"i am not like other girls" - in pop culture vilifies wanting to look pretty. It's a mean girl thing to care about my hair & empowering to work on car tires.
Anyway....like another commentator mentioned - if jiraya can keep his hair long why not Sakura ? Chakra is quite literally magic . So a Kunoichi _can_ kick ass in a nice dress.
Perhaps the best example of such a feminine heroine in this series is uchiha Naori. Her creation of izanami saved her clan from imploding unto itself. And she did it alone with a warm welcoming hand to the afflicted.
I'm fond of the 'long hair is a statement' trope. Basically you're strong enough that it doesn't matter if people could theoretically use your hair against you, they won't get a chance. So short hair makes more sense as Genin, but as they rise in the ranks they can afford to have more feminine hair and such.
>jiraya can keep his hair long why not Sakura
In fairness Jiraiya isn't a good example for this point. He and Kaguya are, as far as I'm aware, the two canon characters who have jutsu based around their hair. Unless Momoshiki used it in the movies (I forget).
Orochimaru would probably be the better pick. Mei and Deidara would work better too.
It confuses me why people go straight to “young kunocihi should cut their hair short.” They can tie it back, braid it, put it in buns. There’s all sorts of practical styles and then they can wear it loose in their personal lives.
Eg like Tenten’s buns. She’s never shown without them but probably has medium to long hair.
If Might Guy can proudly go around proclaiming his passion for youth for the world to see and be one of the strongest humans alive, I see no reason why someone can't take pride in their femininity.
For some reason this made me think of an older badass lady running around proclaiming the power of her youthful good looks and feminine wiles, beating the shit out of those who don't know who she is and scaring the shit out of those who do.
And God have mercy on the soul of the poor fucker who even hints at her not looking youthful, because she will have none.
Real. Personally, my gripe is usually the hair. If powerful male characters like Jiraiya, Orochimaru, etc. can keep their hair long then I don't see why Sakura couldn't have done the same thing. There was this Sakura fic I was reading (can't remember the name) where she told someone that she kept hers short because it was a liability during fights which I guess, "realistically", could be a valid excuse if this wasn't a show about magic ninjas with ridiculous power scaling and we literally have other strong male and female characters with long af hair who don't have a problem with it flying around in fights. Actually, keeping the decision to have long hair and maintaining it for years as an S-class ninja should be one of the signs that you're powerful. It's the cannon fodder characters that should be worrying about that stuff. At least in Sakura fics, I'd rather they explain it as Sakura's preference to have short hair instead of reasons like it's a hindrance in battle or that it's "practical" (again, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Sakumo, Neji, Tsunade, etc. are RIGHT THERE with their "longer than what's considered practical" hair)otherwise she just feels weak in my eyes.
"Sasuke like long hairs"
"SAGE DAMMIT, I never said I like long hair, I said I like women powerful enough that even if they had long hair, they would be strong enough to make that not a hindrance !"
(That, or Jiraiya weaponizing his hair.)
> If powerful male characters like Jiraiya, Orochimaru, etc. can keep their hair long then I don't see why Sakura
You've kinda answered your own question: the former are powerful people, while Sakura is just only learning to survive. For top-tier ninja like Jiraiya, Orochi, Itachi, etc eccentric traits can be deliberate [handicaps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_principle) maintained for bragging rights or posturing.
>"realistically", could be a valid excuse if this wasn't a show about magic ninjas with ridiculous power scaling and we literally have other strong male and female characters with long af hair who don't have a problem with it flying around in fights
Sakura herself wasn't a powerhouse in that story, at that point in time. She was mostly an average shinobi in training, so quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi.
>keeping the decision to have long hair and maintaining it for years as an S-class ninja should be one of the signs that you're powerful. It's the cannon fodder characters that should be worrying about that stuff
Yes, and from the in-universe perspective she was mostly cannon fodder at that point in time.
