The Home Page · The Integral Worm · My Resume · My Show Car · My White Papers · Organizations I Belong To
Technical Writing · Exposition & Argumentation · Non-fiction Creative Essays · Grammar and Usage of Standard English · The Structure of English · Analysis of Shakespeare
Analysis of Literary Language · Advanced Professional Papers · The History of the English Language · First Internship: Tutoring in a Writing Workshop · Second Internship: Advanced Instruction: Tutoring Writing
Theories of Communication & Technology (A Second Course in Methodology) · Language in Society (A Third Course in Methodology) · The Writer's Guild
UMBC'S Conservative Newspaper: "The Retriever's Right Eye" · UMBC'S University Newspaper: "The Retriever Weekly" · Introduction to Journalism · Feature Writing · Science Writing Papers
Visual Literacy Paper 1 · Visual Literacy Paper 2 · Visual Literacy Paper 4
Presentation of Lohr Chapter 5 · Presentation of LDW's Chapters 7 and 8 · Presentation of Kress Chapters 1, 2, and 3
Weekly Web Log Journal ·
Hurricane Katrina Personal Journal
Title
When Escapism is not an Escape: An illustration of how the Japanese government enforces its ideology of motherhood on Japanese women through Hentai
Introduction/Working Thesis Japanese women read Hentai-adult entertainment comic books-to escape typical gender roles of mother and housewife being enforced through Japanese government policies. On the other hand, these same women lured into a fantasy world of sexual deviancy filled with images of women being dominated by men and performing demoralizing, submissive sex acts. Unaware, the fantasy world Japanese women escape into continues to support the ideology of the state through alternative symbols. Therefore Japanese women actually become trapped in a dichotomy. Whether Japanese women are in the real world or the fantasy world, the ideology of the Japanese government is enforced; the ideology of motherhood. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the dichotomy women face and how the government enforces its ideology of motherhood by conducting a mixed method image analysis.
2001
Tolerance, Form an Female Dis-ease: the Pathologisation of Lesbian Sexuality in Japanese Society by S. Chalmers
2000
When Escape is a Trap: The Gendered Construction of Identity in Japan by E. Pennington
1998
Sailormoon: Manga (comics) and Anime (cartoon) superheroine Meets Barbie: global Entertainment comes to the United States by M. Grigsby
1996 Permitted and Prohibited Desires: Mothers, Comics, and Censorship in Japan by A. Allison
No Date
Orgasm as Apocalypse: Urotsukidoji: the Legend of the Overfiend by S. Pointon
Summary
Chalmers in the article Tolerance, Form an Female Dis-ease: the Pathologisation of Lesbian Sexuality in Japanese Society discusses why Lesbian sexuality and its relationship to medicine and health remains an unexplored subject in contemporary Japan. The Japanese government implements:
Both direct and indirect policies that support and consolidate mainstream heternormative knowledges and practices that define what it is to achieve the status of normal, healthy 'Japanese womanhood.' In doing so, there is still enormous pressure for women to marry and the vast majority do. This pressure is manifested in the very construction of the notion of 'Japanese womanhood' which conflates ideas of appropriate forms of ascribed feminine behavior with institutionalized sexualized practices such as marriage and reproduction of children within a particular familial type, the nuclear heterosexual family unit. This conception of Japanese womanhood is reinforced socio-linguistically by the phrase to become a whole person [ichininmae ni naru] and is premised on a rigid gendered and sexualized life-course pattern. The ideal of 'Japanese womanhood' is still predominately centered on the status acquired first by getting married with the 'natural' second step having children. It is only at this stage that a woman is said to become a whole person.
Even though Chalmers is discussing how the Japanese government silences the issue of lesbianism making the sexual practice invisible, this information cites the fact that the Japanese government suppresses all alternative life styles and roles of women other than the role of mother in a nucleus family. Two of the endnotes in this paper provide specific information on the ideal maturation process of Japanese women and cites the reason why Japanese society has a high rate of marriage and a low rate of divorce. In Japan there is a lack of economic security for women in the paid workplace and in recent years there has been a substantial increase in wage differentials between men and women thereby enforcing traditional gender roles. Therefore there is no other place for women to discuss these issues other than through comic books.
Grigsby in the article, Sailormoon: Manga (comics) and Anime (cartoon) superheroine Meets Barbie: global Entertainment comes to the United States grounds the theoretical framework of the entire topic by establishing:
Human beings are 'socially produced' and that roles and practices are also 'socially produced.' But it also assumes a dialectic relationship in which human beings are also actors in recreating social reality. 'Manga' or in this case, Hentai, are not only a reflection of culture but are a part of the dynamic and constant process of the reproduction of culture in Japan.... In Japan, there is a long tradition linking Manga to the world that is separate from the rationalized work-a-day world and locating it in a space that is removed from the usual constraints of Japanese society. The location of Manga within the culture of Japan makes comic art a good place to look for points of friction and tension in the culture that may not be articulated elsewhere. There is a tension in the culture between the intended meaning of a comic and the problematic, meditated and variable meaning-giving that people living their lives are constantly doing. It is important to recognize that the relationships of the creators and readers to the larger social, economic, and political systems within a given comic is created, published, and made available for purchase are key elements in the production of the comic and in the reproduction of culture. Comic art not only offers information about the beliefs, values, and practices of the culture, but offers access to understanding stress points or points of tension relative to beliefs, values, and practices. [Manga] will manifest tensions where the 'collective symbolic systems' of different elements within the society and culture collide. This does not assume that the society is an integrated totality and that there is homogeneous consensus, but rather it points to opportunities to examine stress points that occur in specific contexts or social locations at specific times in terms of the framework of the 'collective symbolic systems' made up of beliefs, values and practices that are identified with the society and culture as a whole.
This article begins the inspection of Hentai and opens up much of the social, economic, and political aspects of what is actually being viewed. The entire paper would be impossible without much of the insight provided within this paper. Even though the paper is about Sailormoon, the author provides a tremendous amount of information that establishes the groundwork for Westerners to begin to explore intangible portions of Manga and Hentai, such as why do the women appear as adolescents, why do they have such huge eyes (Asian eyes), and why do they have Barbie doll like figures (idealized Western traits of women). Once again the Japanese goal of being "Ultra Western," yet maintaining Japanese culture and tradition is met.
This anecdote comes from American History I from a class discussion years ago. When the Japanese emperor first saw the Commodore Perry and the American Navy Fleet dock in Japan's harbors he was awe inspired by the power of the West and vowed that from that moment on that Japanese society was to emulate and exceed that vision of Western Power, but that Japan was never to loose sight of it's Japanese culture and traditions. Hence, the ultimate goal for the Japanese people was to remain Japanese, but become "Ultra Western" exceeding the ideals of the West at all costs.
