TMNT Appeals to Males and Females
 

I was talking with my friends today about the upcoming movie, when we were throwing out the discussion that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles seems to have as much of a female fan following as it does male.

Do you think the creators are surprised by this? What about the general male fan. Are you a little surprised to go on the forums and see that half of the members are female?

I'd be lying if i didnt admit to being a little suprised haha. Just because of the fact that the show is about well...four boys...But i understand why tmnt is also popular with females, theyre just plain fun. Makes me wonder if I'd be into the tmnt as much if they were female.

Well, there are a lot of fangirls who are of..."questionable mental faculties" and appear to actually be in love with these fictional turtles.

But you get that in every fandom based around a medium populated predominantly with male characters. Ghostbusters has a lot of screechy Venkman fangirls, which the Starscream fangirls within the Transformers fandom exist in frightening quantities.

So when I first joined the TMNT online community I had already dealt with Transformers and Ghostbusters fangirls, so seeing so many fangirls whose sole reason for loving the franchise is because "OMG _____ is soooo CUTE! ^__^" doesn't really surprise me.


***Disclaimer: The above post does not refer to any fangirl on this board specifically. There are several sane fans of the female persuasian who enjoy the fiction for its depth and charm rather than because they want to shag fictional animals.

I've actually come across way more female fans then male fans. Which is funny because the brothers play up guy humor and most girls I know hate guy humor haha

I don't think it's quite an even split. But, it sure does look awfully close! Between 60/40 and 55/45 is what I always thought. Good grief, what a nit I just picked... :lol: But, yeah. It surprised me to find that out when I was ten. The more fickle audiences (non-fans; those who only stick with a franchise until it stops being exciting for a second) are the real wild cards. Can we find a lady by that description for every dude of the same description that gravitates to TMNT? That's an incredibly tough call...

I never really did like "girl" things when I was little. Butt-kicking turtles were way cooler than Barbie could ever hope to be. :)

Plus they're fun to draw, and psychoanalyze the heck out of when I'm bored. Creepy fangirls make me want to die of embarrassment for my gender. :lol:

Girls like ninja stuff too! And the world is decidedly lacking in TV series that star cool, interesting female characters who aren't obsessed with fashion, glitter, and romance. Bleh. Turtles was much closer to my life, especially since I have 3 brothers and we used to get into some serious scraps.

I sometimes roll my eyes at the 'guy humor,' but that doesn't mean I hate it. It just means sometimes I think boyz r stoopid. ;)

But you know, online forums don't really make a good polling place. Girls do congregate to chat online more than guys, so they're overrepresented on most forums (although it depends on the subject).

I like what I like. That's all there is to it. I was never into Barbie. But I did like Rainbow Brite, but I think it was her horse that I really thought was cool.

The Turtles I just started to get into one afternoon back in the eighties.. It probably wasn't until the motion picture came out that I really became a mega fan. And they stuck around a hell of a lot longer than Rainbow Brite and Starlight ever did.

You could also account for April O' Neil, and that little bit of feminism added to the show made it more comfortable for the ladies to be fans without feeling out of place.

What I'd like to know is what the ladies thought of the man-hungry Irma. Was she an insult or was she just funny?

I know my sister dug the TMNT back in the day....but I think it may have been because of me...:P

Ditto to EVERYTHING you just said. I hated 'girl' things (and still mostly do, to a point) and yeah... fangirls are just... *facepalms* I just want to apologise or something. Heh.

Funny?

I had no idea what to make of Irma. She was a clutzy, kinda loony version of April.

I actully think it has more of a female following than male...you'd be suprised as I was to learn that most of the members on even the technodrome who have rather male screen names are females. It came as quite a shock to me.:|

like what kind of gay humor?

I never ever liked girly stuff, total tomboy tthrougout...I liked al lthe cool stuff like TF, GI Joe and all that back in the 80s growing up...it was only natural I got into TMNT.
When a desginer puts out a drawing featuring a male muscluar character, no matter what species he is, there is going to be some sort of female following. Look how they'r'e drawn in the 2k3 series...muscle. They're strong. Females are attracted to stregnth, it's a natural thing.
Then another reason is these characters are different. Everybody is the same in the real world, why not a little variety? So it's fictional, it's fun, no big deal. Nobody's being hurt in any way. Four humanoid turtles in a sea of humans, they stand out, they're the odd men out...I've always liked the odd ones. And yes I can appreciate TMNT for what it is - a great action show/comic/whatever illustrating the lives of five mutants in a human world and how they survive and their many adventures.
I dig Raph because he has many qualities I can relate to; I'm not the sort who just wants to get him in bed; I can appreciate the guy for what and who he be...it's not my fault they made him so cute in TMNT1...:D

Irma's a moron.

