The reality of anime

 to my readers thank u  I  love anime so much . Some people think it is silly or impractical
I am about to show how realistic anime is .
You will be amazed.
Tell what you think.

t the media portrays women’s’ body image, occupations, and gender roles in a very negative way. Thus, I wanted to know how different anime series portray women and men in society. Are males and females portrayed differently in anime and movies than they are in other forms of mass media? If so, how? To address this question, I joined SCAFFU with intentions of observing the club and interviewing some of its members. In the end I discovered anime series portrays gender in myriad ways: given of men and women in all categories of male dominance, the reversal of gender roles female empowerment and independence, female independence, and the stereotypical portrayal of women as housewives. As a result, I found that not all anime and movies portray women negatively.

Background information

Andréa wager, a senior at Hofstra University at the time, founded SCAFFU in 2009.  According to their mission statement, SCAFFU strives to create “A place for nerds to be nerds.” More specifically, the organization is “a social group that meets twice a week and watches nerdy films, television, or cartoons based on member suggestions and votes. [They] welcome all nerds from all possible fandoms and walk of life” (Hofstra portal SCAFFU). In other words, SCAFFU promotes a friendly environment where people can have fun and be themselves free of negativity and judgment. Anyone is welcome to join! There are twenty members in SAFFU, a vast majority of which are male undergraduate students (n =16). But only four of them are females. SCAFFU meets in Breslin Hall room 200, on Fridays at 3:30 p.m., which is the same place and time the club views a movie that somehow corresponds to that week’s theme.

Research Questions and Interests

I held high expectations for my first meeting with the club and I was excited because I finally found a group of people who share my interest and love for anime series. From the time we learn to crawl, the media communicates to us ideas that serve guidelines, rules, and expectations on our appearance, behavior, and how we interact with others; thus the media creates a code which society is trained to follow and obey.

My first research question is whether or not movies and anime series give us an accurate portrayal of the actual gender roles and expectations of women? My second question is to assess how anime series and certain movies portray women in a negative light, due to negative stereotypes about women that are often very sexual derogatory messages.  For example, society is reinforcing the notion that women should only be mothers and the traditional housewives, even though many women are redefining and changing their traditional gender roles into more progressive ones by working in the professional world and being mothers at the same time.  One of my favorite movies in which gender representations of women are strong is the “Hunger Games, Catching Fire”. I feel as if the movie is one of the first movies in media production to symbolize the importance of a new age of traditional gender roles and how they are changing over time due to the differences in socialization of men and women in society. 

The interviewees have different opinions on the masculine and feminine portrayal of the characters in the movies and anime series. I expect to find that anime series and movies givepeople, especially women, a negative portrayal and negative self-esteem. Based on my observation and previous knowledge, I have hypothesized that women who are exposed to media will have a negative perception of their image and self.   

Methods

I obtained information by completing both participant observations and interviews.   During my observations I took many notes on what happened in SCAFFU meetings.   I asked theSCAFFU members questions about male dominance, the reversal of gender roles, female empowerment, female independence, and the typical portrayal of women as housewives.  I took notes on their responses, and I recorded the meeting and my interviews .There are fifty members in SAFFU, however, only ten of them are females. My ooriginal observation plan was to find out which movies men and women vote for and how these movies view women and men differently(positively or negatively) and why. Additional questions included: how members viewed genderrepresentation of men and women, if the members of SCAFFU considered men more dominant than women in gender roles, more specifically do they like heroes or heroines in popular movies and anime, and finally, the type of anime series or movies preferred by members and why. I also planned to take notes on types of movies watched by members and their reactions and then compare them to my own reactions. What are the gender roles you can observe and record how each gender votes for particular movies? Do men seem to vote for movies in which the protagonist (main character) is a male? Do females vote for movies in which the protagonist is a female? Or is it about equal representation differences between men and women in anime series and movies?  I recorded the entire SCAFFU meetings.   In the first meeting we watched catching fire hunger games. The first time I went to a SCAFFU meeting, after a long thirty-minute vote I took notes on the reversal of gender roles during the meeting.  

