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Lorelei Hyodo

English 123

Orta

9 March 2020

Walk a Mile in My Shoes

We as individuals have all gone through personal growth, struggles and persevered

challenges unique to ourselves; however, this makes it harder to step back and see things through

someone else’s eyes. More specifically, the other gender. People spend their life going through

changes and triumphs all through one body, yet we have not thought about the challenges being a

different gender might bring. Being a woman or a man changes the way society treats you, the

expectations set, and even what kind of career you “should” be in. As I read ​Shortcomings b​ y

Adrian Tomine, which was based around the early 2000’s in Berkeley and Oakland, I did not

think too much about how or why I perceived scenes the way I did. The article for ​Feminist

Literary Criticism ​by Linda Napikoski made me step back and question the way I saw the whole

story. Napikoski poses the statement, “ one’s own gender influences how one reads and

interprets a text, and which characters and how the reader identifies depending on the reader’s

gender”. Thinking this over had me realize that my experience reading ​Shortcomings ​could be

totally different than a male’s reading.

There are two sides to every relationship; moreover, communication is key, but the way

individuals will interpret a conversation can differ. The first scene that I wanted to analyze starts

on page 28 panel 1, showing Miko approaching Ben asking to talk to him. In this scene we see

them get into an argument over Miko finding some porn in Ben’s desk but the issue Miko has is
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that all the girls featured are white, while she is Japanese. For a number of reason’s this scene

stood out to me, it is awkward, it gets tense and we see yet another argument between Miko and

Ben, furthering the conflict growing between the two. Women have so many standards and

expectations of them to look a certain way and for her to see this porn that she found would

make me feel uncomfortable about myself if I were her. Porn I think is like a fantasy expectation,

and yet another way women can compare themselves to something so unrealistic. Their fight

goes on and Ben yells, “You always assume the worst about me” (Page 30 panel 6). Of course,

for me I am still hung up about the fact that so nonchalant about Miko’s question, yet if I were

male maybe I would read this scene differently. Maybe Miko is coming down too hard on him

for something that does not even affect their relationship, he did say the dvd’s were old and he

would throw them away. The whole interaction could have been just an overreaction and Ben felt

criticized for something he was willing to change.

Women have arguably been made out to be for the male gaze, an object of sexual value.

It helps reinforce the standard that women must meet in order to be considered “valuable” to

society. On page 69 panel 3 and 4 we see Sasha come to meet Ben as a surprise, and Ben

immediately begins to strip her clothes and kiss her all over. We see in the images however she’s

more hesitant to his advancements. Being a female and reading this there’s certain emotions I

pick up, and for me it is easy to put myself in her spot. I could feel the tension when she asks to

go to lunch and Ben has the “Oh… Yeah. Sorry about that”( pg 69 panel 8) response;

meanwhile, he’s already unbuttoned her blouse and she’s standing half shirtless. Maybe the

author wrote the women in such a way to make a statement, but literature should challenge the

cliche way women have been depicted.

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Eventually, things do not work out between Sasha and Ben. On page 71 panel 5 we see

the shift in their relationship, Sasha is leading the conversation to break things off. This talk that

the two characters have is interesting in the way its form and context is created. We have Sasha

the static character, a woman who we have seen mostly depicted as Ben’s exciting new girl, now

telling Ben she is no longer interested in him. To have the woman lead the conversation this way

and put her feelings first resonated with me as I read. We see this again in chapter three, page 99

panel 3, Miko addressing Ben the situation about their relationship. In both situations Ben is

quick to get agitated and gets on with his typical accusatory behavior which has been typical for

his dynamic character style, but I think the power behind having these two women break things

off stood out. However, seeing a different perspective changed the way I read both

conversations. This is coming from Ben’s perspective, and having these women that he cared

about come to him and break things off could come as a shock. He’s already struggling in his

career and now both women he emotionally and physically invested himself into, have no

interest in him.

Despite the fact that anyone could read ​Shortcomings, d​ oes not mean that we will share

the same thoughts and feelings about the content. Coming from my female, Asian American

perspective, I will read scenes from the book and react in a way that a male reading the same

content would not. The environment we grow up in and the way society projects what is

“normal” through media, will cause men and women to have different experiences throughout

life. Literature has shown how this divide can come about when you compare the same content

from two separate genders; moreover, will literature ever create an equal experience between

men and women?

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Works Cited

Napikoski, Linda. “What Is Feminist Literary Criticism?” Thoughtco., Dotdash, 30 Jan.

2019, ​www.thoughtco.com/feminist-literary-criticism-3528960​.

Tomine, Adrian. Shortcomings. Drawn & Quarterly, 2007.