Comparing the representation of East Asian women in “Love, Death & Robots”, and “My Dress-Up Darling

Introduction:

The media’s representation of East Asian women has been exoticised and sexualised through the portrayal of the China doll and the Dragon Lady (Lee, 2018). This is the result of Orientalism, the Western representation of the “Orient” as the ultimate Other in history due to colonialism (Burney, 2012). According to Burney, “Orientalism sheds light on the underlying structures of power, knowledge, hegemony, culture and imperialism that have been historically embedded in what Said has called “colonial discourse” (Burney, 2012, 23). This essay aims to investigate the discourse regarding the portrayal of East Asian women between a Western TV show and an Eastern comic book to determine how each culture continues to perpetuate themes of Orientalism and sexism in the modern day.

Methodology:

This study will be a critical discourse analysis on the Western Netflix show “Love, Death & Robots”, and the manga (Japanese comic) “My Dress-Up Darling”. According to Wodak, critical discourse analysis is defined as “the common interest in demystifying ideologies and power through the systematic and retroductable investigation of semiotic data (written, spoken, or visual).” (Wodak, 2012, 303). This study will be structured to go back and forth between sources to determine how diction, imagery, and intersectionality can result in the sexist portrayal of East Asian women. Additionally, Van Dijk said critical discourse analysis “requires true multidisciplinarity, and an account of intricate relationships between text, talk, social cognition, power, society and culture.” (van Dijk, 1993, 253). This study will consider postcolonial theory to gain a holistic understanding of the socio-political contexts surrounding the representation of East Asian women as well as to adhere to van Dijk’s criteria of critical discourse analysis.

“Love, Death & Robots” consists of stand alone animated episodes created by different media companies around the world, exploring a range of genres such as comedy, dystopia, thriller, etc. To ensure the analysis goes into enough depth, this essay will specifically analyse 3:30 minutes to 7:03 minutes of episode eight, named “The Witness”.

“My Dress-Up Darling” depicts a friendless boy, Wakana Gojou, who loves to make clothes for dolls. He is unexpectedly befriended by a popular girl from his class, Marin Kitagawa, when she discovers his hobby of making clothes coincides with her hobby of cosplay. As he makes dresses for her to cosplay, their friendship slowly blossoms over time. Similar to “Love, Death & Robots”, to ensure the contents of this manga has been investigated in detail, this study will focus solely on chapter one.

Literature Review:

Rather than being interpreted as a time period in a once-colonised region, the term “postcolonial” was defined by Selmon as a concept which begins the moment a colonial power forces itself onto the body and space of its Others, and ingrains an anti colonial sentiment into its opposing culture. This idea then continues into the modern day of the colonised nation and influences their international relations (Childs and Williams, 1997). Postcolonial theory encourages people to have “an awareness of positions, representations, histories and exclusions: who speaks, from where, and for whom.” (Childs and Williams, 1997, 89). Thus, postcolonial texts can be better understood by considering intersectionality, the notion where race, gender, class, and sexuality are mutually reinforcing to combat hegemonic and exclusive ideals (Nash, 2008).

An essay analysing the orientalisation of Asian women in America said the Orient is often associated with being female, while the West is male. The paper found that during colonisation, the Orient, “known as a geographically distant, foreign land of devious cultural practices,” (Uchida, 1998, 161) was discovered. Afterwards, the land that was conquered was described and dominated by the West. Simultaneously, the Oriental women, who were also different, deviant and inferior, were similarly dominated and defined by the Western men (Uchida, 1998). This theory is further proven by a study investigating East Asian sexualities which concluded that “the exotocised East of the Western imaginary has always been gendered and sexualised” (Jackson, Liu and Woo, 2008, 4). Asian women have been sexualised and portrayed as docile and subservient, yet skilled in the erotic arts to fuel the fantasy of Western men (Jackson and Woo, 2008). This historical context must be considered to understand why the image of East Asian women is still stereotyped in the present day.

