| What do you think, where is the line between a girl's love for attractive and interesting male characters or a guy for similar female characters, and outright fetishism, when the main purpose of watching anime directly or indirectly becomes weird objectification and sexualization of characters of the opposite gender? I'm not going to put this on the level of jokes about "I watch this for the plot" or labels like "everyone who watches all-female is a fetishist", it's just that recently topics about fanservice and people's attitudes towards it have become so common on the forum that I wanted to know where people see the line that shares a "healthy" love of content with characters of the opposite gender and pure fetishism, when people watch anime only for the sake of regular fetishes and hot waifu/hasubendo. |
 |
| Male and female attraction to the opposite sex share the factor of looks being the most important thing. We see this type of lookism very commonly in character reception. For example, the majority of Mineta dislike is by females since he does not look appealing. The difference between a creep and a playboy is just looks. This also applies to female characters in male oriented series where almost all the girls in these fictional stories far exceed supermodels in beauty. Both men and women love looks in characters a lot. |
 |
rohan121 said: Male and female attraction to the opposite sex share the factor of looks being the most important thing. We see this type of lookism very commonly in character reception. For example, the majority of Mineta dislike is by females since he does not look appealing. The difference between a creep and a playboy is just looks. This also applies to female characters in male oriented series where almost all the girls in these fictional stories far exceed supermodels in beauty. Both men and women love looks in characters a lot. Then how do you tell the difference between fetishizing characters of the opposite gender and genuinely adoring and respecting them? My experience has been that even in the fandom of very deep and loving shows like Hibike, there are plenty of fetishists, while fans of even the dumbest ecchi shows can have people who enjoy the content itself rather than huge doses of fanservice. |
|
TheFireNinja said: I don't think it's a line that's easy to draw since perspectives vary. I mean, there are some people who view attraction to a character to be weird entirely. I think it's just a matter of people needing to respect the opinions of others. Do you mean people who consider it fetish the mere fact that someone likes a charismatic and attractive character? |
|
TheFireNinja said: RobertBobert said: Do you mean people who consider it fetish the mere fact that someone likes a charismatic and attractive character? Yeah. The mere fact of being emotionally engaged or invested in a character's personality can sometimes be a form of romantic attraction as well. In my time, I often heard that shipping becomes especially personal when the ship in the eyes of a person represents "a favorite character that I associate myself with x a favorite character that I love" |
|
"Fetishism" is a word that people like to throw about a lot. If I say that I admire the sheer beauty of this: someone will say that I have a foot fetish. But I think that says more about that someone's thought processes than about me, doesn't it? |
 |
| Does it matter? Characters are objects, it's meaningless whether you sexualize or "objectify" them. The more you're attached to the character or they feel real to you, the less you're going to be interested in them for purely fetishistic reasons, you will be able to appreciate them more as a whole. Still, this is a fictional entity we're talking about it, unless you're one of those people, don't forget that it's still an object at the end of the day. |
| If you reply back to me and I never respond, I lost interest and don't care. Sorry about that. |
| I have no idea, but there were some anime I finished only because I liked certain characters. |
| 馬鹿げた倫理 全部ガラクタで |
| I kind of have a thing for dark haired girls with ponytail hairstyle, glasses or both. IMO it's rather normal even boring but people call those fetishes for some reason...go figure it out. My impression is that the word fetish is used mainly when you want to insult someone's taste. |
| Fascination is about liking character's appearance, role and personality in general. While fetishism is when it's gone sexual, maybe it's like that. |
| Love of content and sexualising fictional characters. Me personally I can't admire fictional characters. I want to get closer. And the only way I can is through DOUJINSHI. |
 |
| I seriously can't answer this question in a good manner lol but I'll give a short and straightforward answer: I don't think everyone who watches shows is for waifu's or husbands or there's any fetish involved at all. They might just be trying out something new lol. |
 |
| The fact that it seems so difficult and so unnatural to some people that you can watch an all (gender you are attracted to in real life) centric show without being horny is one of the most amazing oddities of the anime community. |
| Isn't the line is literally just whether you feel horny or not? and people have different kind of horniness |
| Part of me wants to acknowledge "Yes, you can absolutely watch a show with an all-opposite gender cast without wanting to fuck anything" and part of me wants to double down on fetishism so we can promote the idea of a degenerate fandom and destroy all things wholesome, as they should be. It's tough choosing between being reasonable and being unreasonable sometimes ngl |
 |
jal90 said: The fact that it seems so difficult and so unnatural to some people that you can watch an all (gender you are attracted to in real life) centric show without being horny is one of the most amazing oddities of the anime community. Huh, a lot of these people are constantly horny themselves because of the characters, they just think that when THEY do it, they are simply fascinated by cool characters. _Maneki-Neko_ said: There is a difference between fetishizing and just being (overly) horny, you would assume. I think the attraction to characters' appearance and some fetishes should come second, first priority should be the plot and who the characters are as people ... but I also don't care enough why other people watching stuff. The only things that make me feel really appalled are pedophilia, sexualized furries and romanticized abuse. You don't like furry folks? |
