[volak]

Something equivalent that teen boys "adore" like girls and boy bands and twilight?

I can only think of video games.. perhaps anime, possibly comics.

All of which are widely mocked.

Its not that girl's interests are taboo - its that when any gender gets too wrapped up in something that it becomes part of their identity society should mock to encourage adoption of other interests.

[wayneftw]

> video games.. perhaps anime, possibly comics.

Video games, anime and comics (and comic-book movies) are not widely mocked. They're wildly popular.

Getting too far into anime and becoming a "weeb" is widely mocked. A specific video-game, comic or anime series might be mocked, but in the general sense all these things are well liked.

[snovv_crash]

I think you're just revealing your bubble. Depending on the crowd anime and video games can be the thing only losers partake in, whereas high school romcoms and riding horses are considered normal.

[wayneftw]

I suppose anyone can say "Your argument is coming from your bubble" without saying much else. It's not a great argument. But I think I'd like to hear why you think your read on the situation is better than mine.

Here's why I think I've got a good read on this: I'm in my 40s and I have friends, family and acquaintances from all walks of life. I specifically live my life so that I don't have a bubble or a lot of dependencies. I just hang out a lot online and I'm reporting what I see.

My 10 year old niece loves anime and video games. I have some friends in their 20s and 30s who love anime and video games. I hang out on Twitch, Reddit or 9gag and almost exclusively peruse these sites using the "popular" firehose - I always see lots and lots of references to anime, video games and comic-book movies. Actual comics/comic-books do not come up quite as often - but cos-play does.

I don't really like anime. I enjoyed some classics when I younger - titles such as Akira, Ninja Scroll and uhhh Blood: The Last Vampire. I play one video game: Rocket League. Other than that, I'm not what you'd call a "gamer".

On Twitch though, I definitely see high school kids with tons of viewers playing all sorts of games and talking about anime.

What's your experience?

[snovv_crash]

Twitch, 9gag and Reddit are most definitely a bubble. I mean, there are even the jokes in the various subreddits about how they'd never get someone with that belief system here, or on 9gag about how there aren't actually any women.

I'm in my 30s and for me the biggest grounding point for what is and isn't my bubble has come from online dating. Let me just say, being into Star Trek, owning a 3D printer and knowing your way around even the basics of a shell terminal are all, even individually, something only a small fraction of the population would identify with. These are pretty independent things, however, inside of these there is quite a large overlap. Hence, it's a subculture and the modern world which lets us choose our human interactions based on our interests automatically turns that into a bubble.

I believe a similar thing happens to those who descend into the redpill movement, or join the military, or get involved in Twitter activism, or do mountaineering, or base jumping, or Instagram fitness, or eat at a different restaurant every night, or so many other things. Everybody thinks their own worldview represents a much larger population cross section than it actually does. And everyone can find someone with a more extreme perspective, making them feel moderate in their position.