My plan for my interview was to ask open ended questions and have unstructured interviews. I also wanted to have a one-on-one interview with Andrew Wager, the president ofSCAFFU.  I planned to ask him questions about female dominance, male dominance, and the reversal of gender roles in anime series and action movies, and most importantly how he views gender representation of men and women in movies and anime series. In addition, I asked him all the questions I asked other members as well and how long was he a member of SCAFFU. I wanted interview Wagner in a separate place, not at the meetings, because I did not want his answers to my questions to be influenced by the opinions of his friends or members.  I planned for Andrew’s interview to be thirty minutes and I also wanted to interview at least three or four members of the club separate or in group interviews, in which I intended to record their interviews, and to ask the same questions that I have asked Andrew. 

In order to answer my research question, I needed to discover differences in movie and anime representations of men and women in society. I was also curious to see if men seemed to vote for movies in which the protagonist (main character) is a male and if females vote for movies in which the protagonist is a female, or are there equal representation differences between men and women in anime series and movies. This enabled me to discover how media portrayal affects society.

It was important for me to become an official SCCAFFU member because I did not want the SCCAFFU members to act any differently in meetings just because of me being there as an observer. I needed actual unbiased information from my interviewees to fully answer my research questions, this is also why I decided to use open-ended questions and unstructured interviews because I did not want SCAFFU members to only give me superficial answers that required little thought. The interviews were very different from my participant observations, because most of my participant observations were based on my own assumptions. In my interviews, I received other perspectives on gender representations in anime and what they symbolize for women in Japanese society.  

Findings

​In the Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark discover that they must begin a Victors Tour. As she and Peeta travel throughout the districts, Katniss senses that a rebellion is stirring and joins the revolution. She is the symbol for the rebel army and represents freedom and the voice of the people, even though she is a woman. The tenwomen in SCAFFU all voted to see the Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The males had thirty votes for the movie and there were still ten people who did not vote at all. There are unusual gender dynamics in catching fire and the gender roles are reversed; Peeta the boyfriend acts more feminine as Katniss is strong, independent and more aggressive than Peeta. Peeta is more sensitive and open minded about showing his affection towards Katniss, while Katniss was more to herself and would not let her feelings get in the ways of what she thought was the right thing to do. I think the movie shows a theme of women’s empowerment especially because there is a strong theme of female dominance of a girl who fights independently protecting the men andherself. There's also a rather delightful misleading and mashing of the ideas of what's expected from young men in movies where the men are running away, while the women fight in battle.  I found that Katniss is a powerful role model for women. Some movies portray women as dominant over the man. I came with research questions for the catching fire questions including, does the novel imply that in order to be successful in the Hunger Games as a female, Katniss has to take on anti-feminine qualities?, Why isn’t it possible for Katniss to be portrayed as a feminine figure?, Why does she have to be cold, unemotional, unforgiving, and unsympathetic in order to win the Hunger Games? 

“John Dies at the End” is a horror movie; the story opens as Dave is discussing, with a reporter named Arnie, the unusual events he has experienced. The first story opens as Dave goes to help John's band play at a local party, just outside of town at a lake. At the party, Dave finds Molly, the dog, and meets a strange Jamaican person dealing a drug called "Soy Sauce." After taking the drug, John begins to see things. At work, Dave is "bitten" by the Soy Sauce in his pocket while they are being questioned; John mysteriously collapses and is taken to the hospital. The vote was sixteen males for john Dies at the end, and four votes from the females for the romantic anime series. I hate horror movie they are so stereotypical in gender roles. This is because men are always the dominant roles who “save the day“men are always the heroes in horror movies. Where women are always first to disappear, they are portrayed as weak scared defend less girls. I questioned why can’t there be a women zombie hunter?

