Howdy.
Haze-man here.
I'm turning off the lurker mode to come out and talk about something most
of us take for granted:

Gratuitous lesbians.

Yes, most of us don't care to think about the implications of marketing and
lesbians.  Anyone who has read Howard Stern's book or seen his movie will
know about the marketing strategy of lesbians.  "Lesbians equal ratings"
says Stern, and it seems that Radio isn't the only media to be corrupted.

Anime has fallen prey to an easily produced form of fan service.  Some
examples include the popular OAV series "El Hazard".  I don't have to tell
you about the appearence of a lesbian in that anime.  The thing most people
don't realize is that she is completely unnessecary to the plot.  Fatima
could have just as easily been straight and the story would have, for the
most part, continued along the same lines.  Her place in the story is
unneccessary; unwarrented and therefore gratuitous.

Annother intance is the fansubb only anime "Maze".  This two episode one
shot OAV series is an epitome of gratiuty.  It is a "D and D" adventure
type and, while not competely Hentai, is somewhat perverted.  The exact
words of anime club president were; "This is as close at tentical rape as
we're going to get tonight".

This anime concerned wandering princess will all the character traits of
C-ko, named Mill and her female mage protector, Maze.  Mill frequently
glomps onto Maze with even more quesionable than C-ko.  Traveling with then
are more Fantasy Adventure Archtypes, one of which is another ninja lesbian
constanly hitting on Maze.

Gratuitous nudity is abound as well as lude jokes.  What's even more
gratuitious is the fact that, by some unexplained phenomenon, Maze is a
"were-Hentai", ie when the sun goes down, she turned into a really sinister
horny guy.  Another exeplained phenomenon is that fact that Maze were Levi
genes and a cotton button down shirt, where as every one else has
stereotypical Fantasy gear.

In both cases, lesbians are there and they really have no purpose but fan
service.  This is rather cheap, but it make you wonder what the appeal is.

The first should be obvious:  all lesbians are female.  The majority of the
comics and animation audience is male, nonwithstanding, women are
aestetically more vilupscuous.  Females have curves, which is more special
than one might think.  While men are usually basic straigt-lined in their
designs, women can acheive an "hour-glass" figure.  Curved lines are more
pleasing to the eye then straight lines and sharp angles.  If you look at
car designs in the in the past fifty years, you'll notice that cars that
had square designs are now completely lacking in straigt lines.  It is more
than areodynamics, even the interiours have been modified to have curves.

On a more beastial level.  Lesbians perpetuate the popular male fantasy of
having two women at once.  Or at least the ability to watch women having
sex without seeing "some guy's buy" as Masamune Shirow put it.  The true
appeal of lesbians is still being debated by phsychologists.

Even so, we can't deny that lesbians have made at least Howard Stern's
career.

That said, what do we do about it?  I get angry.

Nothing has enraged me more than gratuitous lesbians.  If it wasn't for the
gratuitous cross-dressing, I would  have ceased watching El-Hazard after
the first episode.  During "Maze", I was yelling at the screen constantly. 
Apparently no one disaggreed with me because no one told me to shut up.  I
made the club president promise to never show "Maze" again.

My hatred extends to other uses of gratuitous lesbians.  I have yet to
listen to Howard Stern's show.  I stopped reading GEN 13 after issue #2.

What makes gratuitous lesbians so offensive to me?  I am a normal
heterosexual male aren't I?

What I detest about them is that they perpetuate a facade.  A
misinterpritation of reality.  In all said instances, only "Lipstick"
lesbians are shown.  What about the "Butch"?  Aren't they people too? 
Don't they exist?  And what about homosexual males?  Where are they?

They also fail to show the harsh realities.  Where are the couples living
with AIDS?  Were are the women who are denied jobs or promotions because of
their sexuality?  Where are the lesbians who are harrased by mobs of angry
Baptists?

It's so fake it makes me sick.  Sometimes physically sick to my stomack. 
It's OK to have a comic or animation with lesbians, but why leave out the
realities?; especially when they make such good story material?

My point here is, next time you're watching anime and you have a chuckle at
seeing one girl gloom onto another, maybe you should stop and think about
the things they are NOT showing you.  In a world of more than ink and
paint, they would have to pay dire consequences for their way of life.


Haze