The Multi-Faceted Universe of Shōjo MangaPage one.

“I’ve been thinking for nearly six months.

“Thinking about my life and death,

“And about a friend...”

“That morning, Thomas Werner deposited a single letter at the post office.

“Spring was close at hand.

“The snow made a watery sound and melted beneath his shoes.

Page two. A boy stands atop a crosswalk, looking down at the tracks below. A train approaches, its whistle blowing. The boy pauses, a melancholy expression on his face. He pushes against the steel, widening a gap where the fence has been torn by accident or mischief. His face is implacable as he leaps into the gap.

Page three. The boy falls gracefully, like just another snowflake. The tracks rush up towards him. He opens his mouth. He shouts a name. “JULI!”

Pages four and five. An older man stands with a young boy in a rolling, flowered field, pointing to the horizon with his cane. The face of the boy who’s death we just witnessed fills half the sky, looking far off in the opposite direction. In the other half of the sky hang these words, whose author and origin the reader will not learn until much later.

I’ve been thinking for nearly six months.

Thinking about my life and death,

And about a friend.

I’m well aware that I am but an adolescent child.

And so I know that this boyhood love

Will be flung against

Some sexless, unknown, transparent something.

This is not some simple gamble.

And the problem is not that I loved him.

He must love me.

He must.

Right now, for all intents and purposes, he is dead.

And if it means bringing him to life,

I think nothing of having my own body shattered.

They say a person dies twice.

First comes the death of the self.

Then, later, comes the death of being forgotten by friends.

If that is so,

I shall never know that second death.

(Even if he should die, he will never forget me.)

In this way,

I shall always be alive

In his eyes.

Thus begins Tōma no shinzō (トーマの心臓), “The Heart of Thomas,” a shōjo manga (少女マンガ), or Japanese girls’ comic, created by female cartoonist HAGIO Moto (萩尾望都) in 1974. Just twenty-four years old at the time, Hagio had no way of knowing that she was helping to mold the history of late Twentieth Century Japanese culture. “The Heart of Thomas” is now considered a classic of shōjo manga, a genre poorly understand outside Japan, yet as important to understanding contemporary Japanese women and gender relations as is any social, cultural, economic, or legal development you could name.

One common misconception is that shōjo manga were “invented” by TEZUKA Osamu, the so-called “God of Manga,” best known for such works as Astro-Boy 『(鉄腕アトム』), Kimba the White Lion (『ジャングル大帝』), Buddha (『ブッダ』), and Phoenix (『火の鳥』). Tezuka’s 1954 shōjo manga Princess Knight (『リボンの騎士』) was indeed an enormously popular and influential work, but was by no means the first shōjo manga. Simple

humor strips for girls had existed since at least the second decade of the Twentieth Century. By the 1930’s, these strips had become increasingly sophisticated, arguably climaxing with MATSUMOTO Katsuji’s 1934 “The Mysterious Clover” (松本かつぢ「？(なぞ)のクローバー」), a 16-page adventure story featuring a young girl playing a role similar to that of the Scarlet Pimpernel or Zorro.

It is important to remember that in the case of Japan, what we now call shōnen manga and shōjo manga magazines evolved from general magazines geared at boys and girls, respectively. Just as girls and boys were educated separately until the end of World War II, the magazines they read were also segregated, and though coeducation is now the norm in Japan, boys’ and girls’ manga magazines remain, with few exceptions, distinct, at least superficially.

Since these magazines and the manga they included evolved along very different paths, there are marked differences in the two genres of manga. Whereas shōnen manga tend to be action oriented, shōjo manga tend to focus on human relationships. Heterosexual romance is of course the most common theme, but friendship and family relationships also play prominent roles, and there is a whole subgenre of manga, most commonly known today as “boys’ love,” comprised entirely of stories of male homosexual romance, created by female artists for female readers.

The emphasis on relationships has been prominent since the first simple strips began to appear in the early Twentieth Century, but, while it may be difficult to imagine now, heterosexual romance was rare--indeed, almost taboo--until the 1960s. In the prewar period, readers of manga were small children who had not yet learned the pleasure of reading text-only fiction and non-fiction. Even after the war, when Tezuka had launched a boom in thematically sophisticated “story manga,” it was assumed throughout the 1950s that children would “graduate” from manga by the time they were thirteen or fourteen. And since the heroines of shōjo manga were almost always girls between the ages of ten and twelve, romance occurred only between older supporting characters, such as elder siblings.

Whereas manga for boys have always been about action and humor, shōjo manga have undergone several dramatic metamorphoses. Prewar shōjo manga were short humor strips, usually set in the home, neighborhood, or school. The artists were all men. In the wake of the postwar Tezuka revolution, however, the creators of shōjo manga were under pressure to create longer, more dramatic stories. While some chose to simply create longer humor strips, others turned to popular girls’ novels of the day as a model for melodramatic shōjo manga. These manga featured sweet, innocent preteen heroines, torn from the safety of family and tossed from one perilous circumstance to another, until finally rescued (usually by a kind, handsome young man) and reunited with their families.

By the mid 1960s, however, manga were becoming more and more popular, and it was now common for children to continue reading manga well into their teens. These older girls were no longer interested in stories of passive little damsels in distress. They wanted stories that were relevant to their real lives. It was NISHITANI Yoshiko, one of the few women creating manga in the early 1960s, who gave them what they wanted, and in doing so created the genre that is still the mainstay of shōjo manga: the school-girl romance. Nishitani’s stories featured teenaged Japanese girls dealing with friendships, family, school, and, yes, falling in love.

By the end of the 1960s, manga had developed into a mega-boom. What had been general children’s magazines had gradually transformed into manga magazines. The growth in popularity of these magazines accelerated when publishers, in order to compete with the new medium of television, switched from a monthly format to a weekly format. But the demand for manga could not be met by the artists of the time. New talent was needed. At the same time, societal attitudes towards women had changed. The solution to the publishers’ problem was obvious. What had been a trickle of women manga artists in the 1950s and early 1960s became a flood as the decade ended, and attention soon focused on a vaguely defined group of young artists who came to be known as the "Fabulous Forty-Niners," because many of them were born in or around 1949. Artists such as HAGIO Moto, OH’SHIMA Yumiko, and TAKEMIYA Keiko began to experiment with new themes, stories and styles, rejecting the limitations of traditional definitions of the shōjo manga genre and appealing to increasingly older readers. They played with notions of gender and sexuality, adapted such "boys' genres" as science fiction, and explored some of the weightiest issues of human existence.

By the end of the 1970s, shōjo manga had ceased to be a monolithic and homogenous genre. A number of subgenres, such as fantasy, science fiction, and boys’ love, had become firmly established, distinct from the “mainstream” of school-girl romances, which themselves had become more sophisticated and less governed by taboo. As the upper age-limit of shōjo manga readerships continued to rise, the 1980s saw a trend towards increased specialization and more narrowly-targeted magazines. Magazines geared at adult women also appeared. Though initially dominated by soap-opera style stories, many of which were notoriously pornographic, by the early 1990s manga for women had developed into a richly diverse and sophisticated field.

It was throughout the 1990s that I carried out my own anthropological fieldwork on the readers of shōjo manga. Through countless discussions with readers, as well as with artists, editors and retailers, and through my own experiences, I identified a number of features in the way readers engage with shōjo manga that make the genre important to them in ways that transcend simple entertainment: manga reading is a life-long practice that can only be fully understood in the context of a reader’s biography; shōjo manga can serve as a vehicle for a reader to define her individual identity; it can also serve as a vehicle for socializing that binds friends and family members; it provides a frame of reference, a repertoire of idioms through which a reader can interpret and model experience; it can be a source of inspiration and catharsis; and its nature has changed over the decades in response to broader historical changes.

Shōjo manga continues to change. Since 1995, sales of manga magazines, along with sales of all magazines, have steadily declined. Sales of manga paperbacks have fluctuated, but have so far managed to escape the fate of magazines. Why have sales of magazines declined? We can identify several factors, such as: the growth of the Internet in Japan; the increasing sophistication of video games; a lengthy recession that forced consumers to be more frugal; the rise of massive used bookstore chains, not to mention twenty-four hour manga cafes, that do not pay royalties to publishers. But the biggest single factor in the decline of magazines in Japan is this: the cell phone. Fifteen years ago, you would board a train in Japan and see dozens of people reading magazines, including manga magazines. Today you board a train and see everyone hunched over their cellphones, reading or writing e-mail, surfing the Internet, buying concert tickets--almost anything you can do on a personal computer.

