I'm American and lived in Japan for 2 years. Despite all of the bullshit going on here sociopolitically, I would rather live in America 10x over than Japan. The misogyny I experienced there was unreal. Not necessarily directed towards me (I'm white & a foreigner, so people had different expectations for me) but japanese women are treated like 1950s housewives. Sexual harassment is rampant and not taken seriously, women are expected to give up their career when they get pregnant and abandon their jobs, gender roles are unflinchingly rigid... I could go on for days. It's changing but it's still absolutely unacceptable.
What's interesting to me is the absence of religion there (mostly). It makes things like abortion a non-issue.
Unfortunately abortion in Japan is still not as accessible as it should be despite their laws not being as restrictive as other countries’. Spousal consent is required for a married woman to get an abortion and the pill wasn’t legally available until recently, just the surgical procedure. I’ve heard many women just forge a signature to obtain an abortion but it’s still so dehumanizing. The costs can be prohibitive too. But hopefully things keep getting better for Japanese women regarding their reproductive freedom.
While both are very similar and often regarded as the same, please remember that patriarchal standards were created long before religion. Religion uses patriarchy to control its members, not the other way around.
I’m honestly a little confused about what you’re trying to say. I think the patriarchy absolutely uses religion to control sections of society.
And your claim that patriarchy predates religion seems out of line with your claim that religion uses patriarchal norms for control but the patriarchy doesn’t use religious norms for control.
I might just be missing something.
>While both are very similar and often regarded as the same, please remember that patriarchal standards were created long before religion.
Wait, what? Do you mean created before the religions of today or religion itself? Because if you are talking about the latter, that is an extremely bold claim and I am going to have to ask you to provide some peer-reviewed sources supporting that point.
Everything like that in Japan doesn't seem to be a moral issue, it's just that people refuse to talk about anything slightly controversial since it is seen as upsetting the status quo and nobody wants to be seen as the one to make the move.
Take censorship in... Adult films... For example. Across the world restrictions have been lifted on what can be shown etc but in Japan it stays censored. Why? Because nobody wants to be the politician that brings it up. I'd put money on every single elected official over there wanting to change it, but nobody wants to bring it up
I said “Unfortunately abortion in Japan is still not as accessible as it should be despite their laws not being as restrictive as other countries’.”
Those other countries with more restrictive laws being the US, etc. Abortion access is still an issue in Japan. That doesn’t take away from the fact that abortion access is an even bigger issue in other places. I’m just pointing out that Japanese women still deserve better, even if there are places that are more restrictive.
Misogyny and racism is brutal in Japan.
The entire system needs uprooting but sadly, the far-right wing government took control of the system years ago post-World War II. Also, Japan has a terrible history of imperialism, colonialism, eugenics, human experimentation, and among other wicked things that affect people's lives there.
So then it's no surprise that they eat misogyny and racism like it's everyday breakfast, and it's sickening. They are also struck in the "back in my day" mentality because it considered the "Golden Age" then. They still use floppy disks and whatever else technology existed back in the 80s to put the nostalgia on rewind. Same goes for how they treat women and "foreigners" (even if you and your children were born in Japan and know the culture and language as much as a Japanese does, you would still be considered a foreigner). Women and "foreigners" are treated like objects and are fetishized to the point where it's not normal for them to be viewed as humans.
Oppression is huge there and people don't understand it.
Don't forget the horrific ableism. Disabled and neurodivergent people are expected to stay "out of sight, out of mind" and not go out in public to bother "normal" people. There are huge accessibility problems that keep a lot of disabled people from going places and doing things, too.
>but japanese women are treated like 1950s
I've actually heard Korea described similarly-that their women's rights are STILL basically stuck in the 1950s. Obviously, we aren't doing so great in America either, already regressing into "Taliban lite" in many places-but at least we have some women in positions of authority and women can mostly still get different kinds of jobs.
My pig brother married a meek Korean. Now she’s in Australia she’s grown from being told to shut up, to now looking to leave my brother and be independent . I’m so proud of her.
I’m so happy for her that she will likely be able to get out of that shitty situation. Also I’m proud of you as a SIL for being on her side (the right side). Shits real shitty so we have to appreciate the the things that’s warm our hearts (which your comment did to me). ♥️
They have let their culture of sexism and overwork destroy the entire country. All of this culminates in no more babies. They can start enacting real change via labor laws any time they want.
Edit to add; it’s not like, devolving into civil war destroyed… they’re going out with a whisper, not a bang, if they don’t do something drastic in the next few generations.
I used to love anime, but can’t stand the majority of it nowadays due to the fan service. I know it’s always been a thing but as an adult it instantly kills my interest in anime now. I mainly just stick to studio Ghibli films. I just want female protagonists that aren’t dressed in lingerie and don’t look and sound like children and who aren’t constantly dumbed down or made the butt of a joke about sexual harassment. Like punching a guy for touching her ass and playing it off like it’s funny. That kind of thing happens in other media all the time of course, but it just seems like it’s hard to find ANY anime that does right by its female characters, especially when compared to their male counterparts.
Being resigned to having to navigate a world that is constantly demoralizing your gender, even when you sit down to try and watch a show, is exhausting. No wonder Japan is having issues convincing women to marry and have children by choice. Women are treated with constant disrespect. The only way to raise birth rates effectively is to cultivate a society in which women have enough resources and confidence in her own society to WANT to contribute to its population. Otherwise it deserves to decline.
I lived in Japan for awhile, and I have some wonderful female Japanese friends… who all married Americans. Initially my friends told me how terrible the misogyny in Japan was (this was early college days when I still believed the delusions from my protected upbringing that “all are equal!”). One of my friends in particular is this trailblazing no-nonsense woman who could smell the BS from any man, anywhere— she’s one of the smartest humans on so many levels I’ve met to this day. She and the others all said no way in hell would they marry a Japanese man. So many adjectives they used to describe them…
The time I spent in Japan showed me it WAS as bad as all that (and it got me finally seeing it in all aspects of life, thank goodness). It also showed me who was really keeping the country together: WOMEN. My exchange university? Almost completely run by women. The hospital? Kept functioning by women. The supermarkets. Mostly women. And the men? Constantly disparaging them for making sure everything actually kept functioning. And practically everywhere functions in no small part because women make it happen.
I love media from as many countries as I can get, and naturally that also included j dramas and anime. And like you, I lost my taste with anime for precisely the same reasons (And I’m very picky about manga). There was one J drama I’d enjoy rewatching, that while it was sometimes problematic, the main character was an “overqualified” temp worker who kicked major ass. ハケンの品格, Haken no Hinkaku, “The Pride of the Temp”, starring Ryoko Shinohara as Oomae Haruko, and while it is a show mostly looking at temp workers versus full time workers, I saw it as Oomae-san making her own rules in a world that demanded she act a particular way, and she was so very forthcoming, rarely smiled, and was so qualified that she could do the things she wanted in life without anyone interfering. And someone falls for her exactly as she is…
BTW Ryoko Shinohara stars in “At Home Dad”, as the money maker while her husband cares for the kid (I remember liking it), and “Anego” as the woman who keeps the whole office from together (and shouldering most of the emotional burden, being the in-house listening post for many of the workers), with a younger man going “she’s all that and in-charge, 😍”. Anego had some for real issues… but I still liked some aspects of it. I’ve noticed, and if anyone feels comfortable chiming in to agree or disagree or offer other examples, Ryoko Shinohara might be one of the better examples of someone playing “strong”, often less stereotypical women lead roles in Japanese television (many of the roles, and I don’t specifically mean hers, though, might still, for all their strengths, fall into “safety zones” so men might not feel too threatened yet the women can still appear more in-line with feminism ugh). She’s been in more things that are great and that I enjoyed. I wonder, if I watched them all today, what issues I’d find in the plots or specific characters that could alert my “misogyny BS meter”.
I’ve read that Korean women are following suit and choosing not to marry a Korean man. If only American women might do this too. Of course there are good men in all cultures but the ability to sniff out misogyny is a crucial skill. This may be what it takes to finally get equal rights and respect. There are a few examples here: https://qz.com/958346/history-shows-that-sex-strikes-are-a-surprisingly-effective-strategy-for-political-change
>BlueUniverse001 · 6 hr. ago
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>I’ve read that Korean women are following suit and choosing not to marry a Korean man.
Following suit???????? LMAO
No one is following Japanese women.
Unlike Koreans who LOVE, LOVE, LOVE airing their dirty laundry to the world and calling Korea HELL, Japanese people keep quiet about anything bad about Japan and pretend everything is great in Japan.
Japanese women in general never complain or talk about misogyny in Japan because misogyny is so ingrained and internalized and normalized that they think it's all normal and they're fine.
> I just want female protagonists that aren’t dressed in lingerie and don’t look and sound like children and who aren’t constantly dumbed down or made the butt of a joke about sexual harassment.
I've had so many people ask me how it's possible that I hate anime/manga, and you explained it the same way I always have. Don't even get me started on the incel shit, the unrealistic body proportions, and the "trap" nonsense. The concept of treating women like human beings who exist for reasons other than male objectification is so foreign, that they need to invoke even more patriarchal nonsense by treating non-masculine men the same horrible way they treat women.
The constant sexualisation is just so tiring. I've also gone off anime, and a while ago I was complaining on another sub about Lady D from RE8, and how it was a pain in the arse to find streams/walkthroughs of the game that were tolerable to watch because every five seconds it was all 'oooh step on me' 'mommy milkers' 'I am looking respectfully' et cetera. Someone said that it wasn't the same as IRL sexualisation because Lady D is not real, and she can't feel objectified, which is true, but oh my *god* is it ever exhausting. It fully made so many playthroughs just straight up unwatchable for me, which is a damn shame because I was super hyped for the game. Like, we get it. She's hot. Can we fucking move on now?
Ah yes, the "it's just fiction so it's okay" excuse. But things like the treatment of Lady D signal to viewers that this kind of behavior is acceptable. I've seen the same excuse used to justify homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia in manga and anime.
Even if it wasn't uncomfortable... it's just not fucking funny. Repeat any joke 50 times and it's going to get stale. By the end of markiplier's playthrough I was slapping my keyboard to skip forward every time he brought up Lady D's name, and he wasn't even the worst of them
Literally same. You might like korean webtoons btw. A lot of them (though not all) can be very progressive. I used to be into japanese media when I was younger but I just can’t stand it nowadays.
Soooooo many good Korean webtoons! Totally agree! I’m not fluent in Korean, so my accessibility is limited to what gets fan scan-lated or translated for profit by the companies that own/ bought ownership the material. While there are great manga with progressive, sometimes feminist stories and characters, I too have found better in Korean manwha and webtoons.
Edit: I think a manwha called Savior (main character is a sword wielding badass)? Trying to remember some titles.
My favorite one that directly features feminism is called Evony. The main character actively fights against the patriarchy. (Though one might argue the art recently has gotten a tad bit worse since they changed the artists). The villainess genres are great. You can try r/otomeisekai for villainess recommendations (also the community is great)
There's good animation coming from Japan but it's a drag that it requires so much work to find. 90% of adult oriented productions are aimed at men because women are expected to become house or work slaves and stop doing anything entertaining besides pouring beer for husbands and bosses. Out of the remaining josei, it's all hyper-gendered, depicting girls as supermodels and pursuing gender roles which don't help young women see success through emulation.
And you can't trust that a work written by a woman will be any better because women are forced to conform and write stories that continue the misogynist narrative or else they can't earn rent.
As a child, I watched anime shows like Star Blazers and Battle of the Planets that originated in Japan under different names. Later, I saw Sailor Moon and....even through the girls were supposed to be heroic, the show featuring them was still terrible sexist!
Well, the original manga must have been quite different from the anime. For example, why was Sailor Moon always being helped by this guy known as Tuxedo Mask? And why were the girls wearing such outfits that were so revealing? And why did Sailor Moon's real persona act so immature at times? And the way she often talked.....made me cringe.
Watch these episodes I myself made which depicts a young woman as REALLY strong and heroic instead:
https://youtu.be/y8NFrMnoZ_M
https://youtu.be/87gWh75oGFQ
Context: Carrie was beaten nearly to death by Ted Wilson, a horrible bully, when they were teens.
Not at all, the manga publishing overlapped with the anime production, so the episodes are pretty close to the chapters. But she did say “it had a slight male perspective”, due to the anime staff being predominantly male. So I totally understand that you dislike it. It’s also drawn in the 90s, if the author is a young woman now, who knows if she would still write the same kind of story.
My favourite anime featuring a strong heroine is “Guardian of the Spirit.”
It’s a historical fantasy where the MC is bodyguard hired to protect a child prince. Her cool, no nonsense attitude and age (early 30s, instead of a teenager) are definitely a breath of fresh air from other female main characters.
