You know, Shini and I were complaining about what Amano did to Haru and Kyoko in the TYL arc too -- and the dearth of independently badass female characters in general -- but it was much more civil than that? It was something like: "Bawwww, want cool girls, Amano y like dis?" but I really don't think it's at all sensible to go as far as to say DIAF, KHR, GTFO since um... It's shounen. It can't be faulted for being, well, shounen. We may get frustrated, we may whine, but we can never say that it fails as a work of art because it's actually doing okay as it is. Within its limits. (Expecting a work to satisfy all your needs as a reader is insane, ggkthxbai.) I mean-- why require KHR to pander to your need to see a badass female character when that is not its primary purpose anyway?
I cannot imagine how this has somehow escaped that girl's attention, but KHR is shounen and you really shouldn't go into feminist critiques of a shounen manga if all you're going to do is attempt to advance your narrow-minded agenda while excluding everything else. It's not only self-defeatist, not only does it make you look appallingly stupid, but you end up misleading all sorts of people who, though they may wish for stronger girl characters in KHR, have nothing to do with your agenda and don't deserve to be somehow dragged along with it just because they are gullible and *cough* easily dazzled (brainwashed?) by your words.
Also, what the hell, "this is why I wish there weren't women in that series at all" -- very logical jump there! You hate the portrayal so-- you'd rather there be no portrayal at all? Doesn't make sense.
But I guess what I really, really hate is the underlying assumption that strength = fighting strength, as if there were such a thing as a single standard against which a character can be measured. No. I liked how Haru and Kyoko appeared in the Varia arc of the anime because even though the girls weren't part of the action at all there were (very cute) scenes showing them waiting and hoping and supporting, and... in particular, there was this hospital scene that wrenched at my heart, because they were there watching over... Lambo, I think, and does whatshername even have any idea how much strength it takes to stand vigil by a hospital bed? I know people who would rather get beaten up by a gang of inebriated boys than watch a loved one on the verge of death and be totally unable to do anything to help. (I'd be one of them if I weren't so fragile; as it is, the former would probably kill me.)
So uh-- where was I: cooking and cleaning and waiting for people to come home? Is not necessarily weak. What the hell. One of these days I am going to explode all over people who think that the housewife is automatically the weakest and most boring character in any series/novel/whatever.
And her statement that KHR explicitly positions women as inferior is just insane. While it is true that I would not have done certain things Amano did -- things I feel weakened the... characterization? of some characters there -- Amano doesn't degrade women. Sure, it might be frustrating not to see some things I wish would happen, but one does not traverse the logical divide between frustration and outright condemnation with a statement like "No, the women have to be there, they have to be present, so it can be palpably demonstrated that they are not as good as the men."
I'd froth at the mouth and bite her, too, but I am far too proper and demure (read: weak, at least according to her) to do that.
In the meantime, I'm going to go back to baking cookies.
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Date: 2008-11-18 11:18 am (UTC)I cannot imagine how this has somehow escaped that girl's attention, but KHR is shounen and you really shouldn't go into feminist critiques of a shounen manga if all you're going to do is attempt to advance your narrow-minded agenda while excluding everything else. It's not only self-defeatist, not only does it make you look appallingly stupid, but you end up misleading all sorts of people who, though they may wish for stronger girl characters in KHR, have nothing to do with your agenda and don't deserve to be somehow dragged along with it just because they are gullible and *cough* easily dazzled (brainwashed?) by your words.
Also, what the hell, "this is why I wish there weren't women in that series at all" -- very logical jump there! You hate the portrayal so-- you'd rather there be no portrayal at all? Doesn't make sense.
But I guess what I really, really hate is the underlying assumption that strength = fighting strength, as if there were such a thing as a single standard against which a character can be measured. No. I liked how Haru and Kyoko appeared in the Varia arc of the anime because even though the girls weren't part of the action at all there were (very cute) scenes showing them waiting and hoping and supporting, and... in particular, there was this hospital scene that wrenched at my heart, because they were there watching over... Lambo, I think, and does whatshername even have any idea how much strength it takes to stand vigil by a hospital bed? I know people who would rather get beaten up by a gang of inebriated boys than watch a loved one on the verge of death and be totally unable to do anything to help. (I'd be one of them if I weren't so fragile; as it is, the former would probably kill me.)
So uh-- where was I: cooking and cleaning and waiting for people to come home? Is not necessarily weak. What the hell. One of these days I am going to explode all over people who think that the housewife is automatically the weakest and most boring character in any series/novel/whatever.
And her statement that KHR explicitly positions women as inferior is just insane. While it is true that I would not have done certain things Amano did -- things I feel weakened the... characterization? of some characters there -- Amano doesn't degrade women. Sure, it might be frustrating not to see some things I wish would happen, but one does not traverse the logical divide between frustration and outright condemnation with a statement like "No, the women have to be there, they have to be present, so it can be palpably demonstrated that they are not as good as the men."
I'd froth at the mouth and bite her, too, but I am far too proper and demure (read: weak, at least according to her) to do that.
In the meantime, I'm going to go back to baking cookies.