For more than thirty years, the manga industry has been structured around a model that seemed unshakable. Magazines editors solicit work from manga artists for a modest page rate. The manga is then serialized in cheap magazines with few advertisements that are essentially sold at cost. Serials that prove unpopular are cut short. Those that prove even marginally popular are republished in paperbacks. Ten percent of the cover price of each copy sold is paid to the artist as royalties, and the rest of the profit goes to the publisher. The magazines, in other words, are extravagant advertisements for the paperbacks, which are the primary source of profit.

The quandary for publishers is that, in this digital age, Japanese consumers are no longer inclined to buy a large paper object that they will eventually discard anyway. Since the magazines themselves are not a direct source of profit, on the surface this would not seem to be a problem, but the fact is that these magazines are the pivot, the fulcrum, the center of gravity of the entire manga industry. The extinction of the printed magazine is inevitable: not a matter of “if” but “when.” The implications of its extinction are both devastating and exciting, but that is a subject for another talk.

What I want to discuss in closing are some of the implications of these changes for the genre of shōjo manga. I spoke earlier of several metamorphoses. The first was the transformation from simple to humor strips to melodramas featuring little girls and their families. The second was the literal “growing up” of heroines into teenagers in love. The third was the conquest of the genre by female artists who transformed it from “kids’ stuff” into a genre as sophisticated as literature or film.

One metamorphosis, though, never occurred, and that is the corporate metamorphosis in which women would take over editorial control of the magazines from stodgy, middle-aged men with outdated and sexist notions of who their readers are and what those readers want. I waited for that metamorphosis for fifteen years, and even tried to help bring it about by arguing for it in my writings and public lectures in Japan.

But the death of the magazine will render that metamorphosis moot. Even those who work in the giant manga publishing houses--Shueisha, Shogakukan, Kodansha--acknowledge that those corporations are dinosaurs, massive and slow, unable to turn quickly or adapt to sudden changes in environment. That is why the glass ceiling against which female employees bump their heads remains firmly in place, and that is why these publishers will follow the printed magazine to extinction.

In a digital world, female artists who have been restricted for decades by male editors who think they know best what female readers want, will find a very different landscape. We have only glimpsed the borders of that Undiscovered Country, and it will no doubt be a harsh frontier. Many artists, accustomed to the old ways, will no doubt follow the printed magazine and the publishing dinosaurs to extinction. But others will surely make their way and create a place for themselves where they can connect directly with their readers, without worrying about whether or not their work “adheres to editorial policy.” You can get a taste of what that Brave New World might look like if you attend one of the hundreds of comic markets held across Japan every year. There you will see vast gatherings of women--in some cases, tens of thousands--buying and selling self-published manga, utterly free of editorial constraint.

Of course, these physical gatherings of women vending printed books have only a few points of commonality with the experience of using an electronic book hardly bigger than a sheet of paper to wirelessly download any kind of content you desire, any time you desire.

But I think it is safe to say two things: one, the shōjo manga artists in that new world will not be answering to middle-aged men in neckties; and, two, those artists will show us new worlds of sequential art we have never dreamed of. ©Matt Thorn 2008

Wkipedia

Shōjo, shojo, or shoujo manga (少女漫画 shōjo manga?) is manga marketed to a female audience

roughly between the ages of 10 and 18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 (shōjo), literally "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction — often with a strong focus on human and romantic relationships and emotions.[1] Strictly speaking, shōjo manga does not comprise a style or a genre per se, but rather indicates a target demographic.[2][3] Examples include Candy Candy, Cardcaptor Sakura, Fruits Basket, Fushigi Yuugi, Ouran High School Host Club, Pretty Cure, Princess Ai, Princess Tutu, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Lovely Complex, Romeo x Juliet, Sailor Moon, Skip Beat, Shugo Chara!, Tokyo Mew Mew, Rose of Versailles, Kaichou wa Maid-sama, Vampire Knight and Nana.

History

Japanese magazines specifically for girls, known as shōjo magazines, first appeared in 1903 with the founding of Shōjo kai (少女界?, Girls' World), and continued with others such as Shōjo Sekai (少女世界?, Girls' World) (1906) and the long-running Shōjo no tomo (少女の友?, Girls' Friend) (1908).[4][5]

Simple, single-page manga had begun to appear in these magazines by 1910, and by the 1930s more sophisticated humor-strips had become an essential feature of most girls' magazines. The most popular manga, Katsuji Matsumoto's Kurukuru Kurumi-chan (くるくるクルミちゃん), debuted on the pages of Shōjo no tomo (少女の友) in 1938.[6][dead link] As World War II progressed, however, "comics, perhaps regarded as frivolous, began to disappear".[7]

Postwar shōjo manga, such as Shosuke Kurakane's popular Anmitsu Hime,[8] initially followed the pre-war pattern of simple humor-strips. But Osamu Tezuka's postwar revolution, introducing intense drama and serious themes to children's manga, spread quickly to shōjo manga, particularly after the enormous success of his seminal Ribon no kishi (リボンの騎士 Princess Knight).[7] Sally the Witch -- being the first magical girl genre anime -- may (even more broadly) be the first shōjo anime as well.

Until the mid-1960s, males vastly outnumbered the handful of females (for example: Toshiko Ueda, Hideko Mizuno, Masako Watanabe, and Miyako Maki) amongst the artists working on shōjo manga. Many, such as Tetsuya Chiba,[9] functioned as rookies, waiting for an opportunity to move over to shōnen (少年 "boys'") manga. Chiba asked his wife about girls' feelings for research for his manga. At this time, conventional job-opportunities for females did not include becoming a manga artist.[10] Adapting Tezuka's dynamic style to shōjo manga (which had always been domestic in nature) proved challenging. According to Thorn:

While some chose to simply create longer humor-strips, others turned to popular girls' novels of the day as a model for melodramatic shōjo manga. These manga featured sweet, innocent pre-teen heroines, torn from the safety of family and tossed from one perilous circumstance to another, until finally rescued (usually by a kind, handsome young man) and re-united with their families.[11]

These early shōjo manga almost invariably had pre-adolescent girls as both heroines and readers. Unless they used a fantastic setting (as in Princess Knight) or a backdrop of a distant time or place, romantic love for the heroine remained essentially taboo. But the average age of the readership rose, and its interests changed. In the mid-1960s one of the few female artists in the field, Yoshiko Nishitani, began to draw stories featuring contemporary Japanese teenagers in love. This signaled a dramatic transformation of the genre.[12][13] Between 1950 and 1969, increasingly large audiences for manga emerged in Japan with the solidification of its two main marketing genres, shōnen manga aimed at boys and shōjo manga aimed at girls.[1][14]

Between roughly 1969 and 1971 a flood of young female manga artists transformed the genre again. Some, including Hagio Moto, Yumiko Oshima, and Keiko Takemiya, became known as the hana no nijū yon nen gumi (花の 24 年組, Year 24 Group, so named from the approximate year of birth many of them shared:Shōwa 24, or 1949). This loosely defined group experimented with content and form, inventing such new sub-genres as Shōnen-ai, and earning the long-maligned shōjo manga unprecedented critical praise. Other female artists of the same generation, such as Riyoko Ikeda, Yukari Ichijo, and Sumika Yamamoto, garnered unprecedented popular support with such hits (respectively) as Berusaiyu no bara (ベルサイユのばら, "The Rose of Versailles"), Dezainaa (デザイナー, "Designer"), and Eesu wo nerae! (エースをねらえ!, "Aim for the Ace!").[1][4][12][13][14][15][16][volume & issue needed] Since the mid-1970s, women have created the vast majority of shōjo manga; notable exceptions include Mineo Maya and Shinji Wada).

