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Old 2012-10-12, 05:39   Link #22
DonQuigleone
Knight Errant
 
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Age: 35
Whether an anime with action girl characters is sexist or not is a tricky thing. For the record, I think Anime does on the whole ten to be a more sexist medium then not (however, it's similar to Hollywood, if different in how it's sexist).

For me, the primary thing you really need to look out for is whether the female characters have agency; are they capable of independent action from male characters, and do they drive the plot? That's what really makes the difference. The sin of many anime using "Action Girls" is that while the female character may be strong, it's the main character (invariably male) driving everything forward. The female character may start stronger, but she doesn't evolve at all, while usually the hero trains up and ends out exceeding the female. The Action Girl ends out just helping the hero, and not doing anything independently herself.

I would actually say it's a lot worse in the Romance Genre then in action. In Shoujo "Smut" manga you get cases where the heroine falls in love with a guy who almost rapes her, and in shonen you get harems, where the guy gets legions of women to serve his every need without doing anything.

As for the examples the op gave, the ones I've seen are Madoka Magika, and Binbougami-ga, and neither of them would strike me as sexist. The female characters there are perfectly capable of acting independently, and have complex personalities.


As for Sexuality in action scenes, I don't think there's anything wrong with female characters being attractive while in an action scene, the human form is an attractive thing anyway. Do we begrudge male characters being attractive in an action scene? I doubt it. Though my perspective is that it's more tasteful if the sexuality being shown is more like a ballet dancer rather then being like a stripper. But I would view that as more of a matter of obscenity, rather then one of sexism.

Blatant fanservice is not in itself sexist, but it's often symptomatic of it. If the plot treats women like objects, then the visuals tend to follow. So a show filled with panty-shots don't usually tend to be models for portraying women in a constructive manner. But that doesn't mean it's impossible for a show to have good female characters and panty shots co-existing. People will criticize something if the women are nothing more then eye-candy for the male audience (say Transformers...).

Basically, for me there are two sexism litmus tests:
1. Are the women just objects?
2. What are the gender power dynamics, and how are they presented?
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