Anime Anime sexism

[Synical]

Do you realise, that anime/manga mainly have women with boobs bigger than thier heads wearing skimpy bikinis (eg: love hina) or tight costumes? but you never see many blokes like that. Women are portraid in a slutty way, which is not how some live their lifestyle. If anyone disagrees with me, please say so.

[Ailes de Velour]

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I definitely agree. Mimiru of .hack//SIGN is my favorite character, but she barely wears ANYTHING (not to mention, she's pretty flatchested, so there's really no point to the skankiness of her attire.) I mean, I went through the whole series thinking she wasn't wearing pants. It was just a bra, some armor, and a loincloth. Then I noticed that her legs were a different color than the rest of her skin. But anyway.
It's not just anime, it's also video games. Soul Calibur II is one I know of, with Ivy and Taki, it's ridiculous. For one, I don't see how Ivy can fight huge men-creatures in a tiny bra and a thong. And Taki, her red outfit, she must be VERY COLD. It's so blatant in the opening sequence! I mean, sheesh.

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[QuincyArcher]

I'm really not sure what you want to discuss with this thread, but if you're angry about the way that anime portrays women. then you're going to need a bit more evidence to back yourself up other than just listing the title 'Love Hina'. you said that they would [quote name='Synical'] have women with boobs bigger than thier heads wearing skimpy bikinis [/quote] but i can remember very few episodes where they would wear bikinis let alone for the entire episode. exactly which characters are you referring to? i guess Mutsumi had fairly large breats, but she also dressed very conservatively throughout the series and there were also characters in the series to provide contrast to the others. (hence Shinobu, Kaolla and Motoko). who did not have 'Breats bigger than their heads wearings skimpy bikinis' as you put it.

Please, if you wish to start a discussion put a little more effort into your post and a bit more evidence to back up your claims.

[elfpirate]

[b]There are very few things on television (or movies) that[i] don't[/i] promote sexist attitudes in some form or another... it isn't anime-specific. If you're going to be upset about sexism, be upset about all genres.[/b]

[b]And I don't agree that scantily-clad equals slutty-looking, either-- in fact, I actually find it very sexist (and therefore hypocritical) of you to say that women in bikinis are slutty-looking. [/b]

[b]Don't you think that women should be able to wear their swimwear without being considered skanky-looking? Men can wear their trunks without looking "like a gigolo". Hmmm...[/b]

[Guest flamingheart]

I agree on a certain scale. While a few animes I have seen do seem to promote what you say, others do not. So yes maybe certain ones are but I suppose it is how you veiw it.

[Lunai]

[font=trebuchet ms][color=blue]I think it has a lot to do with the type of anime it is, i.e. what is their target audience. If they are attempting to get at teens or twenty-somethings, then they are going to be a bit unrealistic in the female image.[/font][/color]

[AzureWolf]

[COLOR=blue]Quincy is right (can I call you Quincy?). It seems to me that you are looking at the exception, not the rule. Most animes that aren't centered on love don't have a high frequency of big busts. Tsukihime is an anime with a huge cast of females, and none of their proportions seem out of whack (even if the actual numbers say otherwise). Even something as popular as Naruto gives a respectable, dignified perception of women (Tsunade being the exception. O_o).

I also think elfpirate has a point about truths: I've seen women here in New Jersey that put any anime character's bust to shame. *shudders* If anime is showing something that's "off," it's because you can find more "off" versions IRL.[/COLOR]

[NinjaJedi007]

anime definitely does show lots of attractive girls. its true that most of the time they are shown as busty, bikini goddesses but it works to attract viewers. Love hina was mentioned before so if you didnt know what it was about then you might be interested cuz all you see are hawt girls!

[EVA Unit 100]

OK. If anime girls are sexist, Betty Boop is pornography.

There, I just had to say it.

[Dagger]

Meh. Maybe I've become desensitized to this sort of thing, but I think that sexy clothing (or character designs) is rather innocuous. What I sometimes find questionable (and much more insidious) are anime in which the female characters completely base their lives around a certain male. But if the girls in a show are portrayed in a way that kind of irks me, I just won't watch it.

In any case, I think the point raised by the original poster is based on an unfair generalization. One can easily find fanservice-y women in certain specific genres, but it's not something that's characteristic of anime as a whole. I also don't see why a plethora of unusually well-proportioned female characters should be considered offensive or unrealistic when so many anime are quite stylized in terms of everything from visuals to comedy to action.

EDIT: And in fairness, male-harem anime and bishounen anime (you know, the male equivalent of bishoujo anime) [i]do[/i] exist. There's a balance to be found, if you don't mind watching shoujo. :catgirl:

~Dagger~

[Semjaza]

[quote name='EVA Unit 100']OK. If anime girls are sexist, Betty Boop is pornography.[/quote]

If you think that you've not seen enough anime lol.

I think there are a lot of anime that kind of fit into the description of the first post, but I don't think they're the majority. Kind of going with what Dagger said, I find that the most exaggerated ones often appear in comedic anime, which are probably somewhat offensive to everyone just because that's what they want to be.

