This isn’t to say that Naruto is secretly some feminist text. There are plenty of gendered issues that exist within the work. There are many valid criticisms to how women are constructed in the story. I’ll even be addressing many of them here. But I do think that criticisms should be framed in the right manner and specifically address the problem. I don’t want people to have the impression that if a female character behaves in a traditionally feminine way that she is automatically a bad character. I also don’t want every female character to act within the masculine sphere of traits in order for them to be considered good characters.
So let’s start with a fairly obvious issue: the ratio of men and women in the story. It seems to be an unspoken rule that every team, group, and organization must have a majority of men. I struggle to think of any instance where there were an equal number of men and women on a team let alone one where they outnumbered the men. This makes the women appear to be a minority and less important in a world where we can assume they make up at least half the population. In 1994 Julia T. Wood wrote about the relationship between gender and media:
"A primary way in which media distort reality is in underrepresenting women. Whether it is prime-time television, in which there are three times as many white men as women (Basow, 1992 p. 159), or children’s programming, in which males outnumber females by two to one, or newscasts, in which women make up 16% of newscasters and in which stories about men are included 10 times more often than ones about women (“Study Reports Sex Bias,”1989), media misrepresent actual proportions of men and women in the population. This constant distortion tempts us to believe that there really are more men than women and, further that men are the cultural standard."
By misrepresenting the proportion of women viewers begin to see the female population as invisible and therefore less important. A more even number of men and women would help viewers recognize the importance of female characters in the story.
Men
Before I continue on with how the women are constructed in Naruto I think it would be useful to talk about how the men are constructed as a point of comparison. Most of the fandom's favorite characters are all men. Characters like Itachi, Madara, Might Guy, Rock Lee, Kakashi, Minato, and Jiraya are all almost universally loved. Each of these characters embody a very traditionally masculine representation either through their actions or role in the story. What I mean by traditionally masculine is that there are particularly behaviors and traits that individuals perform in order to reaffirm their masculinity and to establish their place within the hierarchy of masculinity. The scholar Sharon Bird identifies three primary ways that men reinforce their masculinity: emotional detachment, competition, and the sexual objectification of women. Now none of the character’s I’ve listed display all three behaviors or only display these behaviors but I think it's accurate to say that at the core of each of these characters they exhibit one or two of the listed traits.
Itachi, Madara, and Kakashi are all very emotional distant characters. That isn’t to say that they don't experience love, compassion or loss. Itachi and Madara very clearly loved their brothers and clan. Kakashi cares deeply for his deceased squad mates and Team 7. Although these characters have a lot of powerful emotions for those close to them they rarely ever show these emotions to others. Instead they prefer to take a more stoic approach. These three become this almost blank wall of apathy. Itachi grieves privately over the death of his clan but he doesn’t share these emotions with anyone. It was only after his death and all of his lies and secrets had been exposed that he was able to bluntly tell Sasuke that he loved him. Madara behaved in a similar vein. He very rarely ever shared his true intentions with others. He never fully trusted anyone even if they shared the same goals as him. Madara had a tendency to ignore the feelings of others and choose to simply manipulate them in order to get what he wanted. His general demeanor is one of bored superiority combined with a disdain for perceived “weakness.” Although Kakashi was much more trusting than the others he was still rather emotionally closed off. Kakashi presented a disaffected attitude to most things. He hid his emotions behind his mask and his aloof persona. When he told Sasuke that everyone he cared about was already dead he did it with a coy smile instead of sharing the despair those events obviously caused him. These characters are defined by their suppressed emotions. They almost never have an outburst of joy, sadness, or anger. Their masculinity is not diminished by their emotions.
Even though characters like Rock Lee and Might Guy can be very emotional at times they still are hyper masculine figures. Their competitiveness supersedes their emotional “femininity.” Everything is a contest to Lee and Guy. Most of their interactions with other characters are framed around challenges. The first time Lee is introduced he challenges Sasuke to a fight. Anytime Guy and Kakashi are in the same room he issues some type of challenge. A core part of these characters are their rivalries with others. Even when no other characters are around they still compete with themselves. They constantly try to break their previous records and give themselves random challenges. Their near constant competitiveness reinforces their masculine identity.
