Discussion Do women care more about men than they do, A "novel" presective!

I'm not really sure if this applies to only asian cultures or is this simply human nature; But, I notie that women care more for romance than men.
Or say women care more about having men around , than men do about having females around.

Why I think so?

First please forgive me for I wanted to do more research and get novel quotes, but settled for writing randomly my feelings and what I could remember in the end.

Back to the topic. Do take the time to answer these questions.(I'm maily reasearching chinese novels since they are prevalent on this website)

1- How many shoujo/josei (Female targeted novels) , don't actually contain the romance genre in them?

The answer is : 10 shoujos and ,17 joseis (there were about 5+ more results displayed but they were of novels I had read myself which did contain romance, Like Poison genius consort so I didn't include them.)

2-How many shounens, Seinens(Male oriented novels) That don't contain romance?
39 shounens and 52 seinens ,Wuxia (without shoujo, josei, seinen, shounen ofcourse no repetition) 63
XianXia(excluding all repiritions ofcourse) is 6 pages which contain an average of 25 results , that is roughly 150 one , Xuanhuan = 12 pages , roughly 300 novel. , Action = 12 pages also. I ignored fantasy Adventure and the rest of the genres bec. they I consider them to be neutral.
While I apply filters to exclude the romance genre , I include other genres each time. and I exclude them on the next search.
Meaning if I search Shounen and exclude romance, my next search would be seinen with excluding both shounen and romance as well as shoujo and josei ofcourse to ensure there are no repititions.

Now the boring statistical part is over , let's just talk.

My memory is not the best here , So I'm not very well able to quote certain novels in name. But you guys know stories here are mostly identical hence I trust you'll get it.

I read both girl targeted novels and guy targeted ones so I can assume the following plot:

Girly novels:

Girl transmigrates, gets a second chance . spends 2/3 of the novel face slapping her relative/friend/sister who took her fiancee/bf/family from her. goes on to be awesome and attracts the attention of the powerful ML who is always rich, mysterious, cold and for some unknown reason is allergic to all women kind except for the FL herself and is rumored to be gay and the FL is then surprised he is not, even in historical ones, the guy would have a whole harem , but somehow it turns out he never touched the women coz he was waiting for the FL to show up.
The FL then goes on to show how awesome she is and useful to everyone especially the ML. of which he later really likes her independence and talent, but nonetheless constantly seeks to protect her.

The ML is never neglected and when things get too tough for the logical plot line to solve, He'll appear out of no where and save the day.
He'll also have many chapters dedicated to his boring action scenes which wouldn't have been too boring if we were reading the story to tune in on him and not the Fl of which we are attatched to. Anyway He'll go off and purge his teritory or fight in some boring wars or go off to the army(Princess medical doctor here) , he'll also fight asassins and people who inadvertently wanna cause future harm to the FL . in chapters fully dedicated to him(Which I usually skip) .

Novels without romance and Ml are quite boring. in fact he must show up early or in the dirst 50 chapters or there should be a promise of romance. otherwise I would just be anticipating (personal opinion here) .

He'd always be powerful , has a big role and never neglected.

Moving on to the Guyly novels (yes I know this isn't a real word) :

An underestimated weak boy/guy who is sent to another world, transmigrates, reborn..or not

Is a weakling with crippled power who becomes powerful and talks trash to everyone who laughed at him.

He may have a fiance or a girl who betrayed him, who he gets back at by proving that he isn't trash and that he is powerful now. He could then go through 500/1000 chapters withough meeting any girls whatsoever as he gains his power/status/comrades... (if it's a non- harem novel).
Then he'd meet a super powerful awesome rich girl who everyone wants but can't have. then after she warms up to him and all. She'll probably get kidnapped or held against him and all her previous power will evaporate as she waits for him to save her(she's still considered awesome though and everyone envies him for her) .
Then she becomes weak and very annoying for like an entire arc, where all she will say is "take care of yourself" and cry .
Then he'll just decide to leave somewhere on a journey and won't be able to take her with him coz she's a hindrance and he'll tell her that to her face and she'll accept. And all of us will be relieved bec. although I'm a female myself, I'd think the females in guy novels really are annoying and a hindrance to the entire damn plot. The only thing that could be used to descibe them is : A waste of lines.
In the anime :" Welcome to the NHK" the protagonists were trying to create an ero game , and were designing the FL :
"She's your classmate and childhood friend, who also happens to live next door. She's also a robot, but not just any robot, a Maid Robot! In a previous life, she and the main character were lovers. She's also really sick, so the main character has to take care of her. Then she jumps in front of a car to protect him and ends up in the hospital for a whole year! But she's actually a ghost! AND SHE'S AN ALIEN TOO! THEN YOU FIND OUT SHE'S A REINCARNATION OF A FOX FROM SPACE WITH A SPLIT PERSONALITY!!"



