swim through the fires to stay in this world

xlovelylightx asked me a very, very good question in the meta meme, that I felt passionately enough about that I want to repeat it here, with bonus GitS love:

xlovelylightx asked:

Which female anime character, do you think represents women in the best way possible? And which female character ridicules the name of our sex by being in existence?

I answered:

Best:

If I can squeak by with Avatar as an anime (I can argue both sides whether it is or isn't): Katara of the Water Tribe.

Katara is shown as a fighter before she's a healer, is an excellent bender because she practices and practices and practices, is mothering not because she's "the girl" but because that is who her family needed her to be (Sokka and Toph's conversation in "The Runaway" is the reason that it is on my top five Avatar episodes list). Katara is justifiably angry when it's called for, makes mistakes, annoys her friends, is always willing to help someone the first time, feels every betrayal, can't be knocked down, is a romantic, is an idealist, is an optimist, is willing to kill for her family. I could go on.

As for straight anime: Major Kusanagi Motoko of Ghost in the Shell. Motoko is, in essence, a police officer/assassin who questions the nature of identity, reality, souls, kicks ass, and her femininity is, despite shots that could in other hands be fanservice-y, is treated incredibly low key.

There is never a question of her being female (the fantastic opening scene has the exchange, "There's a lot of static in your head." /"It's that time of the month." Which both establishes her as female, validates that fact (remember, doctors used to disbelieve women who came to them with menstrual cramps) that she's female and then, the film never uses her sex to belittle, undermine, or otherwise portray her as inferior (and she would never allow it). Kusanagi is treated as a smart, skilled, screamingly competent agent and she acts like it. When she makes choices based on instinct or intuition (her "ghost") the movie treats that as a reasonable and responsible way to make decisions. "Ghost in the Shell" is filled with images that evoke the feminine: the omnipresence of water, the importance of birth and passing on genes, souls, intuition, and these things are explicitly stated to be what makes us human.

Insults the name of our sex:

Sailor Moon. Dumb, blonde, superficial, I'm expected to believe this girl could save the world? I remember on episode in particular where she's obsessing about her weight, and then when she finally realizes that 'hey, starving oneself is a bad idea' her little brother rigs the scale, so the episode ends with her screaming that she weights 300 pounds, which, with her fucking stick-thin, animated-by-virgin-otakus-in-a-basement figure, is clearly fucking impossible. (Remember, I was watching this at, like, seven, and even I couldn't believe she could be so dumb.)

Oh, and thanks for that episode, animators - I was worried I wouldn't have enough issues with body image and food, you have to shove that incredibly fucked-up presentation of eating disorders at a formative age. In hindsight, I don't know which was more unhealthy - her "normal" behavior or her starving herself.

Runner up: the girl in Pokemon. She was treated like a moron, never allowed to be right, and portrayed as stupidly superficial (she was mocked for believing that feeling beautiful e.g. being pampered could make one more confidant and fight better, which, fuck you Ash, is utterly true. Beauty is only skin deep but feeling confident in yourself gives you an edge that can often beat just skill alone. And if you don't believe me, I refer you to Naruto.)

Additionally, the way they treated the girl in Pokemon is why I quit that show, decided that all anime was sexist, and declared that I hated the genre for 10 years. I still don't make claims to being a fan of the genre: I'm a fan of specific shows and movies.

Damn I need a Kusanagi icon.