It came up in another thread, and so I thought it'd be best to take it to its own thread here. Because yes, the anime - beyond that, the franchise as a whole, but it rings clearest in the anime to me - has had some irkingly sexist tones.
Hold on to your hats, everyone, because this is a topic that can get unstable fast. Hence why I took it to its own separate thread, where hopefully myself and the other moderators can keep the watch heavy to stop it from getting too far out of control.
First off, to set the perspective, I would like everyone to take a look at an article called The Smurfette Principle, printed in the New York Times in 1991. It shows its age, yes, and I think we can all agree that there has been significant progress in modern shows in this issue. But the problem still exists in many shows.
Including in our own favorite series, Pokémon.
Scott85 (yes, I'm calling you out, Scottyboy) has put forth the claim that May made a major step in the series for women. But as a feminist, I would like to counter that by laying out the case that this was a "one step forward, two steps back" sort of improvement.
Okay, so, for starters, we have the problem - from start to present - of there only being one token female. Granted, there's one for each side - Misty, May and Dawn fill that token role for the twerps, and Jessie fills it for Team Rocket. But forgive me as I focus on the twerps more than Team Rocket; they do get more screentime, now more than ever, and a main point of the Team Rocket trio is for all of them to be incompetent villains so it's difficult to argue any of them as a positive or negative role model.
But yes, again. Token female. One out of three is bad. One out of four is worse. You look at it on a greater scale, and the ratio is even more male dominant: out of all the professors, only Professor Ivy is female, and she hasn't been given the best portrayal compared to the other professors. Most Gym Leaders have been fairly balanced, but it's still in the favor of males - Kanto was 5m/3f, but switched to 4m/4f in GS; Johto was 5m/3f; Hoenn was 5m/4f (plus an extra male if you count both Wallace and Juan); Sinnoh is the first one to be 4m/4f from the start. Sinnoh is also the first with a female champion; counting champions, the ratios are 3m/2f for Kanto, 4m/1f for Johto, 3m/2f for Hoenn, and even with the female champion, 3m/2f for Sinnoh. Frontier Brains are 4m/3f, and the new Battle Tower head for DP is... male, of course. The first games only had male players and rivals; female player was introduced in Crystal; female rival was introduced in RS; DP screwed that up again by making the main rival a set character, male. Nozomi is the first female rival in the anime.
I don't think anyone can argue that the ratio is very much in favor of males. And I know I've brought it up before that the designs for females are mostly the same... we see males of all body types, but except for children and the rare morbidly obese woman, most of the women in both games and anime have the same narrow but hourglass figure, or at least a slim and slender frame if they're not curvy. An issue with anime in general, granted, but with as many characters that they have, you think they could afford to give one broader shoulders or hips or waist without going overboard.
But let's get back to the females themselves. I'll go in chronological order.
Misty. She was designed to be a tomboy, but for a long time I was puzzled because she didn't seem very tomboyish to me. In a retrospect comparison to May and Dawn, though? Oh yes. She was a tomboy. She was tough, didn't take things that upset her sitting down, wasn't afraid to let anyone know what she thought (except that whole crush on Ash thing), aimed to be the best at everything, particularly in being a strong Water-type trainer - she had a strong, good, personality. Though she still had girly moments, like when she wanted dolls or ice cream or drifted off into some romantic fantasy - when I was younger, I didn't like that. But I was a little more rampant in my beliefs back then, and now I feel better about it. She didn't have to be afraid to show her girly moments, because she was still a strong character. She could be an individual.
Now, the problem was, she was still a girl taking a backseat to Ash. And that got worse as time went on. The egg situation still bugs me to this day, for example: based purely on character, Brock was best suited for that egg, wasn't he? But when it hatched they gave it to Misty, and they gave a reason why that never held up again for any other egg. Why? She's the girl. She's the best mommy of the twerps. (And we saw how well that panned out. How many times did Togepi almost get itself killed because Misty took her eyes off it?) She had her moments, like the Whirl Cup, but overall it was Ash who was always the one having the adventures, with Misty tagging along as one of his friends.
