Women and Anime: Panty and Stocking-Sex Tape

Ah, the sex tape. Nowadays it seems like almost every young female star has been filmed engaging in the horizontal tango at one point or another, the video evidence of which inevitably ends up passed along the back alleyways of the internet like the rest of the world's digital contraband. While I don't doubt that there are women (and men) out there who decide to share these intimate moments as part of a larger scheme to get attention from the media, I suspect that many of these sex tapes could be considered moments of indiscretion that the individual in question probably doesn't want the world to see.

The truth (as I see it, that is) is that sex isn't shameful and having it shouldn't be seen as such, but that doesn't change the fact that being seen having sex under "unacceptable" circumstances or having had a career in a sex-related trade (like stripping or pornography) can become a social stigma, especially for women. I've heard several news stories over the years in which a woman is revealed to have had some former life as a stripper or nude model, and this fact is used as some form of judgment on her ability to perform her current career effectively. Women have been fired from teaching jobs for this sort of stuff. Pageant crowns have been taken away. Laugh if you want at beauty queens, but think for a moment about the implications of being judged, often harshly, on an aspect of your life that has absolutely zero bearing on your ability to do your job.

This episode chooses to handle the subject in an interesting way. For several minutes, Panty doesn't seem to understand that her short-lived pornographic career might cause her fans to leave en masse. This reaction is brushed aside as Panty being thickheaded, but I'm not entirely ready to accept that explanation. One of the most fundamental aspects of Panty's character (perhaps the fundamental aspect) is that she loves sex. A lot of the things she does are accomplished in order that she may facilitate her life goal of having as much sex as possible with as many people as it takes to satisfy her appetite (and that's a lot of people). Despite being told that her film debut was nothing more than a cheap porno tape, Panty refuses to see the problem with it (aside from the fact that it was a cheap tape rather than an actual film). That is, until she learns that her posh celeb lifestyle will no longer exist once people race to disassociate themselves from her as her sex scandal runs its course.

Panty has little regard for life's "rules" (a character trait which becomes important later on in the series), but learns rather quickly that, as a woman in the spotlight, the public cares an awful lot about whether she toes the line or not. People seem to love her for her fashion sense, brazen personality, and ass-kicking ability, but the fact that she has had sex once in a context that the public considers inappropriate suddenly stands to invalidate everything she's accomplished (cynical and calculated though some of it may be). What I like about this episode is that, in spite of all the trouble the Anarchy sisters go through to destroy the evidence, I never get the sense that Panty has bought into the notion that her onscreen sex romp is something to be ashamed of. As always, her primary goal is to save her own skin and keep doing the things that she wants to do, propriety be damned.

Of course, the extent of her self-centeredness turns out to be her ultimate undoing; in a moment of series foreshadowing, Panty's neglect of her sister opens the door for Stocking's special brand of retaliation. There are some compelling conclusions to be drawn from this, including ones related to the fact that so many female characters in media are portrayed as taking up needlessly adversarial roles toward one another, because there seems to be an assumption among many storytellers that women can't help being catty to one another when placed in the same vicinity (whether this series is making an informed comment about this or falling into the exact same narrative pothole is up for debate, and will probably serve as fodder for a future entry). There's also a bit of a reflection on the fact that women who choose to indulge their own ambitions are often seen as nothing but selfish, but that again is something for another time.

This episode gives us an early taste of an attitude I've decided to interpret as being sex-positive on the part of the series. Since sex and sexuality plays such a large role in several of the characters' lives (and serves as a major symbolic thematic element), I think it may be worth taking a broader look at how the topic plays out through the series as a whole. However, before that happens, I want to take a closer look at the titular characters and reflect on how their relative popularity in real-life says something about society's attitudes towards the type of people they embody.

Note: while watching this episode on DVD, I happened to pick up on a translation choice that didn't sit very well with me. During one of Panty's expletive-filled tirades, she calls an emcee a "fag" and "gay-boy" in the subtitles. I listened to the scene a couple of times to try to discern whether or not a homosexual slur was used in Japanese, and both times I believe she used the term "kono yaro" which is rude, but not "hateful" in the same sense. The original Crunchyroll translation uses similar homosexual-related slurs. Whether it was in the original Japanese or not, the fact that Funimation didn't make a better choice (you know, like "fuck head" or "fuck face" or "fucker." Fuck.) managed to put a bit of a damper on what was otherwise an episode with a good message. They really ought to know better (but judging by some of their acquisitions, clearly don't care).