Watching MTV Braless's episode about "What is the Female Gaze?". https://youtu.be/FdHJG67xmsQ
Well, now I know what to call anime's fanservice shots: "The Male Gaze". Apparently, it's a term from the 1970's, when Feminists pointed out that camera shots/angles framed and emphasized female characters as sex objects, even outside of sexual contexts/scenes. In other words, for no reason. Maybe I've become desensitized to it, but by now when I see it in anime I just find it funny.
What's even more funny, is to see the Female Gaze at work in Free Iwatobi Swim Club. While Laci Green from Braless discusses the second Magic Mike movie, I was reminded of the same issues brought up by watching Free. Yes, the camera angles objectify the characters as sex objects, in non-sexual contexts. But we find that hilarious! Why? Because after decades of watching the same camera angles used to close-up girls' butts, go up skirts, flash panties, and close up boobs for no reason (not to mention, all the situational fanservice, like "oops, I landed on your boobs/lips!" or "why are you wearing less clothes for no reason?"), seeing the same camera angles superimposed onto male characters is hilarious. But only because of the previously established context of anime's prevalent fanservice.
Actually, a lot of anime comedies rely on referencing genre/medium cliches. Look at Excel Saga and Ouran High School Host Club: Half the comedy is dependent on previous familiarity with anime/manga conventions, and the contrast of those series contradicting or playing with those anime expectations.
For now, it's funny. Within the context of our current day, when women's sexual urges are not discussed or acknowledged, and when most anime flagrantly flaunts the "Male Gaze" as fanservice, seeing the tables turned is unexpected and funny. But still, throwing more people into the same mire that females are trapped in, in and of itself, isn't really progress. Objectifying guys just because girls are objectified just equalizes the suffering, rather than pulling people out of it or making it disappear. I look forward to future generations who will grow up with less of our current generations' contexts and simply see objectification as hurtful for anyone, without first considering gender.
Yet, while I say that, I do have to admit that I am from this current generation. I grew up in this context. And I do see Free's flip of the fanservice "Gaze" turned on male characters, as hilarious. I enjoy it. And I do see the significance of movies like Magic Mike and 50 Shades of Grey, in breaking this unspoken myth that women don't have sex drives. Admitting that my generation's perspectives and media are ingrained into me, is just part of me being part of my generation and of being human.
And besides, within today's contexts of my current generation, this "table turning" may be exactly what we need towards equality. For example, the past's male-hating version of Feminism was appropriate to combat the more fiercely pronounced machismo, during the 1980's. But by now, such a type of Feminism is called-out for promoting inequality, through its degradation of men, just to even out degradation of women. Again, what the past times (of the 1980's) needed, has now become obsolete. And one day, our table-turning will be called-out...while we cry proud tears for how much more enlightened than us, our little babies grew up to be. (Actually, I do that now, over an episode of Kids React that I saw.) As folklore studies often point out, the tyrant kings of one story, used to be the heroes of their previous stories. From Lucas to Edison, the methods they used to successfully combat the "tyrant kings" of their own times/fields and become Heroes, turned them into "tyrant kings" when their methods persisted into the next generations, which found such methods obsolete.
But for now, I'm going to enjoy Free. And I'm going to take back what I said to my cousin about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde being very difficult to make into a relevant movie today because "modern day society doesn't have the same societal repressions that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was representative of". Because apparently, we still have a Victorian Era view of women's sexuality, if we're only just now getting big production movies like Magic Mike and 50 Shades of Grey. Apparently, we still need big portrayals of what's repressed, to shock society out of repressing it. But once that's solved and accepted, our kids will probably look back and call us out on being too shocking. LOL