Orgasm as Apocalypse: Urotsukidoji: the Legend of the Overfiend by S. Pointon establishes a very strange connection in the discourse of Hentai. The paper describes the meaning of a Godzilla-like monster with phallic-shaped tentacles who comes to devour Japanese women. This article never establishes a link between this monster and the sub-genre of Hentai known as Tentacle Sex nor does the paper describe what the bizarre images of this genre means but Pointon does in a loose connection establish the Japanese government and Japanese society obsession with traditional women's roles as mother and housewife. The Japanese government and Japanese society have an apocalyptic fear of the United States. The tentacle monster represents the United States and the helpless female victim of the tentacle-sex monster is Japan. The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has never been forgotten by Japanese society. We in the west forget about this all too easily, while the Japanese are constantly reminded of those horrific days when they honor the dead civilians in ceremonies every year and from the stories passed down by the survivors. Japanese society is also constantly reminded of the event from the observance of American soldiers that are permanently stationed in Japan. The Japanese government though legislation promotes the traditional roles of mothers and housewives in order to ensure the propagation of the Japanese people. This legislation also stifles alternative life styles that will not produce children. The government's reasoning is very simple. A nation cannot fight for its survival if the nation does not have people capable of fighting. This article led to the loose connection of why the Japanese government is obsessed with maintaining traditional gender roles.
Pennington's When Escape is a Trap: The Gendered Construction of Identity in Japan is a book review essay of Dr. Allison's book Permitted and Prohibited Desires: Mothers, Comics, and Censorship in Japan. Pennington discusses many of the topics presented in Allison's book including manga and the social-sexual aspects of Japanese society. Pennington does point out that Allison research does have some serious methodological concerns regarding her research process but that the book does serve as a useful resource for those who wish to delve into the questions of identity construction and its relationship to gender. A specific flaw pointed out by Pennington in Allison's book adds to this paper:
Single women have increasingly expressed reluctance to give up their relatively free, self-centered single lives for the tremendous sacrifices demanded of Japanese mothers. A new term, parasite singles, has recently been coined by a Tokyo sociology professor for twenty-something women who live at home and work as office ladies, spending most of their income on the consumption of luxury goods such as foreign travel and expensive meals. The reference to these women as "parasites" is an explicit attack on their chosen lifestyle, which is perceived as selfish and a drain on society. Japanese men and women typically live with their parents until marriage, but in refusing to adhere to the established norms of early marriage and child rearing, these women appear to threaten fundamental social values. Will social pressures force these women to revert to traditional roles, or will the forces of modernity cause Japan to change? Allison is silent on these questions.
This is significant because twenty-something men and women live the same lifestyle here in America. Dr Michael Savage on his nationally broadcast radio show "The Savage Nation" cites that heterosexual men and women are emulating the "Gay" lifestyle of "Club, club, club. Drink, drink, drink. Sex, sex, sex." Continuing, Savage says that the only things that are important to this group is having a new convertible car, the latest $1500 designer pointy shoes and how mind blowing was the orgasm one had last night. Savage cites that the root cause of the problem is from the pushing of the Gay agenda and evidently the same problem is cropping up in Japan.
The book review above lead to this book, Permitted and Prohibited Desires: Mothers, Comics, and Censorship in Japan by A. Allison, which will provide significant contributions to this paper. Some of the chapters in her book include: "A Male Gaze in Japanese Children's Cartoons, or, Are Naked Female Bodies Always Sexual?, Cartooning Erotics: Japanese Ero Manga, Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch Box as Ideological State Apparatus, Producing Mothers, and Public Veilings and Public Surveillance: Obscenity Laws and Obscene Fantasies in Japan."
Conclusion
Japanese women read Hentai in order to escape the gender typical roles of mother and homemaker imposed and enforced by government regulations. Japanese obscenity laws ban the showing of real or realistic genitalia. This results in Hentai artists compensating for adult content through acts of violence (rape), bondage, drawing child/women (mature women's bodies with childlike faces), school uniforms and through the depiction of male dominance/female submission in sex acts. These compensations result in a different type of entrapment in the very gender roles Japanese women seek to escape.
Japanese women are trapped in a dichotomy in their attempt to escape the daily pressures of their roles as mothers, housewives, and employees by reading Hentai. Hentai as a fantasy world supports the Japanese state ideology of motherhood through an alternative system of symbols. The Japanese women's dichotomy is exposed by conducting a mixed methods image analysis of an Internet Hentai art gallery as primary research and secondary research for the purpose of scholarly support.
 |
"Ideology is so potent because it becomes not only ours but us -- the terms and machinery by
which we structure ourselves and identify who we are."
Anne Allison, 1996
Japanese women read Hentai-adult entertainment comic books-in order to escape typical gender roles of mother and housewife enforced through Japanese government policies. On the other hand, these same women are lured into a fantasy world of sexual deviancy filled with images of women being dominated by men and performing demoralizing, submissive sex acts. Japanese women escape into a fantasy world unaware Hentai continues to support the ideology of the state through alternative symbols. Therefore, Japanese women whether in the real world or the fantasy world receive the same ideological message from the Japanese government; the ideology of motherhood. The Japanese government enforces the message of motherhood through its censorship laws. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the dichotomy women face and how the government enforces its ideology of motherhood in Hentai by conducting a mixed method image analysis as prescribed by Rose (2001).
Browsing a Japanese Hentai art gallery on the Internet became a bizarre experience as a westerner attempting to understand the symbolic codes within Hentai and why the Japanese and westerners are fascinated with the images. In Japan, "Hentai is artistic expression of pornography in comic book form. Hentai allows full use of the imagination as well as scenes that run counter to accepted society and culture" as opposed to photographic pornography that does not allow for artistic free expression (Hentai, Wikipedia, 2005). "Elements of sexual fantasy are represented in ways that would be impossible to film, even with a dedicated special effects budget" (Hentai). The Japanese view extreme photographic pornography created by western civilizations as comic because of their absurdity in attempting to bring fantasy into reality (Allison, 1995).
Characteristics and stylizing features in Hentai are the same as those used in Manga-Japanese comic books and Anime-Japanese cartoon animation. The artwork "Two Girls Sitting, One standing at a Dining Table" in Figure 1 displays "stylized colorful images with vibrant characters" whose facial features are similar to Western Europeans with small button-like noses, small mouths, and "large, saucer-like eyes" being the main characteristic features of women in the art form (Anime, Wikipedia, 2005). The "large, saucer-like eyes" serve several purposes.
The large eyes are actually a caricature of Asian eyes. Most Japanese trust people with large eyes versus small eyes because reading the emotions of people with large eyes comes easier (Allison, 1996; Grigsby, 1998; Levi, 1996; Anime). The Japanese claim body language acts as a better signifier of a person's intent versus their rhetoric. The large eyes allow characters to express their emotions to the reader (Allison; Grigsby; Levi; Anime). Therefore, if the artist intends for the audience to sympathize or become intimate with the character, the character will be drawn with large eyes. The large eyes also create an illusion of innocence. This innocence is not only portrayed in females, but also in male characters. "Males are drawn to be as beautiful as females" according to Petty (2004). A character, whether male or female with large expressive eyes is seen as innocent and is usually the victim or submissive. The Japanese do not trust people with small eyes. Villains and characters that are untrustworthy are drawn with small eyes taking these Japanese views into account. Characters with small eyes represent rapists or dominants. No explanation can be found for young men or youths whose eyes are hidden by their hair, but by logical deduction one would assume that these characters are also dominants not to be trusted because their eyes cannot be seen.
