Miraculous Ladybug: Representation of Feminism and Masculinity

Joanne Sequeira

TYBA

https://en.unifrance.org/news/16230/from-doodle-to-the-silver-screen-the-miraculous-journey-of-a-ladybug

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir or Miraculous Ladybug, as it is more popularly known, is a French cartoon that aired in 2015 and is still running. The show is set in Paris and follows the lives of Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste as they navigate between their lives as ordinary teenagers and public heroes: Ladybug and Chat Noir. The creator, Thomas Astruc, intended the show for a young adult audience. But the show did not catch on until it was redesigned as the child friendly cartoon it is today. Older teens and adults are still drawn to these shows because of the satisfaction derived from their content thanks to strong plots, realistic characters, and a little mature humour thrown in.  Over the years social media has become flooded with Miraculous fans from YouTube to Reddit. Both young people and adults are creating edits, writing fanfiction, cosplaying, and making predictions about what will happen in the upcoming episode. In other words, it has a fandom like any other pop culture artefact would.

According to Stuart Hall's Representation Theory, there is no true representation of people in texts; only different ways in which they can be represented. Media uses stereotypes to represent certain groups of people. These stereotypes are usually negative when it comes to portraying minority groups. Negative stereotypes such as ‘women are weak’ go on to influence the mentality of the public, further legitimising certain beliefs like ‘women cannot handle certain jobs’. But the media can also create anti-stereotypes to counter negative content. The creators of these anti-stereotypes see their content as the “true meaning” of the represented group. Hall maintains that there will always be a gap between true meaning and represented content but this gap is integral to the formation of new discourses. Modern French cartoons are an excellent example of Hall’s anti-stereotypes as it subverts gender norms. Keeping Hall’s theory in mind, we take a feminist perspective on the representation in Miraculous Ladybug. Feminism is a perspective that recognises and opposes patriarchy and argues for equality of the sexes. With respect to media representation, this would be the breakdown of gender role stereotypes and equal distribution of power between male and female characters.

Marinette/Ladybug is arguably one of the best feminist representations of female characters. She revolts against the typical stereotypes in many ways. First, Ladybug is the leader of the superhero squad which is a role usually reserved for the male protagonist. As Ladybug, she is a realist and makes rational decisions for the greater good despite its emotional cost. On the other hand, women protagonists in pop culture usually tend to make more emotionally driven decisions. But this does not mean that the character is written as a gender swapped male protagonist because as Marinette, she engages in a lot of typically feminine habits like fashion and baking. Her personality embodies the perception of women as kind and selfless, without falling into the pitfall stereotypes of women as submissive or obedient. Marinette proves that both traditional feminine and masculine traits are important and it is not necessary to desert one identity for another. Women are not perfect nor do they need to be. Marinette is also not your typical good-girl protagonist because she can be petty, mean and completely unreasonable at times, especially when someone tries to flirt with Adrien. The show takes the stereotype of the jealous girl with a crush and acknowledges that it happens in real life but also denies it the grounds for villainising a woman because of it. When Marinette realises that it's wrong for her to sabotage Kagami’s attempts to confess her feelings for Adrien, she apologises and helps Kagami instead. 

Race is an important factor in feminism because then the fight for equality is fought on two fronts. Marinette’s Chinese mother counters the pop culture stereotype of an Asian mother in a white country. She is not a tiger mom that forces her daughter into academic pursuits. Nor is she sexualized to play the exotic wife of a bland white man. She portrays her ethnicity in a personal but adamant manner evident in the way she dresses and values she prioritises, like punctuality. Marinette’s portrayal as a mixed-race child is also interesting. Her inability to speak any Chinese and lack of Asian cultural traits also sparked the debate whether Marinette is a representation of second-generation immigrants and mixed-race children alienated from their cultural roots, or if her whitewashed image was crafted to appeal to a western audience. Since she grew up in France, Marinette obviously had to be more assimilated into French culture than her mother was. Many mixed-race fans of the show have come out in support for the writers and the show claiming the expectation that biracial people should look more like their non-white side than white side is unfair and invalidates their identity. About half the side supporting characters on the show are mixed-race and foreign identities that can be found in France. These include but is not limited to: Marinette’s best friend, Alya Césaire who is Créole-French; her boyfriend Nino Lahiffe who is from Morocco; Manon Chamack who is half European and half African and Alix Kubdel has origins in the Berber region of Africa. Like Marinette, Alix is also relatively more white-passing than the rest of her family.

