I'm still trying to figure out what significance (if any) the broom has in the Saionji-Touga sparring scene. I get that practice swords represent the girls fawning over their preferred male, which have a very phallic appearance and given the animation, look like they're "readied for action" if you get me. 

But when Utena speaks up, we immediately zoom in on the broom. It's a frightfully mundane and practical thing, mirroring Utena's intent when she tells the horde of girls to be quiet at the start of the match. The broom has a very classical house-wife vibe to me, something that ties in with Touga and Saionji doing what on the surface appears to be very classically male . Not to mention the fact that it's yet another phallic symbol in already phallus filled scene.  But the broom is also an item which is associated with witches and fertility rites.

Every time I watch that scene, I always come away feeling like Utena was more interested in watching the duel than (and getting a better idea of her competition?) than she was in fawning over Touga and/or Saionji. When the duel ends, she's rather matter-of-fact in her analysis of Touga while the rest of the girls start cheering and going "OH! You're the best! " over the boys.

On a side note, the near the end of this scene we get this:



Seriously, there some subtext here between Saionji and Touga. And we all know what "subtext" can be rearranged into...

I haven't taken psychology yet, so I don't know as much about Freud's obsession with penises as you guys, but I'm going to guess that Akio's tower counts as a sex symbol.

Juri's defeat...Yyyyeah.  I once saw an LJ icon of this labeled "Freud, eat your heart out".

Also FOR THE LOVE OF SHIORI'S CAR FORM, did Freud write this scene?



Touga defeats Utena, takes Anthy, Utena has a brief bout of Stepford-smiling before fighting him again, and then Touga makes Anthy kneel down and kiss the sword of Dios which Utena refuses to watch.  This makes the sword glow red and gives Touga the power to do lots of clothing damage to Utena and break her replacement sword.  Of course, then Anthy has a mini-love epiphany or something and Touga runs out of power, so his ass is handed to him.  My god.

The one I saw the creepiest symbolism in is when Akio and Anthy are having a drive in episode 37.  Akio is road-raging over the plot, and the way Anthy leans back in the car just makes me uncomfortable.  Not to mention for a split second, they're both naked.  I mean, I knew their nighttime run-ins were anything but healthy, this was just the cherry on top.

Well for me, I dont think the deflowering is literally about  losing your virginity, but about the *traditionally female* emotions associated with it, which the negative ones for all the duellists in the first arc, but become more postive as they have grown and become "ready for sex." (I know it's a bit of a weird analogy and a slightly sexist one at that.)

However the one doing the deflowering doesn't affect the deflowerer. Men (ie. the sword bearer, ie. Utena/Touga that one time) are traditionally not expected to be emotionally connected to sex. In the stereotypical "male" view losing your virginity is just a notch on the bedpost to brag about to your mates and sleeping with a virgin makes no difference to you. Thats how Utena can still be so innocent yet the deflowerer of so many. She's just simply oblivious that its anything special. It's because she wasn't on the pointy end of the sword .

Don't forget water! Especially in the Juri eps. Flowing, gushing water is a simbol of female sexuality. Shiori is an Aquarius, the water bearer. This sign is often shown with someone holding a vase. This is a really cracky theory but this bit for me is about Juri's and Shiori's sexuality.



Juri's excited to be see Shiori. (side note: That fountain is so Juri's pick up spot. Why else does she happen to just run into girls on nighttime walks there?) Shiori's excited to see Ruka.



She sees Shiori with Ruka. Shiori sees Juri.



Juri's not so excited anymore. Shiori isn't feeling it so much anymore.

Any thoughts on this? It's a bit of a long shot I know.

This.

phallic blades inducing pain by stabing her body
I really do believe this is a metaphor for Anthy's first intercourse (with Akio).


and the cocktower, we always catch a glimpse of it in the scenes where Anthy and akio are sexing. I think there's no mystery about it

liberrrty wrote:
"Oh no, I'm a totally normal girl really. I only wear these by clothes to be closer to him. And yes in that way. He was soooo cool. Wearing this without a man telling me to do it, that's weird. Look shiny engagement ring. *Squeeel* We are destined to be together forever. And ever and ever and ever. HETROSEXUALITY."

