So far in my entries here, the focus has been mainly on the women of Anime, and only once or twice have I really even acknowledged the presence of men in Anime. This is somewhat unfair , since men play equally important roles in Anime. This is something that is worth noting in an of it’s self.
To get to the bottom of this, I must divert my attention away from men again, but only for a moment. I must do this because in actuality, the days where protagonists are primarily male seem to be more or less over. Almost more often than not now, female protagonists are the tougher, smarter, and of course sexier individual in a given story. The men have started to become little more than drooling dogs and fumbling idiots. As I’m sure most people are aware, this was not always the case.
Indeed, in the past, as well as the present, Japanese culture has been very male dominant. The man worked all day, tended to the real business of the household, while the woman cooked, cleaned, bore and raised the children, and did her other womanly duties. In fact, in (at least) less modern Japanese culture, the husband very much owned his wife. Her life was effectively his. If he gambled away his money, he could force her into prostitution to make up for it, or sell her altogether. This was a social norm.
This seems quite barbaric and unfair, and it was. Even today, there is a very strong bias in japan in favor of men. Most women in the United States feel bad about being oppressed and discriminated against. The truth is, women in the US do not have it anywhere close to as bad as women had it in Japan, and truthfully, there are still uncountable numbers of women in Japan who are still in a similar situation.
So what does this mean for Anime? Well, it would stand to reason that in the animated fantasies of Japanese artists, men would be just as dominant. And for a very long time, this was the case. Men were the warriors, and very often they still are. Akira, Macross Zero, Samurai Champloo, Vampire Hunter D, DragonBall (Z, GT etc) – for the people who like stuff with no plot – , Bleach, Gurren Lagann, Samurai 7, all of these have very strong male roles that leave little room for an equally strong female role.
So if this is something that is so common, why is it even worth mentioning to begin with? Again, I must revert back to the topic of women. At the moment, I can think of far more titles that feature strong female roles that are dominant over male roles . Fooly Cooly, Blood +, Jigoku Shoujo, The Girl Who Lept Through Time, Paprika, Guardian of the Sacred Spirit, Mezzo (not Forte), Black Lagoon, just to name a few. And that does not even account for all the T&A type stories which feature weak-willed boys surrounded by dominant women. So what happened here?
The Hypothesis is this: After so much time that men remained dominant over women and preferred it to be that way, a new breed of male began to accumulate and multiply. This new type of male preferred the less testosterone driven dominance, and relished in the idea of being in an equal relationship with women. This new type of male attitude would have a tendency to be replicated. People follow what works best for getting what they want, and what a man wants is a woman. Dominant men would certainly get women earlier on in their life, but later the successful man turned out to be the less dominant male. As with genetics, something that in existing that has a tendency towards success, tends to be successful and is reproduced, obviously.
So, soon enough men began to place their gender-equal or gender-bias in favor of women into their stories, their fantasies. Men began taking on less dominant roles in stories that were created by these unbiased or reversely biased writers and animators. This, I am sure, is part of the reason that despite being dominant, these female figures remain well endowed and attractive. Another , perhaps more obvious reason for this is simply the normal attraction of heterosexual males to attractive women.
This trend can be seen in American television as well. More and more there are dominant female roles, which are surprisingly popular. The reasons for this, however, seem to follow a bit of a different reasoning, even if it stemmed from a similar history of male-bias. Feminist groups have no doubt had an effect in bringing this sort of change in the media. It’s not as equal yet as it could be, but it’s getting there.
In the mean time, significant male roles in Anime as well as in American television is becoming less frequent. As mentioned before, male roles are often fumbling idiots or child-like ignorant drones. If you pay attention to many commercials in the US, you will see many many commercials that depict men as something of little importance or intelligence. Watch the next cellphone plan commercial or electronics commercial. You’ll find a group of bumbling, half-retarded men who rely mostly on basic animal instincts.
So what do we have left of men in Anime? Perverts? Children? Fools? You could easily say yes to each of those, but thankfully the bias has not completely left the male roles in Anime. Men still function as brave soldiers, clever con artists, ingenious inventors and detectives, and just all amusing or facinating characters. Even if the majority of a story may involve a young male role struggling to be of some worth, it’s often these “Coming of Age” stories that end with the most powerful of male roles.
Alas, I personally feel somewhat displeased at times when I see a male role being subdued by so many controlling females. However, I am not biased (at least as much as humanly possible), and thoroughly enjoy a good story with a well designed dominant female role. I think it is important to allow for some change in the norm, so overall I am fine with seeing the balance tipping. The trickiest part of it, of course, it not removing too much weight from either side.
That’s all for now.
See you next time, Space Cowboy!
