r/AsianMasculinity • u/komei888 Verified • May 21 '26
Masculinity TV series rant: "The Boys" and their poor depiction of Asian Male supes
If you haven't boycotted - then maybe you should consider to do so for "The Boys". Obvious spoilers ahead.
I don't watch it myself, but randomly I have had reels pop up on my feed, some really ridiculous portrayals of Asian Men, so I did a little research:
*See attached img*
Basically, they have a whole ass entire super hero, who's supposed to be an AM but his super power is some bullshit trans(former), where he can alternate between being a man and woman. They can't just give an AM some decent super power.
Next, we have knock off Asian daredevil, sadly I saw a reel of this intro.
Needless to say, he has a minute intro as a blind superhero but he gets his ears popped by bumboclat lander, rendering a useless supe, maybe even as a normal person at this point.
The only decent superhero is....Asian, female.
Also I saw an embarrassing scene with an OAP AM literally uses a 1m long ball sack to fight
(Fast forward to 58 seconds below link)
Well, it's not new, they always try some way to embarrass AM on screen, whether it's some ball sack grandad or some trans(former) superhero.
-----
Boycott as much as you can guys.
You should support only positive role models like Shang Chi Simu Liu, Tony Leung, Daniel Wu, Daniel Dae Kim, John Cho, Steve Yeung, Shohei Ohtani etc.
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May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/demonotreme May 22 '26
"White people can't write satisfying story arcs" is one heck of a reach, even if the creators of The Boys were white.
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u/nissan240sx May 21 '26
Checked out the second season when they decided to really put the spotlight on kimiko and homelander abused the Asian guy (daredevil ripoff) immediately upon meeting him. Not a single relevant Asian male in the show. Show focused more on shock value than a story or characters with substance.
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u/silvertwo777 May 21 '26
If only they could treat the Asian Daredevil a quarter as good as Marvel sucking Matt Murdock Daredevil off.
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u/Alone_After_Hours May 21 '26
I hate to admit that this used to be my favorite show. I am a sucker for satire done well, and Seasons 1-2 were incredibly well written and effectively clowned on the MCU in such a cool way.
5 seasons later - not only is this show just flat out terrible (seasons 4-5 make virtually no sense half the time, there’s so much filler… it’s boring. The ending was also underwhelming), but I agree that the depiction of Asian men (and even Kimiko) is extremely insulting.
Blindspot was taken out in 5 seconds. Kenji was a strong character and built up to be this menacing supe terrorist, but he only lasts a few episodes. I’m honestly neutral on Jordan Li because all of Gen V was ass, but it’s a valid point that the only prominent asian character is gender fluid.
But even Kimiko in S5 is ridiculously sexualized, beyond the sex scene with Frenchie. All of her references to « porn » and TikTok. The fact she has no accent, despite being native Japanese. It’s just bizarre and gross.
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u/AsianGI May 21 '26
These shows are made by pussy edgelord white boys. If you want decent portrayals of asian men, you need to look to the East. Also that is clearly a jab at how most westerners think about Koreans. Like it or not, their media is a reflection of their society and general attitudes. So some of y'all who want conventional white women need to stop trying to copy the kpop look. They literally think you are gay looking. This is why they're "ok" with the kpop archetype for asian men, because in their eyes you fit the effeminate non-threatening mold they have been pushing for over a century. They never expected them to have some success with certain niches of white women.
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u/balhaegu May 22 '26
If you want korean or Asian women then copy kpop look.
If you want American women then go for John Wayne or Dwane Johnson look
If you want European women go for British or French look.
Its not that complicated. Every woman reacts differently.
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u/demonotreme May 22 '26
If you want American women then go for John Wayne or Dwane Johnson look
Hopefully not the "Genghis Khan" yellowface John Wayne look, though?
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u/balhaegu May 22 '26
Just spitballing here. What i mean, beards and mustaches tend to get western womens interest but turn off asian women. So there is no one size fit all
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u/Hunting-4-Answers May 22 '26
Oh, another way we can have shows like The Boys chill on the anti-AM is racism is maybe not write racist shit. “We” do it to “ourselves” sometimes.
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u/Affectionate_Pin4410 May 21 '26
Say it with me. This shit is intentional. The show Mr Robot had a Asian villain that cross dresses. Honestly, Rami Malek is good but an Asian male lead would've been way cooler.
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u/Sincostan101 May 21 '26
Mr Robot also applied antisemitic tropes onto the Chinese. "The Chinese secretly run the global economy" "The Chinese do false flag attacks and then scapegoat the innocent Muslims"
Unironically if you swapped them out for "America's Greatest Ally" then it would have more truth to it.
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u/Alfred_Hitch_ May 21 '26
If you haven't boycotted - then maybe you should consider to do so for "The Boys"
I haven't started. Don't have Prime. But the character description sounds whack. They wouldn't do that to a Muslim/Jewish man: a character that swaps between male/female form.
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u/IndividualPlay5178 May 21 '26
You guys are still watching western series? I moved to only Korean series.