Naruto as a series has relatively little sexual objectification of either its female or male characters compared to most other shounen anime. Even with that said I must point out that Jiraya, a fan favorite, does objectify the women around him. More in a comedic way than a sexually arousing way. This is still problematic on its own as it lessens the seriousness of sexual harassment but I digress.
I would like to add a fourth quality of masculinity to this list. Physical ability or accomplishments. Allow me to clarify. When people explain why they like these characters so much the first thing they usually mention is a fight they really like, a particular jutsu they find cool or the impressive reputation that surrounds them. Madara taking on the Shinobi Alliance, Guy and Lee opening the Eight Gates, Minato defeating Obito, Itachi and Kakashi using the Sharingan, and Jiraya taking on Pain are the most prominent aspects of these characters in most fans’ minds. Their physical skill and the respect they command because that skill is what draws most people to these characters. There is more discussion surrounding what these characters physically did or could do than their personalities or internal thoughts.
I want to make clear that this is not a judgment against fans of these characters or fans of these qualities in characters. This is just an observation that characters with these attributes usually garner the most respect and admiration from fans and characters that lack these qualities usually get the most scorn and disinterest. And the female characters of Naruto have almost the opposite attributes.
Women
The women of Naruto act in a traditionally feminine manner, just as many of the males behave in a traditionally masculine manner. This is where I believe that a lot of the criticisms come from. Sakura, Hinata, Karin, Ino, Tsunade, and Kushina fit rather comfortably within traditionally feminine behavior. This behavior would be the inverse of the qualities of traditionally masculine behavior: emotional detachment, competitiveness, sexual objectification, and physical ability.
Women of Naruto are not known for their ability to hide their emotions. They all express them rather openly. Ino and Hinata will openly cry if something greatly upsets them. Karin, Tsunade, and Temari are known to fly into rages if someone sets them off. Sakura, Ino, and Karin will very openly express their love for the people they care about. Kushina and Sakura are prone to outbursts of joy and will loudly cheer on their friends. None of the women of Naruto have much trouble publicly displaying their emotions or forming deep connections with those around them. This emotional vulnerability does not make these characters weak either in the universe or outside of it. The female characters' ability to express and share their emotions both progresses the plot and themes of the show while also adding a vital aspect of humanity to the series. When Naruto and Sakura believe that Sasuke has been killed by Haku Naruto expresses a masculine rage at the lose. Sakura in contrast expresses a more feminine version of grief through tears. Although Naruto’s display is generally perceived as cooler and more respectable, Sakura's display reveals the true importance of Sasuke to the team and highlights the cruelty of the ninja world for teaching its soldiers to cut off their emotions, a key theme for the arc. Sakura also continues to use her emotional connection with Naruto to motivate him during his darkest moments. During the Chunin Exams and the second Sasuke Retrieval Mission when Naruto was outmatched or depressed over his failures Sakura was the one to openly root for him and cheer him up. Without Sakura’s support Naruto might have given up and lost himself to a negative mindset long ago. The female characters often express the emotions that male characters are too “cool” or “masculine” to express themselves. They will share and help others with emotional problems that they may be experiencing. The only real expectation to this is Konan who is very stoic in her behavior, she is also one of the female characters that gets the least criticism, and Hinata having a hard time confessing her love for Naruto. Whether it be grief, fear, anger, love or joy their emotions are always clear to see. The women are the emotional relief of the series. Their emotional vulnerability is intricately tied to their femininity.
These characters also lack the hyper competitiveness that defined other characters like Guy or Lee. Almost none of them are motivated by a desire to be the best or to defeat a particular person. None of them are particularly interested in a leadership role either. Hinata wants to prove that she is a skilled shinobi but she doesn’t want to prove that she is better than anyone. Tsunade only takes the Hokage position because Jiraya rejected it and it was offered to her. She isn’t interested in authority but accepts it as a duty. Konan is comfortable letting Yahiko and then Nagato lead the Akatsuki. Kushina also seems to hold no resentment towards Minato for achieving her original dream of becoming Hokage. Sakura and Ino do have a rivalry between each other but it’s mostly over male attention and it isn’t what primarily drives them. Most of them women are also comfortable asking for help from others. They rarely have an issue relying on others to do the things they are unable to do. Sakura asks for Naruto’s help in bringing Sasuke back to the village. Tsunade trusts and relies on Naruto to help end the Fourth Shinobi War. With that said this lack of competitiveness advances the themes and plot of series while also strengthening the characterization of the female cast. Teamwork, trust, and cooperation are key themes of Naruto that the female characters represent. Sakura’s lack of competitiveness allows her to teach Naruto chakra control making their team stronger. During the Chunin Exams she is willing to forfeit in order to protect Naruto’s dreams. Hinata offers to let him cheat off her for the same reason. Tsunade and Konan place their trust in Naruto which allows them to win over the Akatsuki. Because the women are not constantly fighting over who is better or who should be leader they are able to work more effectively as a team and support one another. They are not held back by ego in the same way as many of the male characters. Their femininity is reinforced by their willingness to be led by others and to be supported by others.
