How Kirishima Depicts Masculinity | My Hero Academia

despite being commonly associated with confidence and stoicism masculinity is a rather delicate subject and for good reason a lot of productive conversations have been had about how harmful societal expectations have been on every gender for women they face being undermined branded inferior and must be shielded at all costs whereas men have the pressure of not showing any compassion or weakness to anything that would warrant it this causes masculinity to be associated with aggression hyper-competitiveness violence and lack of emotion as well as telling people if you do not have these things you are not a real man it's obvious by today's standards how incredibly damaging this can be and there's been a lot of examination about how these expectations have been cemented in film and television you could say these power fantasies give people an ideal to aspire to but more realistically they're an unfair expectation to fall short of or even turn out to not be that great to begin with and if you want that masculine power fantasy hypercharged look no further than the wonderful and barely legal world of anime where it doesn't matter if you're 16 or 60 you are built like you are trying to smuggle bowling balls in your shoulders but as time goes on this naturally evolves and perceptions change allowing for more complex and emotional characterization along with traits and designs less associated with that 80s manly men power fantasy but with shonen anime still primarily aimed at a certain demographic it can't break away from it completely although one anime that succeeds in staying within that fun power fantasy comfort zone while allowing for more emotional resonance and relatability with its characters is my hero academia while it's certainly a shonen with all the shouting punches and characters dressed like dominatrixes the main strength of the show has always been its masterful pulling on your heartstrings and willingness to show the vulnerability of its characters like its timid wide-eyed protagonist izuku midoriya we constantly see him afraid uncertain and emotionally overwhelmed something that the more toxic aspects of masculinity rarely allow if at all but i'm not here to talk about him i'm here to talk about a character in the show who incorporates a straightforward viewpoint of masculinity into his very being and could easily fall back into the type of character we have and frankly should leave behind but he's able to break away from the harmful messages that it can bring and serves as a great example of how masculinity can highlight a person's strengths and their shortcomings that character is none other than everybody's favorite red hot rock bod metapod eduro kirishima welcome to curmudgeon media i'm ed and i want to talk with you about how kirishima depicts masculinity despite him not being one of the main protagonists kiroshima has carved out a name for himself as one of the most likable and popular supporting characters of hero academia appearing in a majority of the show's popularity polls across japan and the us and after watching the show it's easy to see why because he's a likable encouraging happy little dinosaur boy he says the word manly once every five minutes and will apply it to every situation like it's his word of the day manly manly friendly mad manly but he does it with this earnestness and positivity that stops it from being overbearing and makes it pretty adorable he's basically an embodiment of a traditional viewpoint of a man but in ways that aren't toxic or with a desperation to put others down he's a firm believer in strength discipline and chivalry which aren't exclusively masculine but are at least associated with that old-fashioned view of what masculinity is but what's interesting about kirishima is that while he's evaded the drawbacks of masculinity in his character the shortcomings of that mindset are still explored through his actions or more specifically his superpower in my hero academia basically everyone on the planet has a superpower from birth referred to in this world as a quirk and these can range from incredibly powerful to kind of useless to even detrimental to the wielder one thing that's interesting with the show's characterization is seeing how having a certain quirk from birth would naturally impact your personality for example if you have a sound based quirk you're more likely to have an appreciation for music if your quirk requires a strong understanding of molecular structure to use you're probably a model student kirishima's quirk is hardening allowing him to strengthen his skin to become a rock-like substance with this he can turn himself into a human battering ram and becomes useful in both offensive and defensive situations it's a pretty cool power all things considered and i wouldn't say no to it it'd certainly make skydiving very interesting manly but in a neat little bit of symbolism the main flaw with kiroshima's quirk is also the flaw with his overly masculine ideals it's incredibly simplistic keep in mind this is a world where someone can control every fiber of their clothes or fight you with their shadow there are a lot of tactical uses for these abilities as well as many ways to reflect the character of the user part of the fun of the show is seeing how everyone uses their quirk in unique interesting ways but even in comparison to the more power-based quirks kirishima's hardening is a one-trick pony with this it's easy to see why hiroshima is so fond of the traditionalist masculine mindset because it's a great attitude to get the most out of his quirk but while it's interesting to see it as a metaphor for his personality it could even be a representation of masculinity as a whole it's simple straightforward and under the right circumstances can be very useful but it's predictable it's unvarying and once it's broken there's not much else you can do and it's this problem that factors into kirishima's growth as a character and as a superhero because of his bluntness and love of a fair fight his instinct is to always charge into attack but it's easy for others to outmaneuver him or wear him down it's what caused him and another strength-based quirk user to lose against cementos as well as get him instantly knocked out during the joint training in the same sense there's only so far his views and indeed that traditionalist view of masculinity can go before it's overpowered by more complex enemies and it's interesting to see him address this as he acknowledges there isn't too much he can do to make his quirk more versatile his quirk lacked