From 1975 to 2009 shōjo manga continued to develop stylistically while simultaneously branching out into different but overlapping subgenres.[17] Yukari Fujimoto feels that during the 1990s, shoujo manga became concerned with self-fulfillment. She feels the Gulf War influenced the development of "girls who fight to protect the destiny of a community", such as Red River, Basara, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Sailor Moon. She feels that the shoujo manga of the 1990s showed emotional bonds between women that were stronger than bonds between a man and a woman.[18] Major sub-genres include romance, science fiction, fantasy, magical girls, yaoi, and "Ladies Comics" (in Japanese, redisu レディース, redikomi レディコミ, and josei 女性).[19][20]

Meaning and spelling

As shōjo literally means "girl" in Japanese, the equivalent of the western usage will generally include the medium[clarification needed]: girls' manga (少女漫画 shōjo manga), or anime for girls (少女向けアニメ shōjo-muke anime). The parallel terms shōnen, seinen, and josei also occur in the categorisation of manga and anime, with similar qualification. Though the terminology originates with the Japanese publishers, cultural differences with the West mean that labelling in English tends to vary wildly, with the types often confused and mis-applied.

Due to vagaries in the romanization of Japanese, publishers may transcribe 少女 (written しょうじょ in hiragana) in a wide variety of ways. By far the most common form, shoujo[citation needed], follows English phonology[citation needed], preserves the spelling, and requires only ASCII input. The Hepburn romanization shōjo uses a macron for the long vowel, though the prevalence of Latin-1 fonts often results in a circumflex instead, as in shôjo. Many English-language texts just ignore long vowels, using shojo, potentially leading to confusion with 処女 (shojo, literally: "virgin") as well as other possible meanings. Finally, transliteraters may use Nihon-shiki-type mirroring of the kana spelling: syôjyo, or syoujyo.

Shōjo magazines in Japan

n a strict sense, shōjo manga refers to a story serialized in a shōjo manga magazine (a magazine marketed to girls and young women). The list below contains past and current Japanese shōjo manga magazines, grouped according to their publishers. Such magazines can appear on a variety of schedules, including bi-weekly (Margaret, Hana to Yume, Shōjo Comic), monthly (Ribon, Bessatsu Margaret, Bessatsu Friend, LaLa), bi-monthly (Deluxe Margaret, LaLa DX, The Dessert), and quarterly (Cookie BOX, Unpoko). Weekly shōjo magazines, common in the 1960s and 1970s, had disappeared by the early 1980s.[citation needed]

Shueisha

Ribon (monthly, 1955– ) Ribon Original Cobalt Cookie Cookie BOX (quarterly) Margaret (bi-weekly, 1963– ) Bessatsu Margaret (monthly) The Margaret Deluxe Margaret (bi-monthly)

Kodansha

Nakayoshi Aria Shōjo Friend Bessatsu Friend Dessert The Dessert

Shogakukan

Ciao Chu Chu Shōjo Comic Betsucomi Petit Comic Cheese! Pochette

Hakusensha

Hana to Yume Bessatsu Hana to Yume LaLa LaLa DX Melody

Akita Shoten

Princess Princess Gold Petit Princess Mystery Bonita Susperia Mystery Renai MAX

Kadokawa Shoten

Asuka

Web magazine

Manga Airport

Shinshokan

Unpoko

Shōjo magazines outside Japan

Viz Media

Shojo Beat , a shōjo manga magazine published in North America from 2005 to 2009

Deborah Shamoon. Review of Straight from the Heart: Gender, Intimacy, and the Cultural Production of Shōjo Manga. By Jennifer S. Prough.Jennifer S. Prough. Straight from the Heart: Gender, Intimacy, and the Cultural Production of Shōjo Manga. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2011.

Deborah Shamoon

There was a time when all scholarly writing on manga and anime had to begin with a disclaimer explaining their importance and significance for uninformed Western readers. Thankfully, that time seems to have finally passed, at least for those genres that have reached a wide audience outside Japan. Study of shōjo manga, however, has lagged behind the study of anime and of other genres of manga. Although shōjo manga specifically and girls’ culture generally are significant aspects of modern Japan, they have been underrepresented in academic writing. Thank goodness, then, for Jennifer Prough’s Straight from the Heart, which is the first book-length study of the shōjo manga industry written in English. Prough, an anthropologist, focuses her analysis not on literary or visual interpretation, but on the industry itself: how shōjo manga magazines are produced and marketed, and the relationship between artists, editors, and readers. Like Sharon Kinsella, whose 2000 book Adult Manga she cites, Prough conducted field work at the major manga publishing houses (Kōdansha, Shōgakukan, Shūeisha, and Hakusensha). Unlike Kinsella, however, whose analysis was informed by Marxism, Prough focuses her analysis on gender.

Shōjo manga has always been a tricky topic for feminist analysis, because the promise of a girls-only space is so often undercut by narratives that seem to reinforce sexist ideology. Prough wisely sidesteps much of this debate by focusing on the production of manga. Gender dynamics play a role here as well, as nearly all the artists are young women and most of the editors are middle-aged men. Prough examines how shōjo manga are marketed to appeal to girls’ sensibilities, how publishers elicit and gauge reader participation, and readers are cultivated into becoming professional artists. Her conclusions, based on extensive interviews and engagement with Japanese-language manga studies discourse, are measured, eschewing a strongly polemical or ideologically driven argument. Instead, she shows how shōjo manga, like any other popular culture text, balance competing demands of the marketplace, girls’ tastes, and cultural expectations for girls’ behavior.

One strength of this study is that Prough primarily analyzes the most popular and mainstream aspects of shōjo manga in the 1990s and 2000s. By contrast, most previously published research on shōjo manga in English has tended to focus on those aspects that are most unusual to Western readers, namely, boys’ love, ladies’ comics, and dōjinshi (amateur manga). While there is still much to be said about those subgenres and about the amateur manga market, in-depth study of the most mainstream aspects of shōjo manga has been previously lacking in English. This study provides crucial understanding of the most salient and important aspects of the industry.

Another strength of this study is that Prough reads shōjo manga as popular culture texts, that is, as commodities subject to the demands of industry. Because casual readers usually encounter individual manga titles in reprinted format, it is tempting to interpret them as the work of a single artistic vision, or auteur, to borrow a term from film studies. In reality, however, the majority of shōjo manga are more similar to television dramas or big-budget films in that they are the product of multiple sources of input and heavily dependent on sales figures: a commercial enterprise, not art for art’s sake. For this reason, Prough examines the monthly and weekly magazines where the titles are first serialized, rather than the later reprint volumes. In turning her attention to the magazines as a whole, including the contests, prizes, letters pages, and fan art, Prough provides a more complete view of how shōjo manga are produced and consumed.

Prough argues that just as the primary theme of shōjo manga is the representation of emotion, the industry itself also operates on a discourse of emotion and close human relationships. Although they may generate less revenue than reprints, magazines are key for encouraging a sense of community among readers and cultivating upcoming artists. Magazines use prizes and character goods to encourage readers to respond to surveys indicating which stories they enjoy and why. These surveys, along with fan mail, are a primary way the magazines stay connected to girl readers and respond quickly to what they want to read. All of these channels of communication between the readers and the producers foster a sense of closeness, which was one of the driving forces behind the “golden age” in the 1970s, and remains important today. This is not only because readers feel the artists are girls just like themselves, but also, as Prough explains, because publishers find nearly all their new talent from among readers, not from art school graduates or amateur artists in the dōjinshi market (84). As readers are the primary source of new artists, the relationship between readers, artists, and editors is much more complex and interactive than one might find in other commercial media. This unusual relationship is one of the defining traits of shōjo manga.

Prough also examines the relationship between the editors and artists in terms of gender roles. As the majority of artists today are young and inexperienced, the editors’ role is quite strong. However, Prough also sees a change in the editorship at the major publishing houses. Historically, most shōjo manga editors were older men placed in that division involuntarily, without prior interest in manga of any kind. There is a growing number of women editors, many of whom grew up reading shōjo manga, although they tend to be relegated to the “mommy track” (105). Nevertheless, in interviews they report a greater emotional investment in the genre, and even younger male editors are more likely to have grown up as manga fans. This close relationship, in which the producers are also consumers, Prough argues, “leads us to question the dichotomy between production and consumption as they have been theorized…today many producers in the culture industry are also consumers” (109).

