Naruto...A little Sexist?

[HeavyMetal]

I would think an educated culture would realize that it is the male that determines the sex of offspring.

Granted Japan is behind on women's rights and independence.

I just get tired of feminist movements that involve releasing the self-proclaimed 'inner bitch' as opposed to simply proving those behind the times in the new paradigm wrong through actual action. Of course there are women that do just that.

Personaly I think times have changed and those who have not should just be ignored. Those that endlessly complain about unfair treatment and do nothing ought to be ignored too for that matter.

I don't find anime sexist, but targeted to different audiences.

If you're an odd ball you might not fit the audience you would get grouped into. Then it would seem sexist.

I think an anime would have to negatively address the issue of sexism itself to really be sexist. (You know if female characters always messed up and got saved by a condesending male character. Or even just a pattern of similar events with a non-condesending male character. Things like that.)

[Trident]

(You know if female characters always messed up and got saved by a condesending male character. Or even just a pattern of similar events with a non-condesending male character. Things like that.)

Yeah, but isn't that essentially the argument of Naruto? I mean, take Sakura. She's an amazing ninja, but her good efforts never go quite far enough. In the Chuunin arc, for example, she tries to protect Sasuke for a time and winds up being protected by a string of mostly male ninja, including Sasuke. Or Tsunade. It may have already been stated in this thread... didn't she need Jiraya's help to defeat her attacker? (I think I heard this somewhere--I haven't gotten that far in the manga, and the anime's not quite to that point yet, so I may be wrong). If you look at it in that light, it's sexist.

But... meh... slightly sexist or no, thinking about it, this show's actually one of the least sexist ones I've seen. Relatively little fanservice, intelligent females who do pretty well in general to compensate for their biological lack of strength... it may not be perfect, but it's definitely going in the right direction.

[HeavyMetal]

I haven't read that far.

I found Sakura to be the light hearted character. She is happy as herself.

Naruto is driven by rejection to prove his worth.

Sasuke is driven by anger to become strong.

Sakura can relax and use all she knows. (Much more ninja like.)

Naruto and Sasuke's personality does not allow for that, but they make up for it with a desperation to win.

Out of the three Sakura is the only one to not have some messed up dark side...despite talking to herself.

I think we are on to the same idea; that it depends on what parts of the show you focus upon.

[Jesson]

I think it is sexist, because they wanted to attract the males, but some women do love action and other things. Also not all men love action films, my personal favorites are the romance ones.

[Daio Kaji]

I think it is sexist, because they wanted to attract the males, but some women do love action and other things. Also not all men love action films, my personal favorites are the romance ones.

okay, u think it's sexist, but do you think it's really sexist? or not really sexist?

i guess it's very hard to have something be completely non-sexist, it's like action movies, yes, they are action movies, but there is still some romance in there, there is still some story line, otherwise there would be no movie

let's just say sexism is about as necessary in anime as romance is in action flics
it adds something to the story, conflict is generaly interesting, so sexism can be a conflict in anime, and how the characters, and the creator writing the script, handle sexism is interesting to watch as well

[HeavyMetal]

Daio Kaji had a point about movies containing more than one aspect. Few movies have the story depth of the SciFi Action hit The Matrix.

I think it is sexist, because they wanted to attract the males, but some women do love action and other things. Also not all men love action films, my personal favorites are the romance ones.

Um...yeah. How about an example or some sort of explanation of how it is sexist?

You gave the Why that you buy into, but I would like to know How.

You seem to really think it is sexist so am curious to the reason why you think that. Or what made you think that.

[someperson]

Naruto isn't sexist. As stated many times before, Naruto is a shounen anime. It's directed at boys. I have high doubts that the original author of Naruto had any sexist intentions. If it were the case then there wouldn't be any main girl characters and Sakura wouldn't even exist in the storyline.

Naruto just belongs to a subgenre in anime (since anime is a genre in itself). This subgenre just happens to contain many storylines that have a guy as the story focus. Shojo is similar, except more than likey the storyline will revolve around a girl main character and this subgenre is directed at a female audience.

If you feel Naruto is sexist and your offended by that, then don't watch.

[erato]

Yeah, i knew the market for Naruto b4 watching it which is why it impressed me: It did all the things a typical shonen should but it was focused as much on character development as action, it has not been super-unrealistic and contained little to no fan service.

When i said that i had felt a little dissapointed by the show in regard to female charas it was because the show had managed so much else, its a little sticking point and nothing more than something that was noted.

As has been stated, it is far from the worst show for sexism and comes from a country where a kind of sexism is so inherent that women pay it lipservice too. o_O

Anyhow, someone mentioned war, women & technology, (i can't find the post from here) and their statement holds true for general army grunts. But i thoguht that many people were aware of the fact that many assasins and most of the best have been and usually are women. Nikita was not just another chick-action flick ya know. ^_^

On the whole rambo with boobs, i remember that comment, its a bit silly but did you know that the ripley character was written as a man and Sigourney Weaver and her agent fought for her to receive the role.
Make of that what you will.

[O-Kagachi]

naruto is Far from sexist, apparently you havent seen episodes 90 to 96, Tsunade is one of the strongest people alive, and shes a FEMALE, is taht sexist to you? Oh, and shes also the Fifth Hokage.

[rzrshrp2]

Even Tsunade disappointed me a bit. She's supposed to be one of the top three ninja from the village but she had that glaring weakness. I won't say what it is because I'm not sure if I'd be spoiling it. But to have a character that's supposedly a top healer and a top fighter. That weakness is very...weak. She apparently did get over it but it makes me wonder how she accomplished anything in the first place with such a phobia.

Sakura's simply annoying. She seems to only exist to be protected. It wouldn't bother me as much except that she IS a ninja and she is on the front lines. If she was just a civilian that bumbles about, she'd be perfectly fine but she's not. And yes, she is supposed to have superior chakra control and the ability to see through illusions but that's only come in to play like twice and not in a major way.

After all is said and done, I still don't think that Naruto is overly sexist. It's about the same as any other show. It's just worse because the damselles in distress are supposed to be highly skilled ninjas.