People Like Me Ruin Feminism

amarielah:

People Like Me Ruin Feminism: the fact that relationships between women weren’t as huge as ones between dudes doesn’t disqualify fma from being…

adventuresofcomicbookgirl:

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…

I disagree with the vast majority of this. Nobody’s ever claimed that women have no impact on other women in this narrative; the claim is that the impact is dwarfed by the impact men have on them. Which is quantifiably true. 

1. This point isn’t relevant, as having a main male protagonist doesn’t stop other shounen manga from having strong, well-developed, recurring female friendships. I cite Gintama as a great example of this, though even Bleach and Naruto are better about it than FMA. 

2. Also not very relevant. What does the number of brotps have to do with the lack of strong female relationships?

3. There were lady interactions that were mildly significant to the narrative. To call them “relationships” is, I think, a bit of a stretch, because that implies some kind of continuity of contact. The hallmark of all the examples you’ve listed is that these women never again interact in a meaningful way. Which cannot be said of relationships between men, or between women and men.

And speaking of Winry and Pinako: I still find it utterly bizarre how little Pinako factored into Winry’s decisions, and how Pinako is, IIRC, shown speaking more to Edward than to Winry.

Regardless, I think it says a lot that it’s notable when two named female characters even speak to each other.

4. I personally thought it was weak in more than one area, though. It definitely avoids some of the pitfalls of other works — but only sometimes. And in other ways it falls short where other works don’t. Including other shounen anime and manga. 

Truthfully, I can’t really consider any work feminist as a whole unless at least 50% of its characters are women. It may have feminist elements, for sure — and nobody denies that certain elements of FMA are indeed feminist — but if it doesn’t even reflect real-life sex ratios, IMO, it falls short on the most basic level possible.

okay first of all I hope made it clear in our last interaction that it became clear people who follow you are people who’ve harassed me in the past, so um, I’m really nervous about talking to you and don’t want to? Because it’s basically guaranteeing i might have those people seeing something and showing up on my doorstep.  I wish you’d respect that and not reblog my stuff. I know it’s a public forum, but I also have the right to politely ask people who are involved in a community I find toxic and frankly, tiring, to ignore my blog. . Whether willingly or not, you associate with people who crossed a line with me a long time ago, and I don’t want a part of that. I’m sorry and it’s a shame, but this is for my mental health. It’s partly my problem because I don’t handle anxiety well,  but also want to, you know, say basic stuff about my opinions on tumblr. But our argument directly lead to weird messages from people who scare me, so.  I’ll ride this one out if it must be done, but please remember this makes me uncomfortable and try to keep that in mind in the future.

Second,  It’s fine whatever you consider feminist, but I don’t play by your rulebook what defines a work as feminist to me is:

the overarching themes- some themes are inherently feminist, like a woman reclaiming and/or asserting agency etc.

how the female characters are treated

their impact on the plot

Female relationships are also a part- if they’re depicted as inherently negative, that disqualifies the work, and being major raises to work higher

Whether the work confronts and actively subverts gender roles, empowers many different types of women

etc etc

Also if a woman is writing it and reflecting her life experiences in an empowering way, that also matters to me as a plus but not necessarily a “you fail this you fail everything”- works written by men can be feminist etc.

I care about content, not statistics. I don’t know if FMA conforms to exactly 50% but that’s secondary for me. I care about how prominent the female characters and if there’s a variety (I know Arakawa also made an active effort to include more girls and was denied by her editor when she tried to include Winry earlier because she felt there weren’t enough ladies early in the manga -which is interesting to me, who knows what else went on behind the scenes) . A work can have 50% women and fail miserably to be feminist, so I don’t think a work doesn’t necc have to be 50 percent women to be so either. 

I’ve written in the FMA feminist analysis tag how exactly I find it feminist, you can look but I doubt you’ll change your mind.

Finally, it’s super weird to decide the female relationships are suddenly interactions just because they’re not as prominent.. With the exception of Winry and Rose and Olivier and Izumi, all of the women involved interacted more than once onscreen and a lot of times their RELATIONSHIP evolved. Lan Fan changed her attitude toward May, Winry toward Riza, Paninya and Winry worked together and became friends. 

