I'm going to regret asking this, but can anyone explain to me what's attractive about tomboy characters?

epidemia78 said:
You of all people should know already. Here's your answer.

LostSpectre said:
Personally, it just feels a little bit gay to be into a girl for having "masculine" qualities

LostSpectre said:
Yeah, I covered that in the post, she's definitely not the kind of girl I'm talking about. 

LSSJ_Gaming said:
What in the actual fuck? Is your heterosexuality that fragile that the way one presents themselves bothers you that much? 

epidemia78 said:

thing is, "tomboy" doesnt mean "girl with huge muscles". It means a girl who is easy going kinda like hanging out one of the guys. She might be athletic, but it's not a requirement. She just has a boyish hobby or demeanor.

Sealshark122 said:
It's 2023 can't people like what they like plus why you care ┐(ﾟ～ﾟ)┌

epidemia78 said:
It means a girl who is easy going kinda like hanging out one of the guys.

tomasowa said:
Feels like this needs to be clarified even further; attractive for the anime or attractive for the male viewer.

For the latter, I have zero expertise to speak on the matter.
Personally, it feels more sensible and efficient to be attracted to female characters that one draws themselves, instead of relying on the god of RNG to roll a decent combination into an anime and fall for that instead.

For the former, the attraction would be in a plot where the protagonist is female and is created to not be able to choose a male partner, much like idol culture.
The tomboy girl is then the male surrogate and has the physicality to rationally carry the story on that premise, be it to protect or have a more masculine character trait that supports and counters the feminine and emotionally frail side of protagonist ...

epidemia78 said:
You of all people should know already. Here's your answer.

Ishitateso said:
I guess, at least for me, tomboys have their appeal until their female characteristics are still dominant, you can tell clearly that they are women with a little exiting quirk. When the line gets blurred, and it becomes hard to tell the gender of a character, it gets more awkward and the appeal vanishes. But anime sometimes plays on this obscurity featuring characters that have that kind of hard to tell gender (like Najimi in Komi-san or Nanachi in Made in Abyss) because ther are some who are into those kind of characters. And next next step is of course traps, or crossdressing gender bender characters retv. Tomboys are pretty tame on this scale.

DoisacChopper said:
Mmmmmmmmmmm shes the best. Don't know if i'd call her a traditional tomboy though

anyways people like tomboys cause hot and easier to be chummy with
the appeal of being bros with a gal is there with tomboys and not so much elsewhere besides for actual men
if a girl looks like a delicate flower you probably will treat her as such and if a girl looks like a bro you can probably treat her like a bro
bro bro bro

anyways I like to think of tomboys first and foremost as ideal FwB besides for femboys which would be the ultimate FwB 
rarely do I think of tomboys as full on waifus they just give off diff vibes for the most part

LostSpectre said:
I'm kind of trying to separate that side of things, are you implying that all of that factors into a simple determination of whether a character is hot? 

nyugvo6 said:
this smells like bait coming from you, but I'll give you a honest answer anyway because it's >current year
men being attracted to men=homosexuality
men being attracted to women=heterosexuality.
there are good traits and bad traits.
there are traits that are associated with specific genders but aren't exclusive.
it's this easy but the propaganda machine is trying to twist this in insane ways that don't reflect reality.
they're trying to erase tomboys, simply convincing them they have gender disphoria.
I've seen straight men getting called gay because they watched video clips with female singers. "you want to be like that" when in reality they just found the women in the clips hot.

liking tomboys doesn't mean you like muscles or you're into femdom. it means you can(or feel you can) connect more easily with someone with a similar mindset to yours.
women and men are fundamentally different. with a tomboy you set that difference aside. it has more to do with having a friend in someone in the opposite gender, being able to be open about everything.
tomboys have the same interests and values as you do. the reason they're portrayed as sporty is because "men like sports"
tomboys can have big tits, they can have wide hips, they can look feminine but don't act the way at all.

since we're onto art and I happen to be an artist... when it comes to character design, a good design reflects the personality of the character. to illustrate a tomboy, expressing the body language would be sufficient, BUT archetypes exist for a reason. pattern recognition and all. so you get muscular, tanned short hair tomboys because you can point to them and say "aha! she doesn't look feminine! therefore she won't act the way either" it's the same idea that if you draw a man in a suit. people will associate him with wealth and power. if you add piercings to that or a necklace he's now a yakuza.
I'm sure you get the general idea.