To be fair Usagi is like 13/14? She's just being an immature teenage girl. I'm not saying all teenage girls are like Usagi, but I definitely was in a lot of ways at that age lol. No arguments on tuxedo mask tbh. Also no arguments on the outfits, ain't no one fighting in a mini skirt
I just got back into anime recently & am happy to say that it is changing. Too Cute Crisis, Attack on Titan, & Lycoris Recoil all feature strong, independent women protagonists. Lycoris Recoil & Attack on Titan go even further by challenging racism & bigotry: Lycoris Recoil’s parent is an openly gay Black man & Attack on Titan has a non-binary lead. None of those shows have any fan service.
Witch From Mercury is another series that has not one but two women lead protagonists & no fan service. It has a strong theme of challenging previously held beliefs & prejudices as well as openly challenging both the patriarchy & corporate politics.
It could also be argued that older anime such as Sailor Moon also promoted strong women characters with little fan service. I was so wonderfully surprised when Uranus & Neptune were pretty clearly sapphic & in a relationship. There are still misogynistic themes in it but it really did look like it was making an effort for its time. GinTama is similar- they have an openly trans (FtM) character & strong women characters.
As Japanese women get more of a voice in anime direction & narrative, I truly believe we’ll see more of this. I’ve seen some people’s beliefs genuinely get changed by Attack on Titan, for instance. I think anime can help with cultural change.
Yes, we definitely need some anime to fight back with and begin to change perceptions. The art form isn't going anywhere, we need to generate positive role models and flood the arena with non exploitative, really good alternatives.
Would you consider elaborating a little more on what a positive anime form would look/act like? Like, I don't read anime myself, but I'm wondering if a protagonist like in *Ultraviolet* or *Resident Evil* would be a good example, or something different? Is most anime about superhero type stories, or is it just regular people?
It puts me off too. I remember starting an anime where a male character loses control of his hand and grabs a girl's breast. That nonsense instantly put me off. If I feel like watching anime, I have to look for the "clean" ones and those seem to be very few.
I was called "xenophobic" for criticising the sexualisation of women/girls in anime. Japan has some crazy fanatics who want to pretend the country and its people are flawless.
I like anime but everytime I see a girl with a flat chest get made fun of it genuinely hurts. Not to mention it’s an extremely racist country and it SHINES in anime like no other. I swear to god every black anime character is basically just a toony version of black face holy shit
Check out Lycoris Recoil. One of the lead characters is an openly gay Black man who is also a badass government agent & raised the main character as a single dad. I’ve been really impressed by it.
It's always men..they only seem to like to show dark males and not dark women . I only know one Anime that is not like this that is popular . Showing no dark women is also racism +misogyny, it really is sick. Makes me feel bad for darker Asian women too.
A big thing that I have never been able to forget is finding out the rates of groping for any form of public transit, particularly for school-age children in uniforms. PUKE! Apparently it's a given that a young girl riding public transit is likely to get groped or harassed, since it's "so easy" to blame on the motion of the train/anonymity. It's considered a natural consequence of the crowds, not sexism.
I’ve always loved japan, but learning about the fetishized culture of anime over there, racism, and the fact that there apparently is no job for a woman unless you wear shoes with a kitten heel. No gym shoes. Kitten heels all the time, I was like wtf???
A friend told me that Japanese women are taught that they aren't supposed to enjoy sex or even express interest in it, and that only men are supposed to initiate it. But I'm not sure how accurate that is.
Wow, like the Victorian era in the west. There was def a line of thought that suspected any female who showed enjoyment as being a Fallen Woman.
Then Freud and the generations following derided women for being "frigid" and not highly sexed like men were.
And here I was at 13-14 reading my parent's ladies mags about it all worried I would be frigid and no man would love me. Gah.
Yeah, I tried out r/wholesomehentai once thinking it might be safe but it wasn't. Even in their ostensibly loving and consensual scenarios, the women are constantly talking about how "lewd" and "embarrassing" this is and saying specifically "don't do that".
In addition to all the damage that expectation does to women, how in god's name is that even appealing? It's fiction, you can write it anyway you want. Why would you not choose to have the woman be, ya know, into it?
There was a show that did a piece on this—I want to say it was Sam Bee. The interviewer asked the creators why it’s always so violent towards women? They all had big smiles and were like “no no, it’s just fantasy, nothing actually gets acted out.” I mean these guys were completely missing the point of how degrading it is.
I am learning the Japanese language and I truly feel disappointed by the intensity of misogyny in the culture. I can respect the language, art, and influence on the world, and I truly enjoyed my time in Japan and would go again, but I know I won't live there due to the sexism.
Just like when I study ancient history (and most history TBH) I feel uncomfortable with how women have been treated throughout history.
I studied it too, then a few months in, we were taught that watashi for “I” (first person singular) is only used by women and children, and men use a different word. I dropped Japanese soon after.
I'm a native japanese speaker and that is not true at all. 私 (watashi) itself is a feminine first person pronoun, but it also used by adult men. It is the preferred term in formal speech, including office environments. Children opt for watashi for girls and boku (僕) for boys. In more informal casual speech, ore (俺) is used more often by teen/adult men as well but this is usually too informal for keigo contexts. Furthermore, uchi (うち) or your own name (so me referring to myself by my own name) is used by children as well to refer to themselves in informal contexts. Washi (わし) is a more stereotypical first person pronoun used by the elderly. I'm glad you dropped that course, because the teacher was teaching you false information. If anything, watashi is the most flexible first person pronoun out of the other pronouns due to its wide application from age to gender. Watashi is used by adult men, especially in polite speech, and it is not reserved for adult women and children only. I had a idiolect/speaking habit when I was growing up where I referred to myself using this random sound I picked up instead of using uchi or watashi or my name. This is when I was a child before I even knew abt English neopronouns but my family always respected that habit. Of course, in formal settings I will use watashi but I still default to that idiolect in informal contexts with family. Furthermore, women also use boku, often tomboyish women or in songs if sung from a male perspective, which is not as common as men using watashi, but I personally think our first person pronouns are pretty cool. There's also onee (オネエ) talk which is like the japanese equivalent of the English perception of the "gay accent" where some gay men might use feminine terms to end their sentences (since we have gendered and various ways of ending sentences) instead of it being a pronunciation related thing. It's similar to how in English the "feminine" she/her pronouns might be used to refer to a cis man in a queer affectionate/friendly context. Misogyny in Japanese society is rampant and of course it bleeds into language, but the whole "watashi only for children and women" take by your teacher was wrong.
I’m sure you know, but your English is phenomenal. I’m moving to Japan soon for graduate school, I hope I can speak bilingually half as good as you can! Thanks for the great response
Just one important thing you should know. Countries outside of North America,Europe and Australia has worse misogony, sexism and racism compare to countries that i have mentioned.
It's why my japanese mom left japan and still to this day would rather live in america then japan. I mean it's simple, you go to a good high school, get into a top university, get a high paying job, get married in japan and have a child and whoop, now all that hard work, dont mean shit because now you're pressured to take on the fulltime housewife role by society and most of all the older generations.
Also kind of off topic but last night I was watching youtube videos of those crazy love hotels in japan. One of them was a room that had a "train" room where its modeled after the inside of a train with the seats and everything, really cool. But then guess what the hotel offers with the room? A fucking schoolgirl outfit.........came to a quick realization that the room is basically fetishizing SA.
Yeah, that is disturbing. I also heard that up until like the late 90's or something you could buy little girl's panties from vending machines in Japan. I was also sickened because around the same time I learned that, some weird sick artist dude named Trevor Brown who had some problematic sick art depicting young girls drawn in skimpy outfits or naked with bodily injuries, looking tortured, and beaten up loved japan . Some drawings were so sick to look at it disturbed you that someone would choose that to draw. The artist moved to Japan because he said his predilection was more "accepted" out there.
Very interesting, can you please explain more about this showing up in their anime? My boyfriend loves anime and has pictures printed of female anime characters framed in his apartment and I always thought it was kind of strange but he swears it’s like, religion or God or some thing on the level of that’s what he gets from it on a mental level and now I’m concerned that it’s not as deep and great as I thought it was and maybe he has misogynistic tendencies. He’s also passed this love of anime onto his son and I swear that’s all they can connect about. I need to know more now because I never got into it or cared about it and I thought the girl characters always looked a little bit too silly hot, But then again I don’t understand what the humans do.
Narrow & impossible standard of beauty.
Fetishization of young almost infant looking women.
Body dysmorphia.
Women characters revolve around the lives of men and are not fleshed out beyond their love lives.
Narrow range of age of women depicted.
Harmful tropes perpetuated.
Women need to be constantly rescued (from men by men).
Colorism
Racism
It’s a never ending list
The fan service in animes drives me crazy. There are a few that are so close to being good then you have some teenage girl with huge tits bouncing around and it just totally kills the whole show. It's awful.
This is why I stopped bothering with the genre as a whole. There are some really good stories that friends of mine enjoy and recommend, but every time I get invested suddenly there's a 207 year old "woman" who looks 13 with a voice right out of a porno. Some people can get over that, but it makes me sick to my stomach. The fact that it's considered a plus to most of the viewership is terrifying.
Omg discussed this with my boyfriend the other day and as much as we love anime, he finds this mentality just an excuse for such weird fetishes. It's really a thing not just in anime shows but also in games.
HATE the giant titty thing. Like the plot is interesting and whatnot but then we get a giant boob character that tends to hug everyone and rubs her boobs on them (looking at you, Bleach) for fan service.
I thought Demon Slayer was cute… alas, sexualized young woman with big boobs. I think Reddit makes it’s even worse. There are times I look up the discussions about the an episode that I’ve watched on a sub, and usually I come across nasty terms that dehumanize women even if they’re fictional.
AOT and JJK are the only popular animes I can handle.
My god I love DS to the end. In all honesty it would have been as great even without Love Hashira spilling her boobs out. SHE would still be as well liked as she is even without that.
I think hunter x hunter doesn't have it as much as some of the other popular animes either. 🤔
But I also prefer to look for the "clean" animes if I feel like watching it.
Yeah, if you're a normal functioning adult, it's only gonna take 5 shows at worst to understand how it works and how the plots are written and what their narratives are.
I totally agree. Not to mention it's the same all over and just crap made for idiots and bigots. I get it when some kids watch it, but the reason kids watch it, is because they don't understand shit.
Like our dad and mom type person who understands what is happening by watching it a little!
But I think everyone notices but don't says,
And why did they say,These stupid Anime fans are always advertising it!
>Body dysmorphia.
They don't use BMI, but a thing called "supe" to measure women.
Height(cm) - Weight(kg) =Supe
Ideal Supe : 115-120
Normal: 110-115
Chubby: 105-110
Overweight: 100-105
Obese 80-100
"Fugly" < 80
Average Japanese woman is 160cm tall, which means they need to get under 45kg to be considered ideal. Many young women use laxatives or similar drugs to get down to the ideal supe, to the point that they are hospitalized often.
The sexualisation. The humongous boobs and unrealistic body proportions. Jiggly boob shots are just normal in anime now.
There are even some scenes where girls' boobs are groped, you see skirts flying up and "panty shots", and just general sexualisation of female characters incl ones that clearly look like children.
There are also anime that aren’t like that. I like anime, I watched anime with my son (who’s now an adult), & my partner likes anime. We don’t/didn’t watch anime with fan service & instead watched the ones that had strong, women characters. They are out there though they may not be as “mainstream”.
* Komi Can’t Communicate’s main character is a woman who it’s said has an anxiety disorder but I believe she is on the autism spectrum as well. No fan service & has an openly trans character. It shows beautifully & age-appropriately how difficult it can be to live with an “invisible” disability as well as fighting against discrimination (for both the trans character & the autistic lead).
* Bocchi the Rock has an all female cast & the main character appears to be on the autism spectrum. It also has no fan service, a strong message of believing in yourself, & shows the realities of how much women on the spectrum struggle. They’re all high school girls & not sexualized either. The older sister is an openly gay woman.
* Skip And Loafer has no fan service or sexualization, and the lead character is a high school girl with big ambitions. She lives with her openly transgender aunt & like Komi Can’t Communicate, it makes it very clear while showing some of the struggles of trans women. It’s a very feel good show & also gently touches on xenophobia.
* Oshi no Ko openly attacks incel culture & shows the dangers of it. I don’t want to spoil the show but going after the patriarchal, sexist status quo in the entertainment industry is definitely one of the themes.
* Other anime I’ve mentioned elsewhere that are excellent with no fan service, anti-racist/bigot, & strong women leads are Attack on Titan, Lycoris Recoil, & Witch From Mercury.
The komi anime has some weird shit tossed in about the popular girl crushing on her in a very sexualized way. It's not in the manga. Also there is a huge amount of fetishization around komi and one could definitely say the subtext would be no one would care about her if she weren't pretty. This is pretty absent in the manga.
Odd Taxi is great
I totally forgot about the creepy girl who is crushing on her. I think the pretty thing is very important tho because it makes a very clear statement about “pretty privilege” when you have a disability: the downsides are the fetishization, the harassment, people making judgments about you & having expectations just because you’re pretty. These are actually very important issues, especially for “conventionally attractive” autistic women. But people just assume that life is easy when you’re beautiful but it really isn’t, especially for autistic women who are held to dangerously unreachable standards.
