Male Objectification in Animation

[Clayton]

 

Do you think men get objectified in animation as much as women? Sure the fantasies and designs are different, but are men objectified in anime just as much as their female counterparts or not? 

 

 

There seem to only be a handful of male types in anime. 

 

#1 The skinny nerd with a harem of women because he's non threatening, even if he can blow up a planet. He's sweet and likes girls, but gets a nosebleed and faints if they like him. Usually designed in a way that unless someone knows them really well they can dress like a girl and nobody questions it. 

 

 

 

#2 Big dumb muscly guys who are either emotionally unavailable or dumb. 

#3 Obsessive boys who are totally cool but uninterested in anything else, women in particular.  

#4 Gay guys

#5 Girls with boy parts. Or boys who just look like girls. (Maybe even have boobs) 

And Finally #6 Guys who are good looking, smart, rich and good with women, but either evil, crazy, or perverse jerks. 

 

 

 

 

[Clayton]

 

So what males in animation have been exploited for their looks? Or treated as a piece of meat by other characters?

 

The Tenchi family...  Kenshi in particular... has suffered most from this

 

 

 

Fullmetal Alchemist too though... 

 

 

 

He-man

 

 

Edited August 21, 2024 by Clayton

[K-chan]

I usually know of them as "character tropes." What is objectification and is it a bad thing?

[Clayton]

5 hours ago, K-chan said:

I usually know of them as "character tropes." What is objectification and is it a bad thing?

 

 

Instead of treating them as people treating them as a mere piece of meat, fan service, or the like. I was reprimanded for doing this in a thread discussing women's large boobs in anime, so I was wondering if anyone felt men were equally objectified in anime. Actually I personally see cartoon characters as little more than shadow puppets, but i was wondering if anyon got equally upset about reating men as sexual objects in anime as they do women. 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2024 by Clayton

[K-chan]

6 hours ago, Clayton said:

Instead of treating them as people treating them as a mere piece of meat, fan service, or the like. I was reprimanded for doing this in a thread discussing women's large boobs in anime, so I was wondering if anyone felt men were equally objectified in anime. Actually I personally see cartoon characters as little more than shadow puppets, but i was wondering if anyon got equally upset about reating men as sexual objects in anime as they do women.

Ah, I see.

I'm very much new to the idea, and it sounds quite redundant in the context of anime, I feel like. I understand "treating them as mere piece of meat" as being ignorant of the character's personality and just gazing at their... body assets. However I'm not sure if it's inherently a bad thing (in the context of anime). If I understand it right, character design is important because not only it creates the character visually (and hot, probably) but it provokes impression. Many of the character tropes that you mentioned in the post are not only their physical attributes but also their personalities which can be seen and/ or accommodated with suitable character design to create impression, mostly to make a character interesting.

A BB character design accommodates a shy personality differently than it does a loli girl, because the impression of the character is different. So I don't really know if stopping gazing at their visual assets is... really better as a way to appreciate anime characters. The idea of objectifying anime characters sounds kind of redundant to me.

Edited September 10, 2024 by K-chan

[Clayton]

To be fair anime characters are not made of meat at all. They are intentionally drawn the way they are and voiced to say stuff... often twice if you include the eNGLISH DUB AS WELL AS SUBTITLES.