Warning! Some minor spoilers for volumes 5-24 of Naruto!
Well, I’ve already blabbed about Tsunade and Sakura and how they unfortunately fall into some female character pit traps so, I thought it was about time I wrote something positive about the women/girls of Naruto. I don’t know about the rest of you Naruto fans, but when I think of the girls/women of Naruto I think Sakura, Hinata, Tsunade, and maybe Ino. But as I was writing last week, a character that I really never fully appreciated popped into my head: Temari. Remember her, the tough girl from the Hidden Sand Village that tags along with Gaara? She may not be the star of the female characters of Naruto, but she might just be one of the best representations in Naruto of what a good female character in shonen (boys’) manga looks like.
Art by Masashi Kishimoto
When Temari first hits the scene just before the start of a large-scale ninja exam called the Chunin Exams, by mere virtue of the fact that the group that she’s with is intimidating, she becomes a bit scary herself, but she fades into the background in the presence of her comrades (and brothers), Gaara and Kankuro. Kankuro comes off as the tough, scary guy who you don’t want to mess with only to be swiftly upstaged by the seriously blood-chilling Gaara. Temari, on the other hand, stands by coolly, occasionally offering her brothers warnings or plays referee. While her brothers do overshadow her in the beginning, her sit-back-and-bide-her-time attitude makes her look like the most stable of the three in comparison; Kankuro picks a pointless fight with a kid and Gaara ends up looking psychopathic. Temari’s rational and cool behavior also pays testament to what readers later see are some of her major strengths. Her first appearance also shows her as the fountain of knowledge that many shonen girls seem to be and she does do a little batting of the eyes at Sasuke, but she shows a bite to her character that sets her apart from characters like Sakura.
Temari really doesn’t get a chance to show off her skills until the later parts of the Chunin Exam arc. Readers get a hint of her strength when she easily defeats her opponent in a match that decides who goes on to the finals, making her the only girl to advance, but it is not until the actual finals that Temari gets to show readers what she’s made of. When she finally does, it’s an exciting match between her and the hidden genius strategist of Naruto’s friends, Shikamaru. I loved this match-up for two reasons: 1) It’s a match between a girl and a guy. Too often do story writers of all medias restrict women to go up against women and men to go up against men. No, it doesn’t always happen, but it’s common enough that I find the former scenario more unusual. 2) By pitting Temari against such a brilliant mind, it shows off her strategical skills as well. Despite Shikamaru’s muttering about how a guy can’t lose to a girl and a guy can’t go around hitting a girl, it ends up being an interesting match between two very keen characters.
Art by Masashi Kishimoto/Translation by Mangareader.net
Art by Masashi Kishimoto
I want to stop here and bring up something up about Temari’s character: her ruthlessness. As Temari establishes herself, she comes off as tough and even ruthless toward many of the other characters. When I first read through the Chunin Exam arc of Naruto I wasn’t a fan of Temari’s because of that; however, looking at it now I actually like this aspect of her character. Temari has lived in a tough environment and, when all this is taking place in the story, she’s in the middle of a tough situation and Naruto and his friends are her enemies. (It would be strange to say the least if she had frolicked around, giggling and making friends with everyone.) Temari is certainly not the only female character that takes on an antagonist role, but she’s the only one that returns as an ally to use her powers alongside Naruto and the bunch. This allows readers to see her toughness as an asset. Yet she isn’t one of those female characters we’re seeing more of in fiction where they end up feeling like the Terminator (aka a male stereotype) in a women’s body. She’s tough, but she’s also definitely a woman.
The other wonderful thing about Temari is she is the only girl so far to have successfully protected a guy in Naruto. Thank you, Temari! Because, seriously, if these girls are supposed to be comrades shouldn’t they be able to aid a comrade?
Interestingly enough, she comes to the aid of none other than Shikamaru who can’t help but make some remark about men and women. Temari has a few words to say on that matter as seen in the picture below.
Art by Masashi Kishimoto/Translation by Mangareader.net
Honestly, after I thought about it, how could Temari not join the ranks of my favorite shonen manga female characters? She stands on her own, undefined by the male characters around her, and doesn’t fall into any female character pit traps (if you want to know about some of those, check out my posts on Tsunade and Sakura.) She’s not the star of the show, but in the limited times she has appeared, Temari has managed to make a definitive mark amongst her fellow female characters.