Now, I'd like to take a moment - for sake of chronology - that out of all the characters, Brock is probably the biggest breaker of stereotypes. I mean that! I'm not saying that because I'm a fangirl. It's one of the reasons I fangirl him, though. One could make a case for Team Rocket, but there's that incompetence thing again, and they were very stereotypical in other ways. Brock is a male with a distinct but masculine personality taking roles that we normally reserve for women, in media and in culture. Personally, maybe this is just an American perspective, but I'd imagine at the time they were doing it that had to take some level of guts on the part of the writers. That or they just did it without even thinking about sex roles, which deserves even more props. But anyway.
Back to the women. May. Now, there was progress in one direction here. No longer was the token female (in an even larger male majority now) entirely in the background. Yes, she was still Ash's tagalong, but she was Ash's tagalong with her own little side plot, damn it!
And it was the most stereotypically feminized version of Ash's plot imaginable. Badges versus ribbons? Appearance over strength? Even the male rivals were girly! And the appeals we saw, particularly those done by May, were mostly sparkly and beautiful. Harley changed that, albeit, but there was a long period where he wasn't in it. Brock also had a non-girly appeal, but that was a one-time thing which was also really late in. And in both cases, it might've been more meaningful if it was a cool/tough/smart/scary appeal done by a girl.
And as far as personality goes? May was far more of a cliche female than Misty. She usually showed less confidence, and when she was angry, she came across as more snippy than forceful. She was scared at Pokémon at first, and got over it because she found one that was cute instead of big and ugly. She didn't like the idea of doing the tough, powerful Gym Battles (which were no big deal for a tough male like Ash) and decided to go for the shiny, stylish Contests instead. At the start of Battle Frontier, she got indirectly compared to Misty's bubble-headed older sisters when Misty spent time with Max; granted, I'd say she's no where near as bad as those three, but there is something closer there than there was with Misty. And then there are the baby Pokémon. Munchlax (in species), Squirtle (in personality), and Eevee (in obtaining). Slightly smacks of "girls get babies because... they're girls" Togepi situation all over again, though not as bad because they weren't as babyish, like Ash's eggs in Johto. (Still, thank god Happiny's egg went to Brock instead of Dawn. He is still the best fit for baby Pokémon, even if it's not expected of his gender.)
Now, the real complication here is the fact that May was the only female in the group. Save Jessie, because again, Jessie's shown to be incompetent. It's typecasting, isn't it? There is somewhat of a message there, looked at alone: boys can be tough like Ash or smart like Max or wise and responsible like Brock... girls can be girls like May.
Dawn, I would say, is the closest we've got to a positive female main character. She is cute but confident, doesn't question what niche a girl should fill but still does the stereotypical girl plot of contests, dresses up for fun but seemed rather "LOL" when teasing Kengo, she has the cutesy Buneary and Pachirisu, but Buizel is unusually tough and Piplup's cute AND tough... in terms of personality, she's better than May, and in terms of focus, she's better than Misty.
But we're still leaps and bounds away from positive female representation, aren't we? She is still a token female. She is still the one girl doing the girly things, paired with the one boy doing boyish things, and the one role-breaker is a supporting character.
There are some mixed examples for side characters, though I'd say there's more value there than in the main characters... Marina only had one actual appearance and said she doing some sort of idol thing, so she's not much of a mold breaker, except perhaps in some of her Pokémon choices (Croconaw and Misdreavus? Nice!). Duplica, Aya and Suzie had some good strengths in different ways, but had no more than two appearances. Casey and Sakura are probably among the best examples in the series... but still, given that they're side characters we never saw them often, meaning they weren't heavily developed or featured as much as the others.
When do we get to see a girl - as a main rival, at least - doing the gym battles? They're getting better at balancing characters - when can we have two females and two males as our twerps? Or even one male and two females? (Though I fully confess I'd rather see the evenly split four party - Brock fangirl, after all.) If Ash ever did get swapped out for a new lead, would they even stop to consider it to be a female as the one having the adventures closest to those of the player of the game?
