Since the midterm of the class, we have watched several anime focusing on female protagonists or other important characters in a number of different roles. It is interesting to note the different views the creators have on gender roles, and how they express them in their anime, both visually and contextually. For the sake of saving time, I will explore only two anime that we have watched, namely Ghost in the Shell, and End of Evangelion.
Ghost in the Shell has a strong female protagonist, Major Motoko Kusanagi. She is headstrong, determined, incredibly strong, and rather overconfident as a result. A recurring theme throughout the movie is her uncertainty in her identity. Since she is a cyborg, she states that she cannot prove her existence, even if she is told that she has a human brain inside her electronic body, she has no way of proving it. Just because she has a ‘ghost’ does not prove that she is human.
In contrast, the apparent antagonist of the film is an electronic entity known only as the “Puppet Master”. Since the Puppet Master is composed solely of data and only exists within the confines of electronics (such as computers and cyborg bodies), it has no apparent gender, but is usually referred to as a male for the sake of ease. It is introduced as a character when a cyborg body is manufactured, walks out of the factory, and is hit by a car. The body is brought into Section 9 and perplexes the residents, as It contains no brain cells, but the body seems to contain a ghost. The Puppet Master claims itself as a sentient being, capable of recognizing its own existence, and demands political asylum.
Both Motoko and the Puppet Master question their existence, but in opposite ways. The two are drawn to each other throughou...
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...are pulled into the Egg of Lilith, as she watches over it in a motherly fashion. In this role, Lilith is the mother giving birth to a new creation.
Lilith hands control of the process over to Shinji, making him the god and ruler of the new creation. The female creates, yet the male rules. Unfortunately for humanity, Shinji’s loneliness causes him to accept that all beings should merge, with all remaining one sea, shapeless and genderless.
It appears that the authors of End of Evangelion intended it to question not just gender roles, but most aspects of human existence as a general theme. Ghost in the Shell focused on organic vs. electronic, but gender questions are an inherent and unavoidable companion. Both films serve their intended purpose: to make the viewer ponder and possibly question social stigmas, traditional roles, and the true meaning of human life.
What is gender? The answer to that is not so simple. “Gender is what culture makes out of the ‘raw material’ of biological sex,” (Unger and Crawford, 1995). Also, there is a difference between what is gender identity and what is a gender role; a difference which seems to be even more difficult to differentiate between than the words “gender” and “sex”. Media and other parts of our culture seem to believe they know the difference, yet up until a certain period in time, the same stereotypical characters were portrayed and used as role models for others in most media. Women characters being the helpless victims, while the strong men would come to save them (including television shows such as Miami Vice or Three’s Company). Today there is a whole slew of shows and movies, which are redefining and re-categorizing the stereotypical language in relation to gender. One such television series is Buffy, The Vampire Slayer (starring Sarah Michelle Gellar). And although it may seem like a typical teen-angst show, and the main character is a “whiny, rich” girl who fights demons , many people believed it would be exactly like the film (of the same name) which came out five years before the television show first aired in 1997. The film (starring Kristy Swanson) was trite and “airy”, and yet the television series proved those non-believers wrong. In a stereotypical world within the culture that the show represents, Buffy is doing a man’s “job”. She is fighting creatures double her size, and killing them. She is aggressive, outgoing, and determined. Words which are not “normally” used to describe women (without, of course, the word “bitch” trailing right behind them). In other cultures, women being the more aggressive and “take-charge” kind of person is the “norm”, but because we are living in a society, a culture, where even with the whole women’s suffrage being long passed, many people would still like to see women behave as dainty, quiet, and passive characters. Buffy, The Vampire Slayer has taken the issue of “normal gender roles and behavior” and switched them around, allowing the women to be more aggressive, having most of the power and ability, while the men take on the more passive role, watching from the “sidelines”, or at least simply trying to help. Although, at times, the stereotypical views of how a...
The Book of Genesis has served as a work of literature to the western civilization for the past two-thousand years. The word Genesis simply means “origins” or “beginnings”. This book sets the stage for the bible, telling us of God’s ultimate plan for humanity. It also speaks about the nature of God as creator and redeemer as well as the value of human life. Consequences for disobedience and sin are shown; separating man from God. We will also see the promise of salvation and forgiveness of man due to God’s grace. However, what does the book of Genesis say about the portrayal of women?
So the scholars started to think about if man and women were created together than eve was created does that mean someone else was there? The Jewish came up with Lilith, they say Lilith left Adam because she refused to be submissive to Adam. When she left Adam, he became lonely. God saw that Adam was lonely so he put Adam in a deep sleep and took one of his ribs to create Eve. Some say that the first women, named Lilith, was part demon.
As a Collective human element, women in Genesis often appear as obstacles to these broad-overriding goals through nonfulfillment of their particular roles in the divine scheme. From the Garden of Eden right through to the story of Joseph, women, as wives, mothers, and daughters, are typically unreliable, inadequate, deceitful or, simply by virtue of their womanhood, an outright liability, and they frequently threaten to undermine God's will as it is expressed in the opening book of the Bible.
