Lestat- said:With this season's newly adapted All Out!! and Yuri!!! on Ice (plus yet another season of Haikyuu!), the male audience of anime has yet again risen in to an uproar on sports anime; the largest portion of the male audience believes these titles are shounen ai, or even pushing it as far as calling them yaoi. Why? I do not know. They are not — I have watched Kuroko no Basket, One Outs, Free!, Prince of Stride and Yowamushi Pedal, and none of these series show any indication of homosexual encounters or romance between male characters. Believe it or not, but most sports anime are categorized as shounen and seinen, meaning they are mostly targeted at a male audience. Their manga are likely even to be featured in the widely acclaimed Weekly Shōnen Jump, which is again, primarily targeted at young men and men in general.
The mindset of a lot of young males on this subject just feels like a result of this twisted view on homosexuality. Looking at a group of men entertaining themselves through friendship and sports, does not make one homosexual. When you happen to look at a swimming team and the men happen to only wear slim trunks —as is, well; necessary in swimming sports—, does this make you homosexual? No, it does not. Now, I cannot speak for the male sex, but I find it disturbing how little tolerance the male gender seems to have toward viewing their own sex. Seeing a topless male is suddenly 'gay', and any group of men who are friendly with one another must all be 'gay'. I have never received a clear answer on this as I can only speculate about the prudish view on a same-sex perspective of heterosexual men, but why is it so problematic for you Martians to either witness another pleasant-looking man, or to be present in the same environment as a handsome —I feel I have to mention appearance, seeing as this feels like something that either intimidates men or urges them to think of someone as 'gay'— man? I have even heard of young men on actual sports teams either showering with their boxers on, or refusing to shower at all.
As a woman, I can logically (well — as logical as this can get) come to three conclusions; 1. You are afraid that other men in the changing room are homosexual, and they develop feelings of lust or romance to you if they witness your naked self - 2. You are afraid that witnessing other naked men might inspire homosexual feelings within you - 3. You are suffering from some sort of distorted body image of yourself and fear that others will laugh at your naked self.
Now, I have strayed from my own initial point, as in none of the anime I mentioned earlier feature any unclothed men in an inappropriate setting (Yuri!!! on Ice's pilot did show a shot of a character rising from a bath, but this was at an onsen — meaning the setting calls for a culturally appropriate usage of nudity), but looking deeper in to the subject, I feel like there are a lot more underlying developments that causes a lot of men to think this way.
Men and women, please share your thoughts — any are welcome.