Anime influence on women's gender roles in
Gender Representations in Anime and movies: A View from SCAFFU
The Portrayal of Women in Media
Sarah Elgohary
Anthropology 003 Culture and Transmission
Professor Bradley Philips
Mini Ethnography project
Introduction
I chose to observe the Sci-Fi, Comic, Anime, and Fantasy Fans United, (SCAFFU) club for my mini-ethnography project. I am interested in the way movies and anime shows influence how people behave and how they are socialized in society. Personally, I believe that the media portrays a negative, sexualized view of women through unrealistic expectations in regard to body image, occupation, and gender roles. I wanted to know how different anime series portray women and men in society and what the gender representation differences are between men and women in anime and movies.
Background information
Andréa wager, a senior at Hofstra University, founded the 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. We welcome all nerds from all possible fandoms and walk of life.” In other words, SCAFFU promotes a friendly environment where people can have fun and be themselves and no one will judge them. Anyone is welcome to join!
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 the 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 give people, 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 the SCAFFU 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 original 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 gender representation 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 we watched catching fire hunger game the first time I went to a SCAFFU meeting after a long thirty minutes 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 of SCAFFU. 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 will record their interviews with 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 would enable 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 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 ten women 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 herself and the men. 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 man I came with research question for the catching fire Questions? • 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 e 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 male 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 Man are always dominant role who “save the day “men are always the heroes in horror Women are always first to disappear they are portrayed as weak scared defend less girls. 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 for a that moment when males dominated the women in a vote to watch the horror movie “John Dies at the End “a horror movie over a romantic anime, my observations inadequately address my research questions. Sixteen males voted for “John Dies at the End,” and four females voted for the romantic anime series. I thought 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 examples of 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?” 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 that I just mentioned. 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.
Interviews one there were three main aspects of Andrew’s interview that I used as strong evidence to s 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, which says 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 both watch called” Kill la Kill, about teenage girls who learn to fight as assassins, 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 which was 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 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’, 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, whereas the male characters do the heavy lifting and general ‘manly’ jobs. There are 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 Stratus where the female characters are the strongest, 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 see 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 boy and girls.
My research shows there are 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 mecha 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 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 talk 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.
1) 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 Catnips is 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, Catnips’ 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, but we had different reasons 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.
4) What do you believe the gender role is like between men and women?
“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, 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 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 that I just mentioned. 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 be doing “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 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, she 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 the these cycles by working in the professional world and being mothers . I found that most anime series give an 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 and give women a negative portrayal
Biography
Wager, Andrew. 2015 October 2 SCAFFU Hofstra online portal
Appendix 1
MY first OBVERSATION ON was October 2 2O15 AT BESLIN HALL 200 AT 3; 30 TO 4; 40 20 MEBER
OBVERSTION 2 October 23 FRDAY BERSIN HALL 200 FROM 3; 30 TO 5; 30
WE WATCH ED JOHN DIES AT THE AT THE END AFTER A HALF HOUR VOTE \
IT IS A HORROR MOVIE NARRATIVE
Appendix 2
Andrew’s Interview question for my ethnography project:
I will ask him questions like what was the inspiration for the club and how long did it took for the idea of SCAFFU to become an organization. How many members are in the club? I know that anyone can join the club, but I want to know and observe If the members of SCAFFU Consist of many different races or minorities Instead of the club members being just a majority of one race. How does SCAFFU help Hofstra students and the community? Do you think that SCCAFFU has made a difference in campus life, and the community if so please explains how and why? Whatever the case, I will ask him how he sees Himself and why and his opinions on how the members see themselves in how does he and member react to stereotypical representation of minority groups movies and anime and why? How do they view movies and anime series (positively or negatively) and why? How do they view gender representation of men and women in movies and anime series? Do the members of SCAFFU consider men more dominant than women in the gender roles of any media movies, and my favorite, anime television shows more specifically do they like heroes or heroines in media male or female dominant roles? What type of anime series or movies do they prefer and why do they prefer those movies over others? Who picks the media production that they watch every week and why? In addition to these questions how long have you been a member? What attracted you to join SCAFFU? Why do you like SCAFFU? Has being a member SCAFFU? Help you grow as a student or become involved in the community how? Whatever the case, I will take notes on how members see themselves in media by asking them questions such as How do they react to stereotypical representation of minority groups In movies and anime and why? How do they view women and men differently movies (positively or negatively) and why? Do the members of SCAFFU consider men more dominant than women in the gender roles of, movies my favorite, anime more specifically do they like heroes or heroines in movies and popular anime series male or female dominant roles? What type of anime series or movies do they prefer and why do they prefer those movies over others?
