Post
by Gaffer Tape » Mon Dec 11, 2017 4:16 pm
Part of me is wondering if I should even get involved in this thread. It's already volatile, I'm just asking for trouble, and I'm on vacation, damn it!
First off, I want to say that, whether you come down on one side, the other, or some context-sensitive area in between, I don't see the point in getting defensive about the subject coming up in the first place. The underlying topic is a very, very important one. I admit I find the term "rape culture," taken purely on its face, to be somewhat hyperbolic. I really think you'd be hard-pressed to find many people who could consciously admit to saying or even thinking that rape is a good and permissible thing. But all you need do is take one look at the headlines over the past few months, unless you think all or most of those people are lying, to realize that people who feel they can get away with it can and will and do manipulate others to satisfy their sexual urges. And while those who perpetrate those acts might be able to wage semantics arguments over whether or not that technically counts as your "grand old traditional physically force yourself on someone" rape, that doesn't change the fact that these are serious problems that need to be addressed and corrected. In fact, if people are rationalizing Weinstein-esque behavior as not "real" rape or the like, it's all the more reason to dig into the subconscious conditioning that would lead people to feel that such behavior is okay somehow. So while I don't think we can or should blame media for our ills because at the end of the day, we are responsible for our own actions, I don't think we can go so far as to say the media we consume does not ever have an effect on what we view as "normal." As such, this is a necessary conversation and one that can't and shouldn't be dismissed. And if by "rape culture," we mean the long list of power disparity "seductions," harassment, and micro-aggressions we as a society manage to tolerate, then I don't feel that's too far off the mark.
As for Dragon Ball specifically, as an adult, I have come to view Kame Sennin's antics through a different lens, and it causes me to wonder whether this is something I should find humorous or not. I also freely recognize that individuals' backgrounds are going to color certain forms of comedy for them. Someone who has been sexually assaulted is probably not going to find sexual assault humor funny. As someone who is gender non-conforming, there are times when I certainly can find crossdressing jokes humorous, but I am certainly on-guard when they come up, because I am so weary of navigating those unpleasant waters myself in real life. And especially since Dragon Ball Super made me so uncomfortable with its recent forays into sexual harassment types of humor, I've had to question whether there is something different about those examples that make them particularly cringeworthy, or if I give the old stuff a pass because I grew up with it. But I also strongly believe that humor is a necessary and cathartic lens through which we view the world, and one of its forms is to help us cope with the darker aspects of reality. In a general sense, I do feel that nothing should be off-limits in comedy. But since context is key and comedy is subjective, while one joke about a dark subject matter can be seen as funny, another can be seen as offensive. But I do think this thread has finally crystalized for me why I find early DB sex humor and Super sex humor to be different.
When I covered the first arc in Dragon Ball Dissection, one of the things I pointed out was how refreshingly fun it is that pretty much all of our main protagonists (except for Goku) are terrible people in one way or another. Their goals and methods of achieving those goals are often pretty reprehensible. But since they are all screwing each other over, it works in a comedic sense. When someone is hoisted by his/her own petard in fiction, it is rewarding. Blooma is a character who controls and manipulates other people through her sexuality. That's one of her shticks early on. She freely shows off her panties to get a Dragon Ball from Goku. She willingly does the same (or so she thinks) to Kame Sennin before even being promised anything in return. So her getting in over her head in this context diminishes what could otherwise be seen as horrific. And let me break in right here to clarify that I am not saying in real life, any of what happens to her is okay. It is NOT okay, under any circumstances. Period. At. All. Ever. Likewise, Oolong is at one point strongly coerced into letting himself be physically molested by Kame Sennin. And in real life, that is not okay, period. Full stop. But given his own perverted antics, in fiction, especially given the tone of this piece of fiction in particular, it can be seen as justified comeuppance.
There is also the fact that, in the context of the work, the characters who are on the receiving end of harassment and groping don't really treat it as a big deal. It is handled as little more than an annoyance rather than a traumatic event. Now, you might be saying, and fairly so, that that is part of the problem. That is what is helping normalize such behavior. From what I understand, it certainly feels like that behavior was normalized in Japan at that time, and this is simply a reflection of their own culture. There is definitely a case to be made there. But it does help, in this farcical context, to cause it to more easily be seen as comedic.
And those are the reasons why I think what worked in early Dragon Ball falls flat on its face in Super. When Kame Sennin is trying to assault Yurin or Pu'erh, that feels much more down to earth, much more realistic, than anything we've seen before. When Blooma gets angry and elbows Kame Sennin in the face, while that does not justify what he did, it makes her feel much more in control of a situation than, well, Pu'erh running away screaming while trapped in an enclosed space. That is much closer to what sexual assault actually is, and, as such, there is no humor to be found in it. It's just uncomfortable. It's power disparity. It's helplessness. It's an oncoming, unstoppable force. And I can certainly see that pulling the rug out from under people and causing them to question everything else. And that's not me saying we're wrong for doing so. Art should be examined and re-examined. Comedy should be examined and re-examined. Because as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, art often is a reflection of what we are. And if there is any reason to believe that any of the above listed behaviors are reflections of us, they need to be examined and dealt with.
Last edited by
Gaffer Tape on Mon Dec 11, 2017 4:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
