those girls that smile kindly then rip your life to pieces

[ivy_chan]

Basically, participants would each pick one or several of their favorite series or one-shots (not necessarily fandoms) and find at least one example of undeniable, indefensible sexism. Preferably, a work that gets your hackles raised whenever someone badmouths it and ESPECIALLY if you would otherwise consider the gender dynamics to be perfect. Okay

Comments

[whiteadelphi]

I hadn't actually thought of it that way, and I'd concur that's a valid viewpoint. But for what it's worth... it could just have been the translation I read differed to yours, but I understood it that the main reason Tamaki et al got so angry with Haruhi for the beach fight was not because she had defended the two girls, but rather that when she was clearly in over her head she never once tried to call for help (the point made was that she had friends close enough that would hear her if she'd tried this.)

The subtitles for the anime were a bit confused on this, because I did originally think, "Whut? Haruhi's in trouble for daring to defend girls because she's a girl and weak huh what now?" ...but the manga translation for me had Haruhi jump to that conclusion but later had it revealed that it was her refusal to ask for help when needed that got them upset with her. (Which is why they did the whole lightning scene to show that Haruhi had a history of not asking for help, and the resolution to that was pretty much ...guh, yeah I agree with you there too.)

And the Kyouya scene ...uh...yeah. >.> I hadn't actually thought about it that way, but now I have ... ick. Word.

[ivy_chan]

In the anime, which is what this rant is based on, a lot of their phrasing was gender-based, which leads one to the conclusion that it is because she was female. (Especially Tamaki's fit at her and Kyouya's attempt to rape.) Hani said that she should have called out for help, but continued to feel entitled to an apology from her. Which sounds an awful lot like victim blaming, in my opinion, because WTF? You didn't call out for help and now you were attacked, apologize to us?

And the Kyouya scene was so many levels of fail.

[whiteadelphi]

Yup, that's fair enough - I wasn't sure if you were entirely anime-based or not. If we're talking anime only, I totally agree. =D Especially as I think it was heavily implied that as she was a girl, she was therefore clearly weak and in need of rescuing from the get go. (I think. It's been a while since I've seen it.)

[ivy_chan]

I actually haven't read the manga scene that was based on for a while, either. I'll check the book when I make it to the book store either today or tomorrow. (Or maybe just the scanlation. I can't tell which is more accurate to the original version, though.) But yes, there was the heavy implication that girls are inherently weak and in need of rescuing.

It's a running theme through the anime as well, with the Ouran Club being set up to serve women, the fact that the girls' problems all revolve around some guy, and the way they set Haruhi up to be damsel in distress in the beach and Kaoru's date episode. And the end, when she's trying to get him on the carriage and ends up falling. Apparently Haruhi can't be awesome for two minutes without getting into an accident that Tamaki needs to rescue her from.