In conclusion, todays cinematic evolvement through being more accepting of sexual themes as well as representation of different sexual orientations, in both characters and audience alike, contributes to further objectifying people in an erotic sense to please different kind of spectators. Furthermore, it enables male characters to be subjected to erotic objectification and is therefore not a portrayal exclusive in portraying females. However, this remodels the way male and female characters are depicted as it in a sense equalizes them through the same kind of degrading portrayal as sexual objects.
In history, the role and status of women have fluctuated incredibly. At first, matriarchy was dominant in Greece and other realms. Women who are like mother earth and nature were the idols of fertility. They symbolized both beautiful and fertile side of nature. But after monotheist patriarchal religions began to dominate, the women lost their high times and treated as second creatures of nature on which Engels commented that it was the historical defeat of women-kind. This mistreatment was so violent that women are equally treated with satan in religious stories. Afterall, the word `Eve' comes from `Heva' in Hebrew. After Eve's seduction, all sins belonged to her and her kind . Because they were the redlection of men's lusts and vices on the mirror. Whenever men looked at them, they saw their feeble and lustful sides. Thus to be purified of these, in history, they ceaselessly made women their own scapegoats. A women can give birth to a male but the male cannot give any right to her in exchange of his life. Actually the women kind is so sensitive and vulnerable that they do not even attemt to extort what should be given. Still men are indebted something to all women. That is `respect' for all over the world. Ýf ever this is to be attained, the women will serve a better world to all men kind.
Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam[f] no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[g] and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[h] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. (Genesis 2:
The most important events of this film all revolve around the female characters. While there are some male charac...
In both of these series, representations and meanings of masculinity and femininity are affected by the ideology of patriarchy. Even though it is true that these shows tried to fight back against stereotypical representations of men and women, the subtle textual evidence in these shows show that there are limits to how gender norms can be represented on television, especially in the Classic Network
These movies allowed female characters to embody all the contradictions that could make them a woman. They were portrayed as the “femme fatale” and also “mother,” the “seductress” and at the same time the “saint,” (Newsom, 2011). Female characters were multi-faceted during this time and had much more complexity and interesting qualities than in the movies we watch today. Today, only 16% of protagonists in movies are female, and the portrayal of these women is one of sexualization and dependence rather than complexity (Newsom, 2011).
Led by Laura Mulvey, feminist film critics have discussed the difficulty presented to female spectators by the controlling male gaze and narrative generally found in mainstream film, creating for female spectators a position that forces them into limited choices: "bisexual" identification with active male characters; identification with the passive, often victimized, female characters; or on occasion, identification with a "masculinized" active female character, who is generally punished for her unhealthy behavior. Before discussing recent improvements, it is important to note that a group of Classic Hollywood films regularly offered female spectators positive, female characters who were active in controlling narrative, gazing and desiring: the screwball comedy.
Throughout the novel Lilith struggles with the idea that her children, and all future human children will no longer be completely biologically
Schungel-Straumann, H. (1993) ‘On the Creation of Man and Woman in Genesis 1-3: The History and Reception of the Texts Reconsidered’. In: Brenner, A. (ed.). A Feminist Companion to Genesis. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. pp.53-76.
2016 Ghostbusters, however, reverse these roles to encourage women that they are just as capable as men. The most evident gender reversal in the movie was making the male hero into female heroine. One of the main characters, Abby Yates, is a good example of how the reversal of gender roles encourages women. She is similar to a typical male hero because she is very headstrong and confident in which she believes in. She does not stop for the approval of others, but lives for herself. Her portrayal as a heroine proves that a woman does not need to be timid and shy in a movie. Abby also proves that being headstrong and confident is not a trait unique to men. Another character worth noticing is Erin Gilbert. At the beginning of the movie Erin is the opposite of Abbey. Erin is shy and does not speak up for her beliefs which is how women are represented in modern society . However, as the movie progress she overcomes these characteristics and eventually find herself. This is an important triumph over gender roles that shows women that even within their current situation gender roles can always be
She defends the position that one immoral women does not make all women the same. Not only does this argument lack logical value, it also confines women to a biased stereotype. On the other hand, Judith Plaskow incorporates elements of women’s inequality through discussion of the Torah. She identifies areas for improvement that cultivate gender equality to be in creating equal distance to God, being able to tell their own stories and ultimately allowing women to claim the Torah as their own. Further, the aspects of Lilith involving her rebellion of divine intervention are understood as the society being unable to understand or interpret the actions of a strong woman. Therefore, her actions are innately attuned with demonic aspects of existence in order to provide efficient explanation. Overall these two examples show how immoral implications of one woman influence the ultimate discernment of all women in an unfair way. They represent two aspects of creation story that cast a stigma without clear enumeration or valid examples beyond single