The purpose of the brightly colored hair and wild hairstyles of the characters serve two purposes. The wild hair fashions were a response to the literal and metaphorical uniformity that characterizes much of Japanese life. In most Japanese schools everyone wears sailor suit style uniforms, and most adult businessmen wear dark suits and white shirts. The bright colors and wild styles express the Bohemian nature of characters and a refusal to conform to social norms. The Japanese admire characters that break social norms because of the social pressures they are put through daily by employment and government message on radio, television and billboards.
The other purpose stylistic hair serves is to distinguish one character from another (Poitras, 1999). If one examines the three girls in Figure 1, the shape and facial features are identical, which is typical of Japanese cartoon art. Therefore hairstyle, hair color, eye color, and clothes allow the viewer to distinguish between one character and another (Poitras).
Girls are drawn with Barbie-like figures borrowing the idealized female body shape from western culture because the Japanese find Barbie's body type attractive based on the consensus of Japanese women and men (Grigsby, 1998). Therefore because the eyes are recognized as Asian eyes and the figures are of Western Europeans, the Japanese recognize Hentai girls as belonging to a mixed race decent; part Asian and part Western European. Based on appearance, pre-pubescent and adolescent girls dominate Hentai art. Lines become blurred as to their actual ages, stimulating the imagination of a whole range of sexual fantasies and deviations not permissible in reality. Girls, many times are drawn wearing sailor suit type uniforms that is a code that the girls may be of junior high or high school age, 12-18 (see Appendix Box and Byoin), on the other hand, college girls in Japan wear the same outfits to schools and universities suggesting that the Hentai girls may also be mature young women. Japanese artists also argue when addressed by westerners that these are adult women playing out sexual fantasies with adult men dressing up as adolescents. Pre-pubescent girls are signified in Hentai as being smaller than males or may carry a stuffed animal (see Appendix Arenaka, Dacrows, and Dissipate). The age of Hentai girls is impossible to distinguish because all have mature womanly bodies with curves in all the right places. In combination with their innocent eyes and their Barbie doll figures, a whole range of possibilities are created that code the women as anything but Japanese mothers to viewers. This coding supports the ideologies of the state and will be explained later.
Pornography as defined by Dictionary.com (2005) is "sexually explicit pictures, writing, or other material whose primary purpose is to cause sexual arousal; material that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement; creative activity-writing, pictures, or film-of no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire; still or moving images, usually of women, in varying states of nudity, posing or performing erotic acts with men, women, animals, machines, or other props." Every society chooses to define pornography differently, but for a point of reference, Dictionary.com provides a simple working definition of pornography.
Western societies lacking knowledge of Japanese society and culture norms argue that Hentai is not only pornographic, but also child pornography because of the innocent look of the girls, the smaller female bodies, the absence of pubic hair, and because most girls are drawn wearing sailor suits. Everything in Hentai is coded with symbolism therefore it is impossible for a westerner to decipher the codes without an understanding Japanese society.
In April 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered its judgment of a case involving 'virtual child pornography' (Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition). The majority affirmed that visual child pornography remains centrally defined by the fact that it is a recording of a crime and that its production creates victims. With virtual images, the majority reasoned, these two elements are not present. In another aspect, the court decided that the government could not criminalize presenting adults as children. For the [1996 Child Pornography Prevention Act] CPPA, 'appears to be' was actionable, as was any advertising or merchandising that promised underage sexual depictions, even if these were not in the image. Justice O'Connor found that 'appears to be' in the CPPA covered two categories of speech: pornographic images of adults that look like children ('youthful-adults pornography') and pornographic images of children created wholly on the computer without using any actual children ('virtual-child pornography'). She found the ban on the former too broad and therefore unacceptable, but she did not agree that the ban on virtual child pornography was unacceptable (Kleinhans, 2004).
Therefore, because Hentai is hand drawn artwork and no actual children are used for creating the images, Hentai evades American child pornography laws because it is an art form and as such is protected under the amendment of free speech. Japanese censorship laws prohibit the display of pubic hair on bodies and the display of the pubis and genitalia (Allison, 1996). In many cases women in Hentai appear neuter or for the purpose of making the viewer think there is genitalia, the artist will use polygon shading, or other creative methods to satisfy viewer and the censors alike (Allison). Because of these elaborate schemes to beat the censor the possibility of estimating anyone's age in these hand drawn images is impossible. This demonstrates the fundamental difference between Japanese and American pornography laws. The fundamental reason why this controversy has occurred is because of the Internet.
For the Japanese, "the real denominator is not so much youth as [it is] innocence" (Petty, 2004). The Japanese find innocence a sexually attractive quality in men and women. The youthful appearance of female characters also reflects an accepted Japanese tradition for wider age gaps between spouses according to Petty (2004). "A bride who is a decade or more, younger than her husband is not uncommon today [in Japanese society] and was even [more] common in past eras. The emphasis on innocence as a sexy attribute... could also serve as encouragement towards the actual practice of premarital celibacy and loyalty in Japanese society" (Petty). This explains why Japanese artists draw what appear to be young girl-women, but it also serves the Japanese government's agenda for supporting motherhood as the ultimate goal for all adult Japanese women and guards the institution of motherhood as sacred. On the other hand, for a man to be considerably older in a marital relationship is nothing new nor is this strictly Japanese practice. Europeans followed the same practice for hundreds of years, as there were distinct benefits for the woman such as protection and guidance. Social thinking prior to the later half of the twentieth century assumed that an older man would be more knowledgeable and worldlier; therefore he could prevent the world from taking advantage of the woman.
Hentai is read by Japanese men and women for the purpose of escapism and not as erotica. According to Wikipedia (Escapism, 2005), escapism provides people with a mental diversion through means of entertainment or recreation and allows one to escape from the unpleasant aspects of daily reality. Due to skyrocketing land prices, commuting can constitute as much as two to three hours a day, one way, substantially reducing the time one can spend at home. Some stay close to work during the week and commute back to home only on weekends. Implicitly, home management is left to the women, who as wives and mothers are being directed to work hard reproducing future generations of Japanese workers and subjects largely in the absence of men. "The majority of Japanese households are considered nuclear households, but in reality many families build separate living areas, live next-door or in the same neighborhood and so retain extremely close ties emotionally, geographically, and economically" (Chalmers, 2001). Not only do increasing numbers of Japanese spend increasing portions of their days commuting, but also for those with frenetic schedules, the time spent traveling may constitute the only free time in their day. The consumption of printed media offers the promise of both a temporary diversion easing the length and monotony of daily travels and as a momentary escape into other worlds.
