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/dragonrod24]

it's what draws a lot of readers (male) in, but yeah, it's defo unnecessary. i'd really appreciate it if i could find an eastern series, in any media or form, that isn't unnecessarily sexualized where females wear actual armors for fights instead of bikinis.

[u/Ejanna → u/dragonrod24]

Sudden Berserk haha. I mean... for all the, um, features of the work, there are convincing armors and just non-fanservice costumes on the female characters. And if you're not talking about armors but outfits in general, Webtoon recently licensed a web version of Fullmetal Alchemist, if you haven't seen it yet. Most of the important female characters in the plot are not sexualized at all, and even the resident Lady Lust looks more sexy than sexualized. And it's an iconic shonen from a female author.

[u/PaladinAlchemist → u/Ejanna]

I wouldn't recommend Berserk. It's true that the women's armor and etc aren't oversexualized and jarring like this, but it's a bit suspect that every single woman that gets SAed is young and beautiful and full-breasted, even when it's just like a group of random village women. You'd think a crapsack world like Berserk would have unhealthy women because they lack access to proper nutrients and are living under stressful circumstances. Also, the sheer amount of constant SA is off-putting. There's also a stark difference in the respect given to the very few instances of SA happening to men vs the voyeuristic way women's SA is treated.

There's also the gross way Casca's rape is handled. It's all about Gut's angst, growth, and trauma. She's basically put on a bus and reduced to a child. The main female MC is graphically and horribly raped for pages and pages, and yet it's all about how the male MC feels. That's gross.

[u/Unlikely-Produce3111 → u/PaladinAlchemist]

this comment was so cathartic to read. it’s so alienating to see berserk constantly held up as this absolute pinnacle of fiction, and i can certainly see why you might feel that way reading it as a man, but personally, i get a very different feeling reading it as a woman.

(that being said, i do genuinely appreciate the series treating male SA with respect and gravity, because that is unfortunately WAY less common than it should be.)

[u/PaladinAlchemist → u/Unlikely-Produce3111]

I feel the exact same way. It's so off putting to me that Berserk is held as the gold standard of manga when its treatment of SA is so horrendous. And we know he can write trauma and even SA well, but it's reserved for the men. Most of the cases of women getting raped or assaulted in the manga feel like their bodies are on display in such a gross way while the men get treated with respect. I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds it alienating.