gender stereotyping

In the original Alien vs. Predator, Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan) outlasts her male co-stars and ends up as the heroine of the film. In Alien vs. Predator Requiem (AVP-R), Chelah Horsdal was written as a heroine, but she was not nearly the heroine Lathan was. This is the result of different writers. Two groups of writers created two different stories. The writers of Alien vs. Predator created a dynamic and fierce heroine. The original Alien vs. Predator was feminist friendly. The writers of AVP-R created one woman who was a heroine and another who was "eye candy", i.e. physically objectified.

The physically objectified character, Jesse (Kristen Hager), was introduced at the beginning of the film as the disgruntled girlfriend of the large and in charge violent boyfriend. After all, every woman wants a man who is in control, right? Jesse was powerless next to her boyfriend. Her boyfriend was violent, and even though she said she would "fire him", at no point did she verbally disagree with his brutality to his face. After watching her male friend get beat up by her boyfriend, her boyfriend commanded her to follow him back into her house ... and lo and behold, she did exactly what he told her to do. Big surprise. Her passive acceptance translates to audiences that women accept men who are violent, in control, abusive, and if they know what's good for them, should not show their discontent to their boyfriends' faces. She eventually broke up with him, but her boyfriend stalked her and beat up her new male interest.

Gunslinger Girl is the type of anime where little girls are used to fulfill the desired of men. What do the men want? The men who "condition" them (i.e., brainwash) are assassins. That's right people. Little girls brainwashed into becoming assassins. What a way to train those females! Train them while they're young so they won't rebel; that way, they'll do exactly what they're told.

The girls are, for the most part, completely loyal to their "brothers". The girls and their brothers are called a fratelo. In Italian, fratelo means siblings. Siblings are the furthest things from the truth. The truth of the story is that these girls are being exploited by men.

The girls are exploited, but they are also epitomized as heroines. They display courageous acts of loyalty to their fratelos and their fellow cyborg sisters. In this regard, the cyborg-girl-assassins are revered if they are loyal. Triela is the only cyborg who shows emotional rebellion among the other cyborgs. According to the storyline, Triela was the least brainwashed of the girls. The girls who were brainwashed the most are the most loyal.

Limited lead female characters is an understatement with regard to this movie. The only part of the movie where there were a lot of females was during the scene where women were stuffing small packages of heroine. Traditionally the women have to be naked since there is the possibility they might steal some, but seriously, black nude females? Goodness knows we never see enough black women poorly represented in the media.

The female characters of this film were rendered powerless. The one incident where Eve (Lymari Nadal) spoke up against a man, she was immediately slapped in the face. She cowered with fear and was not able to defend herself. Mama Lucas (Ruby Dee), the mother of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), never asked her son how he had enough money to afford to buy her a house clear out of the blue. She was portrayed as being completely naive throughout the film. Towards the end of the movie she confronted her son about his gangster activities. After he lied to her she slapped him in the face for it. She said that she did not like to be lied to. The wife and mother of this film were both written as mentally and physically powerless in the face of male goals. What was the message of the movie? If a woman was in the way of what a man wants, then who is she to stand in a his way?

When Genevieve played by Noémie Lenoir took off her wig, Detective James Carter played by Chris Tucker straight up called her a "man". It was as if the whole Brittani Spears bald head scandal some how crept it's way into this movie. The gender stereotype exposed in this film, was that in order for a woman to be a real woman, she cannot be bald. After all, if a woman is bald, there is something seriously wrong with her. Everyone knows that if a woman is bald her entire gender is questionable (insert satire).

Noémie Lenoirrole's role in Rush Hour 3 was that of a martyr. From the time she was born until she became an adult her purpose in life was to serve a male dominated secret society. She was brainwashed into believing that her life is less valuable than exposing the names of certain high status men. Like in the movie 300, as in many other movies with fictional historical reenactments, there will typically be a woman (or women) who's sole purpose is to be sacrificed in order to preserve a patriarchal power structure.

There are several female characters in the hit series "Death Note". The most prevalent character was Misa Amane "Misa Misa". Misa's character was shy, physically weak, submissive, and written to be emotionally and physically dominated by the main character, Yagami Light. There was not a single episode in which Misa was not "willingly" at the mercy of Light. Misa was frequently animated in sexually submissive poses that were intended to be readily enjoyed as eye-candy for every male character of Death Note that was sexually interested in her. At no point in the series did Misa refuse any male that sexually harassed her. In fact, she was portrayed to not only be sexually submissive, but was also substantially less intelligent than her male counterparts.

The second most prevalent female character was the Shinigami Rem. Rem's whole purpose in the show was to protect Misa. The relationship between Rem and Misa was that of solidarity. Their solidarity lasted until the middle of the storyline. Like Misa's role, Rem was more than willing to be a martyr. Rem died to protect Misa because she was tricked by Light. Rem's good intentions to protect Misa were ill founded, because Misa committed suicide after the death of Light.

The rest of the significant female characters had limited roles in which they either died or almost died at the hands of Yagami Light or another death note owner.

Feminist Fix

How could this anime be feminist friendly and still maintain it’s pop appeal?

1. The writers could have written Misa's role as woman who was not constantly being physically objectified, intellectually incompetent, and emotionally submissive. Instead of writing her as the "weaker" character, Misa could have been a heroine.