Is the Shnobis' world patriarchal or is Kishimoto's way of writing "sexist"?

After reading some comments and after some personal observations, that's a question I'm asking myself. Ok, women are members of shinobis' team, they participate to missions, they can fight side to side with men, but, to me it sounded a bit strange when Kushina stated that she would become the "first woman to become Hokage".

Tsunade is the Hokage of the 5th generation, so is the Mizukage.

That's my interpretation: the fact that those women access only now to these title shows somehow that the Shinobis' world is changing.
Either Mito and Kushina Uzumaki or Hiruzen Sarutobi's wife (sorry I forgot her name) were shown as strong women and although Kushina wanted to become the first woman Hokage, her husband became Hokage.

I noticed as well that both Godaime, Tsunade and the Mizukage are not married. So would it be a problem to have a married woman as Kage considering the fact that in case of pregnancy for instance or during the giving birth time, she won't be able to perform her duty?

Some think that Kishi tends sometimes to forget about women or to have a sexist way of writing things . Is that really so or is it a way Kishi found to describe a patriarchal society which is changing?

Please, feel free to share your opinions about that issue.

Tsunade isn't married because Dan is dead and that's the only reason. Mei is somewhat still looking but never has the idea of pregnancy been hinted as a reason for her (or anyone else for that matter) to not be a Kage.

The fact that they're seemingly the first ones (even though we don't know every Kage for any village except Konoha) means very little as there's not much history known. It also means very little considering that the main villages haven't even existed for 100 years (and we know even less about the non-main villages or the Land of Iron). Clans on the other hand have existed for much longer and no one knows how the leadership structures were for any of them.

I sometimes think people put their own spin on things to make things to be what they aren't (ala the "Hyuugas must marry their own which means that Naruto will have problems" despite the fact that exists nowhere in the manga or even the anime which likes to make up stuff).

^Thanks for your answer! I just don't like when one criticizes Kishi saying he has a "sexist" way of writing. Everybody is free to have his/her opinion about it though. That's why I asked myself about the condition of women in this manga and made such observations.

If I was taking things for granted, then I would not have put a question as title for this thread but a statement.

And I'm glad that you were around to enlighten my inexcusable ignorance or to calm down my imagination.

Honestly it's hard to say, as Yamasaki Akaiko has said, there isn't enough known history. Women's issues (besides the women aren't weak/Women are strong trope) aren't really brought up in Naruto. At least not seriously. For example Mei's hang-up on being a grown unmarried woman-- while reflects issues of exceptions of women in real life-- is treated in a lighthearted way.

Kushina saying she wants to become the first female Hokage is basically the equivalent of a girl today aspiring to become the first female President of the United States. Women have been allowed to participate in American government for a while now, but there's still a lot of pride of being the 'first'. Especially in the face of gender stereotypes that women are inherently less fit to lead than men (this stereotype exists in both western world and the eastern one). During Kushina's youth, there were women who participated in the leaf government, for example Koharu Utatane, a long time member of the council and the Third's former teammate. Kishi hasn't gone out his way to portray the old shinobi world as patriarchal, since again, women's issues aren't exactly a theme in this manga. And since this is a shonen manga aimed at a predominantly male audience, it doesn't really need to be.

Kishi is better at writing men. He himself has admitted this. And he obviously prefers and is more comfortable with writing about them. That's why we don't see that many strongly developed female characters. Yeah they exist, but its a handful of them. I mean, in an interview he admitted to forgetting about Sakura, who's supposed to be a main character. As a main character, she's supposed to be as developed as Naruto and Sasuke, but her development is sadly on the level of a supporting main character. And its not like there weren't opportunities for him to build up her character, he just chose to focus elsewhere.

While I don't think Kishi's a bad writer, I do think he can be a bit sexist sometimes, but obviously not maliciously so. Remember the time he basically summed up Kurenai's role in life as 'give up your dreams of being a ninja and do what a woman's supposed to do- stay in the kitchen and be a mother' through her father back when she was a teen? I can criticize one aspect of Kishi's writing while still enjoying his story overall.

Oh yeah, I remember the way overblown line from Kurenai's father. That's not what he said, but that's definitely how it ended up being "interpreted" by many people.

He only said that he wanted her to live long enough to give him a grandchild, which he also pointed out is sometimes hard for ninjas to do. It wasn't any different than the fact that many parents tell their kids "I want a grandchild" some day. I still think people made a bigger deal out of it than necessary because we all know that Kurenai being pregnant was a big factor in Part 2 (and the main reason why she hasn't fought at all since the Kakashi/Asuma/Kurenai vs. Itachi/Kisame fight). If Kishimoto had the parent of any other shinobi we know other than Asuma say it, then the whole "fulfilling of someone's dream" aspect wouldn't have applied. Additionally, I can't see Asuma complaining about not being able to fight (Asuma, while not as bad as Shikamaru, is a "lazy"-type while Kurenai is anything but as shown by how Asuma trained Team 10 versus how she trained Team 8 in their introductions--even the fact that Team 10 is usually found eating while Team 8 is found training or about to do it). I could see Kurenai doing what she did.

He definitely writes "males" better but I never saw a problem with that considering I know that whenever I wrote stories I always wrote "females" better (and I'm female).

I also think his line about Sakura was said as a tongue-in-cheek thing because it's not possible she has been "forgotten" considering all the things she's done in the war so far (and the role she's clearly going to have later on).

Thank you Aelita to clear up things! Now I have a better understanding of what you meant in another thread.

I was just trying to support Kishi, that's why I thought about this issue in the Shinobis' world.

But regarding Sakura, I was quite impressed by her at the beginning of part 2 with her destructive fist and I liked how she fought against Sasori. Then the manga focused more on Sakura's medical skills.

As far as Mei is concerned, I would have liked to see more of her abilities too... And to see Tenten revenging  Neji's death, for instance by paper bombing Madara or Juubito would be quite cool as well.

Still, I think that's not easy for Kishi to deal with so many interesting characters and because he is himself a man, he might be sometimes a bit clumsy regarding women development in his manga. That's my opinion though.

The overall problem? Naruto's publisher(Shueisha) has a history of treating female characters as 'weak/useless'.

Graeystone wrote:The overall problem? Naruto's publisher(Shueisha) has a history of treating female characters as 'weak/useless'.

ya, but kishi makes it hard on them counting he makes hinata seem pritty strong.