beauty in Sailor Moon

The Sailor Scouts are beautiful with long legs and small waists

Images of Beauty In Sailor Moon

If you look at the above picture of the Sailor Scouts you will see that they all look very much like Barbie. They have tiny, little waists with extraordinarily long legs. That is why when I first decided to do this project, I was certain that almost all (if not all) of the young girls (aged 12-18) that I interviewed would tell me that Sailor Moon sets up an unattainable standard of beauty, much as it is commonly believed that Barbie does (the Sailor scouts bear a (ahem!) sriking resemblance to Barbie, to put it mildly).

However, I was really surprised to find that when I asked how they saw themselves in relation to the characters in Sailor Moon, many of the girls said things like:

"Well, they are pretty, but I don't think I set my own standards against them.
They are just drawings, we must remember!"

I was really glad when I read comments like this because I think it means that these girls are really secure in their image of themselves. As one girl remarked:

"Sure, the looks on the show are way cool, but I never have any hopes or dreams of
looking like them. I'm satisfied the way I am."

Another girl said:

>to reality. I'd have to cut about ten inches in my waist, arch my back
alot, get implants and grow taller than I am. ;) It's almost like Barbie...
how if she was real she'd probably fall over and not be able to get up"

When asked how she compared her looks to those of the Sailor Scouts, one girl joked:

"much better i'm alive :)"

Does that mean that Sailor Moon is not responsible for creating an unattainable standard of beauty in young girls. Not necessarily. Many of the young women we interviewed realized that the (impossibly) beautiful bodies that are so prominent in Sailor Moon could set up an unattainable standard for young girls who are not lucky enough to have a realistic or individual sense of their own beauty or are at the stage of developing their sense of beauty and its importance in our society. One girl commented:

"yes, it does create a beauty standard of being skinny with long hair (except

for Amy). I suppose it is attainable for some girls, but you have to work

with what you've got."

And another:

"It does set sort of a standard. And there is no way that you can be as

pretty as the Sailor Scouts unless you were born that way, or are going to

have a lot of plastic surgery"

Sadly, though, there were many girls who were not satisfied with their own kind of personal beauty and did feel that they needed to live up to the (impossible) standards set up by Sailor Moon (similar to those of Barbie, Disney, Seventeen Magazine, etc...). Some of their comments were:

"I think I'm butt-ugly compared to them."

" They are much prettier than me"

"Um...I have a low opinion of my physical appearance anyway, so I'd say I'm
really ugly compared to them"

"Sailor Moon creates a standard for my own beauty. That is true, but I know
it is unattainable, because it's just not possible for one to be that
gorgeous, but I still fantasize, over how that would be like. I get my
standard of beauty from a mix of the various Sailor Scouts. I would like to
have a body like they have... particularly Haruka's. (Sailor Uranus's) I am
attracted to her more masculine figure. The girls all share an impossibly
skinny waist, and impossibly huge soulful eyes, but I like Haruka's broad
shoulders, and I am constantly wanting to have broad shoulders... and i want
to have long legs like theirs (I have very short legs) And so I go around
running, swimming, in the hopes that i may come just a little bit close to the
way they look. But I know it is futile... I was born short, stocky, and hefty,
and I can't change that.. but I still dream about it and try."

Here is a photo of some Barbies (note the similarities to the picture of the sailor scouts and the Spice Girls next to it) :

the sailor scouts resemblance to Barbie is uncanny

Does the show Sailor Moon single handedly give girls a negative view of their own appearance? I do not believe so. But in a society centred on the Barbie/Spice Girls/Disney/Sailor Moon (see above images of Barbie and the sailor scouts) type of physical beauty girls are constantly being bombarded with one ideology: the tall, long legged, skinny, buxom, big eyed girl (with a perfect complexion, no less) always gets the Ken/Handsome Prince/Darien (and the friends and the popularity, etc...). Why would any girl say "They are much prettier than me"? It is because they are using the standard of beauty that is being beaten into their unconscious everyday. Serina and the other Sailor Scouts are beautiful, but only because they fit into our society's standard of beauty and this standard is constantly being reinforced in the media. Only one standard of beauty is acceptible and widely promoted in our society, just look at the popular childrens icons pictured above. What affect does this have on the young people who are saturated with these one sided images of beauty? It makes them feel that they have to live up to this standard of beauty in order to be beautiful. But beauty is arbitrary is it not? If it was innate then standards of beauty would not have changed so much over time. Compare beauty during the renaissance and beauty now by clicking here (please DON'T visit this page if you are UNDER 18 as there is some Leonardo da Vinci style NUDITY)
Beauty then and now

Furthermore, the kind of beauty represented in Sailor Moon is the caucasian type. I have never (personally) seen a "beautiful" black or even asian woman in the show. As the show is made in Japan, the lack of asian characters is more than surprising. How does this make young black and asian girls feel? Perhaps they feel that their race is not beautiful enough to be on Sailor Moon because their bodies are not as beautiful as whites bodies. The standard of beauty created in Sailor Moon is certainly not attainable for women of other ethnicities than whites because ALL of the "beautiful" characters are white. If this isn't oppressive, I don't know what is!!! It limits the growth of young women of colour in the sense that they cannot begin to accept their own beauty before they realize that they do not have to look like the Sailor Scouts in order to be beautiful. I don't mean to imply that minority women can only identify with minority characters or that none of them will understand that Sailor Moon is just a show and is not meant to enforce a standard of beauty, just that many women may fall into the trap of believing that beauty only comes in one form.

One point that I find interesting is that many girls who answered our questions told us that Sailor Moon does not help young girls to develop image problems and related consequences (especially anorexia, etc..) because:

" Usagi/Moon is often seen pigging out"

Others said that the show promotes good eating habits. I would assert that Sailor Moon "pigging out" and/or promoting good eating habits is a contradiction just as a Barbie comic promoting a healty diet is a contradiction (as Barbie and Sailor Moon could be mistaken for twins!!). "At the same time, we acknowledge the contradictions between the narrative text in a Barbie comic, say promoting healthy diet, and the body shape of the doll." (want to know where this quote came from? Well, just click here!).

In conclusion, yes the sailor scouts are beautiful but only because Sailor Moon perpetuates its own standard of beauty along with Disney and Barbie and most of the media at large. This affects young girls in the sense that they feel that beauty is defined by the rigorous standards laid down by Sailor Moon (and company). They may learn to accept themselves for who they are but they will never feel that they are beautiful as long as we continue to define the range of beautiful women as consisting only of Sailor Moon/Barbie/Spice Girl clones because this standard of beauty is unattainable for many women. Not every woman is capable of losing enough weight to become as slim as the Sailor Scouts and for short legged women there is even less hope, as you can well imagine. Again, I want to stress the fact that I do not believe that every girl that watches Sailor Moon will regard the Sailor Scouts as beauty role models and instantly feel ugly, I simply mean that Sailor Moon sets up a trap (that beauty only comes in one form) that many girls could fall into if they are not cautious.

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