We watched the television cartoon Sailor Moon for the first time in class today, and I have to say that I honestly found it a little strange. Having never been exposed to much anime, it was interesting to see how the characters were depicted. I was expecting the impossibly large eyes and over-exaggerated expressions, but was a little bit surprised to see how unnaturally long the heroes' legs were. It reminded me a lot of the Barbie franchise, especially with the heavy focus on fashion, makeup, and accessories (not to mention that ridiculously long hair). I remember hearing some controversy over how disturbing it would be to see a Barbie doll at human scale, and I found it interesting that some of the same distorted ideas of "idealized" feminine proportions existed in Japan as well. Their weirdly pitched voices were interesting too, but maybe that kind of voice is appealing and natural sounding to the (mostly) child target audience.
The other question I was conflicted over was if this show acted as a good role model for the children watching. On one hand, as the first series featuring magical girls fighting evil, it was nice to see a little more gender equality. The girls were shown to be just as capable of battling enemies as in any other superhero shows. Yet the emphasis on superficial and stereo typically "girly" accessories and weapons wasn't so clear. I wasn't sure if including all that was negative, because it sent a message of "these are the things all girls should like, so you should too", or positive because it potentially attracted more girls to watch and be inspired by the more empowering theme of self-capable women heroes. Either way, I guess the show succeeded in some respect given its long term popularity and air time.
I'm glad you mentioned their voices! That was the first thing that hit me when we started watching the episode -- I did not really expect them to sound like they did (not that I know what I was expecting) and it through me off a little bit.
ReplyDeleteSailor Moon is definitely highly gendered. With all of their girly accessories and clothing, yet are masculine with their kick-butt girl power. But it's definitely shows like this that children watch where they think, "This is how girls are supposed to act." By watching these shows they observe and learn gender, which is interesting to me.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Sailor Scouts and Barbie talk about unrealistic expectations of what a woman should look like. If you want to see some real-life Barbie dolls Ukraine has some weird trend going on where women are getting plastic surgery to look like Barbie: http://jezebel.com/5952483/women-are-turning-themselves-into-barbies-in-bizarre-ukrainian-beauty-trend One woman reported to only eat one melon a day to maintain her tiny physique. It's crazy insane!