Not so Heroic

People wonder why women watch anime or try out gaming for awhile and then stop. Sometimes women even despise gaming and all science fiction related material. I have some informative observations.

Successful publications have hardly any positive feminine role-models. When looking at underlying characteristics of the female characters, most of them are insane. Ultra-Violet was born a freak who decided to take vengeance on a society that inflicted a test group with a genetic experiment which shortens a person and their offspring's lifespan. Then society trapped them in cages, so it would not spread to everyone.

Most of the time Ultra-Violet shoots at people while running through business offices and then she dies. It doesn't resolve anything. It only makes the obvious statement of people being upset about inhuman oppression. Maybe scientists work harder to find a cure. Maybe Ultra-Violet's action provokes society to stop working on a cure; instead, preferring to commit genocide and prevent future deaths.

Aeon Flux is an android who repeatedly dies while trying to infiltrate enemy headquarters. Sliming around, trying to avoid detection in a slinky outfit, she starts shooting at everything that moves. It takes three Aeon Flux droids to retrieve microfilm.

Kagome Higurashi is a naive half sorceress who hangs out with an impotent, almost leader with a huge inferiority complex who goes around killing his own kind. Kagome isn't even a main character. She is basically Inuyasha's girlfriend who goes on missions because he likes her scent.

I placed Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the gadget for "Heroes and Villians." At least she isn't as disturbed as other feminine characters. Buffy is only a racist, born with an ancient spirit's soul whose only instinct is to kill all vampires. It is okay, since she dated a vampire in away saying, "I don't hate all vampires."

Saya, self-hating individual bent on killing all of her own kind before committing suicide. Invisible Woman, only gift is the ability to be ignored by everyone. Ryo Kunieda, hangs out with bunch of, racists bent on killing all Hallows, because Hallows exist. At least she ran away from home. In the end Ryo goes back. The only things she has going for her is she is the one giving guest passes to the heroes and she is good at what she does.

Not all feminine characters are awful and tainted with some deranged, undermining premise; however, there are few ultimately positive role-models. Most are mediocre or the show is never successful. Motoko Kusanagi from "Ghost in a Shell" is excellent at her job, works in Section 9 for the Japanese Police and she is a really nice person. Most of the time she reflects on life, while attempting to recover her memories as a human.

Creepy Creature from "Growing up Creepy" is not an action hero. Her only skill is communicating with insects, giving her incredible skills of identifying insect behavior and taxonomy. It could be more thrilling, yet she is almost well-balanced.

Perhaps it isn't a big deal. However, do cartoons and other forms of media create a platform for misogynist behavior? Women will feel underappreciated in the gaming world and seek better role-models; however, some men make anime and sci-fi their entire life. Is it because men are glorified? There are plenty of masculine role-models with various concerns related to how a super hero should behave, yet their feminine counterparts are usually evil or incompetent.

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