The female gaze always felt like some abstract thing that was hard to articulate, and I think you did a great job of explaining it. I don't like that the terms "male" and "female" are used to distinguish between the gazes, as seems to imply some relation with biological essentialism. With the context of real-life patriarchy and sexism though, it makes sense why such adjectives were used to describe these gazes.
Yeah, suggesting males only like physical, while females mental/emotional. I loved how Nanami filled up the entire frame in that scene. And the HunterxHunter reference, peak.
theres nothing inherently wrong with that either, the patriarchy is the only descriptive way of governance, which means these adjectives are also descriptive of a world
Yea agree. The wording is not that intuitive. Is my understanding correct that sexual Yaoi element/content focusing on bodies should not be considered female gaze even though it is often made for a female audience? But something like the relationship between Kikuhiko and Sukeroku from Rakugo Shinjuu or the one between Viktor and Jayce from Arcane, though queer-coded, should be considered the female gaze because of emotional complexity and depth? While watching the gojo and Nanami scenes mentioned in the video, as a female viewer, I just thought it was hot/cool. I stumped my feet and felt that heart racing. I felt I was just acting as a fan girl than really appreciating the emotional depth/character development of these two moments as inakyu described. How does that fan girl thrill fit within the definition of the female gaze?
@@z.c.y._ I don't know about the female gaze, but you make a good point with Yaoi stuff. Calling Yaoi content 'male gaze' is gay, which is appropriate I guess. But it is counterintuitive as I suppose more women gaze at Yaoi stuff than guys.
@@z.c.y._ I feel like this is the issue with using singular terms. Really we should be talking about female gazes and probably paying more attention to the work relative to wider systems. So for example Yoai might be a space for a liberatory female gaze insofar as it caters to women viewers in a culture that primarily caters to men, but still keep the focus on sexuality, while something else might offer it by challenging the value of the lone hero driven by abstract moral reasoning and instead champion community and understanding (being a female gaze relative to emotionality). Again, we end up bumping a little into the limits of patriarchal language. Some of these gazes might be clearer if we dropped the gendering entirely and just said 'the emotional gaze' or 'the subaltern gaze', but a lot of the time gender is a valuable component and patriarchy does intersect over multiple domains. I feel like the desire for a binary with a single male and single female position which are directly opposed gets into our theory sometimes and confuses its clarity, but we can always solve that by just defining our terms and digging deeper. That way we can also acknowledge that we'll probably have multiple female and male gazes depending on what we want (I wouldn't go to shonen for the same thing I would go to classics for and I suspect the same is true of a yaoi fan. When we go to media we want something specific and that helps set what counts as a 'male gaze' or 'female gaze' in the context and helps us see how certain male gazes are systemically favoured over various female gazes in nearly all situations). So I guess I wouldn't call yaoi the male gaze (I'd also stop short of calling it a gay gaze, since as I understand it the target audience is normally straight women [I'm not quite sure if the description is correct there as I know Japan's norms in this regard differ from Anglophonic ones in certain ways]). At best I'd say it applies tropes of the male gaze in gender inverted ways which means that it simultaneously queers and reinscribes gender norms. This is often cool but it's also limited, hence we jump to a different gaze and see if that counts. I'm highly sceptical that we'll find a gaze that doesn't reinscribe some patriarchy that we can call the female gaze, since obviously those gendered concepts are rendered comprehensible within patriarchy. But if we keep moving intentionally, taking stock of when our gazes work and when they don't and who they work or don't for, those gendered concepts can be a really good tool in building more diverse works for wider and wider audiences. Even in this video alone we can spot a gaze that empathises with women, a pleasure gaze that integrates the audience into the scene and the yaoi gaze you mention all mapping together to create a greater depth than each one could do alone, and we could further consider how they interface with the male gazes of power fantasy and male normativity present in shonen anyway, to bring together audiences who normally wouldn't watch the same thing. I'm sure I could do more if I was more familiar with Mulvaney directly. Most of my stuff is coming second hand, but I've got a bit of a thing for language and Foulcadian, Haraway and Bulterian nonsense, so hopefully that reads okay.
And would this reaction be as a result of the male gaze??? As that's how I understand what inakyu described it in the video, being that the male gaze attaches itself to the form of an attractive body but not the person or position they are in (subtext). Or is it the posturing and powerplay of the fight that has the greatest impact for women? I find this all very confusing...
She wasn't confirmed dead but she was confirmed to not be breathing and to have no heart rate or pulse shes sounds pretty dead to me unless she decides shes the honoured one 3 arcs later plus gege already said he had the ending planned out and either only yuji died are its everyone else @metalface_villain
I am an aromantic asexual, and I would marry that man if he were real. I was having a talk in an ace group this week about who are fictional crushes are, and I was surprised by how many aces are for Nanami.
I want to mention a moment when Todo is fighting Mahito because I think that the scene also caters to the female gaze. When we hear the idol's, Takada's, song playing, her body is never the focus and neither is Todo's. Instead, there's rose colored backgrounds with sparkles and hearts as Todo punches Mahito to the beat of the song, almost like a mobile rhythm game.
Also Nanami is shown as a caring person in the first season. He helped out that shop girl. Without even wanting anything in return. Also thank your for the mention the difference of domineering and protective. Rather than domineering and manipulative. Cause some men dont really get understand it.
Well said. I wish you talked about the difference more showing Mahito's and Sukuna asshole's behaviours how they tried to manipulate the weaker and use their power to do bad things.
“Patriarchy” “sexism” Jesus Christ throw in more buzzwords, women you aren’t opressed and never will be you like nanami because he’s buff and like gojo for the same reason, admit it
As a male viewer myself I would have never imagined myself looking that much at jjk male characters and literally being pleased by the idea of doing it
I definitely struggle with Nobara as a character. Her arc screamed wasted potential to me, but i think that has a lot to do with how fast paced a lot of the story is. The one “filler” episode we got before shibuya showed us a glimpse of who she was to the team and how important their relationships were, but we barely get to see the main trio just existing like that, especially once the fighting starts. By the time she goes splat It feels like we were only starting to understand her. I do appreciate the perspective of her personality being a representation of the female gaze tho
don't give up on nobara, she ain't confirmed dead, i'd say it's more probable that she is alive judging by the whole set up of her being put in stasis by that new sorcerer with the pause wound effect
I've heard the phrase "the female gaze" and I've understood it to be about ladies thirstin' as opposed to guys thirstin', but somehow I hadn't picked up on the idea that it's also an inversion of the male gaze in the sense that it's emotional and psychological as opposed to physical. It seems so obvious now. Calling shirtless Gojo "the male gaze applied to a male character" really shifted my paradigm. JJK is a really fascinating show. Too bad I can't forgive it for doing Nobara dirty like that.
Yeah, it's still somehow sexists in the way that they won't show any main male fighting against woman solo. Unless the male characters are inhuman curses (like the brothers Nobara killed with Yuki) or the scene is comical: like panda bullying Nobara during the training. I'm not sure if it's right or wrong and I would like to see such fight. It just is.
Ironically they both have that second layer of depth. While the artsier side of the female gaze can be described as that time they showed Mr. Darcy reacting with his actor using his hands to enhance the scene, the artsier side of the male gaze can be described by damn near any depiction of Batman (especially the intimidating ones and the ones that included the late Kevin Conroy’s voice talent)
@@hdshjs Nevermind Yuta and Maki literally fighting previously and Maki landing what would've been a killing blow on them, but I guess that just didn't happen now?
bruh this video is cap, why do some girls act like women have reached some sort of enlightenment. The women in those echi anime designed for the "male gaze" are also caring af and kind. All those anime with the gyaru girl being super kind ( dress up darling ) is the same vein of fantasy. Personality as well as looks. Women are just as horny as men, that is supposed to be a 21st century realistic take right? So why is this youtuber pushing some Victorian ass bullshit reality where, no women care more about the personality, the looks don't matter as much. Stop the bullshit, all the men that the women gaze is cantered towards are also attractive men, the personality is the cherry on top, not the whole fucking cupcake lmao. Hate when some women lie like this and act like they a whole different species
I see a lot of ppl missing the point and/or denying that there is some differences in the way men and women are wired and how that effects what does and doesn’t arouse each sex (generally speaking) In the end the two gazes are simply a question of emphasis and target audiance. Its not meant to deny that women enjoy bodily fanservice or men can't appricate subtext. One is not better or worse then the other but one is used in media a lot more then the other. Nothing wrong in acknowledging that.
The first time I heard about the gaze theory i was really resistance to it. What do you mean all men are bad because the only thing that appeals to men are sexually objectifying women and thus I must be bad just because I'm a man? But the more I saw examples and understood this, I realized what this theory actually means in practice. I believe that must also be the case with a lot of other people, so I'm starting to believe that the nomenclature of "male/female" gaze is more detrimental than useful to it. Specially because male gaze can cater to both men and women just like female gaze can also cater to both men and women. With, in general, different proportions and intensities, of course. I wish I had suggestions of better names but I'm empty handed.
@@besknighter I don't think there's anything wrong with the nomenclature tbh. While it can be fashioned in a way to cater to women that doesn't change the fact that the whole concept was created and continues to be primary used for the benefit of men's entertainment on the basis of sex appeal. I think we can all agree stuff like Naruto's sexy no jitsu or Bleach's Orihime whole design weren't made with girls (and what sexually appeals to them) in mind. Furthermore the deliberate use of the male gaze's as a tool to elicit specific physicals responses in women similar to men (rather then an emotional one as one would argue is the case for the so called female gaze) within media (especially mainstream media as oppose to media created for women specifically) is, in all honest, a relatively recent development. That said, assuming the prevalence of the male gaze in media as a tool to appeal to women continues to grows along with the use of the female gaze, I do think over time the conversation surrounding this topic will become more nuance opening the way for different more, neutral nomenclature. Imo, the only reason this is a topic even exist at all tho is largely because of the disproportion in use of the male vs female gaze (as well as use of the male gaze for women's entertainment compare to men) in media.
@@besknighterno it’s not applicable to all men it is a phenomenon that was observed that doesn’t mean you have a part in it. I’ve known guys who enjoy female fanservices much more than normal females sometimes and it’s honestly refreshing to watch. When we say male gaze female gaze it’s sort of beauty filter or preference observed in most ppl but not all. So yea it is a thing but feel free to redefine it bc it’s honestly up to you to decide how you perceive beauty
@@besknighter I’d say a good replacement for the terms would be “visual gaze” & “sensational gaze.” One is built entirely on what’s seen, the other is what’s not
@@fatalblue Agreed that the prevalence of male gaze dwarfs the female one. I have no doubt about it. I'm proposing a change on their names specially as a tool to help improve on that. As there still are men out there that wouldn't allow themselves to admit liking the female gaze as well. Be it by social pressure from toxic masculity, fragile masculinity, lack of understanding (my case). I can totally understand why the names have originated the way they are and they still make sense to this day. But if our goal is to make them equally represented, I'm arguing that changing their names may help a lot with it. Just as it has happened with global warming -> climate change.
For me, I don't understand what's so strange about females watching shounen anime. I am a male and I have watched several shoujo anime, and some of them I consider to be better than many of the shonen anime I have watched. In my opinion, gender doesn't matter (most of the time). Whatever category the anime is trying to target, if the anime is good, you will enjoy it regardless of your gender. Male, Female or anything else.
Yeah but I'm pretty sure their categorized like this because of Japan and the manga industry heavily discriminate against international manga and in japan boys don't really watch shojou and girls don't really watch Shonen so their categorized like that but with Shonens recent hype that line has started to blur but sadly shojou is getting left in the dust ever so slowly.
shows have a demographic. ofc if you like shounen it doesn't matter your gender, you're probably going to enjoy it. but the objective of any show is to gather as many viewers as possible, and regular shounen, even some good shounen have little chance of targeting someone who isn't that much into shounen, in captivating people in a way that guarantees revenue in forms other than viewers. I've watched shounen all my life, I quite enjoy it, that being said, my favourite characters are almost always not the lead characters, or the most "popular" ones. they are normally either female or some shady side characters which makes it hard to find merchandise and etc. And it's because how main characters are often catered to the male gaze only. they are either hot females or OP Males that feed into the male power fantasy (not that there's anything wrong with this, it's the target audience after all). but JJK is different, because they carefully female gazed most of the characters, the potencial to sell merchandise improves, therefore revenue improves. the story is still a shounen but now everyone is invested in the characters.
I watched the Nanami scene like 5 times before continuing and can definitely confirm: I was eating that up. All the slides had me as the Leo Di Caprio meme, because you explained it soooo well. Also, the add was really cute with valo and your friends asking more, super sweet of them
As a straight dude, same. This is a moment where murderous rage is totally justified yet utilized in a protective and positive way. Nanami doesn't give into unbridled rage except as a tool to try and save the people around him. The whole time he is controlled and collected. His rage is directed solely at those responsible and he doesn't let it hurt anyone he doesn't mean to hurt.
