Honors Thesis Draft

[laurbits]

Here it is! My blood, sweat and tears. Still very much a draft since I haven't included the input from my professors yet. Feel free to let me know what you think! I could certainly use the feedback. Also, if you guys have some idea which journals to submit this to, let me know.

Mutilating the Maidens:
Problematizing the Dismemberment
of Female Bodies in CLAMP's Manga X

Re-uploaded: 03-25-2011. The link shouldn't expire anymore!

Please respect my wishes and do not distribute/use this for any other purpose besides personal reading. Thanks!

x-posted to manga_talk here.

Comments

[psychoe.livejournal.com]

The other interesting thing is that through history, boys often seem to be considered in the same light as women (i.e. objects of adult male lust) in many different cultures (the samurai apprentices, romans, etc.), so instead of subversion, it could be supporting the same 'male gaze?'

Yes, I agree this is related to the work! However, given my scope of time and energy I was not able to bring this in. Young boys (from what I learned in Western cultural representation) can be represented as mediating between male and female. If you've seen Donatello's David (http://ca.encarta.msn.com/media_461518984/David_by_Donatello.html), the homoerotic nature of this statue is absolutely blatant AND it was made for a male audience. For this paper, I was limited to addressing a female audience because I was working from the limited knowledge that X had been originally published in a magazine for a female readership. But I believe male readers could desire male bodies and this could be an interesting thesis on its own.

Mike

[(Anonymous)]

hmm, shota?