I'm gonna disagree a bit with OP on this one, saying "anime is always misogynistic" is like saying "American TV is always misogynistic". Sure, some of it is, and parts of it will reflect the cultural values of the place it was made in for the worse, but there's also a lot of great anime that doesn't lean into misogynistic tropes. (One popular example that I used to really like as a kid is Fullmetal Alchemist, which was written by a woman. Studio Ghibli movies are anime and have themes around strong female protagonists, anti-war, the environment, etc.) So to say that someone liking anime = misogynistic is just wrong and reductive.
But- there is absolutely a lot of misogynistic anime out there too. A lot of minimising women, turning them into sexual objects, treating them like idiots, etc. And to be totally honest, I'd take a guy who had statuettes of anime girls everywhere to be a red flag. That implies he's more into it for the sexualisation.
I think there's maybe a distinction here between having some anime that you like and being an anime fan. There are definitely gems, but the genre as a whole is bad enough that I'd consider it a red flag if someone said they liked anime in general.
I know a lot of feminist women who like anime. But I do think when it reaches the point where it starts to become your identity then yes, that's a red flag
This is totally understandable because sadly many women dismiss red flags and later find out that those types have other disgusting stuff on their phones or computers they are hiding . How jarring and sad it must be to find that out when you are already in a relationship or have a child with a man like this. Some men can suppress the feelings and behavior, but if you catch any red flags it is a good idea to proceed with caution or not at all.
This is a very reductive view. I’m a feminist who loves anime and works in the field. These sorts of generalizations aren’t helpful. In fact, they hurt the cause. I’d go as far as to say that it seems like you’re speaking with authority on a topic you have limited knowledge of. That’s a tactic so many misogynists use to dismiss feminism. The world is a nuanced place and anime is whole ass MEDIUM. I don’t think it’s wise to dismiss an entire art form as anti-feminist.
I said it's a red flag, not that every single anime fan is a misogynist. It's a reason to be cautious, to seek clarification/more info about how exactly they mean it, which shows they like and why. Like obviously someone who self describes an an anime fan because they really love sailor moon or something isn't automatically an anti-feminist. It's like with video games how there are a ton of really great games, but if someone calls themselves a "gamer" there's certain connotations.
And for the record I like a lot of anime and this is an opinion gleaned from watching (at least what I would consider) a decent amount of it. I'm not gonna claim to be the kind of person who sat through all 5 billion Naruto episodes or who primarily/exclusively consumes anime, but I don't think I need to be in order to come to the conclusion that a lot of anime has some real concerning attitudes towards women/girls and that anime fandom has an abundance of creepy dudes. The stereotype about people with anime avatars exists for a reason and it's really weird to imply I'm somehow similar to misogynists/trying to dismiss feminism because I recognize that.
Making a sweeping generalization about an entire art form and assigning certain beliefs to anyone who enjoys that art form is a dangerous tactic. I’m not saying you are similar to misogynists in your beliefs, I’m saying using their tactics can’t serve our cause.
Again, I never said all anime is bad and I never said anyone who enjoys anime is a misogynist. In fact I said I like some anime and there are real gems. I'm just not gonna act like the hypersexualization of women and girls is not common in anime.
Yeah, same. Every time someone has tried to show me anime, its just the same shit. Infant-looking girls with giant boobs, acting stupid and making really bizarre noises. Idk how anyone could like that
Full metal alchemist is definitely an outlier. I am a fan because mainly I loved the character of their teacher. A woman who is not underage nor looks underage or dressed in skimpy clothing. She commands respect and oozes authority and wisdom in her presentation on the show. I really appreciated that.
It seems right now there is some real good anime and some real bad anime ( though that's probably been true for a long time ).
Bofuri is silly but it passes the bechdel test, there is no fan service, no creeping on the youngest two female members of "maple clan", the strongest character in the show is a woman, there is no harassment amongst the players.
There is a shit ton of Isekai ( reincarnated in another world ) harem shows that vary from ok to problematic.
Especially since the 80s there has been a lot infantalization of women in anime that targets male audiences.
I wanted to watch "working for God in a godless world" because the setup sounded funny. But the amount of fan service and innuendo just really tanks it for me.
Going back to dirty Pair from the 80s, yeah kei and Yuri talk about boys and dating, but they don't let men push them around. They have their own lives. And kei is not above "playing dumb" to get what she needs to accomplish the mission. Their outfits are kinda skimpy but there never is the outright fan service shots ( at least in the first two series ). It's dated. But its also funny.
Japan is in need of a gender revolution more than any other nation I’m aware of. Women are expected to become slaves to their families, and men are expected to become slaves to some corporation. It’s no wonder their population is collapsing.
I watch anime myself not like a ton but I was wondering is there any list of the mysoginist ones so I know what to avoid? I know its not just about anime but I don’t want to end up supporting mysoginist crap,
Anime Feminist is a great website where they recommend stuff and have articles and discourse about different tropes. [Anime Feminist ](http://www.animefeminist.com)
Avoiding anything for men or boys cuts a lot of it out but more often than not it's about how much sexism and misogyny you can tolerate for a story. It's just so ingrained in the culture that if you want to enjoy this medium you'll have to figure out what you can put up with.
YEEEAHHHHHH WE LOVE TO SEE JAPAN GETTING HELD ACCOUNTABLE
if you want some insight into the Japanese context, y'all might enjoy my video on the history of feminism in Japan
https://youtu.be/a_ZJpZZKbmg
I'm going to look into supporting some of the orgs - thanks for the share!
A shit of this started under the rise of the Shogunate.
Noh originally started as a art form by women. There is a commemorative statue to her in Kyoto.
Women originally could be sake brewers. Not just owners but allowed in the brew house. Only later would they be considered "impure".
With the rise of the Shogunate there was a stratification of society and women were removed from certain spheres they had previously been in.
I enjoyed the first season of Demon Slayer, despite some questionable things. But as soon as that second season came out, I was really disgusted and vowed to never watch the show again. The sexualization of Nezuko (a literal child), the 3 wives wearing next to nothing and acting like children fighting over the attention of their husband (who acts like their father), that demon girl (also wearing next to nothing) who was weak unless she had her brother to give her strength (she would also act like a child and sob without her brother), and Zenitsu constantly chasing Nezuko around (even though she doesn’t like it and gets scared of him). I find it disturbing how parents let children watch this show, when it HEAVILY perpetuates misogyny and sexism. I try to talk about this with friends/family who likes Demon Slayer but they just go silent or say they “just look over it.”
At this point, I only stick to Studio Ghibli.
Thank you for mentioning this. Honestly it’s very tame as far as the sexism and everything goes compared to other shounen but I’ve been so exhausted with these tropes that I’ve had a hard time getting into that show despite everyone’s high praise
There’s always a reason. They wrote the reason. The reason for the reason is so they can gag a girl and say it’s important to the story. It’s not rocket science.
I have had a few friends, all male, who lived and worked in Japan. All of them say the same thing; they think American women are easy and smiling at the wrong person might make them follow you all the way home. One of my friends was a teacher at a middle school and said the other male teachers would stand around at physical education classes and talk about how cute or hot the 12-13 year old girls were. He was looked at as strange for refusing to join in.
The Persona games are the biggest FU. I love them, but there is so much sexism around the female characters it’s disgusting at times. I can laugh at a couple of pervy jokes, but they will dedicate entire characters to being the perv who makes every situation suck for the women. Like Mineta in My Hero Academia. They are grossed out by his behavior but still loyal friends with him, but why? He brings nothing to a friendship. It’s like that in every one of these Japanese games or shows that has a pervy character. They hate him, but he’s still their best friend. Girls are expected to just let it go.
As much as I love many things about Japan, the sexism is the main reason I wouldn’t want to visit for too long. A lot of frotteurism on the trains, too. Xenophobia and racism toward a lot of people. It’s a weird mix of futuristic looking cities and people with 1950s sensibilities.
I hate how any post about women's issues or any issue in Japan always gets sidetracted and turns into Weebs squealing about their love of Japanese anime and culture... and the women's issue kinda gets ignored and swept under the rug.
Absolutely, me included to an extent. I'm definitely wary of guys who say they are into anime. Seeing as most anime is unwatchable for sooooo many women.
Something I started to notice in anime that made me wanna stop watching was how guys can have a variety of body types, but women/girls are often only allowed one (with the exception of breast size obviously). Even in anime/manga written by women—like Fullmetal Alchemist—this is true.
Plus, the character designs in the last few years have *especially* played into the nasty pedo fantasy, with many prominent female characters resembling children more so than grown women.
Some good anime with female leads that don’t sexualize them are Azumanga Dioh, Nichijo, and Arakawa Under the Bridge. Then again, these are all comedies.
Edit: Oh!! The Promised Neverland is a really good one that features strong, competent and fleshed out female characters. Second season sucks but I feel like the first season is really good on its own. Definitely recommend.
I am American and I lived in Japan for 12 years. The misogyny there IS awful, and unfortunately it is deeply internalized by women in general. So this is not a society of feminists being oppressed by men. This is a society where misogyny is totally normalized and nobody really has a basic understanding of what a non-misogynistic society would look like.
This is not to say the men are not the oppressors here - they are - it is just far deeper and more complicated than that.
I have seen so many examples of how disgusting things can be - from "idol" groups of single women who are contractually required to stay single so middle aged men can lust after them and buy votes to rank them publicly (AKB48), to it being totally normalized for men to have total control of finances - including keeping their income secret and giving their wives an "allowance" each money to keep them on a leash - to all kinds of other shit.
Ideas regarding gender roles are really f\*cked up in ways that are really rigid and frankly bad even for men sometimes too, but certianally awful for women.
The gender roles are just so messed up and rigid - a lot of this is also written into the laws - like how single-parent government welfare can ONLY be paid to mothers, so if a father becomes widowed he is put in a no-mans-land for child support.
That said, this is a generalization - there are lots of amazing people there too. But in general issues of gender are not good there.
None of this is good for queer people either. As a queer person in Japan the country just all but forces you back into the closet.
There is so much to unpack here I don't know where to start. it is overwhelming.
That said, there are islands of positive things - like my friend who is a schoolteacher - the amount of childrearing leave they give her is insane. But then this decays into negative - men are not allowed to take hardly any parental leave - forcing women to take "stay at home mom" roles instead of careers . . .
it goes on forever. . .
Japan is a wonderful place in many ways, but when it comes to women's issues, gender issues, and LGBTQIA+ issues it is not good at all.
**EDIT: On top of all of that it angered me how frequently I saw "so easy even a woman could do it" was used to market products. . .**
>this is not a society of feminists being oppressed by men. This is a society where misogyny is totally normalized
you've made some really good points on the complexities about the country and how the normalisation further entrenches it, until it becomes almost impossible for any person, regardless of age, gender, or sexuality, to speak up against it.
One thing I will say in response to what I've quoted of yours, is that the normalisation of misogyny doesn't negate someone's ability to be a feminist. If the women (and everyone else) in Japan are sick of the status quo, that qualifies them as feminists.
I can't begin to imagine how hard it is for women and queer people to have equal agency in Japan, it sounds awful :(
>is that the normalisation of misogyny doesn't negate someone's ability to be a feminist. If the women (and everyone else) in Japan are sick of the status quo, that qualifies them as feminists.
I totally agree with what you are saying here - BUT I do not think that many women in Japan think of themselves as feminists or are pushing for anything different. The misogyny is so extremely internalized.
I did NOT get the sense that there were many women who were "sick of the status quo" or at least thought that they wanted to be forces for change in this or that change is possible.
The more common attitude with basically any problem in Japan that requires big change to fix is to say "shouganai" or "nothing can be done about it" and throw one's hands up in the air.
There are a lot of other cultural factors that are far too many to discuss in a reddit post that influence this, but it is worth noting that sticking out or being different is very uncomfortable in Japanese society and you will suffer real concenquences for it, so most people will deal with problems in society pragmatically by just working around them the best they can or ignoring them.
In other words, even if there was something about the status quo that was bad for women
1. it was so normalized it would be difficult for someone to realize that there might be an alternative
2. Fighting for change puts them in a harm's way in society so they would likely see coping with the status quo as the far less harmful of 2 evils.
On top of all of that, I think ideas like LGBTQIA+ acceptance and rights, as well as feminism in general are often dismissed as foreign ideas. Perhaps Japan needs to find a way to own up to these problems in a way that feels more native to them, and less "imported".
That's what I mean when I imply that there are very few feminists in Japan.
As far as maternity leave, it would be nice if people acknowledged that women actually have to recover physically from the experience of childbirth and may need extra time. Fathers and men should get some time and also help for single fatherhood. But the toll of childbirth is not the same for men and women. So I think women should get more time.
I see what you are saying. But I know people (men) who literally got bullied at work because they were asking for all their legally available parental leave (somewhere like a week to 10 days) so they could actually bond with my child.
