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Originally Posted by Vexx
I'm about at the point where I think this need to "label" is obsessive and is used by some folks who are insecure about what they are seen reading or watching 
Almost reminds me of the "girls don't play with Lego" bullcrap... |
It's a simple & easy classification system that has nothing to do with sexism. Just because a show has male or females as its primary target audience doesn't mean that there can't be a significant secondary audience composed of the opposite gender (i.e. Prince of Tennis fangirls, MariMite fanboys). If a man feels insecure about watching shoujo, that's his issue... similarly, people who try to differentiate One Piece or Naruto (or whatever their favorite shounen might be) from other shounen series because they're "dark" or "sophisticated" are totally just kidding themselves. Just because shounen anthologies are aimed at boys doesn't mean that adults or girls can't enjoy the series in them. A series can target a young male demographic and still have rather mature themes; however, that doesn't alter its target audience.
I really like the shounen/shoujo/josei/seinen/etc. categories because they're the opposite of the "girls don't play with Lego" perspective. People coming from that point of view often mistakenly call titles like Love Hina and Chobits shoujo, simply because they deal with romance. You can have gritty, brutal shoujo action and tender shounen romance. To me it seems almost freeing, given that nowadays, romantic Hollywood films are automatically considered chick flicks unless they come with a heavy helping of raunchy comedy and fanservice.