When I read this I thought about if I had a comment about this and here it is:
I am not sure but as far as memory serves me a wind chakra user is rare trait and Naruto and Temari are the only named and living (Asuma was killed) wind chakra users in the Naruto world.
You know, I’d forgotten about that, but I think you’re right. Thanks for pointing that out!
Thanks for writing this. I was a huge fan of Naruto before losing interest when they started airing the fillers in Part I. Feeling nostalgic recently, I started watching all the episodes again as well moving on to Shippuden. However, now I’m 6 years older, I couldn’t help noticing all the gender stereotypes being reproduced so much more acutely than I did before. It was bothering me so much that I did a Google search on feminist critiques of Naruto and was happy to have found your blog.
That event you shared between Temari and Shikamaru is fantastic and it’s a shame it was more or less of a one-off. I wish there were more varied relationships like this where female characters rescued, protected, or avenged male characters… showcasing women who I think the majority of readers of both genders can relate to.
Personally, I felt the most realistic/least sexist portrayal of a woman in both Naruto series is Elder Chiyo from the Sand. Not only was she a confident, strong-willed, and self-sufficient woman with a sense of humour (like most women I know), but she was also a rare case of an older woman who is portrayed in a positive way and not irrelevant/scary/evil like the way Disney handles older (especially unmarried) women. I also loved how Chiyo wasn’t depicted as being crippled by her ‘feminine emotional instincts’ either and did not shy away from attacking her only grandson when it was clear that his life decisions were rather unethical. She showed her protective side in her grief over her son and daughter-in-law’s death at the hands of White Fang, but stayed collected and strong in order to raise her grandson on her own. There were elements of her character that you could say veer towards female stereotypes, for example, her ultimate self-sacrificial technique. However, I thought it was treated in a beautiful way, with her having chosen of her own free will to transfer her life into Gaara and then being honoured as a hero by the Sand village. It’s also cool seeing her depicted as someone who developed a technique to (initially) protect her loved ones as opposed to devoting her efforts to making herself appear younger/thinner/prettier (priorities—yay!).
In fact, that entire story arc was my favourite, but having watched a few more episodes since then, it feels like Naruto Shippuden is going back down hill both in terms of plausible/positive gender portrayals and entertainment value.
I’m glad you enjoyed the post! You bring a really good character to the table, too! Elder Chiyo is an excellent example of a strong female character for all the reasons you said. Although Chiyo isn’t a main character, I’m glad to see a substantial female character who isn’t young and, of course, beautiful for once nor an adult woman hung up on youth and beauty like Tsunade. I would love to do a piece on her soon so keep an eye out for it! (Also, if you haven’t read it already, you might be interested on my post on Tsunade.)
I a hunch, it could be possible that Kishimoto based Chio on someone he knows, maybe his own grandmother.
Miyazaki himself is known for basing his female characters on girls, and women he know from real life.
Thanks for writing this. I’ve been watching Naruto for the first time and I could not help noticing all the sexism. Temari stood out to me as a favorite character for some reason. I had not yet learned she becomes an ally, but this just solidifies it for me. I really wanted to like Sakura, and even heard she gets better, but after her sobbing after Sasuke left, I was like, “Really? Who wrote this?” The guy abuses her and she wants more of it. I’m on season three now, and hope it gets better when it comes to female character portrayal.
Temari was really cool in Naruto Part 1, but she never got anything to do after the timeskip. Although to be fair after the timeskip Sakura gets a cool battle with Sasori, and Ino (along with Choji) get a good battle with Asuka in the War. So things improved.
Wonderful post! Naruto follows in the footsteps of a long line of Shonen Jump works which introduce women as tag-along-characters, with only a few who stand out, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by happy chance. Whichever Temari was, I was really glad somebody else noticed her as well.
While I like Naruto, I am a much bigger fan of Gintama. Not sure if you followed it, but I urge you to give it a try, if for no other reason then from a gender studies perspective. Gintama, being first and foremost a gag-manga, plays very consciously with a lot of tropes, including those concerned with the portrayal of women. In my opinion, it does this very well despite falling into a few traps, and is, to date, the only piece of literature where no character annoys or bores me. Every single one, including all the women – and there are quite a few – have their own paths, inner demons to deal with, and independence from the main storyline. (Having said that, there is only barely a main storyline… but as I said, it is first and foremost a gag-manga).
Sorry for going on about a totally different piece of art! Once again, wonderful post!