We’ve just gotten our first look at Netflix’s live action Cowboy Bebop adaptation, and predictably, the conversation has instantly landed on Faye. In the original anime, Faye shows a lot of skin, wearing short shorts, a plunging crop top, and a jacket that hangs off her shoulders and is knotted at her stomach. In the new show, her crop top is bigger, her shorts are longer, and she wears the jacket properly, plus her ankle boots have been replaced by thigh highs and she’s wearing tights beneath them. Put simply, Faye is wearing more clothes.
I must admit, my first reaction was to be flippant. I considered inviting you all around to my garden, where there’s some grass in need of being touched. Perhaps I would share my secret Internet hack, where typing ‘boobies’ into the search bar makes naked ladies appear. If you’re still effervescent with rage that the naked anime chick is wearing tights, I direct you to the two insults above, but there is more nuance than there first appears.
I understand why Faye’s outfit has been changed. I’ve seen many (many, many) cosplayers dress up as Faye over the years, and while lots of them were deliberately sexualising her, it’s hard to accurately translate her outfit and make it look like something a real life woman would consciously choose to wear. It’s the future and there’s different fashion and everything else, but Spike wears a suit. Jet wears standard workman’s overalls with the sleeves cut off. Sure, Faye is younger and more fashionable, but her anime look would seem out of place if recreated directly.
That said, the Netflix adaptation has gone in a different direction, and I can see the nuance in people getting upset. Faye is a character who deliberately wears skimpy clothes to disarm her opponents subconsciously. She both revels in her status as an underdog and laments not being taken seriously, and how she dresses is a big part of that. It wouldn’t need to be a literal one-to-one of her outfit, but Daniella Pineda’s Faye does not go in for skimpy getups at all. We see a small slice of stomach, then nothing above the neck.
Of course, even talking about Faye this way feels gross, and demeaning to Pineda. Since we’ve only seen stills, we have no idea what costume looks like in motion or how Pineda has captured the character. While her outfit was a key part of who she was, it feels insulting to Pineda to suggest she hasn’t fully captured the complete nuance of Faye because she’s keeping her thighs or midriff or elbow covered up.
Realistically, even without giving us the exact outfit in the anime, the live action adaptation could have leaned into the idea that Faye wears revealing clothes and done something with that idea. I understand the fear of sexualising the character and playing into the male gaze, but avoiding a clear part of Faye’s character over this fear just underlines the idea that women are not free to dress how they want. That by wearing revealing clothes, they’re sluts looking for attention, for male approval, for sex, or to tease. That Faye is not allowed the freedom of dressing how she wants implies, in the darkest interpretation, that women who dress like Faye are ‘asking for it’.
Many celebrities have suffered the same indignity. Megan Thee Stallion, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Bella Thorne, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Ariel Winter, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Lawrence, Emily Ratajkowski… the list just goes on and on and on of women who have been tarred and feathered in the press for wearing outfits that show a similar amount of skin.
It’s hard to criticise Netflix for the choice to change Faye’s outfit. Ed isn’t there at all, and while it makes sense that Ed isn’t there from the beginning, if you’re screeching about accuracy, a whole character missing is a bigger deal than some tights. The outfit needed to change, it just probably didn’t need to change so much. Pineda is still instantly recognisable as Faye, but in being covered up, we lose a little bit of her visual characterisation. It’s a tough line to walk.
Mostly, the problem with criticising the change means I’m throwing my voice in with the vagina bones enjoyers, and… no. No, I will not be doing that. Again, there’s grass that needs to be touched and boobies that need to be Googled. Faye’s outfit probably didn’t need to change so much, but she’s still clearly Faye Valentine, and I’m more excited for the live action Cowboy Bebop than ever.