Readers adhering to the Japanese convention for reading Hentai flips through the pages quickly-about 18 minutes for a 350-page Hentai at roughly four seconds per page according to Allison (1996) citing Frederick Schodt see Appendix A. The Japanese audience reads Hentai anywhere in public and once read, the book is disposed of at the arrival of their destination. Hence, Hentai art is treated the same as newspapers they are read and immediately disposed of. The way Hentai is viewed on the Internet violates this intended reading convention, hence the Internet convention also violates Hentai's intended purpose of escapism. On the Internet, the viewer sees the entire Hentai in thumbnail images too small to actually scan the images as the artist intended. The viewer must click on each individual image in order to see the detail contained within the thumbnail image. Therefore, Hentai on the Internet targets a western audience that views Hentai as erotic images for the purpose of sexual arousal.
Japanese women have social pressures applied to them predominantly by the state that are different from western cultures. The ideology the Japanese state holds high as the ultimate goal to obtain is motherhood.
The general portrayal of a Japanese woman's life-course is presented as, a young woman who will graduate from high school, attend a junior college or university, enter the paid workforce until marriage or childbirth, rear her children, and then possibly re-enter the paid workforce as a part-timer with the potential obligation of taking care of one's parents-in-laws or sometimes one's own parents as they become elderly (Chalmers, 2001).
This means a woman's primary role during the course of her life is that of the caretaker. "The conception of Japanese womanhood is reinforced socio-linguistically by the phrase ichininmae ni naru-becoming a whole person" (Chalmers). The role of mother is further supported by a lack of educational and employment opportunities for women.
Women have less of an opportunity to receive a college education. 44.9 percent of male high school graduates will continue their studies while women lag behind at 18.6 percent (Allison, 1996). Higher education actually works against women. The better educated a woman becomes, "the less likely she is to enter full-time employment and the shorter her average periods in the workforce. A woman's higher education increases her desirability for marriage and motherhood for, amongst other reasons, the skills it gives her as an education mother" (Allison).
While Japanese women are employed, the state sees that their ideology of motherhood is enforced through gender inequality. Women are not paid the same as men even for the same job. Women make up 41 percent of the workforce and receive on average, wages that are 61 percent of the average males. Due to legislation in the 1990's, women can no longer be forced into mandatory retirement by law so companies now offer a two-track system. The two-tracks are either a career track leading to a managerial position or a secondary track that Allison (1996) does not elaborate on. "Most women choose the secondary track and when they do, their attrition rate is 50 percent" (Allison). Women admit that without paychecks similar to their husband's, their life choices remain limited (Allison). With pay scales as they are, the Japanese state succeeds in pushing women into more traditional gender roles. Because there is a lack of economic security for women in the workplace, divorce is completely out of the question as is living single. High marriage and low divorce rates in Japan support this fact.
The outlook is grimmer for lesbians. "The Japanese government has refused to acknowledge the existence of individuals who identify with minority sexualities as being socio-political subjects living within Japanese society" (Chalmers, 2001). The Japanese government has no policies in place to address the needs of lesbians, which sends a clear message for them to remain invisible. Due to these "exclusionary politics", lesbians are socially pressured not to define their relationships and this perpetuates the "false assumption that they do not exist" (Chalmers). Once again, the state achieves its objective through "direct and indirect policies that support and consolidate mainstream heteronormative knowledges and practices" (Chalmers). The reason the Japanese government does this is simple. The state considers Lesbians as anti-family, anti-reproductive, and anti-social. Lesbians do not fulfill the state's need new citizens.
Pennington cites a fundamental flaw in Allison's book that Allison never discusses a new and up-coming group of Japanese women who rebel against the institution of motherhood known as the parasite singles.
These women have expressed reluctance to give up their relatively free, self-centered lives for the sacrifices demanded of Japanese mothers or for that matter all mothers. The parasite singles are twenty-something women who live at home and work as office ladies, spending most of their income on the consumption of luxury goods such as foreign travel and expensive meals. The reference to these women as 'parasites' is an explicit attack on their chosen lifestyle, which is perceived as selfish and a drain on society. Japanese men and women typically live with their parents until marriage, but in refusing to adhere to the established norms of early marriage and child rearing, these women appear to threaten fundamental social values (Pennington, 2000).
The parasite singles are not exclusive to Japan. They exist here in American also and they are not exclusively women. Twenty-something men can also be parasite singles. The behavior patterns of the Japanese women are the same for many young American men and women. Some radio talk show commentators claim that these twenty-something’s are emulating the Gay lifestyle. The cause these commentators cite is speculative, but nonetheless possible as the parasite singles lifestyle does emulate the Gay lifestyle. Without children, both parasite singles and Gays have less responsibility, more free time, and greater disposable income. On the other hand, whether in Japan or in America, it is the married with children, heterosexual majority that is asking the question “If they do not reproduce, then what function do they serve in society?” As Pennington cited, “Will social pressures force these parasite singles to revert to traditional roles, or will the forces of modernity cause Japan” or for that matter, the U.S., “to change? Allison is silent on these questions” as are the U.S. radio talk show hosts (Pennington, 2000).
Hentai although adult in nature is considered as a source of entertainment and not for the purpose of sexual arousal by the Japanese. Allison interviewed Kusamori Shinichi, a journalist, who was careful to point out that the “seediness” of Hentai sex “is not objectionable to him; it is precisely why he (and presumably, any other consumer) buys Hentai” (Allison, 1996). He or she is “looking for this type of sex, escape, and play-something that is transgressive, but whose transgressions can be printed and consumed in the popular medium of a comic book” (Allison).
It is necessary to understand that “each culture will have a different understanding about the line between adult content and mainstream works” and that each culture has different views on sex and sexuality (Hentai, Wikipedia, 2005). The Japanese line of adult content and mainstream is different from that of other cultures. Children’s anime depicts nude characters, for example in “Sailor Moon it is implied that the girls become nude during their transformation” from ordinary schoolgirl to romantic heroine (Allison; Grigsby; Hentai;). Hentai art on the other hand is intended for adults and tends to use explicit sexual content. Nudity and nakedness are not necessarily considered as sexual by Japanese society. Sexual acts are considered as pornographic and reserved for adult content.
As a form of escapism and for the purpose of “expressing sexual fantasy, depictions in [Hentai] can include situations that are unacceptable in society, or run counter to social norms (Hentai, Wikipedia, 2005). Common extreme sexual depictions: sex between adolescents and adults, sex between two adolescents or more, lesbians, threesomes, gang bangs, object insertions, urination, sadomasochism, and bondage, amongst other practices considered outside of the average person’s and cultural sexual norms. See the Appendix for the galleries displaying these and other extreme sexual practices shown in the Aardvark Hentai art gallery. “Such fantasies [are] depicted in the extreme, often demonstrating subconscious desires or purely carnal motivations” (Hentai). Hentai artists compensate for the censorship by providing alternative types of adult content (Allison, 1996). "This contrast [in sexual deviance] is accepted-and in some case legal-behavior and primal sexuality is a primary motivation for most works of pornography, including Hentai” and is accepted by Japanese society and is deemed mainstream for adult content (Hentai).