And I can name some fangirls who just make me cringe...but I won't. I am not one of those "Squeeeee" types. Ugh. :roll:

And NO there aren't enough female cartoon characters who seriously kick some major hiney! They're all like Bratz or crap like that, BLEAH! The only one on Fox/4kids/whatever they wanna call it this week/ that I can think of who isn't a total wuss is April.

? whats all this then we'll have no trouble here!!?

Dude, guy humor.

Why was it a shock to you? I would rather say it's a bit confusing, yes., but whatever...even I have got a male name...what's wrong with this?!

That's true - we do need some good female heroes that aren't all "omg my nails!! and boys!! and um... makeup! Oh yeah and crimefighting lol"

Irma? I always thought she was kinda ugly and pathetic. And a little too man-obsessed.

A good many of you pointed out how there are no female heroes to look up to. Not in the animated sense anyways. I dont remember her name, but the detective in Gargoyles would be as close to a female hero that I can think of that was animated. But that's it.

Other than that, what else is there for us girls. Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Well, it's cool to see everyone's input on this. I have an equal balance of friends and relatives that like the ninja turtles. We still to this day fight over which turtle is the best.

because it's shocking when you think some one is a dude and it's a dudet lol:lol:
quite a few members who play male characters on are female it's a bit confusing and yes shocking...there is nothing wrong with this..like I said it just comes as a bit of a shock when I thought people where guys lol

Yeah, the "original Turtle" I made up for fun is a guy... as are most of my characters. It's probably because I sucked at drawing females until recently. :lol:

I've been confusing people online about my gender for years... and I'm not THAT much of a tomboy. :P

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/v/venusdem.jpg

:embarass: :sweatdro:

Elisa Maza (who is now on the tv series Eureka) and Goliath's daughter, Angela. Other female heroes: Bulma in Dragonball Z, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Spider-Girl, American Dream, Storm, Rogue....

Anyways...I've found that there are more female fans than male fans for TMNT. Yes some fans do get a wee bit carried away and are a tad bit waaay more obsessed than they should be. Me? I gladly share Raph with the other Raph fan girls. Course Im also a Donatello fan.

As for the other fandomes...Im a major Gargoyles fan and admit to having a thing for Lexington. :P I've never heard of crazed Venkman fan girls...Im a Slimer fanatic tho. :lol:

I've been suspecting that female TMNT fans outnumber the male TMNT fans. Maybe we can relate to the different personalities more better then the fellows can?

I did not like too much girly stuff when I was a kid. I became a fan of TMNT before my brother did. The usual things that I did as a kid were science, horseback riding, playing with my instrument, which was not a typical female-dominant instrument.

I guess I kinda went back and forth between girl and boy stuff as a kid.

I LOVED Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake, etc. But I didn't like Barbie and only got them from people who didn't know what else to give a girl. I also liked He-Man and Transformers. And to this day my favorite sport in the world is baseball.

I can't put a finger on why I latched onto the TMNT in the way that I did, but I know I stuck with them because of the depth of story and characters I eventually found when I found the comic books. Looking back on it, it's still hard to figure the reason I endured so much ridicule in school because of my fandom. Some days it felt like it was simply because I was a girl and TMNT was a "guy's thing." Some days it felt like every one else in the world just hated TMNT. But I was anything but popular before I fell into the fandom, too.

Most of my TMNT friends that I hang out with outside of message boards are female, but I figure that to be because I'm female myself and for us TMNT is a kind of girl talk. What really astonished me most when I started meeting other TMNT fans online was that not only were a lot of them female, but a lot of them were my age or OLDER. Heck, if you consider the group of us that goes to Comic-Con every year, I'm one of (if not the) youngest people there, and I'm 27!

