So, usually I’m one of those people who are pretty skeptical of arguments that accuse fictitious works of enforcing a dichotomy of strength, intelligence, capability, etc between men and women, because most times it’s over very minor, subtle things that myself as a female didn’t identify to be offensive, and, once brought to my attention, I find it to be trivial.

Well, I found a movie that severely enforces that dichotomy to the point it’s actually really upsetting: Galaxy Quest. It’s a beloved classic to many Trekkies, and is basically a “spoof” movie about a cast of an old sci-fi TV show attending cons and not being able to escape their roles thirty years later. The plot is basically that an alien race discovered their TV show and modeled their society after the crew, and then beam them up into space to have them help fight their foe who wants to exterminate their race. No pressure. The cast includes Tim Allen, Alan Rickman (RIP) and Sigourney Weaver.

I’m going to make a list of kind of all the plot instances her character (Gwen DeMarco) fell flat and useless, and elaborate on why I was disappointed.

1. Her boobs. I’m not kidding. They were EVERYWHERE. She mentions in the beginning that the only reason she was famous was because of her boobs, and several times during the movie her peers are staring them. During the rising action/climax of the story, her shirt keeps getting ripped further and further, until basically her entire bra is out. Now, I don’t really care if she was a strong female character and this happened, because boobs get in the way, but her major characteristic was her boobs, and that upsets me because I have a lot of respect for Sigourney Weaver as an actress.
2. She was literally useless. She mentions in the exposition of the story that the only thing her character did was repeat whatever the computer said in the show. When they get on the actual spaceship, what does she do? Continue to repeat/rephrase whatever the computer says to relay it back to her crew. On the alien ship, her crew members were saying, “Okay, we get it,” annoyed at her repeating everything, and she replies literally, “Hey, I know it’s dumb, but it’s my job, and I’m going to do it.” That’s basically code word for conforming to societal expectations no matter how stupid! Like, I don’t think I could make this up. Her other job is to control calls to the deck, often saying “Hold, please,” reflecting nothing but an over-glorified secretary. Obviously, she’s an actress, and her role in the seventies limited her abilities, so I didn’t expect her to be kickass as soon as she got on the ship and start taking job. But I did expect some sort of character arc in which she’d acquire an important skill and be of actual use to the crew. But she was just a pair of boobs and the love interest to Tim Allen’s character the whole time.
3. She was obviously very emotional. She was either cooing at other crew members to have the courage to do things (not stepping up to do it herself), or freaking out about how doomed they were (and not in a comedic relief way, they had another guy for that). There was this one part when they were on a foreign planet to get a part for their ship, and she saw these alien creatures that looked like babies. Then she saw one that was limping, and obviously, “Awww’ed” and ALMOST CALLED TO IT because of how cute it was. And you know, I thought – here’s her big part, here’s how she’s going to be useful, because she’s going to befriend this baby alien as a pet, and in the end that baby alien and her are going to help save the day somehow. Nope. The crew had to clamp a hand on her mouth, and then the baby aliens started eating the wounded baby alien. So again, the fact she was a women meant that her emotions almost put the crew in danger.

I’m just really upset because the movie is soooo great, but I can’t like it all too much because of that flaw. Every other female in the movie (although there were technically only three recurring faces, and one appeared basically twice) had such a diminished role. I don’t want a super strong female character in every movie – I realize not all women are strong female characters, so that would be really unrealistic. But I like characters who are actually useful to the plot, not decorative, and Sigourney Weaver’s character was useless. They did not need her in any instance of the plot because she contributed no skill to the group. Someone like Marion from Indiana Jones, who wasn’t a super kickass woman but was important and could hold her own, is an example of a good female character in my mind – even if she has to get rescued by the male hero. I don’t care if the woman starts out completely incompetent and weak, but as long as she learns some kind of skill, or is even the “nurse” of the group, at least she’s useful. I’m just really disappointed that none of the (male) creators considered this.

At this point, I feel like I’ve read everything that there is to read about my topic. The conversations that are being had have been going on for a very long time, and I feel that as an insider, I’ve heard them all. Especially since the negative conversations and comments have been directed at me on occasion. It’s often difficult to be a Superman fan. Many times, the powers that be don’t understand him, and write him so completely out of character that I feel like I’m just buying the name on the cover, instead of the adventures of my hero. Other times, simply wearing a Superman shirt is enough to garner ridicule from passersby. I’ve received stares and scoffs simply by purchasing Superman memorabilia. Far too often, the character is perceived as “childish.” I’ve been told countless times that Batman’s better, and that Superman is lame. I don’t have enough fingers to count all of the times that I’ve seen “Superman is stupid because he wears underwear on the outside” comments. Side note: they are not underwear, they are traditional Kryptonian garb. I’ve got my “Why Superman is My Favorite Superhero” speech practically memorized because I’m asked why every time I make a new friend.

My answer is simple: Superman inspires me to be a better version of myself. The character has been there with me in good times and bad, and has even kept me from going off the deep end. It sounds really stupid to an outsider, but to me, it makes sense. The character embodies everything that I believe in: truth, justice, equality, honor, respect, and hope for a brighter tomorrow. I like other superheroes just fine, and some more than others, but for me, Superman is tops. He’s the one that started the superhero genre, and his story served as a template for every character to come in some form or another. He’s not just a drawing on some stacks of stapled paper, or a man in a colorful costume rigged with wires earning a paycheck. To me, he’s so much more. He makes me feel good, and that’s all the reason I really need. I shouldn’t have to justify my love for the character to anyone, because the character himself should be enough. He’s Superman. He’s the pinnacle of strength and honesty. Some people see fault in this. But if people are unwilling to appreciate a character that represents the best in humanity, doesn’t the real fault lie in them?