I never denied they weren’t as prominent and that wasn’t a flaw. Naruto and Bleach are both very flawed in how they present female relationships even if those relationships are slightly more prominent. They clearly aren’t nearly as prominent and are dwarfed by comparison to any of the male relationships in those manga anyway?  It’s a balance, but I don’t really feel like analyzing other manga. All I was pointing out is I don’t think Arakawa had a feminist checklist she was going over. She obviously went out of her way to do several subversive things with her women, but there are some oversights and problematic areas.

Still, when she presented relationships between women she presented them as positive and important to the women involved. Relationships involving the main character were more focused on, the manga was tightly plotted. I don’t think think it disqualifies it from being feminist. It’s a shame, it’s an oversight, it would have been better with it, but no story is perfect and I did like what we were given of female interactions in FMA and felt they were positive. I find this manga feminist because overall there are a lot of postive, pro-women messages that speak to me. Because I love reading it and watching it subvert common cliches. Because it made me feel empowered. So yeah, it’s flawed, but everything is, the manga/anime i love that’s solely about women and female relationships (Sailor Moon, actually any magical girl story, Revolutionary girl Utena) also has major flaws but I still find it feminist. 

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.

turdlewexler:

THE FUNNIEST THING ABOUT THE WHOLE ARGUMENT OF ROY AND ED’S SUPER BIG IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIP REALLY, IN TERMS OF CANON, IS THAT:

• RIZA IS THE ONE WHO HAS STRONG RELATIONSHIPS WITH ALL OF THE GOLDEN TRIO, NOT…ROY? SHE IS CLOSER TO ALL OF THEM THAN HE IS?
• ED DOESN’T EVEN TAKE ROY ALL THAT SERIOUSLY UNTIL AFTER HE TALKS WITH HER AND HEARS HOW MUCH SHE BELIEVES IN HIM?
• EDWARD SORT OF ADMIRES RIZA A LOT?? (but winry more)
  
• (bc you know he accused winry of trying to be hot by wearing earrings that Riza wears)
• and so it’s like??? okay yes roy and edward influence each other but Riza influences them both like 2,000x more?
• Riza actively is the bridge to making Roy into the man he is and relatable to Edward and the kids like without her it just falls apart.
• roy and ed’s relationship in canon directly relates back to how much they like and respect riza hawkeye
• ….
  

Yeah, Riza is the one Ed feels comfortable talking to about his problems, Riza is the one Ed confides to about what happened with Winry, Riza is the one who casually notices Ed loves Winry and in turn makes him like, actually realize that. Riza’s the one whose house Ed visits, Riza’s the one Ed feels comfortable asking about Ishval.

I find Roy and Ed’s relationship interesting with the fact Ed really doesn’t like Roy- he doesn’t! He cares about him, and he respects and trusts him (not as much as he trusts most of the people he trusts), but he’s not going to try to talk to him about his problems or hang out with him ever, which is something he canonically is down with doing with Riza. I can’t blame Ed at all bc a) he has huge issues with male authority figures, especially ones he knows are willing to manipulate him and b) his first impression of Roy is Roy literally running in, grabbing him by the shirt and screaming at him at the lowest point in his life, making him like, go to near tears. I think that does color Ed’s perception of Roy and a first impression like that is a hard thing for him to get over, it would be for me.

And he and Al will never get Roy? Like right after this Roy goes off with a lady, and Ed and Al have no idea it’s one of Roy’s Mom’s employees and Ed is like “WHAT THE FUCK AFTER WHAT I JUST SAID HE’S SO HORRIBLE I HATE HIM SO OFFENDED!” and Al actually says “He’s the kind of grow-up I never want to grow up to be!” They are both just super offended and throwing all this side-eye at Roy. He manipulative and deceptive (for good reasons) and the Elric bros are very much not? They’ll never be comfortable with that.

Why Fullmetal Alchemist is a feminist narrative to me part 2: Winry Rockbell saves lives where alchemy can’t

CONTINUED!

As I said in my previous post, Winry starts out being forced into the position a lot of women are put in with male centered narratives- she’s kept out of the action, she’s not confided in because the male characters fear getting her involved. And she’s actively not okay with that.