My dad always told me that a woman was more attracted to a man based on his personality and demeanor rather than looks. I always believed him. Its cool to see it in action
In reality looks and attractiveness is the entrance ticket to women, they are more into aesthetics, you can trick your way with status and a really high sense of humor or genius, in a party i saw this guy that wasnt really atractive, relative to other guys that were more tall and handsome, but then some rap battles started and this guy demolished all of them, and some girls fell for it after, its like in anime fights where power is passed to the guy who won, it doesnt matter if you are weaker at the start, if you won that strong guy you re at the top of the food chain
@@revolversnake126they also simp for Yuji and Megumi because they’re good people as well, Gojo being super hot is just a bonus but as we see in the future he’s still a shitty teacher and kind of selfish
In my opinion, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 was a masterpiece. The story has become darker and deeper than Season 1, and all the side and main characters are now threatened with death at any moment. The fights in it were crazy. The production and direction were beyond great. This Season of Jujutsu Kaisen definitely deserves a 10/10, and it is sure the anime of the year, for me.
ngl I thought it kinda sucked. I found season 1 way more entertaining. Season 2 was just nonstop fights and deaths. I stopped watching after I realised that the characterisation stopped being so relevant. We didn't learn very much about any of the characters (apart from gojo and geto obviously) and even the new characters were just basically props for fight scenes
I feel like Asirpa in Golden Kamuy is almost a response to the lack of female gaze in media. She's a character that has everyone else trying to decide for her what her story is going to be, and her character arc revolves around her taking control and becoming what she wants to be. Her thoughts and feelings become more and more important as others try to decide them for her. She's also just a super well written character, y'all best jump on Golden Kamuy
Haven't read golden kamui yet but since you're recommending it I'll probably check it out soon. Btw your vids are amazing and i loved the one shitting on demon slayer as a certified hater(i only watched s1💀)
I think this was really interesting. On an academic level though, I've never particularly liked the tendency to oppose the male gaze with the female gaze singularly. I get why people do it, especially in conventional discussions, but I think it brings a lot of noise into the conversation and throws us back on narratives of 'the nature of gendered desire' which are honestly unhelpful. It's a bit like the whole canard that 'men are primarily visual, while women are primarily relational' that comes out of sexuality studies. As merely a statistical blip it's not so bad but the issue is that becomes a demand. Women's visual pleasure is written over, men's relational pleasure is too and the end result is that we start talking about 'sexuality' and 'relational sexuality' or 'aggression' and 'interpersonal aggression' and we've arrived back at the binary of 'normal vs woman' which is main issue with male gaze as it stands. Ultimately the female gaze aren't opposites, except in so far as they're held together in a system that when see 'male gaze' we immediately look for 'the' female gaze. And this becomes pretty limiting because now female pleasure in media has to also pull the emotional labour of being counter-hegemonic in all the ways (which seems kind of unfair when men aren't called to do the same work to engage with their gaze). I guess what I'm saying is that I really like the analysis of female gaze here and the way being in the scene and action an prompt possibilities, but less convinced by the operation of opposites. I think when starting about the opposite of the male gaze, we want avoid pinning our hopes a single, counter-gaze. Since the primary issue with the male gaze isn't its content but its ubiquity, we shouldn't expect to solve it by just finding a singular opposing gaze (and certainly not one licenced from with the patriarchal constructions of gender roles/difference) rather we probably want to be discussing multiple female gazes, adult gazes, youth gazes (even counter-hegemonic male gazes and ungendered ones. Anything that explodes beyond the boundaries of singular 'Gaze'). I think this is able to handle the need for both criticality and desire without pushing women into a corner and might even be able to begin disrupting the male gaze itself, by highlighting its actual reality as an illusion constructed by a proliferation of multiple gazes being organised and focused by material power. So yeah, sorry for the long post and for my lack of sources. SenseofCinema (I believe it was) did an old piece on gazes and forced stillness of an audience that once sent me off down this path and the rest is pulled primarily from engaging with engaging with essays about gender and one piece on the potential for a 'Youth Gaze' approach to media analysis. Hopefully this reads as yes anding the concept (I think you possible draw attention this yourself in the way the video divdes Nobara off from previous part and the notion of multiple female gazes operating within the same work to construct a more comprehensive female gaze is a point that could be dug into). I also once heard the female gaze posited as a form of aggressive reading of a work (while the male gaze flows with the writers intentions) but this was offhand in a book about children's gender self-policing in kindergarents from 1995 so I doubt it's a large theoretical base. Again, excellent video.
I appreciate this point. Reality is much more nuanced than what is presented by media. I think the ultimate cause for "simplified" gazes is that very few people are in charge of what media gets made. All of the people involved in making films or tv, have to follow the whims of the 1% at the top to get the work approved and funded and marketed. If those in power want to focus the work for an intended audience, it is tailored to their perception of that audience, and it ignores alternative perceptions or desires. That's why we don't get a youth gaze, or counter-hegemonic gazes.
@@zigzag8392 Absolutely. There's definitely an issue with the limited sorts of people who get to make media which leads to works catering to hegemonic norms. There is some interesting work about gazes as something that comes from the audience rather than the top down though (so the framing might encourage you to use a male gaze, but if you aren't male [or that male gaze doesn't accurately represent you, which I'd wager is most men at least some of the time] you always have the options of your own additional gazes to apply to it). I prefer to think of gazes as something emergent in relationship with the viewer which producers aree trying to anticipate or direct, rather than as something imposed directly on the viewer. So to take the youth gaze example, we get youth gaze potentially whenever a young person watches a thing - because they're often more socially aware of the way adult constraints effect children than adults themselves are and so can read those into a work - but as you say we rarely get works that cater to them, with most catering instead to narratives of what adults wish children would be or narratives of 'growing up'.
Really appreciate when people comment more towards this view! Currently studying media analysis and Guattari's theories (the schizoanalytic project) and this really resonates with me, though, I think id develop things in some different manner. Thanks for the comment!
@@kimby03532 That honestly sounds fascinating. I'm just coming off a critical theory masters myself. Guattari (and Deleuze and Guattari more generally) really fascinate me, but I never feel like I have a solid grip on them (which I know is part of the point). If you've managed to make any tools out of their stuff it would be honestly brilliant to hear about.
THE VOCALS. Anyway, regarding the video, I found that you were able to articulate exactly what makes JJk my fav anime: to put it simply, it’s the characters. The nuance behind everyone one of them regardless of gender, that all of us fans love to talk about. And yes, having fan service “catered” towards me definitely helps. Yet, you also worded my biggest problem with JJK perfectly: the characters are well written but maybe not fully developed. I loved your analysis, please read the manga so that you can go through more pain, and keep making videos bc they make me smile!
I'm a big world builder guy so maybe it's just me but the fact that characters in jjk aren't fully developed in the series with the rare exceptions being nanami and gojo is part of what draws me in it sets a theme characters aren't gonna live long there not always gonna get a happy ending or a full circle moment their arcs might be cut short or never end up happening in time their potential gone to waste because that's what it's like to be a jujutsu sorcerer you don't get those pleasures and the only 2 that do are the ones who defied the odds and expectations and the ones who were so far above nothing interfered with their development and character, and even still they only reach that moment at the end of the line. for me that's candy things like that where the message and themes isn't just given through the story itself but how it plays out and how the author writes or decides when to kill em off how far they should get not just on the story but in their own personal journies and it just so happens nobara didn't get far and mechamaru never got close to his goals or yuji just being one step behind no matter how hard he tries and nanami only got to the end because (while offscreen) he decided to leave that life that would've cut his story short before being dragged back in at the end
It did cater to the ladies more, and I liked that. It’s honestly just a breath of fresh air but also, it adds a more intimate look at certain traits of the character that might not normally have a reason to be or just haven’t yet gotten to be in the spotlight
Don't think the female gaze should necessarily be defined as the opposite of the male gaze. Like stating the Gojo abs scene being the male gaze seems off to me. Like it probably has some overlap with the male gaze in some sort of power fantasy of a strong character, but don't think that means strictly male gaze or strictly not female gaze.
At least for me, this video essay on the female gaze was on the mark, Inakyu. From the undertones of Gojeto's simmering yaoi ambiance, to that zaddy rizz just oozing off of Nanami, and Nobara's "I give zero fucks about your expectations, I'm gonna do me to the fullest" unyielding confidence and badassery... As I watched this video, I found myself snapping my fingers and exclaiming, "Preach sis!" As a female fan who also enjoys shonen, I have to say JJK-S2 was an unusual but hugely welcomed experience. I look forward to seeing and reading more shonen that also considers its female audience regardless of the genre's intended definition. Adhering to the confines of these categorizations are kind of pointless. I mean, there are males who love shojo too, and I don't blame them. In fact, I applaud their emotionally intelligent tastes. Regardless of gender, we're all consuming this media for the enjoyment of the experience. Any who, while I'm highly anticipating season 3, I started reading the manga because I honestly just want to know what happens next before the internet spoils for me. And the internet definitely will, especially if I continue to get my group therapy from it after every devistation I encounter while engrossed in this story.
Good luck to you on your journey I personally wouldn't have jjk tagged under interest on socials while reading because pretty much all media is about leaked chapters and spoilers there are few season reviews or topics using it as an example like this or just general media about it but in general jjk media comes with spoilers so be extra cautious on media while reading 👍
@moryamarowora6913 This paragraph of yours intrigues me a little bit: "As a female fan who also enjoys shonen, I have to say JJK-S2 was an unusual but hugely welcomed experience. I look forward to seeing and reading more shonen that also considers its female audience regardless of the genre's intended definition. Adhering to the confines of these categorizations are kind of pointless. I mean, there are males who love shojo too, and I don't blame them. In fact, I applaud their emotionally intelligent tastes. Regardless of gender, we're all consuming this media for the enjoyment of the experience. " Recently I've noticed a tendency of people (mainly women) to want more "female gaze" added to media which target a male audience. Yet I don't see the same happening the other way i.e more "male gaze" added to media which target a female audience. I find it strange that adding more female fanservice to media that target men is applauded but that adding more male fanservice to media that target men or media that target women is villified. You said that "Adhering to the confines of these categorizations are kind of pointless" yet you are not encouraging to add more male gaze to media that target women audience. So in the end it feels like the end of categorizations in media is only viewed positively when it benefits women. I'm not saying that adding more female gaze to media targeted to men like shonen is bad but I'm questioning the validity of taking such a unidirectional stance when it comes to breaking barriers between genders.
Nobara is assertive and does not let anyone make decisions for her. Maki is the same. I used to watch a lot of BL series without ever thinking why until I realised it's because I like romance series but didn't like most of the female portrayals in hetero series. That struck a nerve. I love to write stories, so that's when I decided to start working on female protagonists with a female gaze. It's so sad to realise just how deep the male gaze has been embedded into my subconsciousness. I basically refused to write female characters because I didn't know how to. This is changing right now. I hope to one day publish a book with a female protagonist with a female gaze that could hopefully leave a different impression on the reader's minds.
Thank you so much for not saying "No lube, no protection...." and horny BS like that because for some reason it made me so mad seeing all those comments on those stupid social media posts. You actually made really good points and restored my faith in humanity.
I feel like maybe you mean "dominant" and not "domineering". I agree with all you said about the female gaze and JJK. There was even a conversation about how women are handled in shonen in character witn Nobara and Momo. The thing that really made me love Nanami though was the whole repeated portrayal of, "Nothing's gonna harm you; not while I'm around.". It wasn't just women but everyone from the kids to the girl at the bakery to his co-workers. Having a strong man that can be gentle, unless he is protecting you.... .-. He did tell Nobara not to go, because she would get in the way, not because he saw her as weak (which is a very shonen thing for men to say to women) but because he knew he'd be distracted trying to protect her, just as he would anyone else. He was a man with such simple desires for himself (He just wanted to have his sandwich and go to the beach and read.) but so much weight on how to protect everyone else.
The reaction to recent episodes of Solo Leveling shows ladies oohing, and ahhing over muscles. I'm not disagreeing with the other stuff about dominance. I just wouldn't minimize the power of naked muscles.
This type of video are the ones that are hard to watch, NOT because the video is bad, but because as a man (shocker, my display name is John), I find myself questioning how I view women in media, feeling shit for feeling stuff when I find someone hot etc. So yeh, personally, it is hard to watch IN A GOOD WAY. Edit: despite the disclaimer at 7:21 about the male gaze being not always bad, I find myself icking whenever fanservice for the sake of fanservice is displayed.
Don’t feel bad for the objectification but for the often and not often missed, lack of any other way for those characters they are just eye candy and wish fulfillment no more
The fact that the male gaze was just "hehe boobies" while the female gaze(especially the part with Nobara) just felt like a character having an actual personality instead of being a trope/caricature made me feel like us dudes got a bad rep by the woman who coined the term. However don't get me wrong, i do indeed like hehe boobies at times too
It’s ok to enjoy both the visual and psychological aspects of characters. It’s ok to enjoy fan service. The issue comes when characters are underdeveloped just for the sake of being 100% visual assets. That’s bad writing
@@cd.knuckles There are way more conditions in which it is not ok to enjoy fanservice than just the one you mentioned, the most common type of fanservice in anime is that of underage characters and obviously that is bad.
As someone who is going into the animation industry, this video was very educational and you explained things very well! I thinks its always a focal point to have not only well written and developed characters, but expressive ones too, especially with women characters who arent fleshed out as their male counterparts in not only shonen, but in mainstream media as well. But you should definitely read the jjk manga, without any spoilers, a character with a misogynistic ideology is introduced and their viewpoint is challenged by another character, the whole confrontation is really well written and empowering, definitely check it out
As a woman, I didnt find any pleasure in the scenes you described. Then again, I dislike dominant men especially in the bed room. I prefer men who are vulnerable, squirmy, overwhelmed and submissive. Then again, I also dont think that such a thing as "female gaze" exists because the original concept that was coined by John Berger in Ways of Seeing not Laura Mulvey is that it is specifically a psychological phenomenon women experience within a patriarchy due to oppression. The idea that women constantly monitor themselves through the lens of an imaginary man, even when alone. To think "what would men think if they saw me now?" not even in a sexual way but in a way of judgment. Is my appearance, my body my face, acceptable. Does my appearance in this moment make me worthy of respect and humane treatment by the men in my life, whether they are co-workers, class mates or family members? Does my appearance warrant that men will listen to me when I have something important to say? Men do not experience this (at least not straight men) in a patriarchal society. Dumbing it down to "when we get horny looking at someone" isnt what male or female gaze means. It's a specific state of oppression that derives from constantly being objectified.
Your preference of liking submissive men is almost certainly a result of resentment and desire to have power over them. Liking dominant men stems from father figures and natural instincts that incline towards grouping with the strong. "The female gaze" as explained in the video has existed in all societies because no matter the gender; traits of heroism, courage, strength, competence, insight ect are respected and admired by men and women and further considered traits to be loved by women. Assuming that those emotions are the effect of the Patriarchy is a rather radical proposal.
@@johnmiller6696from an anthropological point of view, dominance and aggression came to us from animals so that we could survive in the wild. Now, we live in the modern world and we do not have such dangers as before. Life has become safer and therefore women began to choose non-aggressive men. This is evolution.
@@liyajk8182 I see your saying that masculine traits are no longer necessary. Well, they are. Masculine traits are not only used to fight wars, it also helps organise people, achieve power, bring societal change, protect what has been build ect. Hierarchies will exist regardless. Now the default objective is to gain power and social status regardless of gender. Masculine traits are required to succeed in this endeavour. When it comes to preference of men. Chose whoever lol.
Obviously, but we love our stuff to be rather more worked on then just seeing a bunch of sexy people just being sexy, moan and act all dumb. Every little piece is essential for great art.
We do. But we- no, some of us also don't like it if that's all he is. Or it'll be like Chris Hemsworth in Ghostbusters. Just a useless guy who can't even do anything correctly and only kept in the office to drool at. They quite literally say it too. Most women also enjoy sexy men. But with personality. Or he'll fall flat and boring
@@gaia_cool_it considering how a lot of guys also bemoan whe a sexy female character doesn't have a personality, i have to ask what the hell are you trying to say lol like what's the difference
The mention of the deeply psychologically punishing working conditions of mappa animators falls short when it comes before a betterhelp ad spot with valorant footage behind it.
I appreciate the work done in this video, and it's a very appreciable return to stuff about media criticism I haven't fully gone to. That said, my biggest add-on this video is that the female gaze potential of Nanami owes as much to the artwork and scene-setting as it does to Kenjiro Tsuda's voice.
Can I argue that if Nanami had a partner he would never pull their hair like he did in that scene. The way men fight and show affection can be different.