Still, it is Adrien who is the most interesting character in the show for his blatant contrast to typical masculinity. Early studies of masculinity refer to the sex role paradigm of the 1970s and onward that demonstrate that the nature of masculinity is not inherent but socially constructed. The sex role paradigm created the belief that being a man or a woman meant enacting a set of roles or behaviours determined by society on the basis of one’s sex (Connell, 2022). These sex roles are internalized through social learning from not just family and culture but also media content. According to sex-role stereotypes, males should be in charge; attaining and maintaining this position in relationships with other people is frequently seen as a sign of success.

Throughout the series, Chat Noir tends to follow Ladybug’s lead. In most battles he plays the support role to her more skilled and offensive battle tactics thereby acknowledging her superiority in combat. Even in the general group dynamic, Chat Noir is the heart of the group while Ladybug is the brain. Although both roles are important, emotional support is usually provided by the female characters in most pop culture series. This could be an extension of caregiving being viewed as an inherently female trait. Chat Noir is also emotional and not afraid to talk about his vulnerabilities, while men are generally expected to stay silent about their emotions and struggles. The creators have openly admitted that Chat Noir’s character was inspired by a gender swapped Catwoman (from Batman) albeit less sexual on account of it being a children’s cartoon. Chat’s most typical masculine trait is his confident flirty personality as he pursues Ladybug despite her lack of romantic interest in him. Even as Adrien, he is extremely submissive to the will of his father no matter how unreasonable, and despite being a teenage boy, he does not rebel. Since his father owns a fashion agency, Adrien works as a model. A male model is unheard of in some societies, but in the French context, is not very revolutionary. Still, he is objectified for his beauty rather than his musculature which is how male bodies are typically objectified.

Some fans have raised the question of whether it is feminism or misandry to have the male protagonist become submissive to the female. Their argument comes from the desire to overthrow the current system that uses gender as a power tool and establish a more egalitarian one. However, this would not be so much of a debate if the genders were swapped. Mass media today is filled with shows that have male protagonists while the female characters essentially just exist. Take the example of the anime: Naruto; despite being the main character Sakura receives an immense amount of hate for being practically redundant. But the creators are rarely critiqued for being unable to write a female character; neither is the show considered misogynistic. This shows the double standards in assessing media content with respect to gender theory. Patriarchy is seen as a norm in the subtlest ways and there is an immense need to change this. It is exactly in this aspect that the show Miraculous Ladybug has excelled. These simple yet progressive steps towards better representation and equal portrayals of gender will go a long way in shaping the perspectives of its viewers to create an audience that is less rigid in its thinking processes, eventually paving the way for other shows to do the same. 

References

Connell, R. (2022, February 25). Playing with fire: The sociology of masculinities. Playing with Fire: The Sociology of Masculinities. Retrieved September 22, 2022, from https://globaldialogue.isa-sociology.org/articles/playing-with-fire-the-sociology-of-masculinities  

Gonner, R. (2017, December 3). Cat Noir: The feminist hero we need. "Cat noir: The feminist hero we need" by Rebecca Gonner. Retrieved September 22, 2022, from http://animationfixation.net/2017/12/03/cat-noir-the-feminist-hero-we-need-by-rebecca-gonner/  

Hall, S. (2006). Representation & the Media: Featuring Stuart Hall. ChallengingMedia. YouTube. Retrieved September 22, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTzMsPqssOY.  

Stiles, G. (2019, June 12). Stuart Hall – Representation theory. Media Studies @ Guilsborough Academy. Retrieved September 22, 2022, from https://guilsboroughschoolmedia.wordpress.com/2019/06/12/stuart-hall-representation-theory/