I love this thread.
I remember when the show was first starting to air, there was some worry here about how much of a non-character April was.
Half a season in, it seems like she's doing better. She feels like a full character, she's competent, and she's not the damsel-in-distress April has sometimes been in the past.
Karai, too, is a strong-ish character from her few appearances.
But what are we really settling for here? As far as we know, two whole women exist in this universe. They're both kids. April can be as spunky as she wants, but she still isn't doing anything without the Turtles at this point. And let's not forget that Karai is Shredder's daughter, has every aspect of her character filtered through being Shredder's daughter and, if you want to take it in franchise context, is based on a character who was originally the extremely competent leader of the entire Foot Clan. Now she seems stuck in a subservient role. (This, by the way, sucks the big one, and has since 2004.)
Bottom line: This show isn't doing anything particularly offensive when it comes to gender. In fact, for its genre, audience and source material, it does a lot of things right. But it could definitely be better, and it's okay to hold it accountable for that.
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Originally Posted by demonsweat
I find nothing sexist about this show. The TMNT story is about four male mutant turtles - that's the story being told here. Any other character is going to be a supporting character and won't have as much focus. I find it strange that some people think that the amount of female characters vs. the amount of male characters in a show determines whether or not it's sexist.
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It doesn't. It's how they're used. It's what they do. It's how stacked that ratio is.
We have two female characters and, yeah, they're all right. But look at the roles they're in, and it's still an extremely stacked deck in a number of ways.
Yeah, it's a boys' action cartoon. But I don't think it's too much to ask why we can't have more gender-neutral shows of this kind. It's not like I wouldn't let my hypothetical daughter watch this show. Again, April and Karai are pretty good, and maybe this show even comes out ahead of others of its kind. But it'd be nice if there were a slightly stronger role model, or a slightly better ratio, you know?
At this point, it's ahead of IDW though. Which, while also not offensive in any way, suffers from the same problems with arguably fewer strengths.
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Originally Posted by Powder
If all you want to do is 'discuss April in the new series' then why go out of your way to put the feminist spin on things?
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Because when April is fully one-half oft the female presence in this show (and 100 percent of it for the first half-season), the two are entirely linked. In fact, that fact alone should be enough to prompt this conversation.
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Originally Posted by Sage Ninja
yeah...I see this sh*t going well...feminsit anything really seems to raise the hackles of most men including women (with varying degees of justification)
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Most women hate feminism? I'm glad I don't know these women.