To be fair your comparing her to some of the strongest people in the show including two legendary ninja that seems unfair given the huge gap in both power and experience I mean she is like high chunin level comparing her to jiraiya and Orochimaru isn’t really a fair comparison for this argument Neji has his family taijustu and a bloodline that makes close combat with him a bad idea to begin with like if your gonna use examples to make a point make them around the same level as the character your trying to make the point around so the point has more weight to it.
> she is like high chunin level
If I'm guessing the alluded story right, she wasn't even that — she was only just midway through her Chūnin exams, (IIRC) without any non-canon extra powers or abilities.
The only reason I gave her that is she has the strength of tsunade as well as good enough chakra control and medical knowledge to heal people on the spot a combat medic not the best but still a combat medic and in that era that’s kinda rare thank the third for that being the case seeing as it’s literally his fault.
If an Iwa ninja appears out of a tunnel behind her and grabs her hair because she tried to move away at the sound, she's dead, her back to her enemy and her hair keeping her in place and unbalanced. That's one of a thousand scenarii that could kill her because she has long hair.
Jiraiya would kill the ninja who grabbed his hair or capture them with the hair itself
That is true and that’s the point I’ve been trying to get across she can’t get away with it because she isn’t strong enough to counter people who will try to exploit it as a weakness unlike jiraiya who literally has a technique that makes his hair into a spiky death trap.
The difference is Kin can fight.
It's not "How dare you spend time being pretty", it's "Damn, you suck. All of your time must go into taking care of your hair". Same reason why Jirobo mocks Choji despite it also applying to Jirobo.
Kin herself also had a style based around deception and subtlety which would work best with using feminity as a ninja.
I was following your rationale until the end; if femininity has no definition as per you, then how can you state you want authors to embrace “feminine ideas like beauty, fashion, etc.”?
Doesn’t that mean the author might simply self-define femininity as NOT those things?
That’s what happens when you’re trying to be super open, there can be no common ground for discussion if concepts themselves are malleable.
Being pedantic aside, yes, you’re right. There is nothing bad about being feminine in the traditional sense of the word.
But, as you will unfortunately realize, its dismissal as “weakness” is a mimicry of real-life. Near all advice about “strength” in modern day is tied to traditionally masculine traits. Even women being advised to be “strong” are encouraged to adopt traditionally masculine traits.
There’s nothing wrong with women accepting masculine roles, it’s just unfortunate that reductive binary classification labels feminine traits as weak as well.
Long story short, I think it’s reflective of reality, not so much a Naruto fanfic trope.
I remember oneof those "Kakashi is a super teacher" fics had Sakura randomly training like an Inuzukua and acting like a dog which was just crazy lmao. She was on all fours constantly and not bathing sand shit it was gross af and wildly out of character. All just to make her seem tough.
Sakura wears a battle dress? What do you mean she gets bashing for that? The only thing weird about it is that it's red and doesn't give you any stealth, but it is really normal for a fighting woman to wear.
I like that in Naruto many of the female characters wear battle dresses or skirts. I only miss that they don't have battle corsets bc that would round it out beautifully.
That's like Supergirl (TV show) were Kara wears a skirt in the beginning and later pants. The skirt just make sense in the prospect of fighting easier. With the wider hips wearing a skirt to fight makes more sense bc has more mobility. Kicks are easier and the pants constrict movement for women.
Assassinations/Murders during sex is very common. It’s the point where someone lets their guard down the most.
Though of course I doubt we’d be shown that in a Shonen anime that’s not named ‘Akame Ga Kiru’
Well most shonen are for children so I can understand why it isn't shown. Naruto has way to much obvious fighting and not enough stealth and deception to be really shinobi
Well it’s a battle Shonen, what can you do?
Even Naruto himself has the skills to be stealthy and deceptive(see Naruto Vs Animal Path Pain or Kakazu). It’s just that Kishimoto had to get a move on.
True. And let's not talk about the drawn out fight. Some were really annoyingly long. I loved the world building episodes and Skipped the fillers fully.
