters. In the Jinx manhwa, there is a total of two women. TWO women in this piece of media with over 40 chapters at the time of writing this. This is an incredibly popular manhwa, and there is only two women in it. If a book series only had women in it, and had a lesbian couple, they would somehow turn it into male centered. A popular movie, which was about a town of all women, had an unfair amount of speaking lines given to men. Only 41% of all speaking lines were given to women, in a movie about all women. 

In conclusion, the romanticization of abuse and the sexism in LGBTQIA+ novels is a real issue, that affects everyone, whether that be new authors trying to post their work on a respected website, or ten-year-olds who clicked on a link their friend sent, that would have consequences on all their future relationships. 

[perasperaadastratoday]

My girlhood and anime (sexism rant?)

I have recently been thinking a lot about my own journey with anime ever since I got into it as a little girl.

DISCLAIMER: Everything I say in this post is anecdotal, just things I've observed and experienced. Also, I am NOT Japanese, and in no way do I intend to insult Japanese culture or pretend to understand the complexities of Japanese culture. This is from my perspective as a girl who grew up in Europe.

Ever since I was introduced to anime I immediately subconsciously noticed that Shonen (anime and manga aimed at boys) especially Battle Shonen was valued higher than Shojo (anime and manga aimed at girls). Shojo was often belittled and made fun of for being stupid, less intelligently written and too focused on romance. Shonen, on the other hand, was always praised and seen as the "correct" anime.

I want to keep it clear that NOT ALL SHONEN anime and manga has badly written female characters.

I discovered anime and manga just as I was approaching puberty, I felt alienated by the way women and girls were written. The gaze always lingered on the female body (usually always with a tiny waist and huge boobs), panty shots and tons of sexual harassment jokes. One of the first words Japanese words I learned was "Hentai" - Pervert (good thing I didn't google that)

I struggled so hard to relate to most of the female characters in most of these mangas/animes. Sometimes I even hated them. To be fair I had intense internalized misogyny at that point. This was also at the time when I started figuring out that I, a girl, could also be attracted to other girls, which added to the confusion. If I was also attracted to girls, then why was I not attracted to the girls in anime and manga? I tried to read Yuri manga, but felt nothing.

Like many other girls before me, I soon discovered Yaoi and BL and my world changed. While the genre does objectify and fetishize gay men, I didn't even understand that back then. One of the things that appealed the most to me about Yaoi was that there was no female character involved. Instead of being objectified by men, I was now the one "in power". I became a full on fujoshi and practically LIVED through these fictional gay men, even to the point where I wanted to be one.

Looking back, I keep wondering how much gender can affect our experiences of a piece of work. I wish I understood what it was like to grow up with Shonen anime and manga for a boy.

I'll make a part 2 maybe, I just wanted to share some thoughts.