Feminism in Ghibli Studio Movies

“A woman is human. She is not better, wiser, stronger, more intelligent, more creative, or more responsible than a man. Likewise, she is never less. Equality is a given. A woman is human.” – Vera Nazarian. Equality is not lessening the value of another group to match the value of another one, it’s helping them realize that they’ve always equal. Inequality affects many people, whether they truly realize it or not. Inequality affects how the future will unfold and what kind of environment the children of the future will grow up in. Difference is known in several ways. Together with race and class inequalities, we have gender inequalities. What makes and sustains important gender difference when it comes to decision making. It appears that when it comes to force and decision making, females get put in the backseat. Women are often seen as the weaker sex, the inferior gender and have been since the beginning of civilization. Due to these gender roles, they have generated a mass number of stereotypes about women’s strength, intelligence and an over-exaggeration of how much emotions affect a woman’s thinking. Gender difference refers to unequal treatment of people from their sexuality. It originates from differences in socially constructed sex roles, as well as biologically through chromosomes, mind composition, and hormonal conflicts. Gender groups are frequently dichotomous and hierarchical, these roles are the root of inequalities that appear in many dimensions of everyday life. Males have more chances than females do.

For instance, males have more access to education and healthcare than females do. The welfare advantages of education extend beyond birth and a child’s well-being. A Zambian survey provided evidence that AIDS spreads twice as quick among the non-educated girls versus those who received an education. Additionally, an educated daughter tends to marry later. However, some do not have a choice. Child marriages often stop a woman’s schooling, especially in poor countries where women getting married at a younger age is common. Moreover, men also have a monopoly in the career system. “From 1999 to 2008, recently qualified female doctors in the US made almost $170,000,000 less than their male counterparts. The pay discrepancy could not be explained by specialty choice, practice setting, work house, or other characteristics” (Time). Women constitute about half of the workforce. They are the only source of income or represent a co-breadwinner in half of American households. Women also tend to have more college and master’s degrees than males. However, women continually earn less than men. In 2017, full-time, year-round female workers only received 80.5 for every dollar earned by a man. Nevertheless, healthcare and wealth aren’t the only things that make men and women unequal. Commonly, in modern legal settings, sexual harassment is prohibited. However, the laws that discuss sexual harassment tend to not include simple banter, informal remarks, or small remote instances. They aren’t included because they do not conflict with the “general civility code”. No matter how covered up a woman is when she exits her residence, there is a chance she will be “cat-called”. Setting nor time matters, a woman could be hit on at work by one of her coworkers. A fellow classmate could make a girl uncomfortable by imposing on her personal space, getting too close. A woman walking down the street could experience light teasing by an imposing male who thinks it’s a joke from his point of view.

A little girl could get a comment on her body by an older man. Sexual harassment is something that two thirds of college students encounter. Another form of sexual harassment are jokes. “That’s what she said” may be a way of making an innocent remark sexual, but it can often make present female company very uncomfortable. Tying in with sexual harassment is sexual assault. “One in five women and one in 71 men will be raped at some point in their life” (NSVRC). 40.8% of reported cases are instances of women being assaulted by an acquaintance, with 51.1% of female victims report being assaulted by an intimate partner. “In eight out of ten cases of rape, the victim knew the perpetrator” (NSVRC). Furthermore, only 37% of cases are reported. In many third world countries, women are faced with many more obstacles than just wage gaps and sexual harassment. In Afghanistan, 1 in 11 women have a probable chance at dying during childbirth, 87% of women are illiterate and 80% of girls are put in arranged marriages. In Congo, 400,000 women are raped annually. In Pakistan, 1,000 women are killed annually in “honor killings”. Families whose daughters have dishonored them also attack women with acid in attempt to disfigure them or stone them to death. In India, 50 million females have been reported missing because of the country’s practices within the last century. Some of those practices include human trafficking, prostitution and infanticide. Last but not least is Somalia. In Somalia, there is no prenatal or antenatal care, meaning pregnant women have a 50% chance of surviving. There is also an extreme lack of hospitals and healthcare. Genital mutilation is also something women and girls in Somalia have to experience.

In many third world countries, they have very limited access to education. In Pakistan, the Taliban took over many villages banning many things, one of which being education to girls. Malala Yousafzai is a young woman who spoke up about her right to an education. She spoke very publicly about her beliefs which soon made her a target. One day on her school bus, the Taliban boarded the bus and after she answered their question of “who is Malala?”, they promptly shot her in the face and left. However, as with many things, they are people who will be scared of change. One of the things people view as a threat is that feminism would mean that women would be of a higher value than men. This is not the goal of feminism; the definition of feminism is “the advocacy of the women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes” (Oxford Dictionary). Thus, women just want the same rights and opportunities. Another concern about feminism is that women will try to harass men. Although there have been cases where women physically assault males because they’re trying to assert dominance, they are a bad name to the movement of equality.

Another well believed lie is that women are already equal to men. There is plenty of evidence clearly stating that women are seen as inferiors, with less value. Therefore, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Any of the things listed in prior paragraphs could be resolved with feminism. One example is that girls will no longer need to feel afraid. Men wouldn’t feel superior to women; therefore we’d feel equal and they’d appear less threatening. Another issue that would be solved is men wouldn’t be shamed for showing emotion anymore. Showing emotions is labeled as a very feminine thing, despite every human being born with humans (excluding sociopaths). Another thing that accepting feminism could help with is giving us time and space to work on our countless other problems. Thus, feminism is a problem we could knock out, slowly but surely. Equal rights are an important thing for the of tomorrow to grow up with. Inequality now will have a ripple effect on our children’s’ surroundings and how it progresses. As a nation, are realizing how unfair life is towards those who are seen as different, either due gender, race, religion or a disability. To have the best chances at surviving as a race, humans need to come together and fix our problems. Although it may seem like a bad idea for those scared of change or losing their dominance or power, you’ll soon start to see how much of a better place the world can be once we start working together. “No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men” – Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Work cited:

Arrizabalaga, P, et al. “Gender Inequalities in the Medical Profession: Are There Still Barriers to Women Physicians in the 21st Century?” Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2 June 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24889702. CBSNews.com, CBSNews.com. “The Worst Places in the World to Be a Woman.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 14 June 2011, www.cbsnews.com/news/the-worst-places-in-the-world-to-be-a-woman/. “Get Statistics.” Sexual Assault Statistics | National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), www.nsvrc.org/statistics. Glick, Hans. “9 Key Issues Affecting Girls and Women around the World.” Global Citizen, 4 June 2015, www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/9-key-issues-affecting-girls-and-women-around-the/. Oaklander, Mandy. “Women Doctors in Medicine Earn Less Money Than Male Doctors.” Time, Time, 11 July 2016, time.com/4398888/doctors-gender-wage-gap/. Riggio, Ronald E. “Are Men Threatened by High-Achieving Women?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 17 June 2017, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201706/are-men-threatened-high-achieving-women. Yousafzai, Malala. “I Tell My Story Not Because It Is Unique, but Because It Is the Story of Many Girls.”.” Malala’s Story | Malala Fund, 2018, www.malala.org/malalas-story.

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