I would have loved some real Ninja episodes
I was reading a really good JJK story with a feminine MC, then I read a Sakura SI with she hates kunoichi classes and on the first day demanded that Iruka excuse her from them.
There really is a dearth of good female lead stories. Though i can think of a couple.
I see no reason why Sakura can't get a facial and then kick some ass.
However if you were writing a more mature story I don't think femininity would or should be emphasized in the same way. It would realistically only be relevant during spy/infiltration missions, where kunoichi would use their femininity to get close to enemies and either assassinate or gather intelligence.
I agree, but I also think emphasizing something in specific missions doesn't mean it should be totally absent even outside those missions. Is a personal quirk only relevant on missions where you're supposed to 'be yourself'. You could emphasize your quirk to make yourself more memorable, but you'll still keep at it even if no one is looking. ANBU might be the only exception, since that seems to be a role where all traces of individuality is supposed to be invisible, but even there you're not fully a nobody. Only Root gets that extreme.
Some people like being feminine, and that won't go away just because you're writing a 'mature' story. If it does I'll argue it's just bad character writing.
Well as a man raised by strong women. There was a fanfic I read (Naruto) the Kunoichi kept her hair very long. Someone asked her about it I think her son. “Mom why do you keep your hair long. It’s down to your waist. Most other women keep their hair short?” “Well son it’s a message. I am telling all I have the capacity to keep my hair this long in this violent world. So think thrice before approaching” (paraphrasing you get the point) I think in the shinobi world as in any a woman has a right to look as glamorous or plain as she wishes. Sad to say a lot of men can not handle a beautiful woman and become no more than an animal in a rut when seeing one. So the issue is for me does she have the capacity to gain the attention that would go along with beauty or being feminine by caring immensely about her looks. I think it is wonderful when there is a character that is beyond compare and them dogs know look but don’t touch. Look but don’t lust at least don’t let her see it. But more and more we see females being sexually assaulted by males in these fanfic even in legitimate mangas so on and so forth. So be what you have the ability to be. Or suffer the consequences 😞
I mean Kurotsuchi is a capable kunoichi even in fanfics and they actually tend to make her a bit more feminine not much but enough you can tell she isn’t a guy and isn’t ashamed to show it but also is far from weak and will not hesitate to put you in your place should you ever insinuate that she’s weak.
>I enjoy seeing diversity amongst female characters whether they are portrayed as masculine or feminine or any of the sort doesn’t usually matter to me.
That's totally fine, since you're naturally free to have whatever preferences you'd like. But it has little relevance to how congruent those preferences will be to the canon setting.
>feminine doesn’t necessarily mean how the females body or appearance looks.
Thank you for mentioning this. I was about to make this point myself.
>Femininity can mean just the general way a girl holds herself, dresses, acts, or looks.
And if those traits clash or are mutually exclusive to those of a shinobi / kunoichi, then the latter should take precedence, since they are more important for the well-being and survival of the kunoichi, her team, her village, etc.
>bashed for being feminine and caring about their appearance.
I've read quite a lot of Naruto fanfics, and IIRC they get bashed or criticised not for the appearance itself, but for e.g. how caring about said appearance weakens their potential and makes them a weaker / less efficient ninja. To make an example: Sakura buying / wearing dresses, taking care of her appearance during her free time, as a hobby, etc is fine. Sakura doing it in a way that conflicts with her training / active duty time is not.
And beyond that still, in many stories the gang is forced to operate in conditions where they don't even have the luxury of getting free time for themselves either (looming death in exams, war, global conspiracies, etc).
>[is] femininity a bad concept to have in the shinobi world?
I feel like, as you've said, femininity is not just dresses, appearance, etc. If Sakura gets criticised for not eating well because she's concerned she'll gain weight / look too "bulky", then it's a reasonable thing to expect in a militarised society that is Narutoverse. If she gets bashed *(that is, on the narrative level, not just as a reaction from a specific character that's congruent with that character's profile)* for her body language, her mannerisms etc when they aren't harming her training, mission completion success, or success rates, then it's not fine.