Id been wanting to do a video like this myself!!! I’m SO happy you did cause I’d noticed the IMMENSE thirst for MULTIPLE jjk men and I wanted to study the phenomenon. Shoutout Gege✊🏾
I totally agree with you 👍 but.... Fuck gege bro 😭 after the trauma he put me threw in Shibuya and these past 3 arcs I can't take it man😭 but the stories just too good he's manipulating me bro he's giving such good plot and characters just to absolutely rip them to shreds in front of me😢 bro got me feeling like yuji bro I've done cried 10x this past week just watching this season and even more not counting the recent manga chapters😭 do not give this man credit do not let him cook he gone give you an omelet douse it in mayonnaise then go make a new one just to do it again😂
1) I disagree with shirtless Gojo being "male gaze" - it's pretty female to me, women enjoy looking at beautiful male bodies, just as guys enjoy looking at girls. 2) Female gaze is very diverse, there're girls who simp for NAOYA of all people, and he's a misogynistic asshole, but I bet he'll get his fair share of fangirls once he gets animated. That's also why Sukuna and Toji both also are adored by girls. I personally love them all: Gojo, Sukuna, Toji, Nanami, Geto, etc etc they are all catering to different sides of a "female fantasy". Some girls like domeneering and protective guys. Sweet and caring guys. And others enjoy a fantasy of being used and manipulated by someone despicable, like Sukuna or Naoya. There is no one rule that defines our tastes. That's why JJK is so popular with women, because almost every girl out there will find something that appeals to her among the miriad of cool male characters that this series has to offer.
you kinda missed the whole point of the video... the point being that the "male gaze" typically objectifies a character and focus on alluring visuals alone, that gojo scene is male gaze applyed to a male character. there are males who enjoy watching other males bodies. that kind of display of a body is what we call "male gaze" , although classically woman are the object of the male gaze, it doesn't have to be a woman for it to be classified as male gaze. And yes, woman do enjoy instances of male gaze, we do have eyes. Same as men probably enjoy instances of female gaze. That is not the point. And the "female gaze" is its counter, it's about the personality, the voice (there's a reason Nanami's voice is one of the most talked topics), how a character behaves and hold themselves. I agree with you that it's about the particular fantasies of the audience members, although it seems that most woman prefer a domineering but protective men, some enjoy more manipulative and controlling traits, or less domineering and romantic characters. but it is still about behaviour, not visual aspects. it's about actions. that why time does not stop for the female gaze, because it requires the passing of time to exist.
@@dayan5454 "And yes, woman do enjoy instances of male gaze, we do have eyes" then why call it male gaze? why is this "visual vs personality" gendered? Can you not see the weird gender essentialism here
i was about to write that i agree with the Nanami part but not the Nobara part as much ..cause i dont know fam i just find Nobara very annoying ... the way she is written as a character frustrates me ... i have only watched the anime and yeah her end moment was kinda interesting but i could not enjoy it as much cause along the whole series i did not see any signs that would point me to her backstory ... her backstory comes right out of the left field lol and the author wants me to feel sad for this character that i did not get the chance to connect much with ?? ..the moment u said "not well developed character" i felt that lol cause thats how she feels to me ...i would love if u would do a vid on that topic, keep up the good work!
I may not be a woman but god do I love the men in JJK, they're all top tier and I won't apologize for the person I will become once Choso shirtless is animated and Hiromi.
i don't think i've ever seen male gaze be defined in such a way to wholly encompass objectification. and the way most will claim female gaze is that same objectification but centered on the "male" body like fanservice in free! or your example of shirtless gojo. but i've seen female gaze defined in a slightly similar way to how you define it. the example i am thinking of is a tumblr post wherein a person compares two magazine covers featuring hugh jackman, the first is of him posing powerfully as Wolverine, muscles bulging. this is on the cover of men's magazine, and the second is of hugh jackman, on the cover of women's magazine, he's wearing a soft blue sweater, smiling a friendly smile, not a bulging muscle to be seen. The op called the first cover a male power fantasy, what men want. And the second is the female gaze, want women see as attractive. Here you cite why Nanami and Gojo are female gaze as domineering/protective. Their power is on full display. Yet, Hugh Jackman in a blue sweater is approachable, friendly. So, why would this qualify as the female gaze as well? I think because it falls into the later half of your definition: protective. If he is approachable and comfortable. Well groomed and soft. Then he can be qualified as safe to be with. In a similar vein to Nanami and Gojo displaying their power full on in different ways, we know they do so in the effort to protect. Thus, it's extremely attractive. But again, that definition does edge into gender essentialism territory. That women desire men who are strong and can provide. Caveman logic to some degree. It does smack a bit of gender essentialism to call it male and female gaze and define it as objectification versus depth too. Though, I might be generalizing a bit. But, to some degree I can see why it can't be helped as the male gaze is defined by the fact that mostly men would utilize objectification solely on women's bodies. I think that's part of why most people will call objectification of male bodies "female gaze." But, your definition of it regarding female characters. I think is the first time I've ever seen someone address it that way, and it gives a lot of food for thought, because yes most people will say that to write a good female character you just write a character, but female. But it is more than that. It includes writing a fleshed out person, with quirks, and flaws, and desires and goals. It's not just a tragic backstory or a favorite soda flavor. Nor is it enough to just write a character but female, because gender can also inform why a person is the way they are. Like Momo's speech to Nobara about men and women. Though I think sexism in a particular field is better handled in Hell's Paradise or the Last Airbender than JJK because that shit is sorta dropped later, in the fact that it has no real bearing on the story overall. Whereas in the Last Airbender, sexism is a part of a whole arc for both Katara and Sokka as their tribe mired in it, and plays an active part in their growth as characters and in the growth of their relationship with each other and others. And in Hell's Paradise, it does the same with Sagiri. As her family hates that she isn't doing her duty as woman and just marrying and serving, and instead has trained to be an executor like her father. Part of her failure to cut properly is that disapproval, but its mainly due to her compassion, which the story does frame as a very feminine thing. Ultimately she works through it by accepting her compassion as part of her, by accepting that she is feminine and that does not make her unable to cut cleanly but is a part of what makes her able to do so. Her continued failure was because she was also rejecting the same thing her family was rejecting: her femininity. Honestly Sagiri's story actually feel's very similar to Mai and Maki's story. In the sense that they hail from a very traditional family that specializes in a certain thing, and that family spurns anyone who does not fit in that narrow framework of success or worthiness. Only difference is that JJK puts little emphasis on their failure being due to their gender, and more upon their lack of cursed energy. So, it is baffling why Momo brings it up at all, when 1. we get nothing on her backstory, and 2. get next to nothing on how it applies to Mai and Maki in the actual story. It does at the very least inform us about Mai and Maki's situation and tell us about how Nobara thinks, but beyond that, it has very little impact on the JJK story overall. Which constantly irks me to no end when I dwell too long on it. Anyway I got carried away. Great Video! Really made me think.
youtube recommended me this video out of the blue and i'm so happy because not only are you hilarious ("we see young gojo and the fallout he has with his lover in front of a kfc" had me wheezing), but you do an excellent point of explaining your topic while also making it entertaining, so definitely going to stick around for more content!
Wow, great and educational video It is so vital that we discuss definitions This helps move conversations forward Thanks, always glad I have subscribed
Everything you said was on point, trust me it made sense bc I felt like season 2 was absolutely phenomenal. They're all just so damn perfect🙏 Also I'm really glad you didn't cut out the end, your voice is beautiful❤
Domination is well and good within the confines of a bedroom, in a trusting, consensual and respectful relationship. Boundaries are stablished and respected. Control, on the other hand, leads to toxicity. It implies that one person is in a position of power that does not care for boundaries or the other person’s feelings, individuality and ideas or desires.
I'm at 11:00 and I just need to say this because I am very confused. Before watching this video I though that basically male gaze is sexualizing women, female gaze sexualizing men(a bit simplified). But now I learnt that men being shown without a shirt also counts as male gaze and that female gaze is... idk how to describe it, situation? And women can enjoy male gaze on male characters and men can enjoy female gaze because this too can be on both male and female characters. So what does it have to do with gender anymore? I'm confused. So when in shoujo there are male characters shown without a shirt it's male gaze and in some shounen romanse when there is emotionally intensive scene it is female gaze? It feels like these terms mean barely anything at this point. 11:51 I thought you might be onto something and I'm just confused but here you lost me. It sounds like you are saying that everything where characters aren't shirtless is female gaze. Honestly it feels like you are saying that male gaze is cheap fanservice and female is anything with at least a little bit of depth. It doesn't even have anything to do with genders anymore. I will watch the video to the end, maybe there is something that would explain this to me but so far if this interpretation wasn't your intention you made poor work of getting your point across. 15:04 Again this. You were saying that gojo shirtless was example on male gaze on male character but now you are saying that male gaze is defined as "turning women into objects for male pleasure". And why are you so insistent on female gaze being "opposite" of male gaze. 15:32 You are right, making just list of facts on character isn't character depth. But it also isn't "good character writing". What you described earlier IS in fact good character writing. List of facts isn't good character writing. 16:33 Soooo. Female gaze is character having personality. Got it. 17:18 "in other forms of film and TV this tends to be spotted when female character break the 4th wall to remind the viewer that she is a person too". Soooo what happened to male characters? It feels like you use now completely different definition than what you explained at the beggining. When I'm thinking about it this sounds like extremely stupid idea. Breaking the 4th wall would remind the viewer that "this is not real story, its just tv show you are watching". And again female gaze = humanizing , male gaze is oposite so = dehumanizing. Words with positive and negative connotation. 18:18 "Because it was her own voice telling us that that is the female gaze." It starts to be less and less specific. Thoughts after watching the video. You don't use your own definitions. You swear it's not malegaze=cheap fanservice, femalegaze=good writing but it sounds like it from what you were saying. Also strong insistence on male and female gaze being opposites and use of language with positive connotation for female gaze and negative for male makes me think that for you terms male gaze and female gaze are respectively negative and positive. Definitions should be understandable by users of the same language. If your definition can't be understood through the words alone and person needs to have similar mindset to you to understand it I would say it's not good definition. If it was just my misinterpretation and you didn't mean anything like that I apologize. I just needed to point out how easily this video can be interpreted negatively.
By the way when we say 'Female gaze' in the Nanamin scene, its not about men being domineering, because it works with WOMEN being domineering and protective too, imo!
We certainly ate this season from Toji, Nanami, Choso, Sukuna, Gojo and literally every male in JJK this season! And Kenjiro Tsuda voice just melted me
It's weird that a video about the female gaze in JJK season 2 didn't focus more on the Hidden Inventory arc. Geto and Gojo's entire dynamic would have illustrated your "female gaze = subtext" thesis better than Gojo sitting on Jogo and Hanami in Shibuya.
Geto and Gojo had too much yaoi over/undertones. Hardcore straight women tend to thirst for Naname trustworthy sexy or Toji tragic, or Choso being dependable and hot, Gojo being hot and wild.
Damn, I was really here thinking “wait Nobara didn’t die, that one guy said he’ll keep her stable but she has a small chance” and I just assumed that she’d be fully healed up later. I’m just now finding out that she fr fr died :( But looking on the bright side, I really like how anime has more broadly shifted it’s depiction of women. Like most people, I’m so tired of the 50 gorillion animes with a male self-insert MC, surrounded by a harem, in an Isekai. I feel like it’s been really difficult finding one worth watching lately so here’s to hoping this trend sticks 🤞
THANK YOU like bro why does it always have to be a male vs female thing this shit is outplayed at this point😭😭 just say you have a crush on said character and leave it at that because its not this deep😭!!!
I don't agree with that representation much at all either. Let's be real. If the male characters in JJK were ugly and still had the exact same personality, no girls would be acting head over heels for them lol. Both men and women are physical, they like different physical traits, but they still like physical traits. Likewise, men and women also like personality traits. Men like feminine nature, and Women like masculine nature. To pretend like either only cares for personality, or that looks aren't important for both is pretty idiotic. For the above reasons, her interpretation of the "Female Gaze" is pretty flimsy at best. If the male characters were ugly, no amount of positive personality traits and kindness would result in them being simped for. It is the combination of physically attractive + desirable personality traits + a situation highlighting their desirable personality traits that makes the attraction girls experience in the story.
I think they meant that male gaze is much more surface level and woman;s gaze is more geared towards physiological associations, for example male audiences would look at a girl’s hair and think wow their hair looks good and that’s it/ for females they would observe the curves and waves and the softness of it and some even associate it with such as wow they must;be taken good care of their hair I like this person’s efforts.thats why you often see the female gaze being much more detailed and softer bc it evokes a “ pretty “ feeling in you associated to the acts of that person.
@@Mighty.Matcha. Of course, a straight girl would look at an attractive female character and think has good genes or worked for her appearance a lot. It's no different from how a guy sees a muscular guy in anime with good physique and thinks about the training the character must've gone through to get their appearance like that. But we're not talking about admiring traits in the same sex for the work ethic they imply. I'm talking about people finding characters (of the sex they like to romantically engage with) attractive. -- To paint it as if it's simply the positive personality traits that results in the male characters in JJK getting simped over is just unrealistic and ignoring the obvious truth. Just like men, women are attracted to a person's appearance and body. And just like women, men are attracted to positive personality traits romantically on a body they find already attractive. In other words, if the male cast of JJK were ugly or they all looked like Jogo (an example of a strange but humanoid body) No amount of positive personality traits being associated with them would make them get simped over. Throughout the video, she mentions the positive and non-domineering energy of Nanami. Sure, that is a characterization of a protector. My point is this scene wouldn't mean much if Nanami were built weird, extremely short, ugly, not attractive, etc. Also, the whole positive traits only argument that she gives doesn't hold up either. If that were the case, characters like Toji and Sukuna (Toji having very bad morals, and Sukuna literally being a serial killer for fun) wouldn't be getting simped over. Yet they still are. At the end of the day, I'd say both men and women find appearance important, and if the appearance is decent or desirable. Then any positive traits will be added to that character's attractiveness. But only if they meet the minimum for that person's wanted appearance. As for those personality traits that are found attractive, it differs from person to person. But generally, women like traits that embody protectiveness, doting, fierceness, smarts, and determination. Meanwhile, men like traits that embody nurturing, doting, grace, smarts, serenity, loyalty, etc. My core point is asserting that the only difference is Women like positive traits = female gaze is idiotic, because it's missing the entire physical component
@@Rain-q5rPeople are visual beings, therefore it only makes sense that our eyes play a critical role in our judgment. If all of this is obvious as the fact the sky is blue (which you seem to think it is), why does it need to be explicitly said when it's implied? The woman in the video never said looks don't matter. She's just trying to explain the difference between the male gaze and the female gaze -- and there definitely is a difference. Looks are, at least for the demographic of women who actually like anime, secondary to personality. You could have 'hot dude' but if his personality is flat the most you can expect from a female audience is "meh". Meanwhile, the male audience will proceed to fail NNN for the foreseeable future regardless of a female character personality. There are no shortage of books and studies that prove men and woman are wired differently. Whether you want to believe it or not, men are more physical in every way imaginable and women are the exact opposite. There are of course, exceptions for both of these concepts but exceptions aren't the rule. Though men and women live in the same world, they experience it differently and that's OK. Men and women aren't meant to be the same --- honestly if we were, we'd probably hate each other more.