Prough looks at this complex relationship between producers and consumers through the lens of Gals! by Fujii Mihona (Ribon 1999-2003). In this story of trendy kogals who police the streets of Shibuya to prevent classmates from engaging in enjo kōsai (underage prostitution), Prough sees a balance between attention-grabbing topical stories and the kinds of socially responsible messages editors feel obliged to deliver. Prough makes an unusual choice in skipping over classics of the genre or titles better known in English translation to focus on a story and author that will probably be obscure to most readers. However, it is precisely by analyzing a story that was popular but not extraordinary that we can see the average state of the genre at work. In Prough’s analysis, Gals! encourages girls to forgo the short-term financial reward of enjo kōsai in favor of the more intangible benefits of female friendship and self-respect, while at the same time still glorifying the materialist fashions that tempt girls to sell themselves for cash in the first place. This kind of narrative, which contains competing strains of feminist and sexist ideologies, is typical of shōjo manga, what Prough describes as “the tension between ‘what girls want,’ ‘what girls should want,’ and ‘what will sell,’ all of which are as productive as they are descriptive” (128). She also includes analysis of a non-fiction book surveying girls’ attitudes about sexuality, presented in manga format by manga magazine Dessert. This is a good example of how the industry as a whole contributes to a discourse on girlhood, in conjunction with the fictional narratives that are usually the exclusive focus of manga scholarship.

Prough ends her study with an overview of how shōjo manga has recently been expanding outside the traditionally closed world of girls’ culture to reach new audiences, primarily through traveling museum exhibitions and foreign licensing. Prough found at the time of her field work that publishers were largely indifferent to foreign markets outside Asia, although that has changed in the past five years.

This book provides an excellent overview of a topic that is central to contemporary Japan but that has so far been underrepresented in academic writing. The writing is clear and meticulously documented, and should appeal to both scholars of Japan and those without a background in Japanese studies. It is recommended for anyone interested in contemporary Japan, gender studies, and popular culture. Because of its approachable style, it is also recommended for adoption in undergraduate courses. Like all good scholarship, the book suggests many questions for future research. Especially rich is the question of shōjo manga’s direction from here, given the preponderance of young, inexperienced artists, the increased possibilities for community building on the internet, and the emergence of new audiences overseas. At the same time, this study of contemporary shōjo manga also points to the need for further study of classic titles and the historic development of the genre. Hopefully this book will usher in more research in English on manga that is similarly measured and well informed.

Shojo Manga! Girls' Comics! A Mirror of Girls' DreamsMasami Toku From: Mechademia Volume 2, 2007 pp. 19-32 | 10.1353/mec.0.0013

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Historically, many great comic books have existed in cultures all over the world. It may be, however, that in Japan the popularity of manga (comics) and its impact on visual popular culture and society are more significant than in any other culture. In contrast to the United States, where comic books are only for children or collectors, in Japan manga influences all of Japanese society, from preschoolers to adults. Its influence appears throughout Japan in commercials on TV, in advertisements, on billboards, and even in school textbooks.1 But Japanese manga is no longer just a phenomenon of visual pop culture in Japan. At the beginning of the twenty-first century the popularity of Japanese manga has spread worldwide through comic books, animation, and merchandise. But despite manga's popularity, not many people really understand its significance, its worldwide popularity, its appeal for children, and its difference from American comics. One of the major characteristics of manga is that it has split into boys' (shōnen) and girls' (shōjo) comics. Regardless of the subject depicted in the story, the main theme of boys' manga is how the heroes become men by protecting women, family, country, or the earth from enemies. The theme of girls' manga is how love triumphs by overcoming obstacles. These generalizations are true to a certain extent; however, the theme of girls' manga has been changing in response to the changing roles of women in the still male-dominated Japanese society.

A Touring Exhibition of Shojo MangaSince World War II, the role and the value of shojo manga have become significant in Japan, reflecting girls' and women's desires and dreams. In its subjects and expressions, manga reflects female aesthetics and fulfills female dreams. To explore the role of visual pop culture that impacts U.S. society through the phenomenon of manga in Japan, I created a touring exhibition in the United States to introduce manga's value and contribution to visual culture and society with a special emphasis on shojo manga.

The exhibition Girls' Power! Shojo Manga! has two purposes: to examine the worldwide phenomenon of Japanese comics and to develop the media and visual literacy of teachers,

students, and the community. These purposes will be accomplished through this touring exhibition and symposia on the cultural and historical backgrounds of this Japanese visual popular culture that exerts such an influence on U.S. society. The exhibition's goal is to examine the treatment of gender roles in shojo manga and to examine how shōjo mangaka (girls' manga artists) have contributed to the development of a unique style of visual expression in their narratives, a contribution seldom discussed in the world of Japanese comics. This is the first touring exhibition of girls' comics that includes a discussion of gender issues in manga. The exhibition is intended to open minds to the value of visual popular culture.

More than two hundred artworks created by twenty-three renowned shōjo mangaka are introduced chronologically in three major generations over the last sixty years: the dawn of modern shojo manga (postwar-1960s), the development of modern shojo manga (1960s-1980s), and the new generation of modern shojo manga (1980s-present). The medium reflects the evolution of the social roles of Japanese girls and women during this period. The exhibition also documents how the visual composition of manga mirrors developments in Japanese aesthetics.2

Click for larger view Figure 1. 

Exhibition catalog of Girl Power! Shojo Manga! Image from Versailles no bara (The Rose of Versailles).

The Dawn of Modern Shojo MangaIn general, shōjo mangaka create manga for girls and women; however, these comic artists are not always female. Most shojo manga in the 1930s and 1940s were created by male mangaka. Four of them (Tezuka Osamu, Chiba Tetsuya, Ishinomori Shōtarō, and Matsumoto Leiji) were major contributors to the development of contemporary shojo manga in this early period,...

Feminism in Shoujo Manga? Hallo! My name is Jamila, and I'm 1/2 of the new Bento Physics that telophase was kind enough to link to previously. I go under the moniker Naughty Ninja, obsess over the blog, and like having an excuse to watch more anime and read more manga. (Not that we even need an excuse in the first place, but you know, it rocks.)

So yes, I'm starting a series of articles that will center on feministic readings of shoujo manga. I don't like the recent amount of published thinking that pegs shoujo as a bad genre, much of the negative thinking coming from girls themselves no less. I honestly don't understand how the likes of Kare Kano, Fruits Basket, or MARS can be seen as misrepresenting the female and be seen as counter-feminist.

I know feminism can be a dubious term, and I honestly didn't want to call myself for a feminist for quite a few years. Mostly because I heard girls and women alike throwing around the term and basing their views and opinions on shallow thinking. i.e.: I hate men, they're all pigs. I'm a feminist!

Personally, I believe in gender equality. I believe a woman doesn't have to act like a man to be respected. I believe gender is socially constructed and that we should all be allowed to take on certain traits and personalities, be they deemed as "masculine" or "feminine". I dream that I will live long enough to hear men complain about how they're portrayed in pop culture and the media, because it'll mean they'll know something's wrong with our sense of gender politics. I want to see a day when it won't be called feminism or masculinism but a whole new field of study and theory and format for discussion.

I believe that shoujo can show that. I know there's bad shoujo out there. Just as there is bad anime, bad manga, bad movies, bad video games, bad books, etc. But I know there's damn good stuff, the stuff that speaks to me on the level of my being a woman. Shoujo is mostly written by women, for women. But Saikano: The Last Love Song on this Tiny Little Planet and titles like it are blurring the lines, being written by a man, with strong shoujo themes, but

enjoyed by boys and girls alike.

I wish there were more titles translated and imported to outside of Japan, but I'm immensely thankful for the good stuff we have on our bookshelves. It's a good time to be a manga fan, and it's getting even better.

So what I'd like to ask the community, be you girl or boy (feministic discussion can't be limited to women only!), is your interpretation on shoujo manga. Do you really think female characters are made to eradicate their self-worth and personalities for a chance at True Love (tm)? Do you believe women are stronger in manga now? How do you view the representation of the female in most manga?

What's the good stuff you're reading? The bad stuff? What makes it so?

Is there room for feminism in manga?

Also, recommendations of recent books and links on feminism would be greatly appreciated. As it is, I only have my beloved copy of Feminist Media Studies by Liesbet van Zoonen and Hags and Heroes: A feminist approach to Jungian Psychotherapy with Couples and a scant few anthologies. My library is lonely, and critical theory books are too. darn. expensive. (I just finished being a starved college student, and am now a starved first-time employee, gah.)