(And last of all... anything I forgot to throw down on the table while laying this all out?)
Hold on to your hats, everyone, because this is a topic that can get unstable fast. Hence why I took it to its own separate thread, where hopefully myself and the other moderators can keep the watch heavy to stop it from getting too far out of control.
First off, to set the perspective, I would like everyone to take a look at an article called The Smurfette Principle, printed in the New York Times in 1991. It shows its age, yes, and I think we can all agree that there has been significant progress in modern shows in this issue. But the problem still exists in many shows.
Including in our own favorite series, Pokémon.
Scott85 (yes, I'm calling you out, Scottyboy) has put forth the claim that May made a major step in the series for women. But as a feminist, I would like to counter that by laying out the case that this was a "one step forward, two steps back" sort of improvement.
Okay, so, for starters, we have the problem - from start to present - of there only being one token female. Granted, there's one for each side - Misty, May and Dawn fill that token role for the twerps, and Jessie fills it for Team Rocket. But forgive me as I focus on the twerps more than Team Rocket; they do get more screentime, now more than ever, and a main point of the Team Rocket trio is for all of them to be incompetent villains so it's difficult to argue any of them as a positive or negative role model.
But yes, again. Token female. One out of three is bad. One out of four is worse. You look at it on a greater scale, and the ratio is even more male dominant: out of all the professors, only Professor Ivy is female, and she hasn't been given the best portrayal compared to the other professors. Most Gym Leaders have been fairly balanced, but it's still in the favor of males - Kanto was 5m/3f, but switched to 4m/4f in GS; Johto was 5m/3f; Hoenn was 5m/4f (plus an extra male if you count both Wallace and Juan); Sinnoh is the first one to be 4m/4f from the start. Sinnoh is also the first with a female champion; counting champions, the ratios are 3m/2f for Kanto, 4m/1f for Johto, 3m/2f for Hoenn, and even with the female champion, 3m/2f for Sinnoh. Frontier Brains are 4m/3f, and the new Battle Tower head for DP is... male, of course. The first games only had male players and rivals; female player was introduced in Crystal; female rival was introduced in RS; DP screwed that up again by making the main rival a set character, male. Nozomi is the first female rival in the anime.
I don't think anyone can argue that the ratio is very much in favor of males. And I know I've brought it up before that the designs for females are mostly the same... we see males of all body types, but except for children and the rare morbidly obese woman, most of the women in both games and anime have the same narrow but hourglass figure, or at least a slim and slender frame if they're not curvy. An issue with anime in general, granted, but with as many characters that they have, you think they could afford to give one broader shoulders or hips or waist without going overboard.
But let's get back to the females themselves. I'll go in chronological order.
Misty. She was designed to be a tomboy, but for a long time I was puzzled because she didn't seem very tomboyish to me. In a retrospect comparison to May and Dawn, though? Oh yes. She was a tomboy. She was tough, didn't take things that upset her sitting down, wasn't afraid to let anyone know what she thought (except that whole crush on Ash thing), aimed to be the best at everything, particularly in being a strong Water-type trainer - she had a strong, good, personality. Though she still had girly moments, like when she wanted dolls or ice cream or drifted off into some romantic fantasy - when I was younger, I didn't like that. But I was a little more rampant in my beliefs back then, and now I feel better about it. She didn't have to be afraid to show her girly moments, because she was still a strong character. She could be an individual.
Now, the problem was, she was still a girl taking a backseat to Ash. And that got worse as time went on. The egg situation still bugs me to this day, for example: based purely on character, Brock was best suited for that egg, wasn't he? But when it hatched they gave it to Misty, and they gave a reason why that never held up again for any other egg. Why? She's the girl. She's the best mommy of the twerps. (And we saw how well that panned out. How many times did Togepi almost get itself killed because Misty took her eyes off it?) She had her moments, like the Whirl Cup, but overall it was Ash who was always the one having the adventures, with Misty tagging along as one of his friends.