An example of visually stereotyping East Asian women in the modern day can be seen in the James Bond movies. An essay exploring non-normativity and East Asian characters in James Bond films, said the movie series has shown an unwillingness to change their colonial trope of native women being the sexual conquests for white males (Hiramoto and Pua, 2019). Examples of Oriental fetishism were exemplified in the Bond movies through “incorporating mentions of race into dialogue, ascribing women to stereotypically ‘Asian’ jobs (e.g. masseuses, bathhouse attendants, bar hostesses, underage prostitutes, casino staff), and dressing them in ‘ethnic’ attire.” (Hiramoto and Pua, 2019, 555). The visual portrayal of East Asian females will similarly be explored in the evaluation of “The Witness” and “My Dress-Up Darling” to determine the degree to which they have been fetishised.

According to Hoglund and Oberg, the use of diction can change “how an event is interpreted or understood by the reader or listener.” (Hoglund and Oberg, 2011, 63). A study exploring the portrayal of women in English foreign language textbooks discovered that stereotyped gender discourse, such as the narrative that domestic roles should be assigned to women, can psychologically have a negative effect on someone's motivation, life choices, self esteem and sense of self in society. The essay referenced an example where Chinese children displayed higher frequencies of academic success due to being taught that hard-work is the most crucial determinant for achieving high grades, rather than relying on innate gender abilities. (Setyono, 2018) Ultimately, this essay will determine the social implications of stereotyping East Asian women by analysing the lexical choices within the dialogue surrounding the main female characters in “The Witness”, and “My Dress-Up Darling”.

Furthermore, the register of the dialogue in both pieces of work will be explored to determine the nature of their intended audiences. Conboy said, “Register can reveal as much about the media institution as it can about its perceived audience because it articulates a version of the language of its target social grouping.” (Conboy, 2007, 41). A viewer’s particular lifestyle, age, or professional identity can be reflected in the language used. For example, formal language or jargon may be used in the financial pages of the elite press, which may reveal the audience’s prior political knowledge. Contrarily, pop-culture media outlets may reduce the complexities of their contents to soap operas in order to cater to topics that their readership are familiar with (Conboy, 2007).

Main Body:

Hiramoto and Pua’s theory of East Asian women being assigned stereotypically “Asian” jobs, rings true in “The Witness” as the protagonist, living in Hong Kong, was shown arriving at a sex shop to begin her workday. The shop was typically covered in gold dragons, red walls, and red curtains, which are symbols often used to generalise Chinese culture. At 4:30 minutes, the female protagonist, an East Asian young woman, began to undress herself to prepare for her shift as a cam-girl. Her back was faced against the camera as she took her underwear off. Although her body was covered by a slight blur effect, this camera angle suggests the intention to purposefully show her private areas on screen.

Meanwhile, her boss beckoned a customer to enter the sexshop by saying “You wanna see some pussy?” The use of the word “pussy” reduces the women working in the sex shop to their sexual organs, which suggests women are not respected and seen as equal to men in the social setting of this episode. Furthermore, the boss repeatedly referred to the women working in the shop as “bitches”, which is dehumanising as the term denotes female dogs.

At 4:55, the protagonist walked into frame while wearing a very revealing dress. The camera was placed at the level of her feet and was angled upwards, as if to purposefully upskirt the woman. A montage of slow motion shots capturing the woman behaving provocatively and slowly undressing, followed. During this scene, the protagonist, along with the other female sexworkers were all wearing masks. The masks provided the women with anonymity which suggests the creators wants to strip them of their identity, and solely focus on their sex appeal. This may reveal the intended target audience are those who view women in an objectified way, such that a woman’s purpose is only to provide sexual pleasure.

Furthermore, for the entirety of the montage, the camera angle was consistently placed at the level of the protagonist’s private region. As she continued to dance and arouse her customer, she progressively got closer and closer to the camera, as if to tempt the viewers of the TV show itself. Thus, may insinuate this is how the episode’s creators believe their audience enjoys seeing women.

Additionally, the sole customer of the protagonist’s cam-girl performance was a white male, further proving Jackson, Liu and Woo’s statement that East Asian women are portrayed to fuel the fantasy of Western men. As the montage continued and the protagonist’s clothes slowly came off, more of her skin was shown which revealed her body was covered in tattoos, a form of self expression that continues to be stigmatised in East Asian culture. A book discussing the representations of race in East Asian empires revealed that tattoos were already associated with criminality and were considered reprehensible by Japanese Society in 220 to 280 AD. (Hanscom and Washburn, 2016).

