I am female... just ask the guys I've... well, nevermind. But apparantly I'm not because, all the stereotypes of geeks and anime fans only seem to include boys. Or insist that female otaku are some kind of lesbian? Even when intellectuals are made fun of, women are not included in the groups singled out. It makes no sense...
It's no longer the 1800's, and yet it seems that the male establishment is still threatened by the idea of women with minds... Girls are ok on the internet only if they're naked in pictures and videos, not heard as human beings with ideas on blogs and forums. I know, through personal social experience, that there are loads of girl manga, comic book, anime, and sci-fi fans.
Why Disney thought it's buying of Marvel would only lure boys to the Maus' lair is a common mistake by marketers, who assume that the only people capable of (possibly because women are supposedly dumber or only concerned with stories about the Princesses they've been whoring to the public for the last few years) being audiences for these kinds of stories. My beef with Marvel is that they turned Spider-man, a hero with a badass premise and cool powers, into a Shinji-like, self-loathing adolescent wuss who WONDERS WHETHER OR NOT TO EVEN BE SPIDER MAN!!!! Like, seriously, dude? You have cool powers and the ability to save people, what's to wonder about? I watched all three Spiderman movies and found myself often getting mad at the screen when they did that. But I digress....
Content analysis of every bit of joking or derisive commentary on the internet aimed at smart people, introverts and their un-social subcultures, or fans of a certain thing are often devoid of the recognition of female participants in said groups. Sure, girls can be in the shallow, fashion-centered subcultures like emo, scene, etc. But in the more mental ones - these groups are designated for men.
In America, the usual notion of "girlhood"( which is really "womanhood", you fucking pedophiles,) does not include anything to suggest that the "girl" has a brain with anything on it other than unicorn farts,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCF3ywukQYA and wedding-day related obsessions.
In some ways, one of the best things about the brand of communism practiced in China and previously in Soviet Russia was its recognition of equality for women. This makes economic sense, in the cold, hard, economic facts, it makes more sense to treat around half the population as "workers", not "dependents on male workers". Which system do you think will develop a country faster and do more good when it comes to meeting the needs of the people? Maybe the reason some countries are having so much trouble industrializing and developing their infrastructure is the misogyny of their cultures... The economy in the U.S. became a powerhouse when women entered the factories in the 1940's, and declined when women largely moved back to servile, domestic positions.
Maybe also, companies could spend less money on ads that make fun of women, or make us look stupid, and more ads that make us feel valued, intelligent, and worthy as human beings. I mean, what happened to the softer side of Sears?
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Rock on sista!
I really hate when it's perpetuated that otaku means "nerd, geek, fanboy".....ummmm, I would include "fangirl" in that definition too!
Moreover, anime is so much more than animated boobs. Don't let the geeks in Akihabara fool you.
I find it funny because even when it's shojo anime it's still considered a boys thing. I'm like "dude, it's a magical girl anime... yeah guys can like it but you don't think some chicks are gonna love it to?"
And I love my shonen anime. Death Note is my all time favorite anime ever. But I will lose hours of sleep watching magical girl anime. As I've told many, if it's got a henshin sequence in it I will love the show (except for Utena, I had no idea what was wrong with that messed up show.).
I liked Utena as a manga, It's about how she stands up to the demands that she wear a girl's uniform and act passively, like a princess, when what she wants to do is "be a prince" and rescue others... I have to admit that the whole "Rose Bride" thing was a little... wtf... but it's an interesting show/manga. I love Angelic Layer, because of its positive, girl-power message, Sailor Moon was a big favorite growing up, but I also love Deathnote and was a huge pokemon fan in the 90's and, I like a lot of giant robot series, like Evangelion and G Gundam, and I enjoy talking with male anime nerds about the technical logistics of giant-robot fighting and such. They always seem to think its so cool to know a girl who can talk with them about engines, piloting, computer technology, and nuclear reactor cores, as well as what would and would not happen in the vacuum of space! Sometimes, you have to take what's weird or unexpected about you and use it to your advantage, it can make you into something really cool... at least to some people!
I do agree, freakin' out guys with their sudden realization that "Holy shit a girl knows something that's not My Little Ponies and purses!" is fun and I did that a whole lot when I worked at Gamestop (especially this one guy that I randomly mentioned liking the new Marvel game because it included Deadpool and the look on his face of "whaaaaaat you know an obscure character like Deadpool? I have to see if this is true or if she's just joking") but it gets so tiring after a while. Being the token awesome female you just wanna yell "OMG THE HELL?!?! I know so many other women like me so quit thinking I'm special just because I love Deadpool and can argue the differences in combat styles between God of War and Heavenly Sword!" So I get conflicted with the experience. I love knowing that I'm cool but I hate knowing they only think I'm cool because they think girls don't know about boy's stuff. I guess they'd think I'm cool if I was a guy, but you know they'd never think you were AS COOL if you lacked boobs. *shrug* Like I said, I got so used to it a Gamestop I just accept it and try to ignore the sexist element as much as I can.
