Gender in Manga

Gender division

Characters’ linguistic use is one of the biggest elements to represent gender division in manga. In 1960s, ladylike languages were employed. For example, in “白いトロイカ,”

published in 1965, female characters use words that come with endings of words such as “〜yo” and “〜wa,” which make the characters sound feminine. If such endings of words were applied to male characters’ lines, it would have been considered odd. On the other hand, when manga started to feature female workers, more gender-neutral languages were employed. In fact, in “おたんこナース,” published in 1995, which depicts a female nurse as a heroine, the ladylike languages decreased, and gender-neutral languages increased. Thus, in terms of the linguistic usage of characters, gender division still exists, but significantly decreased from the old times. [10] In addition, the number of characters’ lines and appearances also represent gender division in manga. Then, the data below, “Number of Lines seen,” conducted by Unser-Schutz Giancarla, shows that while the lines spoken by male characters and female characters are well-balanced in shōjo manga, the large proportion of lines are distributed to the male characters in shōnen manga.

Figure 2. Unser-Schutz Giancarla, What text can tell us about male and female characters in shōjo-and shōnen-manga, (Rissho University, 2015), p. 141

Moreover, the data of “Number of characters seen in each series” below shows that while the appearances of male and female characters are seen by almost the same proportion in shōjo manga, the appearances of male characters occupy the large proportion in shōnen manga.

Figure 3. Unser-Schutz Giancarla, What text can tell us about male and female characters in shōjo-and shōnen-manga, (Rissho University, 2015), p. 142

These obvious differences may be related to the differences in the roles of women and men in Japanese society, and how women are underestimated in this male-dominant Japanese society. Therefore, gender division can be seen from the number of characters’ lines and appearances in manga.[11]

2. Gender equality achieved by manga

As mentioned in the previous section, the linguistic usage in manga has been changing. Even though manga in 1960s depicted female characters using polite words that do not sound rude to male characters, manga in more recent times depict both female and male characters using gender-neutral words. This change indicates that gender equality has been gradually achieved. Moreover, gender equality can be seen not only in manga, but also among the readers of manga. There are some differences in the tendency of manga that male students and female students choose to read. That is, while many of the male students do not read shōjo manga, most of the female students read shōnen manga. Moreover, the survey conducted at Akita University did not find any male students who only read shōjo manga. However, on the other hand, there were some female students who only read shōnen manga. Accordingly, it can be said that women are more likely to have overcome the gender boundary in manga culture. Furthermore, this tendency shows that women have gradually been allowed not only to pursue womanliness, but also to enjoy reading books for male, which implicitly shows the gender equity.[12]

[10] 因京子「マンガに見るジェンダー表現の機能」, 2. 人物とジェンダー表現

[11] Unser-Schutz Giancarla, “What text can tell us about male and female characters in shōjo-and shōnen-manga,” pp.138-142

[12] 石井照久, 川遺聡子, 今野大樹, 松本勇紀, 目黒耕平, 立花希一, 望月一枝「ジェンダーからみたマンガ-秋大生の視点から-」, p.8, p.9

Hideko Mizuno, Shiroi Toroika

(Sobi-sha, 1964), Volume1

Noriko　Sasaki, Otanko na-su

(Shogaku-kan, 1995), Volume1