Comments on: Comic books and gender differences

By: boredom

boredom — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 04:09:57 +0000

and be for i forget it, i belive the comics of action, are dieing. which to me is a good thing, if any one has heard of it, i am a big fan of death note. veary little action.

By: boredom

boredom — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 04:05:48 +0000

ello, i belive that now, that yes comicbooks are thought of as manga, real ones are still alive, but more scarce, i think that its just the point of drawing techniques, manga has more beauty to it, while american comics are more realalistic, and comics were made for the thought of escape, and as some one said on here, girls are more townds decarations, but still, guys will love comics in witch ever form, for an example me, im a guy, i love manga, and anime! (just to poit it out, i found this website off google trying to find the archives to jthm!)

By: V for Veronica

V for Veronica — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 03:54:23 +0000

I’ve reading comic books since I was 7, and collect them as well, I love comic books, but when I go to a convention or a shop, girls are only into anime/manga, don’t get me wrong I liked anime like 12 years ago with the original Transformers, Saint Seiya, The Thundercats and all those really cool cartoons I grew up to, (back then we didn’t knew the word anime being 10 and all). But never found any woman that ever spoke the words: comics, DC, Marvel Image,not even MAD, it was like foreign language to them when I brought it up.

Few years back the idea of gamer chicks was like unnthinkable, and now they’re kickin pixel ass everywhere.

I don’t think is something biological, we’re not wired differently, girls can like comics and boys can like Sailor Moon or (insert any other stereotype here), we just haven’t been in the same place in the same time.

By: Lizardking

Lizardking — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 21:23:53 +0000

Hello i really want Johnen Vazques to make another series of JTHM i seriously do. but since he is buzy making invader Zim cartoons he cant. that really stinks. JTHM is a really cool character (a lil on the psycho side) and he makes perfect points that i myself could have never said.

By: mythago

mythago — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 06:51:33 +0000

but you cannot choose to be talented in a particular field

Didn’t Edison once say that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration?

By: karpad

karpad — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 19:15:22 +0000

we have a whole thread on that, full of all sorts of fun debunking of that asinine position, oh-vowelless-one.

and I think the reason boys are avoiding Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon is because it’s generally lacking in substance all around.

After all, the works of Rumiko Takahashi are nothing but relationship stories, though occationally with an extra genre or two thrown in. my count has two two straight romance series, one romance horror, one romance comedy martial arts, one, perhaps two romance fantasy, and a romance sci fi comedy. and that’s an incomplete list, I’m sure.

Hell, the infamous Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is basically constructed in three layers: an offbeat series of jokes, incredibly violent revenge fantasies, and a dash or two of relationship complicated by crippling mental illness. JTHM is also one of the few series I can think of whose rabid fans I personally know are gender split 50/50 (and, if I knew more people to sample, perhaps closer to the true 52/48 population divide)

By: Szczepan HoÅ‚yszewski

Szczepan HoÅ‚yszewski — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 18:36:57 +0000

The original controversy was whether there are genetic factors influencing women’s ability to excel in science. It was suggested that genes or brain differences may be in part responsible for lesser incidence of the highest levels of scientific talent in women. You attempt to debunk it by giving an example of a gender difference that had been thought to be genetically determined but was recently reversed: the difference in reading comic books. The reversal certainly disproves the claim that boys’ greater interest in comic books was genetically determined, but does it also disprove the claim that boys’ advantages in sciences are? The fundamental difference between comic book reading and success in science is that the former is simply a choice while the latter takes more than that. You can choose to read whatever books you like regardless of your genetic makeup, but you cannot choose to be talented in a particular field. One’s choices and interests, which is all it takes for them to start reading a particular kind of books, can be influenced by society to a great extent, but it is not so with the objective presence of scientific talent in a person, which is required for them to succeed in science. This is why I think your analogy does not work.

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 18:11:59 +0000

So, the massive popularity of “boys’” manga and anime among girls is just due to a whole bunch of outliers. Mmm-hmm.

I wouldn’t say that sensitive stories aren’t more popular among girls than they are among boys, but that doesn’t add up to girls prefering relationship-oriented comics. Most of my experience in manga fandom points to girls enjoying both, with a slight emphasis towards “boys’” comics. Girls are pretty open-minded about what type of comics they indulge in.