Right on the money. Most people assume Magic Mike caters to the female gaze when actually it's just the male gaze portrayed on men. I like the gojo/Jogo arm bit, hanamis eyes bit, even the pony tail pulling but i love catching lil moments like yuuji pushing his hair up after meeting back with kusakabe and panda. I enjoyed every bit of this video because male dominated fandoms make me feel crazy for not enjoying seeing half naked men in anime.
I'm still half-video but you are so so so right about female gaze being more focused on you feeling something! I didn't even remember Gojo's abs being so pointed out in there (well, probably I was also too focus on satosugu for that), but Gojo going feral and breathing like THAT in Shibuya? Holy shit, this is going to live rent-free in my brain for the rest of my live bc I was giggleling and kicking my feed so badly, I could never feel normal about this. And it's like you said, because it makes me feel, not juts say "oh, pretty"
Literally watching this as I make a tiny Nanami felt plushie. 💀💀💀 POOKIE NANAMI 😭❤️❤️❤️ I like the stories and background they add in jjk like it has no bearing on the story but give us a glimpse into the characters life beside sorcery.
Very interesting video that I'll be thinking about for awhile. It does make me wonder if "male/female" are appropriate labels for the two gazes, because it seems like it flattens the preferences and experiences of people within those categories. If we take the example of shirtless Gojo being "the male gaze but for women" then it means whatever gender you are, you can experience both male and female gazes. To say a gaze is "male" sounds arbitrary, if males and females can both do it. My own experiences (I'm a straight male) are that I prefer "female gaze" moments. My favorite female anime characters aren't because of the camera holding too long on jiggling chests or from low-angle shots of their butts. It's moments of emotional connection, empathy, or deeper characterizations. Two examples are Nico Robin, and Kitagawa Marin. Robin because of her deadpan dark humor, intelligence, and maturity among the strawhats. Robin's character arc from Alabasta to Enies Lobby is amazing. Marin, because she's empathetic, kind, encourages people to follow their passions, hates judgmental or shallow people, and is bold/outspoken about her beliefs. Paired with Gojou, Marin is the perfect compliment to his personality; they fill in the other's gaps. I could care less about how they're drawn in revealing/sexual ways, because fanservice is a vanilla substitute for actual pron. Another thought: I think that as a relation between viewer and subject, the gaze is about more than bodies. For example, fights. Fight scenes that focus on violence, gore, big explosions, or cool attack animations would be "male." Fight scenes about the character's motivations or ideals, the relationship between combatants, or the stakes of what happens where one of them loses, would be "female." Not to say one or the other is better, even if you prefer one. I think the best fight scenes manage both.
This video is full of no sense, fake equivalences, and bias. What you said in your comment is proof that: 1) The provided information about gazes is contradictory (why call it “male” if it is experienced by both genders?) 2) It's also misleading, since the ability to dislike fanservice and appreciate the depth of a character is not exclusive to women (like you proved in your example with Marin).
@@CringeAnimePFPSince I've had a few days to think I should add to my post. The Male Gaze is not lived reality, but an Image of lived reality. It's a false consciousness. An oppositional Female Gaze is created to suggest an alternative, but it too is made of Images. Lived reality is nuanced, but the Gaze is oversimplified and mediates our beliefs about reality. If you read Debord, the Male Gaze is a Spectacle. It replaces Reality with Images and hinders critical thought while homogenizing beliefs. Inakyu only discussed it for 5 minutes so of course she didn't have time to deep dive the critical theory. I don't know if Inakyu is arguing that the Male/Female Gaze is accurate or real and I won't speak for her. My post mistakenly made it sound like I thought the gaze was lived reality. In my view any nonsense, false equivalences, and biases are attributed to the representation of the gaze, not to real-life behaviors. My original post was unclear that I was criticizing the "representation" of the Gaze as being too simple, and that I was drawing a distinction between "Male/female Gaze" and "Male/female Gender behavior."
I'll post times my brain had a laugh track going on 😂: 0:42-0:48😅 1:07 😭😄 5:31 😏😂 12:11 (the food crunch sound at the end) 🤣 *Bonus Points* This video thumbnail pic 😆
I wonder if your description of the female gaze also applies to characters like Yukina from Kabaneri of the iron fortress. Similar to how you applied the male gaze with that Gojo scene. I’m taking about that one back muscle shot when she’s being all bad ass and engineering. Like assuming we expand male and female gaze outside a heteronormative context. This is a very interesting subject
Yeah I saw a lot of girls on the 'net pretty much admiring the train engineer lol. Honestly, female characters with her body type (have defined muscles due to her highly technical job) is super rare in anime so getting one is definitely something to be celebrated.
ina you are going to blow tf up soon i swear you're hilarious and you get your point across quickly and completely, which is everything i look for in a video essayist. also it just so happens that i agree with you, so confirmation bias comes in too lol i love nobara and she's the best version of 'the chick' we have in mainstream shonen anime, but she is by far the least developed 'main' character in JJK and it really sucks bc i feel she could have gone so much further than she did (then again, i get the feeling this isn't the last we've seen of her. "it's not a zero percent chance, okay?")
Nobara is a well written character that was unfortunate enough to be a sorcerer in the JJK universe. JJK is very consistent in its portrayal of selflessness vs selfishness, indulging in your own desires for power or living to protect/help/others. The selfish ones are quite always rewarded in the moment, while the selfless ones often fail before they know if they succeed or not. Nobara tried to protect her friends, even if everyone told her not to, and she payed the price for it. For me, the death of Nobara represent the calm times that Gojo, Yuki and Yuji are fighting for, and how cruel and ruthless to world has become. She was not strong enough to protect her friends in a world where Sukuna and Mahito ruin free, but not selfish enough to survive on her own. While seeing more of her is understandable since Gege(the author) really has a talent in presenting interesting and consistent characters, he does tend to prioritize cool action and story over characters. He could have chose to keep Nobara alive, but seeing where the story eventually went I don't see how she would have fit.
I honestly was at first like jjk?? Ill give it a watch and figured it would be catered to the boys for the female characters..I WAS WRONG boyyy Im happy I get fan service but also the characters are so well written like lord JJk men man. That and Sukuna being so evil that he’s not befriending the mc and also the curiosity in him we saw when he ate the popcorn because yuji always had popcorn during the movies. I loved it. It gives more to the character.
When Nanami fought Haruta, it wasn't the ponytail thing thet got me, it was him beating his ass for kicking Nobara and stabbing Akari. I was cheering his ass, and I realized - "oh ... I think I love him." He's protecting his kids, but never in a demeaning manner, he acknowledges their power. Also, when he kneels down to their level to talk to the girls ❤️
I've been watching shonen anime for a long time and I never ever seen that amount of female gaze in a show. It was so fun to see all the girlys make their tiktok edits and express how hot those scenes were. Truly a fun time in the anime community. Honestly, I feel that JJK was propelled into the social media zeitgeist outside of the anime community because of the ladies. I'm looking forward to your next video!
I’d say the male gaze is much more about viewing someone as loyal, straight forward, elegant, and deeply caring. As for female characters in JJK, Gege, the creator of JJK, said he literally had no idea how to write female characters so he just wrote them as he would any other character LOL.
@@bellsgotitnowft not really surprising I’d say. The way every character is written is very well done and sticks to the point of “I don’t care about others, it’s what I want” or “I care deeply about others rather than what I want, even if it’s unfair” which everyone can attach to either or. Itadori being the polar opposite of Sukuna or Nobara being the complete opposite of Momo. Maybe more so it’s a fresh breath of air that someone is able to make a person’s character based not off their sex but their actual desires.
i wouldnt really consider sukuna to be controlling in nature, in fact, for a guy as powerful as him, he lives his life in his own terms with no expectations from others at all. I actually think that the only real difference btw sukuna and gojo is that gojo (has to) play the role of protecting others (narratively as a good guy), while sukuna has no care for that at all. But im really curious wats ur take on a character like sukuna
Could Asa Mitaka from csm part 2 be part of the female gaze? She feels like a real human being and has tons of introspective monologues and I feel like we get to understand who she is via this monologues and her interactions with other characters. I just love how well writen Asa is. Btw amazing video!!
I think one of the highlights of Nobara being a well written character is in that "filler" episode when she realized that she is jealous of Yuiji, but not because he may have a girlfriend, but because he will get a girlfriend ahead of her. That little side thought conveyed a mix of ambiguous feelings competition, excitement, jealousy, envy, anger... That connects with us on an emotional level
Please do a "Women in JJK" video! I think JJK has some shining moments for women, but overall their characters get overshadowed by the men. Many times we're "told" that women are strong (the multitude of Grade 1 women sorcerers, acknowledgement Maki should be higher than Grade 4) and don't get to see them in action, or they're fighting minor villains, or they're an assist for a man to finish off the villain. I LOVE Jujutsu Kaisen, and so far there aren't any women main characters in my eyes. Men and their desires and conflicts are the center of the story, with some cool women side characters involved in the action.
your examples of male gaze are just pictures of women existing. you saying that it's sexual is just your own projection of what is sexual. i don't find bikinis inherently sexual. your examples of the female gaze are simply tall jacked guys being dominant. it still requires them to be tall, jacked, and shimmery eyes. this is just as superficial as your examples of male gaze.
great vid. i find many shounen anime i end up liking the most have found some middle ground by intentionally or not pointing male gaze at men or "gay male gaze"
What I hate about Nobara is that she had so much potential to develop as a fighter but she was ignored by everyone including Gojo, literally he had one job as a tutor he helped Megumi and Yuji he even asked Nanami for help but Nobara like she wasn't even there I don't see why she had to die, a canon event I guess but still bothers me
I'm a female Mahito simp (yes, despite all that he's done; villains and anti-heroes have always been more my speed), but I'll admit that the scenes of Gojo's heavy breathing and Nanami's absolute fury at Haruta had me quite... interested. I just wish there was more fluff in the JJK fandom - AUs and stuff are fine with me. But no, most is smut...
The fact that the male gaze was just "hehe boobies" while the female gaze(especially the part with Nobara) just felt like a character having an actual personality instead of being a trope/caricature made me feel like us dudes got a bad rep by the woman who coined the term. However don't get me wrong, i do indeed like hehe boobies at times too
![Lets redesign Marinette!! [this took 3 years to make]](/img/n.gif)
The female gaze always felt like some abstract thing that was hard to articulate, and I think you did a great job of explaining it. I don't like that the terms "male" and "female" are used to distinguish between the gazes, as seems to imply some relation with biological essentialism. With the context of real-life patriarchy and sexism though, it makes sense why such adjectives were used to describe these gazes.
Yeah, suggesting males only like physical, while females mental/emotional. I loved how Nanami filled up the entire frame in that scene. And the HunterxHunter reference, peak.
theres nothing inherently wrong with that either, the patriarchy is the only descriptive way of governance, which means these adjectives are also descriptive of a world
Yea agree. The wording is not that intuitive. Is my understanding correct that sexual Yaoi element/content focusing on bodies should not be considered female gaze even though it is often made for a female audience? But something like the relationship between Kikuhiko and Sukeroku from Rakugo Shinjuu or the one between Viktor and Jayce from Arcane, though queer-coded, should be considered the female gaze because of emotional complexity and depth?
While watching the gojo and Nanami scenes mentioned in the video, as a female viewer, I just thought it was hot/cool. I stumped my feet and felt that heart racing. I felt I was just acting as a fan girl than really appreciating the emotional depth/character development of these two moments as inakyu described. How does that fan girl thrill fit within the definition of the female gaze?
@@z.c.y._ I don't know about the female gaze, but you make a good point with Yaoi stuff. Calling Yaoi content 'male gaze' is gay, which is appropriate I guess. But it is counterintuitive as I suppose more women gaze at Yaoi stuff than guys.
@@z.c.y._ I feel like this is the issue with using singular terms. Really we should be talking about female gazes and probably paying more attention to the work relative to wider systems. So for example Yoai might be a space for a liberatory female gaze insofar as it caters to women viewers in a culture that primarily caters to men, but still keep the focus on sexuality, while something else might offer it by challenging the value of the lone hero driven by abstract moral reasoning and instead champion community and understanding (being a female gaze relative to emotionality).
Again, we end up bumping a little into the limits of patriarchal language. Some of these gazes might be clearer if we dropped the gendering entirely and just said 'the emotional gaze' or 'the subaltern gaze', but a lot of the time gender is a valuable component and patriarchy does intersect over multiple domains.
I feel like the desire for a binary with a single male and single female position which are directly opposed gets into our theory sometimes and confuses its clarity, but we can always solve that by just defining our terms and digging deeper. That way we can also acknowledge that we'll probably have multiple female and male gazes depending on what we want (I wouldn't go to shonen for the same thing I would go to classics for and I suspect the same is true of a yaoi fan. When we go to media we want something specific and that helps set what counts as a 'male gaze' or 'female gaze' in the context and helps us see how certain male gazes are systemically favoured over various female gazes in nearly all situations).
So I guess I wouldn't call yaoi the male gaze (I'd also stop short of calling it a gay gaze, since as I understand it the target audience is normally straight women [I'm not quite sure if the description is correct there as I know Japan's norms in this regard differ from Anglophonic ones in certain ways]). At best I'd say it applies tropes of the male gaze in gender inverted ways which means that it simultaneously queers and reinscribes gender norms. This is often cool but it's also limited, hence we jump to a different gaze and see if that counts.
I'm highly sceptical that we'll find a gaze that doesn't reinscribe some patriarchy that we can call the female gaze, since obviously those gendered concepts are rendered comprehensible within patriarchy. But if we keep moving intentionally, taking stock of when our gazes work and when they don't and who they work or don't for, those gendered concepts can be a really good tool in building more diverse works for wider and wider audiences. Even in this video alone we can spot a gaze that empathises with women, a pleasure gaze that integrates the audience into the scene and the yaoi gaze you mention all mapping together to create a greater depth than each one could do alone, and we could further consider how they interface with the male gazes of power fantasy and male normativity present in shonen anyway, to bring together audiences who normally wouldn't watch the same thing.
I'm sure I could do more if I was more familiar with Mulvaney directly. Most of my stuff is coming second hand, but I've got a bit of a thing for language and Foulcadian, Haraway and Bulterian nonsense, so hopefully that reads okay.
