Women Power

Mamoru Oshii, the director of The Ghost in the Shell, describes the positions, abilities, and limitations of women in today’s world. The film mainly presents the battles of the Japanese National Public Commission known as Section 9 against criminals and illegal associations. Section 9 selects elite, skillful men in the fields of technology and battle to overcome them, who threaten the Japanese government and society. In the beginning, Motoko Kusanagi, a female cyborg, is built in a laboratory. Kusanagi has superhuman power, and her extreme physical strength helps Section 9 to capture and execute criminals. Kusanagi’s role represents women’s roles in today’s society, and the film as a whole shows a male-dominated world that does not allow women to go to the front line except as cyborgs.

Kusanagi leads the Section 9, together with Daisuke Aramaki, a head of the department. Through her performance dealing with numerous criminal cases and overcoming powerful enemies, the female cyborg gains trust from its members. Kusanagi’s role and performance represent women’s rights and powers in today’s society.

In the Samurai era, women were not allowed to speak in public. If women spoke out, they would be executed by the Japanese government. In today’s world, women have gained more rights and powers. In academics, politics, and business, women are equally measured with men based on their capabilities. My mother used to say, “While men can focus only on one thing, women can do several things at the same time.” For example, women’s ability to manage multiple things is applied in the role of secretary. Condoleezza Rice is one of the most outstanding United States Secretaries of State in the US history.

Making Kusanagi a cyborg denies that women can perform as much as men do on the battleground, which requires physical strength. The film implies that the only way for females to become stronger than any male is to become a cyborg. In the story, only male characters and cyborgs are involved. The film examines the women’s roles and abilities in the military.

Who are the majority in the US army, males or females? Even though females are allowed to join the army, few of them are in the army compared to males. Throughout history, military has been considered as a man’s mission. Males are more adaptable to military training and go to the battlefield because it requires physical strength that females do not have. With thinner bones, narrower shoulders, and smaller muscles, females naturally possess less physical strength than males. Some women are masculine in terms of their actions, ways of talking, and personalities; however, their bodies are constructed to gain less muscle than males. Some men who talk and act femininely are still physically stronger than women.

Oshii presents women’s positions in actual society through The Ghost in the Shell. Kusanagi’s position in Section 9 represents the roles of women in society, and the female cyborg symbolizes the reality of what women can do on battlefields. If Kusanagi appears as a human like Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider, how many of you think that would be possible?