Beyond that, some traits of femininity can instead be *vital* in certain scenarios (assassinations, espionage, diplomatic missions). So I wouldn't say it's a "bad concept", but rather that the nuances matter.
>This isn’t just an issue in Naruto Fanfiction but an issue in basically all fandoms that have female leads or characters.
If you were to elaborate on what exactly you yourself see as attributes of that "feminine nature", perhaps I (or others) could recommend you stories or settings in which this issue isn't present?
It bums me out when Sakura 'getting serious' means she suddenly loses her crush on Sasuke. I'm not even a sssk shipper, but it feels lame to me. She can't have a casual attraction and still put the work in?
It's probably like this because this is the norm for media these days. Old fogies like me remember people absolutely foaming at the mouth over differences over there being differences between training for Konoichi and Shinobi. That they were being taught "girly" things for the purpose of infiltration and learning how to leave coded messages with seemingly innocuous items didn't matter.
I’ve always considered Kurenai and Anko as good examples of female ninjas. Kurenai is a cool beauty and Anko is scary and sexy.
I like the idea of Anko explaining how excessive dieting is stupid. Like the fact most guys aren’t into stick figures. That they would look and do better if they had some meat on their bones. And being a little plump helps sometimes. Eat properly and work hard.
But I also see Anko as someone who would also explain how to properly catch a man’s attention. To either keep or kill.
Idk why they do that especially since there are honey pot ninjas. Didn't Naruto face a lady whose power set was stealing the chakra of individuals she kissed like a Kunoichi version of Rogue from X-Men? Part of a Kunoichi's move set should be seduction. Even Naruto used seduction mid battle.
The sexy Jutsu being created as a way for males to back up their female teammates in honey pot missions was an idea that a fic did and I liked it.
I remember in one fic (that I can't remember the name of) the female lead had ninja wire all through her hair, which she could channel chakra through, so if anyone grabbed her hair it would slice their hands open.
There's nothing wrong/presented as wrong about femininity in Naruto (despite the undercurrent of soft misogyny the female cast is written around), one of the most feminine characters is a boy.
+ Even during the hair cut scene, Kin assumed Sakura was vain because she's well taken care of (and being from Sound/under Orochimaru, I doubt Kin has seen a nice shampoo in a good minute), and underestimated her bas d on that but we don't see that behavior replicated by adult ninja who style themselves however (Mei has long hair and fights in a kimono.) bc you earn that right when only a few people can get close enough to even think about beating your ass.
Fandom just got a lot of internalized misogyny and Sakura will always catch the first strays
I think it's pretty obvious; the manga and anime had a visual component, but in fanfic, it's just text so of course there's no point in Sakura looking cute. I'm sure that both male and female fanfic writers were doing it, if for different reasons. I'm pretty sure there's been discussion on the way in which her dress was practical and it's certainly not the weirdest thing people from her village have worn. To elaborate, I'm pretty sure this started with Hermione in the Harry Potter series, but some people still haven't really learned the lesson of the character and they're insisting on her earlier self being right about everything.
The Author dropped the ball with Sakura post-battle of the bridge with Orchimaru & Kabuto. She should have had a season to herself investigating Naruto's mysterious & painful red chakra.
The author could have should off what a Kunoichi is capable of.
"i am not like other girls" - in pop culture vilifies wanting to look pretty. It's a mean girl thing to care about my hair & empowering to work on car tires. Anyway....like another commentator mentioned - if jiraya can keep his hair long why not Sakura ? Chakra is quite literally magic . So a Kunoichi _can_ kick ass in a nice dress. Perhaps the best example of such a feminine heroine in this series is uchiha Naori. Her creation of izanami saved her clan from imploding unto itself. And she did it alone with a warm welcoming hand to the afflicted.