Wikipedia in its entry on describing Hentai says that “artists portray [sexual] situations in the most extreme manner possible, in order to break the boundaries of the viewer's comfort zone” (Hentai, Wikipedia, 2005). But as Allison cited, these extreme sexual practices are also used to compensate for the lack of genitalia and pubic hair that is strictly forbidden by Japanese censorship laws in pornography. Breaking the public’s comfort zones “results in artists competing to show successively more excessive situations over time” (Hentai). Examples of other extreme sexual practices include bukkake, group sex, tentacles, or other fetishes. Some artists may prefer to do the opposite, and focus on lighter titillation and nudity, or on character relationships and story (Hentai).
Grigsby (1998) brings to light that the Japanese written language is based on ideograms, which are symbols that denote tangible objects, an abstract concept, emotion, or action. Hence, the Japanese are accustomed to reading images and can understand a story created solely of images without written text. Hence the Japanese are accustomed to reading symbolism; its signifiers and its signifieds. Hentai art is a series of static images, which are read in a sequence as one reads any other written language (Grigsby). The Japanese who read Hentai indicate that Hentai are like dreams. Grigsby’s use of the word dreams is actually improper for the word dreams in this case does not mean the dreams released by the sub-conscious as one sleeps, but rather daydreams one has during downtime, time when are minds are not fully engaged. Therefore, Hentai consumers read the symbolism of daydreams (Grigsby). The Japanese convention of playing out fantasies through safe mediums of theater, art, film, animation, and comics is well established. “Studies have proven that these sources of entertainment have had no detrimental effect on the normally well-ordered and relatively crime-free Japanese social order” (Pointon, n.d.). F. Schodt as quoted by Pointon observed that this socially sanctioned expression of even the most extreme transgression of sexual and violent conduct may contribute to the high degree of personal safety and mental health of the Japanese.
Even with the proliferation of extreme sexual situations in some Hentai, according to Wikipedia (2005) other Hentai publications are beginning to “portray [young] women as regular females in society who [find themselves] in a sexual encounter, and often aroused by the encounter to the point of no return.” Characters may be portrayed as shy or have no conscious thoughts about sex, until placed in a situation where they are stimulated and aroused. The line between consensual sex becomes blurred, as the act becomes a justification for sex itself, primarily motivated by sexual drives and urges, while often abandoning what could be considered social and moral correctness in favor of purely visceral sex. This is seen as dehumanizing and objectifying to some. While there is a common theme of a male stranger convincing a female to become aroused physically by her own body and whatever the male desires, there are also depictions of consensual sex between couples, as well as assertive females who initiate sex (see Appendix End, Eyes, and Find Love).
Hentai artists attempting to out do each other and a lack of genitalia outlawed by Japanese censors does explain some of the reasons for the proliferation of sadomasochism, bondage, male dominance/female submission, pain and violence towards women, but the picture is still not complete. “It is indisputable that [Hentai] has taken social transgression to new levels of intensity” (Pointon, n.d.). In her studies of Japanese erotic manga, C. Penley (1989) remarks on the increasingly proliferation of sadomasochistic texts which are predominantly authored by women artists. The stunning beauty and sophistication of their graphic aesthetic compensate for the unsettling content. “It seems that [Hentai], at least in some part, [has] become [one of] the most potent and innovative [of] Japanese cultural products” (Pointon). Pointon points to the possibility that the Japanese reader values aesthetics over content and form. This may also explain the ever-increasing popularity of the art form in western cultures.
As westerners we are still left with the perplexing question of the arousal properties of violence. Pennington (2000) explanation for the proliferation of “pornographic comics that depict gender roles of female submissiveness and male voyeurism, as well as various forms of violence against women” exist in western society as well as “within the [Japanese] industry.” Therefore, the Japanese attempt to outdo western pornography ideology by portraying more female submissiveness, violence, and degradation. Pennington’s explanation does have some validity, but other scholars cite reasons that are deeply rooted in Japanese culture and historical context.
Pointon (n.d.) states that “Ian Buruma reminds us that Japanese culture has always prized ritual spectacle as a purifying social rite.” Buruma cites as an example the Japanese matsuri-celebratory rituals, considered by western standards as extremely violent and sexual in nature (Pointon). Shinto texts have always contained representations of the grotesque and provide a balance to the aristocratic aesthetic of restraint and perfection. Buruma believes that “Japanese tradition of violent entertainment and grotesque erotica are reactions by [Japanese] society to the excessive orderliness and the restraint of the late Edo period” (Pointon). Ian Buruma (1984), who has written extensively on Japanese culture, cautions the western reader not to apply a moral framework to Japanese texts. Buruma outlines the concept of asobi-acting out, wherein violence is celebrated as spectacle in a number of ritualized forms. “The need for ritualized spectacles of violence and sexual transgression as a form of social release have long been an accepted part of Japanese society” (Pointon). Buruma and Pointon’s explanation for the proliferation of violence as being ritualistic and deeply entrenched in Japanese society for hundreds of years seems more plausible than that provided by Wikipedia (2005) and Allison (1996), who said the violence is for the purpose of compensating for adult content because of the lack of genitalia. In other words, sex and violence as erotica comes from a more deeply entrenched value in the Japanese society, the Shinto religion. In addition, the Japanese have always been known for their legendary practice of rope bondage for sexual erotica where the man binds a woman’s hands, feet, and breasts in elaborate ways for the purpose of heightening male arousal playing on the theme of dominance and submission (see Appendix Box, Corridor, and Doreikaigo).
Hentai is sold everywhere in Japan: in bookstores, train depots, bus terminals, newsstands, kiosks, and street corner vending machines (Allison, 1996). Hentai is also read openly: in coffee shops, cafes, lunchrooms, on buses and trains, practically anywhere there is downtime (Allison). The reason for this is three-fold. The first reason was the Japanese use Hentai for the purpose of escapism and the sexual acts depicted in Hentai are considered as fantasy or daydreams. Second, the Japanese view Hentai as a source of entertainment not as erotica and as with all entertainment regardless of Hentai being adult entertainment, there is no public stigma of shame associated with viewing Hentai publicly. The third reason is the most important. The Japanese view on sex and sexuality is completely different than the western view.
In their comics just as in other cultural contexts, the Japanese accept sexuality as normal and integral. Sexuality permeates Japanese comics. All aspects are openly discussed and displayed. Such frankness argues for an underlying attitude of the Japanese that sexuality is normal, sexuality is not shameful even though it can be perverted or corrupted, and the convention of innocence as sexy reflects a Japanese belief that sexuality is natural, nothing abnormal or shameful. It exists and it should exist. It is present in children as well as adults (Petty, 2004).
As far as the girls depicted in Hentai as being pubescent and pre-pubescent girls still cannot be established. Japanese artist explain away that these girls are not, yet Japan has the largest Internet child pornography industry in the world (Ivy, 2000). Still, accepting Japanese Hentai artist’s word at face value there is obvious difference to the Japanese view on sex and sexuality. In order to find explanations of these differences the place to look is where all societies draw their grounding of morality and ethics: Religion.
