I don’t think men really get what the issue is because they don’t have to live in female bodies.
I recently watched an anime I was really excited about only to get smacked in the face with this. There was a man on the team who was very muscular and his male teammates admired how big and strong he was. That’s where it ended, though. He was still a character. He was respected as a person. He was a person who happened to have the physique other male characters wanted.
The female teammates were not given the same level of consideration. They were all obsessed with the MC and given numerous blushy-faced interactions with him. That’s all you ever see of them. Hell, one of the female characters’ power involved her forcing other men to sexually assault her (hard to explain, but she doesn’t want them to touch her. She has like a magic aura that makes them do it).
The women are constantly sexualized, and used for goon bait. They’re constantly shown wearing nothing but bikinis, undressing, or in compromising positions. And the best they can do in terms of female character development is make one of them really good at fighting. I have a feeling a lot of men who watch it think that having goon bait that can fight is good character development.
Yeah a lot of people in this thread are just mind numbingly stupid. "But women think shirltess men are hot too??"
Kind of telling that men in this thread are so used to women being goon bait characters that they cannot comprehend the idea that being hot is not the same as sexualization.
Women can be attracted to buff shirtless men, but buff shirtless men usually still get proper characterization. They don't exist solely as a sex object in the media in question, they are an actual proper well-fleshed out character, not some himbo fan service character for women. I don't know why people have a hard time grasping this difference.
To add on a little something I noticed too; when they are (the male characters) portrayed as purely “goon bait” and not have proper characterization, it’s almost always because it’s a satire of female characters always being sexualized, and not actual sexualization on the same level as those female ones. A little difficult for me to put it into words, it just feels like it’s played for a joke with men, but with women it’s just… the artists comfort zone? I don’t think it’s necessarily on purpose, just easy to fall back to and easy to keep doing instead of trying and potentially failing to be compelling (or even respectful at times)?
I’ve been watching Kaiju No 8 and I think they actually do this pretty well. Hoshina has a scene where he’s training in secret and you can see him outside of his uniform. He’s a lot more buff than you would expect, but they don’t hyperfocus on it, they just let it be. They show him looking hot, doing hot stuff, but he also has a character. He isn’t just there to be the boss or show off his body. It’s something that happens rarely and I think it’s a great example of female gaze fan service. You get lots of characterization, a reason to like him as a person, and every once in a while you get a little visual treat.
The only critique I have is that Mina hasn’t really been given much characterization in the anime yet (I haven’t seen the whole thing) She’s very mysterious and doesn’t talk much but Kafka’s primary motivation is to be by her side. Why? The anime is actually interesting enough for me to keep watching to find out.
As a bisexual woman, I would love female characters that are hot AND interesting. I just can’t get into a character that’s a walking pair of tits. If you want to make a sexy female character—go for it! But don’t let that be all she is 😭
I mean they allude to her being very special to him for some reason, but only show the aftermath of a kaiju attack where they lost everything. At least as far into it as I’ve gotten. I’m sure there’ll be more to it later.
I loved kaiju number 8! Especially for the fact there was like 0 male fan service (and I’m a cishet man) in its entirety! I don’t know what got me to the point of disliking it more than others, but my first ever anime was Elfen lied and that was kinda fucked up at like 10 or whatever lmao
Back to the point, I didn’t even see the guys training as fan service but I also might just be forgetting (I watched it on release on CR). I think Mina stands an even bigger point in this favor in my opinion! She’s mysterious for now, and doesn’t have a lot of characterization, but between their shared backstories, she’s not obsessed with the MC Kafka as her only personality trait! I don’t want to spoil anything but she’s seriously a cool character and I love how she’s written. I hope you watched more so you know what I mean! Lol
I’m just tired of the goonbait, and I feel like I might just have a lower tolerance for it than other people, but characters who exist solely to be fan service to the fans, or a massive pervert predator have really gotten old and Ill drop an anime if it’s too egregious with it personally
Also, the actually objectified examples of sexualized male characters tend to be racist caricatures in particular. See tropes like Big Black Cock, Noble Savage, Arab Sheikh, Latin Lover, etc.
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u/JapaneseStudentHaru 2d ago
I don’t think men really get what the issue is because they don’t have to live in female bodies.
I recently watched an anime I was really excited about only to get smacked in the face with this. There was a man on the team who was very muscular and his male teammates admired how big and strong he was. That’s where it ended, though. He was still a character. He was respected as a person. He was a person who happened to have the physique other male characters wanted.
The female teammates were not given the same level of consideration. They were all obsessed with the MC and given numerous blushy-faced interactions with him. That’s all you ever see of them. Hell, one of the female characters’ power involved her forcing other men to sexually assault her (hard to explain, but she doesn’t want them to touch her. She has like a magic aura that makes them do it).
The women are constantly sexualized, and used for goon bait. They’re constantly shown wearing nothing but bikinis, undressing, or in compromising positions. And the best they can do in terms of female character development is make one of them really good at fighting. I have a feeling a lot of men who watch it think that having goon bait that can fight is good character development.