Feminism in Anime (AnimeFeminist)

[Jamie]

So, I found out today that there is a site called AnimeFeminist (www.animefeminist.com) that recently did an interview with Kotaku.

Their goal: to promote feminism in anime. Apparently the panty shots and fan service are extremely "problematic" (still haven't figured out what that means), and so they want to push anime studios 10000km away to conform to their needs.

They are focused on convincing anime studios to create more anime that is suited for women and "people of colour". The latter one is especially hilarious because Japan is 99.8% Japanese, so why the **** would they care about appealing to other ethnicities? Almost all of their money is earned by other Japanese citizens, so why would they care about some western feminists?

Anime in Japan is a huge form of media that I'm sure appeals extremely well to the women there. I've also seen a wide array of ethnicities at anime conventions, so I'm not sure they are struggling much with that anyway. Granted, this is a website that literally states the article author's sexuality at the end of the article (presumably only if they aren't straight, though), so perhaps this is a bad representation of normal people, but it's shocking to me that people think this is a genuine issue.

Well, not shocking, because this **** happens all the time, but I think it's incredibly silly.

What do you guys think, does anime need a good dose of feminism? Will western feminists ever appeal to japanese studios? Interested in hearing your thoughts, perhaps I'm in a minority here.

 

[Din.Farore.Nayru]

I think everyone appreciates seeing themselves in creative works - whether novels, TV, movies, manga - everyone likes to be able to relate to characters and see people who look or act like them (to a degree).

As a gay man growing up in the 90s and oos I never really saw gay people my age on TV. Like Will & Grace was probably the only show that had gay people on it who weren't the butt of jokes. I never got to see my experiences in shows, you know? Or in song lyrics or whatever. And it kind of sucked.

Part of the reason I'm a big fan of Troye Sivan is because I really feel like he's the first singer to really capture lyrically what it's like to be a young gay guy in love. Growing up I didn't have that.

I completely understand your point about Japan, obviously it's a fairly homogeneous country and studios will probably not begin making anime that feature people of color (and that wouldn't be very authentic anyway - why would a person of color want their story to be told by someone who cannot at all relate to it?).

I think it's a valid critique that some anime portray women poorly. I'm not really interested in some bimbo with her tits out - I'd much rather see a strong, confident, empowered woman - but that's me.

Like you said, looking at the audience at anime conventions, there is such a wide range of people interested in it outside of Japan, and the studios are making money off of those people. I can understand those people wanting to see themselves in anime to a greater degree, and it would be interesting to see studios experiment with new ideas that confront some of these issues.

 

[Sicarius]

They really need to come out with more animes that are empowering and not just about tits and ass. There's already a ridiculous amount of those and a lot of the fanservice in some don't even contribute to the plotline and sometimes is just excessive. A good example of female badassness is one of my favorites: Claymore.

 

[Dio]

I don't think Anime needs a good dose of feminism. It is good the way it is. Not all of it of course, some of it is crap but there are great ones being produced still and there doesn't need to be some feminist agenda pushed in there.

I wouldn't worry about this group trying to take our precious boobies away because I know the Japanese wont care about what this silly western group says. They are making loads of money doing what they are doing so why would they change it?

 

[DeactivatedUser2]

no

 

[Kylo Ken]

1. Japan give -0 ****s about western feminism.
2. Males are also objectified in anime and nobody ****ing cares, nor should they.
3. Nobody is forcing their eyeballs on a manga page.

What I really can't stand is the sense of entitlement that some people have. They're going to change a culture across the world, and force a studio they have no investments in to cease creating the content they do because it offends them. Right, how dare these people make content that obviously appeals to a extremely large audience because it ****ing rakes in millions faster than you can say "Onii-chan, wrong hole."

And of course they have a patreon. "We need you to pay us money to change what you already love." That's another thing I see about these SJW groups. They insert themselves into a form of media/entertainment and suddenly announce a HUGE PROBLEM THAT HAS ALWAYS EXISTED AND OMG WE NEED TO CHANGE IT, but guess what, they need you to line their pockets to do it. Their highest patreon reward is 20 dollars a month. Wanna know what it is? You get to enter a chat room with them. That's right you need 20 dollars a month just to ****ing talk to them.

