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Ogawa Yayoi - Tramps Like Us, vol. 04-08 (Eng. trans.)
Thu, Nov. 9th, 2006 02:41 pmReading five volumes in a row may have been a mistake, as nothing much happens and the interaction does get a little repetitive at times. On the other hand, I still love the Momo-Sumire relationship so much.
I'm also sad that this can't be my Rocking Feminist Manga, given the gender-role-reversal with Momo and Sumire and given that the series really looks at Sumire in the workplace and how she has to deal with being a Harvard and Tokyo University grad who is smart and competent and obviously threatening to both the men and the women at work. I wish Ogawa had a more nuanced portrayal of the women Sumire works with; instead, almost all of them seem to be jealous of Sumire because of her boyfriend, her intelligence, her school pedigree, and her competence.
I'm not saying that they shouldn't be, but it would be nice if there were a larger range of reactions and an exploration of why some of them might feel this way and the societal values and gender role expectations that feed into this. Instead, almost all the women in the series, with the exception of Sumire's housewife friend Yuri, are portrayed as jealous of Sumire, while the men tend to play off as understanding (Hasumi and Momo) or as complete horndogs (everyone else). I wouldn't be arguing as much about the gender portrayal, since pretty much everyone except Sumire, Yuri, Hasumi and Momo seems pretty evil, but the series spends much more time on the Momo-Sumire and Hasumi-Sumire relationship, and aside from a few chapters, the Sumire-Yuri relationship isn't given nearly as much weight.
Still, I am embarrassingly happy to have this anyway, just because at least there is some acknowledgement of the difficulties of breaking out of gender roles, even though the difficulty is positioned more as an individual problem, rather than a societal one.
Also, while I feel like I should have more a problem with the passivity of Sumire in her romantic relationships and how both Hasumi and Momo are more aggressive sexually, I think at least Ogawa somewhat examines it and looks at it critically, unlike most manga I've read. It's not set in the context of gender roles, which would make it much more interesting, but at least it's a "this is a personal problem for Sumire that she is attempting to overcome and something that really influences her relationships."
And I hope I'm not putting readers off the series by saying it's anti-feminist. I don't think it is anti-feminist per se, but it's also not feminist. But then, it still examines gender roles and expectations and how they play into relationships much more than most manga series I've read, and I suppose it could be read as a very accurate portrayal of what happens to people who break out of their traditional gender roles when they aren't doing it on purpose and don't have the tools to deal.
( Spoilers start here )
I'm also sad that this can't be my Rocking Feminist Manga, given the gender-role-reversal with Momo and Sumire and given that the series really looks at Sumire in the workplace and how she has to deal with being a Harvard and Tokyo University grad who is smart and competent and obviously threatening to both the men and the women at work. I wish Ogawa had a more nuanced portrayal of the women Sumire works with; instead, almost all of them seem to be jealous of Sumire because of her boyfriend, her intelligence, her school pedigree, and her competence.
I'm not saying that they shouldn't be, but it would be nice if there were a larger range of reactions and an exploration of why some of them might feel this way and the societal values and gender role expectations that feed into this. Instead, almost all the women in the series, with the exception of Sumire's housewife friend Yuri, are portrayed as jealous of Sumire, while the men tend to play off as understanding (Hasumi and Momo) or as complete horndogs (everyone else). I wouldn't be arguing as much about the gender portrayal, since pretty much everyone except Sumire, Yuri, Hasumi and Momo seems pretty evil, but the series spends much more time on the Momo-Sumire and Hasumi-Sumire relationship, and aside from a few chapters, the Sumire-Yuri relationship isn't given nearly as much weight.
Still, I am embarrassingly happy to have this anyway, just because at least there is some acknowledgement of the difficulties of breaking out of gender roles, even though the difficulty is positioned more as an individual problem, rather than a societal one.
Also, while I feel like I should have more a problem with the passivity of Sumire in her romantic relationships and how both Hasumi and Momo are more aggressive sexually, I think at least Ogawa somewhat examines it and looks at it critically, unlike most manga I've read. It's not set in the context of gender roles, which would make it much more interesting, but at least it's a "this is a personal problem for Sumire that she is attempting to overcome and something that really influences her relationships."
And I hope I'm not putting readers off the series by saying it's anti-feminist. I don't think it is anti-feminist per se, but it's also not feminist. But then, it still examines gender roles and expectations and how they play into relationships much more than most manga series I've read, and I suppose it could be read as a very accurate portrayal of what happens to people who break out of their traditional gender roles when they aren't doing it on purpose and don't have the tools to deal.
( Spoilers start here )