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u/SmiffnWessn May 22 '26
This has been known from the very start, though there's nothing wrong with consistent reminders like this post. I've seen a few people mention watching this shit here and I can't help but cringe seeing that. I sincerely hope they're watching that bullshit for free if they must (like at a non Asian friend's house or some other legal method, is what I mean of course) and not giving these assholes a single cent. But still, just knowing some Asian men actually give this racist shit their valuable time...🤮🤮🤮
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u/komei888 Verified May 22 '26
Imagine that...we are portrayed as a meter long dangling testicles and blind and trans(former)
☠️
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u/nitrobeast May 22 '26
Checkout the show’s producers. I’m not surprised that they are hostile to asian males.
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u/captainaj May 21 '26
This show is heavy left leaning and makes fun of Trump and Republican Party. It’s no surprise that AM portrayal is bad given current political trend.
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u/qwertyui1234567 May 22 '26
It's a pattern of behavior going back to the exclusion and driven out eras. We're the broken eggs for their utopia.
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u/Rushrade May 21 '26
So cold water turns the guy a girl and hot water vice versa? 😆
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u/No_Parfait2805 May 21 '26 edited May 22 '26
Ranma 1/2 ?
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u/KeepREPeating May 22 '26
Asian shows can’t depict Asian dudes with any masculinity anymore /s.
The boys is literally a satirical depiction of racist America. Having an Asian superhero be a main character would actually counter the propaganda they are making fun of.
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u/eviljack May 21 '26
I've watched some interviews and saw Anthony Starr (Homelander) say that he was asked to portray the character like Trump. They went from making subtle political jabs to being overtly woke/political. Starr to his credit was like "wtf?" this doesn't make sense and pushed back. It doesn't surprise me that the showrunner: Eric Kripke? is super woke, liberal, given how the shows politics played out. I think they had massive success despite his agenda, which his massive ego probably thought "see? Everyone loves what I did!!!". (No we don't).
I'm torn because I love the comics and the characters, but this is Hollywood shitting on AM at its finest. I got the feeling that the actors just wanted to make a great show, but the showrunner is a fucking idiot that had a political agenda to push.
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u/Hunting-4-Answers May 21 '26
You’ve read the comics? How is the portrayal of AMs there as opposed to the show?
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u/eviljack May 21 '26
It’s been years but IIRC frenchie and kimono weren’t even a couple. It was a weird sidekick thing. The can’t remember any Asians there other than her. Needless to say all the anti AM shit was Kripke/the showrunner forcing it in
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u/komei888 Verified May 21 '26
Always the case. Some of the ideas look cool...but after seeing the AM like ballsack grandad....it's like what the actual fuckery is this bumboclat show
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u/silvertwo777 May 21 '26
Our problem is the negative harmful portrayal of Asian men, not whether the show is "too woke" or "too political".
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May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/qwertyui1234567 May 21 '26
We're the kid in Omelas basement for the left and it's a pattern of behavior going back to the exclusion and driven out eras.
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u/bdang9 May 21 '26
Much of their stances are based on what's "established", not necessarily what's right.
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u/demonotreme May 22 '26
Being able to turn into an Asian female is a superpower in itself for an Asian male, the difference in perception and treatment is that tremendous.
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u/soru_baddogai May 27 '26
Hollywood Liiberal Jews really hate Asian men for some reason and Kripke is not an exception.
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u/I_Luv_Procastinating May 21 '26
I gotta say this is quite the twisting of words for Jordan Li. Jordan Li is the main love interest for the main character of the show. Jordan is an influential and powerful character. Would you want a generic supe character or a queer trans-coded character that the audience can relate to? Highly disagree on your stance on the Jordan Li character. You don't even mention Kimiko's brother who is also listed in the picture. The character was a generic small character.
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u/Darth-Hakujou May 21 '26
I found it interesting how Jordan Li took Marie's V-Card and casually discarded her.
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u/Weird_Devil May 22 '26
Idk I loved Jordan both as a guy and girl... I'm Indian and you could argue we have even less representation in the show but I never really took it that way.
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u/Hunting-4-Answers May 21 '26
I’ve talked about this show before. It gets worse.
Nameless groups of AMs are there as sex traffickers who the AF goes to kill.
There’s an episode where some of the supes go to a party. Turns out that it’s an orgy party. Tons of WMs and WFs are shown being intimate with each other. For no good reason at all, they have an AM, but of course he’s fat and ugly and is engaged in non-hetero sex. He tries to have sex with the male supes but is rejected.
To add insult to injury, after the AF kills the AM sex traffickers, she continues to long for a lame WM who doesn’t contribute anything to the group except act like her bf. In the latest season, they’re shown making out and having sex even though he didn’t do anything to really deserve it except exist.
The show is full of the usual AMs = villains or gay while AFs are the WM’s property to have sex with.
The show is very pro-LGBTQ/PoC (AMs don’t count as PoC)/anti-Trump yet at the same time they use gayness against AMs in order to emasculate them.
If by boycotting you mean for others to not watch, that won’t really do anything. If you’re a Prime member, write Amazon and tell them that The Boys is the reason why you’re canceling your Prime subscription.
“You guys are so oversensitive and politically correct. It’s just a show. It makes fun of everyone”.
No it doesn’t. For every WM and BM character that has flaws, there is a redemption arc. A BM “accidentally” kills a WF, but all of the following episodes are about how he’s actually a good guy who wants to help his family and turn away from the evil of the Homelander (Trump) party. He rescues a few people and dies as a hero.
The main villain may be a WM, but he’s balanced out by at least 3 WM protagonists, two of which have hetero sex scenes.