what masculinity lacked evolution and he knows this in fact the way he overcomes this is by realizing that his power isn't meant to be something that charges for offense but more defensively with an emphasis on wearing the enemy down while shielding others from danger and i think an important message here is the idea that while you should aim to exceed expectations and limits there's only so much you can do without thinking laterally and in some cases altering the expectations you've put on yourself but most importantly that there is nothing inherently wrong with you your abilities will be different from your peers but if used well they can be utilized in a way only you can use them in fact it's comparing him to other characters that kirishima's strengths show kirishima's main friend in the show is katsuki bakugo who to describe in one word is come fight me what did you call me shut your mouth intense bakugou has a majority of the traits you would worry a manly man-obsessed character like hiroshima would have but they seem to be given to bakugou instead making him incredibly threatening unempathetic violent and will make sure you know that or die trying his single goal is to become the indisputable strongest hero which he does with his sheer relentlessness and by belittling everyone below him and like anyone trying to boost their own ego it's incredibly goddamn fragile so much so that he breaks down and even has panic attacks when his high view of himself is cracked in comparison to him kiroshima is able to display more of the positive traits of an overly masculine character he's much more uplifting and isn't constantly trying to inflate his own ego it would be easy for him to serve a role as bakugo's lackey as they're more often than not paid for combat encounters but while he certainly looks up to him he's not oblivious to his less heroic tendencies kirishima can draw a line between acknowledging when bakugo's energy would be useful but it doesn't mean he condones his more violent and aggressive tendencies he doesn't see aggression as a necessary part of being powerful or being a man in fact he's one of the few people that's able to call him out when he does lose his temper which since he's one of the small amount of people who isn't trampled on or intimidated by bakugou it ironically makes him one of the few people bakugou actually respects his relationship with bakugou is the most extreme example but even other negative traits like sexual perversion are shown to be absent from him purely on the basis that they're highlighted in other characters my point is that kiroshima is able to stand out as a more positive masculine ideal as he's surrounded by the negative traits of it but isn't drawn in by it after all if you're not sure of yourself you'd be more susceptible to these insecure behaviors and may feel like you have to emulate them as if the good and the bad are inseparable in both his characterization and his ability kirishima's best strength and ideally the best strength of masculinity emerges incorruptability this is something that could very easily delve into stoicism or lack of feeling but like most characters in the show kiroshima is allowed to feel insecure inferior and even afraid but likewise he's not scared to be who he is in spite of judgment he's not desperate to impress other people nor is he really trying to make improvements for any other reason than because he wants to which is how self-improvement should be and as someone who's typically very anxious about how others perceive me i think there's a healthy message in that that despite expectations you're capable of setting your own boundaries without having to devolve yourself to fit in in fact it's typically sticking to your virtues that will make people actually respect you more and what's equally important to what those virtues are is where they come from people aren't just born with these problematic traits the most harmful aspects of masculinity are learned behaviors on how people tell us to act and what standards to abide by as it's only natural we look at action stars and celebrities and aim to emulate them the responsibility is also on them to emit behaviors that shouldn't be emulated doing so could be a strong step to prevent generations from carrying on the more questionable behaviors so to explore that i'd like to look at how hiroshima and bakugou developed their outlooks and motivations and how it led to them being who they are let's start with the shouty one both bakugou and the protagonist izuku look up to the same person the number one hero almight who on the surface is everything you want in a superhero powerful heart of gold always smiling and seemingly invincible framing himself as a symbol of peace for society but looking up to him comes with two problems the first is that all might has set such a ridiculously high standard not just for bakugou and izuku but for every other hero this results in many falling short and trying to follow him causing them to fall down a rabbit hole of resentment and rage what idolizing this perfect standard does for buckago is it creates a world view where the defining factor of somebody's worth is their strength and their capability to win and believing himself to be the undisputed champion of the world pushes everyone and anyone beneath him the main issue with this is not just that he's overvaluing a single trait like power above everything else but that he set the bar so high for himself that any single event that causes him to fall short of this no matter how insignificant causes him to lash out there's a lot of talk about the fragility of this kind of overconfident masculinity but when you're under so much pressure to reach a standard by either yourself or others resorting to pushing others down seems like the easier option than lowering the bar the second problem being that not even almight himself can maintain his own standard we learn in episode two that he suffered a critical injury that has been slowly eating away at his seemingly limitless power and how in his weakened state he's desperate to hide the condition and his fear from the world since they've now become so dependent on him being fearless and invincible i'm not trying to imply that all might is a negative masculine ideal or even a bad role model i think that's too simple a label to put on his character and what he represents people can see him more for the hope he inspires and as a person he's shown to be an emotionally available father figure to isuku but there are certainly some parallels to him and that overly perfect masculine ideal that we should move