Perils of the Female DBZ Web Master and Other Disasters

By Meredith "Meri" Cantoni

Update time is here again. For this current update, the task consists of scanning new images, posting new funnies, making screencaps, and capturing a bunch of movie clips. As I work my way to my e-mail inbox to do a final review of any relevant update-worthy material, I come across a message with the title "Your Site Rulz!". While supportive and repetitious e-mails like these are not anything out of the ordinary, it is the content that is revealed inside that surprises me quite a bit. The gist of it goes a little something like this "I love your site! It’s so cool and funny! I just can’t believe you’re a girl! I thought a guy made this site at first. I mean, DBZ is a guy’s show, and you’re a girl, but you made this awesome site!" [italics added]. I finish reading the e-mail, and begin to move to the next one when I pause and realize something; the author of this e-mail did not know at first that I was female. While he did eventually figure this out, I was astonished to hear that he could not figure this out immediately. In addition to that, he implied being a girl who watches DBZ is an oddity and being a woman DBZ web master is an even greater amazement to him. Let us stop for a moment and look at what is wrong with this scenario.

The sender of this e-mail was unaware, at first, of the fact that I was female. Now, under normal circumstances, it would be quite obvious to tell that I am a woman by A) reading the introduction on the main page. If "Meri" isn’t a girlie name, I don’t know what is, B) the "About Me" sub-section is there for a purpose. It should be looked at to determine who the web-mistress is in real life, and C) The entire site is dedicated to Trunks and is presented in a way that it (purposely) looks like it was made by a dreamy-eyed young female otaku because I feel it makes the web site viewing experience more down-to-earth that way. If the writer of that e-mail could not come to a correct conclusion regarding my gender by these comprehensible signs and hints, I would hate to be the one on a date with a guy who could not tell the prominent differences between male and female. The result would be quite the turn-off.

It is not the initial miscomprehension of my gender that angers me the most. It is the idea that a girl watching a "guy’s show" like Dragon Ball Z is unfathomable to him. While generally analyzing the anime, yes, it would outwardly appear to be a guy’s show. DBZ is directed towards young men and boys, and the merchandising revolving the show are all "boy’s toys". However, this does not mean that the female anime fan does not have any right to enjoy an action/adventure/martial artists series. I believe that what attracts female fans the most to DBZ are the characters, and not so much the "fight fight fight" aspect of the series. While it is interesting to watch the fighting and it gets one’s blood boiling, I feel the various characters are the ones who draw girls into the show. After all, my site is dedicated to a single character, so that’s got to count for something. But no matter what it is that attracts female viewers, they should not be discounted. I am willing to accept the fact that DBZ is in reality a "guy’s show", however, I do wish certain cerebellum impaired members of the male persuasion would take into consideration the other gender that, whether you know it or not, does watch Dragon Ball.

Now, on to the ranting. While it is hard enough being a female minority in a crowd of predominantly male viewers of an obviously male oriented anime, now the woman fan must deal with the notion of being involved in a group of mainly, you guessed it, male web masters. The idea in itself is not as bad as I am making it out to be. It is not communicating with other web masters that I have issues with. The male web masters are, for the most part, quite courteous to the web mistress. The bad part of being a female web site maintainer is the fans. When certain site viewers come to the realization that the creator of a DBZ page is female, the idea seems hallucinatory to him. After all, what does a mere woman know about DBZ that they have the gall to even attempt making a page? This is the impression that I get from some of my e-mails. Whether I am taking it the wrong way or not, I feel that the problem surrounding female web site maintainers is one that does exist in the DB community. Take a look at sites like Akire’s DBD, Videl Vault, Juunanagou’s Temple, Sarah’s Dragonball Fanfic Page, and Kitana’s Outpost. Try to tell me that these women are not worthy DBZ fans. The effort and style that they put into their sites clearly shines through and they churn out some of the most original and creative work I’ve seen in the DBZ online community in a long while. Despite all of this hard work that gets put out, however, female DBZ site maintainers are still being shortchanged. We still get e-mails from fans expressing disbelief of our talents in relation to our gender, and most of the top sites today are run by men. To me, these "top sites" that are around today do not deserve the popularity that they are receiving because in my eyes, the content in all of these sites seem to be recycled information and ideas. It is rare where I see an inch of originality or something new come from a high profile, popular site run by a man. Before I hop on the male-bashing train, I’ll stop.

The main point that I am trying to make is the women do have the capabilities and drives to produce a decent and potentially successful Dragon Ball Z related site that is just as good, if not more so, and any guy’s site. I do not intend to put down any of the male maintainers of the popular web sites. I do respect all of the work of the site maintains who deserve it. I thank and give credit to anyone, male or female, who has something important to share on the web. What I do not understand is how sites with nothing to offer to the DBZ web community suddenly become loved while original sites run by women remain hidden in the shadows. I want to take this time out now to tell any women who are reading this to not be afraid to create a site if you have an idea or something you want to share with other DBZ fans. Let’s show these guys what we’re made of! Let’s prove that female DBZ fans and female web site maintainers have something inside of us that makes us "true" Dragon Ball enthusiasts.