I'm looking forward to the resulting discussion, as I've seen great stuff from this community so far. Once the feministic-rah-rah-shoujo-manga articles start popping up at Bento Physics, I'd appreciate anything and everything you'd have to say. I'd like to understand as many view points as possible and try to, in my limited capacity, come up with something decent.

Titles I'll be discussing on Bento Physics will include: Fruits Basket, MARS, NANA, Paradise Kiss, Kare Kano, Absolute Boyfriend, Hana Yori Dango, and even Hot Gimmick. Anymore recommendations?

eminism in Shoujo Manga: Introduction July 3, 2006 Posted by Naughty Ninja in Feminism, Shoujo. trackback

The representation of the female in shoujo manga has at times been misinterpreted or dismissed as anti-feminism fodder. This is despite the fact that most content is created by a large number of female mangaka (numbering in the hundreds), and is meant for a significantly large female audience. This affinity between creator and consumer almost

guarantees the production of beautifully crafted stories brimming with honesty, depth, and respect towards the female condition.

In an interesting article entitled American Girls’ and Women’s Comics : White Space, Rachel Nabors covers what others have already recognized as the gap in the comic market, and encourages women to become creators and be more vocal in their opinions of female representation. A part of the article includes (bold emphasis my own):

Q: Isn’t shoujo manga enough?A: Sure, if you don’t mind subtly throwing away all the feminist ideals our mothers fought for in during the Women’s Liberation Movement. Japan is not what you would call “female friendly.” In Japan, it is acceptable for a man to grope a teenage girl on the train. I recall reading that a hideously large percentage of young women only go to college to seek husbands then drop out when they get married. Women are still considered inferior in business and the glass ceiling is more like a brick wall.

This chauvinistic attitude is visible in Japanese comics. Even in stories like Kare Kano that seem to champion strong young women, the females inevitably give up their own will, dreams and hopes in favor of adopting their sweetheart’s.

I imagine Nabors’ intent is to enjoin women to throw off the dependence on manga (shoujo or otherwise) as a proxy means to fill the female gap in comics. Perfectly understandable, but it doesn’t quite justify her sweeping generalizations, and outright fostering of misconceptions.

While I strongly admire the intent of her message I feel inclined to educate her on the baselessness of these misconceptions, but such well-intentioned commentary would be doomed to appear as bitchy nitpicking. Perhaps as the overeducated otaku, I should understand how a Westerner would look at us Asians so strangely, especially since so many of the books she owns are written from that Western-stranger perspective.

I discussed the matter at length with Samurai Tusok, and he has an amazing way of bypassing the geek babble and insulted sputtering, and distilled it into the following, in the form of a comment on MangaBlog:

First of all, [Nabor’s] dismissal of shoujo as counterfeminist pabulum is based on a picture of shoujo manga that is filtered entirely by whatever gets exported to the U.S., as if that were somehow representative of shoujo in Japan itself.

That’s like drawing conclusions about the value systems of independent filmmakers based solely on films distributed by Miramax. But the fact is that manga distributors seem to focus on a ya-lit audience of pre-teens and up, an audience that they’ve concluded to not be interested in manga featuring something more than counterfeminist pabulum.

Oh, and to say that “In Japan, it is acceptable for a man to grope a teenage girl on the train.” is two hundred fifty six shades of problematic. That train molesters are rampant is not the same as being ’socially acceptable’.

At any rate, Ms. Nabors has compelled me to actualize an idea that’s been brewing in my head for the last few days: a series of articles discussing the various feminine values found in shoujo manga. To be specific, those that make their way outside of Japan.

I won’t stand to see a perfectly wonderful art form like manga and its shoujo genre to be written off as uniformly counterfeminist, moreso by someone who reduces it to nothing but the product of a culture of Asians-as-Patriarchal-Savages.

As such dear readers, I shall endeavor to do everything within my power to showcase the ideological plurality to be found in manga, and that feminist messages can indeed be found in your local bookshelves.

Perbedaan Gender dalam Budaya Manga dan Budaya Kita Assalamu'alaikum!

Sejujurnya, saya ingin segera menulis pikiran saya ini ke dalam blog mumpung masih hangat-hangat tahi ayam (aduuuuh...kenapa perumpamaan itu yang dipakai siiih???)

Saya baru saja membuka forum di mangafox.com (baru sejam yang lalu). Singkatnya forum yang membicarakan tentang tokoh di dalam komik serta pendapat pembaca tentang tokoh komik itu mengusik hati saya. Daripada bikin psuing kalau dipikirkan sendiri, yah lebih baik cuap-cuap di sini. OK, saya ingin mengutak-atik hal yang berhubungan dengan manga, terutama shojo manga. Kita tahu semua, sebagai cewek (cewek Indonesia tentunya) kita sering dibuat kesal oleh tokoh utama (protagonis) dalam shojo manga. Bukan hanya karena kita melihat tokoh utamanya punya banyak sifat yang tidak sreg dengan keinginan kita, tetapi juga karena dia dibuat terlalu sempurna. Saya masih ingat benar ketika saya mulai membenci karakter Noriko dalam komik Dunia Mimpi (Kanata Kara/ From Far Away) yang menurut saya terlalu dipaksakan dengan sifat kawaiinya. Dulu saya belum memahami mengapa saya mulai sebal dengan karakter yang pertamanya saya sukai. Kok tiba-tiba pendapat saya berubah ya? Nah, di bawah ini saya akan menjelaskannya. tentu saja menurut opini saya sendiri.

Sejujurnya saya suka komik straight seperti komik shojo (serial cantik) yang tokoh-tokohnya cutie-pie dan moe abis atau shonen manga yang tokohnya lucu dan punya cita-cita besar. Hanya saja, kenyataannya tokoh utama dalam komik shojo sering bertingkah 'tidak masuk akal' walaupun setting komiknya bercerita seputar kehidupan sekolah yang seharusnya sangat masuk akal. Terkadang kita sebagai perempuan juga merasa bahwa komik shojo hanya bermodalkan cewek

dengan mata besar dan cowok bishonen saja. Saya kemudian menganalisisnya, mengapa saya bisa tiba-tiba benci pada karakter tokoh dalam komik shojo ya?

Mari kita analisis dari sistem budaya Jepang. Kita tahu semua dari post saya sebelumnya bahwa budaya Jepang adalah budaya patriarkal hampir murni. Dari beberapa artikel yang saya baca tentang fenomena teater Takarazuka (teater yang semuan pemerannya cewek) versus Kabuki (teater tradisional Jepang yang aktornya cowok semua), saya melihat fenomena gender yang langka di Jepang. Di sana ada budaya yang mengidealkan feminitas falik (phallic feminity). feminitas falik bisa diterjemahkan secara mudahnya adalah kualitas feminin seorang wanita dari sudut pandang laki-laki. Kualitas di sini maksudnya tentu saja kualitas ideal, seperti wanita harus halus, manis, punya perasaan yang peka, romantis, dan sebagainya. Wanita itu harus dan perlu menjadi makhluk bagaikan dewi, penuh pengertian dan bisa menerima tanpa rasa cemburu. Nah, para pengarang manga (atau mangaka) yang tumbuh dalam didikan filosofi feminitas falik seperti itu, mau tidak mau harus membuat komik yang sesuai dengan budaya Jepang. Kalau tidak, pasti komik mereka tidak laku. Apalagi, bukan rahasia umum bila dalam budaya Jepang, komiknya sangat tersegmentasi. Artinya, setiap kalangan diharapkan punya komiknya sendiri-sendiri. Misalnya cewek SMP-SMA bacanya ya shojo manga atau shonen manga, sedangkan yang cowok shonen manga. Ini berbeda dengan Indonesia yang cenderung egalitarian di mana semua bacaan kalau bisa ya bebas adegan panas atau menantang (maaf Mba Ayu Lestari, well I'm not your fan anyway) sehingga bisa dibaca semua kalangan, dari anak SD hingga orang tua, misalnya Siti Nurbaya, Laskar Pelangi (banyak yang mengkritik budaya kita karena hal ini, tapi saya malah sebal dengan pengkritik yang memuja kebebasan keblabasan budaya Barat).