Her first triumph against the trope came when she proved that her method of actually talking about feelings was better than toughguying and she wasn’t going to wait around and let boys be boys- they were going to communicate, dammit.

But her narrative kicks into high gear when she proves that her skillset is just as effective in saving people as Ed and Al’s fighting, and in fact make her the hero in certain situations where Ed and Al are totally useless.

When a woman is in labor, Winry is the only one who can do anything. And unlike most narratives, midwifery is not treated as this easy thing that is a woman’s natural place and men just shrug their shoulders and smoke outside. It’s in fact explicitly made clear that Winry’s skillset is more effective than Ed’s alchemy in this life threatening situation, and Ed is frustrated that he’s so useless in the situation. Ed TRIES to help this woman. It’s his thing to save people. But when he tries to do a bridge with alchemy so they can get to the doctor, the bridge collapses halfway there because SCIENCE. Ed is left panicking at his own helplessness, thinking this woman is going to die because he doesn’t know what the hell to do and Winry YANKS HIM BY HIS BRAID mid panic attack and tells him to get some fucking water because they are delivering this baby. 

Winry is the only one who can keep a level head in a medical emergency. And there’s a reason for it, her parents are doctors and she grew up studying this shit the same way Ed and Al studied alchemy. Ed says “we have to trust in her knowledge and sheer nerve”. He has confidence Winry can pull this off not because she’s a woman and “women and babies whatever”, but because he knows she’s SMART and BRAVE and KNOWS HER SHIT where he doesn’t about this. Ed is mad at himself for not being able to help more, exclaiming “I’m always useless in important situations.”

And he explicitly stated that it’s amazing that Winry helped bring life into the world because that is something alchemy can’t do. That is something he failed at. He thinks she’s awesome, and he tells her that point-blank. Winry doesn’t emerge from the situation pretty and freshfaced either, she’s covered in fucking blood and sweat and she’s so exhausted she’s lost all feeling in her legs. This is treated as just as epic and strenuous as Ed and Al’s acts of heroism, in the anime adaption they even play the epic alchemy music for when Winry tightens her apron and does the delivery. And it’s made a specific point that what Winry does is more amazing than alchemy.

This is incredibly feminist. It’s taken what’s traditionally seen as women’s work and treating it with the same, if not more, gravity as “masculine work.” Ed is helpless, Winry is the hero, and he is in awe. The narrative hammers that in and makes it clear what Winry does is more amazing than alchemy. Women bring life and save life every day. And a male character is shown as explicitly being influenced by this and admiring it. This was a formative event in Ed’s life that inspires him. Ed values life so fucking much, he was practically in convulsions over seeing the pregnant Mom and then the baby. He brings it up chapters later, squealing about it to Izumi and then bringing it up to Winry herself to reassure her that she’s the awesomest lady he knows. It reinforces the moral for him that life is valuable and worth fighting for, that he can’t fix everything with alchemy, and spurs him on. MIDWIFERY IS HARDCORE, WOMEN GET SHIT DONE, THE STORY.

Also in the Rush Valley chapter we have Winry bonding with another woman and encouraging and helping her and that explicity parallels with Ed and Al wandering around gaining allies and helping people reevaluate their lives- it’s Winry who wins Paninya over, it’s Winry who forms a bond with her and helps her move forward. Bonding between women makes both women stronger. What’s more, Winry strikes out on her own to kickstart her career and follow her passion for mechanics an automail at age 15. Like Ed and Al, she leaves home to dedicate herself to what’s important to her. “I have to be just as passionate about the things I believe in.” The Rush Valley story is completely her story.

Which brings us to the thing that seperates Winry from most love interests in male centered narratives- she has her own life outside Ed and Al. She isn’t defined by them and the life she’s living parallel to theirs is important to the narrative. With most narratives, either the love interest just spends all her time following a guy around or it’s like the love interest’s life just stops when the dudes aren’t around. What does she do? Does she just sit around? Surely she had friends, hobbies, etc? Winry has all that -a ongoing occupation she works constantly at, customers, a group of friends and colleagues, hobbies, family besides Ed and Al, her own tragedies to work through- and what’s more, the fact she has a separate life from Ed and Al is explicitly important to the narrative. We’ll get back to that.

