Despite the oh so horrible pun for the title, this subject is something that has bothered me for quiet some time. So, this is a bit of a different format than I'm use to, but I want to know what you think of it.
"Isn't she pretty? She looks just like a doll.", I tend to hear this line a ton in anime that are romance leaning. And wonder to myself if females like to be compared to lifeless, plastic, and quite frankly, creepy objects? And to my surprise, there are quite a few that do like being compared to dolls.
The strange thing about these "compliments" is that they usually come from females, which makes me believe that females do want to be compared to dolls, at least looks wise. However, when it comes to men, in an anime series, doing the same comparison, it comes out a lot more condescending with it basically feeling like he said, "You need to be silent and beautiful".
I guess you can consider this a weird double standard I have, but when it comes to being compared to an inanimate object, I think I would consider it an insulting, all around.
Digging into Japanese Culture
The promotion of the "doll look" doesn't seem lacking when it comes to Japanese culture for their women. Many Japanese women typically will be aiming for pale skin, wide eyes, quiet, flat figures. If that sound eerily familiar, you are not mistaken if you thought of those plastic, large eyed, silent, fiends!
This type of view seems to seep though to the anime world, since it is usually the Japanese that are creating anime in the first place. As a result we have this echo-chamber that propagate though out the people of all ages and sometimes outside of Japan.
Insulting to Women?
Being of the XY chromosome, I don't think I have any merit answering this question, so I will put it out to the people that actually read this.
If someone compared you to a doll visually, would that be considered an insult or a compliment? Also, if you chose either of these answers, why do you take it that way?
