No. The reason no one cared about male representation in magical girl media is because a.) the genre was denigrated for a very long time as being "for girls" as if such was explicitly negative, and only really captured a male audience through the deconstruction of the genre in shows such as the rightly acclaimed Madoka, and b.) male representation is the social default, so to use an example such as the above, to suggest that we shouldn't ask for non-male characters in traditionally male genres because there are already shows "for girls" comes across as saying that others should not seek to see themselves better represented in media, whilst also complaining that your vanilla ice cream does not taste enough of vanilla.

I don't wish to sound as if I am picking on you, because I don't intend to do that, but the idea that there is a completely equal scale, and that men might suddenly suffer if more female or non-binary characters are introduced into media is an idea that I would really sit down and think about if I were in your position. I might be misinterpreting what you say though, as I'm not exactly clear on what you meant towards the end of your post, and you don't have to listen to me because, if anything is apparent from our short conversations, it should be clear that I am akin to Medea, lol, and will go to great lengths to express loathing for heteronormative social expectations, but going forward, it hurts no one to have more varied casts—it does not "ruin childhoods" or take away media from the past, it simply presents a new way... in which companies can sell products to larger demographics now that apparently non-male viewers are a desirable market.

Regarding Sun Vulcan though, I've never heard of anyone being outraged that the core team from a show made in 1981 were all men. Gosh, you know, that's a lot of shows from 1981. It's important to have context, to be aware of social conditions, and it's equally important to say that now, several decades on, without changing the past, we can definitely tell broader stories.

IDK, tomos, all art is political, and all issues are political, as our boy Orwell says. Make of that what you will.

I honestly just always figured it was a joke and that people found it funny that it's the one Sentai team in all of history to have no girls in it. Very easy joke fodder!

It certainly would be... a take... to zero in on this one specific show. I'm also pretty sure that when made it was made the idea of it being commented on and discussed in 2021 was inconceivable.

Perhaps I'm out of touch with the broader fandom (spoiler: I am), but I still find it hard to believe Sun Vulcan is such a hot button topic.

Oh, it's not; it's just that when you're looking at all the Sentai teams and you see there's a single one in existence that doesn't have a girl, that's kinda funny

Just in case the two separate stupid nicknames and the following paragraphs of glowing praise for the show as a whole didn't make it clear, I was simply poking fun there specifically because it is, indeed, kinda funny.

It's not. Honestly, the only real thing of note about Sun Vulcan's history is how much involvement Marvel truly had.

Tapping in here real quick to confirm that people aren’t made awfully mad about Sun Vulcan. I’m pretty sure most people see the lack of women as a product of its time and or don’t care cause things have changed so much.

Also I uh think most people are like Die and don’t truck with Showa.


Also in response to tomos and Dreamcast (my tablet auto capitalizes Dreamcast that’s fantastic): people do complain about a lack of boy in magical girls. Mostly it’s because they (and I) think that showing boys in the show as heroes can show to young boys that they’re allowed to be feminine and feel feeling and such.

Your tablet is doing it right, haaha!

That I can understand definitely. What I can't get behind is what I felt the initial suggestion to be, "Ew, you want girls on our boys team ergo you suck because you never put boys on your girl team", but in a situation where it comes to providing positive depictions of male characters who actually have real feelings and aren't just engines of masculine self-loathing, yeah, I can definitely get behind that.

I always try to refrain from talking about this stuff because I feel that whenever I do, it's so easy to become characterised as a killjoy, so I'm also really glad that no one does really care about Sun Vulcan's line up, which is what I assumed, and what I thought was the joke... I just faltered when I got scared that people might have actually held this view, not Fish of course, but that a reference was being made to a group in fandom who did voice such views. I'm glad that we're not all crazy.

That boys can appear feminine is what I actually meant, yes! I think negative gender roles hurt men and women, I do actually want a half male/half female sentai team and non-binary characters I don't have an issue with, it's more just that I don't relate to a lot of arguments on either women's or men's rights which I suppose again is likely because of demographics, for example I'm still only 28 and the south west tends to have a bit of an ageing population!

I'm pleased we're on the same page!

I feel that the idea of men's rights is spurious at best, it's hard for me to look at the notion of such a movement and not equate these people with the same men that tell us the moon landings were faked. I'm not exactly fond of second wave feminist ideology, despite having grown up reading a lot of writers, such as Greer, who now sadly seem to voice a lot of anti-trans* rhetoric—however, all of that aside, what matters is I am definitely in agreement with better representation; the more options we have the better off we all are! It hurts none of us to have more shows with different combinations of characters and the very idea of such makes me super excited.