Are traditionally “female,” targeted media genres becoming more gender Neutral?

[mathew101281]

If you ever read a Japanese copy of weekly Shonen Jump you’d be surprised to discover how much of it is dedicated to romance romance titles aimed at guys. This got me wondering. In a time when everything in the west via striving to be more inclusive, why isn’t this genre a thing in the states? To me sometimes the whole gender neutral thing seems very one sided in that it almost always seems to be taking a traditionally masculine thing and making it more appealing to the feminine. Very rarely is it the other way around.

[CSTowle]

So the title would seem to suggest the opposite of your post. Are you saying you want to make entertainment/products/etc. aimed traditionally at females less appealing to them specifically and more appealing to all, or that this is happening already, or something else entirely?

[mathew101281]

So the title would seem to suggest the opposite of your post. Are you saying you want to make entertainment/products/etc. aimed traditionally at females less appealing to them specifically and more appealing to all, or that this is happening already, or something else entirely?

I’m just saying that the pushes towards inclusiveness seems to be geared more towards making traditionally male focused media more female friendly as rather then vice versa. Should that be the case?

[Tami]

Traditionally Male targeted Genre is gradually shifting to Female, considering the increase in the number of Female leads and Female Superheroes. So, we are moving towards a wordl where there are male romance fiction and female superhero movies.

I guess that balances things out.

[Starter Set]

If you ever read a Japanese copy of weekly Shonen Jump you’d be surprised to discover how much of it is dedicated to romance romance titles aimed at guys

That's truly an unexploited market in the west. There is indeed lot of romance manga aimed at the young men/teen audience and it's a pretty successful business.

It's almost always mixed with comedy and you have to admire how professionally, and very cynically, they aim both at the same time as the romantic and hormonal sides of their young readers lol. They sure know the formula to sell paper, gotta give them that.

Now, why haven't we more of that in the west? That's an interesting sociological question. For being honest i think that manga when they really started to get published in the west claimed that niche before even people here realize there was an interesting market for that.

[seismic-2]

"Dolls" long ago became "Action Figures", to double their potential market.

[Mahabash]

It's trying to become more gender neutral, any other way would be contrary to its purpose (as I see it).
It used to aim mainly at the male population, but times are changing.

[Mister Mets]

I’m just saying that the pushes towards inclusiveness seems to be geared more towards making traditionally male focused media more female friendly as rather then vice versa. Should that be the case?

Yes and no.

The reasons new types of stories are told depends a bit on why media focuses on half the population. Men dominate movie narratives because men dominated moviemaking decisions. At a certain point, studios realized there was an opening for different kinds of stories as well.

There were market forces that led to female-friendly media. Morning shows and daytime talk shows exist because more women are home during the weekday.

There is a perception that things made for women aren't as good. So this leads to less male interest in traditionally female genres than the other way around, although there has also been a pushback to the idea that things aimed at middle-class women are inferior.

One reason we may see things geared towards men that used to be geared towards women is that society has become nichiefied, so we have more content than ever. This allows people to experiment with new things, some of which is successful and some of which isn't.