i’m tickled about this but at the same time feel there are probably some prominent female characters missing that deserve articles?
The Cultural Importance of Gender Representation in Sailor Moon
Here’s the Wordpress version of my Sailor Moon thesis! IT INCLUDES THE ENDNOTES so if you want to see those go to this version. No idea why it’s blue and some formatting weirdness but otherwise cool.
Here’s my updated annotated bibliography.
This thesis is painstakingly researched, for real. It basically covers three major things: gender presentation in Sailor Moon, queer presentation and dub censorship. It compares the anime and manga and goes into the history of the magical girl genre, quotes from Ikuhara and Naoko, tons of academic sources, all that. There are several sections, labeled with titles like “Jumping around in a Short Skirt”: Power in the Feminine” and “Girls and Cousins Too”: Queer Censorship in the Dub” so it’s easy to tell I’m a giant dork. There’s also pictures and all. In reality it averages to about 35-36 pages double spaced (w/o pictures). So it is long.
Mamoru stans the inner senshi’s friendship: a photoset
he probably gets really upset on the rare occasion Usagi and her friends fight for real like maybe he cries and frantically runs around trying to get them back together
in fact that’s partial canon
remember that episode where Ami was going to Germany but they had to go fight a monster so the Senshi couldn’t see her off
Guess who swoops out of fucking nowhere to take care of the problem
he grabs that shit right out of her hands before she can finish the sentence
he’s supposed to be *avoiding Usagi* because he’s *broken up with her for her safety* so what the hell is he even doing here
nope if the beautiful friendship these girls share is in distress he just hones in on that like a bat or some shit and appears like “GUYS GUYS NO PLEASE GET BACK TOGETHER I LOVE YOU GUYS um it’s not like i like you or anything Usagi please don’t get the wrong idea PLEASE YOU GUYS YOUR FRIENDSHIP IS THE FUCKING SUMMIT OF MAGNIFICENCE I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT IT”
so he and Chibiusa passive agressively convince Ami not to move away and are SO HAPPY
VICTORY FOR THE FRIENDSHIP POLICE MISSION SUCCESSFUL
Mamoru dissing lady friendship was actually employed as proof he was NO LONGER MAMORU but instead some DAGNASTY EVIL GUY that first time he was brainwashed
are you kidding Minako he’s throwing roses he’s making dramatic speeches he’s dressed for the prom how the fuck is he diff-
HOLY SHIT YOU’RE RIGHT WE SHOULDN’T HAVE DOUBTED YOU MINAKO THE TUXEDO MASK WE KNOW WOULD GIVE UP ROSES BEFORE SAYING SUCH BLASPHEMY THIS IS NOT THE MAN WHO WON THE #1 SENSHI FRIENDSHIP FAN AWARDS COME BACK TO US SWEET PRINCE.
I love how each of the girls has a different reason for not calling Natsumi out on her blatant cheating, completely coloured by her own perceptions.
Minako looks at it strategically — if anybody in their group got the lead then it would cause bitterness and tension, so for the good of the team, the best option is to let someone outside of them have the part.
Ami has noticed that Natsumi isn’t exactly fitting in and doesn’t have any friends. While I very much doubt Natsumi actually looked lonely at any point, Ami has been in Natsumi’s shoes too much to not project her feelings and empathize all over everything.
Then there’s Rei, who was pissy about the cheating but is able to see past that to the girl who wants the part so badly that she’ll do anything. The Rei of today might respect her friends too much to blatantly cheat, but the Rei of just a little bit ago pulled some shady shit to win a cruise purely to stick it to Usagi, so yeah, she maybe identifies with that ruthlessness streak a touch.
Brilliant.
YEAH GUYS
WOW GUYS THAT SURE WAS A GREAT NAP WHAT DID I MISS??
kunzite is so done with this shit
everybody crushing on all of minako’s identities
These two pieces are some of my favorite in all the artbooks, they’re so pretty and the COLORS and everyone looks so cool I just really like them.
I like comics, literature, writing, feminism and awesome female characters. I tend to blog for social justice. I love to write. This blog will spam your dash with whatever I'm interested in atm. Spoilers will be tagged the week after and under cut if text most of the time, but other than that, well. That's my blog.
