Yeah, I'm familiar with that case too. But I don't think that's what Norio is going for with this. We should keep to the perspective of the manga first, rather than trying to equate real life cases. In that case, in all fairness it's a grown woman. Why they had such a view of a newscaster, not even I could tell you, but it's a whole different ball game...and rather, an oddity among most cases.
The way I see it, it isn't men being the big concern in her line of work. In school, maybe, but outside of that, perhaps not. They're still middle schoolers, so...y'know, realistically most wouldn't have such feelings toward her. Logically speaking. But in the case of her fans being women, not all would accept Ichikawa as boyfriend material. They likely have their own opinions of who could be, and in most cases, it'd be another actor. It's a rather common thing, both in manga and real life. It's why it's so common for celebrities to date other celebrities, both for the viewers sake and for their image's sake.
I feel like BokuYaba touched upon that also, given the nature of their relationship. It might seem self-deprecating because we see it from Ichikawa's perspective, but not even their classmates could see the two of them being together, and it's part of why they struggle so much with being honest about their relationship.