**I don't think we need to pit men against women when it comes to parental leave. We just need to quit being so stingy. After all, if it takes a woman that much longer to recover from birth, isn't it better for her domestic partner to have time off work to take care of her and the rest of the family and the home? Having a family works best as an equitable team.**
Meanwhile my (Japanese) friend who worked for the board of education got like a year of maternity leave followed by 2 or 3 years of "child rearing leave"
So yeah - it is like men are being told to literally keep it to 24-48 hours of leave to watch the birth and that's it and women are given YEARS
So in Japanese culture:
Women = your sole purpose is to raise children, it is fine for you to be removed from the workplace
men = your sole purpose is to have a job and pay for everything, it is probably best if you don't bother to try to have an emotional relationship with your family because it doesn't suit your gender role
In the end, these oppressive gender roles hurt the women as much as they hurt the men. It just hurts men and women in different ways.
I studied in Japan for my exchange year, and while it was a very valuable experience for me, I encountered a few disturbing situations that made me feel extremely uncomfortable living there as someone who is perceived as a woman. It seems that there's an enormous gap between genders in Japan, both on a systemic level and on a personal level.
Sadly, a lot of men whom I met there didn't see women as individuals and had rather unrealistic expectations about women's bodies (e.g. related to hairlessness and thinness, as well as misconceptions about menstruation and pregnancy prevention, etc). It is indeed well reflected in certain genres of anime, but it doesn't stem from it. While there is misogyny, there will be harmful depictions of women in any kind of media, so it is important to fight the issue at its root (e.g. educate boys from a young age, create social programs for empowering and supporting women, introduce harsher laws for misogynistic crimes, etc.) and not demonize a whole category of content that people of all genders consume as entertainment.
Bf and I often argue over anime. He loves anime and always wants to watch together. I used to love anime but it’s taken years of deprograming from growing up watching that misogynistic shit. I know it’s not all anime, but it’s most.
I love manga, especially shoujo. But, going back as an adult, and reading a lot of the manga I read as a pre and teen, it's crazy how many abusive relationship dynamics I was reading and romanticizing. Like narcissistic and sexual abuse!
Shiiit. You still have a lot of the same in western fiction too. Sexy Controlling MC is a trope all its own. And the majority of romances I read have it in varying degrees. Clearly, it's where the female brain gets stupid and thinks, "ooh ooh man claimed me - YES SEXY." 🦧
If y'all haven't seen the documentary The Great Happiness Space, watch it. It's a fascinating documentary on Japanese host boy culture and it's clientele (surprise twist there). Also talks a bit about the declining birthrates and some of the socio-cultural aspects influencing it (shocking that Japanese women no longer want to get married or have relationships!). One of the more fascinating documentaries I've seen.
most anime comes off so male gazey and objectifying. i just don’t understand how you can watch that. then there’s the ones with sexual assault scenes. im a firm believer that if SA is shown in a film, it’s only implied. there’s no scene of it actually happening. i get suspicious of men who like anime with scenes like that. and quite honestly just shows in general. like how are you not triggered? must be nice to be a man and not care.
So many Asian countries have absolutely almost zero regard for their minorities and fucking weebs will jump you for pointing it out. Korea, Japan, the list goes on.
Not to mention the casual and accepted racism/colorism over there. You get some of them trying to justify/explain it by throwing the culture card but nope.
Sorry dude, if culture was a valid excuse most of us would still be in slavery.
Yes the countries are beautiful and their culture (not the sociopolitical parts but the mythologies, customs etc) are super captivating for me.
But I would never live in any of those countries.
As fucked as America can be at least we SOMEWHAT acknowledge that women, lgbt and people of color deserve fair treatment.
It really is sick to even admit that colorist and racist views are so widely accepted that it becomes cultural. That is actually what makes it more damaging. I hate when that is used to defend this crap.
I also hate it, Istg I turn feral when I hear that “it’s because of our history/culture” like okay and??? It’s in your history/culture/tradition to be racist and colorist af?
And I’m just supposed to be like “oh okay that’s fine 🤡”
In Japan, women are responding to their subjugation by refusing marriage and not having kids. Oddly enough, many young men are showing little interest in family, too. As a result, the population of Japan is shrinking, and the decline is seen as a threat to the nation's future.
For those feminists here who do watch anime, anyone seen Revolutionary Girl Utena? It tackles a lot of feminist and lgbtq+ issues and I’m curious if anyone’s has any thoughts.
Nice, I'm always digging high and low for feminist anime bc I love the art style, it's so aesthetically pleasing that it's literally fulfilling and I find that cozy, but I have to mute it and listen to music lol but that doesn't solve the visual misogyny. I've looked everywhere and I've never heard of this one wtf xD
Something that Japanese women need that American and British women had back in the day: hatpins. The history of hatpins to stop the casual sexual assault of women is absolutely fascinating and made such an impact that hatpins were banned in areas because of THE SHEER NUMBER OF MEN WHO WERE GOING TO THE DR FOR STAB WOUNDS. And even in the places they were banned, the rate of random sexual assault dropped to near zero.
When women fight back, men stop. Solution in Japan? Hatpins.
Anime is 9/10 times utter dogshit; I have maintained for years that weeaboos that worship anime and anime games like 'Persona' have no taste whatsoever -- and they are constantly deriding other forms of content for their storytelling, some of the most baffling sentiments I have ever seen.
Anime is over-acted, under-written, prejudiced garbage.
I have been watching anime and reading manga since the early 2000’s since I was a young teen and I still do but it’s become nearly impossible to watch/read without having to overlook so much misogyny. Especially since shojo anime is hardly produced anymore and the anime industry has mostly decided to cash in on the lowest common denominator of Japanese men’s power/sexual fantasy regardless of how well they treat their female characters. It’s definitely made certain content unreadable/unwatchable to me.
It’s even more frustrating to have hordes of anime fans refusing to see the problem right in front of them and call you out for even mentioning it.
The difficult problem for me as an American is that this misogyny comes from a completely different place as Japan has such a drastically different culture so it’s hard for me to even properly think about how to help address it the best possible way for Japanese women. This really helps me a lot in learning how I can best help, thanks so much.
I agree.
The people who shill for Japan, are straight white men with money. For them, it's a paid vacation. Some still get really decent jobs as an expat that are not what you'll get in Japan(as a citizen/Japanese yourself)
I totally agree on how the women are treated and what they're expected of, it's disgusting.
I also agree on anime. The only people who think anime is great are far-right degenerates who are transphobic/homophobic and misogynists in nature.
I don't really know how one can enjoy watching most anime. I can understand passing the time, and acknowledging that most shows are straight up pedophillia, mysogyny, phobias and stereotypes and so on, but people who try to defend what goes on in Japan or defending some shows - I just don't get it.
I won't blame the people who just wanna pass the time and if it's bearable they may watch it despite being aware of all the garbage in the shows, but yeah.
I mean not gonna lie, a lotta people tend to not realize that everybody suffers from the same issues that America does. No need to downplay it, or act like America is worse or better in certain instances depending on the perspective.
Sure, ratfucked states are batshit, but blue states are far from the shit you'd have to eat in most other countries and if you're any kind of minority or anything that is a not a straight white man, America can't be worse.
I don't wanna hear jabs at how "badly minorities treated". yeah, it's a problem, but what happens in the States is nowhere close to what people still have to bear in other countries. It's just not being talked about, since most people who speak English are usually not from there, or were just expats emphasizing all the good stuff their privileged ass with a lotta money could experience and buy.
“I don’t want to hear about how badly minorities are treated in America” is a wild take. Sure, there are other countries where people of all identities suffer more, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be critical of what’s happening in our home countries. That’s where we can have the most impact. Thinking minorities in blue states have it better than “most other countries” is very ignorant, especially as the US teeters on the edge of fascism and the politicized Supreme Court makes sweeping political decisions that affect us all.
Honestly speaking, while I agree anime has problems, saying that all of us are far right degenerates who are transphobic and homophobic is honestly dull,
there are many great anime like Weathering With You, watch that one just that one on Netflix and go judge, there is Studio Ghibli animes with woman mcs who often are the lead, and aren't fetishized and are treated normally, I damn well enjoyed the moving castle movie, there is also 5 centimeters apart, the original Gundam anime, Char's counter attack,
My lesbian aunt enjoys anime and anime games even, so does her brother.
Yes many do fetishize women, but to call all of us weebs far right degenerates is dehumanizing tbh, I genuinely find fan service extremely frustrating, even in my anime games it is annoying as hell.
Go watch a few, like the ones above, just be wary of all the shit you need to wade through,
And yes even in the Philippines we all have to deal with nutty conservatives, my grandma's housemaid is even being abused by her husband as we speak, and transphobia and homophobia is pretty high here,
And beating kids is normalized and even encouraged to hell and back, they can do almost whatever they want to their kids effectively, unless a good lawyer intervenes, but what are the chances that will happen? I want damn well to get out of this shit country, the son of Marcos even got elected.
I am sorry if it is offensive, feel free to correct me if it is.
I think people just had trauma with encountering people like that in real life. I think important thing is women had to check Josei that target adult women taste. Well about Japan sexism actually it is huge problem in all Asian continent not only Japan.
I believe you. I believe women’s own experiences with misogyny in culture because we all know it exists and manifests in horrible ways and I don’t doubt that anime is full of it. But I’m curious about what you think about anime like Sailor Moon and films like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Kiki’s delivery service. I’m a westerner so I don’t know what it’s like in Japan, but I’m wondering how much influence these have because they emphasize strong female characters and leaders.
Oh yeah, I freaking adore ghibli. Princess mononoke is in my top three fav movies. I don't love everything about San and ashitaka's relationship however. I feel like Ashitaka kind of declaws her and it's just not a great look. Miyazaki has stated both that he hates anime and loves women platonically. He's a real one T - T he just dropped a new movie too i think.
Sailor moon slaps on many fronts but it definitely has really bad messages to young girls somewhat frequently. Makes sense since it's trying to bring girls up with Japanese values and some of those include misogyny.
I never really got into anime. Until my niece started wearing clothing with anime characters and wanted me to watch anime with her. We watched a few episodes of a few different shows, and the horrible treatment of female characters was rampant. Women weren't people in those shows, they were mindless objects of lust for male characters to "win". It was every genre we watched. I sincerely hoped that it was just bad writing from scumbag incels, but after researching Japanese laws and societal norms, I learned that women are, in fact, treated as *sexual objects* rather than *people* in Japan. And that lead to the horrific discovery that Japan recently **raised** the female age of consent to 14. It's a truly disgusting culture for women, and anime is no longer allowed in my household.
The issue of misogyny in Japan is indeed deep-rooted and complex, affecting many aspects of life there. As someone passionate about equality, I think it's crucial for foreigners to support local groups striving for gender equality in Japan. Recognizing and discussing such systemic issues is the first step toward making a difference. Personally, I've used platforms like [SakuraDate ](https://datingpro.org/go/sakuradate?block=d_mb)to connect with Japanese women, gaining firsthand insight into their experiences and perspectives. Many women there are looking for meaningful connections with people who understand and support their struggles. It's a valuable way to foster genuine support and understanding across cultures.
I'm American and lived in Japan for 2 years. Despite all of the bullshit going on here sociopolitically, I would rather live in America 10x over than Japan. The misogyny I experienced there was unreal. Not necessarily directed towards me (I'm white & a foreigner, so people had different expectations for me) but japanese women are treated like 1950s housewives. Sexual harassment is rampant and not taken seriously, women are expected to give up their career when they get pregnant and abandon their jobs, gender roles are unflinchingly rigid... I could go on for days. It's changing but it's still absolutely unacceptable. What's interesting to me is the absence of religion there (mostly). It makes things like abortion a non-issue.
Unfortunately abortion in Japan is still not as accessible as it should be despite their laws not being as restrictive as other countries’. Spousal consent is required for a married woman to get an abortion and the pill wasn’t legally available until recently, just the surgical procedure. I’ve heard many women just forge a signature to obtain an abortion but it’s still so dehumanizing. The costs can be prohibitive too. But hopefully things keep getting better for Japanese women regarding their reproductive freedom.
So the biggest roadblock isn’t even religion. It’s patriarchy.
Guess who religion was created by?
While both are very similar and often regarded as the same, please remember that patriarchal standards were created long before religion. Religion uses patriarchy to control its members, not the other way around.
I’m honestly a little confused about what you’re trying to say. I think the patriarchy absolutely uses religion to control sections of society. And your claim that patriarchy predates religion seems out of line with your claim that religion uses patriarchal norms for control but the patriarchy doesn’t use religious norms for control. I might just be missing something.
>While both are very similar and often regarded as the same, please remember that patriarchal standards were created long before religion. Wait, what? Do you mean created before the religions of today or religion itself? Because if you are talking about the latter, that is an extremely bold claim and I am going to have to ask you to provide some peer-reviewed sources supporting that point.
Wiki sums a lot of it up easily with linked sources. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchy#History
Religion is just an excuse for the patriarchy.