When Choso lifted his shirt in the bathroom it altered my brain chemistry 💀
Wait.. What.. I need to go rewatch
I KNOWWWWW
Oh yeah I saw that 👁
I did rewatch that… twice, instantly 😂
And would this reaction be as a result of the male gaze??? As that's how I understand what inakyu described it in the video, being that the male gaze attaches itself to the form of an attractive body but not the person or position they are in (subtext). Or is it the posturing and powerplay of the fight that has the greatest impact for women? I find this all very confusing...
As a male viewer and a fan of jjk, this was very educational. Thank you
R.I.P to the goats Nanami and Nobara.
@UTubeTrollPolice298 Damn, really closeted.
there is still hope for nobara :'D since she was put in a type of stasis and not confirmed dead
I'm sniffing copium for my girl nobara she fr still alive 😭
She wasn't confirmed dead but she was confirmed to not be breathing and to have no heart rate or pulse shes sounds pretty dead to me unless she decides shes the honoured one 3 arcs later plus gege already said he had the ending planned out and either only yuji died are its everyone else @metalface_villain
@UTubeTrollPolice298 That is called being bisexual.
Nanami Kento's whole existence IS the female gaze
He's a "man written by women" and I live for that
I am an aromantic asexual, and I would marry that man if he were real. I was having a talk in an ace group this week about who are fictional crushes are, and I was surprised by how many aces are for Nanami.
@@RhythmAddictedState isn't the author a dude tho?
literally my favorite from the show 🙏
I want to mention a moment when Todo is fighting Mahito because I think that the scene also caters to the female gaze.
When we hear the idol's, Takada's, song playing, her body is never the focus and neither is Todo's. Instead, there's rose colored backgrounds with sparkles and hearts as Todo punches Mahito to the beat of the song, almost like a mobile rhythm game.
Hear me out- Todo>>Gojo
@@mms598
Im not gay but I'd die for my Blue Eyed king, I respect your opinion but Gojo's just plain and simply better.
Also Nanami is shown as a caring person in the first season.
He helped out that shop girl. Without even wanting anything in return.
Also thank your for the mention the difference of domineering and protective.
Rather than domineering and manipulative. Cause some men dont really get understand it.
Well said. I wish you talked about the difference more showing Mahito's and Sukuna asshole's behaviours how they tried to manipulate the weaker and use their power to do bad things.
“Patriarchy” “sexism” Jesus Christ throw in more buzzwords, women you aren’t opressed and never will be you like nanami because he’s buff and like gojo for the same reason, admit it
Don’t lie to yourself if nanami was fat and a ugly yet still nice you wouldn’t care
@@people2chronically-onlinedude shut up you don’t understand what we are talking abt here go away
@@rawrostar no no no you see you hate being called out because you know it to be true, cope harder
As a male viewer myself I would have never imagined myself looking that much at jjk male characters and literally being pleased by the idea of doing it
🤨🤨🤨🤨📸📸📸💀💀
@@pandajaeger3079 I usually do it with the female characters but Idk why with jjk I tend to do it with both
hot is hot
@@nelsonboubou7006 Have you seen JoJo's Bizarre Adventure?
Every single person on this planet is gay
I definitely struggle with Nobara as a character. Her arc screamed wasted potential to me, but i think that has a lot to do with how fast paced a lot of the story is. The one “filler” episode we got before shibuya showed us a glimpse of who she was to the team and how important their relationships were, but we barely get to see the main trio just existing like that, especially once the fighting starts. By the time she goes splat It feels like we were only starting to understand her. I do appreciate the perspective of her personality being a representation of the female gaze tho
don't give up on nobara, she ain't confirmed dead, i'd say it's more probable that she is alive judging by the whole set up of her being put in stasis by that new sorcerer with the pause wound effect
@@metalface_villain bro it's too late now, she's not gonna come back.
Soooooo true! That and a lot of the other female characters
@@dcrebirth8896 10 euros bet that she will be instrumental in sukuna's defeat :P
@@metalface_villain u know I actually hope she is but don't get your hopes up
I've heard the phrase "the female gaze" and I've understood it to be about ladies thirstin' as opposed to guys thirstin', but somehow I hadn't picked up on the idea that it's also an inversion of the male gaze in the sense that it's emotional and psychological as opposed to physical. It seems so obvious now. Calling shirtless Gojo "the male gaze applied to a male character" really shifted my paradigm.
JJK is a really fascinating show. Too bad I can't forgive it for doing Nobara dirty like that.
Yeah, it's still somehow sexists in the way that they won't show any main male fighting against woman solo. Unless the male characters are inhuman curses (like the brothers Nobara killed with Yuki) or the scene is comical: like panda bullying Nobara during the training. I'm not sure if it's right or wrong and I would like to see such fight. It just is.
*Panda. Panda Senpai. It was the autocorrect. Panda panda yanai!😤
Ironically they both have that second layer of depth. While the artsier side of the female gaze can be described as that time they showed Mr. Darcy reacting with his actor using his hands to enhance the scene, the artsier side of the male gaze can be described by damn near any depiction of Batman (especially the intimidating ones and the ones that included the late Kevin Conroy’s voice talent)
@@hdshjs Nevermind Yuta and Maki literally fighting previously and Maki landing what would've been a killing blow on them, but I guess that just didn't happen now?
bruh this video is cap, why do some girls act like women have reached some sort of enlightenment. The women in those echi anime designed for the "male gaze" are also caring af and kind. All those anime with the gyaru girl being super kind ( dress up darling ) is the same vein of fantasy. Personality as well as looks. Women are just as horny as men, that is supposed to be a 21st century realistic take right? So why is this youtuber pushing some Victorian ass bullshit reality where, no women care more about the personality, the looks don't matter as much.
Stop the bullshit, all the men that the women gaze is cantered towards are also attractive men, the personality is the cherry on top, not the whole fucking cupcake lmao. Hate when some women lie like this and act like they a whole different species
I love the female gays
@UTubeTrollPolice298 we get it, you’re a closeted Bi.
@UTubeTrollPolice298 I love that I chose to be a female gay, it’s great.
@UTubeTrollPolice298ai ass response
@UTubeTrollPolice298 you have no content 😂
@UTubeTrollPolice298 or is it 🤨🤨🤨🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔??????????
As a man, that nanami scene looked good to me 👀
Men can enjoy the female gaze!!
@@inakyu most definitely! And you singing while the nanami gif is just playing at the end got me weak 🤣
To be honest I liked it too despite being a guy 🧑🏽🦯
That’s just good taste
Thats called being normal
I see a lot of ppl missing the point and/or denying that there is some differences in the way men and women are wired and how that effects what does and doesn’t arouse each sex (generally speaking)
In the end the two gazes are simply a question of emphasis and target audiance. Its not meant to deny that women enjoy bodily fanservice or men can't appricate subtext. One is not better or worse then the other but one is used in media a lot more then the other. Nothing wrong in acknowledging that.
The first time I heard about the gaze theory i was really resistance to it. What do you mean all men are bad because the only thing that appeals to men are sexually objectifying women and thus I must be bad just because I'm a man? But the more I saw examples and understood this, I realized what this theory actually means in practice. I believe that must also be the case with a lot of other people, so I'm starting to believe that the nomenclature of "male/female" gaze is more detrimental than useful to it. Specially because male gaze can cater to both men and women just like female gaze can also cater to both men and women. With, in general, different proportions and intensities, of course. I wish I had suggestions of better names but I'm empty handed.
@@besknighter I don't think there's anything wrong with the nomenclature tbh. While it can be fashioned in a way to cater to women that doesn't change the fact that the whole concept was created and continues to be primary used for the benefit of men's entertainment on the basis of sex appeal. I think we can all agree stuff like Naruto's sexy no jitsu or Bleach's Orihime whole design weren't made with girls (and what sexually appeals to them) in mind. Furthermore the deliberate use of the male gaze's as a tool to elicit specific physicals responses in women similar to men (rather then an emotional one as one would argue is the case for the so called female gaze) within media (especially mainstream media as oppose to media created for women specifically) is, in all honest, a relatively recent development.
That said, assuming the prevalence of the male gaze in media as a tool to appeal to women continues to grows along with the use of the female gaze, I do think over time the conversation surrounding this topic will become more nuance opening the way for different more, neutral nomenclature. Imo, the only reason this is a topic even exist at all tho is largely because of the disproportion in use of the male vs female gaze (as well as use of the male gaze for women's entertainment compare to men) in media.
@@besknighterno it’s not applicable to all men it is a phenomenon that was observed that doesn’t mean you have a part in it. I’ve known guys who enjoy female fanservices much more than normal females sometimes and it’s honestly refreshing to watch. When we say male gaze female gaze it’s sort of beauty filter or preference observed in most ppl but not all. So yea it is a thing but feel free to redefine it bc it’s honestly up to you to decide how you perceive beauty
@@besknighter
I’d say a good replacement for the terms would be “visual gaze” & “sensational gaze.” One is built entirely on what’s seen, the other is what’s not
@@fatalblue Agreed that the prevalence of male gaze dwarfs the female one. I have no doubt about it. I'm proposing a change on their names specially as a tool to help improve on that. As there still are men out there that wouldn't allow themselves to admit liking the female gaze as well. Be it by social pressure from toxic masculity, fragile masculinity, lack of understanding (my case).
I can totally understand why the names have originated the way they are and they still make sense to this day. But if our goal is to make them equally represented, I'm arguing that changing their names may help a lot with it. Just as it has happened with global warming -> climate change.
For me, I don't understand what's so strange about females watching shounen anime. I am a male and I have watched several shoujo anime, and some of them I consider to be better than many of the shonen anime I have watched.
In my opinion, gender doesn't matter (most of the time). Whatever category the anime is trying to target, if the anime is good, you will enjoy it regardless of your gender.
Male, Female or anything else.
Shows are shows.
Yeah but I'm pretty sure their categorized like this because of Japan and the manga industry heavily discriminate against international manga and in japan boys don't really watch shojou and girls don't really watch Shonen so their categorized like that but with Shonens recent hype that line has started to blur but sadly shojou is getting left in the dust ever so slowly.
I'm AFAB and I absolutely adore Shonen and rarely watch other anime types. I was raised on DBZ from diapers, and I've been hooked ever since!
@@shepherdbrooks7609same that’s why I prefer Shonen over should despite watching both when I was young
shows have a demographic. ofc if you like shounen it doesn't matter your gender, you're probably going to enjoy it. but the objective of any show is to gather as many viewers as possible, and regular shounen, even some good shounen have little chance of targeting someone who isn't that much into shounen, in captivating people in a way that guarantees revenue in forms other than viewers. I've watched shounen all my life, I quite enjoy it, that being said, my favourite characters are almost always not the lead characters, or the most "popular" ones. they are normally either female or some shady side characters which makes it hard to find merchandise and etc. And it's because how main characters are often catered to the male gaze only. they are either hot females or OP Males that feed into the male power fantasy (not that there's anything wrong with this, it's the target audience after all). but JJK is different, because they carefully female gazed most of the characters, the potencial to sell merchandise improves, therefore revenue improves. the story is still a shounen but now everyone is invested in the characters.
The edition of ‘I’m not geeto.’ And ‘who the hell is go joe?’ Was spectacular
I watched the Nanami scene like 5 times before continuing and can definitely confirm: I was eating that up.
All the slides had me as the Leo Di Caprio meme, because you explained it soooo well.
Also, the add was really cute with valo and your friends asking more, super sweet of them
As a straight dude, same. This is a moment where murderous rage is totally justified yet utilized in a protective and positive way. Nanami doesn't give into unbridled rage except as a tool to try and save the people around him. The whole time he is controlled and collected. His rage is directed solely at those responsible and he doesn't let it hurt anyone he doesn't mean to hurt.
My dad always told me that a woman was more attracted to a man based on his personality and demeanor rather than looks. I always believed him. Its cool to see it in action
I'm sorry man, your dad lied to you.
In reality looks and attractiveness is the entrance ticket to women, they are more into aesthetics, you can trick your way with status and a really high sense of humor or genius, in a party i saw this guy that wasnt really atractive, relative to other guys that were more tall and handsome, but then some rap battles started and this guy demolished all of them, and some girls fell for it after, its like in anime fights where power is passed to the guy who won, it doesnt matter if you are weaker at the start, if you won that strong guy you re at the top of the food chain
yea woman would totally simp for gojo if he wasnt also super hot.
@@revolversnake126they also simp for Yuji and Megumi because they’re good people as well, Gojo being super hot is just a bonus but as we see in the future he’s still a shitty teacher and kind of selfish
yet its false. women are actually more looks focused then men. Men date across and down women only want to date up
In my opinion, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 was a masterpiece. The story has become darker and deeper than Season 1, and all the side and main characters are now threatened with death at any moment. The fights in it were crazy. The production and direction were beyond great. This Season of Jujutsu Kaisen definitely deserves a 10/10, and it is sure the anime of the year, for me.
I wish IGN was as smart as you
ngl I thought it kinda sucked. I found season 1 way more entertaining. Season 2 was just nonstop fights and deaths. I stopped watching after I realised that the characterisation stopped being so relevant. We didn't learn very much about any of the characters (apart from gojo and geto obviously) and even the new characters were just basically props for fight scenes
Masterpiece xd
meaningless fights = is a masterpiece lol
the show is so surface level as well
I feel like Asirpa in Golden Kamuy is almost a response to the lack of female gaze in media. She's a character that has everyone else trying to decide for her what her story is going to be, and her character arc revolves around her taking control and becoming what she wants to be. Her thoughts and feelings become more and more important as others try to decide them for her. She's also just a super well written character, y'all best jump on Golden Kamuy
Will endorse, Asirpa rules.
Haven't read golden kamui yet but since you're recommending it I'll probably check it out soon. Btw your vids are amazing and i loved the one shitting on demon slayer as a certified hater(i only watched s1💀)
Hello dude. Your Vinland Saga video was p cool
@zacharydeguzman7377 Thanks dawg I really appreciate that!
@@ivanthaboi Haha thank you
It's like the old saying goes :
"Domain Expansion".
I think this was really interesting. On an academic level though, I've never particularly liked the tendency to oppose the male gaze with the female gaze singularly. I get why people do it, especially in conventional discussions, but I think it brings a lot of noise into the conversation and throws us back on narratives of 'the nature of gendered desire' which are honestly unhelpful.
It's a bit like the whole canard that 'men are primarily visual, while women are primarily relational' that comes out of sexuality studies. As merely a statistical blip it's not so bad but the issue is that becomes a demand. Women's visual pleasure is written over, men's relational pleasure is too and the end result is that we start talking about 'sexuality' and 'relational sexuality' or 'aggression' and 'interpersonal aggression' and we've arrived back at the binary of 'normal vs woman' which is main issue with male gaze as it stands.
