damsel in transition

[kaigou]

[ ETA: to clarify a term I frequently use (but may be unfamiliar to some), "animanga" is a portmanteau of "anime" and "manga", meant as a shorthand for "the Japanese illustrated-story publishing/production industries, including manga (graphic novels), illustrated 'light' novels, four-panel comics, animated television shows, animated miniseries/OVA (Original Animation Videos), and animated theatrical releases". Because there's often a great deal of cross-pollination between the two types (printed vs. moving), I tend to use "animanga" to refer to the entire ball of wax in one easy word. ]

We all know (and likely loathe, at least given the posts I see go past from most of you) the damsel in distress: she does something stupid, gets captured/hurt, has to be saved by the hero, and usually ends up clinging to him. I've been browsing some of the manga that readers have classified (on reader-tagging database sites) as "strong female lead" or "strong female character", and I think we need an intermediary.

Something like, "female character damselfied by the author", or "damsel with fighter tendencies," for a less anti-author spin on it.

The so-called "strong female characters" usually go like this: she's relatively outspoken, strong-willed, and ostensibly very good at whatever she does (even if in some stories we never see her do anything, we're at least told she's good). She's independent, and a common expression or thought among the transistional damsel is that she wants to 'stand on her own two feet'. She'll often explicitly state that she intends to fight [the big bad], alongside the hero, as his team-mate or equal. She doesn't see the hero as her rescuer, but as her mentor or her role model (and sometimes as the person she aspires to equal).

Cases in point: Tokine in Kekkaishi, Sakura, Hinato, hell just about any of the female characters in Naruto, Rukia in Bleach, Lenalee in D.Gray-Man, Marie/Soma in Gundam 00, Hilde in Gundam Wing, Kallen in Code Geass. Yet to be determined if Yura (from Nurarihyon no Mago) will fall into this category, as the fight's not done, so there's still chance for her to fall in line.

These are all combatants, btw; I don't think this transitional category applies to civilians, like Winry (of Fullmetal Alchemist) -- as a non-fighter, her most likely means of expression (in a sense, "her way of fighting") is not going to be head-on battle-mode, so it doesn't seem right to measure her by the same standards.

For each of the cases in point (and plenty others but I'm midway through drawer-building and waiting for glue to dry, so keeping this short) -- the introductory pattern, as combatant, is usually as above. Somewhere mid-battle, however, the damselfied combatant is tripped up. One of three things will happen. Either she doesn't have enough spiritual oomph, eg Tokine, Lenalee, and just about every female character in Bleach. Or she doesn't have the will-power/dedication (or alternately, can't overcome her doubt in herself), eg Kallen, Marie/Soma, and Yura (in her earliest fight-scenes). Or the author simply sets her up against fighters who just happen to out-rank her -- Hilde, and nearly every female in Naruto.

Which ultimately amounts to: she still needs to be rescued, but with a twist: she gets mad at herself for ending up in a place that requires the hero rescue her. You can see the differentiation most clearly in Nurarihyon no Mago, actually: Kana is a true damsel in distress, captured, helpless, and waiting anxiously for someone to come save her, and it doesn't even occur to her that she might've, or could've, done anything on her own behalf. Yura, in contrast, is annoyed at needing to be rescued, and determined to do her best to prevent it from happening again.

So what we get is the apparent warrior-woman, trapped in the position of damsel-in-distress (injured, incapacitated, or just plain outranked and unable to contribute to the overall fight), but also consumed by frustration at her position. She invariably rails helplessly against her, well, helplessness, and we're supposed to see this as a fighting spirit, and ignore that basically she was set up to fail. Again and again these transitional damsels throw themselves against someone far stronger, but digging into that observation means realizing that even these so-called warrior-damsels are always set up as weaker in some way, from the get-go. The story's premise either presumes the female character to be weaker (ie Tokine) or undermines the female character enough to destroy her original potential (Sakura, Lenalee).

We're supposed to see the warrior-damsel's determination to fight "against the odds" as bravery... but I can't help but note that in nearly every bloomin' instance, the fight doesn't cause the warrior-damsel to power-up like it does for her fellow (male) character. It just beats her down, and puts her back into the box of needing to be rescued. The only real difference is that we got teased with the possibility that this time, it wouldn't be so, and we got a lot of words from the heroine about how she wants to fight and/or be acknowledged by the hero and/or be equal to the hero in strength -- but the bottom line is that the message in the actual text is that this will never happen. But that's okay! As long as she wishes it might, that makes her strong female, because at least she's not helplessly accepting her damsel position.