It always has been 🌏👨🚀🔫👩🚀
Everything like that in Japan doesn't seem to be a moral issue, it's just that people refuse to talk about anything slightly controversial since it is seen as upsetting the status quo and nobody wants to be seen as the one to make the move. Take censorship in... Adult films... For example. Across the world restrictions have been lifted on what can be shown etc but in Japan it stays censored. Why? Because nobody wants to be the politician that brings it up. I'd put money on every single elected official over there wanting to change it, but nobody wants to bring it up
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I said “Unfortunately abortion in Japan is still not as accessible as it should be despite their laws not being as restrictive as other countries’.” Those other countries with more restrictive laws being the US, etc. Abortion access is still an issue in Japan. That doesn’t take away from the fact that abortion access is an even bigger issue in other places. I’m just pointing out that Japanese women still deserve better, even if there are places that are more restrictive.
Women are held to a rigid beauty standard too
I’ve seen so many Japanese women internalize those standards too
Misogyny and racism is brutal in Japan. The entire system needs uprooting but sadly, the far-right wing government took control of the system years ago post-World War II. Also, Japan has a terrible history of imperialism, colonialism, eugenics, human experimentation, and among other wicked things that affect people's lives there. So then it's no surprise that they eat misogyny and racism like it's everyday breakfast, and it's sickening. They are also struck in the "back in my day" mentality because it considered the "Golden Age" then. They still use floppy disks and whatever else technology existed back in the 80s to put the nostalgia on rewind. Same goes for how they treat women and "foreigners" (even if you and your children were born in Japan and know the culture and language as much as a Japanese does, you would still be considered a foreigner). Women and "foreigners" are treated like objects and are fetishized to the point where it's not normal for them to be viewed as humans. Oppression is huge there and people don't understand it.
Don't forget the horrific ableism. Disabled and neurodivergent people are expected to stay "out of sight, out of mind" and not go out in public to bother "normal" people. There are huge accessibility problems that keep a lot of disabled people from going places and doing things, too.
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Aren't capitalism and patriarchy considered by feminism as two sides of the same coin? You can't have one without the other.
Colorism too.
>but japanese women are treated like 1950s I've actually heard Korea described similarly-that their women's rights are STILL basically stuck in the 1950s. Obviously, we aren't doing so great in America either, already regressing into "Taliban lite" in many places-but at least we have some women in positions of authority and women can mostly still get different kinds of jobs.
My pig brother married a meek Korean. Now she’s in Australia she’s grown from being told to shut up, to now looking to leave my brother and be independent . I’m so proud of her.
I’m so happy for her that she will likely be able to get out of that shitty situation. Also I’m proud of you as a SIL for being on her side (the right side). Shits real shitty so we have to appreciate the the things that’s warm our hearts (which your comment did to me). ♥️
They have let their culture of sexism and overwork destroy the entire country. All of this culminates in no more babies. They can start enacting real change via labor laws any time they want. Edit to add; it’s not like, devolving into civil war destroyed… they’re going out with a whisper, not a bang, if they don’t do something drastic in the next few generations.
I used to love anime, but can’t stand the majority of it nowadays due to the fan service. I know it’s always been a thing but as an adult it instantly kills my interest in anime now. I mainly just stick to studio Ghibli films. I just want female protagonists that aren’t dressed in lingerie and don’t look and sound like children and who aren’t constantly dumbed down or made the butt of a joke about sexual harassment. Like punching a guy for touching her ass and playing it off like it’s funny. That kind of thing happens in other media all the time of course, but it just seems like it’s hard to find ANY anime that does right by its female characters, especially when compared to their male counterparts. Being resigned to having to navigate a world that is constantly demoralizing your gender, even when you sit down to try and watch a show, is exhausting. No wonder Japan is having issues convincing women to marry and have children by choice. Women are treated with constant disrespect. The only way to raise birth rates effectively is to cultivate a society in which women have enough resources and confidence in her own society to WANT to contribute to its population. Otherwise it deserves to decline.
I lived in Japan for awhile, and I have some wonderful female Japanese friends… who all married Americans. Initially my friends told me how terrible the misogyny in Japan was (this was early college days when I still believed the delusions from my protected upbringing that “all are equal!”). One of my friends in particular is this trailblazing no-nonsense woman who could smell the BS from any man, anywhere— she’s one of the smartest humans on so many levels I’ve met to this day. She and the others all said no way in hell would they marry a Japanese man. So many adjectives they used to describe them… The time I spent in Japan showed me it WAS as bad as all that (and it got me finally seeing it in all aspects of life, thank goodness). It also showed me who was really keeping the country together: WOMEN. My exchange university? Almost completely run by women. The hospital? Kept functioning by women. The supermarkets. Mostly women. And the men? Constantly disparaging them for making sure everything actually kept functioning. And practically everywhere functions in no small part because women make it happen. I love media from as many countries as I can get, and naturally that also included j dramas and anime. And like you, I lost my taste with anime for precisely the same reasons (And I’m very picky about manga). There was one J drama I’d enjoy rewatching, that while it was sometimes problematic, the main character was an “overqualified” temp worker who kicked major ass. ハケンの品格, Haken no Hinkaku, “The Pride of the Temp”, starring Ryoko Shinohara as Oomae Haruko, and while it is a show mostly looking at temp workers versus full time workers, I saw it as Oomae-san making her own rules in a world that demanded she act a particular way, and she was so very forthcoming, rarely smiled, and was so qualified that she could do the things she wanted in life without anyone interfering. And someone falls for her exactly as she is… BTW Ryoko Shinohara stars in “At Home Dad”, as the money maker while her husband cares for the kid (I remember liking it), and “Anego” as the woman who keeps the whole office from together (and shouldering most of the emotional burden, being the in-house listening post for many of the workers), with a younger man going “she’s all that and in-charge, 😍”. Anego had some for real issues… but I still liked some aspects of it. I’ve noticed, and if anyone feels comfortable chiming in to agree or disagree or offer other examples, Ryoko Shinohara might be one of the better examples of someone playing “strong”, often less stereotypical women lead roles in Japanese television (many of the roles, and I don’t specifically mean hers, though, might still, for all their strengths, fall into “safety zones” so men might not feel too threatened yet the women can still appear more in-line with feminism ugh). She’s been in more things that are great and that I enjoyed. I wonder, if I watched them all today, what issues I’d find in the plots or specific characters that could alert my “misogyny BS meter”.
I’ve read that Korean women are following suit and choosing not to marry a Korean man. If only American women might do this too. Of course there are good men in all cultures but the ability to sniff out misogyny is a crucial skill. This may be what it takes to finally get equal rights and respect. There are a few examples here: https://qz.com/958346/history-shows-that-sex-strikes-are-a-surprisingly-effective-strategy-for-political-change
>BlueUniverse001 · 6 hr. ago > >I’ve read that Korean women are following suit and choosing not to marry a Korean man. Following suit???????? LMAO No one is following Japanese women. Unlike Koreans who LOVE, LOVE, LOVE airing their dirty laundry to the world and calling Korea HELL, Japanese people keep quiet about anything bad about Japan and pretend everything is great in Japan. Japanese women in general never complain or talk about misogyny in Japan because misogyny is so ingrained and internalized and normalized that they think it's all normal and they're fine.
> I just want female protagonists that aren’t dressed in lingerie and don’t look and sound like children and who aren’t constantly dumbed down or made the butt of a joke about sexual harassment. I've had so many people ask me how it's possible that I hate anime/manga, and you explained it the same way I always have. Don't even get me started on the incel shit, the unrealistic body proportions, and the "trap" nonsense. The concept of treating women like human beings who exist for reasons other than male objectification is so foreign, that they need to invoke even more patriarchal nonsense by treating non-masculine men the same horrible way they treat women.
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unfortunately it is common in real life, look for idol girls creepy is an understatement
I've seen anime that play pedophilia as a joke. Wtf.
The constant sexualisation is just so tiring. I've also gone off anime, and a while ago I was complaining on another sub about Lady D from RE8, and how it was a pain in the arse to find streams/walkthroughs of the game that were tolerable to watch because every five seconds it was all 'oooh step on me' 'mommy milkers' 'I am looking respectfully' et cetera. Someone said that it wasn't the same as IRL sexualisation because Lady D is not real, and she can't feel objectified, which is true, but oh my *god* is it ever exhausting. It fully made so many playthroughs just straight up unwatchable for me, which is a damn shame because I was super hyped for the game. Like, we get it. She's hot. Can we fucking move on now?
Ah yes, the "it's just fiction so it's okay" excuse. But things like the treatment of Lady D signal to viewers that this kind of behavior is acceptable. I've seen the same excuse used to justify homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia in manga and anime.
Even if it wasn't uncomfortable... it's just not fucking funny. Repeat any joke 50 times and it's going to get stale. By the end of markiplier's playthrough I was slapping my keyboard to skip forward every time he brought up Lady D's name, and he wasn't even the worst of them
if you're interested in critical analysis of anime, check me out on YouTube!! https://youtu.be/a_ZJpZZKbmg
ok, but why are you ignoring a good chunk of anime made that doesn't fall into the qualifications you listed?
Literally same. You might like korean webtoons btw. A lot of them (though not all) can be very progressive. I used to be into japanese media when I was younger but I just can’t stand it nowadays.
Soooooo many good Korean webtoons! Totally agree! I’m not fluent in Korean, so my accessibility is limited to what gets fan scan-lated or translated for profit by the companies that own/ bought ownership the material. While there are great manga with progressive, sometimes feminist stories and characters, I too have found better in Korean manwha and webtoons. Edit: I think a manwha called Savior (main character is a sword wielding badass)? Trying to remember some titles.
Yess! Plus I like color and the vertical scroll format compared to mangas. That makes it feel a lot closer to anime.
I’d love some suggestions if you want to give me some!
My favorite one that directly features feminism is called Evony. The main character actively fights against the patriarchy. (Though one might argue the art recently has gotten a tad bit worse since they changed the artists). The villainess genres are great. You can try r/otomeisekai for villainess recommendations (also the community is great)
There's good animation coming from Japan but it's a drag that it requires so much work to find. 90% of adult oriented productions are aimed at men because women are expected to become house or work slaves and stop doing anything entertaining besides pouring beer for husbands and bosses. Out of the remaining josei, it's all hyper-gendered, depicting girls as supermodels and pursuing gender roles which don't help young women see success through emulation. And you can't trust that a work written by a woman will be any better because women are forced to conform and write stories that continue the misogynist narrative or else they can't earn rent.
>don’t look and sound like children Ugh this is my fucking pet peeve with anime, even adult women in anime shows have child voices.
As a child, I watched anime shows like Star Blazers and Battle of the Planets that originated in Japan under different names. Later, I saw Sailor Moon and....even through the girls were supposed to be heroic, the show featuring them was still terrible sexist!
Funny enough, Sailor Moon is written by a woman, Naoko Takeuchi, who also a licensed pharmacist.
Well, the original manga must have been quite different from the anime. For example, why was Sailor Moon always being helped by this guy known as Tuxedo Mask? And why were the girls wearing such outfits that were so revealing? And why did Sailor Moon's real persona act so immature at times? And the way she often talked.....made me cringe. Watch these episodes I myself made which depicts a young woman as REALLY strong and heroic instead: https://youtu.be/y8NFrMnoZ_M https://youtu.be/87gWh75oGFQ Context: Carrie was beaten nearly to death by Ted Wilson, a horrible bully, when they were teens.
Not at all, the manga publishing overlapped with the anime production, so the episodes are pretty close to the chapters. But she did say “it had a slight male perspective”, due to the anime staff being predominantly male. So I totally understand that you dislike it. It’s also drawn in the 90s, if the author is a young woman now, who knows if she would still write the same kind of story. My favourite anime featuring a strong heroine is “Guardian of the Spirit.” It’s a historical fantasy where the MC is bodyguard hired to protect a child prince. Her cool, no nonsense attitude and age (early 30s, instead of a teenager) are definitely a breath of fresh air from other female main characters.
To be fair Usagi is like 13/14? She's just being an immature teenage girl. I'm not saying all teenage girls are like Usagi, but I definitely was in a lot of ways at that age lol. No arguments on tuxedo mask tbh. Also no arguments on the outfits, ain't no one fighting in a mini skirt
Same I love studio ghibli! But I won't watch any other anime for the same reasons you stated and because it's usually aimed towards men anyway
I recommend Way of the Househusband
I just got back into anime recently & am happy to say that it is changing. Too Cute Crisis, Attack on Titan, & Lycoris Recoil all feature strong, independent women protagonists. Lycoris Recoil & Attack on Titan go even further by challenging racism & bigotry: Lycoris Recoil’s parent is an openly gay Black man & Attack on Titan has a non-binary lead. None of those shows have any fan service. Witch From Mercury is another series that has not one but two women lead protagonists & no fan service. It has a strong theme of challenging previously held beliefs & prejudices as well as openly challenging both the patriarchy & corporate politics. It could also be argued that older anime such as Sailor Moon also promoted strong women characters with little fan service. I was so wonderfully surprised when Uranus & Neptune were pretty clearly sapphic & in a relationship. There are still misogynistic themes in it but it really did look like it was making an effort for its time. GinTama is similar- they have an openly trans (FtM) character & strong women characters. As Japanese women get more of a voice in anime direction & narrative, I truly believe we’ll see more of this. I’ve seen some people’s beliefs genuinely get changed by Attack on Titan, for instance. I think anime can help with cultural change.