Now, I'd like to take a moment - for sake of chronology - that out of all the characters, Brock is probably the biggest breaker of stereotypes. I mean that! I'm not saying that because I'm a fangirl. It's one of the reasons I fangirl him, though. One could make a case for Team Rocket, but there's that incompetence thing again, and they were very stereotypical in other ways. Brock is a male with a distinct but masculine personality taking roles that we normally reserve for women, in media and in culture. Personally, maybe this is just an American perspective, but I'd imagine at the time they were doing it that had to take some level of guts on the part of the writers. That or they just did it without even thinking about sex roles, which deserves even more props. But anyway.
Back to the women. May. Now, there was progress in one direction here. No longer was the token female (in an even larger male majority now) entirely in the background. Yes, she was still Ash's tagalong, but she was Ash's tagalong with her own little side plot, damn it!
And it was the most stereotypically feminized version of Ash's plot imaginable. Badges versus ribbons? Appearance over strength? Even the male rivals were girly! And the appeals we saw, particularly those done by May, were mostly sparkly and beautiful. Harley changed that, albeit, but there was a long period where he wasn't in it. Brock also had a non-girly appeal, but that was a one-time thing which was also really late in. And in both cases, it might've been more meaningful if it was a cool/tough/smart/scary appeal done by a girl.
And as far as personality goes? May was far more of a cliche female than Misty. She usually showed less confidence, and when she was angry, she came across as more snippy than forceful. She was scared at Pokémon at first, and got over it because she found one that was cute instead of big and ugly. She didn't like the idea of doing the tough, powerful Gym Battles (which were no big deal for a tough male like Ash) and decided to go for the shiny, stylish Contests instead. At the start of Battle Frontier, she got indirectly compared to Misty's bubble-headed older sisters when Misty spent time with Max; granted, I'd say she's no where near as bad as those three, but there is something closer there than there was with Misty. And then there are the baby Pokémon. Munchlax (in species), Squirtle (in personality), and Eevee (in obtaining). Slightly smacks of "girls get babies because... they're girls" Togepi situation all over again, though not as bad because they weren't as babyish, like Ash's eggs in Johto. (Still, thank god Happiny's egg went to Brock instead of Dawn. He is still the best fit for baby Pokémon, even if it's not expected of his gender.)
Now, the real complication here is the fact that May was the only female in the group. Save Jessie, because again, Jessie's shown to be incompetent. It's typecasting, isn't it? There is somewhat of a message there, looked at alone: boys can be tough like Ash or smart like Max or wise and responsible like Brock... girls can be girls like May.
Dawn, I would say, is the closest we've got to a positive female main character. She is cute but confident, doesn't question what niche a girl should fill but still does the stereotypical girl plot of contests, dresses up for fun but seemed rather "LOL" when teasing Kengo, she has the cutesy Buneary and Pachirisu, but Buizel is unusually tough and Piplup's cute AND tough... in terms of personality, she's better than May, and in terms of focus, she's better than Misty.
But we're still leaps and bounds away from positive female representation, aren't we? She is still a token female. She is still the one girl doing the girly things, paired with the one boy doing boyish things, and the one role-breaker is a supporting character.
There are some mixed examples for side characters, though I'd say there's more value there than in the main characters... Marina only had one actual appearance and said she doing some sort of idol thing, so she's not much of a mold breaker, except perhaps in some of her Pokémon choices (Croconaw and Misdreavus? Nice!). Duplica, Aya and Suzie had some good strengths in different ways, but had no more than two appearances. Casey and Sakura are probably among the best examples in the series... but still, given that they're side characters we never saw them often, meaning they weren't heavily developed or featured as much as the others.
When do we get to see a girl - as a main rival, at least - doing the gym battles? They're getting better at balancing characters - when can we have two females and two males as our twerps? Or even one male and two females? (Though I fully confess I'd rather see the evenly split four party - Brock fangirl, after all.) If Ash ever did get swapped out for a new lead, would they even stop to consider it to be a female as the one having the adventures closest to those of the player of the game?
(And last of all... anything I forgot to throw down on the table while laying this all out?)