I don't own any anime that feature breasts flopping around or lots of other sexual connotations without reasoning. There's certainly a lot out there that doesn't fall into that grouping. I think it's kind of in the same vein as someone thinking all anime is hentai, but just more specified.

[kaisha]

Not all animes are like that, I watch Inuyasha and very rarely do you see a girl dressed or portrayed that way. In fact the only one I think I've seen like that is Yura, other than that theres just Miroku and his perverted ways.

[Kamuro]

yes yes, I agree with most, I think for every sexual outfitted girl, you could find a normal one just the same, it depends on the anime, story line, audience, everything. sometimes clothing just fits the show better, it doesn't really mean they're portraying the girls as sluts, or lowering our opinion of women, its all in the style and writing of the shows

[SunfallE]

[QUOTE=elfpirate][b]There are very few things on television (or movies) that[i] don't[/i] promote sexist attitudes in some form or another... it isn't anime-specific. If you're going to be upset about sexism, be upset about all genres.[/b]

[b]And I don't agree that scantily-clad equals slutty-looking, either-- in fact, I actually find it very sexist (and therefore hypocritical) of you to say that women in bikinis are slutty-looking. [/b]

[b]Don't you think that women should be able to wear their swimwear without being considered skanky-looking? Men can wear their trunks without looking "like a gigolo". Hmmm...[/b][/QUOTE]

I agree with elfpirate, sexist attitudes exist in all genres. Not just anime. I also agree that wearing a bikini doesn't automatically mean a girl is a slut either. Personally I don't, but then I'm fair skinned and burn to easily, but I have friends who do and their is nothing slutty looking about how they look.

[Godelsensei]

I find it more offensive when properly-proportioned female characters are portrayed as having an inexplicable obsession with housework.

Tsunade has a formidable bust, but she's hardly a push-over. That's the distinction most people seem so unable to make: low-cut does not equal dis-empowering. In fact, the situation is frequently quite the opposite.
After all, Haruko is able to keep a household full of men at her beck and call while wandering about in an entire array of questionable outfits.

[Dirt]

[quote name='Dagger']Meh. Maybe I've become desensitized to this sort of thing, but I think that sexy clothing (or character designs) is rather innocuous. What I sometimes find questionable (and much more insidious) are anime in which the female characters completely base their lives around a certain male. But if the girls in a show are portrayed in a way that kind of irks me, I just won't watch it.~Dagger~[/quote]
[b][color=darkgreen]Amen to that. It's ridiculous to point out that the females on certain anime have disproportionately large breasts and call out "Sexism!" without a mention to the sexism in the actual written content.[/color][/b]
[b][color=#006400][/color][/b]
[b][color=#006400]I mean... do you really think that all women behave like the ones on Tenchi? Or that they should? That is a more blatant example of sexism than to have them large-breasted (or as elfpirate said- scantily clad- lol). [/color][/b]
[b][color=#006400][/color][/b]
[b][color=#006400]Tenchi has the females scratching at eachother and pulling hair in competition for the affections of a guy, and that, to me, is far more sexist than a chick in a bikini, no matter what size her breasts.[/color][/b]
[b][color=#006400][/color][/b]
[b][color=#006400]Or here's an even better example- Inuyasha. Someone on this thread mentioned that Inuyasha wasn't a sexist anime. Well, then... why is Inuyasha always showing up just in the nick of time to save Kogome from some sort of inevitable doom?[/color][/b]
[b][color=#006400][/color][/b]
[b][color=#006400]She is always completely helpless and just as the hammer is about to fall, there's Inuyasha- and sometimes Koga or Miroku- to be her knight in shining armor- perpetuating the stereotype that females are weak and that they are helpless without the assistance of a man.[/color][/b]
[b][color=#006400][/color][/b]
[b][color=#006400]A character's costume- even if it's in poor taste- does far less damage to the psyche of the public than does a blatantly stereotypical female character.[/color][/b]

[Wayfarer]

[SIZE=1][COLOR=Blue]Yeah, I'd have to agree with some of these people when they say that all women in [U]all[/U] video games, anime, or manga (or at least most of them) are really cliched and steryotypical. How many female characters in anime or anything else that I mentioned are strong, freewheeling people who are fiercely independant? And have 'breasts bigger than their heads'? And wear skimpy clothing? Yeah, that looks pretty specific, but you'd be surprised. How many people do you meet like that in real life? No one, unless you're...I wont continue with that, to preserve the, ah, [I]wholesomeness[/I] of these boards. Anyway, the people writing this stuff should try to think outside the box, it's not terribly hard to make a believable character, even if the prospect of their 'proportions' is really intimidating...[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[Dagger]

[quote name='Wayfarer][SIZE=1][COLOR=Blue]Yeah, I'd have to agree with some of these people when they say that all women in [U]all[/U] video games, anime, or manga (or at least most of them) are really cliched and steryotypical.[/COLOR'][/SIZE][/quote]
I'm mildly surprised to see someone with a Rurouni Kenshin avatar make that statement. While Kenshin is not my favorite show, it features plenty of non-fanservice-y women, from Kaoru to Megumi to Misao. Though some of them possess the traits of certain stock character types, they don't fit the description in your post (which immediately brings to mind Faye Valentine, haha).