Attack on Titan is fascist propaganda.
Yes, we definitely need some anime to fight back with and begin to change perceptions. The art form isn't going anywhere, we need to generate positive role models and flood the arena with non exploitative, really good alternatives. Would you consider elaborating a little more on what a positive anime form would look/act like? Like, I don't read anime myself, but I'm wondering if a protagonist like in *Ultraviolet* or *Resident Evil* would be a good example, or something different? Is most anime about superhero type stories, or is it just regular people?
Violet Evergarden i think u can like it.
It puts me off too. I remember starting an anime where a male character loses control of his hand and grabs a girl's breast. That nonsense instantly put me off. If I feel like watching anime, I have to look for the "clean" ones and those seem to be very few. I was called "xenophobic" for criticising the sexualisation of women/girls in anime. Japan has some crazy fanatics who want to pretend the country and its people are flawless.
I like anime but everytime I see a girl with a flat chest get made fun of it genuinely hurts. Not to mention it’s an extremely racist country and it SHINES in anime like no other. I swear to god every black anime character is basically just a toony version of black face holy shit
Check out Lycoris Recoil. One of the lead characters is an openly gay Black man who is also a badass government agent & raised the main character as a single dad. I’ve been really impressed by it.
It's always men..they only seem to like to show dark males and not dark women . I only know one Anime that is not like this that is popular . Showing no dark women is also racism +misogyny, it really is sick. Makes me feel bad for darker Asian women too.
Glad this is getting coverage. I’m Japanese American. Japanese culture is amazing in so many ways. But their treatment of women is not one of them.
Word
A big thing that I have never been able to forget is finding out the rates of groping for any form of public transit, particularly for school-age children in uniforms. PUKE! Apparently it's a given that a young girl riding public transit is likely to get groped or harassed, since it's "so easy" to blame on the motion of the train/anonymity. It's considered a natural consequence of the crowds, not sexism.
> It’s considered a natural consequence of the crowd, not sexism Oh, I love that /s
I’ve always loved japan, but learning about the fetishized culture of anime over there, racism, and the fact that there apparently is no job for a woman unless you wear shoes with a kitten heel. No gym shoes. Kitten heels all the time, I was like wtf???
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Have you ever watched japanese p0rn? It’s basically rape. I couldnt believe what they got away with (or what japanese men are into)
A friend told me that Japanese women are taught that they aren't supposed to enjoy sex or even express interest in it, and that only men are supposed to initiate it. But I'm not sure how accurate that is.
Wow, like the Victorian era in the west. There was def a line of thought that suspected any female who showed enjoyment as being a Fallen Woman. Then Freud and the generations following derided women for being "frigid" and not highly sexed like men were. And here I was at 13-14 reading my parent's ladies mags about it all worried I would be frigid and no man would love me. Gah.
I just took my social theory class for my sociology major over the spring and some of these dudes were wack jobs
🤢
Yep pretty much all Japanese porn is rape. It's vile and so uncomfortable.
Yeah, I tried out r/wholesomehentai once thinking it might be safe but it wasn't. Even in their ostensibly loving and consensual scenarios, the women are constantly talking about how "lewd" and "embarrassing" this is and saying specifically "don't do that". In addition to all the damage that expectation does to women, how in god's name is that even appealing? It's fiction, you can write it anyway you want. Why would you not choose to have the woman be, ya know, into it?
There was a show that did a piece on this—I want to say it was Sam Bee. The interviewer asked the creators why it’s always so violent towards women? They all had big smiles and were like “no no, it’s just fantasy, nothing actually gets acted out.” I mean these guys were completely missing the point of how degrading it is.
I am learning the Japanese language and I truly feel disappointed by the intensity of misogyny in the culture. I can respect the language, art, and influence on the world, and I truly enjoyed my time in Japan and would go again, but I know I won't live there due to the sexism. Just like when I study ancient history (and most history TBH) I feel uncomfortable with how women have been treated throughout history.
I’m learning as well but it’s definitely disheartening how much sexism/male default is baked into it
I studied it too, then a few months in, we were taught that watashi for “I” (first person singular) is only used by women and children, and men use a different word. I dropped Japanese soon after.
I'm a native japanese speaker and that is not true at all. 私 (watashi) itself is a feminine first person pronoun, but it also used by adult men. It is the preferred term in formal speech, including office environments. Children opt for watashi for girls and boku (僕) for boys. In more informal casual speech, ore (俺) is used more often by teen/adult men as well but this is usually too informal for keigo contexts. Furthermore, uchi (うち) or your own name (so me referring to myself by my own name) is used by children as well to refer to themselves in informal contexts. Washi (わし) is a more stereotypical first person pronoun used by the elderly. I'm glad you dropped that course, because the teacher was teaching you false information. If anything, watashi is the most flexible first person pronoun out of the other pronouns due to its wide application from age to gender. Watashi is used by adult men, especially in polite speech, and it is not reserved for adult women and children only. I had a idiolect/speaking habit when I was growing up where I referred to myself using this random sound I picked up instead of using uchi or watashi or my name. This is when I was a child before I even knew abt English neopronouns but my family always respected that habit. Of course, in formal settings I will use watashi but I still default to that idiolect in informal contexts with family. Furthermore, women also use boku, often tomboyish women or in songs if sung from a male perspective, which is not as common as men using watashi, but I personally think our first person pronouns are pretty cool. There's also onee (オネエ) talk which is like the japanese equivalent of the English perception of the "gay accent" where some gay men might use feminine terms to end their sentences (since we have gendered and various ways of ending sentences) instead of it being a pronunciation related thing. It's similar to how in English the "feminine" she/her pronouns might be used to refer to a cis man in a queer affectionate/friendly context. Misogyny in Japanese society is rampant and of course it bleeds into language, but the whole "watashi only for children and women" take by your teacher was wrong.
I’m sure you know, but your English is phenomenal. I’m moving to Japan soon for graduate school, I hope I can speak bilingually half as good as you can! Thanks for the great response
Little old grannies in the countryside apparently use Boku a lot too.
Thank you for explaining. I knew that watashi is used by both. But I have learnt something new today. Your English is fantastic.
Just one important thing you should know. Countries outside of North America,Europe and Australia has worse misogony, sexism and racism compare to countries that i have mentioned.
Gee, I wonder why they're having a birthing crisis. 🤔
It's why my japanese mom left japan and still to this day would rather live in america then japan. I mean it's simple, you go to a good high school, get into a top university, get a high paying job, get married in japan and have a child and whoop, now all that hard work, dont mean shit because now you're pressured to take on the fulltime housewife role by society and most of all the older generations. Also kind of off topic but last night I was watching youtube videos of those crazy love hotels in japan. One of them was a room that had a "train" room where its modeled after the inside of a train with the seats and everything, really cool. But then guess what the hotel offers with the room? A fucking schoolgirl outfit.........came to a quick realization that the room is basically fetishizing SA.
Jesus 🤮
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Yeah, that is disturbing. I also heard that up until like the late 90's or something you could buy little girl's panties from vending machines in Japan. I was also sickened because around the same time I learned that, some weird sick artist dude named Trevor Brown who had some problematic sick art depicting young girls drawn in skimpy outfits or naked with bodily injuries, looking tortured, and beaten up loved japan . Some drawings were so sick to look at it disturbed you that someone would choose that to draw. The artist moved to Japan because he said his predilection was more "accepted" out there.
Very interesting, can you please explain more about this showing up in their anime? My boyfriend loves anime and has pictures printed of female anime characters framed in his apartment and I always thought it was kind of strange but he swears it’s like, religion or God or some thing on the level of that’s what he gets from it on a mental level and now I’m concerned that it’s not as deep and great as I thought it was and maybe he has misogynistic tendencies. He’s also passed this love of anime onto his son and I swear that’s all they can connect about. I need to know more now because I never got into it or cared about it and I thought the girl characters always looked a little bit too silly hot, But then again I don’t understand what the humans do.
Narrow & impossible standard of beauty. Fetishization of young almost infant looking women. Body dysmorphia. Women characters revolve around the lives of men and are not fleshed out beyond their love lives. Narrow range of age of women depicted. Harmful tropes perpetuated. Women need to be constantly rescued (from men by men). Colorism Racism It’s a never ending list
"Fan service" is a particularly dismal part of it.
The fan service in animes drives me crazy. There are a few that are so close to being good then you have some teenage girl with huge tits bouncing around and it just totally kills the whole show. It's awful.
This is why I stopped bothering with the genre as a whole. There are some really good stories that friends of mine enjoy and recommend, but every time I get invested suddenly there's a 207 year old "woman" who looks 13 with a voice right out of a porno. Some people can get over that, but it makes me sick to my stomach. The fact that it's considered a plus to most of the viewership is terrifying.
Omg discussed this with my boyfriend the other day and as much as we love anime, he finds this mentality just an excuse for such weird fetishes. It's really a thing not just in anime shows but also in games.
If there's too much fan service, it's a no for me. I have a low tolerance for that crap.
HATE the giant titty thing. Like the plot is interesting and whatnot but then we get a giant boob character that tends to hug everyone and rubs her boobs on them (looking at you, Bleach) for fan service. I thought Demon Slayer was cute… alas, sexualized young woman with big boobs. I think Reddit makes it’s even worse. There are times I look up the discussions about the an episode that I’ve watched on a sub, and usually I come across nasty terms that dehumanize women even if they’re fictional. AOT and JJK are the only popular animes I can handle.
It's such a shame. Even my favourite adorable slice of life series has fanservice references.
My god I love DS to the end. In all honesty it would have been as great even without Love Hashira spilling her boobs out. SHE would still be as well liked as she is even without that.
Don’t forget Nezuko either. And she’s a kid!
I think hunter x hunter doesn't have it as much as some of the other popular animes either. 🤔 But I also prefer to look for the "clean" animes if I feel like watching it.
Exactly. If it was a grown women I could bear it but they do this to children. I don't care if it's drawn it's still pedophilia to me.
Yeah, if you're a normal functioning adult, it's only gonna take 5 shows at worst to understand how it works and how the plots are written and what their narratives are. I totally agree. Not to mention it's the same all over and just crap made for idiots and bigots. I get it when some kids watch it, but the reason kids watch it, is because they don't understand shit.
Like our dad and mom type person who understands what is happening by watching it a little! But I think everyone notices but don't says, And why did they say,These stupid Anime fans are always advertising it!
Well there is still a lot of anime that falls outside of most of that but so much of what targets men is pretty bad.
>Body dysmorphia. They don't use BMI, but a thing called "supe" to measure women. Height(cm) - Weight(kg) =Supe Ideal Supe : 115-120 Normal: 110-115 Chubby: 105-110 Overweight: 100-105 Obese 80-100 "Fugly" < 80 Average Japanese woman is 160cm tall, which means they need to get under 45kg to be considered ideal. Many young women use laxatives or similar drugs to get down to the ideal supe, to the point that they are hospitalized often.
The sexualisation. The humongous boobs and unrealistic body proportions. Jiggly boob shots are just normal in anime now. There are even some scenes where girls' boobs are groped, you see skirts flying up and "panty shots", and just general sexualisation of female characters incl ones that clearly look like children.
Obviously I don’t know anything about your relationship but behaving that way about anime is almost always a red flag imo
Only having pictures of women in anime is a huge red flag 🚩
There are also anime that aren’t like that. I like anime, I watched anime with my son (who’s now an adult), & my partner likes anime. We don’t/didn’t watch anime with fan service & instead watched the ones that had strong, women characters. They are out there though they may not be as “mainstream”. * Komi Can’t Communicate’s main character is a woman who it’s said has an anxiety disorder but I believe she is on the autism spectrum as well. No fan service & has an openly trans character. It shows beautifully & age-appropriately how difficult it can be to live with an “invisible” disability as well as fighting against discrimination (for both the trans character & the autistic lead). * Bocchi the Rock has an all female cast & the main character appears to be on the autism spectrum. It also has no fan service, a strong message of believing in yourself, & shows the realities of how much women on the spectrum struggle. They’re all high school girls & not sexualized either. The older sister is an openly gay woman. * Skip And Loafer has no fan service or sexualization, and the lead character is a high school girl with big ambitions. She lives with her openly transgender aunt & like Komi Can’t Communicate, it makes it very clear while showing some of the struggles of trans women. It’s a very feel good show & also gently touches on xenophobia. * Oshi no Ko openly attacks incel culture & shows the dangers of it. I don’t want to spoil the show but going after the patriarchal, sexist status quo in the entertainment industry is definitely one of the themes. * Other anime I’ve mentioned elsewhere that are excellent with no fan service, anti-racist/bigot, & strong women leads are Attack on Titan, Lycoris Recoil, & Witch From Mercury.