I felt like  my participant observations  were very limited  in getting me the information I needed because all that SCAFFU members do in their meetings is watch  different  movies or watch  anime series and they did not  react to the movies by giving their opinions on them.   This is why I feel like I need more than participant observations and field notes to complete my research questions. The SCAFFU meetings were nothing like I expected them to be. My observations lacked the substance I hoped for, except during moments when males dominated the women in a votes, for instance in the vote to watch the horror movie “John Dies at the End” over a romantic anime movie. My observations inadequately addressed my research questions. Sixteen males voted for “John Dies at the End,” and four females voted for the romantic anime series.  I also expected post-film discussions about what students liked or disliked, which would have given me the opportunity to pose my questions for discussion. For example, some questions I derived from the Hunger Games included, “Do you think Katniss had to take on anti-feminine qualities to win the Hunger Games” or “Can Katniss be portrayed as a feminine figure?” I intended for each of the SCAFFU members to give their opinions on how the movies were in general or in detail. In reality, the actual meetings had nothing to do with the latter. Unfortunately, they had no discussions or commentary from any of the other members after the movies, which is why I took such detailed notes on the films. But not even that is enough.

There were three main aspects of Andrew’s interview that I used as strong evidence to support my research questions.  The first aspect is the fact that Anthony disagreed with me. The fact that he sees female dominance or the theme of women empowerment in anime series more than male dominance is very important because it disproves my hypothesis, where I hypothesized that all anime series portray women negatively, as weak people who cannot fight for themselves and as sexual objects.  This is not true for all anime series.  For example there is an anime we watch called “Kill la Kill”, about a teenage girls who learn to fight as an assassin, but in order to fully kill their opponents’ they have to transform into these sexually revealing outfits that show their breasts and legs. These girls do not have to be in revealing outfits to fight, especially since most people who watch anime series are young children and teenagers.  Our discussion of “Kill la Kill, led to my to the second most important topic for my research; how anime series influence the socialization of young boys and girls who watch anime series. Therefore, Anthony and I discussed what principles anime teach young children. An important piece of evidence to support my research from Anthony’s interview was the fact that he explained to me that Japanese boys and girls are not socialized by television shows to the extent that American children are. Anthony made the point of how Japanese children watch anime series to escape the rigid rules of Japanese Society such as the 15 hour work days’, maintaining strong academic goals and an isolated society. ​

The third aspect applied to my research was the reversal of gender roles. As a result, we discussed how female anime characters are often portrayed as weaker than male anime characters, whereas the male characters do the heavy lifting and generally ‘manly’ jobs. There are anime shows in which the female characters are portrayed as being excellent at cooking, and it is most common to see the female characters in domestic roles. On the other hand, in amine such as the mocha series like Infinite Stratus, where the female characters are the strongest when compared to the men, these series still have the notion that these women should still be good at being house wives completing cooking and cleaning chores. It is also very common in anime to portray gender roles that are reversed with female characters that are not good at cooking. However, these characteristics are being portrayed as negative qualities, which often leads to them learning to cook. In addition, I found that not all anime and movies and give women a negative portrayal. I found it very interesting when Anthony, my interviewee, told me about Tokyo’s ideals because he explained to me that Japanese boys and girls are not socialized by television shows to the extent that American children are. Anthony made the point of how Japanese children watch anime series to escape the rigid rules of Japanese Society such as the 15 hour work days, strong academic goals and an isolated society. Therefore my interview with Anthony showed me anime series do not socialize Japanese boys and girls.  