Ultimately the female gaze aren't opposites, except in so far as they're held together in a system that when see 'male gaze' we immediately look for 'the' female gaze. And this becomes pretty limiting because now female pleasure in media has to also pull the emotional labour of being counter-hegemonic in all the ways (which seems kind of unfair when men aren't called to do the same work to engage with their gaze).
I guess what I'm saying is that I really like the analysis of female gaze here and the way being in the scene and action an prompt possibilities, but less convinced by the operation of opposites. I think when starting about the opposite of the male gaze, we want avoid pinning our hopes a single, counter-gaze. Since the primary issue with the male gaze isn't its content but its ubiquity, we shouldn't expect to solve it by just finding a singular opposing gaze (and certainly not one licenced from with the patriarchal constructions of gender roles/difference) rather we probably want to be discussing multiple female gazes, adult gazes, youth gazes (even counter-hegemonic male gazes and ungendered ones. Anything that explodes beyond the boundaries of singular 'Gaze'). I think this is able to handle the need for both criticality and desire without pushing women into a corner and might even be able to begin disrupting the male gaze itself, by highlighting its actual reality as an illusion constructed by a proliferation of multiple gazes being organised and focused by material power.
So yeah, sorry for the long post and for my lack of sources. SenseofCinema (I believe it was) did an old piece on gazes and forced stillness of an audience that once sent me off down this path and the rest is pulled primarily from engaging with engaging with essays about gender and one piece on the potential for a 'Youth Gaze' approach to media analysis. Hopefully this reads as yes anding the concept (I think you possible draw attention this yourself in the way the video divdes Nobara off from previous part and the notion of multiple female gazes operating within the same work to construct a more comprehensive female gaze is a point that could be dug into). I also once heard the female gaze posited as a form of aggressive reading of a work (while the male gaze flows with the writers intentions) but this was offhand in a book about children's gender self-policing in kindergarents from 1995 so I doubt it's a large theoretical base.
Again, excellent video.
I appreciate this point. Reality is much more nuanced than what is presented by media. I think the ultimate cause for "simplified" gazes is that very few people are in charge of what media gets made. All of the people involved in making films or tv, have to follow the whims of the 1% at the top to get the work approved and funded and marketed. If those in power want to focus the work for an intended audience, it is tailored to their perception of that audience, and it ignores alternative perceptions or desires. That's why we don't get a youth gaze, or counter-hegemonic gazes.
@@zigzag8392 Absolutely. There's definitely an issue with the limited sorts of people who get to make media which leads to works catering to hegemonic norms.
There is some interesting work about gazes as something that comes from the audience rather than the top down though (so the framing might encourage you to use a male gaze, but if you aren't male [or that male gaze doesn't accurately represent you, which I'd wager is most men at least some of the time] you always have the options of your own additional gazes to apply to it). I prefer to think of gazes as something emergent in relationship with the viewer which producers aree trying to anticipate or direct, rather than as something imposed directly on the viewer. So to take the youth gaze example, we get youth gaze potentially whenever a young person watches a thing - because they're often more socially aware of the way adult constraints effect children than adults themselves are and so can read those into a work - but as you say we rarely get works that cater to them, with most catering instead to narratives of what adults wish children would be or narratives of 'growing up'.
Really appreciate when people comment more towards this view! Currently studying media analysis and Guattari's theories (the schizoanalytic project) and this really resonates with me, though, I think id develop things in some different manner. Thanks for the comment!
@@kimby03532 That honestly sounds fascinating. I'm just coming off a critical theory masters myself. Guattari (and Deleuze and Guattari more generally) really fascinate me, but I never feel like I have a solid grip on them (which I know is part of the point). If you've managed to make any tools out of their stuff it would be honestly brilliant to hear about.
@@packman2321012458913
its really hard to keep the convo in youtube haha😭
THE VOCALS.
Anyway, regarding the video, I found that you were able to articulate exactly what makes JJk my fav anime: to put it simply, it’s the characters. The nuance behind everyone one of them regardless of gender, that all of us fans love to talk about. And yes, having fan service “catered” towards me definitely helps. Yet, you also worded my biggest problem with JJK perfectly: the characters are well written but maybe not fully developed. I loved your analysis, please read the manga so that you can go through more pain, and keep making videos bc they make me smile!
I'm a big world builder guy so maybe it's just me but the fact that characters in jjk aren't fully developed in the series with the rare exceptions being nanami and gojo is part of what draws me in it sets a theme characters aren't gonna live long there not always gonna get a happy ending or a full circle moment their arcs might be cut short or never end up happening in time their potential gone to waste because that's what it's like to be a jujutsu sorcerer you don't get those pleasures and the only 2 that do are the ones who defied the odds and expectations and the ones who were so far above nothing interfered with their development and character, and even still they only reach that moment at the end of the line. for me that's candy things like that where the message and themes isn't just given through the story itself but how it plays out and how the author writes or decides when to kill em off how far they should get not just on the story but in their own personal journies and it just so happens nobara didn't get far and mechamaru never got close to his goals or yuji just being one step behind no matter how hard he tries and nanami only got to the end because (while offscreen) he decided to leave that life that would've cut his story short before being dragged back in at the end
It did cater to the ladies more, and I liked that. It’s honestly just a breath of fresh air but also, it adds a more intimate look at certain traits of the character that might not normally have a reason to be or just haven’t yet gotten to be in the spotlight
This whole vid kinda reminded me of a quote from a UA-cam video that said that “Zoro appeals to both the male fantasy and the male gaze” lol
Loved this video. Thanks for sharing! My girl is obsessed with that Nanami scene. I don’t blame her 💀
twoface is just like that🔥🔥🔥
That’s not your girl. That’s Nanami’s girl.
atp just admit that you’re second place lmao
That had me like 👀
Trust me, a fuckton of stuff after this is gege just letting girls look cool in one fight before killing them off or litterally being toji
Don't think the female gaze should necessarily be defined as the opposite of the male gaze. Like stating the Gojo abs scene being the male gaze seems off to me. Like it probably has some overlap with the male gaze in some sort of power fantasy of a strong character, but don't think that means strictly male gaze or strictly not female gaze.
At least for me, this video essay on the female gaze was on the mark, Inakyu. From the undertones of Gojeto's simmering yaoi ambiance, to that zaddy rizz just oozing off of Nanami, and Nobara's "I give zero fucks about your expectations, I'm gonna do me to the fullest" unyielding confidence and badassery... As I watched this video, I found myself snapping my fingers and exclaiming, "Preach sis!"
As a female fan who also enjoys shonen, I have to say JJK-S2 was an unusual but hugely welcomed experience. I look forward to seeing and reading more shonen that also considers its female audience regardless of the genre's intended definition. Adhering to the confines of these categorizations are kind of pointless. I mean, there are males who love shojo too, and I don't blame them. In fact, I applaud their emotionally intelligent tastes. Regardless of gender, we're all consuming this media for the enjoyment of the experience.
Any who, while I'm highly anticipating season 3, I started reading the manga because I honestly just want to know what happens next before the internet spoils for me. And the internet definitely will, especially if I continue to get my group therapy from it after every devistation I encounter while engrossed in this story.
Good luck to you on your journey I personally wouldn't have jjk tagged under interest on socials while reading because pretty much all media is about leaked chapters and spoilers there are few season reviews or topics using it as an example like this or just general media about it but in general jjk media comes with spoilers so be extra cautious on media while reading 👍
I ain't reading allat
@moryamarowora6913 This paragraph of yours intrigues me a little bit:
"As a female fan who also enjoys shonen, I have to say JJK-S2 was an unusual but hugely welcomed experience. I look forward to seeing and reading more shonen that also considers its female audience regardless of the genre's intended definition. Adhering to the confines of these categorizations are kind of pointless. I mean, there are males who love shojo too, and I don't blame them. In fact, I applaud their emotionally intelligent tastes. Regardless of gender, we're all consuming this media for the enjoyment of the experience. "
Recently I've noticed a tendency of people (mainly women) to want more "female gaze" added to media which target a male audience. Yet I don't see the same happening the other way i.e more "male gaze" added to media which target a female audience.
I find it strange that adding more female fanservice to media that target men is applauded but that adding more male fanservice to media that target men or media that target women is villified.
You said that "Adhering to the confines of these categorizations are kind of pointless" yet you are not encouraging to add more male gaze to media that target women audience. So in the end it feels like the end of categorizations in media is only viewed positively when it benefits women.
I'm not saying that adding more female gaze to media targeted to men like shonen is bad but I'm questioning the validity of taking such a unidirectional stance when it comes to breaking barriers between genders.
@@Hollowed2wiz mans speaking facts
@@Hollowed2wiz I agree with this
Nobara is assertive and does not let anyone make decisions for her. Maki is the same.
I used to watch a lot of BL series without ever thinking why until I realised it's because I like romance series but didn't like most of the female portrayals in hetero series. That struck a nerve. I love to write stories, so that's when I decided to start working on female protagonists with a female gaze.
It's so sad to realise just how deep the male gaze has been embedded into my subconsciousness. I basically refused to write female characters because I didn't know how to. This is changing right now. I hope to one day publish a book with a female protagonist with a female gaze that could hopefully leave a different impression on the reader's minds.
Thank you so much for not saying "No lube, no protection...." and horny BS like that because for some reason it made me so mad seeing all those comments on those stupid social media posts. You actually made really good points and restored my faith in humanity.
“Young gojo breaking up with his lover in front of kfc” LOVER???
oh you are so innocent
@@Reira_Newgate the one word I never thought I would be called
Yup
Yes, we are satosugu shipper and yes we exist
@@wandatherranova4258 I sorta meant this as a joke as I also ship satosugu it just took me a while to process that she was referring to geto 😭
I feel like maybe you mean "dominant" and not "domineering". I agree with all you said about the female gaze and JJK. There was even a conversation about how women are handled in shonen in character witn Nobara and Momo.
The thing that really made me love Nanami though was the whole repeated portrayal of, "Nothing's gonna harm you; not while I'm around.". It wasn't just women but everyone from the kids to the girl at the bakery to his co-workers. Having a strong man that can be gentle, unless he is protecting you.... .-. He did tell Nobara not to go, because she would get in the way, not because he saw her as weak (which is a very shonen thing for men to say to women) but because he knew he'd be distracted trying to protect her, just as he would anyone else. He was a man with such simple desires for himself (He just wanted to have his sandwich and go to the beach and read.) but so much weight on how to protect everyone else.
The reaction to recent episodes of Solo Leveling shows ladies oohing, and ahhing over muscles. I'm not disagreeing with the other stuff about dominance. I just wouldn't minimize the power of naked muscles.
This type of video are the ones that are hard to watch, NOT because the video is bad, but because as a man (shocker, my display name is John), I find myself questioning how I view women in media, feeling shit for feeling stuff when I find someone hot etc. So yeh, personally, it is hard to watch IN A GOOD WAY.
Edit: despite the disclaimer at 7:21 about the male gaze being not always bad, I find myself icking whenever fanservice for the sake of fanservice is displayed.
Don’t feel bad for the objectification but for the often and not often missed, lack of any other way for those characters they are just eye candy and wish fulfillment no more
The fact that the male gaze was just "hehe boobies" while the female gaze(especially the part with Nobara) just felt like a character having an actual personality instead of being a trope/caricature made me feel like us dudes got a bad rep by the woman who coined the term. However don't get me wrong, i do indeed like hehe boobies at times too
It’s ok to enjoy both the visual and psychological aspects of characters. It’s ok to enjoy fan service. The issue comes when characters are underdeveloped just for the sake of being 100% visual assets. That’s bad writing
@@cd.knuckles There are way more conditions in which it is not ok to enjoy fanservice than just the one you mentioned, the most common type of fanservice in anime is that of underage characters and obviously that is bad.
@@theholypopechodeii4367 i'll enjoy whatever tf i want, you stay out of it, thanks
I genuinely cried when Nanami died like he is 2nd to Gojo in my heart😭
This is one of my favorite video essays on jjk and you have an amazing voice!
As someone who is going into the animation industry, this video was very educational and you explained things very well! I thinks its always a focal point to have not only well written and developed characters, but expressive ones too, especially with women characters who arent fleshed out as their male counterparts in not only shonen, but in mainstream media as well. But you should definitely read the jjk manga, without any spoilers, a character with a misogynistic ideology is introduced and their viewpoint is challenged by another character, the whole confrontation is really well written and empowering, definitely check it out
As a woman, I didnt find any pleasure in the scenes you described. Then again, I dislike dominant men especially in the bed room. I prefer men who are vulnerable, squirmy, overwhelmed and submissive.
Then again, I also dont think that such a thing as "female gaze" exists because the original concept that was coined by John Berger in Ways of Seeing not Laura Mulvey is that it is specifically a psychological phenomenon women experience within a patriarchy due to oppression. The idea that women constantly monitor themselves through the lens of an imaginary man, even when alone. To think "what would men think if they saw me now?" not even in a sexual way but in a way of judgment. Is my appearance, my body my face, acceptable. Does my appearance in this moment make me worthy of respect and humane treatment by the men in my life, whether they are co-workers, class mates or family members? Does my appearance warrant that men will listen to me when I have something important to say?
Men do not experience this (at least not straight men) in a patriarchal society. Dumbing it down to "when we get horny looking at someone" isnt what male or female gaze means. It's a specific state of oppression that derives from constantly being objectified.
Your preference of liking submissive men is almost certainly a result of resentment and desire to have power over them. Liking dominant men stems from father figures and natural instincts that incline towards grouping with the strong. "The female gaze" as explained in the video has existed in all societies because no matter the gender; traits of heroism, courage, strength, competence, insight ect are respected and admired by men and women and further considered traits to be loved by women. Assuming that those emotions are the effect of the Patriarchy is a rather radical proposal.
@@johnmiller6696 dude ew
@@tyriaxepheles7996 lmfao
@@johnmiller6696from an anthropological point of view, dominance and aggression came to us from animals so that we could survive in the wild. Now, we live in the modern world and we do not have such dangers as before. Life has become safer and therefore women began to choose non-aggressive men. This is evolution.
@@liyajk8182 I see your saying that masculine traits are no longer necessary. Well, they are. Masculine traits are not only used to fight wars, it also helps organise people, achieve power, bring societal change, protect what has been build ect. Hierarchies will exist regardless. Now the default objective is to gain power and social status regardless of gender. Masculine traits are required to succeed in this endeavour.
When it comes to preference of men. Chose whoever lol.
The scene of Gojo breathing heavy holding the transfigured human heads in the Shibuya arc made me feel some type of way ( 0///0)
real
Gojo's English va knew what he was doing in the subway fight scene
The sponsored section is oddly entertaining on its own😂😂😂
Trueee, her friends helping her shill is peak
0:40 HIS WHAT!? 💀
Please don't try to deny it. look at those two
They are down bad.
@@Clin270 denied
His lover.
