Anime girls being slapped, is it a cultural thing?

[Swann]

I have question. Maybe this has been addressed (if so sorry) but there is one aspect of anime (and even some JTV shows) which bothers me quite a bit. The slapping of girls. It's everywhere. At least one of every three shows I watch has a girl slapped and often once the slap seal is broken the same girl gets smacked many times in the same series.

The boyfriend slaps her, her father slaps her, another girl slaps her, some other man slaps her. It isn't just the slapping but the manner in which it is treated: she needs a good slap doesn't she, that will teach her what words can't or oh, I was slapped that’s that. As I said, this is the only aspect of Japanese entertainment which I feel distant from, almost disaffected. So far I have chalked it up to cultural differences or a TV thing (whatever that means). Still, when I see it I lose immediate sympathy with the slapper, often he is the main character, our hero.

Can anyone shed some light on this. Is slapping seen as an acceptable way of treating a child (or wife)? Is it not as emasculating for a man to physically hit a woman in Japan? Or is just a strange TV thing distinct from Japanese daily life, similar to pseudo American reality portrayed in all forms on the TV which we don’t notice because we have grown accustomed to watching it?

[mit7059]

Originally Posted by Swann

Still, when I see it I lose immediate sympathy with the slapper, often he is the main character, our hero.

Most of the slapping cases ive seen it hasn't been the slapper who is the main character. Most of the time I think its to evoke sympathy for the slapped. But its not just women who get slapped. For example in one episode of Suzuka the main character got slapped by a girl not once, not twice, but six, count 'em, six times! Ouch. However in Japan men are still dominant over women in most cases, and do wife beating does happen. A lot of the slaps I've seen though are the 'women is freaking out so you need to slap her to make her snap to her senses type'

[Rachy]

Maybe its just dramatic stuff, girls get slapped in relationships if they have serious relationships then theres got to be drama.

[ChainLegacy]

Well, men being slapped by women is common on American TV... Men and women seemed to be slapped equally in anime... I'm all for equality in terms of slapping, to be honest.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Swann

I have question. Maybe this has been addressed (if so sorry) but there is one aspect of anime (and even some JTV shows) which bothers me quite a bit. The slapping of girls. It's everywhere. At least one of every three shows I watch has a girl slapped and often once the slap seal is broken the same girl gets smacked many times in the same series.

The boyfriend slaps her, her father slaps her, another girl slaps her, some other man slaps her. It isn't just the slapping but the manner in which it is treated: she needs a good slap doesn't she, that will teach her what words can't or oh, I was slapped that’s that. As I said, this is the only aspect of Japanese entertainment which I feel distant from, almost disaffected. So far I have chalked it up to cultural differences or a TV thing (whatever that means). Still, when I see it I lose immediate sympathy with the slapper, often he is the main character, our hero.

Can anyone shed some light on this. Is slapping seen as an acceptable way of treating a child (or wife)? Is it not as emasculating for a man to physically hit a woman in Japan? Or is just a strange TV thing distinct from Japanese daily life, similar to pseudo American reality portrayed in all forms on the TV which we don’t notice because we have grown accustomed to watching it?

It is just for effect comedic or dramatic.

Try watching Airplane for some really slappy fun

[froinlaven]

I've slapped my fair share of men. But they deserved it.

[Kurz]

Ok I think I'll respond from the side of the writer.
The purpose of a girl getting slapped is to.
A) Get them to realise something.
B) Stop them from being mean to another character
C) Stop them from being irrational about a situation.
D) Knock them around because the character doing the slapping likes being a sadist.
E) Comedic effect (if done right)

Its not really about culture rather its a device to make the character be like "Oh I did something to deserve that".

I doubt people in japan being one of the safest countries in the world would have alot of underground men slapping women.

[Thelastguardian]

Originally Posted by froinlaven

I've slapped my fair share of men. But they deserved it.

Sure. And I slapped my fair share of morons with my large trout- they deserved it.

Joking aside, slapping is seen as an expression of serious insult or as an method of curing hysteria.

Kind of like slaping one's glove onto someone's face to challange someone to a duel.
Or to break the person's train of (hysteria) thought before he/she trainwrecks.