Hal ini tentu saja membuat tokoh utama dalam segmentasi pasar shojo akan bersifat seperti gadis muda yang labil, masih belum tahu apa itu cinta sehingga terkesan bodoh (sebetulnya belum berpengalaman saja), mudah berubah dan gampang bingung. Semua sifat itu sadar tak sadar ada dalam diri remaja, baik perempuan atau laki-laki. Hanya saja sifat seperti itu lebih diekspos di dalam shojo-manga daripada shonen manga misalnya. Hal ini membuat kita yang membaca menjadi sebal, padahal notabene itulah yang kita rasakan waktu kita remaja.

Faktor lain mengapa kita bisa sebal dengan tokoh utama shojo lebih disebabkan pada fakta bahwa ada perbedaan budaya gender dalam komik tersebut. Kita yang dibesarkan dalam budaya Bilateral egalitarian di mana melihat cewek dan cowok itu sama (yah, ngga cuma cewek yang perlu sempurna, cowok juga perlu menjadi sempurna) tidak mungkin begitu saja menerima konsep feminitas falik dalam shojo manga. Misalnya saya yang sebal dengan ketergantungan tokoh cewek di dalam komik shojo, tentu saja akan berkomentar, "Duuuh, mbok mandiri gitu looh! perbaiki dirimu dulu!"

Hal ini disebabkan tentu saja karena budaya Indonesia (terutama budaya Jawa, Sunda), berbeda dengan budaya Jepang dan Asia lainnya. Budaya Jawa misalnya sejak jaman baheula sudah melihat bahwa posisi laki-laki dan perempuan sama, yang penting adalah bakat dan kepandaiannya. Wanita Jawa juga lebih merdeka daripada wanita Asia lainnya. Sejak dahulu jaman Borobudur belum berdiri, wanita Jawa terkenal karena memenuhi pasar-pasar dan dikenal sebagai pilar ekonomi keluarga. Kemandirian ini berbeda dengan wanita Asia lainnya. kalau belum percaya, coba nonton film Jepang jamn samurai, jarang ada wanita yang berjualan kalau tidak ditemani suami atau pelayan. Sedangkan wanita Jawa sudah bisa berlalu lalang di pasar tanpa mereka. Melihat perbedaan budaya ini, kita yang tidak biasa melihat wanita yang tidak mandiri menjadi kesal sendiri

dengan nilai-nilai dalam diri kita. Tapi ada unsur iri alias siriknya juga. Pada dasarnya semua wanita ingin dimengerti (promosi lagu Ada Band..hahahaha), sehingga mungkin kita kagum dan sedikit iri pada nasib baik si tokoh utama dalam shojo komik yang bisa dilindungi dan disayangi oleh si tokoh bishonen. Kita juga ingin memiliki kekasih yang sekeren dan sepengertian tokoh dalam komik tersebut. Melihat hal tersebut, mari kita pikirkan baik-baik tentang apa yang telah kita persepsikan dan melihat hal ini sebagai pemicu kita untuk membuat karya-karya yang lebih baik. Saya sejujurnya dari kecil sering merasa kurang puas dengan cerita yang saya baca, salah satunya cerita shojo manga. Tapi saya bisa membuat cerita alternatif yang akhirnya menjadi cerita yang benar-benar baru untuk mengimbangi ambisi saya yang tak tersalurkan dari komik atau cerita yang saya baca.

Ok..that's it. Give me your opinion anyway...

/ Home / Peristiwa Budaya /11 Februari 2011 / ulasanPENOKOHAN PEREMPUAN DALAM KOMIK

 

PENOKOHAN PEREMPUAN DALAM KOMIK

Asni Furaida

Dunia buku menawarkan kepada kita alternatif-alternatif media yang bisa kita akses secara

mudah untuk memuaskan minat baca kita. Media-media buku yang bisa kita akses sangat

beragam bentuknya, mulai dari pembagian buku menjadi fiksi dan non fiksi, Koran, majalah,

jurnal, komik, dll. Media yang paling menarik dan banyak diakses oleh para generasi muda

sekarang ini adalah komik. Komik sangat diminati karena komik menyatukan dunia tulisan

dan dunia gambar. Semula yang biasanya kita bebas berimajinasi jika membaca buku maka

saat kita membaca komik, imajinasi kita tidak perlu susah-susah kita gambar karena sudah

dihidangkan sedemikian rupa oleh para komikus. Hal ini menjadikan komik media yang

sangat digemari oleh semua kalangan, mulai dari anak-anak sampai orang dewasa.

Komik yang beredar di Indonesia menurut pengalaman baca saya sebagai pembaca komik,

terbagi menjadi dua yaitu komik timur dan komik barat. Cakupan komik timur adalah komik-

komik yang dihasilkan dari Negara-negara timur, seperti : Indonesia, Jepang, Korea, Taiwan,

dll. Sedangkan komik barat adalah komik yang dihasilkan oleh Negara-negara barat,

khususnya amerika.

Dalam dunia perkomikan yang telah saya kenal sejak remaja dulu, tepatnya SMP kelas 1,

dunia komik adalah dunia yang berwarna-warna, bentuk dari imajinasi manusia yang tanpa

batas. komik menawarkan kepada kita beragam imajinasi yang mungkin tidak kita pikirkan

sebelumnya.

Contoh ragam komik yang sudah menjadi budaya massa di masyarakat kita sekarang ini

adalah komik-komik keluaran jepang atau yang kita sering menyebutnya manga dan komik

amerika terbitan marvel komik. Dalam komik jepang (manga) dan komik amerika beragam

cerita disajikan, mulai dari action, drama romantic, detektif, petualangan, superhero, dll.

Bagian komik yang sangat menarik adalah penokohan yang juga ditunjang oleh jalinan cerita

yang bagus. Penokohan dalam komik jepang (manga) dan komik amerika kebanyakan

menghidangkan imaji tokoh perempuan. Imaji tokoh perempuan ini dibuat sangat berbeda

dari dunia nyata, imaji perempuan dibuat sedemikian sempurnanya sehingga kadang ketika

kita ingin mencontoh perempuan dalam komik kita harus rela diet ketat, olahraga teratur

bahkan operasi plastik.

Tokoh perempuan dalam komik menjadi isu penting untuk dikaji ketika hal ini disinggungkan

oleh teori-teori feminis yang sangat semarak sekarang ini. Tokoh perempuan dalam komik

selalu digambarkan menjadi tokoh pendamping (sidekick) atau bumbu sedap yang dapat

memeriahkan dan menghidupkan suasana komik. Contoh nyata bisa kita lihat dalam komik

terkenal spiderman, dalam komik ini diceritakan bahwa spiderman mencintai mary jane sejak

dulu karena rumah mereka bersebelahan, namun spiderman tidak sanggup untuk menyatakan

cinta karena merasa dirinya lemah dan tidak layak bagi mary jane. Dalam cerita komik

spiderman ini kita bisa lihat bahwa tokoh wanita hanya sebagai pemanis, bumbu sedap bagi

komik ini sehingga menjadi magnet utama agar pembaca setia dan rutin mengikuti

perkembangan komik ini.

Kasus paradoks tokoh perempuan dalam komik banyak ditemukan dalam genre komik

pahlawan super (superhero) keluaran amerika. Para tokoh-tokoh perempuan itu selalu bisa

kita temukan dalam komik-komik pahlawan super itu, namun fungsi mereka sudah

meragukan sejak awal. Bradford Right menyebutkan : “fungsi utama dari kehadiran wanita-

wanita (di buku komik dahulu) adalah menolak perasaan cinta dari alter ego pahlawan super,

mendambakan sang pahlawan super, berusaha agar dekat dengannya, mengacaukan

segalanya, ditangkap penjahat dan menunggu untuk diselamatkan oleh pahlawan super.”

Fungsi dan peran tokoh perempuan dalam komik sudah dimarginalkan sejak awal hingga

akhir cerita. Namun, muncullah Wonder Woman, karakter tokoh perempuan yang mengubah

semua itu. Wonder Woman diciptakan oleh seorang psikoterapis (ahli kejiwaan) yang peduli

tentang marginalisasi gadis-gadis muda dari media buku komik yang sangat populer. Wonder

Woman menggabungkan kekuatan dan keterampilan , tenaga dan senjata untuk melengkapi

kekuatan mendominasinya. Setelah itu berturut-turut muncul banyak pahlawan super yang

lain, seperti : Cat Woman, The Wasp, Elektra, Invisible Girl, dll. Paling tidak komik-komik

amerika keluaran marvel komik selalu menyertakan pahlawan super wanita untuk menjadi

pelengkap.