Appendix 3
Stephanie Swann interview question and answers:
Is Katniss a good role model for women? Rate from 1 – 10
“I believe Katniss is 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. I believe the system of the capital was failing and Katniss was just a spark to start a revolution against the capital. She never wanted a rebellion or be part of one. I felt she was thrown into that position by her friends. The only thing she wanted to save her sister”.
How did you feel about the diversity of the movie?
“I feel that the movie’s diversity was unusual. In District 11, it seems there were only African Americans within that district. But, in the other districts, they were all Caucasian. I thought this was unfair, in a way, because we live in a country where everyone has a different ethnicity. But when I saw what was in the movie, everyone was a somewhat separated from each other. I thought, again, this was unfair”.
Out of all the characters in the book/movie, who do you believe she was willing to protect the most?
“Throughout the book and the movie, I believe what she valued the most to protect was the minority group, the people who couldn’t protect themselves. She first wanted to save her sister, who was too young to go into the Hunger Games. Then she protected Peeta, who only protected Katniss through words, and when it came to fighting in the Hunger Games, Katniss was the one who mostly protected him, physically. After the Hunger Games were over, she saw people who were weak and couldn’t protect themselves throughout the rebellion, and at that moment, she decided to protect them too”.
What do you believe is the gender role like between men and women?
“I think the gender role was interesting in the book and the movie. Peeta was the more sensitive and open minded 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. Katniss went it came to physical beauty, was not interested in makeup, hair-dos, or outfits. This was somewhat of a symbolic symbol of telling women that outside beauty isn’t always important. It’s what’s inside you and who you love unconditionally is what’s more important”.
Do you think Katniss as a hero and why?
“ Yes. I do believe Katniss as a hero because she is trying to protect the people who she cares about. She went into the Hunger Games and becomes part of the rebellion for the greater good. She thinks about her family and friends before herself. She is selfless and courage’s to take on a big responsibility to go into the Hunger Games and be the Mockingjay symbol”.
What do you think of the power struggle between the people in the district and the capital?
“I think the power struggle between the district and the capital are a symbolic way of showing that people are afraid of speaking about what they believe in and need to voice their opinion. It’s very difficult to find your voice during difficult times, but maybe voicing you own opinion will change the world for the better. People might feel the same way and they’re afraid to speak up too. It takes one person to start a revolution, if the rest of the people are willing to follow”.
Do you think Katniss is symbolic?
“Like I said before, Katniss is a symbol of courage, selfless, independence, and righteousness. She always tries to do the right thing and thinks about her family and friends first before herself”.
What do you think about the theme of appearance and the reality in catching fire?
“Compared to the first movie, the Hunger Games was about young adults fighting one another to gain food and money for their district. However, the catching fire movie shows older and experienced competitors, who fought before in the Hunger Games. Catching fire truly shows us the power the capital can have over the districts and how they abused their power for their own gain”.
Do you think Mockingjay symbolizes power?
Yes. Mockingjay symbolizes power in a way to show righteousness and fighting the capital. The district had enough of the capitals abusive power and wanted to stand up for what they believed was right. Mockingjay’s power is Katniss and her symbolic courage to stop this abuse and start a new type of government”.
What does the capital system symbolize in catching fire?