Woman slaps man when the man is being a bastard. Woman slaps woman when the latter woman is being a bitch. Parent slaps child when the child is being selfish.

[guest]

Yeah, I always wonder about this. I never slap anyone and I never see anyone got slapped. I was raised as this behavior being extremely rude, not civil, possibly inhuman--apply to any physical punishment-- and not necessary. This is just something you don't do no matter what.

I guess this is just cultural thing. But why is that it is usually the girls got slapped in anime?

[Radiosity]

Most of the occasions I remember were pretty much exclusively an idiot male being bitch-slapped mightily by a female for doing something monumentally dumb. There are a very few examples of men slapping women that come to mind, but nowhere near as many (Twelve Kingdoms and similar series, where it's a very male-dominated society with arrogant nobles and royals generally being nasty to the lower classes and so on for example).

[Chiibi]

Oh no no, the girls are not the only ones being slapped for sure...
Take for example all these boy slappage-ings ...

(Kyou Kara Mao) Yuri slaps Wolfram for insulting his mother
(Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne) Maron slaps Chiaki for being a pervert, and later on for being jealous and accusatory, and Noin for kissing her when she didn't want it
(Eva) Rei slaps Shinji for bad-mouthing his father
(Gravitation) Ayaka slaps Shuichi over a misunderstanding
(Inuyasha) Miroku gets slapped on a daily basis by Sango for trying to feel her up

The slap in all these situations basically says "Shut up!" or "Shame on you!"

[shiro83]

Come on, boys and girls are slapped quite equally. The slap is there because the story or moment calls for it.

[Guido]

(Mai-Otome) Arika slaps Sergey because he insulted her mother (Rena) and made fun of her dreams to become an Otome, although Sergey did so to protect her.

[Secca]

I guess is some cultural thing in slapping. There are different kind of slapping. I grew up on I think it's just a normal asian family. My mom would actually slap us if we done something bad, sometimes spanking if it's over the line. But we learnt our lesson and we don't repeat the same mistakes anymore. Later on I talked with my mom about it. She had the same lesson from her parents. Actually our punishments were much tamer than the old days, when my grandparents were in school. They would actually get disciplined with wooden sticks for misbehaviors at school or at home.

Then there is when you 'seriously' slap someone who is your equal. That is something that you would only do when you reach over your limit. Or the other person did something realy bad and really hurt you. (example you caught your boyfriend cheating on you and slept with another girl ~kimi ga nozomu eien.)

[DaFool]

Swann, could you list the titles which feature such slapping? I don't know of any such examples. Then again, I watch mostly harem anime.

Originally Posted by guest

I guess this is just cultural thing. But why is that it is usually the girls got slapped in anime?

Because the boys get kicked or punched.

[kj1980]

What ever happened to plain old discipline?

Ever since the recent Western ideologies of child psychology and bunch of weird bullshit immersed into Japanese culture, our kids are becoming wusses; both boys and girls alike.

When I was a child and if I did something bad, my mother would beat the shit out of me. Of course at the time, I was pissed. But as I grew up, I realized that I deserved it - and I thank her for doing so. These things had been in place for over centuries in many different countries all over the world - if you did something stupid, your parents or your teachers kicked your ass. It worked. That's why you see generations of people growing up to become people they are today.

If you didn't pay attention in school, your teacher slaps you with a meterstick.

If you did something wrong like get into a fight, both parties got your asses kicked by their parents. The next day, both of you come to school with scratches and bruises, and you make up. You find that your former enemy is now your best friend.


But noooo, nowadays you get hit by your parents for doing something wrong, they are called child abusers. If a teacher hits a student, it becomes headlines in the tabloids with headlines that read "abuse rampant in the schoolroom! Discipline gone too far!"

Shit, kids becomes wusses who snicker at adults "hey, you hit me - your life is ruined." They know their parents can't do shit, they know teachers can't do jack no matter what they do, so they run rampant. In the past decade, I've seen a surge in weird ass crimes committed by younger and younger children in Japan - from a kid that decapitated a mentally challenged elementary school child and perched his severed head on the school altar, to a young girl who slashed her schoolmate's throat with a cutter-knife. Then the tabloid yells "what the hell were the parents and the teachers doing? It's all their fault"

Fuck you. You are the assholes that instigated fear into parents and teachers alike. You want discipline? You beat the shit out of them and make them learn the hard way. But nooo, if you do it, your job as a responsible parent and teacher flies out the window and put into jail for "excessive abuse."

