A Swing and a Miss: The mixed-up feminism of Princess Nine
Content Considerations: Discussions of sexism and gender essentialism; brief mentions of adult men creeping on teen girls.
Spoilers: Detailed discussion of the entire Princess Nine series, including the finale.
“High school baseball is a national sport with a long tradition. Frankly, it is utterly ridiculous to allow girls to participate. It would be nothing more than cheap entertainment. If you are so determined to promote women’s status, why don’t you do it somewhere else?”
When Kisaragi Girls’ High School Chairman Himuro Keiko announces that her prestigious school will start an all-girls’ baseball team, her colleagues (all men) greet her with shock. When she promises that the girls’ team will make it to Koshien—the boys’ national high school baseball championships—within three years, they greet her with ridicule. They fight her and the team every step of the way, insisting girls don’t have a place in boys’ sports.
It’s unladylike. They’re too weak to compete. They’ll just embarrass the school and themselves. Why can’t that female chairman just give up and start a softball team or something?
Himuro doesn’t flinch. She does it anyway. And the girls step up to every challenge their opponents throw at them, and they knock them all out of the park.
At least, until they don’t.
Read it at Anime Feminist!