From 6:08 to 7:05 minutes, the protagonist saw something that scared her in the midst of her performance. In response, she slipped on a Japanese kimono without wearing any other clothes before running out of the building to escape her situation. Kimonos are traditionally worn as home loungewear, however in this episode, it may have been chosen by the creators due to its lack of buttons and proper closure at the front, thus allowing them to animate the protagonist’s nude body for the rest of the episode, despite not adding any value to the plot.

Beyond the sexualised portrayal of the East Asian protagonist, the choice of using a kimono can also be questioned. The geographical setting of the episode appears to be in Hong Kong, yet the outlandish costumes worn by the sex workers, as well as the kimono worn by the protagonist, alludes to a stereotypical portrayal of Japanese culture. Thus, begging the question whether the Western creators have portrayed a version of East Asian culture according to their own assumptions.

Similarly, the Japanese female protagonist in “My Dress-Up Darling”, Marin, was immediately sexualised the moment she was first introduced in the manga. A high angle camera angle was used to depict her, showing the opening of her school uniform collar and revealing her cleavage. This is problematic because Marin is only in middle school, thus this portrayal overly sexualises a female body that is still in the process of going through puberty, a stage of life where people may be just beginning to explore their sexuality. Another panel depicted the back of Marin’s legs while she was talking to Wakana at his desk. The chosen angle captured her bottom showing from under her uniform skirt. This visual imagery connotes sexiness yet the context of the scene does not warrant any kind of sexual activity.

Whenever Wakana was in the presence of Marin, or being spoken to by Marin, he was portrayed heavily stuttering, sweating and blushing. This exaggerated visual imagery suggests Wakana was incredibly nervous or aroused by Marin, which would be inappropriate given that both characters are only 15 years old.

Later in the chapter, after Marin discovered Wakana could sew, she wanted to show Wakana a dress she made by herself for cosplaying. She was then illustrated taking her uniform off in front of him button by button, while blushing and asking him to turn away. While turning away, Wakana had to internally debate with himself on whether he should take a peek at Marin while she was changing. Wakana’s internal dialogue suggests that he is aware of how sexualising a female is wrong, thus the creators may be implying that men are sexual by nature and cannot be controlled.

Marin’s self made dress was illustrated to be very short in length, and very low at the neckline to reveal her cleavage. However, instead of praising her appearance, Wakana criticised Marin’s sewing technique. When Marin got upset, Wakana kneeled and bowed to her begging for forgiveness. From the perspective of where Wakana bowed down, the following panel depicted Marin at an upward angle where her underwear and crotch was completely exposed. The constant depiction of Marin’s private parts enforces the possibility that the creators want to objectify her as just a sex object. Additionally, the extreme act of bowing at Marin’s feet may imply Wakana glorifies her, which suggests that when East Asian women are sexualised, that is when they are considered the most attractive to men.

As the madonna-whore dichotomy states, women can only be virgins (madonnas) or whores based on their alleged or actual sexual behaviour (Kahalon, Baraket, Vial et al., 2019). Women with high sexual agency are considered ambitious, independent, and unapologetic, but those with low sexual agency are regarded as victims (Kahalon, Baraket, Vial et al., 2019). Thus, by continuously portraying Marin as a sexual person, it suggests that Wakana only finds Marin attractive because she is exhibiting promiscuous behaviour.

Furthermore, Matanle, Ishiguro, and McCann’s study on the representation of working women in manga concluded that conventional female character life choices lie in love and the support of male work (Matanle, Ishiguro and MacCann, 2014). This theory is proven after Marin said to Wakana, “I can’t really do anything myself…” before begging him to sew costumes for her to cosplay in the future. By begging Wakana to help her, she is portrayed as helpless and unable to achieve anything without the help of a man, which also plays into Jackon, Liu and Woo’s theory that East Asian women are portrayed as docile and subservient.

Conclusion:

To conclude, both texts were able to exhibit evidence that East Asian women and culture are still being stereotyped in the modern day. The use of diction to dehumanise and victimise the female protagonists, allowed for the “docile and subservient” stereotype of East Asian women to persist. Despite having no relation to the plot, the female protagonists in both text were presented as hyper sexual beings for the benefit of men’s desires, further proving that East Asian women are still being fetishised. Ultimately, regardless of whether one consumes content from the East or the West, it should be the responsibility of the consumers to question the structures of hegemony and imperialism present in the work.

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