Found This And Decided to Do It
Aug. 17th, 2009 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elementalheroI grabbed this memething out of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
redbrunja's archive:
Basically, participants would each pick one or several of their favorite series or one-shots (not necessarily fandoms) and find at least one example of undeniable, indefensible sexism. Preferably, a work that gets your hackles raised whenever someone badmouths it and ESPECIALLY if you would otherwise consider the gender dynamics to be perfect.
I'm going with Code Geass, which, while not a perfect example of gender dynamics like Soul Eater, for instance, is about thirty times better than Bleach or Naruto.
Beware, big spoilers below.
~Viletta Nu. Here we have an incredibly competent woman, power-hungry and driven, easily the equal of Jeremiah--she's cold and cruel and badass and willing to do anything for her country or to advance her position--and she gets hit in the head by rubble and loses her memory.
That in itself would be less of a gender problem and more of a "Really, Code Geass? Really? The old 'hit-in-the-head-and-lost-her-memory' gambit?" But what kills me is that, instead of being a cruel, cold, arrogant woman who simply doesn't remember anything about her past but has her same personality, she becomes a soft, meek, kind lady who falls in love with the guy who saves her and starts cooking him lunches, for god's sake.
I mean, seriously! Losing one's memory should, for the most part, not change their entire personality unless the relevant memories are of something really recent that completely shocked the person into an entire new mode of thinking. Amnesia Doesn't Work Like That. (Granted, it doesn't work with the hit-by-rocks trick ANYWAY, so yeah.)
And the fact that Viletta, like, 'defaulted' back into the model of the ideal Japanese woman (which doesn't even make sense, since she was pure BRITANNIAN) says volumes. Thank god she got fixed by the last episode or so.
~And while I'm on about sexism in Code Geass, I know I comment on how much better Lelouch is with Da Ladies than Light, but he still will occasionally display slight hints of deep-seated sexist views that I can only attribute to the writers being a product of Japanese culture. (And to be honest, it would be completely impossible to be worse in terms of misogyny than Death Note was.) Mostly small but worrying things, like when C.C. teases him about his reaction to Shirley's dad's death and he freaks out and pushes her back on the bed in a very 'threatening' position (she's unfazed and tells him he's stupid, and he stalks off to have a dramatic shower, but still).
At least when he starts being a dick to Kallen during his Heroic BSOD in R2, she reacts like the fantastic character she is: she slaps him across the face and delivers a rousing "GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS AND DON'T LET ME CATCH YOU FAILING THE PEOPLE WHO ARE RELYING ON YOU EVER AGAIN," speech. Have I ever mentioned how amazing Kallen is? ♥
redbrunja's archive:Basically, participants would each pick one or several of their favorite series or one-shots (not necessarily fandoms) and find at least one example of undeniable, indefensible sexism. Preferably, a work that gets your hackles raised whenever someone badmouths it and ESPECIALLY if you would otherwise consider the gender dynamics to be perfect.
I'm going with Code Geass, which, while not a perfect example of gender dynamics like Soul Eater, for instance, is about thirty times better than Bleach or Naruto.
Beware, big spoilers below.
~Viletta Nu. Here we have an incredibly competent woman, power-hungry and driven, easily the equal of Jeremiah--she's cold and cruel and badass and willing to do anything for her country or to advance her position--and she gets hit in the head by rubble and loses her memory.
That in itself would be less of a gender problem and more of a "Really, Code Geass? Really? The old 'hit-in-the-head-and-lost-her-memory' gambit?" But what kills me is that, instead of being a cruel, cold, arrogant woman who simply doesn't remember anything about her past but has her same personality, she becomes a soft, meek, kind lady who falls in love with the guy who saves her and starts cooking him lunches, for god's sake.
I mean, seriously! Losing one's memory should, for the most part, not change their entire personality unless the relevant memories are of something really recent that completely shocked the person into an entire new mode of thinking. Amnesia Doesn't Work Like That. (Granted, it doesn't work with the hit-by-rocks trick ANYWAY, so yeah.)
And the fact that Viletta, like, 'defaulted' back into the model of the ideal Japanese woman (which doesn't even make sense, since she was pure BRITANNIAN) says volumes. Thank god she got fixed by the last episode or so.
~And while I'm on about sexism in Code Geass, I know I comment on how much better Lelouch is with Da Ladies than Light, but he still will occasionally display slight hints of deep-seated sexist views that I can only attribute to the writers being a product of Japanese culture. (And to be honest, it would be completely impossible to be worse in terms of misogyny than Death Note was.) Mostly small but worrying things, like when C.C. teases him about his reaction to Shirley's dad's death and he freaks out and pushes her back on the bed in a very 'threatening' position (she's unfazed and tells him he's stupid, and he stalks off to have a dramatic shower, but still).
At least when he starts being a dick to Kallen during his Heroic BSOD in R2, she reacts like the fantastic character she is: she slaps him across the face and delivers a rousing "GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS AND DON'T LET ME CATCH YOU FAILING THE PEOPLE WHO ARE RELYING ON YOU EVER AGAIN," speech. Have I ever mentioned how amazing Kallen is? ♥