Did you see their Patreon goals? They want 1,500 dollars a month so that they can pay people $15/hour PART-TIME to criticize sexy anime chicks. Let's do some math. I'm gonna go ahead and say they have 7 members, because they refer to the 20 others as their "initial round of volunteers" so I won't count them, and they have 7 quotes from the team while also mentioning they expected a maximum of 8. 1,500 a month gives them 18k a year to split up amoung 7. 18/7=2,571 per year for one person. 2,571/12months= 214 dollars a month. Now, if m=rh (m=monthly earnings, r=rate per hour, and h=hours per month) then we can find how many hours they're working per month. So, filling in the variables, we have 214=15h, solve for h. I'm not gonna show my work cause I'm not in high school, but the answer is 14. That's 14 hours a month. That's it, one person could work a total of 14 hours a month. That's not a ****ing part-time job, that's a hobby. Some people on this very website sleep more that 14 hours A DAY. If you combine the others' hours per month, that's still less than 5 total days of work in a month. From that data, it doesn't look like they're capable of producing a "Powerhouse of content" like they say in their first paragraph. Now you may be saying, "Oh, very beautiful Viewtiful Ken, that's a modest earning, lay off a bit." To which I'd like to remind you what they're doing it all for: They're talking **** on the internet.

I'm not making this up, it's on their patreon. And that's not all, they want more for commissioned work. That's right, they want a ****ing 18K/Year salary PLUS 30-100 buckaroos for episode/series reviews (**** people do on youtube for free, and without the feminist agenda) and 75-350 dollars for content like essays, original research (kinda like what I just did for their ****ty scam), interviews of industry 'experts' (it's just gonna end up being themselves, since their members are in the industry, Crunchyroll employees, anime journalist employees, etc), and translations of existing japanese interviews. What a bunch of ****ing con-artists.



The fact of the matter is that it's not anifems' content. They have no right to decide if it gets made or not, anyway. I believe that they know this. I think they saw a ripe market of angry, hormonal females and they seek to exploit them. They want maximum cash for minimum work. But hey, maybe I'm wrong, maybe they actually are doing it for the cause. Well, in that case, they're still pieces of ****, just from a different asshole. They still think they have the right to make other people's decisions for them, and that they have the right to change entire cultures; and they'll be ignorant enough to believe that they're doing it for a just and righteous cause. Case closed.

 

[Lanky Kong]

nahhh anime is fine the way it is

 

[Misty]

Spoiler: It's about Friendship

Spoiler: and Swimming...

Spoiler: and ABS

I'd link other stuff, but like...yeah, anime is doing just fine on the front of equal objectification. The fact that men and women objectify different traits and thus one thing can pretend to be tasteful while really being as tasteless as a boobs and bottoms is really just evidence of either women being uptight or men being ignored.

 

[Lanky Kong]

on a side note i think it's hilarious that kill la kill gets criticized for objectifying women but gets no criticism for having a male character whose only character trait is that he likes to take off his clothes

 

[Misty]

on a side note i think it's hilarious that kill la kill gets criticized for objectifying women but gets no criticism for having a male character whose only character trait is that he likes to take off his clothes

Are not all men like that? I hadn't realized because all I do is watch anime.

 

[Monja Elisa]

all I can say to this is...

yes I am female, yes I have boobs... yes I watch anime
i dont mind ecchi, I dont mind atall how males treat females in the animes.....
Im not watching to argue about female rights generally.... with time, I grew accostumed to pantsu flashes and boobs in anime... so i really dont care....
I have actually come to figure out.. that all animes have some of this in them to some degree... even Inuyasha not being an ecchi anime had some fanservice scenes.
I dont mind ecchi, I dont even mind hentai..... in generally, I choose to watch it.. or in case of hentai, not to watch it... so how can I complain on it?

Ofcourse, others can have their own preferences... Im just stating mine ^

 

[Feverish]

Man, big boobs are a staple of anime. Without big boobs, anime loses its true meaning, and I'd lose interest.

Shoutout to my girl, Yoko