Wanita-wanita dalam buku komik banyak sekali digambarkan menyerupai fantasi-fantasi

para lelaki. Wanita dalam buku komik selalu memakai kostum ketat, dengan tubuh yang

tinggi semampai, dada berisi, wajah cantik, bokong seksi, dan penggambaran sempurna

lainnya. Walaupun pada kenyataannya jika kita membayangkan adegan perkelahian pahlawan

super wanita sedang berkelahi dengan kostum ketatnya itu mustahil akan menang karena

sangat susah berkelahi dengan kostum ketat yang menempel dikulit. Namun, penggambaran

tokoh wanita yang seperti itulah yang justru dipertahankan oleh para komikus, strategi

penggambaran tokoh wanita seperti itulah yang terbukti disukai oleh para pembaca yang

dengan sukarela mengesampingkan kesangsiannya bahwa serangan dan pertahanan yang

terbaik adalah selapis tipis kain spandeks.

Sungguh memprihatinkan, ternyata tokoh perempuan dalam komik walaupun sudah mengalami perjuangan sedemikian rupa tetap mendapat porsi superficial. Penggambaran tokoh perempuan perlu mendapat insentif dukungan yang lebih. Apa kita rela imaji keperempuanan kita yang semestinya bisa kita ciptakan dengan lebih baik dirampok habis-habisan oleh para komikus yang berkarya berdasarkan fantasi-fantasi liar mereka yang juga seorang lelaki? Semoga saja tidak.

Shojo Manga: Girl Power!Japanese girls’ comics exhibit launched from Chico

By Masami Toku

Japanese manga (comics) are no longer just a phenomenon of visual pop culture in Japan. At the beginning of the 21st century, the popularity of Japanese manga has spread all over the world through comic books, animation, and merchandise.

But not many people really understand how and why Japanese manga have become so popular in the world and why children are so attracted to Japanese visual popular products. For this reason, I undertook a project that would bring together artists, scholars, teachers, and fans of shojo manga (girls’ comics) to explore this phenomenon. The project was funded by the Japan Foundation; the College of Humanities and Fine Arts; the School of Graduate, International, and Sponsored Programs; and the Department of Art and Art History at California State University, Chico.

There are two purposes of the visual pop culture project Shojo Manga: Girl Power! One is to examine the worldwide phenomenon of Japanese comics (manga) not only in Japan but also in other countries, including the United States. The second purpose is to help audiences—especially teachers, students, and community—develop their media and visual literacy.

These purposes will be accomplished through a touring exhibition, which debuted on the Chico campus in fall 2005. The exhibition examines the cultural and historical backgrounds of this Japanese visual popular culture that exerts such an influence on U.S. society. It examines the treatment of gender roles in shojo manga and how shojo mangaka (girls’ manga

artists) have been contributing to the development of a unique style of visual expression in their narratives, a contribution that has seldom been discussed in the world of Japanese comics.

There have been many worldwide manga exhibitions, yet, until now, there has been no exhibition focusing on girls’ manga. Japanese girls’ comics are unique in the world of comics. Their influence pervades Japanese mass media, including TV animation and toy products. This will be the first significant touring exhibition of girls’ manga and discussion of the gender issue in manga as a world visual popular culture. The exhibition will travel to the following sites in the United States and Asia: University of New Mexico; Columbia College Chicago; Teachers College, Columbia University; Moore College of Art and Design; and in China, Taiwan, and Japan.

What is manga?

Historically, many great comics have existed in cultures all over the world. It may be, however, that in Japan the popularity of manga and its impact on visual popular culture and society are more significant than in any other culture. In contrast to the United States, where comic books are only for children or collectors, in Japan manga have a popular status that influences the entire Japanese society. Manga readers cover a wide range of demographics and ages, from preschoolers to adults. The influence of manga appears in visual culture throughout Japan in commercials on TV, advertisements, billboards, and even school textbooks. One indication of the popularity of manga is that it comprises nearly 40 percent of all publications in Japan.

In responding to the diverse demands and expectations of manga readers, the contents of manga have developed from simple to more complex stories in diverse subjects, both fiction and nonfiction. Blockbuster anime (animated films) and video games are frequently created based on manga, and it is well known that anime have spread worldwide, as have Japanese video games.

Japanese popular culture first became a phenomenon in Asian countries in the 1980s through pirated versions of manga. Even in the United States, Japanese animation like Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atom) has been popular as children’s entertainment since the 1970s; however, few knew that these animations were made in Japan or that they were based on manga. This is changing, with a Pokemon center across the street from Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, and TV Guide announcing in 2002 that the most popular cartoon among 9- to 14-year-old boys was Yu-Gi-Oh, which was created based on the manga. Japanese animated series and their connected merchandising are a powerful influence in the world of U.S. children at the beginning of the 21st century. In the United States, about $300 million worth of Pokemon-related products were sold in 1998, while about $500 million worth of Yu-Gi-Oh merchandise was sold in 2002 (TV Guide, Feb. 1–7, 2003).

The world of boys’ and girls’ manga

There is still controversy over the origin of Japanese manga. The general belief is that manga began with “Chojyu-giga” (literally, “humorous pictures of birds and animals”) depicted by the monk Kakuyu (1053–1140), also called Toba-sojo. Aristocratic society was ironically depicted in contrast to the commoner’s world using anthropomorphic animal caricatures in four traditional scrolls. The term “manga” was originally used in the printed illustration

books of Hokusai Manga depicted by Hokusai Katsushika (Ukiyoe-shi, 1760–1849) at the beginning of the 19th century. This Hokusai Manga (literally, “Hokusai’s humorous pictures of everyday life”) comprised 15 chapters, and was published serially from 1814 to 1878 (even after his death, due to its popularity). Hokusai Manga served as an illustrated textbook of everyday life. Thus, the contemporary meaning of the word “manga,” which is now used in Japan to describe graphic novels, is different from Hokusai’s manga, which were simple caricatures.

Contemporary Japanese manga developed with the strong influence of American pop culture, including comics and Disney animation, after World War II. In those days, manga was only inexpensive entertainment for children, dreams that made it easier to live in the devastated postwar society in Japan. Thus, manga started as healthy entertainment, a way for children to buoy up their dreams. It gradually developed from simple caricatures to complicated stories in response to readers’ expectations.

The first boys’ weekly magazine, Shonen Magazine, was published in 1959, and the first girls’ weekly magazine, Shojo Friend, was published in 1963. The children who supported the manga market were born between 1947 and 1950. When the first weekly magazine was published, these children were reaching the end of elementary school. Before this period, children had stopped reading manga after elementary school. However, this generation of children did not stop even after high school, finding manga more attractive than other media, such as TV and movies.

The number of magazines published grew in response to readers’ diverse expectations, so that the age of manga readers spread from children to adults during the 1960s. As a result, after the 1960s, diverse manga were developed for different ages and genders, and addressed favorite themes and subjects. One example is the development of “gekiga” (“visual novels”), more serious and realistic story manga with diverse fiction and nonfiction themes, mainly in adolescent male manga magazines. Subjects like sex and violence were no longer taboo in manga from that point.

In the mid-1970s, “ladies’ comics” were published in response to female readers’ demands that manga reflect their growth from girls to women. These manga depicted the realities and obstacles of life after marriage, unlike shojo manga, which concentrated on the process of finding true love. The themes in manga reflect changes in Japanese social and cultural conditions. This dialogue between manga and society is nowhere more apparent than in the phenomenon of the amateur comic market, a type of market created in 1975 as a communicative forum for hundreds of thousands of artists and fans to exchange ideas and distribute their manga.

Thus, manga grew from a subculture to become a part of popular culture for the entirety of Japanese society, a part of popular culture that thrived with the development of the economy. Manga continues to have an impact on Japanese society, and this phenomenon has spread from Japan to the rest of the world at the beginning of the 21st century.

Characteristics of manga

What are the characteristics of Japanese manga that are different from those of, for example, American comics? One of the main differences is that manga are depicted mostly in black and white (except for the cover page), unlike American comics with mostly full-color pages.

