Posted by Aang3 on 08.06.2020, 01:46 PM:
Why Nausicaa is one of the best written female characters
I posted this over on reddit, but wanted to hear as many people's thoughts as possible. This post is riddled with spoilers for the Nausicaa manga and movie, and to be honest, I don't think my argument can be made without spoiling things, so I didn't bother with covering spoilers, I'd recommend not reading it. If you don't care about being spoiled, I tried to provide sufficient context for people unfamiliar with the story.
I've been thinking a lot recently about how Hayao Miyazaki was way ahead of his time in writing a genuinely strong female protaganist when he wrote the Nausicaa manga (and to a lesser extent, the movie). I don't mean the stereotypically strong female character such as Black Widow, but a more authentically feminine character that is encoded with empowering traits. There's quite a bit of set up I need to do to say what I want to say about Nausicaa, but I promise I'll get back to it. A lot of my thoughts on this were informing by this NYT article I Don't Want to be the Strong Female Lead, you should give it a read, Marling has some really interesting insights that I'd never thought about. I'll summarize it for those who don't want to read it . She basically talks about how the typical strong female character in Hollywood blockbusters is given traditionally masculine traits, and this is what makes them strong. In contrast she says "It's difficult for us to imagine femininity itself, empathy, vulnerability, listening, as strong." Marling finds herself disappointed in the typical strong female character because of this. This got me thinking about what storytellers today should be striving for in writing female characters. What is the goal of feminism in storytelling? To answer this, I think we first need to identify what the problem is. I think there are two related issues:
1. Feminine traits are encoded as weak and inferior to masculine traits in media (i.e. one must adopt masculine traits such as "physical prowess, linear ambition, focused rationality" to quote Marling)
2. Female characters are always associated with these feminine traits
I think that is is useful in studying media to separate feminine traits from the female characters they are usually associated with because certainly when male characters are associated with these traits, they are also encoded as being weak. Furthermore, the second issue is what characters like Black Widow are subverting; she is breaking free of the traditional restriction of female characters to feminine traits. But I think this is only a small step in the right direction, it really only puts a band aid on the issue. To really start to cause change in society, we need to see traditionally feminine traits being portrayed as strengths, both in male and female characters. I think Aang in Avatar the Last Airbender is a great example of a non-traditionally masculine character who exhibits some of these characteristics in a strong way.
But now we can finally get to discussing how Miyazaki wrote Nausicaa. She is at her core, a compassionate person, she exhibits empathy towards all life, she allows herself to be vulnerable at times, and listens to other people and the Ohmu rather than immediately rushing into fighting. And yet none of these traits are portrayed as weaknesses or flaws. Part of how he does this is that Nausicaa rarely has to be saved by anyone, in fact, she is the one doing the saving, as she does for Asbel.
But what I think are the truly special moments in the manga, are when Nausicaa exhibits her willingness to suffer to save other people. Spoilers for the end of the Nausicaa movie and the Acid Lake volume of the manga. Nausicaa chooses to stay with the enraged baby ohmu even as it enters the acid lake, resulting in Nausicaa burning her foot. I think this is an extremely unique moment of feminity being shown as a strength. Nausicaa is so empathetic with the Ohmu, she is willing to bear any pain that it experiences, to share the burden of that pain with it. And this has a powerful effect on the Ohmu, prompting it to stop heading into the lake; Nausicaa's empathy has the power to save others even in the most extreme of situations.
A similar example of this only happens in Volume 3 of the manga, when one of the Torumekian soldiers breaths in miasma. Nausciaa cradles him and sucks the posionous miasma out of his lungs, and spits it out. It's this interesting scene that simultaneously shows how nurturing and motherly Nausicaa is, while always showsing her willingness to take in the pain of others, to take that burden aways from them, even if the process is grotesque and puts her life at risk.
This is what "empathy, vulnerability, listening" encoded as a strength look like, it doesn't make Nausicaa feeble or weak, as many macho war movies would have you believe. Some problems can't be solved by punching a person, they require a more emotional touch. Nausicaa saving the two Dorok babies has a profound impact on the narrative moving forward, giving a mother who lost her children a chance to be a parent again, and changing the course of Charuka's story.
Even in the darkest moment of Nausicaa after the Daikaisho, when she chooses to stay with the Ohmu and be swallowed, this ends up being pivotal moment that results in her becoming stronger. It is absolutely understandable that a person as fiercely compassionate as Nausicaa would be devastated by the mass death of the Ohmu. But ultimately, in this moment of extreme vulnerability and introspection, she accepts Miralupa as a part of herself, thus signaling that she accepts the darkess within. Miyazaki implies that it is acceptable, and even necessary, to allow oneself to be vulnerable at times and to experience grief and anger, and then to accept the dark parts of ourself and our life. Nausicaa comes out of her dream state hardened, but more resolved in maintaining hope than ever before.
I believe that Miyazaki was so ahead of his time in many respects when he was writing Nausciaa, and to be quite frank, I don't think he necessarily was actively seeking to write Nausicaa in this way. Miyazaki is renowned for taking in his surroundings and incorporating them into his work, he always strived to create realities that were true to life even amidst fantasy elements. He believes that it is deeply disgusting and unacceptable to misrepresent reality or create unrealistic characters. Nausicaa was born from the women in Miyazaki's life, and an ideal that he believes we should all strive for. I think Nausicaa is not just a strong female character, but a truly strong feminine character.
This was really long, sorry, I have done a lot of thinking about this, and am curious to see what other people think about Nausicaa and how she was portrayed.
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