Now if it was a harem novel, needless to say, there'd be females left and right throwing themselves at the guy . they're equally annoying as the females in non- harem novels and serve no purpose whatsoever but to increase the word count probably. The guy is like non-chelant about them as they come and go, fight with each other about him. He has no feelings towards them whatsoever but he just collects pokemons along the way and there would be a plot somewhere in addition.

What brought this to my attention you ask? well Date entry.

Huh??

I listen to novels in an e-reader program called "Balabolka" while I do data entry. And some nosy family members may step in while I do that. And I noticed that I couldn't possibly play female oriented novels bec. they are full of intimate scenes, descriptions of hugs kisses, appearances.....

While surprisngly guy ones , unless labled Ecchi, are not.

I remembered my friend telling me once, that girls think more of s*x than guys. And I told her no way . there are brothels for men and none for women(or so I think) . She said no , they're merely more encouraged and tolerated to express it. So looking at novels a subconscience expression of thoughts.

What do you think?

 

tldr;. 20 words and less please

 

Shoujo/jousei are more likely to have perverted scenes than shounen/seinen counterpart unless the said shounen/seinen novels are targeted to audiences that likes fan service to smut

 

It's absolutely true that female readers love romance...

between 2 males.

 

TL;DR

OP believes that novels targeted towards a female demographic have more romance than those targeted towards male demographics.

 

Pretty interesting analysis. I hit the “reply” button, and the stuff looked different, so I’m assuming you edited the post. I’ll see if I can read the edited post in a second.

 

Novels wise, I say you summarized most of it as there some exceptions always but yes, that deduction is spot on if you ask me

 

Although I don’t agree that thinking about romance necessarily equates to thinking about sex. For me, those have always been separate things. But maybe that’s just me.

 

I like to read more of

Spoiler: This

I your father is going to show you the immensity between heaven and earth

Then

Spoiler: This

my love I am willing to die for you

Edit: i only read the first 5 lines

 

Female oriented novels show romance and ML. dependency while Male targeted ones show thwy don't really care much to have romance . romance could come at the very end or not at all. is this an asian thing or do men just not care for women as they do them.

 

I do notice Yaoi is pretty popular, it'not my thing though. I'm also not sure if yaoi readers also read straight romance or not.

 

Not just you. It's different. but it leads to it in the end. or maybe I should put it like this: women love to be loved and the whole story can and must revolve around that. While for men the story must revolve on achievements, superiority and maybe maybe some romance . Should I say women care for romance and men or s*x . Maybe. a male prespective could help.

 

I'm going to be bias here as a male, but males in my honest opinion, naturally seek competition and superiority. It's ingrained them and indoctrinated by the social environment around them except for societies with male hating majority. Women too seek competition and superiority, but there's a fundamental difference between theirs and ours. I can't exactly word it right, but I know there is something that separates a man and a women, even though they're of the same species excluding the physical advantage. Strangely women develop faster than men, yet they're more emotionally invested than men? Maybe it's just me not understanding women in general... no, perhaps humans in general. Fuck, I lack common sense! Why the fuck am I discussing this? What is this!?

THIS IS SPARTA!

 

I'm not sure that I agree. The OP seems to be pretty spot on with the female-oriented books, but I don't recognize the description of the male-oriented ones. I guess it's because I have a strong preference for books with good female characters, but I have better luck finding good romances in the latter than in the former. Of course, this only applies to non-otaku books, but that should be obvious.

