Saigenos from a brief feminist POV: homoerotism as a result of perceived inferiority of women in male dominated media.
I donât want to rain on anyoneâs parade, and this is obviously not objective, as it pertains rather to a whole supposition of mine that has been brewing for quite a while since I started reading japenese sourced material. Much more specifically, shonen manga. Iâm not an expert by any means, itâs just something of a thought that spurs time and time again with certain character tropes in shonen and seinen, much more specifcally: the partnership between to males protagonists in a series.Â
I first thought about it when I watched Naruto, but it was was much easier to pinpoint the kind of thought process behind the depth of NaruSasu in relation to the title of this little rant exactly because of Kishimotoâs development of his female characters, which is flaky and clunky at best, downright misogynistic at worst-
Itâs not so obvious in OPM, after all Tatsumaki is class-S nĂșmero 2, getting a whole arc to show exactly what she is capable of, with a characterization much different to the WC, which from much more knowledgable people tham me claim is much well rounded and nuanced. There are plenty of female characters that have gotten their fair share of spotlight, good spotlight at that, to show they are a multifaceted, strong characters that stand on their own. They are their own characters with their own pains and troubles, of which most are not even related to romance or to another man. We even have characters that derail from the homogenic hourglass bodies that Murata likes to draw, which I wonât get into as he pretty much does that same with the male characters, so it doesnât feel as disingenous and malicious.Â
I often found that, in shonen/seinen manga, homoerotism doesnât posit an outright homosexual subtext in the relationship of two males, as we would like to think, it rather stands implicitly but very directly on the idea that depth within a relationship, true depth and love, can only be shared between two equals: men.Â
We much like to attribute queer coding in these kind of relationships. And⊠aside from the fact that that says a lot on how we build fraternal relationships and how we still place them on secondary levels against *romantic love*, the truth is, many times these kind of relationships never surpass and go beyond what the magakas show us not because âthey didnât want to be censoredâ or âthey legit wanted it to be this way but were too afraid to go all outâ, but simply because⊠itâs just not gay my dudes. Itâs just japenese men thinking these kind of deep, deep relationships cannot happen with women becauseâŠ. they are women you know? Inferior. Itâs a given, and itâs not an entirely conscious decision. Sysmetic oppression goes beyong even microagressions, it seats very comfortably in the way people, men specifically, build relationships with women and with oher men.
Aside from the fact that ONE has barely even dipped a milimeter of his big toe nail on romance (very very briefly if you squint with your head dipped sideways) and that he does let women stand on their own, deliberate (emphasis on deliberate) actual queer coding in OPM pretty much starts and stops at Puri Puri, and I wonât get too much into that but I think we all know how problematic that is in itself.
Even with that⊠I would rather go, gadly, on the Gibli path, and two people can have a deep emotional relationship without there being romance, ever. And thatâs okay too.
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