Digimon: Feminist monsters

Well, Mitt Romney announced a nasty S.O.B. to be his running mate, there are anti-choice laws being passed country wide, the Olympics just finished up with a whopper of sexist reporting…

Let’s lighten the mood with an analysis of a kid’s TV show from the 90’s and the impact it had on my views as a feminist and the lessons it taught me about growing up.  That’s right, we’re examining Digimon: Digital Monsters.

Now, right off the bat, I’ll admit that, offhand, Digimon is actually not a terribly great show in terms of gender equality — there are fewer female leads, they usually get shafted with character development compared to the male characters, they’re given very girly roles and powers and their ‘Magic power traits’ are stereotypically feminine (the first season has the virtues Love, Sincerity, and Light — wait, ‘Light’?  WTF?) there’s even a character in the third season who dodges all of these bad traditions and became the subject of controversy because of her development, when fans of the show argued that she became sexist as she changed.

So, okay, it’s not perfect.  However, as I get older, I do find a valuable lesson, and in the first season with the least popular character, Mimi.

Alright, so, remember those ‘magic power traits’ (or, their crests, as they’re known in the show)?  Mimi was given the crest of Sincerity — that is, her greatest strength was just being unabashedly who she was and always saying what was on her mind and what she thought.  And, yes, I also know that the dub writers gave her some stereotypically bad girl traits, making her shallow and giving her a Valley Girl manner of speaking (ugh) so, this often translated into a not very favorable character, certainly not what you’d expect in a feminist role-model.  But, as I get older, I only find this message more and more powerful for young girls to hear in more and more characters on TV.

We live in a very insincere society.  Lying is pretty much taken for granted, you’re expected to shut up and just go along with the crowd, voices of dissent are often frowned upon, and, especially for girls and women, we’re often told not to rock the boat or disagree with what the people around us say and think.

Personally, this hits close to home as, I’ll reiterate, I’m a Progressive-voting, Jedi lesbian feminist with a heavy focus on philosophy and maintaining a Zen/Buddhist-like calm and serenity than I am interested in the material world (Of course, I’m not perfect, so I do enjoy a few creature comforts like anime and chocolate) while virtually all of my family is conservative, materialistic, kinda shallow in the way that thinks it’s deep (My mother recently tried to be ‘understanding and inclusive’ by saying she thought it was worthwhile considering the argument in ‘The Harbinger’.  Y’know, just like it’s understanding and inclusive to ‘consider the viewpoint’ of a Holocaust denier.)

…Ahem… my point is, for me personally, I am frequently challenged with my own sincerity.  I am constantly under pressure to pretend to be different from who I really am and when important questions and discussions come up, I either make noncommittal responses or am shut out of the discussion entirely.

I suspect I am not the only one to have this problem.  We see it in everyday life, whether it’s women who don’t feel comfortable talking back to street harassers or speaking up for a pay raise (Which we don’t, because if we did, we’d be ‘the Bitch’, and nobody wants that) or dissenters from the norm, like in political parties when individuals have different opinions than their main party.

And on that note, maybe we need a few more role models in Sincerity for America’s girls.

Disclaimer: This post was written by a Feministing Community user and does not necessarily reflect the views of any Feministing columnist, editor, or executive director.

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