Japanese society as a whole does not draw their morals, ethics, and beliefs from Judeo-Christian teachings as much of the west do. Japanese culture is entrenched with rituals and symbolic meanings dating back hundreds, if not thousands of years. The Japanese people draw their codes of morals, ethics, and beliefs from the religion Shinto, the primary religion of Japan. Shintoism is an ancient indigenous religion specific to Japan lacking formal dogma; characterized by veneration of nature spirits and ancestors. The religion of Shinto is filled with myths and mysticism. The second most prominent religion in Japan is Buddhist sects such as Amitabha Buddhism or Pure Land Buddhism, and Zen Buddhism. Shintoism and Buddhism view sex and sexuality as natural and necessary. For the Japanese, sex is a part of life. It is not unusual to find a Linga, a stylized stone representing an erect phallus, inserted into a Yoni, a stylized stone representing the female sex organ. The Japanese people will pour virgin oils over the representation in a religious offering to the gods of fertility (Bresnan, 2002; Templeton, 2003).
This is not to say that the society is so open that sexual acts are performed in public. According to the Supreme Court of Japan in an explanation of their decision to ban twelve passages from the Japanese translation of D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1958 as cited by Allison:
Even in an uncivilized community, the custom of completely exposing the sex organ is rarely found, and there is no society in which sex acts are performed openly in public. Thus, it must be stated that so far as it relates to mankind, the non-public nature of the sex act is only a natural manifestation of a sense of shame deeply rooted in human nature (Saiko Saibansho, 1958).
This demonstrates that all civilized and uncivilized societies are the same in regards to shame of a public sex act. Due to censorship laws dating back to 1918, when the courts ruled that in public media the “pubic area need not be hidden, but there should be no anatomical details to draw the viewer’s attention” (Rubin, 1984). Therefore the pubis and genitalia are either not shown or broken up through various forms of patches, polygons, transparencies, and other methods.
For hundreds of years, the Japanese have had pillow books, which were kept under the pillow of newlyweds showing realistic graphic illustrations of couples engaged in sex acts for the purpose of sexual arousal and sex education. These books were sold publicly, but used in private because of their sexually explicit nature. Before the Meiji restoration period pillow books were considered sex education books. Today, these same books are now considered pornography by the censorship laws of 1918 and by the 1958 Supreme Court of Japan ruling specifically because men and women’s genitalia are realistically illustrated.
On the other hand, westerners have a higher degree of shame ingrained from Judeo-Christian instruction and consider sex as something dirty and immoral when not within a marital relationship. Some of the religious groups go so far as to consider sexual relations solely for the purpose of pro-creation ignoring teachings in the Holy Bible. Many westerners consider many of the images in Hentai as child pornography specifically because of the innocent facial features of the girls, their physical stature, and because most of the girls are dressed in sailor suit school uniforms similar to school uniforms worn by private school children in western societies. Westerners also argue that even though the girls depicted in Hentai are fully developed, under-age pubescent girls can be fully developed as early as age eleven for Caucasians and as early as nine for Blacks. Hence westerners argue that Japan is promoting sexual relations with children. The only exception to this argument would be the sub-genre Lolicon, which is without a doubt pre-pubescent children as they are very small in physical stature and are typically drawn carrying stuffed animals, hence it is difficult to argue away that these are illustrations of toddlers. In conclusion, westerners and easterners differ in their views on comfort zones of sexuality due to historical, cultural, and religious beliefs.
The Edo or Tokugawa period from 1600 to 1867 marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa Shogunate, a feudal military dictatorship in which the society was entrenched in sexual openness and ritualistic violence. This is the period of the warrior-caste system where the samurai was at the top of the ruling class. Before and after the Edo period, Japan was ruled by an emperor and had an imperialistic form of government.
1868 marks the end of the Edo period and the beginning of the Meiji Restoration or the Meiji Revolution where the balance of Imperialist political power was restored and with this change of political ideology, social reform also occurred. The modern history of Japan is generally defined as the beginning of the Meiji restoration (Chalmers, 2001).
1868 marks the end of the Edo period and the beginning of the Meiji Restoration or the Meiji Revolution where the balance of Imperialist political power was restored and with this change of political ideology, social reform also occurred. The modern history of Japan is generally defined as the beginning of the Meiji restoration (Chalmers, 2001).
The Meiji Civil Code introduced in 1898 established and institutionalized the male-headed household based on the premise of the samurai ideal. The assumed natural connections between biological sex and gender began to establish firm roots for the Japanese state ideology and took effect particularly among the growing urban middle-class (Chalmers, 2001). During this time the ideal of female passivity within the middle-class also took root (Chalmers). The Meiji state implemented and institutionalized the middle-class ideal of womanhood in the notion of “educating mothers” through the romanticisation and glorification of motherhood as the pinnacle of woman’s duties and obligations to the family and to the state (Chalmers).
The Meiji era, along with the institutionalization of the concept ryôsai kenbo-good wife, wise mother, saw the introduction of the concept of the bosei honno-mothering instinct. This ideology was a mixture of European, samurai, and Confucian moral precepts and developed into a middle-class essentialist conceptualization of Japanese womanhood grounded in warm harmonious family relationships. Through this process, the idealized Japanese woman became inextricably linked with reproduction, reproduction [within] the domestic sphere, and women as natural nurturers within the domestic sphere. This was a significant shift as previously various familial forms existed… neither child-bearing nor child-rearing was necessarily considered a woman’s ikigai-one’s life’s worth, or [one’s] main obligation (Chalmers).
The Meiji leaders became intent on catching up with other industrializing countries when on July 8, 1853 four black ships led by USS Powhatan and commanded by Commodore Matthew Perry, of the United States Navy, anchored at Edo (Tokyo) Bay. Perry was there to establish trade relations with the U.S. by whatever means deemed necessary. Never before had the Japanese seen ships steaming with smoke (Commodore Perry, 2002). The Japanese Emperor and his court thought the ships were “giant dragons puffing smoke” (Commodore Perry). The Japanese were unaware of the existence of steamboats and were shocked by the number and size of the guns on board the ships (Commodore Perry). The Emperor of Japan saw these ships as symbols of the West’s strength and power, and it was then that the Emperor vowed that Japan must become Ultra Western industrially, but Japan must retain her cultural identity as an eastern culture. As a result, some scholars have asserted that the institutionalization of heterosexual monogamy was a major factor in the processes of modernization in Japan (Chalmers, 2001). A strong portion of the Japanese reproduction ideology that began with the Meiji Revolution is never mix with other races or ethinicities including other Asian ethinicities, hence once Japanese, always Japanese.
Specific relations of history and power are at work in the case of Japanese obscenity laws. Obscenity has been defined as public realism for almost a century. The first of the laws were passed in the Edo period of Japan’s modernization: Article 175 of the Criminal Code of 1907 and Article 21 of the Customs Tariffs Law in 1910 (Allison, 1996). Japan broke her isolationism with the signing of a treaty with the United States in 1854 establishing trade relations with the west. Soon, by mimicking the west , Japan was the first nonwestern state to achieve modernization (Allison). “Japan’s recognition as a global power, however, was handicapped by the presence of cultural and racial difference: customary behavior such as mixed bathing and nursing in public, for example, which western travelers to Japan perceived as indicators of Japanese primativeness (Allison).
