I wouldn't know how to overly sexualize a male character.
On the other hand, I know how to sexualize a female character.
On the third hand, I do not know how to draw so it does not matter.
Camera angles, shot compositions, the situation, etc.,
A bikini isn’t inherently a sexual thing, but what makes people associate it with sexuality is that in movies, anime, Manga, etc, you always get these shots/moments were a woman wearing a Bikini has camera shots and angles that focus on her breasts or butt or something else, and these shots are often done to titillate.
A good benchmark for sexualizing men to know if you're doing it right is if the average viewer thinks the sexualised scene is gay, because it's kind of an unconscious assumption that men are the target audience.
It's a combination of detail and posing, IMO. The women in the bikinis are constantly in poses where they're sticking out their chest, or bent over, or have their legs spread, or just generally have their breasts as a prominent part of the silhouette. Care is taken with the
curves in the linework such that you could identify the position of the areola through the clothes, because they're meant to be the focus of the image. You don't tend to see men with their bulge or ass emphasized in the same way. How often can you identify the individual testicles through Superman's spandex?
Care is taken with the curves in the linework such that you could identify the position of the areola through the clothes, because they're meant to be the focus of the image.
First off, you're attributing parts as the whole here, which is very disingenuous. Can we find nips poking through bikinis in anime? Yes. Can we find scantily clad women on the beach irl? Also yes.
Let's remove film and anime from the picture here. We don't typically see men showing up to the beach in a speedo to show off their bulge. It's almost a guarantee that women will show up in what is basically a bra and panties (bikini). I'll stop here and let you decide who is self sexualizing here and why that leads to the hyperbolic representations we see in film.
Don't act like social expectations don't play a part. In the Anglosphere at least, it's socially expected for women to go dressed in bikinis and men to go in something less revealing like swim shorts, so much so that we think it's weird for women to go in swim shorts and men to go in speedos.
Do you not think this social attitude and desire to not be seen as weird might have something to with why most women choose the Bikini and why men don't choose the speedo? Like, at all?
It's rather funny to me that you simply say "this is a social expectation and that's why we must follow it"
It's actually hilarious when you consider the old swimsuits that were almost dress-like. One piece suits were much more common.
Fast forward to now, and you are saying it's expected for women to show ass much skin as possible? Just... lol...
Do you not think this social attitude and desire to not be seen as weird might have something to with why most women choose the Bikini and why men don't choose the speedo? Like, at all?
This one is even more funny, because it completely overlooks why these things are seen as weird. Also, weird doesn't fully capture the whole picture here.
Most women do not like to be seen/thought of as visual creatures. We can again blame society and puritan values here, but it's clear that something causes men's jaws to drop and their brains to melt when seeing a beautiful woman. Women don't typically react the same to a beautiful/hot man.
So we're left with women being able to drop the jaws of men frequently, but not the other way around. This leaves men with no reason to try to amplify the attention towards their bodies via speedos. The only reasons I can think to wear a speedo are speed and showing off muscular thighs. A very fat man in a speedo is going to look a lot more "weird" than a ripped man in a speedo. There's even jokes/skits/stories about fat people refusing to remove their shirt when swimming.
This circles back to your "weird" argument. What you're really saying is "ugly" in disguise. What is "weird" about a woman hiding her tummy and thighs? Is it "weird" because she should be flaunting what she's got instead of hiding it? Please help me to understand here. Looking "weird" is not a gendered thing, and it goes far beyond the attire that individual decided to put on for that day.
You can't simply say "it's this way because it's expected" and not investigate why it's expected. Hell, nude beaches are a thing, why don't we just remove any expectation of clothing? Just make all clothing optional and we won't have to think about this anymore, right?
Again, absolutely hilarious that "society expects this so I should embrace society's expectations" is your argument
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u/VinnyBoy45 12h ago
I wouldn't know how to overly sexualize a male character.
On the other hand, I know how to sexualize a female character.
On the third hand, I do not know how to draw so it does not matter.