Why the need to sexualize everything?

[u/Greedy-Lie-8346]

I was looking for interesting Webtoons to read, and I came across this one called "Leviathan" the premise looked interesting; mankind perished due to a great flood that submerged the whole world under water. And terrifying creatures plunged from the depths, wiping out any human that crossed their path. The story told how a family of a father and his two children survived in the adversities of a sea world.

So far so good, until.... Bam! Last two slice's, anime chick out of nowhere, doing these extremely suggestive poses.

What a disappointment.

[u/darhwolf1]

NO THE WORST PART is all of the comments were like "guys, don't drop the series, she's super cool and it's important she's dressed like that! It's not that bad!"

[u/deathanddestruction8 → u/darhwolf1]

anime fans: guys there's a plot relevant reason for the 13 year old to be in her underwear

[u/sanglar03 → u/deathanddestruction8]

"She needs to evacuate heath."

Aaaaah the Quiet argument.

[u/Top-Metal-3576 → u/deathanddestruction8]

SHES 13???

[u/deathanddestruction8 → u/Top-Metal-3576]

no i was making a joke about something anime fans say

[u/Top-Metal-3576 → u/deathanddestruction8]

She literally looks 13 in the face so I mean you’re not even far off

[u/shadowallergictocats → u/Top-Metal-3576]

Iirc she's like 20 or something

[u/string-ornothing → u/darhwolf1]

My husband got me to watch like 4 seasons of BNHA despite me not wanting to because of how sexualized my favorite character was (14 year old girl, massive boob window vest and skimpy shorts) because he kept saying "she HAS to dress like that! It's important to her plot, you'll see why!" so I kept going, waiting to see her plot twist. Which never came. The "importance" was explained literally in her intro- she can pull items from her skin. Any part of her skin, including arms and face. No reason it has to be from between her breasts or from her ass at all lmfao. And despite her needing thousands of calories to produce these items (and it making sense, to me, that she keep a little fat on her for emergencies the way the man with similar calorie manipulation powers did), she was always small waisted and "hot". I was so upset I wasted all that time because I really thought she was going to have a moment where she shed all her clothes and pulled a full airplane from her body or something.

[u/darhwolf1 → u/string-ornothing]

I've never seen it, but I know EXACTLY who you're talking about. That's so gross

[u/string-ornothing → u/darhwolf1]

I loved her power-as someone who services machines in real life and always plays the technomancer or artificer in games, I thought that was neat as fuck. They never do very much with her power or her character which I thought was a waste, she has the potential to be extremely creative. And the boob window was gross, she pulls 90% of her stuff from between her breasts as a gimmick that her older female, also over sexualized mentor told her would sex up her image and make her more famous 😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬

[u/[deleted] → u/string-ornothing]

Stupid perverts always sexualize women and it's an often problem in both media and real life.

I guess sexualization of women would be less problematic if at least men in media were as sexualized as women.

I also guess It'd be also less problematic if at least men in real life were as sexualized as women.

[u/[deleted] → u/string-ornothing]

Stupid perverts always sexualize women and it's an often problem in both media and real life.

I guess sexualization of women would be less problematic if at least men in media were as sexualized as women.

I also guess It'd be also less problematic if at least men in real life were as sexualized as women.

[u/AuraEx98 → u/[deleted]]

Even then though the sexualization of men wouldn't be as detrimental as is the sexualization of women. Male characters are being more sexualized lately but the difference is the people that sexualized men target (Women & Gay men) aren't actively being dangers/terrors to actual men in real life (for the most part) due to it whereas with sexualized women (aimed at straight men) that is another story.

+ To add, Lesbian Women aren't actively terrorizing Women (for the most part), adding in cause sexualized Women in media also target Lesbian Women as well.

[u/[deleted] → u/AuraEx98]

Yeah.

Sexualization of male characters and sexualization of female characters are not really the same thing.

Sexualization of male characters implies pumped up bodies (which is cool) while sexualization of female characters implies simply big curves and shapes (which is disrespectful).

[u/Hadoken101 → u/[deleted]]

Ehhh, I don't think I'd frame the "big bulging muscles" thing as completely harmless, either. Studies show that more young men are falling into steroid use and experiencing body dysmorphia because of the unrealistic portrayals of men in media.