DoisacChopper said:
A character is hot if a character is hot, but traits in their personality can go for and against them in terms of attractiveness

lets say there's a girl whos hot but shes a yandere well now shes a 0/10 for me atleast cause I hate yanderes, she'd never be my waifu lol

lots of things go towards attraction hmmuhmmu and I think how you would interact with someone is apart of appeal and fantasy

LostSpectre said:

I'm going to regret asking this, but can anyone explain to me what's attractive about tomboy characters?

ColourWheel said:

I can't really speak for the appeal of fictional Anime characters but in Real life a woman who has stereotypical masculine traits such as playing rough or doing things that are considered to be things that males generally enjoy doing is a very appealing thing especially in informal social gatherings or events. 

Before I got married, I use to have a female work colleague that I use to hang out with some nights after work to shoot pool, play poker, and drink beer with. I actually just thought of her as just another one of the guys, specifically because of her over all demeanor. 

epidemia78 said:

thing is, "tomboy" doesnt mean "girl with huge muscles". It means a girl who is easy going kinda like hanging out one of the guys. She might be athletic, but it's not a requirement. She just has a boyish hobby or demeanor.

LostSpectre said:
68477073
nyugvo6

I rarely ever make posts here, so I don't know why you would assume it's a bait post. Now, I don't subscribe to such a simple view of hetero/homo-sexuality, for instance, there's a huge difference between being attracted to a very masculine man and a man who is so feminine in appearance that they could pass for a woman, it makes no sense to paint both scenarios with the same brush. I understand your viewpoint of tomboys, but from my perspective I was trying to separate the relatable "she's a bro you can hang with" into something more base and superficial, but perhaps that was a mistake on my part. 

ThorLL said:
Ricchan is too active to me.

What would you say about Yui instead?

epidemia78 said:

Ritsu and Yui are a lot alike but Yui doesn't really have any tomboy traits, she's very girly.

Anjuro said:
It's a very subjective question but let me try to answer it. I think the primary reason for tomboy's popularity is the argument that it makes them cuter. The reason for this is that we tend to perceive small flaws as cute if and when they strike our fancy (e.g. a mole or a crooked smile etc. depends on the person what you like), in my estimation being a tomboy is 'cute' because your body tried really hard to make you a girl but could only manage a half assed job. I actually think the point at which you could mistake a tomboy for a man is somewhere around the point where it stops being cute, tomboys are still distinctly female, cute tomboys only generally have secondary male characteristics like a flat chest and short hair, primary characteristics like a chiseled jaw  and or man-like fat distribution are not cute in the same way at least if you ask me.  So the short answer is there's two subcategories of tomboys, the 'would be men' and the 'can't girl too good', only the latter is cute.

King_KK said:
I wouldn't say that I like Tomboys specifically but I do like sporty, fit, athletic women. Usually Tomboys in anime are fit and athletic while still being girly and that makes them attractive to me. I don't know what else to say man I am just into the gym girl aesthetic.

tchitchouan said:
their hair, their rough attitude, their foul unfiltered language, it's like hanging out with a bro with boobs.

LostSpectre said:
Yeah, a "bro with boobs" is just not appealing to me on an erotic level, but it's always nice to be able to share interests with your partner. 

Stygian_Prisoner said:
I don't understand the "liking tomboys = lowkey gay" mentality.

Meanwhile, it's always perfectly acceptable for girls to like femmy, metrosexual boys (eg. K-Pop armies), and they never seem to be questioned as being "low-key lesbos" by anyone. Sounds like double standards, if you ask me.

Absurdo_N said:
I have no idea why people find something attractive, but your question doesn't make much sense... A tomboy is still a girl so there's nothing gay about it, for example:girls who are k-pop fans are in love with those effeminate/androgynous boys, but they are not lesbian or bisexual because they like effeminate boys.

@Stygian_Prisoner
We said similar things, cool.

LostSpectre said:
Well, I wasn't viewing it biologically. What is technically gay/straight in terms of biological sex is not necessarily the same in practical terms. 

Absurdo_N said:


Trying to see it biologically is useless in my mere opinion, the day I found out that there are gay men who have sex with trans men I don't know what gay is anymore.

LostSpectre said:
Indeed. I also had a more boyish female in mind than most people were picturing, but that's totally my fault for not elaborating and providing examples. 

Absurdo_N said:


It's not your fault, people are probably thinking of a tomboy anime not a real life one.
Don't worry, in my mind I've generated images of the tomboys that exist here in Brazil that can get to be very masculine.