Ironically, due to the limitations of black and white, the use of the basic elements of manga—and comics in general—has developed in Japan with rich semiotic (philosophical theory of signs and symbols) and semantic connotations. Manga are filled with semiotic signs that readers understand, an imagery shared among the mangaka and readers. At first, manga were a simple combination of picture, word, and frame that told a simple story. However, with readers’ growing expectations, the story of manga has developed into graphic novels that express human drama rather than caricatures or simple comic strips. As a result, the use of composition is original in manga.

Picture: The picture is the content of manga’s expression and basically consists of lines, similar to American comics. However, mangaka have created semiotic graphics to indicate particular meanings and signs with limited color use. For example, black hair indicates Japanese people, and white hair outlined by black lines indicates foreigners, especially Westerners. Also, the aesthetic value of “cuteness” (big eyes and tiny noses in girls’ manga and spiky hair in boys’ manga) has possibly replaced the imported Western aesthetic values of “beauty” and “realism” for young people not only in Japan, but also in other cultures.

Words with and without balloons (including onomatopoeia): Words appear in the picture and also independently outside of the frame, either inside balloons or free floating. Words function as a paste that connects frames in the story. Words also support expression at the meta-level, meaning they can reveal the inner thoughts as well as the voice of the subject/object. The different shapes of balloons have functions that also indicate the speaker’s emotion.

Frame (“koma”): It has a role as a container that includes the picture (as the content) and the word (namely “format”). It also has a function to integrate time and place. Frames of different shapes, sizes, and directions are used, especially in girls’ manga, to depict the psychology of a character in the favorite theme of the conflict of love. This girls’ manga characteristic has been a great influence on boys’ manga.

Understanding the phenomenon of manga in Japan leads not only to an understanding of contemporary society in Japan, but also leads to an understanding of the relationship between visual pop culture and children’s artistic and cognitive development. I strongly believe that U.S. audiences will be enlightened as to the role and diversity of visual pop culture through this touring cross-cultural research exhibition.

To learn more about the exhibition, go to www.csuchico.edu/~mtoku/vc/Exhibitions/girlsmangaka/girlsmangaka_index.html. Order the catalogue at www.csuchico.edu/~mtoku/vc/OrderPage1.htm.

About the author

Masami Toku is an associate professor of art education at CSU, Chico, and the general director of the project Power of Girls’ Comics. Her research interests include the cross-cultural study of children’s artistic and aesthetic developments in their pictorial world and how visual popular culture influences children’s visual literacy.

Sejarah Feminisme Kami tidak meminta untuk diistimewakan atau berusaha merebut kekuasaan tertentu. Yang sebenarnya kami inginkan adalah sederhana, bahwa, mereka mengangkat kaki mereka dari tubuh kami dan membiarkan kami berdiri tegap sama seperti manusia lainnya yang diciptakan Tuhan (Sarah Grimke, 1837)

Gerakan feminis dimulai sejak akhir abad ke- 18, namun diakhiri abad ke-20, suara wanita di bidang hukum, khususnya teori hukum, muncul dan berarti. Hukum feminis yang dilandasi sosiologi feminis, filsafat feminis dan sejarah feminis merupakan perluasan perhatian wanita dikemudian hari. Ketika itu para perempuan menganggap ketertinggalan mereka disebabkan oleh kebanyakan perempuan masih buta huruf, miskin dan tidak memiliki keahlian. Karenanya gerakan perempuan awal ini lebih mengedepankan perubahan sistem sosial dimana perempuan diperbolehkan ikut memilih dalam pemilu. Tokoh-tokoh perempuan ketika itu antara lain Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton dan Marry Wollstonecraft. Bertahun-tahun mereka berjuang, turun jalan dan 200 aktivis perempuan sempat ditahan, ketika itu. Di akhir abad 20, gerakan feminis banyak dipandang sebagai sempalan gerakan Critical Legal Studies, yang pada intinya banyak memberikan kritik terhadap logika hukum yang selama ini digunakan, sifat manipulatif dan ketergantungan hukum terhadap politik, ekonomi, peranan hukum dalam membentuk pola hubungan sosial, dan pembentukan hierarki oleh ketentuan hukum secara tidak mendasar.

Walaupun pendapat feminis bersifat pliralistik, namun satu hal yang menyatukan mereka adalah keyakinan mereka bahwa masyarakat dan tatanan hukum bersifat patriacal. Aturan hukum yang dikatakan netral dan objektif sering kali hanya merupakan kedok terhadap pertimbangan politis dan sosial yang dikemudikan oleh idiologi pembuat keputusan, dan idiologi tersebut tidak untuk kepentingan wanita. Sifat patriacal dalam masyarakat dan ketentuan hukum merupakan penyebab ketidakadilan, dominasi dan subordinasi terhadap wanita, sehingga sebagai konsekuensinya adalah tuntutan terhadap kesederajatan gender. Kesederajatan gender tidak akan dapat tercapai dalam struktur institusional ideologis yang saat ini berlaku.

Feminis menitikberatkan perhatian pada analisis peranan hukum terhadap bertahannya hegemoni patriarchal. Segala analisis dan teori yang kemudian dikemukakan oleh feminis diharapkan dapat secara nyata diberlakukan, karena segala upaya feminis bukan hanya untuk menghiasi lembaran

sejarah perkembangan manusia, namun lebih kepada upaya (manusia) untuk bertahan hidup. Timbulnya gerakan feminis merupakan gambaran bahwa ketentuan yang abstrak tidak dapat menyelesaikan ketidaksetaraan.

Seratus tahun kemudian, perempuan-perempuan kelas menengah abad industrialisasi mulai menyadari kurangnya peran mereka di masyarakat. Mereka mulai keluar rumah dan mengamati banyaknya ketimpangan sosial dengan korban para perempuan. Pada saat itu benbih-benih feminsime mulai muncul, meski dibutuhkan seratus tahun lagi untuk menghadirkan seorang feminis yang dapat menulis secara teorityis tentang persoalan perempuan. Adalah Simone de Beauvoir, seorang filsuf Perancis yang menghasilkan karya pertama berjudul The Second Sex. Dua puluh tahun setelah kemunculan buku itu, pergerakan perempuan barat mengalami kemajuan yang pesat. Persoalan ketidakadilan seperti upah yang tidak adil, cuti haid, aborsi hingga kekerasan mulai didiskusikan secara terbuka. Pergerakan perempuan baik di tahun 1800-an maupun 1970-an telah membawa dampak luar biasa dalam kehidupan sehari-hari perempuan. Tetapi bukan berarti perjuangan perempuan berhenti sampai di situ. Wacana-wacana baru terus bermunculan hingga kini. Perjuangan perempuan adalah perjuangan tersulit dan terlama, berbeda dengan perjuangan kemerdekaan atau rasial. Musuh perempuan seringkali tidak berbentuk dan bersembunyi dalam kamar-kamar pribadi. Karenya perjuangan kesetraan perempuan tetap akan bergulir sampai kami berdiri tegap seperti manusia lainnya yang diciptakan Tuhan.

Hal-hal yang berperan mengakibatkan subordinasi terhadap wanita, yaitu:

1. Klasifikasi yang didasarkan pada gender

2. Pilihan-pilihan politik yang diberikan

3. Pengaturan-pengaturan institusional yang tersedia.

Menurut Deborah L. Rhode, ada tiga komitmen sentral feminis, yaitu:

1. Tingkat politis, mengupayakan kesederajatan antara pria dan wanita.2. Tingkat substantive, mengangkat isu gender sebagai focus analisis dengan untuk

merumuskan kembali praktek hukum yang selama ini mengesampingkan, tidak menghargai dan meremehkan kepentingan wanita.

3. Tingkat metodologis, mempersiapkan kerangka kerja dunia yang menggunakan pengalaman (wanita) yang ada guna mengidentifikasi transformasi sosial yang mendasar bagi tercapainya kesedarajatan gender sepenuhnya. Nilai-nilai yang secara tradisional berkaitan erat dengan wanita dihargai, dan setiap strategi perubahan struktur sosial yang akan dilakukan tidak sekedar memadukan wanita kedalam struktur yang telah dibentuk menurut pandangan pria.