Or maybe it just makes her kinda stupid, for entering battles with fighters who out-rank and out-flank her. Or maybe what makes her stupid is signing up for a story with an author who give plenty of lip service among the fan service, but has no intention of actually following through.

ETA: there's another way some authors will handle the "what do I do with the extra chick in the party" question, which is to justify the sabotage as meaningful sacrifice. (The women in Naruto, and Lenalee, get set up for this repeatedly.) The method is this: by some means, the warrior-damsel does take on (and frequently then proceeds to kick serious ass of) a pretty scary big bad -- but in the course of doing so, is either: pushed past her limits and burnt out (Sakura, Tokine), if she's not injured to the point of comatose (thus rendering her not just injured but pretty much a NPC for the rest of the fight, cf Lenalee).

The storyteller's rationalization, as I see it, is thus: every fight must have both a physical climax and an emotional one. The physical, of course, is obvious; the emotional may differ each time. The latter will show up as "what are you fighting for?" or "is this really important enough reason to fight?" or even "do you really have it in you to kill someone?"

A favorite trope of Japanese animanga is the "I fight to protect those precious to me" (well, actually, this is probably a pretty common fight-justification in stories the world over, now that I think about it). If your character is going into a fight and you want emotional conflict along with physical, the lowest-hanging fruit is definitely the "why would you fight this hard?" The character, naturally, will doubt himself suddenly, but hey, look, there! His female teammate fought and gave it her all -- whether now she's injured and rooting for him, or injured and needing his protection (since the author has now rendered her not just badly hurt but also suddenly stupid in terms of any remaining self-defense skills), or just plain out cold. In short, her sacrifice inspires him while at the same time providing an object lesson in "the reason why he fights so hard" -- to protect girls his friends from going through such pain.

Which I think can have its place in stories, and is certainly a valid point in any action-based bildungsroman, but it gets tiresome when you realize that the sacrifice-and-example is pretty much always played by the action-girl, and frequently it's the only role the action-girl can even play. For all the homoerotic subtext some fans want to see, it's actually not very common to see a male character throw himself head-first against overwhelming odds for the sake of an injured or comatose male team-mate or friend. (The various Gundam series and Naruto are major exceptions, though, which might be why they also subtextually hit a lot of buttons, too, because they capitalize on tropes that are more often male-female in other stories.)

As a footnote to all of the above, one thing I've noticed increasing is the number of mangaka who seem to try and balance "lesser physical power" with "greater ruthlessness". Tokine in Kekkaishi is an absolutely stellar example of this, with absolutely no mercy while her male counterpart is really a softie. Sakura shows major signs of ruthlessness, too, but she's not without some modicum of compassion.

The animanga I recall from the 90s and early aughts, the girl's more likely to be a blowhard about having no sympathy for the enemy, but at the last minute! she can't bring herself to fire! and the hero thus must step in. The updated version is that the girl has no qualms about going for the jugular... if only the author hadn't set up the premise or circumstances to make sure she wouldn't actually have enough muscle/power behind her punch. It's like, well, now she's given the opportunity and guts to shoot -- except the author took all her ammunition away.

All these are just more reasons on the list of why I love Balsa and Gen. Oliva Armstrong so much.

Comments

[alas]

ARGH

Okay, I will attempt a more coherent reaction than that, but yes I hate this character trope like burning. Interesting discussion points coming out of this though.

Sometimes it seems as though the author just isn't entirely sure 'what to do' with the female character....Other times, I get the sense the author isn't sure how to balance the author's own preference/wish/story that focuses on the male character with the heroine's supporting role. That is, if "the girl" gets too much to do, what's left for the hero?

This irritates me more than anything else, because it's clear, particularly with series like Bleach and Naruto, that the creators have trouble with writing female characters, not supporting ones. Male supporting characters get to be awesome and take names - for example, if any of the male supporting characters in Naruto happened to be female, that would be...so awesome my head might just explode. Shikamaru! Neji! Gaara! They all manage major character arcs and growth in very individual ways, without robbing Naruto of main character status. (Indeed, the strength of their arcs, and the influence Naruto has on them - without weakening them - only adds to his status.) In comparison...from what I last remember of Naruto, pretty much all the supporting female characters just becomes medics without any real explanation as to why they would gravitate towards that (even Sakura.). WTF Kishimoto, I could buy being a medic becoming popular with Tsunade as Hokage, but the fact that it's all girls, and none of the boys taking up medic training shows how empty that premise is. *gasp!* We can't have mentors across gender lines, oh noes. (I mean, look what a crappy job Kakashi does with Sakura - not that he's much better with Naruto, but there's a little more effort there.) I must go to FMA and Izumi for that.

everyone else seems to think Rukia et al are great Strong Female Leads, and I'm not sure I'd even call them transitional damsels.