You covered a lot for you first rant, lol. :)
I understand your anger at the nerd and geek culture, especially. I'm a girl gamer, have been my whole life. I love manga, anime (when I can find good fansubs), sci-fi (Farscape was my entire life for a few years), videogames, even DnD when I'm invited to a game. But yeah, nerds when talked about as a group are generally never girls. Not that I want to be associated with the horrendous nerd stereotypes (watched the movie Gamer a few weekends ago, I about charged the screen with anger halfway through) nor do I want to be associated with the only girls in nerd culture - hot booth chicks. It's sad to say that most of my life has been spent training myself to like the "hard core" video games because otherwise guys would never take me seriously as a gamer. I love those games now, but many years ago first person shooters and I were nothing close to friends. But I find that I've become a better gamer because unlike most guys I will still play and LOVE games like Viva Pinata. Their loss I say. :)
Maybe one day the "hot chick's only" stereotype will leave nerd culture. Maybe someday I won't have to watch video of a new technology that allows guys to use a six axis controller to giggle virtual boobies (seriously, I was like WTF?) or have to watch videos of the top 10 ugliest women in video games. Or only see the usual skinny, busty woman in sci-fi movies that are pretty much just meant to be stared at and drooled over by men (see: 7 of 9, the Cylons, pretty much ANY female Marvel character, etc.), comics that don't have rape scenes in them that get defended by the author even when he's called out on it, rampant sexism and homophobia in game chat rooms, the list goes on and on. I could do my own rant, lol. But I honestly do not see that day soon. Strong female characters are gaining ground and female nerds are being recognized little by little. But as a group I don't think female nerds will have an easy time anytime soon. Sadly, I have accepted this only because it is the only way I can continue to enjoy my hobbies. Every once in a while I allow myself real anger on the situation, but if I stayed angry all the time what would I do after work? Sew and knit? Woman cannot live on arts and crafts alone. This woman needs some explosions and chainsaw guns. :)
Most things have some good and bad when it comes to women... Like, Wonder Woman is a positive female role model, but she's often also a submissive sex object when tied up by a male or butch lesbian-seeming woman... Soul Caliber is a great game in terms of the number of excellent, heroic female fighters,(some of which are also very spiritual) but the outfits seem to shrink with each new version that comes out, and panty shots abound in the artwork players can unlock... plus on the "Character Bio page" you can, in fact, make the character's breasts jiggle by pivoting her back and forth... And I'm sure none of this is an accident on the part of Namco.
Yeah, and, no offense to women who like sewing, but I hate that we're in a technological revolution, and a lot of that technology is branded as "masculine"!
It's interesting. I love anime (and am also female), but most of the online fandom communities I am a part of are almost exclusively female. I hang around fanfiction communities. While I dabble with fanfiction, I find that a lot of really good discussion and analysis of anime comes about in these communities, even when people aren't writing their own stories with their favorite characters.
I do have to say that I love character angst. I don't think that Evangelion would have been nearly as mind-blowing as it was had Shinji been braver, more decided, less fucked up, or wishy-washy. I also liked that they did it in Spiderman. But that's just my personal preference. Bring on the angst by the bucketload and you make me one very happy fangirl.
I do agree with you that so many people miss fangirls when coming up with ideas for the media. We're awesome and creative and loyal and as individual as all of the other fanboys out there. And we don't need boobs hanging out all over the place to keep us interested, just some good stories.
"My beef with Marvel is that they turned Spider-man, a hero with a badass premise and cool powers, into a Shinji-like, self-loathing adolescent wuss who WONDERS WHETHER OR NOT TO EVEN BE SPIDER MAN!!!! Like, seriously, dude? You have cool powers and the ability to save people, what's to wonder about? I watched all three Spiderman movies and found myself often getting mad at the screen when they did that. But I digress...."
As a big Spidey fan, I had to comment on this. Spidey's self hatred is not something new for the movies, the self-loathing is pure Peter Parker. He's given up his costume repeatedly, most notably in Amazing Spider-Man #50 (from 1967). The movies certainly have their flaws (especially the third one) and their portrayal of female characters have gotten worse with each sequel; but the self-loathing thing is just as integral to Peter Parker's character as is his whole "with great power comes great responsibility" mantra.
As for Rachael's comment on Wonder Woman, that has lessened significantly in the past several years. If you're looking for strong female characters in comics, they are few and far between, especially those that have their own books (most of which have been cancelled or moved to back up stories due to low sales). If you're looking for any superhero types, look at Manhunter (Kate Spencer incarnation), Dan Slott's run on She-Hulk, Gail Simone's run on Birds of Prey and for a more classic feel, Spider-Girl. Those all have multiple trade paper backs collecting their single issue runs. For a relatively short run, I'd also recommend Batgirl: Year One tpb.
Yes, most are wearing skin tight costumes, but so are the guys. Depending on the comic and the artist, though, some aren't sexualized beyond just their costumes and are made to look as tough and imposing as any male character. Fortunately, for those that are more sexualized in terms of art, the writing tends to be more than enough to just ignore the odd poses the characters seem to put themselves in. ;)
What I miss is the Catwoman series. I LOVED that series. Catwoman is my favorite hero/villian. (Or does it still run?) I know they are starting to re-release the older Catwoman comics into graphic novel format, which I am probably gonna start picking up. Catwoman was always my favorite because she did what she wanted, she loved shoes and fashion but still kicked ass and didn't fawn over guys like you see alot of Marvel women do (I'm mostly basing this off X-Men, I don't read a lot of Marvel in general because they tend to have more sexism in them than say DC or other indie-labels). And I loved her and batman's "relationship." Just all around my favorite woman in comic books. :)
Catwoman is currently with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn in Gotham City Sirens, where they're drawn more sexually, but has pretty decent stories.
Otaku is a guy thing? I must have missed the memo, because most of the anime geeks I know are female
Personally, I hate this idea that something is 'male' or 'female'. I mean, look at the games aimed at luring in girl gamers. Fuck that shit, just make some GOOD GAMES (instead of pouring all your effort into sparkly) and the gamers will come! Most of us don't care what the 'intended audience' for anything is--I watch shojo and shonen anime, I've done every type of gaming short of LARP, knitting, fishing, etc. My interests are based on ME, not my genitalia. Honestly, things that are aimed at girls often turn me off because they're so often patronizing.
(And yeah, the Soul Saliber outfits bug me too, if only because I find myself screaming "She should be wearing a bra!" at the TV. Oh, and the forth installation sucks.)