The problem is that female-oriented Romance novels don't tend to have very good male love interests. Which is odd considering this character role should be the most important one in such books and it's not really all that hard to write such characters. I think that they get so idealized that there's no longer anything interesting about them left. I just put one of these books into hiatus because it decided that the best love interest should be a guy who has no emotions and doesn't care about anything in the world other than the protagonist (who is a seven year old girl - sort of). Honestly, I'd read more Romance novels if I could be assured that it had decent male love interests.

On the flip side, I find that the romances in male-oriented stories are more balanced; with female characters that are designed to be more interesting. I've seen some awfully well written relationships, with great interactions, and even sexual tension. I think that what's really important is that the writer cares about female characters, and wants to write them. A lot of male writers probably aren't interested in that and so their female characters end up not being very well treated. Given a writer who feels differently and the results will be better.

 

In shoujo/josei, men ARE the woman's accomplishment. They're straight up status symbols. This extremely handsome and great man (or men) is more dedicated to her than a dog, which reflects how great she is. The better the man she's able to attract and the more ridiculously loyal he is, the more beautiful/wonderful it implies she is - that's why they get a ton of focus.

She also gets to flex that she's better than other women like this. The male lead is usually immune to the charms of women beforehand, and every homewrecker who tries to seduce him after he meets the MC is humiliatingly rebuked.
That provides two fantasies: one where women can get revenge on immoral women who try to break up happy relationships (and lots of women are paranoid about infidelity all the time, since society says men are slaves to their dicks), and another where they have a man who will NEVER cheat, NEVER compare them unfavourably to other women, and will ALWAYS think that they are perfect and great.
It's a fantasy of comfort and security where women don't have to worry about whether or not they're pretty enough, funny enough, sexy enough to "earn" happiness. Just the woman alone, as she is, will always be enough.

As for having a man who will do everything for you... It's the fantasy of having a lot of power without having to exhaust yourself working hard.
The MC doesn't have to struggle with the unfairness of whatever industry she's in because her lover will supply her with the easy way to the top. She doesn't have to live in fear of violence or rape because her lover will always save her. He'll also shield her from malicious gossip, provide her with a great deal of riches and luxury, and generally lay a life of happiness at her feet.

Also, fantasy men rarely bitch and moan and give you extra housework to do out of sheer laziness. They're extremely attentive and care about the MC's feelings and happiness. It's a world where women can put their feet up and finally be pampered a little.

(Women having power themselves is also a fantasy, but it's a bit rarer. Xena the Warrior Princess and Wonder Woman are really popular.)

 

This is a great explanation, and it goes a long way to illustrate why I like Tong Hua so much more than these other Romance novels. I way prefer seeing women do awesome things rather than seeing some (mostly boring) guy do things for her, and it's a bit shocking that I encounter the former more in male-oriented works than female-oriented ones.

 

Honestly, I like power couples best~! That way you get the best of both worlds and they can take turns being cool.

I find that women in male-orientated works are only ever awesome up until they become the MC's woman; after that, the MC always has to be better and more dominant.

 

Yes I do feel that men do focus more on achievements and work , while the women focus on men themselves . In theory it's so men could be the providers ... but in today's society where women support themselves. I found it to be still weird that things are actually the same as ancient times. Men care to be greatand excpect women to love them for it without any feelings, while women want those great men t care about them 24/7 , and now the new addition is that they wanna be praised by their sides and also be taken care of by the said man. But basically tell do you seek romance in every novel you read? How often do you think or fantasize about it? If it's 1/10 the time where you spend planing success , achievement or whatever. then I'd say females do give more time and energy .

 

I’d say I read stories with romance in them the great majority of the time. There’s some novels I read where I kinda wish there wasn’t romance, but the majority of those are because I think the relationship isn’t the healthiest. There’s only one novel where the relationship is fine, and I actively wish there wasn’t romance, because I think the story would be better without it.

The majority of the stories I write also have some degree of romance in them, but not all of them. *is currently writing a sweet love story* *cough*

 

I couldn't agree more we love to fantasize about this , but truth is I feel bad bec. the object of my fantasies 1- doesn't really exist 2- doesn't feel the same way. So I created this thread . It's just I grew up in a chauvenistic society. where I was led to believe that males are out to get females and that we must protect ourselves coz they like want us all the time. so it's shocking when I get this kind of conclusion.
And I'm like wtf happened to all the illusions...