I think the argument I see more often is less about the full body suits and more about how often female heroes have the bodies of models and males have the bodies of bodybuilders. One appeals to the male gaze and the other the male power fantasy. When polled women often rate less built guys as more attractive, and many like men that carry more weight or have feminine traits. Its like the mandate to artists is to draw the ideal men and women from the perspective of the "average male comic reader."
I personally don't think comics need to be less sexy (although there is a time and a place and sometimes for dramatic sense sometimes they should tone it down a bit lol) but they could be a lot more sexy if they pandered to the female gaze more, which is something that I think Manga does better than western comics.
Aren't there studies that show women also vastly prefer the sexy female character designs that keep getting criticized for being made for the male gaze? I know there was one not too long ago in regards to game characters but I imagine its the same for most mediums.
My point was more that the guys aren't for the female gaze. I'm not criticizing the existence of hot women but bringing up that the sexyness is not equally distributed.
I don't think the Manga comparison is fair as 'manga' isn't a single genre of story, it's the entirety, so part of why it appeals to women better is that they're simply reading other genres. Superhero comics aren't every genre, they're one. The comparison in manga would largely be shounen, comics that, while they have their female fans, are very much meant to appeal to young boys (hence the name of the genre, which means young boy).
Ok, so to narrow manga to the genres closest to american super hero comics, I still feel they have hotter dudes by far. You do not have to look far into manga fan spaces for even shonen series to see that girls/ women still go crazy for the guys. Male fanservice is not equal to female fanservice, but I have always found it more prevalent than in American comics. Nightwing and Thor are the only male heroes I can think of people thirsting over, whereas I have seen people thirst over every female character I have seen mentioned online lol. Once again, i think it comes from the male ideals of men and women being prioritized.
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u/angelic-beast Magik Apr 28 '25
I think the argument I see more often is less about the full body suits and more about how often female heroes have the bodies of models and males have the bodies of bodybuilders. One appeals to the male gaze and the other the male power fantasy. When polled women often rate less built guys as more attractive, and many like men that carry more weight or have feminine traits. Its like the mandate to artists is to draw the ideal men and women from the perspective of the "average male comic reader."
I personally don't think comics need to be less sexy (although there is a time and a place and sometimes for dramatic sense sometimes they should tone it down a bit lol) but they could be a lot more sexy if they pandered to the female gaze more, which is something that I think Manga does better than western comics.