As the same in the previous section there is little sexual objectification and the women do the least of it. They are very much attracted to the male characters but rarely view them as objects made for their pleasure. The men’s feelings are usually recognized by the women. Karin comes the closest to objectifying someone with her pursuit of Sasuke. Even though she is the most aggressive she still relents at the end when Sasuke’s feelings for Sakura are made clear. Their desire is not possessive and they don’t claim ownership over the men they love. These relationships become more of a partnership rather than just a trophy to display. The love that is expresses motivates each partner to better themselves and to keep striving for their goals.
Here we come to the quality of physical ability. This is where the majority of criticisms of the female characters comes from in my opinion. When the topic of how to improve the characters comes up it mostly focuses around giving them more fights or abilities. It is true that the women don’t have as many one on one fights or devastating jutsus as the men. If you were to poll the general fan base for a list of the top ten fights, the women would probably not be among those lists. That isn’t to say that the women haven’t been a part of some amazing fights. Sakura and Chiyo vs Sasori is definitely in my top ten and I would argue that Sakura is easily the third strongest ninja by the end of the series. But combat is not the primary role that the women fulfill in the story and it's not what most of the fanbase images them in. The women of Naruto fulfill a support role primarily which I must stress is not a bad role. Just because they don’t get the finishing blow or do the most damage does not mean they do not effect change or have agency. Tsunade, Sakura, Chiyo, Karin, Rin, and Ino are healers. Without those skills that they worked extremely hard for Naruto, Sasuke, Gaara, Kakashi, and hundreds of others would have died. Minato might have sealed the Nine Tails but he couldn’t have done it without Kushina’s help. She is also the key reason Naruto is able to control the Nine Tails. Hinata’s emotional support motivates Naruto to keep fighting after Neji's death. Healing a person is important. Motivating a person is important. Supporting a person is important and doesn’t diminish your character. The plot and themes of any story needs those who support in non direct ways. It can’t be all fighting, killing, and flashy moves. Just like I mention in the previous section these qualities or the lack of these qualities doesn’t necessarily make a character good or bad. My point is to show that there are particular traits and behaviors that are traditionally masculine or feminine and that most of the characters in the series neatly fall within them. Fans tend to gravitate toward these masculine traits while they tend to be repulsed by feminine traits.
What I believe to be the true gender issue in Naruto is not the individual female characters but the overall trend that they represent. There is a distinct lack of diversity in the behavior and actions committed by the characters in regard to gender. The men will almost always behave in ways that reinforce typical masculine gender roles. That will be emotionally distant, competitive, and focus on physical action. The women will almost always behave in an opposite fashion. They will be emotionally vulnerable, rely on others, and focus on supportive action. None of these behaviors are inherently negative or detrimental to anyone’s character. The issue is that this presents a very narrow window of acceptable or typical behavior for men and women. It gives the impression that to be a man or a woman one must act in these ways. Sakura doesn’t need to win more one on one fights (although personally I’d think it would be cool). Itachi doesn’t need to cry in public. Hinata doesn’t need more jutsus. Madara doesn’t need to learn how to work well with others. All of these characters are good characters with compelling storylines, personalities, and abilities. What the series needed were characters that acted outside the gender norms on both sides. I want to see a female character that focuses on physical strength and has lots of fights. I want a male character that specializes solely on healing and support. That doesn’t mean there should be less female healers or less male fighters. It just means that there should be a wide and diverse range of gender expression. Naruto the series should have had more characters like Naruto.