In order to cleanse Japan of this primativist image plus to acquire the identity and credibility of a modern nation, the Japanese state outlawed bodily exposures (Allison). In order to acquire the identity this meant adopting western standards for “corporeal deportment and it meant “developing a notion of the public as a terrain that was necessary to monitor and administrate by the state” (Allison). From both these impulses, a concept of “public morals” was conceived based on such rulings as that in 1900 banning any subject matter considered “injurious to the public morals” (Allison). “A line was drawn around genitalia that was codified by law in 1918” (Allison). The pubic zone stands for an identity, body part, and sexuality and is covered so as not to offend with its dirtiness, but also to protect what is real from outside contamination (Allison).
According to Allison, Jacques Lacan, the French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist argued that the phallus in its social meaning is not as an organ “but as a relationship: It is the master signifier that signifies signification itself” (Allison, 1996).
Standing for power and morality, this law of the father establishes the terrain of the sociopolitical order, which determines identity and consigns desire to the side of outlawry, disorder, and repression. Because the phallus represents the law and is only meaningful within the law, the phallus should not be confused with or reduced to any single body part such as a penis according to Lacan. Yet, the penis is the shape by which phallic power is most often configured in a phallocentric society. Further, this conflation of phenomenal penises and philosophical phallasism is neither arbitrary nor innocent. Rather, when gender organizes social, political, and economic relations in a community based on a principle of hierarchy that privileges men, males have rights and authorities that females do not and maleness is given symbolic capital that femaleness lacks. It is this difference, both real and imaginary, that is encoded in a phallic system gratified onto penises rather than female body parts (Allison, 1996).
In other words, the phallus signifies not only meaning, but also power, and as master signifier, it is signifier for the master as well. Before 1992, men were shown as neuter in order to protect this singification of the phallus with authority. Since 1992, codes have been lessed and the penis is now shown, but only in obsure ways through the use of invisible penises-the outline of a penis in a woman’s hands who is performing fellatio or through the use of polygons in order to break up the realisim of the penis. In other words, the eye and the mind know there is a penis there, but its realistic details are unknown, such as color, shape, and texture.
By banning genitals from the public, the law also protects as real the number one region of the social body from sexualization of mass culture. The region censorship protects is “family and home, and the center of this region is the Japanese mother” (Allison, 1996). According to Allison mothers or women mature enough to symbolize mothers rarely appears in the market of sex fantasies. Mothers and mature women never appear within the galleries researched for this paper. Young gilrs, whose very lack of pubic hair proliferate the galleries examined and this lack of pubic hair signifies their feminine immaturity according to Allison. Featured instead in Hentai Allison examined were sex acts that have no chance of leading to reproduction-voyeurism, sadism, anal penetration, and fellatio (see Appendix Bukkaten). Therefore, according to Allison, what is prohibited as obscene by the state is also that which is most sacred and central to the state’s ideology of national identity-stable families, reproductive mothers, and orderly homes. Allison suggests that there is something “intentionally perverse about fantasies so popular and popularized by mass sexuality in Japan.” Hentai is intended as escape from the everydayness of duty and responsibility, senarios in Hentai are crafted as other to relationships of production, home, school, and citizenship that are otherwise so central in the lives of at least middle-class Japanese (Allison).
Therefore the threat posed by realistic genitalia is not that it is inherently obscene but rather that it is only too real-too important and too central to the social realities of national reporduction. Genitalia as both metaphoric and metonymic of a body politic centered by the reproductions of family, home, and motherhood are veiled as well. By protecting these sites from the sight of the public, the law works to both screen genitalia and embed them with ideological meaning (Allison, 1996).
Allison (1996) is cleverly using Sigmund Frued’s concept of penis envy in the sense that men have a penis and women have no penis therefore women are considered other. On the other hand, Allison hits the exact point being searched for. Hentai is the other, an absence of the real. Hentai is the other in the sense as being the alternative life style to or from motherhood for women, a place of escapism from the motherhood agenda of the state that is literally shoved down women’s throats, yet in this other space, the institution of motherhood is protected by censorship which furthers the state’s ideology of motherhood. With an absence of real mothers or would-be mothers-mature adult women, Hentai also serves the state’s ideals. Therefore, through symbology, signs, signifiers, and signified, women find themselves in a dichotomy. They escape into a world that has different signs, signifiers, and signifieds from the real world but delivers the same message: the message of motherhood.
Note that Allison’s research is from 1996. In the galleries viewed there was what appeared to be vaginal penetration which could indicate because more women are reading Hentai they may be placing demands on publishers for more conventional sex acts (see Appendix Chikan). One gallery worth noting is Cosmic (see Appendix Cosmic). A girl with green hair is shown in several slides having sex and in the very last slide she is shown sitting on a chair, obviously pregnant with several children around her and a little boy touching her abdomen feeling for the baby’s kick within the mother. The peculiarity here is the signifying of motherhood which runs contrary to most of the galleries viewed.
In the 1990’s and the galleries researched in 2005 indicate “there remains an ideology of motherhood and familisation that still grounds in both a symbolic and real sense, Japaneseness as a national identity” (Allison, 1996).
Women who manage the home-even when they labor outside the home-ensure the productivities of working men, who are thereby enabled to devote their primary energies to jobs, and to children who, as hard-working students, acquire the skills needed for future generations of workers and mothers. It is this domestic space and the centering of Japan’s late capitalism in the labors of mother-centered families that is being covered and veiled by public prohibitions (Allison).
Therefore, regardless of the Hentai artists claims that the women depicted in Hentai art are mature women and appear pubescent due to censorship laws, the probability is that the drawings are pubescent girls because not using mature women supports the ideologies of the state. Hence, the state sanctions the defilement of girls instead of women because the state would never allow for the defilment of the institution of motherhood.
Now the question becomes why is motherhood so vitally important to the Japanese government’s ideologies and why does it hold motherhood so sacred that in order to protect the institution of motherhood that the state will allow as a substitute the defiling of youth? Answers to this question turn up in the most unlikely of places and the most bizarre sub-genre of Hentai, Tentacle Sex. When first viewed, Tentacle Sex seems like the an extremely sick hyperactive imagination with a deep rooted hatred for women in general, but as with all comic book art this becomes an excellent place to search for points of friction and tension in the Japanese culture or for that matter, any culture, that may not be articulated elsewhere (Grigsby, 1998). Comic art offers not only information about the beliefs, values, and practices of a culture, but also offers access to understanding points of tension relative to beliefs, values, and practices (Grigsby). In Tentacle Sex, tensions for what cannot be publicly said can be discussed in a “collective symbolic system” where societies and cultures collide (Grigsby).