Can we stop acting like women aren’t stimulated by visually sexy men? Coming from a woman myself.
I mean , who doesn't love men who look strong and papi like.
Obviously, but we love our stuff to be rather more worked on then just seeing a bunch of sexy people just being sexy, moan and act all dumb. Every little piece is essential for great art.
@@peachwhite-333 Yeah but most girls are still visual too 🙄
We do. But we- no, some of us also don't like it if that's all he is. Or it'll be like Chris Hemsworth in Ghostbusters. Just a useless guy who can't even do anything correctly and only kept in the office to drool at. They quite literally say it too.
Most women also enjoy sexy men. But with personality. Or he'll fall flat and boring
@@gaia_cool_it considering how a lot of guys also bemoan whe a sexy female character doesn't have a personality, i have to ask what the hell are you trying to say lol like what's the difference
Nobara would 1000% be a Inakyu subscriber.
Loved the video, Ina! Very refreshing and I need to see a Women in JJK video asap
That ad was attrocious💀
JJK treat the men and women right win win
The mention of the deeply psychologically punishing working conditions of mappa animators falls short when it comes before a betterhelp ad spot with valorant footage behind it.
I appreciate the work done in this video, and it's a very appreciable return to stuff about media criticism I haven't fully gone to.
That said, my biggest add-on this video is that the female gaze potential of Nanami owes as much to the artwork and scene-setting as it does to Kenjiro Tsuda's voice.
Can I argue that if Nanami had a partner he would never pull their hair like he did in that scene. The way men fight and show affection can be different.
Putting betterhelp ad with Yuji's "character development" scene is gold
Id been wanting to do a video like this myself!!! I’m SO happy you did cause I’d noticed the IMMENSE thirst for MULTIPLE jjk men and I wanted to study the phenomenon. Shoutout Gege✊🏾
I totally agree with you 👍 but....
Fuck gege bro 😭 after the trauma he put me threw in Shibuya and these past 3 arcs I can't take it man😭 but the stories just too good he's manipulating me bro he's giving such good plot and characters just to absolutely rip them to shreds in front of me😢 bro got me feeling like yuji bro I've done cried 10x this past week just watching this season and even more not counting the recent manga chapters😭 do not give this man credit do not let him cook he gone give you an omelet douse it in mayonnaise then go make a new one just to do it again😂
1) I disagree with shirtless Gojo being "male gaze" - it's pretty female to me, women enjoy looking at beautiful male bodies, just as guys enjoy looking at girls.
2) Female gaze is very diverse, there're girls who simp for NAOYA of all people, and he's a misogynistic asshole, but I bet he'll get his fair share of fangirls once he gets animated.
That's also why Sukuna and Toji both also are adored by girls. I personally love them all: Gojo, Sukuna, Toji, Nanami, Geto, etc etc they are all catering to different sides of a "female fantasy".
Some girls like domeneering and protective guys. Sweet and caring guys. And others enjoy a fantasy of being used and manipulated by someone despicable, like Sukuna or Naoya.
There is no one rule that defines our tastes. That's why JJK is so popular with women, because almost every girl out there will find something that appeals to her among the miriad of cool male characters that this series has to offer.
you kinda missed the whole point of the video... the point being that the "male gaze" typically objectifies a character and focus on alluring visuals alone, that gojo scene is male gaze applyed to a male character. there are males who enjoy watching other males bodies. that kind of display of a body is what we call "male gaze" , although classically woman are the object of the male gaze, it doesn't have to be a woman for it to be classified as male gaze.
And yes, woman do enjoy instances of male gaze, we do have eyes. Same as men probably enjoy instances of female gaze. That is not the point.
And the "female gaze" is its counter, it's about the personality, the voice (there's a reason Nanami's voice is one of the most talked topics), how a character behaves and hold themselves. I agree with you that it's about the particular fantasies of the audience members, although it seems that most woman prefer a domineering but protective men, some enjoy more manipulative and controlling traits, or less domineering and romantic characters. but it is still about behaviour, not visual aspects. it's about actions. that why time does not stop for the female gaze, because it requires the passing of time to exist.
Thank you, people have preferences both for physical and emotional. Having one over the other isn't a bad thing.
@@dayan5454 "And yes, woman do enjoy instances of male gaze, we do have eyes" then why call it male gaze? why is this "visual vs personality" gendered? Can you not see the weird gender essentialism here
@@gillfreddie4100Because it's primarily guys who enjoy instances of male gaze. Do you know what "primarily" means?
i was about to write that i agree with the Nanami part but not the Nobara part as much ..cause i dont know fam i just find Nobara very annoying ... the way she is written as a character frustrates me ... i have only watched the anime and yeah her end moment was kinda interesting but i could not enjoy it as much cause along the whole series i did not see any signs that would point me to her backstory ... her backstory comes right out of the left field lol and the author wants me to feel sad for this character that i did not get the chance to connect much with ?? ..the moment u said "not well developed character" i felt that lol cause thats how she feels to me ...i would love if u would do a vid on that topic, keep up the good work!
I may not be a woman but god do I love the men in JJK, they're all top tier and I won't apologize for the person I will become once Choso shirtless is animated and Hiromi.
i don't care about Gojo six pack
But when he breathe after he tired
😳😳😳
Breathe*, 'breath' is a noun
@@johannesstephanusroos4969 yeah I'm sorry
English is my 3rd language
@@johannesstephanusroos4969 and I learn it only from internet too lol
@@ram47863 Fair enough, English is my second language as well
@@ram47863 The fact that you're learning honestly places you above the average American
i don't think i've ever seen male gaze be defined in such a way to wholly encompass objectification. and the way most will claim female gaze is that same objectification but centered on the "male" body like fanservice in free! or your example of shirtless gojo. but i've seen female gaze defined in a slightly similar way to how you define it. the example i am thinking of is a tumblr post wherein a person compares two magazine covers featuring hugh jackman, the first is of him posing powerfully as Wolverine, muscles bulging. this is on the cover of men's magazine, and the second is of hugh jackman, on the cover of women's magazine, he's wearing a soft blue sweater, smiling a friendly smile, not a bulging muscle to be seen. The op called the first cover a male power fantasy, what men want. And the second is the female gaze, want women see as attractive. Here you cite why Nanami and Gojo are female gaze as domineering/protective. Their power is on full display. Yet, Hugh Jackman in a blue sweater is approachable, friendly. So, why would this qualify as the female gaze as well? I think because it falls into the later half of your definition: protective. If he is approachable and comfortable. Well groomed and soft. Then he can be qualified as safe to be with. In a similar vein to Nanami and Gojo displaying their power full on in different ways, we know they do so in the effort to protect. Thus, it's extremely attractive. But again, that definition does edge into gender essentialism territory. That women desire men who are strong and can provide. Caveman logic to some degree.
It does smack a bit of gender essentialism to call it male and female gaze and define it as objectification versus depth too. Though, I might be generalizing a bit. But, to some degree I can see why it can't be helped as the male gaze is defined by the fact that mostly men would utilize objectification solely on women's bodies. I think that's part of why most people will call objectification of male bodies "female gaze." But, your definition of it regarding female characters. I think is the first time I've ever seen someone address it that way, and it gives a lot of food for thought, because yes most people will say that to write a good female character you just write a character, but female. But it is more than that. It includes writing a fleshed out person, with quirks, and flaws, and desires and goals. It's not just a tragic backstory or a favorite soda flavor. Nor is it enough to just write a character but female, because gender can also inform why a person is the way they are. Like Momo's speech to Nobara about men and women. Though I think sexism in a particular field is better handled in Hell's Paradise or the Last Airbender than JJK because that shit is sorta dropped later, in the fact that it has no real bearing on the story overall. Whereas in the Last Airbender, sexism is a part of a whole arc for both Katara and Sokka as their tribe mired in it, and plays an active part in their growth as characters and in the growth of their relationship with each other and others. And in Hell's Paradise, it does the same with Sagiri. As her family hates that she isn't doing her duty as woman and just marrying and serving, and instead has trained to be an executor like her father. Part of her failure to cut properly is that disapproval, but its mainly due to her compassion, which the story does frame as a very feminine thing. Ultimately she works through it by accepting her compassion as part of her, by accepting that she is feminine and that does not make her unable to cut cleanly but is a part of what makes her able to do so. Her continued failure was because she was also rejecting the same thing her family was rejecting: her femininity. Honestly Sagiri's story actually feel's very similar to Mai and Maki's story. In the sense that they hail from a very traditional family that specializes in a certain thing, and that family spurns anyone who does not fit in that narrow framework of success or worthiness. Only difference is that JJK puts little emphasis on their failure being due to their gender, and more upon their lack of cursed energy. So, it is baffling why Momo brings it up at all, when 1. we get nothing on her backstory, and 2. get next to nothing on how it applies to Mai and Maki in the actual story. It does at the very least inform us about Mai and Maki's situation and tell us about how Nobara thinks, but beyond that, it has very little impact on the JJK story overall. Which constantly irks me to no end when I dwell too long on it.
Anyway I got carried away. Great Video! Really made me think.
youtube recommended me this video out of the blue and i'm so happy because not only are you hilarious ("we see young gojo and the fallout he has with his lover in front of a kfc" had me wheezing), but you do an excellent point of explaining your topic while also making it entertaining, so definitely going to stick around for more content!
Loved the vid....
P.S as a straight man, I too loved Nanami's Domineering scene.
Wow, great and educational video
It is so vital that we discuss definitions
This helps move conversations forward
Thanks, always glad I have subscribed
Everything you said was on point, trust me it made sense bc I felt like season 2 was absolutely phenomenal. They're all just so damn perfect🙏 Also I'm really glad you didn't cut out the end, your voice is beautiful❤
Domination is well and good within the confines of a bedroom, in a trusting, consensual and respectful relationship. Boundaries are stablished and respected. Control, on the other hand, leads to toxicity. It implies that one person is in a position of power that does not care for boundaries or the other person’s feelings, individuality and ideas or desires.
“We see young gojo and the fallout he has with his lover in front of a kfc” 💀
Guys we found another one
JJK found the cheat code. They turned found a way to make Shonen into Shojo
I'm at 11:00 and I just need to say this because I am very confused. Before watching this video I though that basically male gaze is sexualizing women, female gaze sexualizing men(a bit simplified). But now I learnt that men being shown without a shirt also counts as male gaze and that female gaze is... idk how to describe it, situation? And women can enjoy male gaze on male characters and men can enjoy female gaze because this too can be on both male and female characters. So what does it have to do with gender anymore? I'm confused.
So when in shoujo there are male characters shown without a shirt it's male gaze and in some shounen romanse when there is emotionally intensive scene it is female gaze? It feels like these terms mean barely anything at this point.
11:51 I thought you might be onto something and I'm just confused but here you lost me. It sounds like you are saying that everything where characters aren't shirtless is female gaze. Honestly it feels like you are saying that male gaze is cheap fanservice and female is anything with at least a little bit of depth. It doesn't even have anything to do with genders anymore. I will watch the video to the end, maybe there is something that would explain this to me but so far if this interpretation wasn't your intention you made poor work of getting your point across.
15:04 Again this. You were saying that gojo shirtless was example on male gaze on male character but now you are saying that male gaze is defined as "turning women into objects for male pleasure". And why are you so insistent on female gaze being "opposite" of male gaze.
15:32 You are right, making just list of facts on character isn't character depth. But it also isn't "good character writing". What you described earlier IS in fact good character writing. List of facts isn't good character writing.
16:33 Soooo. Female gaze is character having personality. Got it.
17:18 "in other forms of film and TV this tends to be spotted when female character break the 4th wall to remind the viewer that she is a person too". Soooo what happened to male characters? It feels like you use now completely different definition than what you explained at the beggining. When I'm thinking about it this sounds like extremely stupid idea. Breaking the 4th wall would remind the viewer that "this is not real story, its just tv show you are watching". And again female gaze = humanizing , male gaze is oposite so = dehumanizing. Words with positive and negative connotation.
18:18 "Because it was her own voice telling us that that is the female gaze." It starts to be less and less specific.
Thoughts after watching the video. You don't use your own definitions. You swear it's not malegaze=cheap fanservice, femalegaze=good writing but it sounds like it from what you were saying. Also strong insistence on male and female gaze being opposites and use of language with positive connotation for female gaze and negative for male makes me think that for you terms male gaze and female gaze are respectively negative and positive. Definitions should be understandable by users of the same language. If your definition can't be understood through the words alone and person needs to have similar mindset to you to understand it I would say it's not good definition.
If it was just my misinterpretation and you didn't mean anything like that I apologize. I just needed to point out how easily this video can be interpreted negatively.
By the way when we say 'Female gaze' in the Nanamin scene, its not about men being domineering, because it works with WOMEN being domineering and protective too, imo!
Big shoutout to Gege for brutally killing off my two favorite characters back to back in the same arc by the same villain. 🙃
We certainly ate this season from Toji, Nanami, Choso, Sukuna, Gojo and literally every male in JJK this season! And Kenjiro Tsuda voice just melted me
It's weird that a video about the female gaze in JJK season 2 didn't focus more on the Hidden Inventory arc. Geto and Gojo's entire dynamic would have illustrated your "female gaze = subtext" thesis better than Gojo sitting on Jogo and Hanami in Shibuya.
true... I was waiting for that as well. But I think that she meant to address the most important things that is making JJK popular among the ladies.
Geto and Gojo had too much yaoi over/undertones. Hardcore straight women tend to thirst for Naname trustworthy sexy or Toji tragic, or Choso being dependable and hot, Gojo being hot and wild.
Damn, I was really here thinking “wait Nobara didn’t die, that one guy said he’ll keep her stable but she has a small chance” and I just assumed that she’d be fully healed up later. I’m just now finding out that she fr fr died :(
But looking on the bright side, I really like how anime has more broadly shifted it’s depiction of women. Like most people, I’m so tired of the 50 gorillion animes with a male self-insert MC, surrounded by a harem, in an Isekai. I feel like it’s been really difficult finding one worth watching lately so here’s to hoping this trend sticks 🤞
Why the fuck would you spoil the manga you creatin
Another banger from my favourite jjk channel
You did such a great job putting such an abstract concept into actual words
i’m not a jujutsu kaisen channel 😭😭💔
@@inakyunot yet but soon very very soon
All you’re saying is that the male gaze is defined by objectifying everyone’s bodies, and the female gaze is defined by viewing a person’s character.
THANK YOU like bro why does it always have to be a male vs female thing this shit is outplayed at this point😭😭 just say you have a crush on said character and leave it at that because its not this deep😭!!!
I don't agree with that representation much at all either.
Let's be real. If the male characters in JJK were ugly and still had the exact same personality, no girls would be acting head over heels for them lol.
Both men and women are physical, they like different physical traits, but they still like physical traits.
Likewise, men and women also like personality traits. Men like feminine nature, and Women like masculine nature.
