Hello! A reminder to please check out my new poll Anime fans, when you think of "Batgirl," you automatically think...(state your age range plz) Thanks guys!



So the results of the last poll are in! Check it...

As of May 26, 2009 the results in the poll What Gender are you and what is the gender of your ultimate favorite character? say...

61% (127 deviants) of votes are female whose favorite character is male.
24% (50 deviants) of votes are female whose favorite character is female.
6% (13 deviants) of votes are those who can't decide their gender but explained their fave characters are both female and male.
5% (10 deviants) of votes are male whose favorite character is male
4% (8 deviants) of votes are male whose favorite character is female.


So any guesses as to why such skewed results? That's over twice as many females that like male characters better. Since Day One, it was like that.

I had asked for WHY a character is your fave, not so much what gender traits about them did you like. A few did explain that they liked certain traits such as noble spirit, loyal, friendly, impressive skills, having a desire to grow, being quirky, interesting, had a dark past which they overcame, ect ect ect. Some mentioned looks as well.

Many who responded said they couldn't decide which was their favorite and that some are gender-blind. I respect that, unfortunately in my world, gender roles force me to pay a bit more attention to that (but not for the reasons you may think). Btw, I actually listed the "I don't fit in any of these options" for those who don't want to be labeled as simply male or simply female, lol, but anyways...

To be honest I was mostly thinking...whose you're favorite RIGHT NOW. Should've written that instead...I go through several faves at a time really (but yeah Cass Cain is a special case)...Anyways, I doubt it would have mattered.

The poll that asked the same question had similar results. It was on a non-anime forum where the majority of posters were female. Again...the majority of each gender favored male characters.

In anime I've come across many girls who downright HATE female characters, or at least they HATE the "token" female character in a series. Ya know...the one girl in a cast of mostly guys?

Reasons vary from..."she interferes with my OTP!" to..."She's very underdeveloped as a character. Her gender is just ALL she is."
Someone here commented that when she dislikes a female character she HATES them, but never has such raging hatred for male characters she dislikes.

She is not the only female I've come across who feels that way. So don't feel bad sweetie. *pets pets*

There was some discussion as to why more male characters are faves. A few notable quotes from that other poll:

...- I am female (take that, rumor!) and my favorite characters are always male to the point that I automatically loath almost any female character on-screen. While I instantly love any guy that wanders on the panel, it takes more than several episodes to convince me that I don't want XX* to die in a horrible, gruesome accident. Some case of strange, repressed "het is ew!"? Wait... repressed?
There are few notable exceptions and the list is quite long but to be honest, the "guys" list is much longer, plus, I am unable to hate (imaginary) men as much as I hate (imaginary) women - them and all their skinniness and curviness...


...I've survived enough slugfests on feminist boards to have observed that women do have much higher expectations of each other than of men-- usually. :/
Nonetheless, I find the hatred I often see directed at females in fandom to be really creepy and depressing. If I wander into a fandom where it seems like the men are well-defined and the women are all cardboard cut-outs, I tend to drift off rather quickly. I can't stick around, worship the men and slag on the women. That's too much like real life for me to feel like I'm indulging in "escapism." :/


...I'm female and my favourite characters tend to always be male. I don't know why. I wish did, as I wonder about the unpleasent implications that may have. Maybe it's because the female characters I read about are typically written by men, and maybe something just feels 'off.' I don't know.
But I've never been one for the intense hatred of female characters you seem in some fandoms (particularly anime) since it generally seemed all kinds of ridiculous.


...I'm female and my favorite characters are almost always male, regardless of the context or fandom. I think I attribute that mostly to the fact that female character generally aren't written in a way that feels realistic to me, and I just can't relate to or sympathize with accessories or archetypes.
Male characters in general are allowed to develop more than females, they generally have more interesting stories, more complicated motivations and underlying issues, and they aren't necessarily confined to one of five or six blanket sets of reactions simply because they're male characters, and that's just how men are, don't you know.


...I just thought I'd point out that, regardless of who's the lead character in a series or whatever, there are far more male characters in comics in general. And for so many years, these male characters were far more lovingly treated and characterized than their female counterparts. It seems that male characters just have an unfair advantage.


...One problem is that the "one-girl" rule in so many books leaves girls with no role models of women who relate to and interact with one another. Men have friendships, moral struggles, conflicts and so one with each other; and these conflicts rarely if ever have to do with women. So there you go. Each girl you meet is going to be "one of the boys" if she's likable at all. It's a self-perpetuating cycle.
I do not at all envy anyone trying to raise girls to respect not just themselves, but each other. :/


...Female with male favorites. Part hormones, part women in comics are either too sexualized, too submissive, or too domineering.

...I chose "do not fit" because I have more than one favorite character, fitting into several categories, and they're both male and female. Gender doesn't seem to be a determining factor for me. I mean, I always loved Babs, but I didn't love Batgirl just because she was "the female Bat," I loved her because she was Babs - bright and funny and loaded with spirit. I love Wonder Woman, not just because she's the female Trinity point, but because Diana is such a rich and strong character. (Me the reader in this instance also being female, that is.) In fact, "depth of character" is higher on the scale of determining factors of likability for me than gender in general, I guess.