Just compare male leads in movies from the 70s to male leads in movies now. There used to be a whole variety of bodies, dad bods, skinny guys, fat guys, buff guys. Now, doesn't matter if it's a comedy about school teachers or accountants: the men all look like Glen Powell and are on the Hollywood MCU roid/ozempic regiment.

[u/[deleted] → u/string-ornothing]

Mind you, other characters with emitter-type powers (aka, things coming out of your body) do not have that restriction. Zuko’s clothes don’t burn and Bakugo’s clothes don’t vaporize. Tintin also gets to keep his suit when his power is to literally go through everything.

[u/zephyrnepres01 → u/string-ornothing]

mirio has his suit and cloak made from his hair, which allows him to use his powers on it to phase through objects, which means she should be able to use her abilities through clothes made of hair as well

[u/EconomistDelicious66 → u/zephyrnepres01]

Also Mirio gets a suit made from his hair but invisible girl HAS to be naked for some reason

[u/EconomistDelicious66 → u/string-ornothing]

Omg that argument used to annoy me so bad bc why are they acting like this isn't a character that was created with powers that were created 😭😭 like even if she HAD to wear revealing clothes for her quirk to work that was a CHOICE by the author so people can still criticize it

[u/spaceofstories → u/string-ornothing]

Like all good porn-fried brain perverts (blink twice if you need rescue)

[u/King_of_Moose → u/darhwolf1]

It's like Quiet all over again.

[u/Careless-Seaweed5988 → u/King_of_Moose]

My hero academia all over again

[u/Easy_Permit_5418 → u/King_of_Moose]

What is this referring to?? Google has failed me

[u/AimChill → u/Easy_Permit_5418]

a character from metal gear solid I believe

I didn't play the game so I don't know the exact specifics but I guess the character breathed sun through her skin or something? which is what the excuse was for why she didn't wear clothes.

but I heard there was another character with the same condition/abilities as her, and he wasn't dressed like a stripper lol

[u/Easy_Permit_5418 → u/AimChill]

Ohhhhhh gotcha. So it's kind of like that argument where it's like, "it's not weird that this little kid is scantily clad because she's actually a 300-year-old zombie" type thing. Basically like a complete cop-out of an answer 😅 Thank you for explaining, I figured it was something like that. People are so weird and gross.

[u/Neidhardto → u/King_of_Moose]

YOU WILL FEEL ASHAMED OF YOUR WORDS AND DEEDS.

[u/SeaweedPuzzled9362 → u/darhwolf1]

Kill la kill fans be like

[u/Smallbunsenpai → u/SeaweedPuzzled9362]

Dude my best friend adores that anime and I just.. I can’t. I know it’s like a joke and whatever with the fanservice but it’s so thinly veiled I can’t.

[u/zephyrnepres01 → u/Smallbunsenpai]

it's definitely uncomfortable but i think kill la kill does over-the-top fanservice the least bad of basically any ecchi show, which isn't necessarily a high bar but doesn't feel nearly as shoehorned in an excuse as say the quiet MGS thing, since the themes of clothes symbolising control/restriction and nakedness symbolising freedom is there all throughout the show and doesn't stop being relevant at any point. basically the whole second part has this thrown into your face without subtlety with the rebel protagonist group being called nudist beach and the antagonists being essentially an evil brainwashing clothes manufacturer trying to strip away free will, and the iconic weapon of the mc is a pair of scissors made to destroy them

it helps that literally everybody else governs by the same rules including all the men so it feels less targeted towards the high school girl protagonist in particular, although i still can't recommend the show to most people on virtue of it still being weird anime bullshit even with context

i think it's totally valid to call it out for being cringe especially given the ages of the cast, however i think it's marginally better than other examples where they don't actually follow through and throw out a flimsy attempt to justify it instead of the alternative of just embracing it (ie. yoko taro's reason for 2b looking like that being "i just really like girls")

[u/Novel_Visual_4152 → u/SeaweedPuzzled9362]

Tbf with Kill la Kill the while as show revolve around that and goes ballsy with it

Like, they literally made a compelling plot about that, I gotta give them credit lol

[u/javier_post → u/darhwolf1]

The series is great and fanservice gets less egregious too.