Anime and sexism/feminism

I ultimately refer to Louis from Family Guy in terms of women's roles in society.

(in reference to being a housewife):"Feminism is about choice, I choose to be at home with my family, and I'm choosing to walk away from this conversation."

More power to people to do what they want, even if it's participating in stereotypical gender role stuff. It would just be nice for women to feel less pressured into said roles.
 
And not for anything, but definitions of beauty, if not tackled center stage, tend to be beyond what most forms of entertainment are capable of.

This is why fat women aren't hired as dramatic actresses a lot of the time.
 
Agreed.. perhaps the lack of diversity of roles in media is a problem?

W.I.T.C.H is one of my favorite magical girl shows for that reason, to be sure.. as well as due to their methoRAB of attack (they don't call out the name of their attack, they just do it, which comes across as more.. believable to me)


Unfortunately that is true in many cases, it's probably more of a case of how the female is written. Personally I don't think a female character having flaws is bad, but that shouldn't be the aspect that people remeraber her with
 
I would say that a major cause of that is, due to the grater proportion of male leaRAB in stories, there has become an underlying assumption that assertive and strong = masculine

I think that when more stories come around trying to break down the perception of male default traits, then powerful females will (perhaps hopefully) be less slapped with the 'man with boobs' label

Of course, there also happens to be this underlying current that female characters are only worth investing into so long as they have some form of sexual appeal, and so when female characters come around that are not, whilst being strong , they could come across as simply men with boobs.
 
Which, I think, is again, an issue with the lack of female leaRAB and , perhaps female writers.

People have different ideals.Not every girl desires qualities simply because they believe that men desire them

Take, for example, breasts. Though there are women who think that having larger breasts makes them sexually appealing, I'll wager that there are just as many who believe that they are an inconvenience, both physically (back problems and all that) and simply because they don't like the attention they get (This probably goes without saying, but of course I'm referring to women who naturally have large breasts and haven't undergone any surgery)

But personally, it would be nice for female characters to have qualities that readers desire because those are what they like for their own sake, and not because they need to feel validated by anybody else. I mean, there are plenty of guys that want to be physically strong, but not all guys want to be strong simply because it's easier for them to get a date/whatever, they want to be strong simply because they like to be strong! Or they want to become more intelligent because, for the most part, intelligence is a positive characteristic to possess. It should be the same for females too
 
Of course, I won't stop watching an anime just because it has fanservice elements in it. Despite the fanservice, Gurren Lagann is one my favorite animes of the last few years. As long as the story and quality of the characters outweighs the fanservice and is put to the forefront, I'm cool.
 
I counter with:


No age limit to buy that, either. My local library has a subscription. It's in the "teen" section.

I repeat: this is not just a Japanese thing. This is something that goes on all over the world.
 
She is used as a sex syrabol. How do you explain the long, lingering butt shots and the lustful camera pan over her body in the beginning of episode 7 (actually, not sure exactly what episode it was, but the one where Rock and her have it out on the streets)

Yes, she's a horrible personality from any sane perspective but there are plenty of guys who like that from women. And I don't think that's sexist either. I think it's nice to showcase different personalities as being "sexy", but that's my opinion.



Whether a show is well written or not, the intent of fan-service is largely the same though. I don't see why we should praise something that's well written but features huge bouncing boobs and then smash something that's poorly written but features the same woman's bouncing boobs. You either are tolerant of fan-service or you aren't. We all dislike poorly written shows, so you can't necessarily use that as the tipping point. I take it your issue is more with the the lolicon nature of the pic above? (if that's what you're referring to). If so, that's much more understandable--but it takes this issue a little somewhere different than what this thread intended, I think.

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I'm sure there are, though what's masculine and feminine are all based on society's labels, and are based on the gender roles within that given society. The whole 'feminine traits' thinking is sexist in itself, because it's already implying women should act a certain way just because they're women, and if a woman acts assertive then something is apparently 'wrong' with them. Ideally feminism should preach equality, not superiority, where anyone of any gender can do anything without being second guessed. Men could play with dolls, women could play football, and no one would care. I myself am in the later category; equality is what we should be striving for, and trying to devide things between 'masculine' and 'feminine' only continues to divide people.

Exactly. We as a society associate assertiveness and leadership as masculine qualities because most people want to see men in those roles. So whenever you see an action flick, the lead will almost always be male, and the female will usually just be the love interest for the hero to 'win' as a prize by the end of the story. If it's a female lead, more likely than not they will play up her sexuality to grab the attention of people who would otherwise be uncomfortable with women being the leader of a film, and otherwise not playing their gender role as a submissive/secondary character.
 
Mr. Beat, Whats wrong, with Moribito, I mean The main character Balsa is a strong female character, how is a Female warrior who can kick butt with a spear boring, i mean sure the shows no kenshin, but still as far as animated Historical ficiton goes its pretty good. & how is she "Undersexualized" & if so shouldn't that be a good thing? I mean I don't know about you but I'd deffiantly call a woman being able to handle a weapon & use stratagy on the battle field an attractive trait.
 
That's actually what I meant behind that, thank you for clearing that up for me. xD


While you may have a point with that, I think that's why I often prefer attractive female characters who have a great wit and intelligent mind. The two can go hand in hand, IMO. I mean, nothing's wrong with being attractive, but I don't think that it should be all the character is or all that the character can use to their advantage... surely a woman who can manage to both look attractive and punch anyone who stares deserves some credit.
 
Physical attractiveness notwithstanding, there's no set rule against the female being the butt kicker and the male being the brains. Jack Kirby was doing it back in the 70's with Big Barda and Mr. Miracle. Granted, Barda wasn't a psychopath like Revy, but there's nothing sexist about either potrayl. It's part of their personality.




I don't like lolicon at all. Shows based on it seem exploative and just plain trashy. But all media has that sort of sex appeal in it to some degree, at least in certain types of shows that warrant it. Therefore, to go against fanservice on the whole seems like censorship. And I'll never agree with censorship. Gurren Lagann isn't sexist because Yoko wears skimpy clothes. She's easily shown to be the most competent castmeraber in the early going and never gets durabed down. If you want to talk about sexism, use examples about how they act, like Naomi and Penber, not what they wear if they're still dynamic characters. A girl losing all modicum of intelligence because of a m/f dynamic is sexist. Kei and Yuri blowing stuff up in their outfits isn't. (Although you're always free to ask why they dress like that as Adam Warren did)

Besides, an anime market with nothing but shows like Moribito is a market I want nothing to do with.
 
So....I saw Fight! Ippatsu Juden-Chan...Yeah, never again. Seriously.

You know, like Queen's Blade, these could probably be normal shows but jeez there is a limit to fanservice

And the OP song is so good too. It's wasted on this type of show. (Oh yeah, it's kinda NSFW)
 
No offense, but why are you showing us that crap?
Edit: In fact, I removed the link since it strikes me as too close to violating the terms of service. Sorry. Anyone who cares can find it on their own, I'm sure.
 
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