[Terrestrial Dream]

Originally Posted by Irenicus

Have you never heard of the Insertable Harem Guy concept? Viewer displacement? Jealousy, even?

For that matter, despite all his negative qualities which you point as evidence of anti-male tendencies, why is it that the Total Loser still gets the girl in the end? Heck, make it gets the girls with the plural even. I can spin it just as easily as you do to point out that this validates that the man -- no matter how pathetic -- is still the gravitational center in which these exaggeratedly extraordinary girls revolve around, the sun to their stars, the center of their universe, thanks to no effort on his part. All because he is a guy, and somewhat "kind" (sometimes not even that). The girls become shallow -- more shallow than the guy -- for liking him, and their extraordinary talents and characteristics are only there to enrich his life, making them more attractive to him. They are characters, but their purpose is service to another. All their dreams, their motivations, their individual personalities are tailored to his needs.

Replace "him" with "the viewer" as necessary, in line with the Insertable Harem Guy concept. If one expects real life women to serve him with such fervor, and to maintain such a façade of perfection, then it becomes a sexist attitude.


Although, a caveat: I treat the harem genre for what it is: fanservice. Sexism in fanservice is a different issue than the inherent sexism shown by that rather disgusting picture of the Battleship boardgame, the latter of which tends to be far more harmful.

I don't watch harem genre that much but from what I seen the female character doesn't seem to be completely dominated by the male instead she seems to be superior in some cases. I mean in those harem genre don't male character gets abused, beaten up, or ridiculed by female characters?. And even though she might like the guy for shallow reason there isn't really anything wrong with that imo as people fall in love with lot of different reasons.