Trufax.
Juri gets mad at Utena right after she blabbed about the prince.  We can also add this quote to her first duel (loss), when Juri's rose gets stabbed by Dios sword.  Like, "You're wrong, you lose, turn into a good and straight girl now"

Last edited by Zabel Z (11-26-2010 10:59:13 PM)

Zabel Z and Coffin Breaker you just said it ! Coupled with the fact that in Ohtori there is no real room for much middle ground anyway. I mean just look at the uniform. Also how much attention Utena gets for breaking that mould. If Juri were to become more masculine (from a pre Utena point of view), it would only make her stand out more and further isolate her from everyone. It's either princess dress or nothing. But on the other hand she's not totally butch either. She wears a lot of dresses when not in uniform. Her problem is more of finding a balance between femininity and masculinity whilst keeping both an important part of her.

Okay! Time for lessons on how girls use water as sexual expression (or... something like that ) part 3!



A swimming pool is a highly controlled large body of water. Even more so than a pond or lake, absolutely nothing should be able to flow in or out of it without control. It's even sterilized for good measure. Kozue lifts the water out of the pool, freeing it from it's confines. The pool is her family's expectations of her including Miki's. She is still treated like a child, she even is still expected to share a room with her brother with no regard to her growing need for privacy. She knows that all Miki wants is for her to go back to being like they were as children, without the complications that adulthood brings them. Everyone wants and expects her to still be a child without any sexual emotions or knowledge at all. In a way the pool water is like Miki's sexuality. It is completely surpressed by limits and boundries, still and stagnant, he doesn't allow it to flow at all.

Kozue has to express her newfound "adultness" by rebelling against these expectations and boundries, otherwise her sexual feelings would remain completely surpressed like Miki's. Her pulling the water out of the pool is a metaphor for her sexual escapes, breaking the confines of the boundries she is put in. However this water will run out of her hand eventually returning to the pool. At the end of the day Kozue will still have to return back to her surpressed environment. She knows that her moments of being "adult" are only fleeting, she is still seen by and large as a child for the moment.

It could also be her trying to make Miki more "adult" with her. Not neccessarily in an incestuous way. But she realizes that the boundries placed on them (ie, expecting them to still live in the same room, be "good" children etc.) are unhealthy and leave no room for growth. She doesn't fully transport the water away from the pool. She doesn't want Miki to be hurt by a bad experience (metaphorically being spilt.) But she does lift it a little, she wants him to allow himself some happiness and to have some of the freedom she does, but she knows the water will just return to the pool. In the end Miki stays within the expectations of a child.



Now Anthy's sexual desire is very tightly controlled. It is surpressed to a point where she can turn on a tap, collect it and use it to water the roses. The roses are the duellists and the duelling game. Anthy fakes desire for and sleeps with certain duellists (or significant people around them) to give them motivation to duel, or to keep up the pretence of the Rose Bride and it works. The roses grow on this, an artificial highly controlled flow of water from the can. To her at this point, her sexuality is just a tool to be used.



However the tap breaks and the watering can overflows. Towards the end of the series Anthy knows she is losing a grip on her feelings for Utena. It forshadows the end of the series when her emotions win over thier repression. Her desires are allowed to run freely, uncontrolled and no longer just a tool to be used. Her "emotional tap" has been broken. The flow of water is natural, the water is flowing by itself without having Anthy to pour it. Her feelings this time are real and not faked for the sake of the dueling game.

On that note, ever wonder why both Miki and Kozue have blue hair? Perhaps it's meant to symbolize something...

(God, in this series, if someone so much as eats a sandwich we have threads debating whether it relates to their hatred of authority or lack of sexual experience. )