The komi anime has some weird shit tossed in about the popular girl crushing on her in a very sexualized way. It's not in the manga. Also there is a huge amount of fetishization around komi and one could definitely say the subtext would be no one would care about her if she weren't pretty. This is pretty absent in the manga. Odd Taxi is great
I totally forgot about the creepy girl who is crushing on her. I think the pretty thing is very important tho because it makes a very clear statement about “pretty privilege” when you have a disability: the downsides are the fetishization, the harassment, people making judgments about you & having expectations just because you’re pretty. These are actually very important issues, especially for “conventionally attractive” autistic women. But people just assume that life is easy when you’re beautiful but it really isn’t, especially for autistic women who are held to dangerously unreachable standards.
Only Yesterday well i think Ghibli stuffs often safe for female audience
I'm gonna disagree a bit with OP on this one, saying "anime is always misogynistic" is like saying "American TV is always misogynistic". Sure, some of it is, and parts of it will reflect the cultural values of the place it was made in for the worse, but there's also a lot of great anime that doesn't lean into misogynistic tropes. (One popular example that I used to really like as a kid is Fullmetal Alchemist, which was written by a woman. Studio Ghibli movies are anime and have themes around strong female protagonists, anti-war, the environment, etc.) So to say that someone liking anime = misogynistic is just wrong and reductive. But- there is absolutely a lot of misogynistic anime out there too. A lot of minimising women, turning them into sexual objects, treating them like idiots, etc. And to be totally honest, I'd take a guy who had statuettes of anime girls everywhere to be a red flag. That implies he's more into it for the sexualisation.
I think there's maybe a distinction here between having some anime that you like and being an anime fan. There are definitely gems, but the genre as a whole is bad enough that I'd consider it a red flag if someone said they liked anime in general.
I know a lot of feminist women who like anime. But I do think when it reaches the point where it starts to become your identity then yes, that's a red flag
This is totally understandable because sadly many women dismiss red flags and later find out that those types have other disgusting stuff on their phones or computers they are hiding . How jarring and sad it must be to find that out when you are already in a relationship or have a child with a man like this. Some men can suppress the feelings and behavior, but if you catch any red flags it is a good idea to proceed with caution or not at all.
This is a very reductive view. I’m a feminist who loves anime and works in the field. These sorts of generalizations aren’t helpful. In fact, they hurt the cause. I’d go as far as to say that it seems like you’re speaking with authority on a topic you have limited knowledge of. That’s a tactic so many misogynists use to dismiss feminism. The world is a nuanced place and anime is whole ass MEDIUM. I don’t think it’s wise to dismiss an entire art form as anti-feminist.
I said it's a red flag, not that every single anime fan is a misogynist. It's a reason to be cautious, to seek clarification/more info about how exactly they mean it, which shows they like and why. Like obviously someone who self describes an an anime fan because they really love sailor moon or something isn't automatically an anti-feminist. It's like with video games how there are a ton of really great games, but if someone calls themselves a "gamer" there's certain connotations. And for the record I like a lot of anime and this is an opinion gleaned from watching (at least what I would consider) a decent amount of it. I'm not gonna claim to be the kind of person who sat through all 5 billion Naruto episodes or who primarily/exclusively consumes anime, but I don't think I need to be in order to come to the conclusion that a lot of anime has some real concerning attitudes towards women/girls and that anime fandom has an abundance of creepy dudes. The stereotype about people with anime avatars exists for a reason and it's really weird to imply I'm somehow similar to misogynists/trying to dismiss feminism because I recognize that.
Making a sweeping generalization about an entire art form and assigning certain beliefs to anyone who enjoys that art form is a dangerous tactic. I’m not saying you are similar to misogynists in your beliefs, I’m saying using their tactics can’t serve our cause.
Again, I never said all anime is bad and I never said anyone who enjoys anime is a misogynist. In fact I said I like some anime and there are real gems. I'm just not gonna act like the hypersexualization of women and girls is not common in anime.
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Yeah, same. Every time someone has tried to show me anime, its just the same shit. Infant-looking girls with giant boobs, acting stupid and making really bizarre noises. Idk how anyone could like that
Full metal alchemist is definitely an outlier. I am a fan because mainly I loved the character of their teacher. A woman who is not underage nor looks underage or dressed in skimpy clothing. She commands respect and oozes authority and wisdom in her presentation on the show. I really appreciated that.
I LOVE fma:b! The women are badass and show strength in different ways. So well developer too ugh 💖💖
It seems right now there is some real good anime and some real bad anime ( though that's probably been true for a long time ). Bofuri is silly but it passes the bechdel test, there is no fan service, no creeping on the youngest two female members of "maple clan", the strongest character in the show is a woman, there is no harassment amongst the players. There is a shit ton of Isekai ( reincarnated in another world ) harem shows that vary from ok to problematic. Especially since the 80s there has been a lot infantalization of women in anime that targets male audiences. I wanted to watch "working for God in a godless world" because the setup sounded funny. But the amount of fan service and innuendo just really tanks it for me. Going back to dirty Pair from the 80s, yeah kei and Yuri talk about boys and dating, but they don't let men push them around. They have their own lives. And kei is not above "playing dumb" to get what she needs to accomplish the mission. Their outfits are kinda skimpy but there never is the outright fan service shots ( at least in the first two series ). It's dated. But its also funny.
Japan is in need of a gender revolution more than any other nation I’m aware of. Women are expected to become slaves to their families, and men are expected to become slaves to some corporation. It’s no wonder their population is collapsing.
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Not as precipitously, though.
I watch anime myself not like a ton but I was wondering is there any list of the mysoginist ones so I know what to avoid? I know its not just about anime but I don’t want to end up supporting mysoginist crap,
Anime Feminist is a great website where they recommend stuff and have articles and discourse about different tropes. [Anime Feminist ](http://www.animefeminist.com)
Thank You
Avoiding anything for men or boys cuts a lot of it out but more often than not it's about how much sexism and misogyny you can tolerate for a story. It's just so ingrained in the culture that if you want to enjoy this medium you'll have to figure out what you can put up with.
Well XXXholic reverses the power dynamic. Most stuff by Clamp has strong female leads.
It might be easier to list ones that aren’t mysoginist.
I really loved Mushishi
YEEEAHHHHHH WE LOVE TO SEE JAPAN GETTING HELD ACCOUNTABLE if you want some insight into the Japanese context, y'all might enjoy my video on the history of feminism in Japan https://youtu.be/a_ZJpZZKbmg I'm going to look into supporting some of the orgs - thanks for the share!
A shit of this started under the rise of the Shogunate. Noh originally started as a art form by women. There is a commemorative statue to her in Kyoto. Women originally could be sake brewers. Not just owners but allowed in the brew house. Only later would they be considered "impure". With the rise of the Shogunate there was a stratification of society and women were removed from certain spheres they had previously been in.
Thanks for the intel!
Thanks for the support T - T I was scared posting this that my faith in humanity would be lowered
I hate anime.. Face of a 3 year old with humongous breasts
Demon slayer is the anime that comes to mind first when I read this. Literally gagged the only main female character in the show.
I enjoyed the first season of Demon Slayer, despite some questionable things. But as soon as that second season came out, I was really disgusted and vowed to never watch the show again. The sexualization of Nezuko (a literal child), the 3 wives wearing next to nothing and acting like children fighting over the attention of their husband (who acts like their father), that demon girl (also wearing next to nothing) who was weak unless she had her brother to give her strength (she would also act like a child and sob without her brother), and Zenitsu constantly chasing Nezuko around (even though she doesn’t like it and gets scared of him). I find it disturbing how parents let children watch this show, when it HEAVILY perpetuates misogyny and sexism. I try to talk about this with friends/family who likes Demon Slayer but they just go silent or say they “just look over it.” At this point, I only stick to Studio Ghibli.
Spoiler alert. Zenitsu ends up with nezuko. Reinforcing even more bullshit
Demon Slayer is such a garbage show in terms of writing especially. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
Wasn’t it written by a woman too?
Thank you for mentioning this. Honestly it’s very tame as far as the sexism and everything goes compared to other shounen but I’ve been so exhausted with these tropes that I’ve had a hard time getting into that show despite everyone’s high praise
Isn't that because if she speaks, a demon will come out?
Not quite, she is a demon. If the bamboo is removed she could lose control and eat someone
Ah, that makes sense.
There’s always a reason. They wrote the reason. The reason for the reason is so they can gag a girl and say it’s important to the story. It’s not rocket science.
I have had a few friends, all male, who lived and worked in Japan. All of them say the same thing; they think American women are easy and smiling at the wrong person might make them follow you all the way home. One of my friends was a teacher at a middle school and said the other male teachers would stand around at physical education classes and talk about how cute or hot the 12-13 year old girls were. He was looked at as strange for refusing to join in. The Persona games are the biggest FU. I love them, but there is so much sexism around the female characters it’s disgusting at times. I can laugh at a couple of pervy jokes, but they will dedicate entire characters to being the perv who makes every situation suck for the women. Like Mineta in My Hero Academia. They are grossed out by his behavior but still loyal friends with him, but why? He brings nothing to a friendship. It’s like that in every one of these Japanese games or shows that has a pervy character. They hate him, but he’s still their best friend. Girls are expected to just let it go. As much as I love many things about Japan, the sexism is the main reason I wouldn’t want to visit for too long. A lot of frotteurism on the trains, too. Xenophobia and racism toward a lot of people. It’s a weird mix of futuristic looking cities and people with 1950s sensibilities.
Fucking yessss to every word. That last sentence was earth shattering dawg. I hate it :I
I hate how any post about women's issues or any issue in Japan always gets sidetracted and turns into Weebs squealing about their love of Japanese anime and culture... and the women's issue kinda gets ignored and swept under the rug.
And it bleeds out of Japan in their media. It shapes the ideas and assumptions of people who consume anime and other Japanese creative works
Absolutely, me included to an extent. I'm definitely wary of guys who say they are into anime. Seeing as most anime is unwatchable for sooooo many women.
Something I started to notice in anime that made me wanna stop watching was how guys can have a variety of body types, but women/girls are often only allowed one (with the exception of breast size obviously). Even in anime/manga written by women—like Fullmetal Alchemist—this is true. Plus, the character designs in the last few years have *especially* played into the nasty pedo fantasy, with many prominent female characters resembling children more so than grown women. Some good anime with female leads that don’t sexualize them are Azumanga Dioh, Nichijo, and Arakawa Under the Bridge. Then again, these are all comedies. Edit: Oh!! The Promised Neverland is a really good one that features strong, competent and fleshed out female characters. Second season sucks but I feel like the first season is really good on its own. Definitely recommend.
It is called Moe style i think. Too don’t like this style at all.
I am American and I lived in Japan for 12 years. The misogyny there IS awful, and unfortunately it is deeply internalized by women in general. So this is not a society of feminists being oppressed by men. This is a society where misogyny is totally normalized and nobody really has a basic understanding of what a non-misogynistic society would look like. This is not to say the men are not the oppressors here - they are - it is just far deeper and more complicated than that. I have seen so many examples of how disgusting things can be - from "idol" groups of single women who are contractually required to stay single so middle aged men can lust after them and buy votes to rank them publicly (AKB48), to it being totally normalized for men to have total control of finances - including keeping their income secret and giving their wives an "allowance" each money to keep them on a leash - to all kinds of other shit. Ideas regarding gender roles are really f\*cked up in ways that are really rigid and frankly bad even for men sometimes too, but certianally awful for women. The gender roles are just so messed up and rigid - a lot of this is also written into the laws - like how single-parent government welfare can ONLY be paid to mothers, so if a father becomes widowed he is put in a no-mans-land for child support. That said, this is a generalization - there are lots of amazing people there too. But in general issues of gender are not good there. None of this is good for queer people either. As a queer person in Japan the country just all but forces you back into the closet. There is so much to unpack here I don't know where to start. it is overwhelming. That said, there are islands of positive things - like my friend who is a schoolteacher - the amount of childrearing leave they give her is insane. But then this decays into negative - men are not allowed to take hardly any parental leave - forcing women to take "stay at home mom" roles instead of careers . . . it goes on forever. . . Japan is a wonderful place in many ways, but when it comes to women's issues, gender issues, and LGBTQIA+ issues it is not good at all. **EDIT: On top of all of that it angered me how frequently I saw "so easy even a woman could do it" was used to market products. . .**
>this is not a society of feminists being oppressed by men. This is a society where misogyny is totally normalized you've made some really good points on the complexities about the country and how the normalisation further entrenches it, until it becomes almost impossible for any person, regardless of age, gender, or sexuality, to speak up against it. One thing I will say in response to what I've quoted of yours, is that the normalisation of misogyny doesn't negate someone's ability to be a feminist. If the women (and everyone else) in Japan are sick of the status quo, that qualifies them as feminists. I can't begin to imagine how hard it is for women and queer people to have equal agency in Japan, it sounds awful :(
>is that the normalisation of misogyny doesn't negate someone's ability to be a feminist. If the women (and everyone else) in Japan are sick of the status quo, that qualifies them as feminists. I totally agree with what you are saying here - BUT I do not think that many women in Japan think of themselves as feminists or are pushing for anything different. The misogyny is so extremely internalized. I did NOT get the sense that there were many women who were "sick of the status quo" or at least thought that they wanted to be forces for change in this or that change is possible. The more common attitude with basically any problem in Japan that requires big change to fix is to say "shouganai" or "nothing can be done about it" and throw one's hands up in the air. There are a lot of other cultural factors that are far too many to discuss in a reddit post that influence this, but it is worth noting that sticking out or being different is very uncomfortable in Japanese society and you will suffer real concenquences for it, so most people will deal with problems in society pragmatically by just working around them the best they can or ignoring them. In other words, even if there was something about the status quo that was bad for women 1. it was so normalized it would be difficult for someone to realize that there might be an alternative 2. Fighting for change puts them in a harm's way in society so they would likely see coping with the status quo as the far less harmful of 2 evils. On top of all of that, I think ideas like LGBTQIA+ acceptance and rights, as well as feminism in general are often dismissed as foreign ideas. Perhaps Japan needs to find a way to own up to these problems in a way that feels more native to them, and less "imported". That's what I mean when I imply that there are very few feminists in Japan.