THE STUNNING CONCLUSION

Why Fullmetal Alchemist is a feminist narrative to me pt 1: Winry friggin’ Rockbell won’t accept “boys will be boys”

I did a intersectional feminist overview of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga and 2009 anime adaption once, and was challenged (by a dude) on FMA being feminist. My review wasn’t really an in depth look at the series, because the reviews are meant to be basic overviews saying “hey this series does cool stuff with ladies/other stuff and there’s excellent characters watch it” for beginners. They’re meant to be spoiler free.

But if you folks want a REAL in depth analysis of what I find feminist about FMA beyond “a awesome lady wrote a narrative where female characters are actually important and do shit and kick ass on physical and mental planes”, well hold on to your hats because shit’s about to get real.

Let’s talk about Winry Rockbell.

I have been challenged on Winry Rockbell being a feminist character. The fact that this is challenged proves the fandom still has a long way to go in my opinion. Winry Rockbell is feminist by every legit definition of the word.

Winry starts out being forced into the position a lot of women are put in with male centered narratives- she’s kept out of the action, she’s not confided in because the male characters fear getting her involved. And she’s actively not okay with that. 

Hughes, who is a great guy otherwise, excuses this to Winry by explicitly saying “well that’s just how men are”

(he’s obviously projecting himself in this situation, btw, since he’s someone who keeps quiet about his pain because he doesn’t want to burden his wife)

The thing is, Winry doesn’t accept this. She’s not going to let “boys be boys”. When she see Ed and Al get into a fight over lack of communication, she asserts herself and tells Al “hey this is what Ed is trying to tell you. Now, you two get your shit together and talk to each other or so help me.”

And because Winry forcefully communicated and promoted “talking about feelings”, the fight is resolved. And she turns around and tells Mr. Hughes that there are things you need to say to get across, that communication is neccesarry and keeping everything in is harmful. She baisically tells him he’s wrong, that she can help it, that she’s not going to sit and wait and let boys be boys.

And Hughes responds “you’re right.”

This is a situation where the “feminine” method of handling things with honesty and communication is explicitly shown to be better than the “masculine” method of acting tough and shutting out the women in your life. Where a teenage girl shows a grown man that her way gets shit done.

Winry is the strongest one in this situation because she’s emotionally strong where the other two (and even Hughes, to an extent!) are weak, because she embraces being open with her tears and fears. She’s seen Ed and Al at their most vulnerable, and knows things about them neither of them know about each other- she knows about Ed’s shameful feelings because she’s the one he had to rely on, she’s the shoulder he cried on. Winry is the one who forcibly pushed these two boys back on their feet. As such, she won’t put up with their machismo. She will assert herself and she will MAKE them properly express their feelings. She’s not going to let them shut her out because she knows what she’s doing, dammit.

So this is a narrative that explicitly subverts against the typical male narrative of “tough male heroes shutting women out and making choices for them” and asserts feminine methods of handling things and the female narrative as important. 

And Winry is going to continue subverting the hell out of that narrative in the most fabulous way possible. I will cover that in my next post, and my post after that will cover Riza.

Part 2: Winry Rockbell Saves Lives Where Alchemy Can’t

Part 3: Winry Rockbell is the Hero of her own Story

I think the fact Ed doesn’t do proper maitenence on his automail is because he wants an excuse to see Winry

They’re on this INTENSE JOURNEY so he can’t go home without a ~reason~. so subconsciously he’s like “if I don’t take care of my automail it will break sooner and I will get to visit her without feeling guilty because I’ll NEED to!”

Like, he can’t help breaking it in a fight and I don’t think he actively tries to do that- but it’s canon that he also doesn’t maintenance his arm and leg properly at all. Which is VERY DANGEROUS considering he’s fighting all the time. What makes this even more baffling is he likes to brag about how good his automail is so it’s not like he doesn’t respect the craftmanship.

And Ed does not neglect taking care of any other part of his body. He works out constantly. He knows he has to be in top shape to run around like he does. But his automail is the only thing he neglects. He’s not lazy in other aspects of his life, so why?

