the fact that relationships between women weren’t as huge as ones between dudes doesn’t disqualify fma from being feminist

1. It’s a shame there wasn’t more ladylove, but a dude was the main character so that’s proably why the relationships…the main character was involved in…were the most important?

2. Literally the only major brotps that didn’t involve Ed were one for Roy (who died) and one for Ling (who was a homunculus forcibly sharing Ling’s body and also died).

3. There were lady relationships very significant to the narrative. Paninya and Winry got a couple chapters! Winry and Riza got a sidestory! Winry majorly impacted Paninya’s life, she CONVINCED HER TO STOP STEALING, she helped Paninya make A POSITIVE CHANGE IN THEIR LIFE! WOMEN HELPING EACH OTHER! IT’S REALLY COOL!

Gracia taught Winry how the make apple pie (majorly important to the plot) and made her feel like she had a family! Elicia called Winry her big sister and Winry replied “I’m so glad I have a little sister!!!”. Winry and Elicia and Gracia had a scene where they just hung out together and they helped Winry with the loss she felt!

Riza impacted Winry’s life MAJORLY, Riza is THE SOLE REASON WINRY DOESN’T HATE THE MILITARY. And Lan Fan is the reason May got to come with Ling and Lan fan! And if it weren’t for Pinako, Winry wouldn’t be who she is AT ALL! And since Winry is a primary character, that’s a big deal? Izumi and Olivier also got their own chapter, it’s literally titled “two strong women”. 

Fuck, Arakawa even deliberately set it up to look like Winry and Rose were gonna spat over Ed but then had them fall madly in love really like and admire each other and Rose was totally like “OMG YER THE PERSON WHO SAVED ED HE SAVED ME THEREFORE YOU SAVE ME WANNA BANG” Riza was shown to have a female friend and I think Arakawa was deliberate in trying to say “hey Riza may be surrounded by dudes most of the time but she also has a bff she goes shopping with and who backs her up (WITH GUNS) when she’s in trouble, women in the military stick together”

There are positive relationships between women. There are women helping and shaping each other’s lives. Women aren’t shown to be inherently competitive or to fight over dudes, in fact they’re deliberately shown not to be. Yes, I’d like it to be focused on more, but it’s there and that’s significant. The manga depicts women as supportive of each other!

4. Just because a manga is weak in ONE AREA doesn’t disqualify it from feminism (not even offensive! Just “this could be a little stronger”). FMA still subverts a lot of shit and has a lot of narratives about women asserting and reclaiming their agency, and it’s written by a woman! That’s a big deal! Sorry, it’s not a checklist! It’s about where women are presented positively and like people and have narratives and don’t play into stereotypes deliberately and FMA does that.

genuinely can’t read Rose as anything other than a lesbian

Paninya could be pan (lilbit is going to kill me).

Rose is a total lesbian tho her dead lover is even of unspecified gender in original Japanese ~

get it gurl

also if you can’t find meaningful femslash fodder in fma i dunno maybe you aren’t trying terribly hard

like

I kinda ship all these things

(plus there’s sheska/Winry in 03 which is like the only 03 ship to have for me)

I’ll admit the series could do a lot BETTER with dominant female relationships and femslash fodder that’s one of it’s genuine flaws but don’t act like there is nothing there at all ever.

bluewalltack asked: Since you feel strongly about the treatment of Rose in FMA 03 I wanted to ask does it make it more even problematic because they changed her to a POC, along with everything that happened to her?

I think it does? I’m no authority on the matter, but a lot of academic criticism I’ve seen in regards to how PoC characters can be handled talks about how:

a) they’re victimized for the sake of white people’s narratives

b) they’re made to like fall in love/be devoted to white people and white people never return their affections ofc.

c) they’re 100% inspired by white people to fight back or better themselves

and Rose hits all three of those in 2003?  She’s lectured by Ed not just once but twice about what to do with her life and gives in without argument, implied to be in love with him hence being willing to like change her entire attitude for him (it’s never been confirmed because Rose is never allowed to speak about her own feelings) and everything that happened to Rose, she’s never allowed to speak about it nor do we get her perspective, and all her moments of agency are to benefit Ed and consist of her repeating what Ed taught her. 

Like I said, I have no right to speak for or represent on this issue but I think if I find all that shitty on a gender level, it has to be shitty on a race level too. If Rose is denied agency and voice as a woman, that means she’s denied it as a PoC too.

Now, people have and can argue that the FMA manga engage in some of the tropes to some extent re the Ishvalans, and i’m not going to argue that nor do i have the right to, but I think Rose objectively gets less agency than Scar. Scar’s narrative is way more about him than Rose’s ever is about her, he has oodles more agency than she ever gets, and he is largely inspired by his own people to help himself. So in before anyone says “why complain about 2003 when the manga could be said to do this to some extent”. Yes I like the manga even though it’s problematic and I acknowledge that there’s iffy elements there. I simply think 2003’s narrative is just obviously sloppy and terrible about these issues from a writing standpoint and that no real thought and effort was put into Rose’s character other than how she could prop up Ed/make him look good, while far more thought and nuance seemed to be put into Scar’s character in the manga. This is just looking at them as characters, and the sexism of the 2003 writers plays a role there too imo.

Also I do think it’s a bit potentially problematic that Liore was transformed from being the average city of Amnestris to having a population that was largely darkskinned and related to Ishval, and then the city was completely destroyed and transformed into a raging cult so Ed could lecture them about how they’re wrong, yet unlike in the manga, never recovered under their own steam? Like I guess they must have been okay by the time Shamballa rolled around, but it was entirely offscreen.

If anyone who has more authority on the matter wants to speak, please do. I’m not trying to speak for anyone and I hope I didn’t, this is just my conjecture.