Japans idol industry is a huge money making business that started in arounf the 60's. And since then there have been a multitude of idol types to choose from, singers, actors, entertainers but the main deciding point is to wether, follow male or female idols. To somepeople who might be new to the whole idol world, they might think that an idol is an idol and that being a man or woman shouldn't make a difference. To some who have followed idols for a few years will see very distinct differences in male and female idols.

Female idols as a general rule tend to be aimed at men. Female idols can begin their career from as young as 5 years old and can remain one up to their 30's. It is believed that the peak of an idols career is usually between the ages of 16 and 20, this obviously varies from idol to idol, for example, Morning Musume, when new girls arrived after winning auditions they were roughly 12-14 years old. These girls would enjoy approximately 5 years of being a top idol, they would then be graduated from the group in their early twenties to join H!P as a soloist, for the bulk of the soloists this lead to a career into obscurity.

The appeal of female idols varies slightly from company to company but they are all based on roughly the same recepe of portraying an image of an entertaining, loveable, cute and innocent girl. This image is easily mantained by most in their teens and early twenties, but as idols get older they would naturally want to experience life which might not fit the idol and may cause a scandal. So after a certain age most are graduated from whatever group they are in or are just graduated from idol status, this ensures that if the girl did something risque it would not tarnigh the companies reputation ensuring that legions of more idol worshipers would continue to support idols coming from that company.

The main audience that female idols are aimed at are male fans ranging in age from teens to as old as you can get. Of course there is also a following of female fans, but the companies managing female idols market them to appeal to men. This is all fine and dandy, but there are 2 types of male fans of japanese female idols. One is the everyday joe soap listener who likes them, knows them, supports them by buying their merchandise. And the second is a group of avid fans of the idols called Wota [a name given to a class of otaku that are said to be obsessed with idols]. These fans not only buy the merchandise [some do so in bulk to support their idols even more], but at concerts they perform dances and chants at the concerts. To most fans of japanese idols, these wota are understood as just big fans of the idols. To people who may be ignorant of the whole idol/wota thing, this can be seen as creepy and sometimes perverted as wota may be up to 60+ in age. This then places a stigma on males who follow female idols wether they be young, old, innocnt or perverted [never really the case]. A fan is a fan and should not be judged as a group based on a mere impression given off. I have never heard of females being thought of weirdly for being a female idol fan.