Let’s talk about Winry Rockbell.

Winry Rockbell is so important to me from a feminist perspective (and important to me in general). Let me tell you why her narrative is amazing.

Please note I am approaching this from a largely western context as it’s the one I know. I’m aware Winry’s character and arc might have different connotations in her original Japanese context, so please feel free to tell me if you have some insight to that! This is just how I find her narrative inspiring and subversive personally, based on my own context, though I think it is fair to say Hiromu Arakawa subverted some common gender tropes with Winry’s character; tropes commonly seen in narratives on a global scale.

Winry doesn’t accept “boys will be boys”

Winry starts out being forced into the position a lot of women are put in with male centered narratives- she’s kept out of the action, she’s not confided in because the male characters fear getting her involved. And she’s actively not okay with that. 

Hughes, who is a great guy otherwise, excuses this to Winry by explicitly saying “well that’s just how men are”

(he’s obviously projecting himself in this situation, btw, since he’s someone who keeps quiet about his pain because he doesn’t want to burden his wife)

The thing is, Winry doesn’t accept this. She’s not going to let “boys be boys”. When she see Ed and Al get into a fight over lack of communication, she asserts herself and tells Al “hey this is what Ed is trying to tell you. Now, you two get your shit together and talk to each other or so help me.”

And because Winry forcefully communicated and promoted “talking about feelings”, the fight is resolved. And she turns around and tells Mr. Hughes that there are things you need to say to get across, that communication is necessary and keeping everything in is harmful. She basically tells him he’s wrong, that she can help it, that she’s not going to sit and wait and let boys be boys.

And Hughes responds “you’re right.”

This is a situation where the “feminine” method of handling things with honesty and communication is explicitly shown to be better than the “masculine” method of acting tough and shutting out the women in your life. Where a teenage girl shows a grown man that her way gets shit done.

Winry is the strongest one in this situation because she’s emotionally strong where the other two (and even Hughes, to an extent!) are weak, because she embraces being open with her tears and fears. She’s seen Ed and Al at their most vulnerable, and knows things about them neither of them know about each other- she knows about Ed’s shameful feelings because she’s the one he had to rely on, she’s the shoulder he cried on. Winry is the one who forcibly pushed these two boys back on their feet. As such, she won’t put up with their machismo. She will assert herself and she will MAKE them properly express their feelings. She’s not going to let them shut her out because she knows what she’s doing, dammit.

So this is a narrative that explicitly subverts against the typical male narrative of “tough male heroes shutting women out and making choices for them” and asserts feminine methods of handling things and the female narrative as important. 

And Winry is going to continue subverting the hell out of that narrative in the most fabulous way possible.

Winry saves lives where alchemy can’t

Her narrative kicks into high gear when she proves that her skillset is just as effective in saving people as Ed and Al’s fighting, and in fact make her the hero in certain situations where Ed and Al are totally useless.

When a woman is in labor, Winry is the only one who can do anything. And unlike most narratives, midwifery is not treated as this easy thing that is a woman’s natural place to be while men just shrug their shoulders and smoke outside. It’s in fact explicitly made clear that Winry’s skillset is more effective than Ed’s alchemy in this life threatening situation, and Ed is frustrated that he’s so useless in the situation. Ed TRIES to help this woman. It’s his thing to save people. But when he tries to do a bridge with alchemy so they can get to the doctor, the bridge collapses halfway there because SCIENCE. Ed is left panicking at his own helplessness, thinking this woman is going to die because he doesn’t know what the hell to do and Winry YANKS HIM BY HIS BRAID mid panic attack and tells him to get some fucking water because they are delivering this baby. 

Winry is the only one who can keep a level head in a medical emergency. And there’s a reason for it, her parents are doctors and she grew up studying this shit the same way Ed and Al studied alchemy. Ed says “we have to trust in her knowledge and sheer nerve”. He has confidence Winry can pull this off not because she’s a woman and “women and babies whatever”, but because he knows she’s SMART and BRAVE and KNOWS HER SHIT where he doesn’t about this. Ed is mad at himself for not being able to help more, exclaiming “I’m always useless in important situations.”

And he explicitly stated that it’s amazing that Winry helped bring life into the world because that is something alchemy can’t do. That is something he failed at. He thinks she’s awesome, and he tells her that point-blank. Winry doesn’t emerge from the situation pretty and freshfaced either, she’s covered in  blood and sweat and she’s so exhausted she’s lost all feeling in her legs. This is treated as just as epic and strenuous as Ed and Al’s acts of heroism, in the anime adaption they even play the epic alchemy music for when Winry tightens her apron and does the delivery. And it’s made a specific point that what Winry does is even more amazing than alchemy.

