Unlearning misogyny to truly appreciate the women and girls of Kingdom Hearts
Kairi, Larxene, and the rest of Kingdom Hearts' female characters were too often the butt of jokes in the 2000s
Analysis
Unlearning misogyny to truly appreciate the women and girls of Kingdom Hearts
Kairi, Larxene, and the rest of Kingdom Hearts' female characters were too often the butt of jokes in the 2000s
6 min read
I always joke about how having unfettered access to the Internet altered my brain chemistry, but when I reflect on my childhood, there’s a clear truth: how I perceived and internalized the world around me was changed by countless online voices. When I fell in love with the Kingdom Hearts series in 2009 and delved into miscellaneous forums and fanfiction sites to feed my insatiable obsession, I soaked up all the fandom jokes and theories like a sponge.
That came with a few issues.
Alongside those little fandom jokes was a trove of thinly veiled misogyny for the female characters of Kingdom Hearts. Borne from a clear disdain for how they were represented in the series itself, no one was safe from incessant mischaracterization and tasteless “jokes” that made it even more difficult to relate to the characters meant to represent me in a fictional setting I loved.
Here are the typical tactless ways the fandom would describe each of these characters:
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