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Negative Male Portrayals

Topic started by gia on March 14, 2009. Last post by gia 3 years, 2 months ago.
Post by gia (3,032 posts) See mini bio Level 13
People frequently talk about how women are portrayed in anime: too busty, too helpless, too promiscuous, etc. It seems like no matter what kind of female character a show's got, SOMEone can find a way to complain about her portrayal.

But you don't hear the same thing for men, even with relatively unpopular characters like Shinji. Why do you think that is?
Posted 3 years, 2 months ago
Post by Void_Wizard (735 posts) See mini bio Level 9
Probably because females in anime are generally seen as completely different from their real life counterparts.
Posted 3 years, 2 months ago
Post by omo (113 posts) See mini bio Level 2
Shinji is whiny? Doesn't everyone say this? I guess the problem with Shinji is that people sympathize with him, and kicking a sick puppy is not ... a nice thing to do I guess.

However it might have something to do with people's expectation of strong female characters in anime, so hating on them doesn't seem so outright bad. The meta reason also extent to the tendency to troll. Anime characters are generally strong and there are many stories driven by the characters, and we have a lot of fans who are attached to the characters. Hating on them gets them riled up so some people do it.

And there's also the statistical reason: there are a helluva lot more girls than guys in all of anime.
Edited 3 years, 2 months ago
Post by Rathany (81 posts) See mini bio Level 1

I've heard people complain about the portayal of men in yaoi ... but I can't really blame them.  

I think inm general people see women in anime as reflecting the creator's views on women, but they don't make the same assumption about men.  

Posted 3 years, 2 months ago
Post by OkazukiIchigo (350 posts) See mini bio Level 11
Actually, there are stereotypical portrayal of men in anime. Like Kurabawa from Yu Yu Hakusho and basically most of the "biker gangs" of anime has the same hair as him. While their attitude persists in some aspects of a real-life portrayal, I don't see biker gangs have that sort of hair.

There are too much helpless girls in anime that, honestly I don't really like. Or those other examples. I kinda sick of that "pervert" joke already. I GET IT already! It's not that funny.
Posted 3 years, 2 months ago
Post by MoonStorm (360 posts) See mini bio Level 8

Well this is really all quite simple really. It all determined all on the target audience. 
Target 1) Male okoku: Then you want cute, high-pitched, girls (always more than one) with the possibility of some kinda powers, as for male character in this chase will be the main character, you want something the audience can relate or want to be like.
Target 2) Fan girls audience: In this case females  main characters will away be looking for love but in all the wrong places and secondary characters will ether be best friends or rivals. All males characters are pretty boys and/or perverts.
Target 3) General audience: You want assertive hot women. Male characters will be plane but strong. (I'm not sure about japan but most general audience shows will have some level of violates.)

I'm sure there are other target audience but you can select one, add some things based on the genre and there you got youself a cookie cuter anime/manga.

Most negative portrayals of men come from target audience 1 & 2. In the first case the men are usually otoku them selves and scene otoku have a negative stereotype associated with them so do those characters. In the case 2 men are usually over sexualized (yes men can be over sexualized to)


This is why I like Shinji well not really like but he is an interesting character. I would agree that he is a giant wuss but he never really grow out of it at the end of the series. I would say Asuka has a lot more character development.

Posted 3 years, 2 months ago
Post by gia (3,032 posts) See mini bio Level 13
OkazukiIchigo said:
"Actually, there are stereotypical portrayal of men in anime. Like Kurabawa from Yu Yu Hakusho and basically most of the "biker gangs" of anime has the same hair as him. While their attitude persists in some aspects of a real-life portrayal, I don't see biker gangs have that sort of hair.
Hmm..it's not that I think there aren't men who are portrayed negatively, it's that no one seems to perceive it as a statement of what "all men" are or should be, which people do with female characters often.

Even with yaoi, while I know men who hate the stuff of course (gay AND straight), I don't know many people who look at it and say "this stuff is sexist. Why are men being objectified and stereotyped in this fashion?" Which is surprising when you think about how much non-consensual sex goes on in the stuff.

Look at a male character you don't like. Does he really make you think "this is a bad male role model / stereotype, and it gives women terrible expectations"? Or do you just say "man, I hate that moron"? Now look at a female character you don't like and compare the way you're looking at them.

For me, I tend to dislike the bland male leads from moe romance series. In the end I usually just find myself thinking either "what a moron" or "what a douchebag" (or both). But when I look at the women in the same show, I instinctively cringe that this is what the fanboys think they want in a woman.

How about you guys?
Posted 3 years, 2 months ago
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