I think it ends up being appealing to so many females because it's NOT just about ninja-ing (which is pretty much what one would assume from the way TMNT has always been marketed). But we love the ninja-ing, too! And yes, some of us also find the guys to be just darn cute. 8)

Before I joined the technodrome forums, that probably would have surprised me. I had never met a single chick who liked TMNT. Of course where I live it's not surprising.

Same here with me playing Sousaphone back in high school, about oh...16 years ago......not many chicks played it when I was, today...I see alot more now!! WOOHOO! TUBA ROCKS!

:D

Guys seem to dig the action of the characters and us chicks are more into the emotional side of TMNT, we find them emotionally attractive and look past the green. Green is a nice color you know :P

I played trumpet in band, which was an instrument that also lacked in girls. Woohoo, brass!

I'm trying not to, but I can't help being insulted by this suggestion. But, then again, I played clarinet (or pretended only for one semester). Don't gimme that look! My parents couldn't afford a bass sax for me. :x

yes it's the color of spring ;) and it can be cool and friendly like.
I actully say all my favorite guys are green!

hahaha, I totally read it wrong, LMAO

I don't think that's true at all.

TMNT appeals to both genders for the same reason that a lot of things appeal to both genders-- because it's good. The characters have distinct personalities, but they're by no means flat characters. They have a human appeal. TMNT is not Chuck Norris. And there's humor, and danger, and just plain ol' good stories. As with the best fiction, it's like life, but better. ;) haha

No, you probably won't notice many female TMNT fans at school. One of the biggest reasons for that is TMNT is considered a Guy thing, so it's "not cool" for girls to like it. It wasn't even cool for girls to watch it when I was little. There are plenty of female sports fanatics, but you don't really see women walking around in shirts emblazoned with the name of their favorite player, do you? Kind of the same deal. And you can add in the fact that there's very little merch made for girls. *shrug*

I don't know why I play a male character. He's my primary creation, something from childhood, must be due to social conditioning. I didn't like what girls were supposed to be when I was a kid, so I gravitated more toward what boys did.
I'm sure Dr. Freud would have had a field day with this.

I couldn't in only a few words get into why the TMNT hold so much appeal for me, but I feel like I've known them all my life. It fit into what I was working on, creatively speaking. I made characters similar to them as a kid... I'm just bummed I didn't come up with them first, but then again, knowing my track record for procrastination, the TMNT would still probably be sitting around in some old notebook somewhere. I'm glad somebody who had the gumption to market them as persistently as Eastman and Laird did, was able to make them into what they are today.

that many chick huh? s'cool. i like chatting with chicks then guys- maybe becuase i had alot of friends that are chicks in highschool 4 years ago

Don't be insulted. I was being a wiseass. Anyways, I'm not sure how guys are wired, but most women I know can possess all of the personality traits of the Turtles. Mostly Raph's though! But sadly, not enough Mikey's out there.

YAY I played that too!
Trumpet, trombone, tuba/sousa, baritone(treble), and french horn <--pain in the )(@#*$

BRASS RULE!

If we were in the same band, I would be near you. I played a F-attachment trombone, which I still have in my closet. I also played a bass trombone. My brother played the French horn and I would agree, it is a very hard instrument to play.

I was thinking about this while I still worked at a toy store. The girls aisle stuff has crap, stuff like bratz... I would never buy that for any kid ever. Talk about bad influences. The worst part is it was one of the most popular toys.

Still there is major double standards when it comes to what girls can like and what guys can like, socially that is.

In my psychology class the teacher said something like how there was a big ruckus about sears showing more boys playing with toys in their magazines than girls and it came down to the fact that if a girl was featured playing with a toy, moms wouldn't buy that toy for their boys, but if it was a boy playing with the toy it didn't matter and would sell for both genders.

Even properties that have universal appeal tend to have males as the protagonists. For example all the pixar movies.
Toy Story - Buzz/Woody
Monsters Inc - mike and something (ike?)
Bugs Life - that bug guy
Cars - Lightning mcqueen
Incredibles - the dad (was featured moreso than the rest of the family)
Ratatouille - patton oswalt's character

I think that's all of them. They may have strong female roles in the films like in cars there's sally, but they're never in the spotlight, and it's because if they had a girl as the main character they would lose the boy demographic, but a guy will attract both sexes.

It's lame but it's true.

That said I'm glad there's a lot of girls into tmnt. Unfortunately I've never met any in real life.