Gender and collections

[Cenbe]

Maybe I can defuse my previous faux pas a little by expanding this topic a little more in a new thread. Something Keropi said got me thinking.

I talked awhile with a cel collector once and thought she was a guy (I couldn't tell from the anime titles she collected).

So, can you accurately guess someone's gender by the anime they collect? Is this just obvious to most knowledgeable collectors with only occasional exceptions?

It does seem to me, with limited experience here, that there are certain tendencies, but I don't really have a true sense of how accurate that is. <cliches>There are a lot of anime with very pretty boys in them, mostly courageous and tragic and often very good with swords. 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.</cliches>

So is it that obvious which gender will collect which shows? Are Rurouni Kenshin, Prince of Tennis, Bleach, or Fushigi Yuugi much less likely to be found in a man's collection? Conversely, how many women would want to collect, say, Gunslinger Girl, Please Twins, Kamichu, or Comic Party? Are there other anime that are even more gender specific?

So I thought I'd try a poll:

1. Do you think collectors could accurately (let's use Keropi's 80%, give or take whatever) guess your gender from the names of the anime in your collection? and

2. Do you think you could be 80% accurate guessing other collectors gender by looking at the names of the anime in their collections?

Keep in mind this is just the names of the series or movie; even I could be fairly accurate if I started looking at someone's collection and encountered row after row of bishies.

My answers would be Yes to 1; I think it's pretty obvious, really. Hardly any pretty boy animes in my collection, but lots of cute girls.
And No to 2. I just don't know anime well enough yet to be mostly accurate on that question. I would say though, that I'd probably be better than 50%, for whatever that's worth. In other words, I'd do better than random guessing.

Looks like I can only have one question in the poll, so I'll use #2.

[JWR]

I have found that what one collects sometimes reflects their gender but in most cases it does not.

I know guys that collect shows like Sailor Moon , CCS or other shows that by stereotype might be considered to be favored by females and on the flip side I know ladies who collect from Dragonball and mecha shows that some would consider favored by males.

My collection is dominated by AMG , Ranma 1/2 and Ai Yori Aoshi all romantic comedys. My Comic art collection on the other hand is dominated by artists that have their roots in the early Horror comics.

So it might be difficult for those who have never met me to tell my gender by looking at my collection.

[Keropi]

So, can you accurately guess someone's gender by the anime they collect? Is this just obvious to most knowledgeable collectors with only occasional exceptions?

Shows are frequently collected by more by one gender over the other, but there are a lot of exceptions. Ah! My Goddess is often collected by women even though the manga had a mainly seinen (young men's) target audience. AMG had a lot of crossover appeal.

Over the last two years (at least) there have been about eleven times more anime that have come out for a mainly male target audience in mind than female. It's pretty imbalanced. I wonder how long it has been that way.

So is it that obvious which gender will collect which shows? Are Rurouni Kenshin, Prince of Tennis, Bleach, or Fushigi Yuugi much less likely to be found in a man's collection? Conversely, how many women would want to collect, say, Gunslinger Girl, Please Twins, Kamichu, or Comic Party? Are there other anime that are even more gender specific?

I can't tell from only seeing a handful of titles from their list. The eighty percent figure I mentioned was only because I also knew the characters they were looking for (male/female characters, etc.) and also what types of shots they are looking for (which way the fanservice might be directed, shirtless, nekkid, etc). As you said...it's easier to guess with that extra information in hand.

But if a collector's sexual preference is not what you think it is you could still guess wrong.

1. Do you think collectors could accurately (let's use Keropi's 80%, give or take whatever) guess your gender from the names of the anime in your collection?

Probably...if they knew that 96 out of 101 of the anime titles I had were shounen/seinen anime. I collect a lot of lesser known titles though. I've only collected 5 titles that are shoujo (no josei titles). (I'm counting seasons with different names as separate titles)

2. Do you think you could be 80% accurate guessing other collectors gender by looking at the names of the anime in their collections?

No, I wouldn't be that accurate.

[miz ducky]

I answered no. I think that if you can tell ones gender by the titles of the show they collect, then it would probably only be accurate about 50% of the time.

As noted already, there are lots of collectors that have a very wide range of variety in their collection.

I know you could probably guess by mine, but before I started collecting FB it was probably a lot more ambiguous (Noir, Kite, Inuyasha, and Saiyuki). Ok, I'm not aware of an abundance of guys who collect Saiyuki, but I'm pretty sure it was aimed at guys (wasn't it?).

But, I know several men who have really enjoyed Fruits Basket too.

[irmgaard]

Are Rurouni Kenshin, Prince of Tennis, Bleach, or Fushigi Yuugi much less likely to be found in a man's collection? Conversely, how many women would want to collect, say, Gunslinger Girl, Please Twins, Kamichu, or Comic Party?

