Manga with Sexist Themes?
16 years ago
Posts: 13
No matter how good the story is, if it goes behind my limits I'll just stop reading the manga.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm having the impression that in Japan, men and women aren't really that equal. I don't want to assault anyone nor do I have anything against japanese but this is what I think.
I read manga, watch dramas and even read japanese litterature and sexism is something I often cross.
Mayby it's just me but often women with power, ambitition and money are showed to be evil. They always are failures as a woman, mother and wife. Also it's natural to think that women should do the cleaning, cooking and raising children. In manga if a man knows how to cook, it's like a miracle. When a woman does this, it's only natural.
And even when riding car, it's always the man doing it 😀 Something like this doesn't bother me that much but I do realize it.
The most disturbing thing must be the molesting and the rapes. I guess the second thing must be the bulling.
Expecially in Shoujo, Josei oe Ecchi, the main character must almost always be unsure of herself. The guy (usually the one who loves her) calls her ugly 24/7. For some reason the way girls should be insecure always annoys me.
A girl can't be a bitch, but boys can. They can treat anyone like trash as long as they have a tragic past or something.
This is a cliché but a guy can sleep around as he likes, and this makes him cool. If a girl do the same thing she's a slut. Well.. this ain't only in manga, it's everywhere about the same I think.
I really like Japan so to say a word of defend, in shounen's the girls simply rules. But a girl in any gendre of manga is always weaker than some guy or simply more stupid. Well, yuri is sure an exeption.
But as I were saying, in some shonen the girls surely have guts. Also japan must be the only country where it isn't a taboo in porn to have a woman raping a man.
😃
Another thing that kinda makes me ponder is the home violence. Having parent hitting/ slappin their children because they love, want to protect or are worried about them is something I can't accept. Well this is already offtopic.
Member16 years ago
Posts: 314
Well sexism is in real life, so if the manga addresses the issue, it's no different than a manga depicting violence or poverty. Nothing is interesting if there isn't some realism, and something we can relate to.
But if the mangaka himself is sexist and he treats the female characters badly for his own personal reasons, that might be tiring, because it's a character getting put down or depicted badly for no reason.
It's not necessarily a bad manga for that reason, though. Sexist people don't have to be bad storytellers.
If I dropped the series it would be because the story wasn't good, not because I didn't care for the mangaka's views.
16 years ago
Posts: 85
Criticism of sexism in manga is not an attempt to abridge freedom of speech. Criticism itself is speech, and encourages more speech, discussion, and awareness about a particular issue.
My argument doesn't take on the broad perspective of freedom of speech, but rather the individual power to choose because I lay accountability solely at an individual feet. If you disagree with it, don't read it.
Contrary to my argument about accountability, I'm at war with myself. The conservative in me thinks authors need to take into account what they write about and their target audience because there are impressionable minds out there.
The liberal in me is all for freedom of speech, but it frustrates me when I see how popular shoujo manga (because that's what I have the most experience with) promote these sexist stereotypes of what girls are and should be and again makes me wonder if this is art imitating life and if somewhere, life is imitating art.
No one can really say what effect if any that stuff has on people. I console myself with the thought that it is a work of fiction and hope, much like you do, that people take it with a grain ... maybe even a sack of salt if they choose to read it.
And sometimes it is even important to read things with which you disagree to understand how other people think.
I agree with you.
...But The Rapeman... written by a woman no less... 😔 Decades of women's rights— It's fiction, it's comedy it's fiction, it's comedy... Maybe if I tell myself that enough times I'll believe it. But wait! I can chose not to read it however, I cannot fathom why anyone would write that.
It's fiction.
All is right with the world again.
TL;DR: Go buy some salt.
J-SiS.NET - Feed your Josei addiction.
16 years ago
Posts: 186
It really depends what a person means by "sexist themes"
Some of you guys seem to confuse a character with the mangaka's intention.
A character can be sexist without the manga-ka being sexist. If someone is writing about a character with a warped mind and sexist views from the character's perspective, it'd make sense for you to only be privy to that characters' opinions. That doesn't mean the manga promotes sexist themes.
I think that Hot Gimmick is a good example of something that might actually be sexist(though possibly by sheer coincidence). It might seriously be sexist, but it was made as a sort of female fantasy. All the guys are mostly rich, and good looking. But fantasy isn't reality. Alternatively, the manga-ka might have just been trying to create drama and a saintly character and things ended up looking rather sexist.
16 years ago
Posts: 186
there is one manga(technically two) that I did stop because of its seriously sexist overtones.
Blue drop, two different parts of the series. I'm trying to re-read them now, but fully. It's almost vicious and spiteful. It's like literal militant lesbians, trying to carry out the SCUM manifesto.
edit: It's also stupid and not written very well. Really, there's a scene where nothing is preventing this one alien from just punching this human...
16 years ago
Posts: 315
i agree that there's a large difference between characters with sexist beliefs and mangaka's with sexist intention.
i'll read a manga where a character or two might have some sexist beliefs...i mean, yeah i'll hate the character and hope they fall off a cliff in the next chapter, but if the story's good then i don't see any reason to drop the manga. a character's beliefs don't necessarily reflect the mangaka's.
i don't think i've read a manga whose intentions were much to sexist for me to handle, but i do agree that hot gimmick and other mangas where a girl is raped or nearly raped and then believes her attacker was innocent due to his dark past or some garbage like that is extremely degrading and quite offensive for those who have gone through traumatic experiences like those. if that's some people's sexual fantasy, then okay i guess certain strokes for certain folks, but count me out, i won't be reading it.
