@Kira_Illusionist the answer is a long one, so I'll start from the beginning at the point I was making.
My point doesn't apply to people new to anime or people that don't know a lot about it. My point applies to seasoned anime fans. People who have watched over 200 anime series. If nothing from the feminine demographic is there, you're subconsciously avoiding it. There's a reason for it. Especially because when you recommend based on their taste, they make up some other arbitrary reason for not watching it. And it's hypocritical. Even the Shounen only girlies do it as well. It's a process that goes:
- "Can we have more female protagonists?"
- *points to Shoujo and Josei*
- "No thx! ^_^ I don't like romance!"
- *points out that Shoujo is not just romance*
- "Yeah, but I like action series! ^_^" (despite them watching anime like: Frieren, Apothecary Diaries, Haikyuu, Oshi no Ko, Death Note, etc)
- *recommends action, and only action, Shoujo series*
- "Yeah, but I need the female lead to have this type of character: must be flawed because Mary Sues are bad, yet having flaws is unbearable to watch. Must be a girl boss and not an awkward lover, because awkward losers are unbearable. Yet they must be awkward losers so that we can relate to them, and really the girl boss characters are just not relatable, therefore they are terrible. And can they be a 5'11" short queen and a very skinny woman that's thiccc with three cs?"
That's when it gets frustrating. They'll contradict what they actually want... And even when they don't, they'll habe just very high standards. They'll want every Shoujo to be a Berserk level masterpiece before they even decide to read it, yet will read a 5/10 Shounen. Those standards are simply not there with Shounen. They're just not. And even male characters don't have those harsh standards. If Grittith were a woman, she would be one of the most hated anime characters. Because Griffith is a guy, he has a defense force. "Griffith did nothing wrong!"
Of course, whether the sexism is conscious or not. Who knows? Some people might not even recognize it. There's a guy I like on Twitter. He's known for having a very large Manga collection. Even he self reflected. He used to say "demographics don't matter", yet he would subconsciously avoid Shoujo and Josei. He realized it when he actually analyzed his collection. He made a conscious effort to look up Shoujo and Josei. And even still, he prefers Shounen and Seinen. However, now he's not writing off Shoujo and Josei as a automatically bad.
As for the car analogy above. The worst car I ever owned was a BMW, a German car. It wasn't good at all, and it was expensive to fix. We had to eventually just let it go. And good riddance. For such an expensive car, it was a piece of 💩.