Well, I was more of a social justice warrior than I thought I was.
I didn't know I would enjoy NOT seeing overly sexualized characters for once. I've always liked the Shonen manga genre, probably because of that aspect. Obviously, most Shonen manga still does a lot of fan service and along with the non-sexualized female characters along side of sexualized ones, but because it's targeted towards teens in a positive light, it showed mostly 'normal' girl characters.
Some examples of non-sexualized girls include
When I say sexualized, I mean it in a real broad and general sense. Having big boob doesn't necessarily mean the character is sexualized. Women with big boobs are normal. It's how they're dressed and the angles the author focuses on that makes a character sexual. Claymore has nudity, but it's not sexual.
For example, I wouldn't say Orihime from Bleach is a sexualized character, even though her boobs are big, because the focus in most scenes are not on her breasts or her butt. She definitely does have fan service moments where the author deliberately puts her in revealing outfits and shifts the camera focus to the breast and butt, but for the most part throughout the first few arc's (I haven't seen Bleach after the first 4 major arcs) of the manga, she's a normal likeable character with personal growth and independent for most parts from the main character.
Rangiku Matsumoto on the other hand, I'd consider as a sexual character, due to the constant focus on her junk.
You don't even have to have big boobs to be sexualized.
By the way, I should also add that I don't think sexualization is bad at all. For the most part, media is for enjoyment and having 'fan service' does bring joy and excitement in men. There is nothing wrong with that. Also in some anime and manga, the same applies to male characters as well, but just in a different sense as women and men have different taste in general.
But the reason why I'm writing this is that, 'action' manga for teens have been dominated as 'shonen' for some time. It marginalizes a whole half of the population. There are many women who enjoy action, adventure type manga, with exciting battle scenes and character strength growth. Even the manliest Shonen manga 'dragon ball' has a female fan base. One of my all time favourite manga is Hunter x Hunter and I'm not the only female here who does. But straight female viewers have repeatedly been pushed out by a lot of action manga's emphasis on fanservice and sexualization of female character. We have boobs. We know boob 'physics'. It doesn't move like that. When High school of the dead came out, I actually was interested in how they'd survive, but I just couldn't get pass all that bouncing huge badonkadonk that was in your face. And the added harem that the male protagonist got. Same thing with Onepiece. I've watched up to about 300th episode, but the boobs in your face always... annoyed me. I guess especially since buff men showing their peck isn't my thing (and I'm assuming that's a bit of a fanservice for women). Same thing with Fire force. When sexual harassment is a punchline joke... it's off-putting... (I gave up on the show btw)
When manga like Kimetsu no yaiba, or Promised neverland, or Jujutsu kaisen came out, I realised I... really enjoy not seeing so much fan service... And it really isn't like the female characters aren't attractive or likeable. In fact, the fan community has already sexualized a lot of the characters for their own enjoyment, but for the most part, I can focus on the story, the development of characters and the personality of characters a lot more, when their "personality" isn't their big bouncy boobs (I'm of course, making a reference to the song "personality" by Johnny Mercer & The Pied Pipers (1945), made popular by the game Fallout haha). Plus liking a character feels a lot more inclusive as well since the focus of the character isn't just their breasts.
I guess one of the reasons I don't like about these sexualization, is the disconnect from reality. I work at a high school. Last year students can wear mufti. There are a few dress codes about how much you can reveal, but for the most part, majority of students like wearing 'normal' cloth... Some students have more mature body than others and when they wear tight clothing, it does seem revealing, but how they dress shows that they're not showing it off, or doing it for sexual attraction or attention. They like being stylish and follow the latest trend. They like hanging out with their peers looking nice with pretty makeup on, but really, even just by walking around the city area, most women don't like getting a huge focus on their breasts. So when anime zooms meticulously focus on the boobs and how they bounce, it almost feels like someone's ogling at my own boobs when I wanted them to focus on my... I dunno, pretty makeup? hahah I know men sometimes have this argument that it's a compliment, but here's the thing, sex have different meaning for men and women and whilst being desired by strangers can be a good feeling for some men, it's usually not the same for women. I've recently read a post on 9gag talking about how men imagine having sex with most women they're friendly with if they're around their age. That was... a bit disheartening to know.
https://www.cbr.com/fire-forces-tamaki-bad-treatment/
https://thebackcatalogue905473583.wordpress.com/2019/10/14/fan-service-ruined-fire-force-for-me/
Here are some other articles on how ogling is not really pleasant for women
https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/study-links-ogling-with-vulnerability-to-sexual-assault/
https://theconversation.com/sexually-objectifying-women-leads-women-to-objectify-themselves-and-harms-emotional-well-being-120762
https://www.tommiemedia.com/diversions/new-study-highlights-the-effects-of-%E2%80%98ogling%E2%80%99/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/06/01/science-columnist-tells-student-bothered-by-breast-ogling-prof-put-up-with-it/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-brains-see-men-as-whole-women-as-parts/
