Gender of the fans

[WhiteFang]

I feel like this definitely needs some investigating! Why does AnEx (this forum) have an unusually high incidence of STEM females? xD is it that from the pool of long term stalkers, only female STEMs decide to join, subconsciously drawn in by a sort of self-similarity?

[earthforge]

W-Wait! Earthforge is a FEMALE?! Why am I noticing this topic only now? lol

WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING. i mean it guys, i have been assumed to be a guy on the internet for over a decade! literally since my very first anon postings on a Warrior Cats RP forum when i was ELEVEN YEARS OLD!

(do you mind if when I'm checking the forum and come across something from you (earthforge) I think to myself "Oh, here's something from Earthy *cough cough* I just think it to myself, I'm typing it for the first time)

Um, go for it.

I was about to mention that I didn't imagine there being a lot of male fans of Toudou but then I remembered the other biggest Toudou bullshitter other than me is a man (I think?). Too bad he deleted all his stuff.

He did?! Damn. I was wondering where all the Toudou art went.

I feel like this definitely needs some investigating! Why does AnEx (this forum) have an unusually high incidence of STEM females? xD is it that from the pool of long term stalkers, only female STEMs decide to join, subconsciously drawn in by a sort of self-similarity?

Methinks the disproportionate number of female AoEx fans overall is owed to the fact that Rin is a freakin' fandom CHICK MAGNET. There is a crazy number of fans who think Rin is either the perfect boyfriend (Rin x OC on every. goddamn. page. of FF.net) or self-identify with Rin (the genderbend "Rin is a girl" that's a thinly veiled self-insert).

Then there's the Yukio fan contingent.

(click to show/hide)

Funny enough, Katou intended to design a character that appealed to dudes but Yukio ultimately appealed most to older female fans (from Katou's commentary on Yukio that Facets translated a while back). IMO it's because Yukio's outward facade is something that more women than dudes identify with. I've seen a lot of guys gravitate towards characters that affirm masculinity, like the "i protec" shounen protagonist or the "me angry, me too angry for feels, hulk smash" shounen antihero. At first glance, Yukio is the opposite of the latter. He doesn't display macho anger to cover up a hidden sensitive side. He acts like a mild-mannered friendly polite guy to cover up intense anger (and I'd argue that anger is to cover up the sensitive side, so IMO he's a variant of the antihero and a way more interesting one at that.)

But the STEM fans *shrug* I dunno, I think it's just a subset of older female fans who are willing to write a lot. There's a fair portion of older employed fans here too that aren't necessarily STEM.

[HorseTechie]

Yes... this is a weird culture effect AnE has. My son 11 yr old had liked Voltron Legendary Defender as well as Ao no Exorcist, but after noticing how many fans were females dressed as guy characters at the last comic con we went to, I was hoping he wasn't too shocked. (He still looked pretty cool looking like VLD Shiro, much to my suggestion he dress up as him) *innocent grin*

I'm the same way though... I tend to 'sound' like a guy online. I also like writing/role playing male characters over female ones. If I do opt for a female character, it's one who isn't very girly and more into STEM too. (I totally align with Pidge from VLD!)  I just always thought myself as a tomboy all my life, even though I am genetically all female. ^^;

[justicecadet]

@Earthforge and Whitefang
Aoex definitely has more women participants and content creators (also love that the mangaka is a woman) and a lot of people on this forum came over from Mangafox where we used to discuss chapters. It's kind of nice having a manga forum where a lot of the participants are older? There is sort of an unspoken magnetism the users have. It's easy to stick around when you like the content but also that a lot of people have similar ambitions or are at similar places in life.
@EF
Yeah both myself and my Toudou friend took down a bunch of our art a while ago. But I still have just about every copy of mine and his artwork from that time. I don't mind sending files privately if people are still interested. I wouldn't repost his stuff publicly though. It's not a huge deal to see my stuff but lol, I was a very impatient/scribbly artist back then. And even I don't get my sense of humor at that time. And I just haven't drawn as much or uploaded as much recently...

also @HorseTechie
I hope your son isn't into the online fandoms too much yet. I like Voltron alright, but fandoms these days are so vitriol and malicious. 

[WhiteFang]

Methinks the disproportionate number of female AoEx fans overall is owed to the fact that Rin is a freakin' fandom CHICK MAGNET. There is a crazy number of fans who think Rin is either the perfect boyfriend (Rin x OC on every. goddamn. page. of FF.net) or self-identify with Rin (the genderbend "Rin is a girl" that's a thinly veiled self-insert).

Then there's the Yukio fan contingent.

(click to show/hide)

Funny enough, Katou intended to design a character that appealed to dudes but Yukio ultimately appealed most to older female fans (from Katou's commentary on Yukio that Facets translated a while back). IMO it's because Yukio's outward facade is something that more women than dudes identify with. I've seen a lot of guys gravitate towards characters that affirm masculinity, like the "i protec" shounen protagonist or the "me angry, me too angry for feels, hulk smash" shounen antihero. At first glance, Yukio is the opposite of the latter. He doesn't display macho anger to cover up a hidden sensitive side. He acts like a mild-mannered friendly polite guy to cover up intense anger (and I'd argue that anger is to cover up the sensitive side, so IMO he's a variant of the antihero and a way more interesting one at that.)

But the STEM fans *shrug* I dunno, I think it's just a subset of older female fans who are willing to write a lot. There's a fair portion of older employed fans here too that aren't necessarily STEM.

i haven't trawled as much through AnEx's category on ff.net. perhaps i should. overall though, i think you caught something there when you said that perhaps the STEM subset of the larger set of female fans is perhaps more noticeable here because they tend to write more. being descriptive is a side-effect of the "job" or "education", one could imagine... oftentimes though i have found that academic writing severely saps my ability to write creatively/analytically for other things (fanfics or forums)

@justicecadet:

i totally agree, i didn't think i would feel so comfy on a forum again right off the bat. there was a medium-sized Naruto forum i frequented during my younger years for around seven years or so, and grew incredibly close to the people there. sort of fell off forumland since after that place shut down. but it feels very good to be here, because this board has the whole "forum/place to chill for people with lives" vibe going strong.

totally second the opinion about vitriol on the internet.