away from you must always succeed and you must never show weakness the way the world of hero academia views him is the same as one would view an invincible action hero and all the problems that come with it and given how he's in the publics and media's eye virtually non-stop people are bound to interpret him differently to how and who he is having someone carry that colossal responsibility with little help or even a chance to show the smallest of cracks in his armor is an incredibly unhealthy expectation and whether he's able to uphold his own values or not it doesn't change that those trying to catch up to him inevitably break some part of themselves under the pressure and the worst of them can come out but kirishima is different his role models are less about perfection and more about strengthening your mindset but to really explain why i need to go into his background so minor spoilers for season 4 of my here academia within the vast history of fiction there have been plot twists that shook the world rose bird was the sled bruce willis was a ghost and my hero academia is no different with the reveal that kirishima does not have red hair hiroshima initially hated his quirk as it was nowhere near as useful as it currently is as well as the fact it wasn't very flashy in comparison to others which results in him feeling inadequate and lacking confidence in his aspirations to apply for the hero course then one day he sees two of his classmates are being threatened by a mysterious giant and this is the moment that kirishima freezes and does nothing simply static with fear in the background until mina one of his future classmates jumps in and saves them instead this event only eats away more at kiroshima as he dwells on how easily scared and pathetic he really is only then does he come across an interview from a retired hero crimson riot where after his first question he admits how afraid he is of his duty as a hero but what scares him more is if he does nothing others will get hurt and he will live in regret of what he didn't do crimson riot challenges the idea that to be a hero or indeed a man you must have no fear whatsoever likely based on the facade that all might and other heroes project onto their society instead he reveals his vulnerability and how addressing it has made him stronger and there is something so powerful about this idea this man being one of the roughest characters we've seen in the show publicly admitting he's afraid but carrying on anyway which is a really positive message one that's not limited to men but can be applied to anyone but when he talks about what's chivalry what masculinity means to him it's to live a life without regret it's not an impossible goal it's not something that will destroy you and embodying it would make you stronger regardless of who you are or what you do this makes it an ideal aim for people to work towards and doing so would be a good method of preventing resentment from festering in you which in turn can eliminate the behaviors we see in negative depictions of masculinity and the fact that crimson riot is able to admit his fears so openly is important as people looking up to him can see he's not above the emotions that they are likely feeling themselves and kirashima is an example of this he's capable of showing emotion as much as anyone else in the show and by doing so he's better at stopping his insecurities from festering and uses them to become better by doing this and dying his hair red he solidifies his resolve to become a hero who can protect my hero academia is filled with characters like this each dealing with their inferiorities and striving to overcome them so why focus on kirishima there are characters like izuku who would make great case studies for how depictions of masculinity are changing especially given how he's likely developed his core traits from being solely raised by his mother his insecurities are shown from the very beginning and throughout most of the show and how he carries on in spite of them is as endearing as anything else but there is one main reason i wanted to focus on kirishima because i think hiroshima is important everyone in the show embodies this mindset in some form with the goal to be a better hero but kirishima is the only one who ties his values to his identity as a man as well as a hero in doing so he isn't just saying to people this is how a hero should act but how people who view themselves as masculine should act as well there will always be characters in media that are viewed as the apex of masculinity either in their own world or in ours or they'll embody that more traditional ideal of what a man should be which could be an interesting characterization or harmful depending on how it's handled but what giving those characters such positive traits does is that even if you tie your identity that tightly to your masculinity it is not an excuse for unjust behavior it doesn't let people use boys'll be boys as an excuse because even the manliest characters don't act like that everything i've mentioned about kirishima his positivity incorruptibility honesty emotion acknowledgement of his limitations and desire to improve himself are all great attributes of a character and in an ideal world these would be the things that come to mind when someone asks what masculinity means there is a lot of negativity around masculinity and most of it is warranted you can be violent and develop tendencies that could make you a douche at best and an immoral narcissist at worst and that's why it's so vital not just for boys but everyone to take steps to prevent themselves becoming that what kirishima is is a step in the right direction and that's why we love him thanks for watching i've got a lot more my hero academia content planned so if you like my hero academia be sure to subscribe you can also find us on social media and join our discord where we can talk about all things my hero academia or other shows we cover like infinity train and the owl house and with that i'll see you next time you

Channel: Curmudgeon Media

Views: 582,639

Keywords: my hero academia, my hero academia season 5, my heroe academia, my hero academia opening, kirishima, boku no hero academia, my hero academia manga, my hero academia explained, my hero academia chapter 321, deku my hero academia, my hero academia anime, my hero academia deku, my hero academia season 1, my hero academia heroes, my hero academia kirishima, kirishima mha, kirishima my hero academia, mha kirishima, curmudgeon media

Id: OCmOkLqDouU

Length: 17min 36sec (1056 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 11 2021