|
Tirinchas said: "Fetishism" is a word that people like to throw about a lot. If I say that I admire the sheer beauty of this: someone will say that I have a foot fetish. But I think that says more about that someone's thought processes than about me, doesn't it? Gentle toes bending on impact with the slick wooden floor and extending to for form a perfect continuity with the top part of the foot, thus creating a spring effect that propels the feet ever so slightly up into the air. The way the heels of the feet are just an inch off touching the wooden floor, thus activating more of the Gastrocnemius instead of the Quadriceps. Oh dear, I can hardly contain myself. The shadow, elegantly gliding across the surface, further emphasizing the anatomy of the feet is just magnificent to watch. Hypnotizing even. Not to mention the black tinted socks that gracefully cover the feet as to leave mystery regarding the subject of who is wearing them, thus allowing the viewer to insert their own pure image. A true work of art. |
 |
RobertBobert said: jal90 said: The fact that it seems so difficult and so unnatural to some people that you can watch an all (gender you are attracted to in real life) centric show without being horny is one of the most amazing oddities of the anime community. Huh, a lot of these people are constantly horny themselves because of the characters, they just think that when THEY do it, they are simply fascinated by cool characters. That's kind of bullshit reasoning. If they were actually horny for the characters, they'd know. And if they don't know, you don't know either. |
jal90 said: RobertBobert said: Huh, a lot of these people are constantly horny themselves because of the characters, they just think that when THEY do it, they are simply fascinated by cool characters. That's kind of bullshit reasoning. If they were actually horny for the characters, they'd know. And if they don't know, you don't know either. In an ideal world where all people are logical robots, perhaps. |
|
RobertBobert said: jal90 said: That's kind of bullshit reasoning. If they were actually horny for the characters, they'd know. And if they don't know, you don't know either. In an ideal world where all people are logical robots, perhaps. You don't need to go to an ideal world to know that you can't infer somebody's inner impulses when they don't display them, much less through a computer screen. |
jal90 said: You don't need to go to an ideal world to know that you can't infer somebody's inner impulses when they don't display them, much less through a computer screen. There is no need to sink into yet another demagogy like "if you can't say something with 100% certainty, then it's impossible." When fujoshi has a bunch of hot BL fan art and claims that she doesn't sexualize male characters, it's extremely OBVIOUS that she's being hypocritical. |
|
RobertBobert said: jal90 said: You don't need to go to an ideal world to know that you can't infer somebody's inner impulses when they don't display them, much less through a computer screen. There is no need to sink into yet another demagogy like "if you can't say something with 100% certainty, then it's impossible." When fujoshi has a bunch of hot BL fan art and claims that she doesn't sexualize male characters, it's extremely OBVIOUS that she's being hypocritical. Yes, but since these examples happen once in a blue moon, you can't infer any general rule and much less tell people what they are into and why they enjoy things. Also, tone down your obsession with fujoshi. It's getting cringey. |
jal90 said: RobertBobert said: There is no need to sink into yet another demagogy like "if you can't say something with 100% certainty, then it's impossible." When fujoshi has a bunch of hot BL fan art and claims that she doesn't sexualize male characters, it's extremely OBVIOUS that she's being hypocritical. Yes, but since these examples happen once in a blue moon, you can't infer any general rule and much less tell people what they are into and why they enjoy things. Also, tone down your obsession with fujoshi. It's getting cringey. Perhaps I was mistaken when I removed you from the ignore lists, thinking that you would no longer argue for the sake of an argument and try to bait me instead of discussing the topic on the merits. I'm sorry. |
|
RobertBobert said: jal90 said: Yes, but since these examples happen once in a blue moon, you can't infer any general rule and much less tell people what they are into and why they enjoy things. Also, tone down your obsession with fujoshi. It's getting cringey. Perhaps I was mistaken when I removed you from the ignore lists, thinking that you would no longer argue for the sake of an argument and try to bait me instead of discussing the topic on the merits. I'm sorry. Not the only one who is disappointed here. I thought you'd gain self-awareness, but all you end up talking about everywhere is fujoshi and yurifans. It's your fault, you bring these topics to the table with the "related" examples that are always the fucking same. |
More topics from this board
» About Horror Anime...KMIR - 17 minutes ago |
0 |
by KMIR
»»
17 minutes ago |
|
» How to make your social-media algorithms send you posts about the seasonal anime you're watching?thewiru - Yesterday |
24 |
by KitchenStaff
»»
51 minutes ago |
|
Sticky: » AWC 2025 Anime Watching Challenge - Sign-Up (Open Until December 10th) ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )AWC_mod - Jan 1 |
899 |
by oldsport64
»»
56 minutes ago |
|
» non horror anime plots that would be a nightmare to have to go throughTheBlockernator - 8 hours ago |
14 |
by LSSJ_Chloe
»»
1 hour ago |
|
» Any ACTUAL good watcheable anime (Not schoolshit, not for losers to fap to, no teen protag) that came out in this millenium?__CHUNCHUNMARU__ - 7 hours ago |
26 |
by Wyatt
»»
1 hour ago |