Erasure of women in shounen explored through Gintama
i want to talk about the whole gender swap gintama episode in a little depth because i think it gives us a very detailed idea of Sorachi's stand on gender biases especially in japanese media. Some context for my non gintama moots, the fourth season of gintama features an episode where all characters have their genders swapped and are forced to fulfil their roles as men and women (interchanged now) in very traditional and suffocating way. The subtext here was to reinforce the idea of women being docile, tender and not pushy or outspoken and for men to be strong and protective, not frail. The main cast ends up as their opposite genders, men as women and vice versa, except one female character (this too is very interesting and i will get into this part towards the end)
An immediate start off to this happens with Sorachi laying down a lot of stereotypical biases women face in media. There's an innate need to always be pretty and presentable as a woman, what also comes with this is default sexualisation that happens through subtle shift in clothing, in gintama we see how Toshi's transition is met with disregard because he isn't "pretty" like a woman who is a part of the main cast in an anime should be.
This is a very direct jab in my opinion lol.
Now, we need to remember that Gintama aired around the same time as the big three, so it only makes sense to take women from the big three as references to what Sorachi may be talking about here.
The female cast in gintama is already very complex and dynamic, dare I say that Gintama women serve to be some of the best written shounen characters for an anime that aired in the early 2000s. Sorachi takes a direct jab at the male cast (now transitioned into female) and talks about how men so far in the show had only complicated each arc, whereas the women (now transitioned into men) take a more straightforward approach and get to the heart of the problem. They are strong, not only physically to get through the barrage of soldiers but also mentally to not digress from their motive. This doesn't really enhance their characters, simply gives them more screentime because the women in gintama have always been this way. Through all the arcs we witness over the course of the last 300 episodes, the women take a very directive approach to conflict and crisis resolution, but it is always men who inevitably take up the majority of screentime. This speaks a lot about the industry itself that fails to truly reflect on the complexities of their female casts, shounen like naruto get away with the measly excuse of "being bad at writing women."
Sorachi talks about this too. And its almost funny because there is no excuse of "being bad at writing women" because you are, in the end, writing fictional characters. But as an author if you begin putting characters in generalised boxes made up of gender biases that you have, then you are obviously going to fail at creating a good female character.
I don't just want to throw stones at naruto, lets take a look at bleach too, that introduces relatively good female characters like Orihime, Rukia, Rangiku and Yoruichi but ends up discarding them after the initial run of a few episodes, these characters end up being sexualised for consumers, this, is something OP does too.
This was honestly a very brave episode for its time. It discards the very main cast of male characters after they turn into women because shounen does not allow for women to actually be useful to the story. From my earlier examples, as much as I love bleach it inevitably makes no use of its female cast, the very few times characters like Rukia, Yoruichi, Soi Fon and Orihime take centre stage, they don't contribute much to the actual story itself but rather only partake in a battle that's barely compelling to what the male characters get. I suppose Rukia in the tybw arc could be excused from this list but the rest share the same fate as that of every shounen female character. Female characters in naruto and OP are given designated posts that they barely deter from and end up becoming very useless to the plot.
A direct jab to the main character who loses all relevance the second he becomes a woman.
On sexualisation of women and their erasure from media. Gintama is a show that revolves around the Odd jobs run by Sakata Gintoki, a man in his late 20’s who served in the war but now has resumed a relatively more peaceful way of living. When Gintoki turns into a woman, he initially becomes very useless to the plot, but then inevitably the odd jobs itself stops existing. This is because as a woman, you cannot take the centre stage in shounen, when the protagonist himself becomes a woman, his organisation, and the very premise of the show stops existing.
The shinsengumi (the police unit) turns from a daunting organisation run by samurai (men) who have specialised training in years of combat, turns to "miniskirt police" which is a unit run by the same men, now transitioned into women. Mind you, these people still possess the same qualities, the same skills, and are yet reduced to only being a shell of what they could be, because to be a woman in shounen is to be sexualised in spite of your capabilities.
It is also worth mentioning that their uniforms change from being a monotonous combination of a collared shirt and pants to being flashy blue miniskirts.
The most interesting part about this is Sorachi's take on the impact of gender biases in daily lives. A character who had decided to use his entire screentime to villainously stalk a girl he was in love with, suddenly finds himself content in being her friend because as a woman he cannot pursue her romantically. We are given the illusion of the belief that it only took a change of genders for Kondo to completely forgo his feelings for Otae, but it is later revealed that he roots for Otae and Kyuubei to get together, despite still harbouring feelings for her, because he believes only a man can love a woman. His repression comes from his own belief, that has very traditional roots. He is willing to let himself suffer a prolonged period of pain, that may even be eternal, simply because he believes a woman cannot love another woman.
The biggest joke here is that only an episode ago, he was pulling Kyuubei (transitioned into a man) away from Otae because he had hope for himself, because he believed he would turn back into a man so he couldn't allow Kyuubei (a biological woman) to take Otae away from him in this transition state.
Sorachi has a very interesting worldview of gender and gender roles. He has always used Kyuubei as a medium to explore gender out of the binary, and he has done it in multiple ways through multiple lenses. His women are always dynamic and well written but he has always had a very strong stance on queer people, while a lot of trans and queer people are subjected to mockery, he has made sure to write them in an unwavering way. Kyuubei, serves to be a template for exploration of gender beyond the binary, a biological woman raised a man and upholds the duties of a man, struggles to find a box to fit themselves in when they realise their feelings for Otae. The reason this arc ends the way it does is because its not a man that Kyuubei wants to be, its neither male nor female, their questioning of their own gender comes from the boundaries being a woman puts on them. They cannot have Otae as a woman, but as a man they cannot have their peace, they are simply beyond the binary.
He writes women very intricately, he has created communities of queer people in his very manga, for him to directly address the erasure of women in media in such a way is not surprising at all.
As for Otae, I believe the reason she remained unchanged in the entire arc was simply because she breaks all female stereotypes imposed on women in shounen. She is canonically beautiful and works as a cabaret girl, yet she is never sexualised or objectified. The show focuses a lot on her being brutish, hard, rude and generally unfiltered towards people, she is feminine in every way a shounen heroine is expected to be, yet she opposes this stereotype by being unabashedly brute. She is mature, smart and very tenderhearted, yet she does not succumb to being docile, she is loud, outspoken and hard where she needs to be, she beats people up when they bother her and she bosses those around her, and as a bonus point, she absolutely cannot cook. Not to mention, despite Kondo's relentless advances that last for over 400+ episodes, she does not once submit to him as a love interest.
The reason she remained unchanged is not just to play into the role of Kyuubei's love interest, but also because she is just much manly as she is feminine.
