Heyr

Considering how many people in the world are poor, wouldn't you say that such "defeatist" thoughts are actually more realistic?

It only does this in certain cases. It can also negatively impact those who wouldn't want to do it. You have to factor in a cost to all of these things - even for something as simple as smiling. For smiling most of the cost is mental, but it's still there.

I feel like there's a lack of explanation on "effort" that a person can spend. Like why a person will be able to do some amount of work but then get incredibly bogged down and not feel like doing more, even though they aren't really "tired".

Let me ask you this: how does a species survive that doesn't have offspring unless they were VERY comfortable and secure in their lives? It doesn't. There are many natural urges humans possess and this is one of them.

If you ask a person why they did it they often can't explain it in a reasonable way. To them it just feels like the correct decision, because evolution makes having offspring very desirable. Same reason why most of the things that taste delicious are the things you need most for survival (energy from food).

Well, in the case of the real world currently, usually wealth came first. It came first because you can inherit wealth in various forms: either through land, money or even education. Parents being able to afford a way better education for their children offer them far more than those who don't.

But HN is a tiny minority. It is barely a drop in the ocean. Printed media is losing a lot of market (except books globally and comics in certain asian countries). Look at how manga works - most manga don't get that many sales. They rely entirely on their niche. There are just a lot of authors of them and a lot of buyers. However, in the western world comics seem to be dying like newspapers. The Internet just stomps them, so comics are trying to hold on to the niche they do have as hard as they can. You have to realize that this is afterall a business - the fact that there are very few comics that do portray what you're talking about disagrees with your "tremendous evidence".

Also note that I do not care for these types of comics you describe or even the "sexy" ones. I do not like western art in comics at all. I just think that people who say "oh, but I would read comics if only they had X" talk a lot about it, but not enough of them follow through for extended periods of time when offered the chance.

Except they didn't follow my advice because I or someone else thought it would be cool, it bedmates of the market. People just weren't buying enough comics do they had to target a niche more and more. You say there is some kind of hidden audience that would buy comics if they just stopped portraying female characters the same way they portrayed spiderman? In sure there are some people that feel that way, but I don't there would be enough of those to support the industry, because, again, the internet and other mediums are just wrecking their business.

Also, what other countries really have a healthier comic industry than the US of you exclude manga and manhwa? Not to mention that a huge portion of manga actually is the same as US comics. There are just a bunch of others as well. Not to mention that in Japan you have to tie in the merchandise, light novel, and anime industries to manga as well. There are no popular equivalents for some of those in the US.

What you say is like a nice idea, but you have to remember that this is a business. These kinds of comics line the shelves, because they're the ones that sell. Of course, it could very well be that if we had more comics that were more moderate they would sell also, but nobody's willing to take the risk. On top of that, you also require an author that is interested in that - you can't just suck this stuff out of a pen to make money (although often this does happen, they tend to end up being less interesting though).

If the comic is printed out then somebody has to buy it. If the comics aren't bought enough then it just won't work. It doesn't matter whether our ideal society would have us have more moderate comics or not, because it seems that in reality that's not the case. Of course, you can always prove me wrong (and the comic industry) by creating your own comic that does adhere to the criteria you enjoy. You would probably be rather successful if people truly wanted it, because it seems like there is no competition for them. But it seems unlikely.