Last weekend, I have watched Nostalgia Critic’s video on the princess hate. After watching it, I think he has a point since this trope exists in all types of media. The problem lies with Damsel in distress, which became a negative stereotype for females because it’s over usage. In particular, Disney Princesses tend to play this trope a lot, which is a bad representation of how women are portrayed in real life.
In Anime, it’s the opposite most of the time since some female characters take a bigger role. This is the main difference compared to Disney Princesses. (Image Source)
What is Damsel in distress and why it’s bad?
Damsel in distress is a trope where a character, usually female and young is portrayed helpless in a bad situation like getting captured by the bad guys. Then, the good guys, usually male have to save the day. The most famous example of this is the Super Mario series as Princess Peach getting captured by Bowser in every game in the series.
While it seems clichéd because a lot of shows use this trope, it caused a lot of controversy with females since it’s demeaning and it always happens to female characters and not male ones. There is where I have a problem with Disney Princesses.
While young girls tend to look up to Disney Princesses since they look innocent and pretty, the problem is that they are highly dependent on males. The power lies with empowerment and its important in all genders, which these princesses lack. Then again, would you like a capable woman who chooses which man she likes or one that marries a handsome man because he saved her? I think they should make their own choices because I believe in gender equality that no gender is better than the other.
What about Anime?
Compared to Disney Princesses, Anime shows a more positive viewing towards females not because of their stronger character development, but they look just as capable as males or even surpass them. Here are a few examples of this:
Bodacious Space Pirates – While this show has its flaws, Marika is a good example where she became a very capable Space Pirate that accomplished a lot such as recovering a royal ship and destroy a high-tech ship that decimated pirate ships. Not only that, there are princesses that are actually doing stuff!
Fate/zero – There are a few instances of badass females that are capable of fighting besides Saber. There is Natalia, which manages to save Kiritsugu and take down people who are creating vampires, In addition, Maiya, Kiritsugu’s sidekick is another example as she shoots down some people in the Grail War.
Most Magical Girl shows – This is pretty obvious as these are girls with magical powers that allow them to fight evil and their rivals. Some are more action orientated, which includes Sailor Moon, Nanoha, Madoka and the Cure series.
On the other hand, I feel that most of this has to do with male characters being indecisive or weak-minded in most slice of life or romantic comedies as shows want to place more emphasis on female characters. However, for other shows, both genders have equal standing
Conclusion
While Damsel in distress exists in Anime, it’s not used that often, gets subverted or the genders get swapped for the distress position. It’s just interesting that Anime treats its female characters better compared to past Disney animations. More females are taking on roles that are traditionally reserved to males, including piloting mecha. Ironically, Japan still faces gender inequality, especially with the infamous dating ban in AKB48 that caused much controversy after Minami Minegishi broke it.
With that, I leave some questions to think about: Do you think that Damsel in distress creates a harmful stereotype for females in general? Also, do you think that Anime does enough to show capable female characters? Feel free to share more examples of female characters from other shows.
Great post. I also prefer strong female characters over damsels in distress.
Besides, a strong don’t need to be just physically strong, or able to defeat enemies in fights. A psychologically strong girl is very cool too.
For those interested, check this video about Damsels in distress in videogames, too.
I have watched the video or knew about it a few months ago, which is also another reason I want to write about the topic. While animation have shifted away from this type of thing, it still exist in video games. It’s probably because video games used to be dominated by males. However, that is starting to change, so probably we will see less of this in the future.
I don’t think that anime necessarily features less damsels in distress than the typical Disney animation. I actually think that a lot of the more recent Disney animation (Tangled, Brave) feature ‘princesses’ that fend for their own and do just as well as any other hero — and don’t need a man to help them. In Tangled, for instance, I think Rapunzel did a lot more of the rescuing.
And yes of course, if you go back to Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, it would seem that they were only waiting for their princes to rescue them; but if you look at their circumstances, both SW and SB weren’t just pining around for a boyfriend, they did stuff (even if it was lame like singing with birds, etc.) I actually think that certain Disney movies are similar to the Ghibli ones that consistently feature an independent female, even if she’s not necessarily the main character. It’s not fair that princess has been equated to mean helpless, when it’s not always the case.
It’s true that Disney is not all about Damsels, but I think the shift away from it or females actually fighting is a step in the right directions although I haven’t seen any of their works in recent years and only saw the past classics. I think females are just as capable as males and breaking that does a lot to break the stereotype.
