NovaDash

This is not meant as an attack towards shounen (honestly I'm trash for it but at the same time I'm shoujo trash, so maybe I just like watching/reading stories that are in my subjective opinion good) Additionally, this is not meant to be a comparison regarding which is better. As, that is wholly subjective.

A few points I thought could contribute to the overlooking:

1. Shoujo is geared for teen girls (a.k.a the teen girl effect)

Well, the targeted group is teen girls and often troughout history anything that has been popular with/made popular by teen girls, things perceived to be geared more towards the feminine, has been generally looked down upon by all genders and people that are not teenage girls themselves. Irregardless whether one thinks they are good things/products, whether or not they see value in them. Things that teenage girls show adoration towards are heavily critizised(be it "boybands", book series, movies, heck the Beatles were disliked at first because their fans were teen girls (people often love to forget that certain things were in fact made popular by teen girls) All those things are often invalidated, compared to things geared towards the masculine. Which are seen as valid interest to have and seen more appreciatively. At least I cannot remember anything that was geared towards the masculine that faced such vitriol everywhere.(Even in media outlets, looking at you Twilight, though that franchise has some very valid criticims (representation of the Quileute tribe for example.) but at the time the criticism was not focused on those more valid points but rather on how 'vapid' the fanbase was) I do believe that there is some amount of prejudice towards shoujo, due to this innate hatred that seems to be seeped in, at least some, cultures. Perhaps, this has cultural roots in the unfortunate reality that for many years women were treated as less than and therefore their opinions were given less value. Additionally, surely not helping this perception was that women (and only women)in Western Europe were for a long time diagnosed, at the time this was considered a valid medical diagnosis by doctors, as hysteric and therefore their opinions were not found to be as sound. (This was a diagnosis that had such wide range of symptoms that it could aplly to pretty much anything. Perhaps, this could have connotations to the realities of today.) Also, still to this day many young girls, in different cultures, are taught to keep quiet and just listen and not be as opinionated as to not be labled as difficult... So, perhaps the aforementioned has to do with why things geared towards girls are seen as less valid by some.

2. Misunderstanding(s) regarding shoujo (Bleugh Pink :()

I've heard the sentiment that all shoujo does is focus on a romantic angle. That all it is sparkle and pink, roses and romance and cake and slice of life. First of all, yes it can be all the aforementioned things and there is nothing wrong with focusing on those aspects. However, I do believe this notion has to do with the overlooking of the demographic. As, even in literature it is common to look down on romance and the mentioned things. Still,l believe,the sentiment is a generalization and misunderstanding of shoujo in general. I'm going to focus here more on shoujo manga, as that is what I'm most familiar with. It is true that shoujo does often focus more on romantic relationships, whereas in shounen it is often more of an afterthought. However, I would say that the focus of shoujo is not necessarily on romantic relationships, or rather not only on them (though some shoujo doesn't feature any romance), but rather on the more "real-life" type different often quite deep relationships between characters. Especially, older shoujo centered more around parental relationships and lack of such relationships (Candy Candy). But just like any genre it contains much more variety, a lot more than that. Reducing all shoujo to just those things minimizes it, and I feel, is an injustice towards it. For example. My first ever shoujo Candy Candy, contains frills, ribbons, romance, idealism and a cute bubbly main character. Yet, at its heart it is a coming of age story filled with tragedies of life and the world trying to chip away the idealism and hope of the main character. In the end, what keeps the character going are the relationships she has forged and the different aspects of them.
Obviously, I've made some generalizations myself on the previous paragraphs. As, what I think is the biggest misunderstanding is perceiving shoujo as a monolith. It is after all more of a demographic full of several genres such as: magical girl (sailor moon, cardcaptor sakura, shugo chara, Tokyo Mew Mew, Mermaid Melody), slice of life (Kimi ni Todoke, Ao Haru Ride,Kodomo no Omocha),mecha(Escaflowne),sports (Beniiro Hero, Dancing baby karin, Hanamaru GO! GO!) and several others.

3. Pressure of society towards... (Guys can’t enjoy shoujo!, clutches pearls)

Perhaps some of the disdain comes from the perception that things that are deemed "girly" are seen as emasculating. This often leads to resentment towards things that a person is not able to try out due to possible fear of being ostracized from their social group. Though, at least currently, it looks like the strict lines between masculine and feminine are blurring to some extent. Still, due to society having some skewed perceptions sometimes, it may be deemed as embarrassing or something to be ashamed of for a guy to like shoujo. Which in my opinion is total BS! Anyone who likes shoujo should consume it :)

Okay,my brain is fried... I'm going to end it here, have a nice day, evening whatever time you're reading this♡

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