This is incredibly important. It’s taken what’s traditionally seen as women’s work and treating it with the same, if not more, gravity as “masculine work.” Ed is helpless, Winry is the hero, and he is in awe. Women bring life and save life every day. And a male character is shown as explicitly being influenced by this and admiring it. This was a formative event in Ed’s life that inspires him. Ed values life so fucking much, he was practically in convulsions over seeing the pregnant Mom and then the baby. He brings it up chapters later, squealing about it to Izumi and then bringing it up to Winry herself to reassure her that she’s the awesomest lady he knows. It reinforces the moral for him that life is valuable and worth fighting for, that he can’t fix everything with alchemy, and spurs him on. MIDWIFERY IS HARDCORE, WOMEN GET SHIT DONE, THE STORY.

Also in the Rush Valley chapter we have Winry bonding with another woman and encouraging and helping her and that explicitly parallels with Ed and Al wandering around gaining allies and helping people reevaluate their lives- it’s Winry who wins Paninya over, it’s Winry who forms a bond with her and helps her move forward. Bonding between women makes both women stronger. What’s more, Winry strikes out on her own to kickstart her career and follow her passion for mechanics an automail at age 15. Like Ed and Al, she leaves home to dedicate herself to what’s important to her. “I have to be just as passionate about the things I believe in.” The Rush Valley story is completely her story.

Which brings us to the thing that separates Winry from most love interests in male centered narratives- she has her own life outside Ed and Al. She isn’t defined by them and the life she’s living parallel to theirs is important to the narrative. With most narratives, either the love interest just spends all her time following a guy around or it’s like the love interest’s life just stops when the dudes aren’t around. What does she do? Surely she had friends, hobbies, etc? Winry has all that -a ongoing occupation she works constantly at, customers, a group of friends and colleagues, hobbies, family besides Ed and Al, her own tragedies to work through- and what’s more, the fact she has a separate life from Ed and Al is explicitly important to the narrative. 

Winry is the hero of her own story

Slowly, Ed and Al realize that Winry is involved in their lives and as a person who is impacted by their decisions, she has a right to have a voice in their decisions. They realize that keeping things from her hurts her. They also realize she is a considerate person who has valuable insights and is part of their team, their family, so her thoughts are worth hearing.

And when Ed keeps what happened to Winry’s parents from her? The narrative has it fucking blow up in his face. Hiromu Arakawa makes it clear that this is Winry’s life and Winry had a freaking right to know about her own life and to choose what to do with that information, and Ed fucked up big time by trying restrict Winry’s choice in the matter. In showing what a DEVASTATING effect keeping this from Winry has, Arakawa sort of condemns every male hero who keeps a lady out of the loop, deconstructing it and showing the actual consequences.

A lot of people misread the “your hands are meant to save lives” scene but it’s really about Ed VALIDATING Winry’s choices. Winry could not shoot. She is ashamed that she couldn’t. But Ed reassures her that her choice comes from who she is as a person and her accomplishments mean so much more than taking lives ever could. He lets her know how she has inspired him and influenced him, citing when she delivered the baby where he could not, the fact that she’s helped teach him the value of life, the fact that she saved him by giving him the limbs he needs to move forward. He openly admits his awe of and dependence on her. And for once he acts as the emotional crutch and support for HER, when she’s spent so much time being his emotional (and physical ahahaha) crutch. He supports her and takes on her pain.

She’s cried for him so many times, now she finally gets to cry for herself. Ed also later admits that he was scared by Winry’s anger and feels bad that he might have forced his fear on her and is also regretful that he failed to notice how much pain Winry was in and troubled her, meaning he is actively troubled  thinking that he might have overstepped in some way by getting in between her and Scar, and admits it came from a place of fear and shame, not because he believes he knows better than her or wanted to save her from herself. The narrative actively criticizes the idea of making choices FOR Winry by having Ed express this guilt.

Winry is frustrated that she has to wait for Ed and Al to come back to her, because it makes her feel helpless and dependent. But what brings her back from the brink?

Knowing there are people that need her, that are dependent on her, that need her help, that would be lost. Her reminder that she has her own life, her own mission, her own purpose is what saves her. Essentially, she is reminded that she is the hero of her own story. Ed and Al are an important part of her lives, but they are not the only part. There are many people important to her and there are many people that need her. The reason she’s not a constant part of Ed and Al’s world is that she has her own world- it intersects with theirs, but it isn’t subordinant to theirs. Her choices affect the people who need her the way Ed and Al’s and her parents choices affect her.

And the moral is that Winry has her own life, that she deserves to be in control of it, that she has agency, that she is needed.

When Winry is put in a hostage situation, she immediately expresses anger at being used as a tool against the people she loves and comes up with a plan to turn the situation back on her captors and escape while simultaneously freeing her allies so they can save the country. She refuses to be a burden.

This once again shows how Winry’s narrative is about her asserting and reclaiming her agency,making her own choices and being effective in doing so. Whenever she is treated like a prop or a non-person or a tool to be used against the main characters, she gets angry at those responsible and overcomes them. She actively subverts the role they are trying to force her into by proving her value, agency and personhood. She uses the expectations of her captors against them, pretending to be a crying wreck so she can sneak in with Ed and Al, pretending to be taken hostage so she can allow everyone to escape. When Ed tried to argue with her about the risk of her plan, she points out to him that she is involved in this now, this is her life, and she has the right to decide what she chooses to do with it.

