Ask John: How Can an Ecchi Fan Convince the Haters?
Question:
I love being an anime fan and as a red blooded male I love having a natural attraction to male fanservice. Moe, Lolicon, Ecchi, Hentai, Yuri, and Shoujo-Ai. However nothing dampens my enthusiasm faster when female anime fans use the sexist card making me feel ashamed for enjoying such cute and erotic material. I am a rational adult and I am able to distinguish reality from fantasy and I treat females with the utmost respect. What can be said to female anime fans to show that we aren’t sexist pigs?
Answer:
To my own dismay as well, American perceptions of entertainment media, morality, social responsibility, and political correctness have evolved and gradually become so extensive, convoluted, and contradictory that, at times, the obvious solution isn’t evident. To quote Star Trek’s Dr. Beverly Crusher, “If there’s nothing wrong with me… maybe there’s something wrong with the universe.” If the rational assumption is made that entertainment fiction appreciated by sane and rational consumers can and even should appeal to its viewers’ favored predilictions, then there’s absolutely nothing innately wrong with fan service of any variety in anime. Nor is there anything intrinsically wrong with reasonable, rational viewers enjoying entertainment media that’s specifically designed to entertain. In effect, the ultimate problem isn’t the media or the viewer; the conflict is the critic that steadfastly clings to a biased, persecutory attitude without considering all of the relevant circumstances.
I’m not fond of playing advice columnist, but in this particular case, stating the obvious seems appropriate. If you’re unable to convince particular women that you’re an ethical, rational person that indulges your natural instincts via fiction while maintaining a perfectly appropriate social civility, the problem isn’t you; it’s the women you’re facing. If the women you’re opposite to are so narrow-minded that they refuse to acknowledge the evidence before them and instead adhere to their groundless, irrational moral outrage, find other, more rational women to associate with and talk to. If the women you’re concerned with refuse to recognize reality, then nothing at all you do or say will be able to change their minds. You’re facing a simply unwinnable battle, so the only options are to continue suffering demeaning, unreasonable and inaccurate moral chastizement from these women, or distance yourself from them and associate with friendlier, more reasonable people. Simply put, haters are gonna hate.
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Pivot. Respond in a manner that shifts the argument from focusing on the supposed moral appropriateness of your taste in personal home video entertainment to a discussion that can legitimize, by example, some of the stated subgenres of anime programming.
I have hardly any moe titles in my collection, but recently took a chance on A-CHANNEL because I had a feeling that there was something more substantive beneath the surface. Thankfully, by the third episode, I was rewarded in spades — the program’s commentary on the apparent social imperatives of community (and loneliness in adolescence) is pretty incredible.
Aaron B. says: . . . “I have hardly any moe titles in my collection, but recently took a chance on A-CHANNEL because I had a feeling that there was something more substantive beneath the surface. Thankfully, by the third episode, I was rewarded in spades — the program’s commentary on the apparent social imperatives of community (and loneliness in adolescence) is pretty incredible.”
But that search for morsels of politically correct redemptive qualities is exhausting as well as (should be) beside the point. To paraphrase Keima from _The World God Only Knows_, games [anime] are games [anime] and reality is reality. Moe anime, yuri anime, and shounen anime, etc., are all forms of entertainment, first and foremost, and there is nothing wrong in a rational viewer watching such as entertainment. Sure, I can appreciate subtle subtext or implications of societal observations that permeate all art, and sometimes I even search for such, but sometimes I just want to see things blow up.
Wow, really? I’m a straight guy and even I find this answer offensive. You could just, you know, accept the fact that girls have every right to be offended when their gender is used for exploitative fan service and respect their opinions on the topic. Because it may be fictional, but it is THEIR GENDER and all. Just quietly do what you’re gonna do with yourself instead of constantly trying to mansplain why none of it is disrespectful and any girl who has a problem with fan service is just a crazy man hatin’ feminazi trying to kill your erection with her FEELS. Either that or go to Lowe’s and buy some actual doormats to hang out with.
And I’m offended by YOUR answer Vibes. Girls have been using men as exploitative fan service for their shoujo/shonen-ai/yaoi for decades, yet they only get offended because men get aroused by women’s bodies. You are a pathetic hypocrite, Vibes. And why don’t you apply your own suggestion, Vibes? You could just, you know, “accept the fact that MEN have every right to be offended when their gender is used for exploitative fan service (shounen-ai/yaoi) and respect their opinions on the topic.”
And John, thank you yet again for your great column. Intelligent and insightful articles like yours are (sadly) so rare in Western fandom that it makes you the top anime connoisseur that I have ever read. Really, thank you.
Ha ha! You want to turn the objectification of women back on them? You think the use of scantily clad/ naked female figures in human society is equal to that of males? Please notice that the term feminism exists, and there is not a word we commonly use in the case of men.
Are we equal? Much much more than we were in the 50s, but please tell me about all the poor men who are crying because there’s yaoi and dudes in thongs. Most men don’t even purchase that stuff! However, women and men are more likely to consume a product that has women as objects of sexual desire.
I will let any season if this year’s anime speak for me. Tell me how many men are letting it all hang out in these shows.
Your point is wacky.
I do think that it’s cooler if a woman is alright with fan service (and I know a few who are) but women live on the damn planet too, and shouldn’t be shut out of having their say on how fiction depicts women. I’m with Vibes, for the most part.
I find this on the contrary.
Let me say this. As a human being you have something called “natural attraction”. This natural attraction is the drive which makes all human life produce and reproduce. Without it there would be very little to no civilization of human beings on this planet.
Females who are associating themselves with an anime character have more than likely self-esteem problems or deep feminist issues often taught as normal and embracing by extreme feminist. Think about it ladies.
Why are we comparing our self-worth’s to a cartoon character? Seriously? Is something so vagrant made-up and falsified and photo-shop really speaking for every-single female that ever existed on the planet out there?
No it’s not. As an individual you determine how you want to look or what you consider yourself to be. You don’t determine who you are or supposedly how all females are based off some fictional cartoon character that doesn’t even exist! Hello somebody?
Not only that but there are females out there who ARE flirtatious, who dress flirty, and act flirty! And they don’t mind to panty-shot, boob jiggle, or tease guys. Let’s not act like every single female is a puritan and a nun now, because you probably know as well as good as I do that many chicks walk around with their bellies showing and their boobs popping out their shirts in the REAL world. Even on National Television!
Personally I see nothing wrong with ecchi, cuteness, or a combination of both. If some guy wants to watch his ecchi, let him! It’s a source of entertainment for him just as Romance Novels featuring big bulky guys romantic guys is a source of entertainment for us. Heck it shouldn’t even BE a gender issue because there’s plenty more females who watch ecchi then what is thought initially.
The only ones who don’t are the ones worried about “Sexism” in a fan-service show when anime, in general, caters to ALL audiences of all different ‘perks’.