Because yep, it’s a way for him to visit Winry and still be able to put up a front and complain about how ~ugh i don’t have time for this i don’t want to visit you~

And all this time Winry thinks him not taking care of it might be a sign he doesn’t respect her or doesn’t care about himself and gets mad and worried

little does she know IT’S ALL AN EXCUSE TO SEE HER.

these dorks

Female Characters in Full Metal Alchemist : Brotherhood

akihika:

There is too much to say about Full Metal Alchemist : Brotherhood (FMAB), and describing how good we think it is may end up exhausting our (few) readers under dozens of pages.

Such series are rare, indeed, where so many characters are developed in a consistent universe, each one of them involved in a restless plot unfolding over only 60 episodes.

The great and convincing characters are so numerous, actually, that it would be easier to name those who are not : some of the homunculi (mainly Lust and Sloth, but similarly to Gluttony, they weren’t meant to be interesting characters in the first place) and Winry.

As hundreds of thousands of works have done before, FMAB presents Winry as the girl who is meant to be kept out of the story, who shouldn’t dirty her pure hands, and who should wait for her love to come back to her. A pretty soppy character, in spite of unusual mechanical skills that could have fit a much more original character.

Fortunately, the female characters are not summed up to Winry. Riza Hawkeye, Lan-Fan, even Mei Chan are active, fighting female characters not reduced to a passive princessy role. But obviously, the two characters who by far deserve the trophy of the most impressive female characters are Izumi Curtis and Olivier Armstrong.

Izumi and Olivier do not only stand as two of the major, strongest characters of the FMAB series; they represent an extraordinary portrayal of unconventional female characters out of all the existing action-oriented series (especially in shônen). They are only equaled, in their aura, by Mikasa from Shingeki no Kyojin, or by Balsa from Seirei No Moribito.

This aura is gained from several factors, most notably :

• The leader position that they both hold without any apparent weakness due to their feminine biological gender.

• The absence of any insistence on specific maternal feelings.

• The total absence of will to somehow use their feminine charm in front of boys.

• The total absence of fanservice due to the creator / animator (which is not the same as the previous point : some characters may be depicted as unwilling to use their appeal to seduce, but may be “randomly” involved in situations where they are unwillingly revealing a part of their body or trapped in a disgraceful position).

• A consistent physical representation (a muscular body devoid of these usual disproportionate chests).

Such characters are actually the perfect examples of what the advocators of feminism (which we prefer to call anti-sexism) should look for, instead of these countless powerful girls from hundreds of shônens whose favorite activity consists in “accidentally” displaying their feminine attributes to male characters.

Izumi and Olivier are among the only female characters in shônen animes / mangas whose biological gender does not immediately catch the attention of the watchers / readers. They could have been boys, no one would have noticed any difference in the unfolding of the story.

These exceptional characters are therefore a good illustration of what feminism, or rather anti-sexism, aims to promote : a society where the male or female biologic gender does not condemn you to play some predefined role, and where you are not first judged according to your belonging to one of these genders.

Nope, that’s not feminism. You have no right to make a post that says this and tag it feminism or anti-sexism or whatever the heck. Thinking female characters are only valuable if they fight is pro-sexism (as is telling women who to look up to). A woman’s worth and strength is not decided by whether she kills dudes or not. It’s not decided by if she acts in an acceptable “masculine” manner where she spills buckets of blood, because only violence is worth anything. You don’t need to bash female characters to talk about how good others are. Winry is incredibly involved and central to the story, she just doesn’t bust heads.

Winry Rockbell could not shoot Scar (she COULDN’T, even before Ed interfered, and she expressed this clearly ) because she is not the kind of person who can kill someone in anger. Neither is Ed. Neither is Al. That’s just not who they are. It has nothing to do with her purity but everything to do with the fact she is a person who respects and saves lives like her parents. THAT IS SPELLED OUT IN THE TEXT.

Winry Rockbell delivered a baby at age 15 with no prior experience when all the other people in the room could do was wet their pants, when even Ed couldn’t save them with alchemy. Winry Rockbell left home and developed a loyal customer base who couldn’t last a week without her in a city full of mechanics, forging fearlessly ahead in a male dominated profession.