And the kids that did those crimes? Oh, they are underage, so they go scot-free after spending six months in juvenile hall; a government run facility with the latest video games, three meals per day and warm shelter, high-speed fibre-optic internet access, and two hours of lessons each day on "why what you did was wrong." Yeah, I really think that they learn from their mistakes. Great way to suck our taxes dry for teaching the kids "hey cool, I did something stupid, the government puts me into this facility with all this great shit, and all I have to endure is this dumb-ass class two hours each day for six months, and I get out scot-free!"

And now we have boy and girls who grow up to become wusses and NEETs, all because their parents and teachers did not give them proper discipline. You hear wussy remarks like "hey you slapped me! I've never even been slapped by my own parents! I hate you!" Screw you. If you do shit, you deserve a nice slap, or as they say in English - a nice stingy five-across-the-eyes.

Of course, that does not justify over-excessive with no apparent reason - that's the difference between discipline and abuse. Coming home drunk in a bad mood and hitting your child because he/she didn't do the laundry is called abuse. Getting pissed off at your girlfriend for not following orders is also abuse. Hitting your wife for making bad dinner is called domestic violence. These all should be reported and need immediate police action (if they do jack, of course).

But disciplining your child for doing something stupid like spray painting the school wall, bullying another kid in the neighborhood, or playing with matches and almost burning down your friend's house - you deserve a beating to make sure you never do it again. That's how you learn the consequences.

[Swann]

Kj1980 – I think the reason beatings are now frowned upon is because people realized beaten children beat. You train a monkey through violence it will be a violent monkey (they now train animals through positive reinforcement) – so if you play muscle man be sure you do it to someone who will stay weaker. This is why females, being highly victimized, have helped put an end to this rather unintelligent behavior. As for violence among school kids, we both went to school – prisons create prison like behavior. This is why in Steven King’s Carrie most people root for classmate killing girl.


I’ll give another go at expressing myself here and I'll end with a list of slaps that come to mind. By the way, even female on female slaps bother me because it is treated in the same vain – no man present so I must do this.

As for boys being slapped, that doesn't bother me. It can be quite funny when a girl beats a guy on a regular basis. Firstly, he never gets hurt, physically or emotionally, and he is never authentically afraid. If he was that would be different. Second, the sexes aren’t equal, not in society and not in my mind either. I have always thought equally of sexes was a poor choice of words, fairness of the sexes better captures my feelings toward this issue.

I grew up, like guest, assuming that slapping woman was unmanly. You simply didn’t do it and if you saw a girl being slapped by a man (or anyone) you intervened. There is something very degrading and domineering in a slap, which is why it wounds a man’s pride more to be slapped by another man then to be punched by him. And of course this view of mine is one which American society has mostly shaped. In NO show, series or movie in the USA can I remember seeing a girl being slapped with three exceptions: a scene highlighting child or spouse abuse, some rare black and white movie on TCM or Humbert Humbert slapping Lolita (for which he was dreadfully sorry). Not one sitcom, not one animated movie – doubly so if it has a young audience. Never did Mr. Rogers take a swing at that evil female puppet with hooked red nose. That is why I felt it was cultural. A woman being slapped with the same kneejerk ‘well she deserved it’ rational as a post sneeze ‘god bless you’ would never make it on the air in the country regardless of how frequently it may happen in households.

Now here is short and extremely incomplete list of those shows which happen to pop in mind at this instant.

Not animated but the brilliant film Hard Rain – the husband slaps his dying, radiation poisoned wife when she becomes hysterical.

Tsukuyomi Moon Phase - I'm pretty sure the little vampire girl takes quite a few sharp ones in that series.

That scene in Maison Ikkoku where the head guy is about to come down with a heavy slap on dream girl but only lightly does it – loves her too much to slap her hard.

