"Female nations are rare" headcanon

[kecen]

I just read a kink meme fill. It was an interesting topic, I liked it until...

I read an offhand remark in the fill that female nations were rare, implying that almost all of the nations were male.

WTF.

Just because Himaruya couldn't draw girls when he created Hetalia doesn't mean female nation-tans are rare! In real life, too, most countries have

Comments

[antonio]

I'm pretty sure they were referring to Nation-tans with set designs, OP.

Hungary, Belarus, Ukraine, Liechtenstein, Seychelles, Belgium, Monaco, Wy, Vietnam, Taiwan... I may be missing one or two but either way, compared to the number of male nations there are, they are definitely a minority.

Hetalia =/= real life.

of course, I'm not counting Nyotalia.

[kecen]

It's because Himaruya designed them late. I don't like the idea that these nations have to have set genders. Implying that female nations is rare from an author means there's something wrong with said nations.

[antonio]

I'm sorry, I'm not following what you're saying at all. Are you talking about nation-tans without set designs yet? They don't have genders because they don't exist yet. And no one said anything is wrong with female nations??? I think you're reading way too far into this.

To this date, Himaruya has created more male nation-tans than female. That is not an opinion or a statement about females in general, it's a fact.

[miezen]

But that's....kind of how it is? Believe me, I want more female nation-tans too, but they kind of are rare compared to male in the series.

[vurmie]

Just because Himaruya couldn't draw girls when he created Hetalia doesn't mean female nation-tans are rare!

Well, youngster, let's think about something. The Hetalia canon is based entirely on Himaruya's own ideas. What he draws and doesn't draw all pertain to the canon. If he has not drawn or mentioned the gender of a certain nation, it is safe to assume they are genderless, even in canon. This means that female nations in Hetalia are, in fact, rare. This does not apply to Nyotalia or other works featuring personified nations.

And implying they are rare also implies women are this precious resource that men have to fight over...

Wow, that is...really reading too far into it. Are you implying that considering women precious is derogatory or sexist or something? Is it a bad thing to fight for a woman becoming an independent being (country)? What?

[kecen]

Himaruya never posted anything official saying female nations are rare.

If the nations are genderless, then male nations should be rare by that extension.

[vurmie]

He doesn't have to. There are only a handful of female characters he's created, as compared to the male characters.

Why yes, because non-designated gender = specific gender type. A nation IRL =/= a character in Hetalia. The only characters are the ones Himaruya has created, and he has created far more males than females.

[forlan]

It's true he hasn't exactly drawn the whole world yet, but looking at the current cast as a sample size, there are far more male nations than there are female. Who knows, maybe he'll make Africa and South America full of girls, but as of right now I'd say it's accurate when you look at canon.

Anyway, I don't think the gender ratio in real life is taken into account when he decides on a country's gender.

[qualapec]

And the gender ratio might not be taken into account, but I think it's necessary to remember that half the people in the world are female.

[forlan]

--lol, yeah, but I don't think Himaruya really takes that into account? I don't think he's trying to make any sort of statement. He's stated in the past that he just plain can't draw girls. He prefers drawing men, maybe he finds male characters easier to write (it happens! my own characters are very skewed because I find female characters much easier to create) and hey, he caters to the fandom as well. It's important to note that he's definitely gotten more confident drawing/characterizing women, because the ratio has increased from the days of lonely old Hungary.

I love strong female characters, and I would love more of them, but I don't think the fact that there are more male characters than female is in itself sexist. tbh I have more of an issue with which nations are female - generally, the smaller, less influential ones, while the powerful and imperialistic ones are all male.

[vurmie]

But you can't forget that Himaruya had already created many of the well-known "big boys" of the world and personified them as male. This sort of makes him run out of room for creating an equal amount of powerful females.

But he does compensate with Nyotalia and Hungary's badassery, so I guess he got even...

[qualapec]

50 percent of the world is female, to be fair, I think that means that 50 percent of the nations in the world should be female. Yes, there are more boys in the canon series than girls, but Himaruya has not drawn every region in the world. It's pretty much Europe, some of Asia and North America. For all we know every other nation on Earth is female, which would make the boys the rare ones. Now, all that means is that it is strictly a matter of headcannon. I suppose at that point my question to the person would be WHY they think it isn't equal; depending on the answer, it may or may not be a sexist reason.

My headcanons will always involve a 50/50 ratio.