“The capital symbolizes fear and anger. The capital believes they can do whatever they want to have control over all districts. Even send young innocent children, and adults, into a death game to destroy people’s hope of every thinking they will have a say in the government. The capital fears for an uprising, so they use the 75th Hunger Games to destroy people’s idea of ever having control over the capital”.
12) What does catching fire say about society power struggle and revolution?
"Catching fire shows that if everyone is not treated right, there is a breakdown in the system. Everyone should have a say in what the capital should and should not do. I also think there should be a balance between the district and the capital. I believe the capitals form of society is a way of thinking, 'what America might be like if we didn't have a diplomatic society?’ There will be a struggle and shows what the power of one person can do. They could be, again, a diplomatic person who cares about the people, or an evil person, like President Snow, where everyone should just live in fear and have no say in government"
13) Do you think there is a social hierarchy in catching fire?
“I don’t think there was a social hierarchy in catching fire in the movie or book.
Reflection
I enjoyed this project for many reasons, first of all I thought the project was going to be impossible for me to complete. Then it was supposed to be 8 pages and had a lot of difficulty typing. But my paper is actually nineteen pages, because I got really enough in the interviews which surprised me. My mini ethnography project taught me a lot about how women are portrayed in media. In addiction I learned a lot about anime series, which I love, and how they do not actually socialize men and women in terms of gender, like television series in the US do. This project was different because not only did the SCAFFU members not watch any anime series like I thought they would. And not have any commentary all or discussion on anime series but they actually watched movies based on themes which I thought was interesting. I worked extremely hard on this paper. I dedicated my entire last weekend and the entire semester to this paper. My mini ethnography project was only assignment that I worked on during Thanksgiving break. I think that I became so immersed in this project because I wanted to continue to research how the impact of the negative portrayal of women as sexual objects has affected the well being of actual women in society through my most favorite hobby of watching anime series . This did not make my ethnography project feel like I was forced to write a research paper, like the paper that I had to write for my psychology research methods last semester, which was based on only five objective research studies that had no wiggle room for freedoms of the creativity, of art and the subjective hands on experiences of life. This was the complete opposite of my ethnography project, which was my own individual reserach study where I created objective data to answer my research questions from a unique hands on experience , that I would have never had an opportunity to be a part of if it was not for this assignment. As a result , I learned a lot about what it means to be a courageous, person who has much patience and the perseverance to never give up until she accomplishes her goals in life. This was during my interview with Andrew because it was the first time that I actually interviewed a person with unstructured questions from off the top of my head and he was very cooperative and he gave me more research information than I ever expected that I used in my paper. The Interviews were nothing like I expected them to be, they were fun and I got so much information to answer my research questions. The interviews were very different from my participant observations, because most of my participant observations were based on my own assumptions. They didn’t really talk about the actual gender representations of men and women. In my interviews, I really got a hands on experience on the actual gender representations on anime and what they symbolize for women in Japanese society. Because of my interviews, I was finally able to get real research to answer my questions. Due to my interviews, I was able to see how anime actually portrays women in Japanese society and put it in perspective with the portrayal of women in media all over the world. Stephanie and Andrew’s interview were very different from each other, although they were both relaxed during the interviews. One difference between Stephanie and Andrew’s interviews, was that during Andrew’s, I came up with questions off the top of my head. His interview felt like a very long conversation about anime series and gender representation of men and women. We had a lot in common regarding the anime series we watch. He was a very fun nerd who was very opinionated, open-minded and well educated about Japan. I enjoyed listening to his answers to my questions, even though sometimes we would get off topic, but everything that we talked about had some relevance to my research. On the other hand, Stephanie gave me very detailed answers to my questions. Stephanie and Andrew may have had different viewpoints, but at the end, they both agreed on the fact that gender roles can become reversed in anime series and movies.
I really want an A AAAAAAAAAAAAAA On this please I put my heart and soul in this paper more than any of my other classes. Thank you for this positive learning experience and I really appreciate your help improving my writing.
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