Winry, Hinata, Mikasa: Feminine Imagery in Shōnen Manga and Japan’s Masculinist Cultural Nationalism

Winry, Hinata, Mikasa: Feminine Imagery in Shōnen Manga and Japan’s Masculinist Cultural Nationalism

15th Annual Intl. Conference on Japanese Studies & the 6th Women’s Manga Conference

Hansley A. Juliano, M.A.Department of Political ScienceAteneo de Manila UniversityPhilippines

Jan. 23, 2014

Manga/Anime & Society Manga as culture production where realities and fictions become fluid and reflective of each other's peculiarities and contradictions (Adorno)

Cultural nationalism (Yoshino) as an explanation by which such images continue to permeat Japanese representations of women, even in non-Japanese and non-realistic contexts

Mukokuseki vs. cultural origin

Shōnen-Shōjo Nexus Contemporary representations of female characters in shōnen imply an evolving and complex image-repertoire where women are actually becoming a normalized part of the genre (and, as such, suggests images of women playing toe-to-toe with men).

Specificities within the nationalist heritage of Japanese culture (feudal and masculinist) can and still inform such images, with the repopularization of such archetypes bridging possible nostalgic links to the techno-muscularist development of modern Japanese history.

Method, Scope and Limitations Fullmetal Alchemist (2001-2010), Naruto (1999-2014),

Attack on Titan (2009-) Study operates on content and context analysis

Typologies (as per anime pop culture)

Main tropes include: Yamato Nadeshiko ( 大大大大 ) Tsundere ( 大大大大 ) Kuudere ( 大大大大 ) Yandere ( 大大大大 )

Other variations exist like yangire ( 大大大大 ) and dandere ( 大大大大” ).

These images present varying notions of women’s capacities depending on their positionality within the family/social hierarchy.

Women Alienated/Asserted in Fullmetal Alchemist

A Century of Landlocked Empire-Building

Permeable Technomuscular Open Spaces

Character FocusesConfident Main Female

CastAmbiguities of “Action

Ladies”

Steampunk Cultural Nationalism in Naruto

“Warring States” ⇒“Stalemate”⇒ “Peace”

“The Will of Fire” Meritocracy

Character FocusesDisciplinaritie

s for Adolescent Femininity

Feminine Authority

Subverting the “Dead Mother Syndrome”

The Postmodern & “Post-feminine”(?) in Attack on Titan

Reflexive Human Extinction

Strict Material Socio-Economic Control

Character Focuses

Androgynies and Relationalities

Textuality of Queer

Representation

Gendered Space/Nations

(?)

Paradoxical Formation Japanese notion of public masculinity/virility supposedly “lost” after 2nd World War (Benner 2006, 37). As such, popular cultural works may still be populated by nostalgic images and structures — with capable and alluring women, but only according to the limits their masculinity allows.

Nevertheless, such images continues to evolve and belie the preservation fantasy. With “Cool Japan” now part of Japanese response to globalization, even these notions are now subject to the global reassessment of masculinity & femininity.

Paradoxical Formation Some of the texts (Naruto and FMA) create subjectivities regarding women as 1) complementary to men and 2) their actions towards self-realization is only possible as long as they sustain masculinist structures and societal dynamics. In contrast, the character-writing in AOT suggests that women need not be always qualified as characters depending on their gender position, and stand individually.

Resisting stereotyping and creating avenues of discourse-production determined and developed in feminine terms always exists.

Conclusion Shōnen manga, despite being an aspect of Japanese popular culture that continues to cater to existing masculinist nationalisms, is in itself subject to fluxes that can be exploited for the reframing of representations of women towards less-traditional and narrow lines.

The pedagogical and expressive potential that shōnen manga carries in feminine representations should not be underestimated. By creating avenues of forming men’s templates of the feminine and women not as subjects of fetish or utility but dynamic identities they have to engage and learn from, establishing relationships with people along lines of gender sensitivity and acknowledgment may be facilitated.

The texts analyzed in this preliminary study, in a sense, have not yet been fully exhausted. Representations of women and manga continually evolve even with the shōnen genre.