Saturday, September 27, 2008

Gender Bias in Power Rangers #2: Feminine Colors

UPDATED 2/3/11
Not only bias in Power Rangers, but in Super Sentai.
I did this before but other queries and curiosities enter my mind under further study....

Out of the 32 teams in Super Sentai, there has only been 15 teams (Bioman, Changeman, Flashman, Maskman, Fiveman, Jetman, Ohranger, Carranger, Megaranger, Dekaranger, Magiranger, Boukenger, Go-onger, Shinkenger, Goseiger, and Gokaiger) that has had more than one female hero. Only 2 series had more than two heronies and those are Dekaranger and Magiranger. In the 17 Power Ranger teams, there have been only 3 teams with one female. To Clarify: Super Sentai: 15 had two girls, 19 had one and 1 team had none; Power Rangers: 13 had two girls and 3 had one.

In Super Sentai, the only colors females have so far been allowed to wear are pink, yellow, white, blue, a bit of Orange (DekaSwan), and metals (silver and gold). And when wearing blue, all of them have white or grey legs. And out of the four female blue warriors, only one was the same shade of blue as her male counterparts, all others were a light blue.

 In Gokaiger, girls have been allowed to be colors they weren't allowed before. GokaiPink and GokaiYellow got to be female versions of originally male rangers of Navy (KuwagataRaijer), Black (Go-On Black, Black Bison, Ninja Black), Red (Ginga Red, Hime Shinken Red, Magi Red, Geki Red), Gold (Zuuban), Green (Shishiranger and Green Flash), Silver (Mega Silver), White (Geki Chopper, AbareKiller, etc.) and Yellow (Various including Hurricane Yellow, Magi Yellow, Tiger Ranger, etc,). But they did not get to be Violet, but oh well. So of colors they never got to be before were: Black, Red, and Green.

And if there is two girls in a team, the only color combinations that there has been have been pink and yellow (very common), pink and white (Changeman), white and blue (Jetman), pink and blue (Magiranger) and now yellow and silver (Go-onger). Never has there been yellow and white nor yellow and blue in Super Sentai. Power Rangers is the only one to have the distinction of having a female red ranger until 2009 when a female Shinken Red was revealed in Super Sentai. Power Rangers has had two girls in a team that were yellow and white: Wild Force, but in its counterpart Gaoranger, yellow was male, so Super Sentai has never had yellow and white females in the same team. In Power Rangers, there has been blue and yellow but only in the episodes featuring the Blue Wind Ranger and Yellow Dino Ranger: "Thunder Storm" and "Once A Ranger." Also to be clear, in Power Rangers, there has yet to be female duo of the colors pink and white, white and blue. In Mystic Force and Power Rangers, there has been pink, white and blue but not just two of them.

In Super Sentai, men have been granted every color under the sun: Red, Blue, Green, Black, Yellow, White, Silver, Gold, Violet, Orange, different shades varieting those and etc.

The colors women (in Sentai) have not allowed to be yet are: Violet.