[HorseTechie]

@HorseTechie
I hope your son isn't into the online fandoms too much yet. I like Voltron alright, but fandoms these days are so vitriol and malicious.

Apparently it is... but I pretty stay out of the fan discussions on that, and just browse the art work and fanfic that I like. Cause yeah, apparently the groups really do get clichéy on opinion!  So much hassle, really.  I just like what I like, and omit the rest.  ;p

This message board is the first one I've ventured into since 2006, when I used to chat with some Transformer fans (all of which also had a big surge of girl fans, from what the fan boys had said back then). Heh.

My son is more into Underworld/ Sans right now, and watching video game commentaries on YouTube. He's turning into another YouTuber wanna be. 

[palepurplesky]

I'm genderfluid.   

[tandem]

Methinks the disproportionate number of female AoEx fans overall is owed to the fact that Rin is a freakin' fandom CHICK MAGNET. There is a crazy number of fans who think Rin is either the perfect boyfriend (Rin x OC on every. goddamn. page. of FF.net) or self-identify with Rin (the genderbend "Rin is a girl" that's a thinly veiled self-insert).

Then there's the Yukio fan contingent.

(click to show/hide)

Funny enough, Katou intended to design a character that appealed to dudes but Yukio ultimately appealed most to older female fans (from Katou's commentary on Yukio that Facets translated a while back). IMO it's because Yukio's outward facade is something that more women than dudes identify with. I've seen a lot of guys gravitate towards characters that affirm masculinity, like the "i protec" shounen protagonist or the "me angry, me too angry for feels, hulk smash" shounen antihero. At first glance, Yukio is the opposite of the latter. He doesn't display macho anger to cover up a hidden sensitive side. He acts like a mild-mannered friendly polite guy to cover up intense anger (and I'd argue that anger is to cover up the sensitive side, so IMO he's a variant of the antihero and a way more interesting one at that.)

But the STEM fans *shrug* I dunno, I think it's just a subset of older female fans who are willing to write a lot. There's a fair portion of older employed fans here too that aren't necessarily STEM.

i haven't trawled as much through AnEx's category on ff.net. perhaps i should. overall though, i think you caught something there when you said that perhaps the STEM subset of the larger set of female fans is perhaps more noticeable here because they tend to write more.

STEM people read aoex to catch up Section 13 experiments and Illuminati's advanced technology

Anyway, not only there are relatively many "tech" elements in aoex (comparing to other magic/supernatural fiction), but there are also unresolved complex puzzles throughout the series. Maybe that's what attracted STEM people.

About the biased reader gender ratio, it's actually quite understandable after considering the number of male/female characters in it. Yukio is another reason. Unlike Rin, who is likely to be loved by a wider range of readers, I can see why Yukio is not that appealed to teenager boys. Not because Yukio is calm and polite (It's actually a cliche that there is usually a cool and perfect side character compensate an impulsive angry main character, and that combination is proved to be popular in most case), but because, at least I believe, Yukio isn't cool enough. Yukio is complex and even self-contradictory, which is more difficult to understand especially for younger readers.

[earthforge]

So, tandem... what's your gender? Honestly curious because I can't guess.

Yeah both myself and my Toudou friend took down a bunch of our art a while ago. But I still have just about every copy of mine and his artwork from that time. I don't mind sending files privately if people are still interested. I wouldn't repost his stuff publicly though. It's not a huge deal to see my stuff but lol, I was a very impatient/scribbly artist back then. And even I don't get my sense of humor at that time. And I just haven't drawn as much or uploaded as much recently...

Hey, I loved your sense of humor back then! (Even though I wasn't a Toukio fan back then and kinda am one now.)

Actually, could you repost or send me the panels of your redraw/joke from chapter 32? The "what is your goal?" with Toudou grinning dementedly and holding up the "four eyes and freckles" sign. Honestly, that one was a classic and I really miss it. Especially with it's relevance to current events. XD

[Wikkelsoee]

I haven't been paying attention. Who's male besides Chino and Blight?

[tandem]

I'm male. I thought it's obvious ...? Perhaps it's difficult to guess because my English is terrible

But I don't mind if we just discuss on the forum without remembering the gender of each other. I think that's more fun

[SimpleBliss]

When I read everyone's post, I don't even have a concept of a gender, but I do have a voice (not necessarily an obvious gender), a certain tone, and a colour. For the colours, I'll give an example: Wikkelsoee is white/silver, Cloelia is indigo, earthforge is blue or green, Kittykat is light purple, etc.

[earthforge]

Just making sure, tandem. I think xyzt is also a dude. Also, your English is great. I thought you were a native speaker.

When I read everyone's post, I don't even have a concept of a gender, but I do have a voice (not necessarily an obvious gender), a certain tone, and a colour. For the colours, I'll give an example: Wikkelsoee is white/silver, Cloelia is indigo, earthforge is blue or green, Kittykat is light purple, etc.

Neat! Sounds like synesthesia.

[Cloelia]

I'm indigo! *like it*

[Mags]

I think my username gives me away xD

I am not an observant person, my brain is like a golden retriever, i got distracted at everything so I take the usernames at face value, if it sounds like a male username or female, i will think it's a male or female, speech patterns what?

Nope, I am mostly like Rin x_D Don't get stuff that subtle, nope xD I prefer to use my brain power onto funny comics or chibi scenes.