Gender and collections

[Cordelia]

I voted yes, because generally there are shows/ characters favoured by certain genders. If I see a lot of cels of gals and sexy shots, then it's usually a heterosexual male collector. For female collectors, we like shows with cool bishounens to oogle at (at least for me), even though they are considered 'shounen anime' e.g. RK, Bleach etc.

I think many shows have cross-over appeal becoz of the interesting genres they belong to, like romance for shounen and action series for shoujo etc.

Again, these are trends, there are alwayz exceptions.

[GuyvarIII]

So, can you accurately guess someone's gender by the anime they collect? ...

...There are also a lot of anime with very cute girls in them, mostly with skirts the size of handkerchiefs and powers that would astound the Lord God Almighty.

So is it that obvious which gender will collect which shows?

... Conversely, how many women would want to collect, say, Gunslinger Girl, Please Twins, Kamichu, or Comic Party?

Gunslinger Girl, Please Twins, Kamichu, or Comic Party...

...this is probably a subject for a different thread. The fact is, some of Miyazaki's greatest heroines fall in that age group, so I have no problem saying that I absolutely adore Kiki or Shizuku or Taeko or Sasuke as characters, rather than objects of ... uh ... desire. And of course the same goes for Yurie and her little friends or Henrietta and Triella, etc. They're wonderful as characters but also as archetypes, and that's why so many people, Japanese or otherwise, children or adults, male or female, identify with them and the emotions that they experience in the stories.

...Not to say that negative manifestations of that aspect of anime don't exist, but I suspect that such things may be more than a bit overblown, at least partially because it's such an easy and slighty titillating subject to tut-tut about.

This, again imho, is a far more compelling symptom of the state of our society and it's morals than any supposed proliferation of wide-eyed moe-influenced anime.

Moe is in da HOUSE!!!
So society is to blame?:puzzled

... Are Rurouni Kenshin, Prince of Tennis, Bleach, or Fushigi Yuugi much less likely to be found in a man's collection?...

Sorry... If that makes a man , I've gone "girlie"... BLEACH ROCKS!

[duotrouble]

I said no. If you're talking just strictly based on anime titles, then there is no way it's more than a 50/50 guess. I used to have The Big O, Hunter X Hunter, Cowboy Bebop and Dragonball Z with no Fruits Basket, Card Captor Sakura or Gundam Seed Destiny. Could you have guess me?

But seriously, none of us would have to guess just based on that. We all look at the layouts of the galleries too. I currently have a purple background. I'm not saying a guy can't have purple. I'm just saying . . .

EDIT: spelling

[Keropi]

Since there are a lot less shoujo/josei anime titles compared to shounen/seinen, I think a gallery that has mostly shoujo/josei anime TITLES in it (not TOTAL NUMBER of items from shoujo/josei anime) is more telling than a gallery that has mostly shounen/seinen titles.

There are more women with MOSTLY shounen/seinen anime TITLES in their collection than men with MOSTLY shoujo/josei anime TITLES in their collection. This only makes sense though due to the ratio of what has come out.

Anyway...this topic reminds me of some of the other anime gender related argument topics I've seen before. It can become like an anime "political" hot potato at times. Usually I just sit back and read the interesting comments that spring from them.

[Cloud]

But not always? Only just? What kind of seat do you have?

[Caroline]

i am usually a pretty good guesser, but ive had my share of embarassing moments in that RS chat by refering to some guys as girls and vice versa. sorry to those of you!... lol!

*edit* - and i have always wondered, does anyone know what the girl to boy ratio is for RS or beta? just curious.

[miz ducky]

The Stats page for Beta says:

None specified: 42%
Female: 32%
Male: 26%

But of course, not all of them are active.

[dude_moose]

I voted no because I think even my own gallery looks kind of androgynous.. I think if my moniker weren't dude_moose it might not be easy to guess. I don't know how well my descriptions represent me, because some of them I wrote when I was like 15...

I think that our society puts too much emphasis on gender, and wrongly dictates what male or female tastes, roles, and appearances "should" consist of.

[Cloud]

Have you tried searching the Internet?

[RalphVboy]

.. I think if my moniker weren't dude_moose it might not be easy to guess.

lol I kinda fall under that same category. Slapped my name and gender in my screename to leave out any confusion, but from the looks of this thread, my collection might've labeled me a girl



Oh and for the record, I voted 'No'. All too often I've seen some chicks go crazy over macho-esque cels/sketches and I've seen some dudes go ga-ga over what could be construeded as girly stuff, so it'd be unfair for me to say I could guess correctly LOL.

- RalphVboy

[Krafty]

My answer's 'Yes'. Using the 80% hypothesis as set out in the question, getting 4 out of 5 correct wouldn't be difficult.

When in doubt over a series I don't know, I might apply this stereotypical thought- a cutsey one is feminine, a mechanical/technical one is masculine.

I can't account for those 10-15% of weirdos who break all the conventions, that's where I slip up. We know a guy who collects Sailor Moon and I find that difficult to understand, but I've yet to find a girl who loves Fist of the North Star...
[Actually I've yet to meet ANYONE who actually likes this series] j/k, LOL

[shellie]

When in doubt over a series I don't know, I might apply this stereotypical thought- a cutsey one is feminine, a mechanical/technical one is masculine.

I can't account for those 10-15% of weirdos who break all the conventions, that's where I slip up.

I'm afraid I might be one of your weirdos, krafty. I don't do cute, my gallery is very dark, and most of my favorite shows to collect are of the mechanical/robotical sort. However, I think the comments in my gallery would give me away as female very easily, even if the series I watch wouldn't. (At least I think I sound like a girl when I write!) Since I use my own name on the forum, no one has mistaken me for a guy yet. However, on a different non-cel-related anime forum, I didn't use my own name and I was often referred to as "dude", probably because of the shows I liked to talk about, so maybe I don't speak quite as girlie as I think I do.

[RoboFlonne]

I can't tell by collections unless it's like Keropi's, Cenbe's, Krafty's, Kymera's, or mine.... and is 90%+ female.



Guys just don't impress me like girls do.

p.s. Honey-sempai has the same hair style as Dominique!!! I wonder what chibi Dominique looks like?

[Keropi]

I think Krafty has more male characters in his gallery though in part because his large Jojo's Bizarre Adventure collection.

Another stat I could try to calculate for my collection is the ratio of male to female characters on the artwork I acquired specifically because THOSE characters were on the artwork. Freebies and extras wouldn't count. Characters I didn't target wouldn't count either.

[Ms. Poe]

Even with my name "Ms. Poe" people were still askign about my gender...Especially on X-box....Some men are idiots >.</!

Buuuuut...I can see with all the tits n' ass I have in my collection...It would be hard to tell