A fascinating essay about Sailor Moon and Madoka.

[insanepurin]

On the Importance of Magical Girl Heroines & Weaponized Femininity

Bolding is all mine, nomnomnom.

The Magical Girl genre is essentially a genre which explores the female Heroine’s arc, the female coming of age story, and the womanhood narrative with varying degrees of success or failure - but it gets explored. I’d be hard pressed to name a whole

Comments

[dioschorium]

This essay is insightful and well-written. Where did you find it?

The writer raises compelling points about the male-dominated nature of the Bildungsroman. Neither "boys' own adventures" nor magical girl stories are about me, so I can't connect to every point she makes, but I have long hated the anti-femininity mentality with a purple passion. So must you, or you wouldn't have re-posted the essay and recommended that people read it.

[insanepurin]

I found it while wandering the YMMV page of Madoka on TV Tropes. I think it was under "Alternate Character Interpretation" regarding Kyubey, which had a paragraph from the essay comparing him to society, and I thought, "Dang, that makes sense. :o" and I went and read it. Since it was on tumblr, I went ahead and liked/reblogged it too.

Damn straight! Femininity is not evil, and I'm proud of being a girl. ;;

[zarla]

Haha I think I've seen this essay before! It raises some interesting points, but the idea of weaponised feminity never sits right with me, exactly. I think it's because... how would I phrase it... like, in the essay

Being a girl is her weapon. Being feminine and a woman is her weapon.

For me, I see it more as

Being what society tells her is a girl is her weapon. Being what society tells her is feminine and what society tells her about being a woman is her weapon.

Which to me is sort of a big difference. I guess I don't like the idea of certain actions or behaviors or items or whatever being objectively feminine/masculine, it's more just a reflection of the society that you're in that tells you that those things are feminine/masculine. So it's more that the idea of weaponised femininity (or really, femme fatale, since it's the same idea) is just women who are obeying and following the roles set out for women as determined by their society to accomplish their goals.

THIS COULD JUST BE ME THO

[militarypenguin]

Nah, that didn't sit well with me either.

I also boggled over this statement:

This is why I cringe when people complain loudly that there aren’t “Magical Boy” series for them to watch. To start with, there are already several series that involve young boys transforming with magical powers and skirts/wands/sparkles/etc.

There are series (several, even) out there featuring guys transforming with magical skirts and wands? That aren't treated as jokes? Where...?

[insanepurin]

I also boggled over this statement:

This is why I cringe when people complain loudly that there aren’t “Magical Boy” series for them to watch. To start with, there are already several series that involve young boys transforming with magical powers and skirts/wands/sparkles/etc.

There are series (several, even) out there featuring guys transforming with magical skirts and wands? That aren't treated as jokes? Where...?

Thank god I'm not the only one who feels this way. ._.;;;; I never saw the whole "Where are the Magical Boys?" question as a way to try to push girls out of their sandbox. At least Sailor Moon had a reason for it, and even then, we got Tuxedo Mask and the Starlights. (In the anime, they were women who masqueraded as men when they're not transformed. In the manga, they were female to begin with) The Sailor Senshi were clearly stronger than Tuxedo Mask too, and there wasn't any gender-hogging to worry about.

But for something like Madoka, where the hell are the magical boys? Wouldn't that double the profit for Kyubey if

[militarypenguin]

It would've been interesting for Madoka to ask, "Why me? Why the other girls? Are you going to try to contract Tatsuya when he gets older?" But alas.It really would have been! I'd like to see that addressed in the third movie, but I have a feeling it's going to be more concentrated on on pouring its creative energy into making a whole new scenario for the girls and finding new ways to surprise the audience. I'm sure there's probably at least one fic out there that addresses it, though

[kitty_advanced]

Unrelated, but I couldn't find the post you did on "Ringing Bell".

It's just been announced for a DVD reissue next year. You can now legally own it for less than $80.

[insanepurin]

This is awesome! First the Unico DVDs, Sea Prince and Fire Child, and now Ringing Bell. Life is complete. 8)

[amelia_seyroon]

I'll have to read this when I get home from work!