Bother, Dear Brother – someone gets it by father.

Jubei-chan 2 – idiot father at his daughter.

One of these recent Mecha ones started the first episode with slap so I stopped watching. Better stop before I get even more vague.

So many other times but the names just aren't coming to me. I've written too much anyway so if anyone else thinks of some please add them.

[kj1980]

Originally Posted by Swann

Kj1980 – I think the reason beatings are now frowned upon is because people realized beaten children beat. You train a monkey through violence it will be a violent monkey (they now train animals through positive reinforcement) – so if you play muscle man be sure you do it to someone who will stay weaker. This is why females, being highly victimized, have helped put an end to this rather unintelligent behavior. As for violence among school kids, we both went to school – prisons create prison like behavior. This is why in Steven King’s Carrie most people root for classmate killing girl.

Then, are you supporting the elementary school girl who slashed the other girl's throat that she didn't get proper discipline? You know what her remark was to the psychologist? "Yeah, I probably did something wrong, but it was the other girl's fault for pissing me off. She should've known it was coming." Oh no, she needs help. She needs a psychiatrist. Yeah, tell that to the parents whose lost their child by a ruthless brat who didn't know the difference between right and wrong. I sincerely hope that you tell that to the parents face-to-face. Then, I will take your word for it and accept that what you call "violence" is not needed to discipline a child.

Well duh, people saw children beat. Back in the old days, if you saw a child beaten up, people just assumed that the kid did something wrong and got what he deserved. It's also a way of showing shame so the child learns that if you screw up, you get your ass kicked and be shamed by your neighbors that you did something wrong. That's how people for several generations grew up by.

Of course, nothing is black and white. There are dozens and hundreds of shades of gray.

One difference is seeing a child with constant bruises all the time - that's a sign of child abuse. Seeing a child with a bruise very seldomly - that's discipline. If you hear a child upstairs crying all the time with loud noises constantly - that's child abuse. If you hear a mother spanking a child "I told you not to play with matches!!" only one time, that's discipline.

Nowadays, with all these psychological crap and media attention on "excessive child abuse," of course people take more attention on children with bruises.

Signs like as shown in Houjou Satoko in "Higurashi no Naku Koroni" is obviously child abuse.

Scenes where Jaian is beaten up by his mother for bullying Nobita in "Doraemon," that's discipline.

Why change something that worked for centuries across many cultures? I'm sure George Washington and Abe Lincoln got their asses kicked by their parents when they did something wrong, much as Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein as well.

Not that I am advocating child abuse, but Bill Clinton's step-father had a gambling problem and a drunkard who came home to be abuse the children and the wife. However, Bill turned out fine as he became the President of the United States and was one of the more popular Presidents in recent years. On the other hand, you have young Joseph Djugashvili whose dad beat him up on a regular basis - which is quoted by his schoolmate as "those undeserved and fearful beatings made the boy as hard and heartless as his father." The boy later changed his name and grew up to become Josef Stalin - a man responsible for as many as 50 million deaths in Soviet Russia.

Does child abuse create ruthless people? Highly likely - but it's not the only factor. Many grow up to look at their abusive parents as a "hanmen-kyoushi" (look up to them as a mirror-image to not to become like them), whereas many also grow up to become abusers themselves.

[Lambda]

Originally Posted by Swann

As for boys being slapped, that doesn't bother me.

Sorry, but I can't think of any good way in which you can reason that boys being slapped is OK while girls being slapped isn't without being sexist.

Originally Posted by kj1980

One difference is seeing a child with constant bruises all the time - that's a sign of child abuse. Seeing a child with a bruise very seldomly - that's discipline.

As someone who was smacked for discipline very sensibly, properly and effectively as a child, let me tell you that you don't need enough force to cause a bruise for it to be a fully effective punishment. That's overdoing it.

[kj1980]

Originally Posted by Lambda

As someone who was smacked for discipline very sensibly, properly and effectively as a child, let me tell you that you don't need enough force to cause a bruise for it to be a fully effective punishment. That's overdoing it.

Exactly my point. Proper discipline require one or few smacks. Not so much of an exhorbant beating to inflict a bad bruise or broken ribs.