Gender Benders: Male-Coded Women in Manga

By Jasmine Cummings on November 13, 2016

The recent election has left me thinking more and more about being a woman, and how things will be difficult for so many living in America, at least for the next four years. But rather than dwell on topics that will only upset me, I thought I’d take this opportunity to write an article inspired by my favorite ‘guilty pleasure’ genre of manga: female focused gender benders.

So let’s take a closer look at the characteristics of a gender bending female character in an older shoujo manga known as Princess Knight and compare her to a female character found in a currently running manga, Dorohedoro. While a few of the characteristics have remained the same, the result of this comparison will show what kind of female characters have become more easily accepted as social movements such as feminism continue to move forward, though Japanese feminism is different from our own.

Let’s focus on the female characters found in the specific genre known as ‘gender benders,’ where characters either dress up as the opposite gender for whatever extenuating circumstances, or are fully shifted by magical or scientific means to a body of the opposite sex. I’ve recently read an older example of this genre, Princess Knight by Osamu Tezuka, an example of cross-dressing gender benders. It’s interesting to note that full body gender benders tend to be a more modern phenomenon, though Ranma ½ was first published in the 1980s.

Sapphire of Princess Knight
osamu-tezuka.wikia.com

Sapphire, the main character of Princess Knight, is a rare example where her need to cross dress is a lifelong situation and not some sort of accident. Still, despite the fact that she was raised to act as both a boy and girl, almost everything about her manner remains quite feminine — her subtle curves, the way she sits — even when acting as a prince, with her legs crossed instead of spread in the typical masculine way. She’s not very careful, even though her situation is obviously meant to be delicate, speaking gently to animals and telling them stories in a very ‘Disney princess’ fashion. Sapphire is essentially a short-haired girl with the ‘boyish’ hobby of fencing, and acts that way.

These sorts of characters are meant to be a way for female readers to see characters the same gender as themselves being brave enough and strong enough to act like their male counterparts, to break out of the role forced onto them by society, yet I find them lacking in any real depth. Oscar and Sapphire are essentially caricatures of what they should be, which is disappointing, especially in Sapphire’s case. Excusing that the manga was written in the 1950s, Sapphire’s circumstances would be the perfect opportunity to explore a character that is close to being non-binary, or even trans.

On the other hand, I have found that the female characters that appeal most to me are found in seinen manga, where there are fewer restrictions on art style and content. The body types of the characters tend to be a little more varied, as well. For example, one of my favorite female characters, a magic user who has a taste for violence, is from the dark horror-fantasy manga Dorohedoro, written and drawn by female mangaka Hayashida Q.

Female fighter Noi from Dorohedoro

Noi is on the left in both pictures. In the first, you can’t tell at all that she’s a woman. Her mask and outfit completely disguise her gender; in the manga, her introduction is in the middle of a fight, where she kills several men, and we don’t find out she’s a woman until several chapters later, when she finally takes off her mask and battle clothes.

Once unveiled, she has a surprisingly cute face and long, wild hair, which is almost completely overshadowed by the fact that she has the body of a pro-wrestler, 6 feet 8 inches tall and incredibly muscular, even more so than her male partner, Shin.

Funnily enough, Noi has healing magic, a common female power, yet completely subverts the traditional defensive role a healer finds herself in by acting as a frontline fighter and one of the most physically powerful characters of the entire cast, using her magic instead to keep herself and her partner alive in situations that would certainly be fatal otherwise.

The most interesting thing about Noi is that her character can switch from punching someone in the face to being feminine quickly and almost seamlessly with a simple change of clothes. Just by putting on a dress and high heels and letting her hair down, Noi can soften her hard edges and act convincingly feminine without losing any of her edge, something Sapphire isn’t capable of, being too feminine to act convincingly masculine.

Noi from Dorohedoro is an example of a more modern female character, who allows the reader to explore a somewhat male-coded character without giving in to the cliché pitfalls that are scattered throughout Princess Knight. Manga series, especially shoujo, are meant to act as an escape for the reader and allow them to explore topics such as gender and sexuality without reprisal, and I believe Princess Knight was perhaps forward thinking in its time, but falls short compared to what manga has to offer in the 21st century.

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