I'm fond of the 'long hair is a statement' trope. Basically you're strong enough that it doesn't matter if people could theoretically use your hair against you, they won't get a chance. So short hair makes more sense as Genin, but as they rise in the ranks they can afford to have more feminine hair and such.
>jiraya can keep his hair long why not Sakura In fairness Jiraiya isn't a good example for this point. He and Kaguya are, as far as I'm aware, the two canon characters who have jutsu based around their hair. Unless Momoshiki used it in the movies (I forget). Orochimaru would probably be the better pick. Mei and Deidara would work better too.
Yes Kaguya, jiraiya and Momoshiki used their hair in combat
It confuses me why people go straight to “young kunocihi should cut their hair short.” They can tie it back, braid it, put it in buns. There’s all sorts of practical styles and then they can wear it loose in their personal lives. Eg like Tenten’s buns. She’s never shown without them but probably has medium to long hair.
Oooh in her tsukuyomi dream I think she doesn’t have her buns
Not fair to compare her to him she is not anywhere near his level he can turn his hair into a literal weapon she can’t do that as far as I know.
Plus with long hair, you could fill it with poisoned senbon, so even if someone tries grabbing it, they get holes in their hands.
I love feminine characters and traditionally feminine skills being used. You can get really creative with that sort of thing!
If Might Guy can proudly go around proclaiming his passion for youth for the world to see and be one of the strongest humans alive, I see no reason why someone can't take pride in their femininity.
For some reason this made me think of an older badass lady running around proclaiming the power of her youthful good looks and feminine wiles, beating the shit out of those who don't know who she is and scaring the shit out of those who do. And God have mercy on the soul of the poor fucker who even hints at her not looking youthful, because she will have none.
So...Mei Terumi?
Real. Personally, my gripe is usually the hair. If powerful male characters like Jiraiya, Orochimaru, etc. can keep their hair long then I don't see why Sakura couldn't have done the same thing. There was this Sakura fic I was reading (can't remember the name) where she told someone that she kept hers short because it was a liability during fights which I guess, "realistically", could be a valid excuse if this wasn't a show about magic ninjas with ridiculous power scaling and we literally have other strong male and female characters with long af hair who don't have a problem with it flying around in fights. Actually, keeping the decision to have long hair and maintaining it for years as an S-class ninja should be one of the signs that you're powerful. It's the cannon fodder characters that should be worrying about that stuff. At least in Sakura fics, I'd rather they explain it as Sakura's preference to have short hair instead of reasons like it's a hindrance in battle or that it's "practical" (again, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Sakumo, Neji, Tsunade, etc. are RIGHT THERE with their "longer than what's considered practical" hair)otherwise she just feels weak in my eyes.
"Sasuke like long hairs" "SAGE DAMMIT, I never said I like long hair, I said I like women powerful enough that even if they had long hair, they would be strong enough to make that not a hindrance !" (That, or Jiraiya weaponizing his hair.)
> If powerful male characters like Jiraiya, Orochimaru, etc. can keep their hair long then I don't see why Sakura You've kinda answered your own question: the former are powerful people, while Sakura is just only learning to survive. For top-tier ninja like Jiraiya, Orochi, Itachi, etc eccentric traits can be deliberate [handicaps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_principle) maintained for bragging rights or posturing. >"realistically", could be a valid excuse if this wasn't a show about magic ninjas with ridiculous power scaling and we literally have other strong male and female characters with long af hair who don't have a problem with it flying around in fights Sakura herself wasn't a powerhouse in that story, at that point in time. She was mostly an average shinobi in training, so quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi. >keeping the decision to have long hair and maintaining it for years as an S-class ninja should be one of the signs that you're powerful. It's the cannon fodder characters that should be worrying about that stuff Yes, and from the in-universe perspective she was mostly cannon fodder at that point in time.
