Daily Double: Film Genres for $400

[fusako]

I have a special challenge question for everyone out there:

I challenge you to name a single Black science-fiction film.

Comments

[bahia]

Well, to get back to my thought about gender roles before addressing the other issues... Firstly, I would say that even in the USA which is fairly equal in terms of gender in the workplace, it does strike me that the worlds of fantasy and sci-fi are dominated by men. Why this is I am not sure. That is not to say that women can't or don't do plausible fantasy/sci-fi, plenty of them do, but I feel that it is men who have defined the genre. Does this have to do with the initial surge of fantasy as pulp novels and Dungeons and Dragons? The role playing world is filled with men; most gamers are male. Is it because more men tend to be socially awkward and therefore embraced the idea of a different world more fully? I don't know, but that would be an interesting thing to look up in psychological research.

If we enter in the world of anime, this is doubly true. Not that only men are fans of sci-fi/fantasy but that they are almost the exclusive creators of it. I think this has more to do with Japan's appalling rate of working women, but even more with the fact that women are viewed differently than men and the "glass ceiling" of Japanese women is much lower than that of other countries. I actually learned the other day that the percentage of working women in managerial positions in Japan for 2006 was 10 percent, riviling almost 50 percent in the US, and an even higher rate in the Philipines. But I am digressing.

I want to get to your idea of "de-ethnification" of anime characters. I find Japan's philosophy about race to be puzzling. Japanese people most certainly have the sense that they are the "superior" race. I am reminded of it every time someone is surprised that I can speak Japanese or that I can use chopsticks. Today someone was amazed that I was drinking green tea. But these things are so Japanese! How can a foriegner like or do them!! You get it when Japanese people use the derogatory term for foriegners, right in front of you!! Or when they tell you how wonderful Japan is because Japan has all four seasons, unlike other countries (right...). At any rate, it is clear to me after living in Japan that many Japanese people think they are better than foreigners. (My husband even had one of his students tell a girl in his class that she didn't need to put one side of her family tree down because that side was not Japanese. One of the teachers at his school regularly berates kids by asking them "Are you not Japanese?", or "What race are you?")

And inspite of all this, they think smooth white skin is the ideal. Sell whitening creams and lotions for face and skin. They adore foreign designers, and many people dye their hair away from the traditional black (though god forbid any student break the dress code and have hair any other color but black!) Not only that, the admire the Western eyelid, of all things, and you can get a surgical procedure to widen your eyes and to add skin to the eyelid. Buy I don't know we see characters with a myriad of hair colors. It's something I will have to investigate.

One thing of note about anime is the large eyes. Japanese animation was largely influence by the large-eyed cartoons of the States (40s? 50s) like Betty Boop and Disney. They preserved that trend as anime evolved. You will also notice that villians almost always have smally eyes. Is this because large eyes are better than small eyes? There ideology would make it seem not, but at the same time as there is dislike and distrust of things that are different (and foreign) there is also a fascination with difference, the foreign, and things that push the confines of this very rigid society.

I want to talk about your comparison to WWII, but I will have to get into that later.

wow, where to start...

[fusako]

With regard to the predominance of the male lead in sci-fi/fantasy, I believe that has to do with its genre predecessors. I would draw colonial expeditionary narrative as a common ancestor between the two. That is to say, I think that most of the thematic overtures and structural elements of sci-fi and fantasy are derived from the archetype of the frontiersman; an agent of reconciliation between the forces of civilization and the forces of nature; between the native and Westerner. In so far as the hero is either: penetrating the unknown, usually through the analogy of physical space (the jungle, outer space, the dragon's lair, etc); or defending the infrastructure of domestication against forces of regression (outpost vs. the savages, earth vs. alien monsters, etc). Both primary modes of action resonate strongly with western conceptions of masculinity, such that the expectation of males exclusivity has become naturalized. A process which, by its own social history, is both product and purpose...

In short, I mean to say that sci-fi/fantasy has been markedly male dominated largely because of its precursor's mythos. The hero in these sorts of narratives, as a nexus of the unknown and the known, is an incredibly important story to the self-identity of the societies retelling them. Particularly to the men who are expected to identify with them. I believe that the genre's fanbase will continue to adopt it disproportionately to the extent its narrative elements fulfill their aspirations. Though, I suppose we run into the chicken-and-the-egg issue once more...

I don't know if it necessarily has to do with "social awkwardness" primarily (though I would concur its has influence), so much as this inherent gender predisposition. After all, I'm sure there are just as many socially awkward women as men, but the male community crystallizes more firmly due to the guidelines the genre's elements provide. It gives them a collective fantasy from which to form a (daresay) social philosophy around: male gamer culture. For women, it seems much less definitive and therefore more amorphous. Even supposed champions of "grrl power" like Lara Croft get subverted and recuperated through her physical design...

Its all a vicious circle. But hopefully(?), as societal conventions fragment (a la post-modern condition - yes, I said it), the deathgrip on the entertainment industries will break, and women enthusiasts will gain more opportunities to contribute to the stories being told. Indeed, the predominance of men in these positions is the biggest problem that needs the most immediate remedy.

...

As for the Japanese and race... I don't know anything with certainty, but I'd like to point out one comparison: the expression "blue-blooded". It refers to european aristocracy so wealthy they are never required to leave the comforts of their mansions. As such, they are so pale one could see their veins through their skin; as compared to the common folk, tanned from toiling in the sun.

In any society based upon a social hierarchy, of course their will be though hoping to gain the benefits of preferential treatment by "passing" as upper-crust. Insofar as the signature attribute being the "blue-blooded" complexion; paleness becomes imbued with social advantages by merit of circumstance. Now fast-forward to a formerly aristocratic society (allegedly). I think it would only make sense that the value attached to once sociopolitically-defined aesthetics would persist.

Japan used to be just as feudal as any european nation. As such, I find it no surprise that they would value "whiteness", independently of any colonial innuendo it may now bear. I think its less a race and ethnicity phenomena, than it is more of class issue. The same holds true in Chinese, Korean, Filipino, and even Indian cultures. And for that matter, I don't think its origins lie in their collective colonial experience. Though that may have "flavored" the aesthetic impulse in passing...

That said, the "eyelid"/anime-eyes thing does complicate it, so maybe I'm wrong. Would you suggest that the Japanese are experiencing a schizophrenic ethnic identity crisis?