I think that just shows how badly written a lot of female characters are, because, unfortunately there are some series that by comparison make the Bleach female characters actually look like Strong Female Leads.


Or maybe it just makes her kinda stupid, for entering battles with fighters who out-rank and out-flank her.

There is clearly room for an epic series that will actually use this in some sensible and interesting manner, where a bona fide damsel in distress or faux action girl actually realizes this, and ...IDK, becomes a Machiavellian chess master a la Lelouch in Code Geass or something. I think I really enjoyed that about Code Geass, considering that it was so action packed - that Lelouch was consistently shown as quite physically weak; and even though he could work around it, it was something he did have to work around.

[kaigou]

I hate this character trope like burning.

I would have to say, I hate the traditional damsel like burning, and the transitional damsel like... well, if the former is a third-degree burn, the latter is a second-degree burn. Possibly easier to survive, and less chance of scarring, but not exactly all that much fun despite the lesser-status.

I mean, look what a crappy job Kakashi does with Sakura - not that he's much better with Naruto, but there's a little more effort there.

This is actually in reference to your comment about the writers having trouble writing female characters, but the Naruto example is a good illustration. Kishimoto seemed to be trying to rationalize the lack of attention on Sakura's training (pre-timeskip), and he did it by having Kakashi spend time with Sakura... basically explaining why he didn't feel there was a major need to focus so much attention on Sakura. With my cynical hat on, it amounts to, "It's not that I'm ignoring you, it's that those other (boy) characters are so bad that they need a lot more work." In Kishimoto's defense (and perhaps this wouldn't twig for a non-jock reader), I did like that he's one of the only shonen-writers who does not treat "lesser physical status" as "less able to do things", but had a character expressing that flawless technique can be, on its own, actually far more powerful than brute force, because it's more efficient and controlled. Yeah, okay, it might be lip service but it's still a lip service no other shonen series -- that I've ever read -- has paid. In that respect, I'm willing to see Kishimoto as trying, if not always succeeding, to at least not toss the female characters into the dustbin.

I think I really enjoyed that about Code Geass, considering that it was so action packed - that Lelouch was consistently shown as quite physically weak; and even though he could work around it, it was something he did have to work around.

My theory about Code Geass was that the original creator was a founding member of his high school chess club (or the Japanese equivalent), and was constantly bullied/harrassed by the jocks. Code Geass was his privately-grown, but wildly successful, revenge on those jocks: an entire series predicated on the notion that someone with brains will always, in the end, outsmart, outflank, and outrank, those who think brute force is all it will take. It's like the ultimate geek-egghead revenge show.

Although that trope has been put in the hands of female characters -- Tsunade and Tokine being two shown (not just described) as ruthless, as is Kallen (per Starlady's reminder, above) -- they don't get the same accolades. In their cases, they're meant to be contrast to the boy-hero, who (in a strange latter-day genderflip) is the one often arguing for mercy or compassion. Or maybe it's just that the boy-hero wouldn't argue for the same if it were a male friend showing such ruthlessness -- sometimes, maybe, but in some cases, no... since it seems to me Naruto would argue for compassion against Sasuke just as fast as he would with Sakura. But in general, I do sometimes feel a slight tug from the author, a subtle message (that perhaps the author is not even aware of, such being so ingrained in our gender-based perceptions and biases) that the shonen-hero isn't arguing for compassion because he truly values that trait on its own, but because for a girl to lack nurturing/compassionate modes is somehow wrong, in and of itself: so her ruthlessness is demonstration not as example, but as warning.

A lot of writing, I know, operates on an unconscious level: it's only afterwards that you could look and say, "y'know, I think you're saying something that maybe you don't realize you were saying" -- something true of all -isms and -phobias that are culturally embedded: racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and so on. Knowing that, I do try and give some credit to authors who are fighting an upstream battle against the base assumptions of their audience/s, and push a little at the envelope... but that doesn't mean I shouldn't call them out for where they fail, only that I do feel it important to recognize their success, however minor it may be compared to overall fail -- it's still better than the complete and utter fail of those authors' colleagues.

Still, it bugs me that a lot of these transitional damsels are considered "strong female leads" when it'd be far more accurate to say "female leads that are somewhat better than mere damsels, even if not truly strong by a shonen or boy-hero standard".