On the other hand, I don’t think they are completely helpless as they actually did stuff, but it really depends on the situation. Looking back at the princesses, it seems that they are not completely well off. But typically, the trope is a figurative language and not necessarily done the same. However, I do agree that Damsel in Distress doesn’t mean that the females are completely helpless, but still have a degree of independence.
i think the comparison is a bit unfair
Bodacious SP / Fate Zero / Magical Girl all made after 2000, the comparison should be made with Disney after 2000 too. If the Disney Classic is used, then comparison should be ‘classic anime’ in 1970-80 too. Many old anime also have ‘damsel in distress’ too.
and ‘Disney Princesses’ is not all bad, it is recent promotional using character on old movies, but girls who like ‘Disney Princesses’ also have other side stories/recent comic/tie-in/etc that have girl in as more ‘powerful character’; not just to be rescued in classic movies.
we cannot judge ‘Disney Princesses’ entirely based on old movie we see when we children; girls that liking current ‘Disney Princesses’ have other materials, newer movies (Shrek, Mulan) etc; they didn’t exclusively based it on our childhood classic movies.
I didn’t watch any anime before 1990s since the animation is too different to watch, which is why the comparison is pretty limited. But then again, this is mostly a critique of classic movies as I admit, there are more development in recent princess movies that actually do stuff like fight instead of waiting to be saved. Also, I haven’t watched their recent movies, but I am aware of the changes, which is good.
On the other hand, while animation have shifted away from Damsel in Distress, I should mention that it still exist a lot of video games. I have touch upon this as it’s something that remains a problem, maybe not in Japanese games (besides Mario) as there are female characters that actually fight, but for western games, I think this stigma still exists as majority of these games have male main characters although there are some that you can customize a character from each gender. Since this is not a gaming blog, I can’t really focus on this, except briefly.
Still, i think anime got princesses who knew how to defend themselves before Disney. Comparing some old examples, we have :
Miyazaki’s Princess Nausicaa (1984) who not only could fight but she was the true savior of her people, not some prince.
Yuki from Space Battleship Yamato tv series (1974-75) knew how to defend herself, too.
And of course, we can’t forget the mother of all action girls. Princess Sapphire from Osamu Tezuka’s manga Ribon no Kishi (1953-55) what became the anime tv series “Princess Knight” in 1967, featuring a girl who was forced to pretend to be a boy prince and fought many enemies to defend his/her kingdom, including wizards, witches, invading armies and giant monsters.
I believe the very first Disney’s princess who was not a damsel in distress was princess Ariel from ‘The Little Mermaid’ (1989), who was a very determined girl who went after her dream.
This is dumb. In fact, most Disney Princesses aren’t actually damsels in distress! Look at Ariel. She isn’t saved by Prince Eric, she SAVES Prince Eric! Same thing with Belle. And look at Mulan — she saved all of China, and is definitely my favorite Disney Princess! There’s definitely a theme of Disney Princesses saving their love interests — Ariel, Belle, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Merida — but wait, Merida doesn’t even HAVE a love interest! She saves her mother and brothers instead of deciding to get married with some guy she just met. Same thing with Moana. Both Merida and Moana save their family instead of falling in love. You could compare that to Mulan, who literally SAVED CHINA! Sure, she falls in love, but that’s not even the point of the story. In fact, she doesn’t get married until Mulan II, which was such a box office failure that I don’t think it’s even canon. Even the Disney Princesses who ARE damsels in distress send good messages. Snow White — just, be kind. If you aren’t kind to others, they won’t be kind to you. For example, Snow White befriends the animals, and later on, the animals warn the dwarves about the Evil Queen (helping Snow White). Cinderella — stay positive. She was mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, but that didn’t stop her from singing every morning. Aurora — okay, I gotta say that Aurora doesn’t exactly send good messages, but the fairies definitely do. They take care of Aurora as much as they can, and when she turns sixteen, they grieved with her when she realized she would have to leave her love forever. Plus, you gotta love them arguing over whether Aurora!s dress should be blue or pink, and it even encourages kids to have their opinion heard. And Jasmine — she almost wasn’t a damsel in distress. She is an excellent role model, telling kids that they should decide their own future and not let others decide it for them. When she wanted to see the outside world, that’s exactly what she did. Sure, Aladdin might’ve saved her from Jafar, but that was one time, versus all the times she showed feminist qualities. Okay, so the Princesses who aren’t damsels in distress — Ariel, Belle, Pocahontas, Mulan (definitely Mulan), Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida (definitely Merida), and Moana (and definitely Moana). Princesses who are damsels in distress — Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora (definitely Aurora), and Jasmine. That’s a ratio of 8:4! There’s twice as much non-damsels-in-distress than actual damsels in distress, and Jasmine almost isn’t one!