The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
Am I the only one here who - despite not being female - thinks that the "Surrogate" in the trope's name is offensive, since it implies that there is no such thing as female fans who are genuinely interested in things that are "typically" the domain of male fans?
Edited by MarqFJA Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus. Hide / Show Replies
I guess there's some level of sexist connotations in the trope name, but at the same time, a good chunk of media hasn't caught on to the fact that not all otaku are male. Since being a tomboy gets you points for progressiveness, and some media appears to be oblivious to the existence of them, this trope is a kind of "shorthand" for "tomboy" because it's not stereotypical. It would be kind of like having an Irish person as a teetotaler Straight Man - sure it's not a stretch in Real Life, but people watching will still find it subversive. Totally.
I've always had the same sort of problem with this trope. My first thought was "Well, better tell all those women I know who like comics and video games that they don't actually exist in the real world, who knew?" At least it should be noted on the main page that nerdy interests have a much bigger gender overlap than they did twenty years ago. Not sure how to phrase it, though.
I know this happened a long time ago ,but my 2 cents is that something I've noticed is that in some cases like Lucky Star and Yuru Yuri they take the fantasy part to laughable levels since these shows imply that female otaku are basically opposite sex clones of their male counterparts complete with liking other girls ,as well as being a little bit too idealized in general.
Edited by Sakubara "Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending."-Jim Henson
Reymmã
I'm removing Genshiken, since it is actually about otaku, and goes for a (relatively) realistic portrayal. This trope is about having an otaku in a cast of girls simply for appeal.
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Stuff like Sanrio Boys has gotten me thinking recently: Do male characters in anime or manga (although not as common due to Japan having stricter gender norms) that like stuff such as Otome Games and Yaoi count as a Shoujo variation or does that fall under a regular Periphery Demographic?
"Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending."-Jim Henson