Of the first series you listed, Rurouni Kenshin and Bleach, are huge, worldwide, Shōnen franchises and appeal to both sexes; I would also add Naruto to this list. I receive requests to buy my artwork from RK and Bleach from both genders about equally (although a little more weighted toward the guys ).

Now as for those much smaller, niche shows….

If I see titles listed on a site that feature a lot of wide eyed, prepubescent/adolescent little girls, the conclusion I come to is a lot more specific than, is this collector male . More along the lines of, this is a collector unlikely to be interested in the women from say…Cat’s Eye or City Hunter…

…and visa versa, of course.

[ReiTheJelly]

I'm not sure that you could just simply based on the collection, but I find it rather easy to tell based on (1) design of the layout (2) comments about each piece

There are a few folks that I would probably get wrong, but I'd say that, yeah, I guess right 80% of the time, if not higher.

[GuyvarIII]

For your question #1, I think many collectors wouldn’t even recognize a lot of the titles in my collection.

From your given list, I prefer the look of Rurouni Kenshin, Bleach, and Fushigi Yuugi. I believe my gender comes through in my presentation, writing style, and overall feel of my collection.


As for question #2, I don’t know. Either the other collector is there, if I'm viewing their collection in person, or I see their online presentation (screen name, gallery design, intro paragraph, etc.) first, before the titles.

And since when did I have to collect Moe to prove my manliness?

[sugarcels]

If my LAYOUT wasn't a huge clue, the cel descriptions might be.

If I just looked at their collection, without any kind of webpage or other clue as such, it might be a little harder.

[Cenbe]

Now as for those much smaller, niche shows….

If I see titles listed on a site that feature a lot of wide eyed, prepubescent/adolescent little girls, the conclusion I come to is a lot more specific than, is this collector male

Yeah, I understand your point here, although 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. We've all been children and adolescents, and that's why it inspires universal empathy when, for example, 5th grade Taeko and her crush at their first meeting can only blurt out an awkward and inane sentence about the weather, yet part euphoric. Who hasn't experienced that?

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.

[irmgaard]

The fact is, some of Miyazaki's greatest heroines fall in that age group,

Ah yes...he addressed this himself:

"It's difficult. They immediately become the subjects of rorikon gokko (play toy for Lolita Complex guys). In a sense, if we want to depict someone who is affirmative to us, we have no choice but to make them as lovely as possible. But now, there are too many people who shamelessly depict (such heroines) as if they just want (such girls) as pets, and things are escalating more and more. While we are talking about the human rights for women, why they can do this, I don't want to analyze much, but..."

[Animage, vol 125, November, 1988. Reprinted in Shuppatsuten by Hayao Miyazaki; published by Tokuma Shoten, 1996.]

[Cloud]

Describe your surroundings.

[Cenbe]

Ah yes...he addressed this himself:

Yes, I've seen that. And interestingly enough, that was said before he made some of his finest masterpieces of the genre: Only Yesterday, I Can Hear the Sea, Whisper of the Heart, and Spirited Away. Thank goodness he didn't let himself be deterred by those who could only focus on the negative interpretations of such characters!

Only Yesterday in particular, with it's straightforward depiction of the onset of menstruation, must have seen some heated debate during it's creation. Was the studio pandering or titillating here? Of course not. They couldn't have been unaware of potential criticisms from a few naysayers, but went ahead anyway with their uncompromised artistic vision of the story as whole. The result was one of the finest love stories ever depicted on film, imho. And it's almost criminal really, that the movie is not more widely appreciated in America, simply because the subject of a young girls' blossoming womanhood is taboo and Disney won't touch an R1 release of it.

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.

Wow, I've really veered off-topic here! I apologize to the thread's creator ... oh, that's me ... well, anyway ...

So ... half of us think we can tell a person's gender by the titles in their collection ... interesting ... hmmm, I wonder how that breaks down by gender?? ... oops ... Cenbe ducks and runs!!

[irmgaard]

And…

I think you should know that there is a disconnect between these two statements (neither of them mine):

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

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*(emphasis, mine), identify with them and the emotions that they experience in the stories.

[Cenbe]

Well, it's obviously an important disconnect for you. I was speaking very generally, but of course there are individual differences. That was my point in starting the thread and poll, to see how each gender might respond, and listen thoughtfully to the possible reasons for those differences. It's been very interesting ... Some responses have been predictable, others have not. Thanks for your opinion and insights!

[irmgaard]

Well, it's obviously an important disconnect for you.

No, not all that important, only the most obvious…in a thread begun declaring the differences between the genders, only later to tout similarities...

I think the most important here is very lightly touched upon in your “identify with” thought. So very strangely missing from the proposed “man’s” site list are all the Anime with Male protagonists ….the DragonBalls, the Hajime no Ippos, the Fist of the North Stars, etc.


I see these on guys' sites all the time!!


In fact, the only ones that were on the original list here were given to the women’s side!