OH HELL NO (482 spoilers)

[cynchick]

THIS SHIT

Had better be fake.

[Btw, I am aware that this is probably another sekrit ploy by Sakura (like the bogus love confession to Naruto) in order to get close to Sasuke and kill him, but I'm also sick of her pulling this selfish, underhanded bullshit with everyone. Not to mention she's being incredibly stupid lately, which we know she's NOT. All this nonsense is ruining her character and making her unlikeable. And I think we can all agree she doesn't need any more hate from the fandom.]

Comments

[cultofdecay.livejournal.com]

Haha, yo! Yes, long time... I'm a full-time student again and I want to apply to grad schools in about a year, so I sit in the library all day long. I don't have that much time for fandom anymore. I do keep up with the manga as best as I can, though.

Sakura doesn't bother me so much because I recognise that she is 16 and that she epitomises many things about how 16 year olds in Japan are expected to behave. I also think she's using whatever devices she can. I wish she was a different, stronger archetype, but there are realities about the society Kishimoto both comes from and writes for, and the fact that this is a manga oriented at boys. Within that framework, I think Sakura actually does pretty well for herself.

I had to stop reading Bleach for a long time, though, because that's a remarkably sexist manga. Whereas there is never any illusion in Naruto that Sakura is as strong as her teammates (Sasuke, the forever one-upper, and Naruto, the demon fox's container... tough competition), in Bleach, it is implied that the women who have achieved captain/vice-captain/arrancar class are equal to their male counterparts. And yet they are consistently picked off first and with embarrassing ease, or end up requiring a male hero to intervene (Ichigo, Byakuya, whomever).

Actually, I tried reading a current chaptered kakasaku fic recently and it was the most degrading thing I'd read in awhile, much more so than the manga. Essentially, Sakura has a bad sexual encounter and ends up trying to reclaim her identity/sexuality. She tries to go about it via Kakashi, who rebuffs her, and so she resorts to promiscuous behaviour and complete erraticism. This writer consistently follows a pattern in her fics where Sakura suffers a humiliating sexual experience at Kakashi's hands and the rest of the fic plays out with him trying to restore himself in her esteem. Ignoring that no man actually follows Kakashi's logic (typical flaw of a woman writing a man's psyche as a woman sees fit), it's debasing insofar that Sakura is made 'pathetic' and is 'saved' by Kakashi, her older male teacher (there is a postcolonial reading in there, somewhere). I read through some of her comments and she was being lauded for writing something so realistic, which really blew my mind. If I had to pick between the Sakura of the manga and the Sakura of this fanfic, manga Sakura stands up as a bastion of feminist resilience.

That said, I have to give you kudos. Your fics usually do a pretty bang up job of inverting the patriarchal male gaze.

(Can you tell that I am DESPERATELY avoiding an assignment right now? Hahaha)

HOW ARE YOU? What are you up to? Sometimes I creep you on Facebook... and it's obvious you don't use it at all.

[cynchick.livejournal.com]

I've gone back to school fulltime too. It's great and kind of sucks too. I want to be a writer and work on my novel, but I don't have time because of school, but I need to finish school so if writing doesn't make me a living I can do something besides serve coffee the rest of my life. At least I don't have to work right now.

And yeah, I don't expect any shounen manga (or shoujo for that matter) to be shining examples of feminism (though Soul Eater and FMA deserve honorable mention). And the more I think about it, the more I conclude that its not what Sakura is doing lately that bothers me so much, its the delivery. A middle aged man from a patriarchal, chauvinistic culture has no idea how to handle strong female characters, though he should be credited for at least making an effort. The problem is I don't trust Kishi, and I'm always worried that it's not an act, that she actually does want to run away and join Sasuke or whatever other nonsense she's pulling, you know?

I know the fic you're talking about. I'm still reading it. It's an uncomfortable read and hugely out of character, but I think that's the point. Sometimes girls DO act like that after what basically amounts to rape. It makes no sense, but the workings of the psyche rarely do. It's definitely not one of my favorites, and I'm not defending her pattern of stereotypical romance-novel characterizations; I've actually critiqued her about that before. But I still think she's one of the more talented writers in the Naruto fandom. I have very little time (or interest, really) to read fanfic anymore, and there's a very short list of authors I will follow because I know they won't waste my time. I was always a bit of an elitist anyway. :P

Did you ever get around to reading my ItaSaku fic, Vespertine? It's one chapter from finished, and I'm writing an epic KakaSaku next. Wink wink nudge nudge. XD