...Misogyny trickles downward, I guess. I've seen a fic where the writer killed an allegedly horrible canon love interest so the hero could screw his male best friend right after the funeral. In the comments there followed tons of back-patting and rah-rah about how everybody hated the dead character, etc.
Very creepy. On so many levels. Made me glad that I was just visiting.
I mean, am I weird because my first instinct would have been to work on the female character's depiction? Or else try and find some insight into why such a supposedly fantastic hero would see something in such a supposedly awful woman? At the very least, I'd want to save my disgust and hostility for the male creative team that clearly didn't know how to write decent female characters or believable pairings. Why vent against the only female in the equation-- especially when you're female yourself?


...My favorite characters are often villains that can be logical and are not totally insane ... and there is a noticeable lack of genuinely interesting female villains in that regard.


As for me, little miss JB... having read American comic books and manga and watched American cartoons and anime...I usually ended up frustrated by what were usually underdeveloped or stupid cliche female characters.

It's no wonder though, most American comic books, cartoons and anime are aimed at males and were created by males.

Check out Naruto...Sakura gets on my nerves for being so in love with Sasuke whose a jerk to her. But I do love Hinata, though she's just as much in love with Naruto who also doesn't pay attention to her. Makes me want to smack them both in the head. Probably why I love Tenten whose cheerful and appears to have it together, though much to my frustration is...bingo! An underdeveloped female character.

It seems that whenever there's a female character in something, she's always in love with someone or is the love interest of someone. As a result...that's all there is to her. What do we know about Sakura's background? Oh wait, we do know. She was bullied, then met a best friend who helped her gain confidence and grow and then drops to chase after a boy. *facepalm* I will never understand how that's a good thing.

Oh wait, maybe that's why I like Hinata better. Her love for Naruto is secondary to her character. She was a shy girl who was outclassed by her cousin, but still wanted to change and be worthy of being heir to her family, which she actually wants to change because she does love them. She only fell in love with Naruto because she admired his will to overcome his loneliness and weaknesses. She's not powerful, but she's definitely a noble spirit. Too bad we don't get to see more of her!

I actually like Sakura a lot better after the Shippuuden time skip. I don't care that she continues to beat up on Naruto or Sai, really. A girl is allowed to have standards ya know. But mostly, I'm glad that she's became more honest, responsible, uber powerful and dedicated to her mission for HERSELF, and not to impress some jerk who doesn't return her feelings. I seriously hope she gives Sasuke a pounding one day. That would make me her biggest fan.


Back to my point, most series are written by males and most cartoons are aimed at males. I recall reading an article in college that stated that most advertising companies in general try to appeal to male audiences. Reasons could be they believed males have more money to spend, or females don't need to be lured to go shopping. I don't know, any marketing majors around who know why? That's not to say that females are overlooked, just check out the magazines in your grocery store, check out Disney's Princess line. Eek. So much money gets thrown in there.

But yeah, merchandising (toys) is one of the reasons shonen series get so many seasons. How many shojo mangas are there that get more than one animated season? not a lot, really.

(though that may be a good thing in some people's books...)

So...I suppose it's not surprising that there are MORE well-developed or more interesting male characters than there are well-developed female characters. There are more male creators in the illustrative and animating industry who pay more attention to male characters. On the publishing/television end, companies want to attract more male viewers than female viewers.

Of course, there are a few exceptions to the rule.

Most of Hayao Miyazaki's animated films feature strong female protagonists.
One of the richest people in Japan is Rumiko Takahashi, creator of InuYasha, Ramna 1/2 and various other series which feature both strong male and female characters.

So where does that leave my poll? I'm not surprised to find that majority of my watchers who responded to the poll are female. I draw pretty/romantic characters after all or at least I try to, so I'm not surprised that i attracted more female watchers than male. (Thank you ladies! ) lol Not a lot of guys interested in that, although I was pleasantly surprised to find a few male watchers responding to my poll. Thanks guys! XD Your input is appreciated as well. ^^

So it's not that I blame my female watchers for preferring the male characters (there's also the "I have a crush on this character" reason too I forgot to mention,)...but there is a striking difference in character development based on gender. Heck, there was a difference of two votes between my male watchers who favored male characters over female characters, after all. I'm sure a poll with a male population would have majority of them favor male characters over female characters.


But for ye who are disappointed in female characters, well I mostly blame the entertainment industry for not giving us more developed female characters. If Miyazaki can produce widely-acclaimed films featuring strong female characters and the richest mangaka in Japan is female...there really is no excuse for the entertainment industry to not encourage better female characters or recruit more female talent.

Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of male characters. They're awesome! But dude, growing up I couldn't help but be wistful for more equally AWESOME female characters.

Let me put it this way. Cross dressing for Halloween or Cosplay contests sounds like fun, but I can't help but want to dress up and be true to my gender (and not feel like a tart). Ya know, dress up like a super cool character that's more like ME. (Ie. Female and not some dude's fantasy...).

In other news, I really really hope Skip Beat gets another animated season. Holy crap, they cut it off right before it gets interesting! Damn! Maybe they will. When you think about it, Skip Beat has some rather shonen aspects to it...(though I'm not sure on the merchandising end of it...*sighs*) Oh well. At least the manga is back on its track of AWESOMENESS. Woo! Go Kyoko! XD



Woah! I passed the 80K page views! Unreal! I noticed it last week when I was checking my dev page on my cell phone. Too bad I couldn't screensave it! But yeah! That's awesome, thank you so much guys!