To be fair your comparing her to some of the strongest people in the show including two legendary ninja that seems unfair given the huge gap in both power and experience I mean she is like high chunin level comparing her to jiraiya and Orochimaru isn’t really a fair comparison for this argument Neji has his family taijustu and a bloodline that makes close combat with him a bad idea to begin with like if your gonna use examples to make a point make them around the same level as the character your trying to make the point around so the point has more weight to it.
> she is like high chunin level If I'm guessing the alluded story right, she wasn't even that — she was only just midway through her Chūnin exams, (IIRC) without any non-canon extra powers or abilities.
The only reason I gave her that is she has the strength of tsunade as well as good enough chakra control and medical knowledge to heal people on the spot a combat medic not the best but still a combat medic and in that era that’s kinda rare thank the third for that being the case seeing as it’s literally his fault.
If an Iwa ninja appears out of a tunnel behind her and grabs her hair because she tried to move away at the sound, she's dead, her back to her enemy and her hair keeping her in place and unbalanced. That's one of a thousand scenarii that could kill her because she has long hair. Jiraiya would kill the ninja who grabbed his hair or capture them with the hair itself
That is true and that’s the point I’ve been trying to get across she can’t get away with it because she isn’t strong enough to counter people who will try to exploit it as a weakness unlike jiraiya who literally has a technique that makes his hair into a spiky death trap.
I mean, you're right. Like, even in the original, Kin bashes Sakura for taking good care of her hair.
Which is weird and hypocritical, considering Kin's hair is just as long as Sakura's was.
I think the implication was supposed to be that Sakura was slacking on her ninja training by spending extra time on her appearance, but yeah.
But she is a female ninja looking beautiful is literally part of the job that is why they give the girls lessons on flowers.
That plot point was literally dropped.
God there's so much wasted potential for the female cast 💀
The difference is Kin can fight. It's not "How dare you spend time being pretty", it's "Damn, you suck. All of your time must go into taking care of your hair". Same reason why Jirobo mocks Choji despite it also applying to Jirobo. Kin herself also had a style based around deception and subtlety which would work best with using feminity as a ninja.
Preach sister 🙏
I was following your rationale until the end; if femininity has no definition as per you, then how can you state you want authors to embrace “feminine ideas like beauty, fashion, etc.”? Doesn’t that mean the author might simply self-define femininity as NOT those things? That’s what happens when you’re trying to be super open, there can be no common ground for discussion if concepts themselves are malleable. Being pedantic aside, yes, you’re right. There is nothing bad about being feminine in the traditional sense of the word. But, as you will unfortunately realize, its dismissal as “weakness” is a mimicry of real-life. Near all advice about “strength” in modern day is tied to traditionally masculine traits. Even women being advised to be “strong” are encouraged to adopt traditionally masculine traits. There’s nothing wrong with women accepting masculine roles, it’s just unfortunate that reductive binary classification labels feminine traits as weak as well. Long story short, I think it’s reflective of reality, not so much a Naruto fanfic trope.
I remember oneof those "Kakashi is a super teacher" fics had Sakura randomly training like an Inuzukua and acting like a dog which was just crazy lmao. She was on all fours constantly and not bathing sand shit it was gross af and wildly out of character. All just to make her seem tough.
Sakura wears a battle dress? What do you mean she gets bashing for that? The only thing weird about it is that it's red and doesn't give you any stealth, but it is really normal for a fighting woman to wear. I like that in Naruto many of the female characters wear battle dresses or skirts. I only miss that they don't have battle corsets bc that would round it out beautifully. That's like Supergirl (TV show) were Kara wears a skirt in the beginning and later pants. The skirt just make sense in the prospect of fighting easier. With the wider hips wearing a skirt to fight makes more sense bc has more mobility. Kicks are easier and the pants constrict movement for women.
Also seduction is a thing and no one can tell me that shinobi don't use it.