I think that “Why don’t boys buy stories about relationships?” is a better question to ask than “Why do girls buy stories about relationships?” If I had to guess, I’d say that the difference is due to boys not wanting to be caught with Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon in their backpack.

By: patrick

patrick — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 16:58:55 +0000

Excellent post. I am the club advisor for the Anime-Japanese culture club at my school. I got the job because my daughter is an avid manga reader and loves to drow her own characters. I admit that I don’t read them or watch the anime but when thirty syudents begged me to start a club with the main purpose being reading and drawing art, I did it for free. Something disturbing though, the anime books that japanese children read and the japanes view on what children should be exposed to are not parallel with the viewpoints of certain members of the religious right and there are already some rumblings about censoring this type of media in the U. S. comics that show homosexualty as an ok lifestyle and show tolerance sheesh.

By: alsis38

alsis38 — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 15:17:06 +0000

I used to be an avid comics reader, collecting dozens of the darn things a month. Now I only read on average about half a dozen a year (online and offline combined). Of course, as an ex-cartoonist, that probably has something to do with not wanting to revisit the scene of my failures.

I make up for it by being one of the more rabid music collectors out there, though. [shakes fist at ebay and amazon] New roof ? Who needs a new roof ?! And peanut butter three meals a day is GOOD for you !!

I have no idea what this says about how appropriately feminine my brain is…

By: thisgirl

thisgirl — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 13:17:59 +0000

Give me my girl brain back!

(I have a secret stash of Jeff Brown, plus one of my favourite comics ever is Craig Thompson’s Goodbye, Chunky Rice. It messes up people’s theories to see it sitting between Usagi Yojimbo and Tank Girl on my shelf)

By: PinkDreamPoppies

PinkDreamPoppies — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 13:12:23 +0000

And I’m a guy who has absolutely no patience with “action” comics (the sole exception being Watchmen) but eat up the “emotion” comics. Maybe, thisgirl, our brains were switched at some point?

By: thisgirl

thisgirl — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 12:52:30 +0000

Sadly, here in the UK at least, the biological-explanation camp have latched onto the types of comics girls and boys read as a demonstration of apparent in-built differences; girls apparently prefer stories about other young women, indie comics about relationships (Jeff Brown!) and manga of the school story variety to “real” comic books about superheroes and guns and action. This, of course, is due to our more sensitive nature.

As an avid Xmen, The Authority and Stormwatch reader I have called bullshit on that attitude so many times; as ever, I’m considered the exception the rule (I get in way too many arguments in comic shops). I must have a “male” brain seeing as I enjoy actionous comic books over the emotional content of typical girly ones. Or something like that…

(It always surprises me how many self-professed male comic geeks like to label comics either “action” or about “emotions”. In my experience, they don’t fit nearly so neatly; but, hey, what do I know, I’m a girl!)

By: Amanda

Amanda — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 12:36:40 +0000

Of course, if it becomes well-known that more girls than boys read comic books, in less than a decade a new “biological” explanation will emerge–that women are genetically more inclined to be drawn to color and design, which of course is why we like to decorate more.

By: When Fangirls Attack

When Fangirls Attack — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Comic Books and Gender Differences (Very Old) More on the Taki Soma Sexual Harrashment Case (A Week Old) Fighting Bad Art with Ridicule Poor Erik Larsen… Not one, but two celebrities need to shut up! So, What’s With All the Feminist Posts Lately?

By: APIA Blogs - The APIA Blog Network

APIA Blogs - The APIA Blog Network — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

For an utterly amazing, analytical look at this issue, please stop reading my blog and read “Women in Refrigerators”; an very thoughtful critique of gender in comic books that also tries to give artists the opportunity to respond to the analysis. This blog entry approaches a much wider issue of how we tailor our perspective on existing trends to serve our own racial stereotypes and fabricate biological explanations to suit them: This is fascinating to me because of two things: 1) Writers must balance their own politics with their audience’s tastes and agenda. 2) Many writers totally suck at assessing their audience’s tastes and agenda.

By: Racial Pro-File

Racial Pro-File — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000