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ANNCast - S-E-X-X-I-S-M

I don't think you have to be a gun-toting badass to be strong. You just have to be self-reliant.

I completely agree that physical strength is largely irrelevant to being a strong character. In fact, physical strength can often even make a female character weaker in a sense. If a character is just as physically strong or stronger than "the men" and yet somehow still manages to be less self reliant than them, it really just serves to emphasize, rather than detract from, her overall weakness. (Perfect example: The girl from Highschool of the Dead that was mentioned in the podcast).

Honestly, I think the podcast ignored a lot of context and makes out Saeko's breakdown at the end of HOTD out to be way more nefarious than it was ever intended to be. It didn't happen in a vacuum, and they spent a whole episode explaining it: spoiler[Saeko was sexually assaulted, and despite her confidence and poise as a talented martial artist, she's still traumatized.]

1 a : an injury (as a wound) to living tissue caused by an extrinsic agent b : a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury c : an emotional upset

I think you're confusing the tangible cause with the emotional effect. <...>

We obviously can't see into the character's mind, but it stands to reason that the character is the way she is as a result of traumatic emotions experienced in that incident, not because of something that was already a part of her personality that inexplicably manifested itself for the first time at the very same moment she happened to be attacked...

spoiler[Saeko was sexually assaulted, and despite her confidence and poise as a talented martial artist, she's still traumatized.]

a. Sexism tends to walk hand-in-hand with two-dimensional characterisation. Better writing leaves less room for sexism.

Quote:

There's also too much emphasis on having a boyfriend, being part of the princess fantasy, taking care of her daughter

Yes, because having a lover and ("GASP") caring about your offspring is sexist and proof that you aren't a strong female character.

As for whether she had already experienced/recognized these urges to any degree before that incident or not, we don't know. But that's not important to my comment.

cheap exploitation

With all this talk of the sexualization and objectification of women, you'd think that only female characters are badly written trope-fests. I grant you that there are so many examples of that it makes for an easy target. When listening to this I started to think about the other group of characters that are written as carbon copies of gender stereotypes. Males, notably male leads (snip)

dewlwieldthedarpachief wrote:

a. Sexism tends to walk hand-in-hand with two-dimensional characterisation. Better writing leaves less room for sexism.

More like the opposite way around: if you don't like the writing, the definition of sexism is flexible enough that you can automatically stick an accusation of sexism in there as well. See the "strong female character" argument--it doesn't even matter that there might not be any strong male characters by that definition, not to mention that there's so much subjectivity that almost any character can be accused of not being strong enough and there's no way to refute this.

There are too many calls for blatant double standards here, and nobody speaking up against them.

dewlwieldthedarpachief wrote:

a. Sexism tends to walk hand-in-hand with two-dimensional characterisation. Better writing leaves less room for sexism.

More like the opposite way around: if you don't like the writing, the definition of sexism is flexible enough that you can automatically stick an accusation of sexism in there as well.

There are too many calls for blatant double standards here, and nobody speaking up against them.

1. attitudes or behavior based on traditional stereotypes of sexual roles.

2. discrimination or devaluation based on a person's sex, as in restricted job opportunities; especially, such discrimination directed against women.

While a sexist harem show, for example, may have a weak male lead, his personality is weak only so the male viewers can easily insert themselves into that character's role. The female characters exist to be oggled at and objectified. The milquetoast male protagonist acts as an avatar for the viewer and makes it that much easier to sexualize the female characters who bounce around wanting to cook and clean for him or what have you. They are not the same and to suggest they are is indeed a false equivalency.

Yes, that's the problem. Female to be considered strong character must be a way manlier than men. Real woman never wear dresses, have children or fall in love. You can be just healer, teacher, guide, adviser- but nothing counts if you don't hold a piece of iron.

I often see that many people narrow "strong character" to "character good in fighting". Like mentioned before Winry from FMA, always compared to characters involved in combat and of course always toned down into "love interest" with completely forgetting her complicated history and maturity. One of the common complaints about Berserk is the lack of strong female characters- while less people notice that all named female characters in the story are plausible for it's setting and have an important part, even if they don't fight.