movies/tv Is Sailor Moon Sexist?

[Harmony Spark 265]

Oh, boy. A lot of people are gonna strangle me for saying this but I'm not sure what Sailor Moon is. I was interested in seeing the show after Nostalgia Critic reviewed it and I watched the first season, but I just don't knew whether Sailor Moon and it's theme on skimpy outfits and pretty makeup and how every sailor scout is skinny and beautiful.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the transformation scenes, I love each of the sailor scouts' personality like Ami is a shy, smart girl, Makoto is tough, determined athlete who gets lovesick, Rei is a no-nonsense, elegant priestess and Usagi is well, okay she's very funny and ditsy it's just I hope she matures in later seasons.

 

So what I'm trying to get at is That Sailor Moon is supposed to empower girls; by dressing up like prosititutes and waving Toys R Us magic wands around? Again it's Japan and I understand cultural differences and that subtlety is nonexistent in Japan, especially in anime. But Jesus, even Power Rangers had clothes and weapons like swords and stuff. If you're wearing such skimpy outfits, there's a high chance you'll get hurt and if Sailor Moon is supposed to empower girls, then how about telling them that they can wear armour. Heck, if they have Sailor Neptune and Uranus be a lesbian couple, and seeing how the anime is LGBT- positive, surely showing some battle armour, or even a sword might be useful. Then again, this isn't what the shwo should be and I'm probably being too narrow-minded.

 

I love this show for the action, drama and characters and the concept is pretty awesome, I alway love women having normal lives and fighting evil and saving the world.

 

But I love shows like Powerpuff Girls a lot more because even if it's little girls, one they have superpowers (immediately cooler) and second they didn't care how beautiful they look and they just fight crime whenever. They aren't made to look sexy, they're made to look cute, but the badass nature comes from 3 little girls beating the crap out of bad guys.

 

Sailor Moon is a good series and I do like it, it's just questionable how it is emphasising on the sex sells idea, that is now in, Western culture,only done in Michael Bay movies. It's the short skirts.

 

The short skirts always bother me. :/

 

Am I reading too much into this?

[Prop 34]

Japan's tolerance for sexualised media is just much higher. They think less of it and make it no big deal. The States makes a big deal of these things, yet has a bigger problem with females dressing and acting inappropriately.

 

The reason it isn't a problem for Japan is because their entire mentality for things is different. They teach their children differently, they live differently, etc. An American girl would most likely be "negatively" (if you believe this to be negative) affected, because they are more impressionable in comparison to the average, very well-behaved Japanese girl.

 

So you could say Sailor Moon is a bit of an issue, but you could also say it isn't. It depends on who you're talking about, from a cultural to an individual standpoint. People are too quick to condemn media, when the real problem is that some kids are raised in a way that makes them too easily influenced with no correction along the way to guide them to be good kids with strong moral discipline.

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

Nah I don't think Sailor Moon is sexist, it's a Japanese anime, but that's just my opinion.

[Daring_Do 552]

Mm, Japan is actually pretty bad by developed world standards when it comes to their treatment of women. I don't think you'll like what you find if you ever decide to do a little reading on the topic.

[CookieK 74]

No because it shows that girls CAN be tough while still being feminine and that sexuality isn't a bad thing. There's a difference between a female creator designing characters with short skirts because it fits the genre (its not like sailor moon was the first magical girl show sexualized even a tiny bit, sailor moon is super tame compared to the much much earlier cutey honey) than to just do it to sexually objectify the characters for the mainly male fans. There's nothing wrong with sexuality as long as you don't objectify the characters as mere sex objects to be oddled at, which is sadly what is what most people do when they make their characters sexual in any way.   Armor is way too heavy for the very flowy magic based fighting the sailor scouts do anyway, for the type of fighting they do a flowy outfit makes since because it doesn't constrict their body and allows them freedom of movement. Chun Li's outfit also very practical for the fighting she does yes its sexual but its super flowy and allows her all the freedom of movement she needs when she's fighting.

Edited September 30, 2015 by CookieK

[PROJECT: Simon 3,955]

It can never be sexist~! T^T  

[prfan93 123]

...OK, this is like asking if Power Rangers promotes drug use (which, trust me, it has been accused of). No, no it isn't. Sailor Moon promotes, in my opinion, empowerment to women and good morals. 

[Gernia 691]

I don't think short skirts are necessarily sexist. It's like what one of the above comments said, it's more for flow and movement. Kind of like how superheroes wear spandex, it's done for ease of movement.

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,987]

Makes me think of Bayonetta who seems to have mixed opinions. People praise her for being a strong female character while others criticize her for being overly sexualized. I have no opinion on the matter since I'm not familiar with the series.

 

An aside but still somewhat related, it does bother me when, for example, high level RPG armours for females actually don't cover much of their body. But I think my mindset may be more towards "Don't female characters deserve equal amount of protection as males?" and that I think it looks at least a little silly when I see almost naked characters of either gender fighting against some massive army or boss.

Edited September 30, 2015 by Luna the Great

[Tao 7,920]

If a girl wears anything like shorts to short skirts,  it is put under the label of "sexy" to showy.   Yes Sailor Moon can be seen sexist and its pushed more in the anime than you see in the manga (still is there but not as much)  but I like Sailor Moon more on the story and cannons and well humor than the short skirts.   Also it was mostly a male group that made the Sailor Moon anime via its mostly female manga staff and head maker.