I don't think lack of active sexism makes something feminist.
And this is why I'm sure I'm not making my point clearly. I never said that. I never meant to imply that.
I actually don't think most material is neutral. I think that most material we deal with is the product of our culture, which is still sexist in many respects. And, for the record, I think there are many reasons not to like Bleach, or not to like Naruto--and I think some of the reasons can be feminist. I don't think that Naruto is perfect by any means, and if someone can't read it for gender reasons, I can understand that. What I mostly meant to respond to (and then managed to get myself off on a tangent over, which is pretty normal for me), is that I think the most reasonable way to explain the fact that there seems to be systematic sexism in the canon is that there is, in fact, systematic sexism in the canon, which I think Kishimoto is somewhat self-aware of. Because the story doesn't focus on girls much (a problem), I don't think that self-awareness ever takes a level to become a statement. If Naruto were a girl it would be awesome mostly likely evolve into a statement because then Naruto wouldn't have his male privilege. Because the main character enjoys the male privilege of not facing that sexism, the reader/writer also enjoys the privilege of ever having to confront a direct confrontation with it.
And yeah, I think there are problems with that. But I don't see the problem as being that institutionalized sexism was (potentially) included in the world. Especially not when the whole shinobi system is explicitly not endorsed by the text.
And now, since I can't seem to address these things in order...
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branchandroot
I'm sorry. When I go over the word limit, I should really take the hint.
Date: 2009-03-26 07:51 am (UTC)And this is why I'm sure I'm not making my point clearly. I never said that. I never meant to imply that.
I actually don't think most material is neutral. I think that most material we deal with is the product of our culture, which is still sexist in many respects. And, for the record, I think there are many reasons not to like Bleach, or not to like Naruto--and I think some of the reasons can be feminist. I don't think that Naruto is perfect by any means, and if someone can't read it for gender reasons, I can understand that. What I mostly meant to respond to (and then managed to get myself off on a tangent over, which is pretty normal for me), is that I think the most reasonable way to explain the fact that there seems to be systematic sexism in the canon is that there is, in fact, systematic sexism in the canon, which I think Kishimoto is somewhat self-aware of. Because the story doesn't focus on girls much (a problem), I don't think that self-awareness ever takes a level to become a statement. If Naruto were a girl it would be awesome mostly likely evolve into a statement because then Naruto wouldn't have his male privilege. Because the main character enjoys the male privilege of not facing that sexism, the reader/writer also enjoys the privilege of ever having to confront a direct confrontation with it.
And yeah, I think there are problems with that. But I don't see the problem as being that institutionalized sexism was (potentially) included in the world. Especially not when the whole shinobi system is explicitly not endorsed by the text.
And now, since I can't seem to address these things in order...