Winry Rockbell assisted in surgery at age 12, made Ed’s arm and leg at age 12. She is a genius and is capable of doing things full-grown people can’t- SHE ASSISTED IN A SURGERY BEFORE SHE’D EVEN HIT PUBERTY. Can you say you’ve accomplished that much? Ed would not have an arm and leg if it weren’t for her. He wouldn’t be able to do alchemy. There would be no Fullmetal Alchemist.

Winry Rockbell was put in a situation where she was a hostage and faced with her parents killer. She did not crumble. She faced down that killer and made a choice to honor her parents sacrifice, to move on with her life instead of continuing the cycle or revenge. She outsmarted a man powerful enough to murder hundreds at once, bluffing him without fear, lying to his face.She saved Ed and Al by interfering in the fight with Scar. She not only came up with and implemented a plan that not only outsmarted the military and allowed her to escape their clutches under her own power, but ensured that this man she hated would survive to save her country and that Ed and Al would be safe and free to do what they had to. She came up with a plan to ensure the safety of her country because she knew it was important and saved the lives of everyone around her with her plan.

Winry CHOSE to stay behind for the final battle because she did not want the military to use her as leverage against her loved ones after she’d already gone above and beyond to escape them. But she still helped Ed by fixing his automail so he could do stuff, she refused to abandon her country and chose to stay with her loved ones even when Ed told her it would be dangerous, and she would not put up with defeatism from Ed and motivated him to do his best, telling him this was her country too, that she’d risk anything to save her country and help him, and she’d do whatever he needed to help.

Winry Rockbell is fearless, determined, smart, and she showed that she could make invaluable contributions without using violence. She makes her own choices and controls her own life, and doesn’t let anyone else control her. She saved lives. Ed and Al would not have been able to save anyone without her and this is acknowledged in the text! By Rose, a person they saved! The country would not have been saved without her.She carried through one of the most important themes of the series by making a difference by giving and saving life instead of taking it and by ending a cycle of hatred.

Dismissing her as “soppy” because she chose to be a mechanic and healer rather than a violent person is sexism, plain and simple. Strengths traditionally seen as feminine are no less valuable than masculine ones. The fact that you act like her mechanical prowess is the only good thing about her- because that’s the skill traditionally shown as male- but ignore how major her accomplishments are because she’s openly emotional and nurturing and doesn’t kill and fight is just wrong, sexist and ridiculous.

also there’s no such thing as a “biological gender”. 

so no. 6

Since I’m stalling on preparing for my job interview and I promised my THOUGHTS.

Okay like, I was totally with this show till the last two episodes…like, it wasn’t AMAZING or anything, but it did what it was doing well enough and the relationship between Scion and Rat was interesting and full of conflict.

But everything felt very rushed at the end- Scion going into a psychotic yandere emotionless rage spiral all of the sudden was very abrupt. YANDERE EYES!!! It almost became a parody of itself at a couple points. It’s not that it wasn’t foreshadowed somewhat in the show that he has weird yandere rage tendencies (APOLOGIZE TO HIM!!!), but it just felt like it was all happening too fast. I mean, I’d probably have a nervous breakdown if I had to climb a pile of dead bodies too and then saw the dude I was all into on get shot, but I felt the show could have executed it better. That’s all subjective, and maybe I wasn’t in the right mindframe at the time.

The world building of the show and basic plot didn’t come together very well. I had no idea what this angry bee goddess’s deal was (they tried to use her to kill people and she got mad and…did what they wanted? But then asked that shit be blown up? then light and songs and?) and what exactly was up with Rat’s backstory, or what was up with Scion’s mom being one of the founders. I imagine this all is explained better in the light novels, but it’s not an interesting enough premise for me to bother to read about it, esp with the lack of ladies.