So, I’ve been having these discussions with my Dad lately about Feminism, and while he’s one of the most empowering and supporting people in my life, he doesn’t consider himself a feminist, and he’s half surprised, half amused I consider myself one. He’s explained to me that men and women aren’t equal – in fact, no two people are equal. And that’s true. Everyone is born with different intellectual, physical, spiritual, and emotional abilities. When I told him why is it fair that father’s have to tell their daughters to “be safe,” while they can tell their sons to “have fun,” he replied it’s because fathers want their daughters to go out and do the things boys can do, but they have to realize they have some physical disadvantages should it come down to a fight. And this is true too. My father respects me and loves me for being who I am, which happens to include my being female – not in spite of it, not for it, but regardless of it. Yet it baffles me why he’s so anti-feminist, because he’s created my notion of feminism as I know it.

And it’s because of the Feminazis. Women who slam men, who slam each other, who use the cause as a means to propagate hate and criticism and division instead of love and acceptance and unity. Women who will never be comfortable with letting “women’s issues” become simply “issues” as the gap of equality closes; women who are too insecure about their gender to never stop reminding people of it. These women are taking over the ideology and ousting others, true feminists, out – women who form anti-feminist groups, who are probably the truer feminists then the ones who claim the title.

When I was doing mass research for the first paper, I discovered something I wrote:

“I’m torn about whether or not to keep the label Feminism. I am so grateful to all those that have come before me and have fought tooth and nail for the rights I have today. But at the same time, I don’t want to tarnish it’s good name, and based on the path we’re moving on, with angry men and women from all sides pulling on it like a childhood toy, it’s going to be ripped to shreds.

“There’s a practice in Literature where certain schools of thought, for instance, Formalism, give birth to new schools of thought. And because these new schools of thought are so much so tailored to the specific time period and encompass/improve prior theories and practice, they retire the old title and operate under the newer paradigm, even though Formalism is evident within it.

“I think that just might be what feminism needs – a “facelift” if you will. I’m not sure what we should call it. I personally like humanism, or genderism, if you want to keep it specific. Let’s create another ism that’s actually positive! I know we can do it.”

But now I am putting my foot down.

I am NOT going to let people appropriate this word, whose literal definition is:  “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” I am not going to concede, to let our ancestors’ hard work go to waste as women and men alike turn the word into an insult with their actions.

And when I told my Dad that’s why I identify as a feminist, he accepted it.

There needs to be change in the feminist community. I’m not daft enough to believe I’m the one who should lead it. But I think a lot of people who recognize the need for change are the ones who realize how hard it is to achieve change against such antagonistic forces.

Feminism is still a fractilized ideology – there are still so many sub-categories pertaining to different beliefs and opinions. But we should not retire this word for another one, like “equalism.” We can be both an equalist and a feminist without fear of being redundant. Feminism has done so much good, and it has the potential to do so much more.

I don’t want to come off as proud or haughty for pinning the feminist label to my shirt. I think that’s what went wrong in the first place. What I want is for men and women alike to reclaim that pride – those who have seen it going downhill have abandoned it. We need to reclaim it and redirect it. I’d like to hope it’s not a runaway train that can’t be stopped.

But I guess only time will tell.

This post will be just a bit more paper-centered than the last posts, ergo the post’s title.

Basically, the layout of this first draft I turned in was

1. Introduce mugiwara (a.k.a MG [my personal referential term] or Luffy’s Straw Hat)
2. Discuss MG ontology as created by culture
3. Discuss MG ontology as creates culture
4. Connection betwen points 3 & 4; Closure

While I felt very happy at the delivery and formation of my sentences, specially around the middle of the paper, I felt I needed to garner more insightful ideas. My ideas weren’t superficial, but I  think they could’ve connected much farther.

I just watched a little bit of a video discussing the famous French novelist Marcel Proust and his life’s work (Sources at the bottom of post). I liked his ideas of being able to do with writing what his father (a great physician and scientist who helped create a cure for many ills of those times) with medicine. I’m still trying to figure out where to go with my writing, but that is a nice goal to have. With my essay, I know I’d like to have taken my ideas farther by connection more with Japan’s history, and the history of manga in general, consumer culture for manga-inspired items, and also working on my abilities to analogize to create not fluff, but a kind of “ahh” moment for my readers. Ideology isn’t alway easy to get across. Oh, and technology!

I know I could discuss further how big industry has made great efforts to prevail and has much risen in Japan, so much so that it’s reconstructing manners of living for many citizens. I think One Piece may have some criticisms (actually, it probably has many criticisms) of modern Japanese culture, and that this may somehow be related back to the straw hat.

Also, there is the idea of inheritance. Luffy gets the hat from Shanks, Shanks from Gol D. Roger. Why inheritance? It seems that physical items are overwhelmingly part of the arsenal for many action-hero like characters (for most super heroes, we can consider these to be their costumes or their alter ego outfits). The item here doesn’t change much though; but the USER does. This suggests something is stable. Even amongst the instability of the world of One Piece (and, possibly by extension, the real world), something stays at the center, and, moreover, if we were to remove this, total imbalance might be inevitable. The hat does have spherical features, the sphere somewhere in time suggesting perfection, harmony, “full circle”.

These are two points I’d like to more go into for my Cultural Artifact essay, though I still have to tackle the piece about consumer culture of MG merch, and the related ideas there (something like Professor Mason’s work on Thomas Kinkade); at this point though, I’m dry. I’ll have to return or write up a new post once I have something really profound…

Anyhow, thanks!

Video on Marcel Proust: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mLdo4uMJUU