And Ed? He respects her choice. He gives in. Not only has he learned from his mistake to be honest with her about any situation that impacts her, he knows he has no say in what she does with her life and respects her choices and good judgement.

And what is Winry’s main concern after narrowly escaping death? That her customers in Rush Valley may be without her for a very long time now that she’s involved in Ed and Al’s shit. Even when she’s in the middle of all this, she keeps her profession, her life independent from all this, as well as the people who need her, at the top of her mind.

And let’s talk about one of those choices- her decision to help Scar. It is she who seeks him out. It is she who tells Ed she has a right to confront him. She comes in right in the middle of Scar about to explode Ed and Al, and because of her interference the fight just stops. Ed and Al are saved because her mere presence has an impact.

This lets the reader know “OKAY PAUSE ED AND AL TIME NOW IT’S TIME FOR WINRY AND SCAR’S FACE OFF YOU GUYS STEP BACK THIS IS HER FIGHT”. Scar is WINRY’S adversary to overcome, not theirs and Ed and Al accept this and step aside for her to talk openly with him and make her choice.

Scar and Winry’s relationship has nothing to do with Ed and Al. And she chooses to honor her parents legacy, to heal and move on with her life, to end the chain of hatred. And she makes it clear this doesn’t mean she forgives him. She is still angry, she has a right to be angry, and she owns that anger and wears it proudly. But she’s made the choice that fits with her values because she refuses to let anyone change her or make her go against what’s important to her.

Once again, she asserts her agency WITHOUT fighting or killing, and shows her brand of pacifism to be way more effective than fighting- because she helps influence Scar. Her actions remind him of what his people told him and form a step on his way to becoming the man who will help save the country. If she hadn’t saved him, the country would be screwed. But her choice saves everyone.

When talking about legacy, it’s important to remember Winry also comes from a legacy of active, effective women. Her grandmother raised her and helped inspire her love of automail. Her mother is just as important as her father, and the narrative even has her mother point out that Rockbell women are fearless and tenacious, which is of course supposed to remind us of Winry and make us realize her strong traits were passed down among the women in her family. Women strongly shaped Winry, Ed and Al (I’ll get into the latter in another post). And Winry helps and is inspired by other women in turn- Paninya, Riza and Rose are all shown to both influence and be influenced by Winry.

Finally, Winry asserts her choice one last time when Ed requests she leave the country. The “You must leave to protect yourself” is a common trope for guys to pull on girls in fiction, which completely ignores the fact  that he girl involved should have a stake in whatever’s threatening too. Winry points out that she does have a stake and tears Ed a new one. She reminds Ed this is her country too and he can’t tell her what to do. She tells him straight up that if he’s should be concerned with protecting EVERYONE, and if he’s given up on that, she doesn’t want anything to do with it. She cares about the people around her and she can’t just leave. Once again, she makes her own choice about what to do. Once again, Ed accepts and respects her choice and abides by it.

And how does it end up for Winry? She gets her boys back and she continues living her life. She’s not upset when Ed leaves for a while because she wouldn’t like him if he sat around. She’s not sitting around. She’s got things to do. She even is an active participant when Ed proposes her. She can choose how much of her life to give him, thank you very much, she doesn’t have to follow his guidelines. “why is everything about alchemy with you? What’s with half a life? Here I’ll give you my whole life. Well, no, that’s a lot,  70, 75 maybe 85 percent.” Ed laughs and admits she’s gotten one over on him.

Now granted, I’m not saying Winry’s narrative is utter perfection. She’s absent for long stretches of the narrative, and I would have liked to see more of her, because I’m selfish like that. I wish Arakawa could have figured out a way to give her more screentime during the whole “The Promised Day” arc. And as much as I adored the significance and positivity of the interactions she did have with other women like Paninya, Rose and Pinako, I would have liked to see a lot more of those relationships. A lot more.

But overall?

every aspect of Winry’s narrative is about her being her own person and controlling her own life and making her own choices.

 Whenever people try to control her life for her she resists them, overcomes them and takes back control of her situation.  

She is shown to be needed, depended upon, admired by men and women alike, influential to men and women alike, effective and even more competent than the male characters in a lot of situations. Her skillset is shown to be indispensable and valuable, more valuable than violent or traditionally masculine skillsets in a lot of situations. Her choices both drive her own narrative and drive the main narrative when she appears. Her love interests narrative is with her largely tied up in learning to respect her and her choices. Her love interest admires and is influenced by her and respects her skills.

She is the hero of her own story and she refuses to be treated like a prop ever.

All of the above is what makes her character inspiring and subversive  to me as a feminist. Its what makes her a GREAT character. Because ultimately, feminism is about choice, about women being respected and regarded. And every inch of Winry Rockbell upholds that.