Androgyny
Naruto is the one character in the series that I believe exists in an androgynous sphere of traits. Neither decidedly masculine nor feminine in the way that he behaves or acts. He embodies both spheres of traits and progressively becomes more androgynous as the series continues. At the beginning Naruto acts almost exclusively in the masculine sphere of traits. He hides his emotions with his prankster persona. He’s emotionally distant to most everyone in the village and is only ever emotionally vulnerable when he’s alone or with a select group of people like Iruka or Sarutobi. He’s hyper competitive against his comrades, especially Sasuke. He’s resistant to asking for help and is terrified of appearing weak. Naruto even takes part in a form of sexual objectification with his Sexy Jutsu. Early in the series Naruto is very focused on physical ability solely for its own benefits. Naruto only wants to learn the strongest and flashiest techniques just so he can assert his skill and power. Naruto at his very start is an extreme version of masculinity pushed to a comedic level. This is probably why he’s so annoying in his beginning.
The stereotypical masculine behavior does change as Naruto matures, learns lessons, and the themes of the series take root. Firstly he becomes a lot more emotionally vulnerable and mature. Naruto cries openly in front of his peers and superiors on multiple occasions. When Haku and Zabuza die, when Gaara dies, when he fails to bring back Sasuke for the second time, when he meets his mom and dad, and when he has to say goodbye to them later. He cries in front of others but there’s no shame in it. Naruto is also willing to just bluntly tell others how he feels about those he cares about. He directly tells Sasuke that he’s his closest friend, he’ll talk about he’s ablity to understand Gaara's emotions, he begged the Raikage not to kill Sasuke without embarrassment. Naruto is able to clearly and healthly express his emotions in a typically female way and it’s not treated as a negative quality but a positive one. His vulnerability connects with others and motivates them to help him in return.
As Naruto grows he becomes much more willing to call on others for help when he needs it. He focuses less on beating people and more on helping those he cares about. When Naruto is learning wind style techniques he doesn’t think about how he’ll be able to overcome Sasuke’s lightning style. Instead he thinks about how he’ll be able to make Sasuke’s fire style even stronger. After learning how to control a portion of the Nine Tails’ power Naruto does dominate the fox into submission but forms an equally beneficial partnership. Naruto does not seek a victory that only he can take part in but one that everyone can share including those that were once his enemies.
Naruto also becomes less reliant on physical action and power. He slowly recognizes that violence on its own cannot solve his problems. He attempts non violent solutions when he can. His conflict with Gaara doesn’t end with Naruto killing him but the two of them talking and understanding one another. Nagato, Obito, and Kurama were not won over to Naruto’s side through a feat of strength or violence but through words and compassion. Naruto does not fight for the sake of fighting or to prove how strong he is. He fights to achieve a world where fighting is not necessary.
Even as Naruto becomes increasingly more feminine he does not stop acting in masculine ways. He still engages in plenty of physical fights. There is a healthy competitive relationship among his peers that doesn’t prevent them from helping one another. He still has an arsenal of flashy and devastating techniques. Naruto still pursues a leadership role but not for himself. He does it to uplift others.
It is worth pointing out that Naruto is often criticised for the same behavior as the female characters. Most of the memes and jokes online about Naruto revolve around the non masculine traits that I described. Fans will complain that Naruto talks too much or cares too much about his enemies. They will point to his reliance on Kurama and others as a weak point. They will say that Naruto essentially only has two jutsus when others like Kakashi or Sasuke have dozens. They will jokingly attribute Naruto’s deep emotions for Sasuke to homosexual attraction because masculine, heterosexual men aren’t “suppose” to have meaningful and significant relationships with other men. Once again typically feminine behavior and action is ridiculed and deemed weak.
Despite the jokes, I do think that Naruto is an almost perfectly combination of the masculine and feminine spheres of traits. As a character he slowly embodies all of the positive traits from each sphere. He loses the immature hyper-maculine identity that he had at the beginning of the series. As he slips into this androgynous in-between area Naruto becomes a more complete and content character. Maybe not in terms of appearance but in terms of behavior Naruto is neither masculine nor feminine. Naruto is androgynous and Naruto should be more androgynous too.
Comments
Post a Comment