Butler talks a lot about gender identity and the “roles” that males and females play in society. It is really quite fixed in our society. However, one of my first experiences outside of this norm was with anime. Often times in Anime, they will have female characters take more prominent male roles. In this certain experience i was watching “The Adventures of Sinbad” and in the last episode they get lost in some foreign country where literally all of the gender roles are swapped. It is ruled by a queen, with all the women comprising the military and managing factions while the men do all of the domesticated work. Alongside a very original idea, this presents an interesting and new outook on how things could have been. Its also pretty funny to watch these confused males try to navigate this societal structure.
How Anime Breaks Gender Roles
Square
I enjoy watching Anime as well as I find that some male characters look up to the female leaders and are often afraid of them! Which is the opposite of what seems to happen in real life. There are female characters leading villages and empires in Anime, while we can’t even seem to elect a female president! I think you could even argue that Bulter’s concept of desire can relate a lot to how female anime characters are sexualized. “The Adventures of Sinbad” sounds pretty funny, but maybe if our culture normalized men doing domestic roles they wouldn’t be using it for comedy.