My research shows that there is anime in which the female characters are portrayed as being excellent at cooking, and it is most common to see the female characters in domestic roles. On the other hand, in amine such as mocha series like Infinite Stratos the female characters are the stronger compared to men. These series still have the notion that these women should still be good at being house wives. It is also very common in anime to see the reversal of gender roles with female characters that are not good at cooking. However, these characteristics are being portrayed as negative qualities, which often lead to these characters attempting to learn how to cook. My second interview was with Stacy, and the good news was that week’s theme in the SCAFFU meeting was women’s empowerment. As a result, we watched the movie “Mad Women”. Stacy and I had never seen “Mad Women” before, so we decided to pick a movie that we both know really well about women’s empowerment. After forty-five minutes of going back and forth on which movie to watch, we decided to watch Catching Fire. At that point, my interview with Stacy became very relaxed. In the beginning of the interview I thought that she was just telling me the answers that I wanted to hear based on my own open ended interview questions.  I asked Stephanie 12 open ended questions about Catching Fire, but only two of her answers related to my research questions. I think that Stacy’s answers to questions 1 and 4 helped me answer my research questions (see appendix 3). 

This includes, is Katniss a good role model for women? Rate from 1 – 10. This helped me answer my research questions on whether or not the media portrays women in a positive or negative light.  Stacy said, “I believe Katniss as an 8, because throughout both the movie and books, she always looks to do the right thing, even when times are bad.  She always stood up for what she believed in and always fought for what she wanted”. Katniss was in a vulnerable position when it came to deciding to save her sister from going to the Hunger Games. After deciding this Katniss only priority was to stay alive.  She didn’t know she would cause a rebellion by doing what she thought was right. She never wanted a rebellion or be part of one. I was in agreement with her about Katniss being a good role model, however we had different reasons as to why. Stephanie gave Katniss an eight out of ten, because she believed that Katniss was strong and resilient with good leadership qualities. I believe that Katniss is a good role model, because she provides a good voice for all young women. 

The other research question includes, what do you believe the gender role is like between men and women?

Stacy responded, “I think the gender role was interesting in the book and the movie.  Peeta the boyfriend was the more sensitive and open minded one about showing his affection towards Katniss, while Katniss was more to herself and wouldn’t let her feelings get in the ways of what she thought was the right thing to do.” I discovered that the gender roles in the movie were reversed after our interview. This is because Stacy thinks that Katniss is more masculine and Peeta is more feminine, because Katniss is more willing and able to fight than Peeta. He admits several times that he thinks Katniss is stronger than him. Stephanie also made a point about beauty being only skin deep, which is a very important message for women in our society, as it teaches them not to focus on their appearance and to care more about what is on the inside;your personality and intelligence.  This is because, Katniss was more than a pretty face, and she was a symbol of independence and revolution for women. That is more important than all her superficial characteristics of feminism, the characteristics that all women are forced to see in media.

Conclusion

The SCAFFU meetings were nothing like I expected them to be. I could not really obtain anything from my participant’s observations to answer my research questions, except for the fact that the males dominated the women in a vote to watch the horror movie “John Dies at the end”over a romantic anime .The vote was sixteen male for “John Dies at the End”, and four votes from the females for the romantic anime series.  I thought that each Of the SCAFFU members would give their opinions on how the movies were in general or in detail.  In reality, the actual meetings had nothing to do with the latter. They had no discussions or commentary from any of the other members after the movies. I think that SCAFFU members do not think of SCAFFU as an official club where people have to conduct official “work” in the meetings. As a result, the SCAFFU club represents a safe place to unwind after a long week of studying and playing the roles of students in class; SCAFFU is a place where students do not have to be perfect. SCAFFU gives people freedom to be who they want to be having fun watch anime series with no judgment from any one. 

This study proves that society has made so many rules and guidelines regarding the expectations of women’s appearance and behavior. This is because women are socialized to internalize the message of beauty ideals, and that appearance is more important than intellect or education. Society has guidelines that hinder women’s ability to be successful in professional careers. From childhood, the female is forced to internalize the fact that her worth lies in beauty and not in intellect—she’s internalizing these things from media,  even though many women  break these cycles by working in the professional world and being mothers . I found that most anime series give actual gender representations of men and women in all categories of male dominance, the reversal of gender roles, female empowerment, female independence, and the typical portrayal of women as housewives. In addition, I found that not all anime and movies give women a negative portrayal