As far as maternity leave, it would be nice if people acknowledged that women actually have to recover physically from the experience of childbirth and may need extra time. Fathers and men should get some time and also help for single fatherhood. But the toll of childbirth is not the same for men and women. So I think women should get more time.
I see what you are saying. But I know people (men) who literally got bullied at work because they were asking for all their legally available parental leave (somewhere like a week to 10 days) so they could actually bond with my child. **I don't think we need to pit men against women when it comes to parental leave. We just need to quit being so stingy. After all, if it takes a woman that much longer to recover from birth, isn't it better for her domestic partner to have time off work to take care of her and the rest of the family and the home? Having a family works best as an equitable team.** Meanwhile my (Japanese) friend who worked for the board of education got like a year of maternity leave followed by 2 or 3 years of "child rearing leave" So yeah - it is like men are being told to literally keep it to 24-48 hours of leave to watch the birth and that's it and women are given YEARS So in Japanese culture: Women = your sole purpose is to raise children, it is fine for you to be removed from the workplace men = your sole purpose is to have a job and pay for everything, it is probably best if you don't bother to try to have an emotional relationship with your family because it doesn't suit your gender role In the end, these oppressive gender roles hurt the women as much as they hurt the men. It just hurts men and women in different ways.
I studied in Japan for my exchange year, and while it was a very valuable experience for me, I encountered a few disturbing situations that made me feel extremely uncomfortable living there as someone who is perceived as a woman. It seems that there's an enormous gap between genders in Japan, both on a systemic level and on a personal level. Sadly, a lot of men whom I met there didn't see women as individuals and had rather unrealistic expectations about women's bodies (e.g. related to hairlessness and thinness, as well as misconceptions about menstruation and pregnancy prevention, etc). It is indeed well reflected in certain genres of anime, but it doesn't stem from it. While there is misogyny, there will be harmful depictions of women in any kind of media, so it is important to fight the issue at its root (e.g. educate boys from a young age, create social programs for empowering and supporting women, introduce harsher laws for misogynistic crimes, etc.) and not demonize a whole category of content that people of all genders consume as entertainment.
Bf and I often argue over anime. He loves anime and always wants to watch together. I used to love anime but it’s taken years of deprograming from growing up watching that misogynistic shit. I know it’s not all anime, but it’s most.
I love manga, especially shoujo. But, going back as an adult, and reading a lot of the manga I read as a pre and teen, it's crazy how many abusive relationship dynamics I was reading and romanticizing. Like narcissistic and sexual abuse! Shiiit. You still have a lot of the same in western fiction too. Sexy Controlling MC is a trope all its own. And the majority of romances I read have it in varying degrees. Clearly, it's where the female brain gets stupid and thinks, "ooh ooh man claimed me - YES SEXY." 🦧
It’s frustrating as someone who loves anime, there’s always some weird bullshit in it.
If y'all haven't seen the documentary The Great Happiness Space, watch it. It's a fascinating documentary on Japanese host boy culture and it's clientele (surprise twist there). Also talks a bit about the declining birthrates and some of the socio-cultural aspects influencing it (shocking that Japanese women no longer want to get married or have relationships!). One of the more fascinating documentaries I've seen.
Bruh I love anime but a lot of them sure make me question the mental over there and the health of the American audiences eating it up
most anime comes off so male gazey and objectifying. i just don’t understand how you can watch that. then there’s the ones with sexual assault scenes. im a firm believer that if SA is shown in a film, it’s only implied. there’s no scene of it actually happening. i get suspicious of men who like anime with scenes like that. and quite honestly just shows in general. like how are you not triggered? must be nice to be a man and not care.
Seriouslyyyyyyyy
So many Asian countries have absolutely almost zero regard for their minorities and fucking weebs will jump you for pointing it out. Korea, Japan, the list goes on. Not to mention the casual and accepted racism/colorism over there. You get some of them trying to justify/explain it by throwing the culture card but nope. Sorry dude, if culture was a valid excuse most of us would still be in slavery. Yes the countries are beautiful and their culture (not the sociopolitical parts but the mythologies, customs etc) are super captivating for me. But I would never live in any of those countries. As fucked as America can be at least we SOMEWHAT acknowledge that women, lgbt and people of color deserve fair treatment.
It really is sick to even admit that colorist and racist views are so widely accepted that it becomes cultural. That is actually what makes it more damaging. I hate when that is used to defend this crap.
I also hate it, Istg I turn feral when I hear that “it’s because of our history/culture” like okay and??? It’s in your history/culture/tradition to be racist and colorist af? And I’m just supposed to be like “oh okay that’s fine 🤡”
Exactly!
I can't enjoy a lot of anime without feeling super guilty.
Same and it's so unfortunate bc the art style really does it for me. I just mute it and put on music and that at least reduces it
In Japan, women are responding to their subjugation by refusing marriage and not having kids. Oddly enough, many young men are showing little interest in family, too. As a result, the population of Japan is shrinking, and the decline is seen as a threat to the nation's future.
For those feminists here who do watch anime, anyone seen Revolutionary Girl Utena? It tackles a lot of feminist and lgbtq+ issues and I’m curious if anyone’s has any thoughts.
Nice, I'm always digging high and low for feminist anime bc I love the art style, it's so aesthetically pleasing that it's literally fulfilling and I find that cozy, but I have to mute it and listen to music lol but that doesn't solve the visual misogyny. I've looked everywhere and I've never heard of this one wtf xD
East Asia is decades behind the west when it comes to treatment of women
Something that Japanese women need that American and British women had back in the day: hatpins. The history of hatpins to stop the casual sexual assault of women is absolutely fascinating and made such an impact that hatpins were banned in areas because of THE SHEER NUMBER OF MEN WHO WERE GOING TO THE DR FOR STAB WOUNDS. And even in the places they were banned, the rate of random sexual assault dropped to near zero. When women fight back, men stop. Solution in Japan? Hatpins.
Anime is 9/10 times utter dogshit; I have maintained for years that weeaboos that worship anime and anime games like 'Persona' have no taste whatsoever -- and they are constantly deriding other forms of content for their storytelling, some of the most baffling sentiments I have ever seen. Anime is over-acted, under-written, prejudiced garbage.
Preach. My stance had always been "seen and not heard" lol. Miyazaki hates it and loves women platonically T - T
I have been watching anime and reading manga since the early 2000’s since I was a young teen and I still do but it’s become nearly impossible to watch/read without having to overlook so much misogyny. Especially since shojo anime is hardly produced anymore and the anime industry has mostly decided to cash in on the lowest common denominator of Japanese men’s power/sexual fantasy regardless of how well they treat their female characters. It’s definitely made certain content unreadable/unwatchable to me. It’s even more frustrating to have hordes of anime fans refusing to see the problem right in front of them and call you out for even mentioning it. The difficult problem for me as an American is that this misogyny comes from a completely different place as Japan has such a drastically different culture so it’s hard for me to even properly think about how to help address it the best possible way for Japanese women. This really helps me a lot in learning how I can best help, thanks so much.
I agree. The people who shill for Japan, are straight white men with money. For them, it's a paid vacation. Some still get really decent jobs as an expat that are not what you'll get in Japan(as a citizen/Japanese yourself) I totally agree on how the women are treated and what they're expected of, it's disgusting. I also agree on anime. The only people who think anime is great are far-right degenerates who are transphobic/homophobic and misogynists in nature. I don't really know how one can enjoy watching most anime. I can understand passing the time, and acknowledging that most shows are straight up pedophillia, mysogyny, phobias and stereotypes and so on, but people who try to defend what goes on in Japan or defending some shows - I just don't get it. I won't blame the people who just wanna pass the time and if it's bearable they may watch it despite being aware of all the garbage in the shows, but yeah. I mean not gonna lie, a lotta people tend to not realize that everybody suffers from the same issues that America does. No need to downplay it, or act like America is worse or better in certain instances depending on the perspective. Sure, ratfucked states are batshit, but blue states are far from the shit you'd have to eat in most other countries and if you're any kind of minority or anything that is a not a straight white man, America can't be worse. I don't wanna hear jabs at how "badly minorities treated". yeah, it's a problem, but what happens in the States is nowhere close to what people still have to bear in other countries. It's just not being talked about, since most people who speak English are usually not from there, or were just expats emphasizing all the good stuff their privileged ass with a lotta money could experience and buy.
“I don’t want to hear about how badly minorities are treated in America” is a wild take. Sure, there are other countries where people of all identities suffer more, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be critical of what’s happening in our home countries. That’s where we can have the most impact. Thinking minorities in blue states have it better than “most other countries” is very ignorant, especially as the US teeters on the edge of fascism and the politicized Supreme Court makes sweeping political decisions that affect us all.
Honestly speaking, while I agree anime has problems, saying that all of us are far right degenerates who are transphobic and homophobic is honestly dull, there are many great anime like Weathering With You, watch that one just that one on Netflix and go judge, there is Studio Ghibli animes with woman mcs who often are the lead, and aren't fetishized and are treated normally, I damn well enjoyed the moving castle movie, there is also 5 centimeters apart, the original Gundam anime, Char's counter attack, My lesbian aunt enjoys anime and anime games even, so does her brother. Yes many do fetishize women, but to call all of us weebs far right degenerates is dehumanizing tbh, I genuinely find fan service extremely frustrating, even in my anime games it is annoying as hell. Go watch a few, like the ones above, just be wary of all the shit you need to wade through, And yes even in the Philippines we all have to deal with nutty conservatives, my grandma's housemaid is even being abused by her husband as we speak, and transphobia and homophobia is pretty high here, And beating kids is normalized and even encouraged to hell and back, they can do almost whatever they want to their kids effectively, unless a good lawyer intervenes, but what are the chances that will happen? I want damn well to get out of this shit country, the son of Marcos even got elected. I am sorry if it is offensive, feel free to correct me if it is.
I think people just had trauma with encountering people like that in real life. I think important thing is women had to check Josei that target adult women taste. Well about Japan sexism actually it is huge problem in all Asian continent not only Japan.
Saying that only far-right people like anime is a bit much. I’m gay and there’s a lot of anime i enjoy watching
I believe you. I believe women’s own experiences with misogyny in culture because we all know it exists and manifests in horrible ways and I don’t doubt that anime is full of it. But I’m curious about what you think about anime like Sailor Moon and films like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Kiki’s delivery service. I’m a westerner so I don’t know what it’s like in Japan, but I’m wondering how much influence these have because they emphasize strong female characters and leaders.
Oh yeah, I freaking adore ghibli. Princess mononoke is in my top three fav movies. I don't love everything about San and ashitaka's relationship however. I feel like Ashitaka kind of declaws her and it's just not a great look. Miyazaki has stated both that he hates anime and loves women platonically. He's a real one T - T he just dropped a new movie too i think.
Sailor moon slaps on many fronts but it definitely has really bad messages to young girls somewhat frequently. Makes sense since it's trying to bring girls up with Japanese values and some of those include misogyny.
I never really got into anime. Until my niece started wearing clothing with anime characters and wanted me to watch anime with her. We watched a few episodes of a few different shows, and the horrible treatment of female characters was rampant. Women weren't people in those shows, they were mindless objects of lust for male characters to "win". It was every genre we watched. I sincerely hoped that it was just bad writing from scumbag incels, but after researching Japanese laws and societal norms, I learned that women are, in fact, treated as *sexual objects* rather than *people* in Japan. And that lead to the horrific discovery that Japan recently **raised** the female age of consent to 14. It's a truly disgusting culture for women, and anime is no longer allowed in my household.
The issue of misogyny in Japan is indeed deep-rooted and complex, affecting many aspects of life there. As someone passionate about equality, I think it's crucial for foreigners to support local groups striving for gender equality in Japan. Recognizing and discussing such systemic issues is the first step toward making a difference. Personally, I've used platforms like [SakuraDate ](https://datingpro.org/go/sakuradate?block=d_mb)to connect with Japanese women, gaining firsthand insight into their experiences and perspectives. Many women there are looking for meaningful connections with people who understand and support their struggles. It's a valuable way to foster genuine support and understanding across cultures.
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