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I don't fault anyone who likes Miyazaki films but I've never really been able to immerse myself in them in the same way that Summer Wars just makes me anxious.
The reason summer wars makes me anxious is not just the strict gender roles in the movie.
Its very realistic depiction in which jp non metropolitan societies kind of expect women to take care of house/kitchen/child rearing work while the men cool off with beers.
It reminds me of
Its very realistic depiction in which jp non metropolitan societies kind of expect women to take care of house/kitchen/child rearing work while the men cool off with beers.
It reminds me of
the summers I would spend at home where all the male relatives would be gathered in the living room, watching TV and chatting and eating snacks with a beer while all my female relatives were in the kitchen or running around back and forth, getting everything ready for the big
dinner.
It reminds me of the times I was scolded like Natsuki for not automatically placing myself in the kitchen or for asking why my younger brothers were encouraged to do nothing while I was expected to work.
Its exhausting to watch that movie because when you've grown up in a
It reminds me of the times I was scolded like Natsuki for not automatically placing myself in the kitchen or for asking why my younger brothers were encouraged to do nothing while I was expected to work.
Its exhausting to watch that movie because when you've grown up in a
Place like that, you can't help but be aware of all the things the male characters don't see or think about, the food that has to be prepared for every meal for a crowd of people, the laundry that has to get done, the cleaning up of spaces and children, the dishes that pile up
After every meal, the shopping for the food and drink and everything, the supplies that have to get collected from the basement, the heavy bedding that has to be sun dried, the baths that need to be drawn, the endless stream ot tasks that seem to pop up throughout the day.
I think about Miyazaki films in the same way probably because the first film i saw was totoro.
I was too old to be lost in wonder about the fluffy strange friend the girls encounter, because I knew how much maintenance and cleaning it takes to clean up and keep up an old japanese
I was too old to be lost in wonder about the fluffy strange friend the girls encounter, because I knew how much maintenance and cleaning it takes to clean up and keep up an old japanese
House.
I kept thinking about how since the mom was ill, the daughters now take up a lot of the house work.
It makes me wonder if Satsuma would have had to become the new mom if her mother never came home.
I feel like a lot of Miyazaki films exist in this weird spot of time where
I kept thinking about how since the mom was ill, the daughters now take up a lot of the house work.
It makes me wonder if Satsuma would have had to become the new mom if her mother never came home.
I feel like a lot of Miyazaki films exist in this weird spot of time where
Women and girls are just spunky enough to have adventures but will still eventually fall in love, marry, become mothers, and raise daughters that will also leave all the adventuring behind when they "mature"
I always felt like Miyazaki heroines were young because this was a world
I always felt like Miyazaki heroines were young because this was a world
Where neither the audience or creators thought women would have lives outside of their families or their familial obligations.
You don't leave totoro thinking maybe Satsuki will become a professor like her dad, you leave knowing she will eventually become a good and kind mother.
You don't leave totoro thinking maybe Satsuki will become a professor like her dad, you leave knowing she will eventually become a good and kind mother.
So honeslty its no surprise that Miyazaki is a grumpy old man who hates modern animation.
I can't imagine him liking anything that isn't in that exact norman Rockwell like slice of time that is extremely comfortable for him.
I can't imagine him liking anything that isn't in that exact norman Rockwell like slice of time that is extremely comfortable for him.
I think what really gets me is that in these style of movies its not the men who do the work in propping up this patriarchy.
Its usually the other women or the girls themselves who expose ideas on How Things Are, and What Your Place Is.
In SW its the older women who complain
Its usually the other women or the girls themselves who expose ideas on How Things Are, and What Your Place Is.
In SW its the older women who complain
About Natsuki behaving like a child, while no one bats an eye that the family matriarch has ordered her to bring home a man before she's even graduated high school.
The idea that she will marry, put away these silly youthful behavior, and become a mother is expected by everyone
The idea that she will marry, put away these silly youthful behavior, and become a mother is expected by everyone
In the family.
Even the strong matriarch cannot see a way for her to live without family and marriage.
In these movies, these small facts are almost tucked away behind the more exciting aspects of the film.
Even the strong matriarch cannot see a way for her to live without family and marriage.
In these movies, these small facts are almost tucked away behind the more exciting aspects of the film.
I think people assume patriarchy is always Cold and Harsh Men dominating the Plucky Young Women, but when you hear about how Miyazaki treated his son, you start to understand that its can be in many forms, and resist change from a world that is custom tailored for their comfort.
I've seen people point out that Miyazaki films have older women or plucky adult women, and I have to ask why they are always presented as an aberration or the enemy?
I think it says something that Eboshis attitude is treated as wildly exceptional instead of common.
I think it says something that Eboshis attitude is treated as wildly exceptional instead of common.
