Hey, you’re a girl?: Gendered expressions in the popular anime, Cowboy Bebop Abstract
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DE GRUYTER MOUTON 70 Mie Hiramoto nese features indicate, the two main male characters speak in the most mascu- line manner: 1PP ore (100 percent), 2PP omae (81 percent), and masculine SFFs such as ze, zo, or imperative verb endings (47 percent). Yet soft male characters, despite being conciliatory, still used masculine personal pronouns (1PP boku and 2PP kimi) and SFFs. The only male characters to use obvious feminine linguistic features were the transvestites Julius and his friends. Even a homosex- ual male character from the same episode maintained his masculine speech style. The data from the female characters show hardly any usage of masculine tokens in general. Their pronoun usage is restricted to the default forms (1PP
characters use feminine SFFs almost categorically, including tokens such as kashira, wa (with rising intonation), and its variants, which are rarely found in actual JWL. Young, attractive babe characters are assigned strong feminine speech styles which index their heterosexual normativity, whereas older or unattractive characters flout these gender norms. The American English data show similar results in gendered language use as far as the English tokens are concerned. Expressions such as strong exple- tives (e.g., shit or bitch), the order-type imperatives (e.g., Do x!), and challenge tag questions are used predominantly by male characters while tokens includ- ing weak expletives (e.g., oh my god), the request-type imperatives (e.g. Can you
the English translation, characters who flout linguistic gender norms are either transvestites or unattractive by conventional standards. The only males to use weak or mild expletives (oh my god, son of a gun, or dummy) are a nerd, some young boys, a preacher, and a group of monkey-faced terrorists, hardly icons of conventional masculinity. The sole male character to overtly use feminine expressions was Julius; the following is the final part of example (4), repeated here.
(7) (Julius’s speech) Ep. 12: Jupiter Jazz ’Fraid not, darling. Can’t you see he’s straight? C’mon. Let’s try another corner.
Though he does not use any of the four types of gendered features discussed in the English translation, Julius’s use of the term ‘darling’ here is undeniably feminine. Concerning the gender normativity flouting females, there were not many examples in English dubbing; the few female characters who employed mild expletives (dummy, idiot, or oh my dear god), order-type imperatives or epistemic tag questions are a trucker, fat old ladies, and one condescending terrorist leader. Authenticated | ellmh@nus.edu.sg author's copy Download Date | 2/13/13 12:05 AM
DE GRUYTER MOUTON Gendered expressions in a popular anime 71 Continuing this discussion of non-normative language use will inevitably lead us to Faye, who employs some obviously unladylike expletives and chal- lenging tag questions. Based on the English translation, Faye’s use of these features may superficially cause her to appear tomboyish. As observed by Na- pier (2005: 139), ‘Faye is almost asexual throughout most of the series despite her voluptuous body; in her aggressiveness and rough language she seems almost masculine.’ This asexuality, Napier notes, is not limited to Faye: ‘Throughout most of the series the crew of the Bebop remains sexless (with Faye and Ed both playing largely masculine roles)’ (Napier 2005: 139). However, in order to understand what Napier considers ‘masculine’ about Faye and Ed, a more elaborate understanding of the different gender constructions of these two characters, in both Japanese and English, is required. As far as the data show, Ed rarely uses gendered expressions at all. Her name, as well as other characters’ repeated comments on the ambiguity of her gender, also help create Ed’s heterosexually non-normative identity: (8) Comments on Ed’s gender Ep. 9: Jamming with Edward [Faye talking to Ed] FAYE:
Ara, anta, onna no ko nano? [Hey, you’re a girl?] Ep. 23: Brain Scratch [Jet pretending to be Ed’s father: Ed is in a dress] JET:
Jitsu wa, kono musume no futago no ani ga koko ni irundesu. [You see, her twin brother’s here and she’s suffered so much.] ED:
Papa! GUARD: Musumette ...? Honto ni onnanoko ka? [She’s an unusual looking child. Is she a girl?] Ep. 24: Hard Luck Woman [Ed’s father meeting with Spike and Jet] FATHER: Oo soo ka. Musuko ga sewan natta. N? Musume datta ka? [Oh, that’s different. Thanks for taking care of my son … Or, uh, was it my daughter?] All three of the main adult characters’ heterosexuality is made explicit through- out the series, as all have stories detailing their former loves and intimate rela- tionships, although Faye’s relationship was never physical, as far as the details of the story go. However, despite her celibacy, Faye is definitely sexually objecti- fied, as the following examples demonstrate: Authenticated | ellmh@nus.edu.sg author's copy Download Date | 2/13/13 12:05 AM Yüklə 233,01 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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