Saying that this applies to "all" anime/manga or even to "most of them" is simply not true, as I mentioned in my original post. It'd be silly for me to start naming anime that can't rightfully be construed as sexist, because there are far too many of them out there. After all, people aren't really going to take notice of shows that don't seem to be sexist--they'll only notice so-called sexism when it's actually present, which is what makes it seem so prevalent. Does that make any sense?

~Dagger~

[Kamuro]

I'm definitely with dagger on this one, there might a lot of good examples supporting the opinion that anime is sexist, but there just isn't enough, especially compared to the amount of women in anime that aren't so stereotypical, and even if they do have somewhat of a sexual appearence, it doesn't mean they don't have something behind, beyond the actually looks of the character, an example often used is Faye, or even Major from Ghost in Shell, both look to be a stereotypical anime character, but both have a back story, something that interests and intrigues people to actually watch the show and see how things play out, don't judge a book its cover in real life, and don't do it in anime

[melovemiroku-ku]

:animeangr I totally agree.I love ranma1/2, but their always showing girl with their
shirt's off.Same in Love Hina.

It makes me so mad when my friend brings mangas to school just to show the other
boys nasty pictures!

[Princess_Keiko]

[quote name='Synical']Do you realise, that anime/manga mainly have women with boobs bigger than thier heads wearing skimpy bikinis (eg: love hina) or tight costumes? but you never see many blokes like that. Women are portraid in a slutty way, which is not how some live their lifestyle. If anyone disagrees with me, please say so.[/quote]
I agree with you but you know how it goes "Sex sells"

[r2vq]

I totally agree with you. Anime is [b]so[/b] sexist.
Wherever I go I see those "sexy" people barely wearing anything, running after others, and always acting so slutty!

They're so disgusting and insulting to their sex! It makes me feel inadequite when I see girls drooling over these slutty, sexistly portrayed guys!

Take [URL=http://www.animate-usa.com/HTML/PB/IMAGES/GRAVITATION-0997.jpg]this guy in the background.[/URL] Or [URL=http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Ginza/9148/boynext.jpg]these guys right here.[/URL] Or even [URL=http://www.animate-usa.com/HTML/IMAGES/CF/GETBACKERS_0803AB.jpg]these guys.[/URL]

Anyway. I don't agree with your point. There's slutty guys and slutty girls. I know the links above suck ***, but I'm tired. ^^ There -are- a lot of slutty guys out there. Not just girls.

[quote name='Synical']Do you realise, that anime/manga mainly have women with boobs bigger than thier heads wearing skimpy bikinis (eg: love hina) or tight costumes? but you never see many blokes like that.[/quote]

Probably because blokes don't have boobs or bikinis in real life.

-ArV

[joshdude89]

[quote name='kaisha']Not all animes are like that, I watch Inuyasha and very rarely do you see a girl dressed or portrayed that way. In fact the only one I think I've seen like that is Yura, other than that theres just Miroku and his perverted ways.[/quote]

I want to agree with Kaisha that in Inuyasha there is not many of those that you speak of. It isn't all animes that are like that, only a few, If you watch Vash the Stampede, I do and I havnt seen but a few.

[Wayfarer]

[quote name='Dagger']I'm mildly surprised to see someone with a Rurouni Kenshin avatar make that statement. While Kenshin is not my favorite show, it features plenty of non-fanservice-y women, from Kaoru to Megumi to Misao. [/quote]
[SIZE=1][COLOR=Blue]
Well...okay, you got me there, but I said or at least most of them. There are so many animes out there and more so, so many bad animes out there that Kenshin is sort of like a drop in the bucket compared to all of them. That's actually why I like Kenshin a lot, because it has a lot of really good, deep characters that sort of break the standard mold of most anime women. I was referring to the ninety or so percent of other anime that is very sexist and very steryotypical (cough...love hina, Ranma 1/2, Inuyasha...cough) in which the females are all very cut and dried, and very, as you put it, Dagger, fan-servicey. I was just trying ot say that most female characters ARE very steryotyped and often boring. I'm not trying to start a debate or anything, but I just thought I should get a chance to explain myself. [/COLOR][/SIZE]

[Godelsensei]

[quote name='r2vq']Probably because blokes don't have boobs or bikinis in real life.[/quote]

Actually, men do wear bikinis. They just don't have the top portion to them, for predictable reasons. However, allot of people refer to them simply as "Spedos".

I pretty much agree with you on the fanservice point, though female characters are more frequently totally sexy-ified.

I mean...ever heard of yaoi? *chuckles*

Oh, and just to clarify things a bit, anime can be divided as follows:

[IMG]http://www.geocities.com/godelskarkel/animepiegraph.jpg[/IMG]

I assure you: Miroku is a ******* [i]angel[/i].