Quote:
Originally Posted by Ithekro
Some objectify women, but then non-moe styled shows do this as well. Other shows of this style do not objectify women in terms of being sexist as in being lesser than man.
Take the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The moe character is Mikuru, who is passive and subserviant. However who is she subserviant to? Haruhi...a woman. Mikuru is also subserviant and passive to perform her job of blending in as much as possible without being noticed. This does not actually work as Haruhi picks her out for these traits specifically (though her job has still be unnoticed by anyone outside those few she's told).
Take the second moe style character, Yuki. She's quiet and unemotional. She's passive but mostly because she's not involved more than anything else (she observing). She's subserviant due to her nature of observing...but only does things when it is actually required. She takes orders pretty much only from Kyon, and usually it is requests rather than orders (due to Kyon's nature to be passive unless the world is ending.) Yuki, due to her nature, is considered almost godlike, so she is gnerally respected when requesting that she do something.
Then there is Haruhi. Subserviant to no one. Gives orders and expects them to be carried out even if they are pretty much impossible tasks. It takes a lot to get her to back down. She will back down for Kyon, but only because she likes him. And only if what she is doing will harm their friendship (or her place as master to his slave).
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As I was reading what you wrote, I thought of something interesting: your descriptions of the characters are spot-on, but they're arguably cliches that are found across multiple series. More importantly,
the roles you've identified are taken by both male and female characters. In light of that, is it even fair to claim that many female characters in anime objectify women, when it's really just a certain character trait put into a character drawn to be female?
In my mind, the objectification of women has more to do with body over mind. Designing characters with unrealistic proportions that walk around without covering up, for example, seems like objectification. Those types of characters certainly exist in anime. Yet even there, "moe" seems to go counter to that - you get the well-endowed character who dresses modestly, is prudish, and gets embarrassed over talk of her body or when wearing anything even slightly revealing. It seems a bit more of a respectful portrayal of women. Is it still objectification? (I don't think so, personally.)