;D
16 years ago
Posts: 366
Well, I picked the option in the poll, b/c I'm not easily offended unless it starts to effect the quality of the story (in which case I'll just be offended by bad writing).
There are a few series I've read that have had a lot of examples of apparent sexism. I'll use Gantz as an example. Gantz has been on the hot seat quite a few times for it's portrayal of women as useless, expendable sex objects. In fact, the tag line for the chapters is, "Women are either thinking of nothing or something else, one of the two." That might not seem too bad, but it was then that a lot of people realized the series hadn't really portrayed a strong independent female character.
I also take the cultural difference into consideration. It was only 1 or 2 decades ago, where a woman in Japan feeling that she must walk 3 feet behind her husband wasn't considered somewhat strange 😕 . So when I factor that in, I don't really let it get too me as much.
LOOK AT MY WITTY SIG!!11!!!!11
16 years ago
Posts: 1705
Hmm... So far, judging by the poll results, I can't help but suspect that the majority who voted for the 3rd option were male... No offense, but I think that'd kind of make sense. 🤨
Anyway, since most people are listing manga which 'discriminate' females, I thought I it'd be fair to try finding some against guys:
Gakuen Ouji <== At first, I thought this was one, but having read further on I'm not sure it this or the other...
Operation Liberate Men <== Haven't read this yet, but seems like one...
Also, regarding Hot Gimmick, to be honest, I never noticed the sexist themes until mentioned here. Although I enjoyed reading it when I was younger, I'd have to agree with the comments mentioned before, especially on the ending.
Probably one of the reasons why the 'fanfiction' version with the alternate pairing was able to get published and even licensed in to english. 🤣
Member16 years ago
Posts: 9026
Quote from CatzCradle
Hmm... So far, judging by the poll results, I can't help but suspect that the majority who voted for the 3rd option were male... No offense, but I think that'd kind of make sense. 🤨
You're being sexist in your own sexism thread! 😛
Ehm, from what I heard, Domina no Do can be considered a manga that is sexist towards males, or it at least contains female characters that are sexist.
source: animenewsnetwork
Join SRoMU Scanlations or visit #SRoMU at IRCHighWay.
16 years ago
Posts: 1762
Quote from CatzCradle
Hmm... So far, judging by the poll results, I can't help but suspect that the majority who voted for the 3rd option were male...
I'm a female and voted the third option. I don't really care either way about sexism in manga or other literature.
I'm sure I've read some, but not overtly so, since nothing specific comes to mind.
16 years ago
Posts: 3888
I guess I'd give it up.
I haven't really come across extremely sexist manga...
♪MONSTARR~ will eat all your cookies and steal your bishies~♪ Φ_Φ
16 years ago
Posts: 1705
Quote from Dr. Love
Quote from CatzCradle
Hmm... So far, judging by the poll results, I can't help but suspect that the majority who voted for the 3rd option were male... No offense, but I think that'd kind of make sense. 🤨
You're being sexist in your own sexism thread! 😛
Ehm, from what I heard, Domina no Do can be considered a manga that is sexist towards males, or it at least contains female characters that are sexist.
Arugh, I didn't mean it that way, and I don't quite know how to explain... 🤢
Anyway, out of all the ecchi I've read, I think I'd have to say Change123, despite it's genre, is actually quite 'fair.'
16 years ago
Posts: 1310
SO I have to care?
Hey, If I can read manga with racism (poor Chad and his destiny to be a loser), then why the hell I should care about sexism? (at least in lesser levels)
The only thing important is the plot, the side jokes can be about anything as long as they are funny, I don't have to care if they joke about religion or politics.
16 years ago
Posts: 1353
Some ecchi titles may be considered fetishism (e.g. tsundere BDSM) instead of sexism, similar to shoujo smut's rape, etc fetishes. Though there are probably more of such shoujo smut than ecchi out there. Can THAT alone be sexist? I don't know. It makes me think that female submission is the social norm. Even women accept that otherwise there wouldn't be so many shoujo smut titles with submissive females. Just think of the vast amount of seinen manga where women, more often than men, are the ones who are exploited victims. Mangakas use this to create drama. I often think this can even be a "moe" factor to some male audience?
I agree with some, that the intented audience and result, and whether the manga is having sexist characters/dialogues and making them "cool" or simply addressing the issue should be taken into consideration before judging whether the manga is sexist.
16 years ago
Posts: 186
Quote from base_coat
Some ecchi titles may be considered fetishism (e.g. tsundere BDSM) instead of sexism, similar to shoujo smut's rape, etc fetishes.
Dominanodo is definitely more fetish than anything. Only chapter 4 specifically really crosses the line, not just the dialogue where they say men should be controlled/punished/dumb/worthless ect ect. A more horrible thing was the shock tennis match. I saw a movie about war crimes in some african country where a guy lost use of his equipment because of such horrible torture. Other than that, the violence is more comical(alone love hina but with more a bit more gore) and the rest is pure fetish.
I was reading someone's blog review-ish of MGS(I'm assuming 4, he had structured as questions for Kojima), where he calls the developer sexist. That was surprising. The women in MGS tend to look slightly more realistic pretty than most games(especially japanese games). Not to mention, almost solely due to the scenario, they have to be rather tough, and competent(THE BOSS IS FREAKING AWESOME).