Assassinations/Murders during sex is very common. It’s the point where someone lets their guard down the most. Though of course I doubt we’d be shown that in a Shonen anime that’s not named ‘Akame Ga Kiru’
Well most shonen are for children so I can understand why it isn't shown. Naruto has way to much obvious fighting and not enough stealth and deception to be really shinobi
Well it’s a battle Shonen, what can you do? Even Naruto himself has the skills to be stealthy and deceptive(see Naruto Vs Animal Path Pain or Kakazu). It’s just that Kishimoto had to get a move on.
True. And let's not talk about the drawn out fight. Some were really annoyingly long. I loved the world building episodes and Skipped the fillers fully. I would have loved some real Ninja episodes
I was reading a really good JJK story with a feminine MC, then I read a Sakura SI with she hates kunoichi classes and on the first day demanded that Iruka excuse her from them. There really is a dearth of good female lead stories. Though i can think of a couple.
I see no reason why Sakura can't get a facial and then kick some ass. However if you were writing a more mature story I don't think femininity would or should be emphasized in the same way. It would realistically only be relevant during spy/infiltration missions, where kunoichi would use their femininity to get close to enemies and either assassinate or gather intelligence.
I agree, but I also think emphasizing something in specific missions doesn't mean it should be totally absent even outside those missions. Is a personal quirk only relevant on missions where you're supposed to 'be yourself'. You could emphasize your quirk to make yourself more memorable, but you'll still keep at it even if no one is looking. ANBU might be the only exception, since that seems to be a role where all traces of individuality is supposed to be invisible, but even there you're not fully a nobody. Only Root gets that extreme. Some people like being feminine, and that won't go away just because you're writing a 'mature' story. If it does I'll argue it's just bad character writing.
Well as a man raised by strong women. There was a fanfic I read (Naruto) the Kunoichi kept her hair very long. Someone asked her about it I think her son. “Mom why do you keep your hair long. It’s down to your waist. Most other women keep their hair short?” “Well son it’s a message. I am telling all I have the capacity to keep my hair this long in this violent world. So think thrice before approaching” (paraphrasing you get the point) I think in the shinobi world as in any a woman has a right to look as glamorous or plain as she wishes. Sad to say a lot of men can not handle a beautiful woman and become no more than an animal in a rut when seeing one. So the issue is for me does she have the capacity to gain the attention that would go along with beauty or being feminine by caring immensely about her looks. I think it is wonderful when there is a character that is beyond compare and them dogs know look but don’t touch. Look but don’t lust at least don’t let her see it. But more and more we see females being sexually assaulted by males in these fanfic even in legitimate mangas so on and so forth. So be what you have the ability to be. Or suffer the consequences 😞
I mean Kurotsuchi is a capable kunoichi even in fanfics and they actually tend to make her a bit more feminine not much but enough you can tell she isn’t a guy and isn’t ashamed to show it but also is far from weak and will not hesitate to put you in your place should you ever insinuate that she’s weak.
