Interest
NTR: Netsuzou Trap Manga Creator Shares Her Sexism Work Story
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
NTR: Netsuzou Trap manga creator Naoko Kodama shared a personal story on Twitter earlier this month of a sexist encounter with a male manga editor. According to Kodama, the editor said to her, "Female creators can't draw truly interesting manga after all, can they?" Kodama reiterated that there are a lot of great works drawn by female manga artists. She thought of the encounter in light of the recent news that Tokyo Medical University has lowered the entrance exam scores of female applicants since at least 2011.
Kodama said that at the time of the encounter, the editor had wanted Kodama to introduce him to another female creator whom he wanted to write for a planned new magazine he was editing. The editor met with Kodama because she was the friend of the creator the editor wanted to write for his new magazine. Kodama found the editor's disparaging comment about female creators perplexing because the editor knew both Kodama and her friend were women.
Due to an apparent misunderstanding among her followers, Kodama added that she has never worked with this editor, and she only met him once. The editor was in charge of a male-oriented magazine, but he wanted to expand to get more female readers.
The day after Kodama shared her story, Galaxy Angel and Tantei Opera Milky Holmes: Feathers Hen manga creator Yūko Ōtsuki (formerly Kanan) said she shared the incident with her husband, Chiichan's Menu manga creator Masakazu Ooi. Ōtsuki said her husband replied, "He's just an idiot, so calling that guy an editor is an insult to other editors."
Female artists and creators have shared their stories of sexist encounters of the workplace in light of the recent Tokyo Medical University scandal. Video game artist Hiroko Yokoyama (SNK's Ikari Warriors, Crystalis, Guerrilla War games) wrote about how she and other female employees were denied opportunities to expand her skill set due to stereotypes that she would leave the workplace after getting married or having children. Today's Cerberus manga creator Ato Sakurai wrote in now deleted tweets how a male manga editor suggested she change her feminine name to a more gender ambiguous penname because boys' manga readers might find it "off-putting" to read manga created by a woman.
Sources: Naoko Kodama's Twitter account, Yūko Ōtsuki's Twitter account via Yaraon!