I have no idea why Safu had to die, it just seemed like forcing tragedy for no reason. Why did she have to be blown up with the computer? Why did Rat not attempt at all to think of other options? I felt like I was missing something the entire conversation. Regardless, I found it pretty gross that the show engaged in the oldest cliche in the book of having a female character captured, possessed  and then destroy herself for the dude she likes, though he likes another dude, but he will now feel guilt and manpain about her *tragic hopeless love and sacrifice***!!! Yeah, you don’t have to sacrifice a female character on the pyre of tragic gay love, it’s stale and it’s stupid, especially when you didn’t even bother to develop what was happening enough for it have any impact or make sense. She literally had to die so these guys may live. STEP ASIDE, LADIES.

And then the final scene, which again was really rushed and felt like forcing tragedy for the sake of tragedy. Like Scion is vaguely bummed that Safu was sacrificed on his altar, Rat kisses Scion and then he’s suddenly gone? Like whoa hey what happened where did you go, I was so confused. And then Scion is just like ~~We’ll Meet Again~~ and I’m like “WHEN DID HE LEAVE AND WHY???” 

(also the novels confirm that Scion only thought of Safu as a friend, could not return her feelings on account of being gay- the anime was more vague on that for some reason. Sucks 2 b Safu)

I looked up the light novel, and yeah, it’s executed a bit more sensically there with Rat being like ***I believe in the city you will build you have work to do and I have to wait until you’re finished because of reasons I will hold you back remember Safu entrusted you with shit I’ll be back boo*** and then there’s an epilogue and he opens the window for Rat to come back. Fairly cliched but at least not CONFUSING and trailing off into nothingness like the anime did.

But hey! Gay characters with actual somewhat nuanced conflict in their relationship treated casually and respectfully, I can see why people like that and it was interesting all up until those last two eps. I give the show my blessing on those counts, but not on the ladies and plot side of things.

I found DogKeeper (Inukashi) to be a really interesting character. Kid raised by dogs, has a ridiculous army of dogs, obviously suffered a lot, dedicated to surviving above all else, anger issues, still very vulnerable and childish, often torn about what to do, pretty bamf

Have a weakness for angry children and I liked the character design.

An interesting aspect about the character was the ambiguous gender identity. In the anime, Inukashi’s pretty androgynous, but seems to present as and be referred to as male (that might have just been subs tho)- but then there’s a part where Inukashi’s upset and crying and Scion feels his shoulders while hugging him, and then with surprise goes “You’re a…”. Looking it up, in the novels and manga Scion is explicitly noting the shoulders were slender. So like, it’s left ambiguous and there’s nothing to stop me from reading Inukashi as trans, and in fact the work gives ambiguous evidence for that, so cool!

So yeah, I find the character pretty fascinating- I’d have liked to learn more about him and would totally love to watch an anime about this brat and his army of dogs. Like who abandoned him? How did he even learn to talk and socially interact? Sadly, he was just a side character so we didn’t learn much. 

kitsunetoneko asked: I think Rei's asexuality would be better off without her past, coz it's presented as a result of her trauma. The same goes for the shoujo-ai undertones. I hate it when lesbians are presented as psychologically troubled women

um I guess? Except Rei seems pretty fine with how things are to me? She seems happy with her female relationships and she explicitly says she doesn’t need dudes because of them and feels fulfilled as she is. My point is sad stuff happened to her and yeah, it affected her, but she seems ultimately fine at the end! She never expresses a desire to be fixed and actually only becomes MORE comfortable with her identity.

I mean actually the point of the SuperS arc was an evil spirit telling her “you’re this way because you’re lonely and unhappy, you need a man to fix it” and she’s like “no, I don’t and this is my dream and I’m living it”. You can’t get much clearer than that?

Everyone’s psychologically troubled in some way. Distrust of men doesn’t come from nowhere, and it makes sense Rei would have some sort of valid basis for it. I”m “psychologically troubled” and I’ve had issues with my dad and though that’s shaped my viewpoint, I don’t think that has anything to do with my asexuality or queerness. So, yeah, you can feel that’s a bad thing, but that actually just helps me relate to her more.

PGSM doesn’t include the thing with whatsisname, and I agree I can take or leave that whole sidestory (though the ending where she reaffirms her dedication to her friends and chills on the beach is gr8). But I think Rei is a valuable character who means a lot to me regardless. And that was the point of the post, you can feel however you want, but this is what she means to me.