To pretend like either only cares for personality, or that looks aren't important for both is pretty idiotic.
For the above reasons, her interpretation of the "Female Gaze" is pretty flimsy at best. If the male characters were ugly, no amount of positive personality traits and kindness would result in them being simped for. It is the combination of physically attractive + desirable personality traits + a situation highlighting their desirable personality traits that makes the attraction girls experience in the story.
I think they meant that male gaze is much more surface level and woman;s gaze is more geared towards physiological associations, for example male audiences would look at a girl’s hair and think wow their hair looks good and that’s it/ for females they would observe the curves and waves and the softness of it and some even associate it with such as wow they must;be taken good care of their hair I like this person’s efforts.thats why you often see the female gaze being much more detailed and softer bc it evokes a “ pretty “ feeling in you associated to the acts of that person.
@@Mighty.Matcha. Of course, a straight girl would look at an attractive female character and think has good genes or worked for her appearance a lot.
It's no different from how a guy sees a muscular guy in anime with good physique and thinks about the training the character must've gone through to get their appearance like that.
But we're not talking about admiring traits in the same sex for the work ethic they imply.
I'm talking about people finding characters (of the sex they like to romantically engage with) attractive.
-- To paint it as if it's simply the positive personality traits that results in the male characters in JJK getting simped over is just unrealistic and ignoring the obvious truth.
Just like men, women are attracted to a person's appearance and body.
And just like women, men are attracted to positive personality traits romantically on a body they find already attractive.
In other words, if the male cast of JJK were ugly or they all looked like Jogo (an example of a strange but humanoid body)
No amount of positive personality traits being associated with them would make them get simped over.
Throughout the video, she mentions the positive and non-domineering energy of Nanami. Sure, that is a characterization of a protector. My point is this scene wouldn't mean much if Nanami were built weird, extremely short, ugly, not attractive, etc.
Also, the whole positive traits only argument that she gives doesn't hold up either. If that were the case, characters like Toji and Sukuna (Toji having very bad morals, and Sukuna literally being a serial killer for fun) wouldn't be getting simped over. Yet they still are.
At the end of the day, I'd say both men and women find appearance important, and if the appearance is decent or desirable. Then any positive traits will be added to that character's attractiveness. But only if they meet the minimum for that person's wanted appearance.
As for those personality traits that are found attractive, it differs from person to person. But generally, women like traits that embody protectiveness, doting, fierceness, smarts, and determination.
Meanwhile, men like traits that embody nurturing, doting, grace, smarts, serenity, loyalty, etc.
My core point is asserting that the only difference is Women like positive traits = female gaze is idiotic, because it's missing the entire physical component
@@Rain-q5rPeople are visual beings, therefore it only makes sense that our eyes play a critical role in our judgment. If all of this is obvious as the fact the sky is blue (which you seem to think it is), why does it need to be explicitly said when it's implied? The woman in the video never said looks don't matter. She's just trying to explain the difference between the male gaze and the female gaze -- and there definitely is a difference. Looks are, at least for the demographic of women who actually like anime, secondary to personality. You could have 'hot dude' but if his personality is flat the most you can expect from a female audience is "meh". Meanwhile, the male audience will proceed to fail NNN for the foreseeable future regardless of a female character personality.
There are no shortage of books and studies that prove men and woman are wired differently. Whether you want to believe it or not, men are more physical in every way imaginable and women are the exact opposite. There are of course, exceptions for both of these concepts but exceptions aren't the rule. Though men and women live in the same world, they experience it differently and that's OK. Men and women aren't meant to be the same --- honestly if we were, we'd probably hate each other more.
Right on the money. Most people assume Magic Mike caters to the female gaze when actually it's just the male gaze portrayed on men. I like the gojo/Jogo arm bit, hanamis eyes bit, even the pony tail pulling but i love catching lil moments like yuuji pushing his hair up after meeting back with kusakabe and panda. I enjoyed every bit of this video because male dominated fandoms make me feel crazy for not enjoying seeing half naked men in anime.
I'm still half-video but you are so so so right about female gaze being more focused on you feeling something!
I didn't even remember Gojo's abs being so pointed out in there (well, probably I was also too focus on satosugu for that), but Gojo going feral and breathing like THAT in Shibuya? Holy shit, this is going to live rent-free in my brain for the rest of my live bc I was giggleling and kicking my feed so badly, I could never feel normal about this. And it's like you said, because it makes me feel, not juts say "oh, pretty"
Ok fine, once I'll finish Frieren, I'll start watching Gojotsu Kaisen.
Also your videos are really interesting.
Do it
No balls
Literally watching this as I make a tiny Nanami felt plushie. 💀💀💀 POOKIE NANAMI 😭❤️❤️❤️
I like the stories and background they add in jjk like it has no bearing on the story but give us a glimpse into the characters life beside sorcery.
Very interesting video that I'll be thinking about for awhile. It does make me wonder if "male/female" are appropriate labels for the two gazes, because it seems like it flattens the preferences and experiences of people within those categories. If we take the example of shirtless Gojo being "the male gaze but for women" then it means whatever gender you are, you can experience both male and female gazes. To say a gaze is "male" sounds arbitrary, if males and females can both do it.
My own experiences (I'm a straight male) are that I prefer "female gaze" moments. My favorite female anime characters aren't because of the camera holding too long on jiggling chests or from low-angle shots of their butts. It's moments of emotional connection, empathy, or deeper characterizations. Two examples are Nico Robin, and Kitagawa Marin. Robin because of her deadpan dark humor, intelligence, and maturity among the strawhats. Robin's character arc from Alabasta to Enies Lobby is amazing. Marin, because she's empathetic, kind, encourages people to follow their passions, hates judgmental or shallow people, and is bold/outspoken about her beliefs. Paired with Gojou, Marin is the perfect compliment to his personality; they fill in the other's gaps. I could care less about how they're drawn in revealing/sexual ways, because fanservice is a vanilla substitute for actual pron.
Another thought: I think that as a relation between viewer and subject, the gaze is about more than bodies. For example, fights. Fight scenes that focus on violence, gore, big explosions, or cool attack animations would be "male." Fight scenes about the character's motivations or ideals, the relationship between combatants, or the stakes of what happens where one of them loses, would be "female." Not to say one or the other is better, even if you prefer one. I think the best fight scenes manage both.
This video is full of no sense, fake equivalences, and bias. What you said in your comment is proof that:
1) The provided information about gazes is contradictory (why call it “male” if it is experienced by both genders?)
2) It's also misleading, since the ability to dislike fanservice and appreciate the depth of a character is not exclusive to women (like you proved in your example with Marin).
@@CringeAnimePFPSince I've had a few days to think I should add to my post.
The Male Gaze is not lived reality, but an Image of lived reality. It's a false consciousness. An oppositional Female Gaze is created to suggest an alternative, but it too is made of Images. Lived reality is nuanced, but the Gaze is oversimplified and mediates our beliefs about reality. If you read Debord, the Male Gaze is a Spectacle. It replaces Reality with Images and hinders critical thought while homogenizing beliefs.
Inakyu only discussed it for 5 minutes so of course she didn't have time to deep dive the critical theory. I don't know if Inakyu is arguing that the Male/Female Gaze is accurate or real and I won't speak for her. My post mistakenly made it sound like I thought the gaze was lived reality. In my view any nonsense, false equivalences, and biases are attributed to the representation of the gaze, not to real-life behaviors.
My original post was unclear that I was criticizing the "representation" of the Gaze as being too simple, and that I was drawing a distinction between "Male/female Gaze" and "Male/female Gender behavior."
I'll post times my brain had a laugh track going on 😂:
0:42-0:48😅
1:07 😭😄
5:31 😏😂
12:11 (the food crunch sound at the end) 🤣
*Bonus Points* This video thumbnail pic 😆
I wonder if your description of the female gaze also applies to characters like Yukina from Kabaneri of the iron fortress. Similar to how you applied the male gaze with that Gojo scene. I’m taking about that one back muscle shot when she’s being all bad ass and engineering. Like assuming we expand male and female gaze outside a heteronormative context. This is a very interesting subject
Yeah I saw a lot of girls on the 'net pretty much admiring the train engineer lol. Honestly, female characters with her body type (have defined muscles due to her highly technical job) is super rare in anime so getting one is definitely something to be celebrated.
that is a "male gaze" moment for sure.
Nobara needed her own arc like maki got.
ina you are going to blow tf up soon i swear
you're hilarious and you get your point across quickly and completely, which is everything i look for in a video essayist. also it just so happens that i agree with you, so confirmation bias comes in too lol
i love nobara and she's the best version of 'the chick' we have in mainstream shonen anime, but she is by far the least developed 'main' character in JJK and it really sucks bc i feel she could have gone so much further than she did
(then again, i get the feeling this isn't the last we've seen of her. "it's not a zero percent chance, okay?")
Nobara is a well written character that was unfortunate enough to be a sorcerer in the JJK universe. JJK is very consistent in its portrayal of selflessness vs selfishness, indulging in your own desires for power or living to protect/help/others. The selfish ones are quite always rewarded in the moment, while the selfless ones often fail before they know if they succeed or not. Nobara tried to protect her friends, even if everyone told her not to, and she payed the price for it.
For me, the death of Nobara represent the calm times that Gojo, Yuki and Yuji are fighting for, and how cruel and ruthless to world has become. She was not strong enough to protect her friends in a world where Sukuna and Mahito ruin free, but not selfish enough to survive on her own.
While seeing more of her is understandable since Gege(the author) really has a talent in presenting interesting and consistent characters, he does tend to prioritize cool action and story over characters. He could have chose to keep Nobara alive, but seeing where the story eventually went I don't see how she would have fit.
I honestly was at first like jjk?? Ill give it a watch and figured it would be catered to the boys for the female characters..I WAS WRONG boyyy Im happy I get fan service but also the characters are so well written like lord JJk men man. That and Sukuna being so evil that he’s not befriending the mc and also the curiosity in him we saw when he ate the popcorn because yuji always had popcorn during the movies. I loved it. It gives more to the character.
Thanks for this video, Inakyu.
Because of you, I understand the Female Gaze better now.
Because of her I found out this gaze shit existed
Its really fascinating how different male and female sexual preferences are
When Nanami fought Haruta, it wasn't the ponytail thing thet got me, it was him beating his ass for kicking Nobara and stabbing Akari. I was cheering his ass, and I realized - "oh ... I think I love him." He's protecting his kids, but never in a demeaning manner, he acknowledges their power. Also, when he kneels down to their level to talk to the girls ❤️
I've been watching shonen anime for a long time and I never ever seen that amount of female gaze in a show. It was so fun to see all the girlys make their tiktok edits and express how hot those scenes were. Truly a fun time in the anime community. Honestly, I feel that JJK was propelled into the social media zeitgeist outside of the anime community because of the ladies. I'm looking forward to your next video!
and GIRL not me harmonizing with you singing SWV at the end LOL you sounded GOOD
@UTubeTrollPolice298 Didn’t know you could be this closeted 💀.
The song you’re thinking of is by SWV. One of my fave girl groups ever. Your cover of weak was appreciated. 🥰😊
I’d say the male gaze is much more about viewing someone as loyal, straight forward, elegant, and deeply caring.
As for female characters in JJK, Gege, the creator of JJK, said he literally had no idea how to write female characters so he just wrote them as he would any other character LOL.
Surprising to say Jjk have very very good female characters. Like Maki. One of the best best BEST female characters perfectly written
@@bellsgotitnowft not really surprising I’d say. The way every character is written is very well done and sticks to the point of “I don’t care about others, it’s what I want” or “I care deeply about others rather than what I want, even if it’s unfair” which everyone can attach to either or. Itadori being the polar opposite of Sukuna or Nobara being the complete opposite of Momo.
Maybe more so it’s a fresh breath of air that someone is able to make a person’s character based not off their sex but their actual desires.
i wouldnt really consider sukuna to be controlling in nature, in fact, for a guy as powerful as him, he lives his life in his own terms with no expectations from others at all. I actually think that the only real difference btw sukuna and gojo is that gojo (has to) play the role of protecting others (narratively as a good guy), while sukuna has no care for that at all.
But im really curious wats ur take on a character like sukuna
Could Asa Mitaka from csm part 2 be part of the female gaze?
She feels like a real human being and has tons of introspective monologues and I feel like we get to understand who she is via this monologues and her interactions with other characters.
I just love how well writen Asa is.
Btw amazing video!!
gege may be evil but I respect him for this
I think one of the highlights of Nobara being a well written character is in that "filler" episode when she realized that she is jealous of Yuiji, but not because he may have a girlfriend, but because he will get a girlfriend ahead of her.
That little side thought conveyed a mix of ambiguous feelings
competition,
excitement,
jealousy,
envy,
anger...
That connects with us on an emotional level
we need more anime with the female gaze 🥺
@UTubeTrollPolice298 Bro, it’s ok to be Bi, we get it.
fr
Please do a "Women in JJK" video! I think JJK has some shining moments for women, but overall their characters get overshadowed by the men. Many times we're "told" that women are strong (the multitude of Grade 1 women sorcerers, acknowledgement Maki should be higher than Grade 4) and don't get to see them in action, or they're fighting minor villains, or they're an assist for a man to finish off the villain. I LOVE Jujutsu Kaisen, and so far there aren't any women main characters in my eyes. Men and their desires and conflicts are the center of the story, with some cool women side characters involved in the action.
your examples of male gaze are just pictures of women existing. you saying that it's sexual is just your own projection of what is sexual. i don't find bikinis inherently sexual. your examples of the female gaze are simply tall jacked guys being dominant. it still requires them to be tall, jacked, and shimmery eyes. this is just as superficial as your examples of male gaze.
great vid. i find many shounen anime i end up liking the most have found some middle ground by intentionally or not pointing male gaze at men or "gay male gaze"
omg another jjk vid WOOO
What I hate about Nobara is that she had so much potential to develop as a fighter but she was ignored by everyone including Gojo, literally he had one job as a tutor he helped Megumi and Yuji he even asked Nanami for help but Nobara like she wasn't even there I don't see why she had to die, a canon event I guess but still bothers me
We get it, you wanted to write off your new projector, you can just say it. /s
I'm a female Mahito simp (yes, despite all that he's done; villains and anti-heroes have always been more my speed), but I'll admit that the scenes of Gojo's heavy breathing and Nanami's absolute fury at Haruta had me quite... interested.
I just wish there was more fluff in the JJK fandom - AUs and stuff are fine with me. But no, most is smut...
The fact that the male gaze was just "hehe boobies" while the female gaze(especially the part with Nobara) just felt like a character having an actual personality instead of being a trope/caricature made me feel like us dudes got a bad rep by the woman who coined the term. However don't get me wrong, i do indeed like hehe boobies at times too
Well i got statues of goyo and nanami... So yes the female gaze works...