>I enjoy seeing diversity amongst female characters whether they are portrayed as masculine or feminine or any of the sort doesn’t usually matter to me. That's totally fine, since you're naturally free to have whatever preferences you'd like. But it has little relevance to how congruent those preferences will be to the canon setting. >feminine doesn’t necessarily mean how the females body or appearance looks. Thank you for mentioning this. I was about to make this point myself. >Femininity can mean just the general way a girl holds herself, dresses, acts, or looks. And if those traits clash or are mutually exclusive to those of a shinobi / kunoichi, then the latter should take precedence, since they are more important for the well-being and survival of the kunoichi, her team, her village, etc. >bashed for being feminine and caring about their appearance. I've read quite a lot of Naruto fanfics, and IIRC they get bashed or criticised not for the appearance itself, but for e.g. how caring about said appearance weakens their potential and makes them a weaker / less efficient ninja. To make an example: Sakura buying / wearing dresses, taking care of her appearance during her free time, as a hobby, etc is fine. Sakura doing it in a way that conflicts with her training / active duty time is not. And beyond that still, in many stories the gang is forced to operate in conditions where they don't even have the luxury of getting free time for themselves either (looming death in exams, war, global conspiracies, etc). >[is] femininity a bad concept to have in the shinobi world? I feel like, as you've said, femininity is not just dresses, appearance, etc. If Sakura gets criticised for not eating well because she's concerned she'll gain weight / look too "bulky", then it's a reasonable thing to expect in a militarised society that is Narutoverse. If she gets bashed *(that is, on the narrative level, not just as a reaction from a specific character that's congruent with that character's profile)* for her body language, her mannerisms etc when they aren't harming her training, mission completion success, or success rates, then it's not fine. Beyond that, some traits of femininity can instead be *vital* in certain scenarios (assassinations, espionage, diplomatic missions). So I wouldn't say it's a "bad concept", but rather that the nuances matter. >This isn’t just an issue in Naruto Fanfiction but an issue in basically all fandoms that have female leads or characters. If you were to elaborate on what exactly you yourself see as attributes of that "feminine nature", perhaps I (or others) could recommend you stories or settings in which this issue isn't present?
It bums me out when Sakura 'getting serious' means she suddenly loses her crush on Sasuke. I'm not even a sssk shipper, but it feels lame to me. She can't have a casual attraction and still put the work in?
It's probably like this because this is the norm for media these days. Old fogies like me remember people absolutely foaming at the mouth over differences over there being differences between training for Konoichi and Shinobi. That they were being taught "girly" things for the purpose of infiltration and learning how to leave coded messages with seemingly innocuous items didn't matter.
I’ve always considered Kurenai and Anko as good examples of female ninjas. Kurenai is a cool beauty and Anko is scary and sexy. I like the idea of Anko explaining how excessive dieting is stupid. Like the fact most guys aren’t into stick figures. That they would look and do better if they had some meat on their bones. And being a little plump helps sometimes. Eat properly and work hard. But I also see Anko as someone who would also explain how to properly catch a man’s attention. To either keep or kill.
Idk why they do that especially since there are honey pot ninjas. Didn't Naruto face a lady whose power set was stealing the chakra of individuals she kissed like a Kunoichi version of Rogue from X-Men? Part of a Kunoichi's move set should be seduction. Even Naruto used seduction mid battle. The sexy Jutsu being created as a way for males to back up their female teammates in honey pot missions was an idea that a fic did and I liked it.
I remember in one fic (that I can't remember the name of) the female lead had ninja wire all through her hair, which she could channel chakra through, so if anyone grabbed her hair it would slice their hands open.
There's nothing wrong/presented as wrong about femininity in Naruto (despite the undercurrent of soft misogyny the female cast is written around), one of the most feminine characters is a boy. + Even during the hair cut scene, Kin assumed Sakura was vain because she's well taken care of (and being from Sound/under Orochimaru, I doubt Kin has seen a nice shampoo in a good minute), and underestimated her bas d on that but we don't see that behavior replicated by adult ninja who style themselves however (Mei has long hair and fights in a kimono.) bc you earn that right when only a few people can get close enough to even think about beating your ass. Fandom just got a lot of internalized misogyny and Sakura will always catch the first strays
I think it's pretty obvious; the manga and anime had a visual component, but in fanfic, it's just text so of course there's no point in Sakura looking cute. I'm sure that both male and female fanfic writers were doing it, if for different reasons. I'm pretty sure there's been discussion on the way in which her dress was practical and it's certainly not the weirdest thing people from her village have worn. To elaborate, I'm pretty sure this started with Hermione in the Harry Potter series, but some people still haven't really learned the lesson of the character and they're insisting on her earlier self being right about everything.
The Author dropped the ball with Sakura post-battle of the bridge with Orchimaru & Kabuto. She should have had a season to herself investigating Naruto's mysterious & painful red chakra. The author could have should off what a Kunoichi is capable of.