[alas]

but that doesn't mean I shouldn't call them out for where they fail, only that I do feel it important to recognize their success, however minor it may be compared to overall fail -- it's still better than the complete and utter fail of those authors' colleagues.

Very true. But it is useful to tease out what exactly goes Terribly Wrong in these attempted deviations, because I feel it may help me *ahem* creators seeking out a new narrative template. Because it is so terribly easy to fall into the same old culturally embedded patterns.


Re. Kakashi not paying attention to Sakura because her technique is that good - it always felt like a cop-out too thin even for lip service to me, because Sasuke's technique is supposedly quite good too (genius rookie and all that, plus the Sharingan insta-technique card!) and Kakashi's answer was to keep on teaching him more advanced techniques. Plus, we never see Sakura actually accomplish something as dramatic as the boys do from their power ups because of her superior technique. I would have been quite happy if, as you say, technique over brute force power had been emphasized as more useful - the closest we come I think is that she grasps the walking up trees quicker, and her super-strength technique post time-skip. (Interesting that her technical strength is translated into brute strength terms for her one and only power-up, but again, she actually doesn't accomplish much with it D:, and from where I had read up to we're not shown the story of how she developed/learnt it, which is vastly different narrative treatment from Sasuke's learning of the chidori and Naruto of the Rasengan.)

In that respect, I'm willing to see Kishimoto as trying, if not always succeeding, to at least not toss the female characters into the dustbin.

A-agreement, but as you say, second-degree burns aren't that much fun still ;_;.

It's like the ultimate geek-egghead revenge show.

AHAHAHAHAHAAH, no wonder I like it.

Although that trope has been put in the hands of female characters -- Tsunade and Tokine being two shown (not just described) as ruthless, as is Kallen (per Starlady's reminder, above) -- they don't get the same accolades... her ruthlessness is demonstration not as example, but as warning.

But the trope applied to female characters rather than geeks isn't quite the same, because the ruthlessness is not backed up by smarts per se; fighting prowess is still their main weapon. (Or in Tsunade or Kallen's cases anyway; I'm not familiar with Tokine's canon.) Whereas Lelouch might hop into the occasional mecha, but his piloting skill isn't crucial to his arsenal like it is to Kallen's; it's still his brain that's his main weapon. I guess I want a female geek power fantasy, rather than simply a female power fantasy? XD

In addition, since ruthlessness on the part of female character's parts often has no follow-through because they usually don't have the physical prowess to back it up, it can often feel like they're all talk - for instance when Sakura vows to kill Sasuke, she has the opportunity, she has a fairly impressive skill set, and she's fighting him- and she chokes. She can't do it. They have to send in Kakashi. *facepalm* I'm not saying this isn't very human characterisation, and Sasuke does so similarly in his last pre-time-skip fight with Naruto, but the difference is that Sasuke's compassion doesn't stop him from still winning fights and affecting the plot in a major way (in fact it's one of the most dramatic and arresting turning points of the series!), whereas Sakura's in effect cripples her from accomplishing anything. ...So the trope kind of rebounded right back into the girl being too soft to fight, but even worse, she was silly enough to think she was able to!

[kaigou]

from where I had read up to we're not shown the story of how she developed/learnt it, which is vastly different narrative treatment from Sasuke's learning of the chidori and Naruto of the Rasengan

I'd say that's an issue with the treatment of girls in action-stories, overall, whether they're fighter-damsels or just plain damsels; their development or backstory just doesn't get the same attention as whatever boys go through. It's just more noticeable in action/fight genre stories, where "developing a skill" (ie chidori, rasengan) is given such supreme attention, pages and pages of it, and that makes it even more apparent when there's next to nothing for the fighter-girls among the cast. Talk about a very noisy presence of absence.

since ruthlessness on the part of female character's parts often has no follow-through because they usually don't have the physical prowess to back it up, it can often feel like they're all talk

That's what I meant by authors seeing it as an improvement to give the girl the willingness/guts to fight -- before, she'd break down and the gun would be shaking in her hand, and of course the nearby boy would take the gun away from her, blah blah blah -- but now, the latest grade has the guts to shoot... and there's no ammunition. Or the character is perfectly willing to punch, but she hasn't got the muscle (or spiritual power) to back it up.

Come to think of it, the one time you get to see Tokine (in Kekkaishi) be really ruthless, she does take out the demon -- has plenty of follow-through on her ruthlessness, that is -- and doesn't even break a sweat. I don't think I realized at the time how rare that is.