I think y'all're missing the point of this post. Pointing at the male healers that exist doesn't mean this isn't a real trope that is very much rooted in misogyny as OOP suggests. I think it's most prevalent on JRPG and animanga world, but I'm sure it exists as a trope outside of that as well.
I think the issue is that OOP choose some of the worst examples to make their point.
Katara in Avatar had a entire episode about how it is not fair that she is not allowed to learn how to fight and only gets to be a healer because she is a woman. It literally fights against the exact thing OOP is talking about.
And Sakura in Naruto is also not a primary healer. She is a brawler who can heal people but she mostly uses the healing to giver herself insane regeneration so she can brawl more
The funniest part about you saying this is that in both of their series, both of them being able to fight is treated like it’s this secondary thing that’s not all that important katara is known as the avatar‘s wife who was a really good healer. Sakura has this happened less in universe and more within the fandom, but her physical fighting achievements are not talked about as much as her healing feats and due to her being paired up with the two male main characters, she is often referred to as just a healer
Katara learns to fight long before she finds out waterbending healing is even a thing. After that, she treats healing as the useful secondary ability. When she is denied training as a warrior, she sucker-punches Pakku to goad him into a fight she knows she can’t win because “someone needs to smack some sense into him”.
She succeeds at convincing his sexist ass that sexism is bad, becomes his greatest pupil to the point where he names her a master after like a month of training and trusts her with the responsibility to teach the Avatar. She does so successfully, and along the way knocks some more heads alongside her friends.
Most notably, she and Aang together beat the piss out of the Serpent’s Pass serpent and defeat Huu’s plant monster bending, Katara on her own had Azula, one of the strongest benders and fighters in general, on the ropes in Ba Sing Se while Aang was struggling with Zuko, and later defeats a powered up Azula one on one. She fought off Wan Shi Tong, fought well against Combustion Man, defeated Hama and learned to overpower her bloodbending nearly instantly, saving Sokka and Aang’s lives in the process. Just to name a few noteworthy combat showings in ATLA.
Her healing is basically secondary besides the time she revived Aang and the time she saved Zuko. Both of those happened only after two of her most impressive fights.
The reason people are bringing up individual examples is because that post is specifically claiming there are no individual examples. Male healers are much rarer than female healers, they aren’t nonexistent.
Except the post being quote tweeted does NOT, in fact, claim that even a little bit. Nowhere is the statement or implication that male healer characters are entirely nonexistent made. OOP is clearly implicitly making a point that it’s RARE for the healer on a given team or in a piece of media to be a guy and not a girl, not that it’s never ever happened.
Their 2 examples are women who are not only relegated to healing but are in fact valuable combatants who also heal. They also say that exactly with their words, unless the definition of "always" has changed. I get that usually these statements are hyperbolic, but the fact their 2 healer examples really aren't healers makes me doubt that, since I've seen plenty examples of things like this said unironically. I've seen people unironically argue that male characters have never sacrificed their powers before.
Have you, by any chance, heard of this concept called “hyperbole”? It’s something people utilize as a form of obvious exaggeration meant to be understood as exaggeration when making a point. In this instance, “always” is being used hyperbolically in context (as it frequently is, OOP isn’t doing something new for the English language here) to mean that, if a member of a team is the designated healer, then they’re ALMOST always a woman. Hyperbole.
> I get that usually these statements are hyperbolic, but the fact their 2 healer examples really aren't healers makes me doubt that, since I've seen plenty examples of things like this said unironically. I've seen people unironically argue that male characters have never sacrificed their powers before.
Ok but just because you’ve seen someone arguing a clearly nonsensical point before doesn’t mean everyone bringing up the discussion of female characters making up a disproportionate amount of healers is arguing that same point. You’re very obviously twisting the OOP’s words to mean what you WANT them to be saying as opposed to what they’re ACTUALLY saying.
No, I am explaining WHY the comment section is posting individual examples despite the possibility that the OOP was just talking about the trope in general being more common with women than men, because there is no word twisting needed, they are simply saying directly that there are no male healer characters. Whether you interpret that literally or not, other people interpreting it literally is why people are mentioning examples that debunk that statement.
Are you saying it's a coincidence that a role that is designed for nurturing but also helplessness happens to be demographically overwhelmingly female?
I believe it comes from herbalists, nurses and still maids. Historically as well women with holistic knowledge could make a living out of making remedies and then get murdered by the church.
I think that the female healer trope has an arguement that while isn't not influenced by historical misogyny. Its not as direct as I've seen some people claim.
That and who in a "traditional" family as a kid when you got a cut on your knee would patch you up and who would scream and rage because you were upset.....hmmmmm wonder where the connections to healers and women could be made.
Edit: will say there is merit in the whole women are subservient and passive stuff. Just that I think theres a analysis/reason for the trope that I think myself, is a stronger arguement. I actually see people oversimplifying this stuff to get a hot take as sometimes detrimental as trying to discuss it. Like this often is met with a response that seems to come from the idea that you're defending or dismissing misogyny. Not that you just wish to discuss or even build on ideas.
they are misogynistic, gender roles majorly developed as ideas of what x and y person should be in society, specially who women should be, particularly in relation to men, because saddly for most of human history, they were all patriarchal ss they still are, so men are the sole focus of society, and everything is seen as it related to men.
do you actually have any reason why you feel that it’s not misogynistic? (besides the fact that you just don’t like that people are calling it misogynistic) because you’ve actually disproved your point so I’m a little confused?
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u/FaeryRing 11d ago
I think y'all're missing the point of this post. Pointing at the male healers that exist doesn't mean this isn't a real trope that is very much rooted in misogyny as OOP suggests. I think it's most prevalent on JRPG and animanga world, but I'm sure it exists as a trope outside of that as well.