Tentacle Sex grounds its precedent in Hokusai’s famous erotic print from the Edo period, The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, in which a young woman is aroused by a sexual encounter with two octopi. A recurring trait of tentacle monsters in this genre is a Cyclops-like eye on the head of the demon’s tentacle and can be found in several late-Edo fantasy images of creatures from the demon world (Pointon, n.d.). Tentacle monsters are an interpretation of a traditional Japanese Shinto myth (Pointon). The difference between Katsushika Hokusai’s print and images in Tentacle Sex is willingness versus apocalyptic rape.
The woman in The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife is reclining, arching her back with her head tossed and her eyes closed signifying to the viewer that she is enjoying the encounter. The woman is not struggling to escape and there is the possibility of escape in The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, due to the physical size of the octopi. On the other hand, in Tentacle Sex the monsters are huge and the woman is held in position by many tentacles (not just eight) with arms and legs spread wide, her torso is engulfed, while every orifice of her body is penetrated. The signifier of pain is a tear from her eye and in some cases a gag response. Hence, the woman is anything but a willing participant. The woman is obviously a victim in Tentacle Sex.
The nuclear blasts delivered by the Enola Gay that devastated both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 have never been forgotten by the Japanese people and the horrors of that day are still being passed down through the generations. In addition, U.S. soldiers are still stationed in Japan and because of this the Japanese view the United States as an Imperialist empire. Japanese society as a whole has an apocalyptic fear of American cultural and economic imperialism. The deeply embedded Japanese fear of miscegenation, anxiety over the economic miracle of Japan, and rapid technological growth expressed in nostalgia for agrarian Imperial feudalism are embedded in Tentacle Sex narratives. When decoded with western semiotic systems, the images appear to be punctuated with representations of extreme psychosexual violence, military oppression, and grim visions of fusion: gender with gender, man with machine. (Pointon, n.d.). “It is obviously no accident that Japanese cultural products, especially those produced on the fringes of society have becomes progressively focused on narratives of technological oppression and premonitions of disaster” (Pointon).
Pointon (n.d.) cites A. Newitz suggesting Tentacle Sex imagery refers directly to the American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Tentacle monster symbolizes American occupation, in addition to “continuing influence of American economic and cultural power in Japan, especially among the younger generation” (Pointon). Newitz, a Japanese culture scholar from Berkeley suggests that, in its graphic depiction of rape and murder, Tentacle monsters create a binary between the apocalyptic monster America and the rape victim, a feminized and humiliated Japan (Pointon). It is undeniable that atom bomb imagery reoccurs obsessively in almost every Tentacle Sex image gallery originating from the ejaculation of a tentacle/penis (Pointon).
Considering that members of Japanese society have this deep rooted apocalyptic fear of a final showdown between Japan and the United States, who is to say that the Japanese ideology of motherhood is not deeply rooted in the same fear. In order to ensure survival and the continuation of Japanese society it only makes sense that the government would uphold and push the agenda of motherhood as the most important goal of Japanese women. This is a loose connection but nonetheless a plausible connection that none of the scholars consulted have drawn. And in Japan, the empire of signs (borrowing from Barthes (1982) and Ikegami (1991)), who is to say that this apocalyptic fear is not the real reason for the government’s true purpose for pushing motherhood. Tentacle Sex seems to tie all the loose connections of symbols, signs, signifiers, and signifieds neatly together creating a whole picture.
In order to prove that the Japanese government enforces the institution of motherhood through censorship in Hentai and to illustrate that the message mature women attempt to escape is only repeated in the retreat of Hentai, a mixed method analysis is being used as prescribed by Rose (2001). The Aardvark Hentai web site provides no information on the images in the galleries displayed. The gallery being analyzed within the Aardvark Hentai web site is Doreikaigo. The image under analysis is Two Girls Sitting, One standing at a Dining Table, see Figure 1 (Doreikaigo, 2005). Figure 1 was probably made between 2000 and 2005 based on the increasing popularity of Hentai. This image may have been made as early as 1995, but this date is highly unlikely. The image (Doreikaigo) was most likely drawn in Japan. Images made in Japan never display genitalia in accordance with Japanese censorship laws (Hentai, Wikipedia, 2005; Allison, 1996). On the other hand, American made Hentai will show explicitly drawn realistic genitalia. This difference helps to signify the country of origin in Hentai art.
The art studio that created the image (Doreikaigo, 2005) is unknown. The artist who made the image is also unknown. The gender of the artist may be male or female. The image (Doreikaigo) was made for public viewing. Judging by the texture and colors, the artist hand drew the outlines in black ink on paper, then colored in the space with acrylic paint using a paintbrush (Anime, Wikipedia, 2005). If the image is an animation cel, the ink outline on paper is transferred to a thin, clear sheet of plastic called a cel (Anime). Years ago, animation studios transferred the artwork to a clear celluloid, but now acetate is used (Anime). The outline of the drawing is then inked or photocopied onto the cel, and gouache or acrylic paint is used on the reverse side of the cel to add color in the appropriate shades (Anime). The possibility exists that the image in Figure 1 could also have been drawn digitally using a computer software drawing program and touched up in Adobe PhotoShop. On the other hand, this is probably unlikely as all the research indicates Hentai art is hand drawn and the quality of the artwork, hense its prime lure for viewers (Penley, 1989).
The social identities of the maker and the owner of the image in Figure 1 are unknown. The social identities of the subject are middle-class junior high school or high school girls from the perspective of a westerner. From an eastern perspective, the girls are likely in there twenties. The relations between the maker, owner, and the subject of the image are unknown. Hentai does not address the identities and relations of its productions because to do so would destroy its intended purpose of creating a fantasy world for viewers to escape into in order to avoid the constraints of the real world. The form of the image in Figure 1 does reconstitute those identities and relations and because censorship actually supports the ideologies of the state that motherhood is of number one importance and sacred to the Japanese state’s goals.
In the image Figure 1, there are three girls at a table about to have lunch. The components in the image are two plates of snacks, three glasses with a beverage, rice steamers, soup bowls, dining table, a door and a bed with a metal frame head post. The subjects of the image, the girls and the objects on the table are arranged in a triangulation. The image Two Girls Sitting, One standing at a Dining Table is 005 in a series of 205 images. In the image the viewer’s eyes are drawn to the center of the red-haired girl’s face. To prove this, conventions suggested by Rose (2001) are used. As one views the image from the center, one draws one line following the outline of the table on the left towards the wall, a second line following the outline of the mattress towards the wall, and a third line from right to left which travels down and across. The intersection of the three lines becomes the center of the red-haired girl’s face. The viewer’s vantage point is looking slightly down upon the girls. This suggests that the viewer represents a position of power (Rose). In other words, the viewer is in a position of authority, superiority, and has power over the girls (Rose).
The relationships established between the components of Figure 1 visually are triangulation. The theme of triangulation is repeated in the image four times. First there is the obvious triangulation of the girls to each other in their seating arrangement. Second, triangulation is repeated with the rice steamers. The third triangulation is the arrangement of the drinks on the table. The arrangement of the objects on the center girl’s tray is the fourth triangulation. The theme of triangulation is not simply the repeating of the number three rather this theme is applied to the way objects are symmetrically arranged in the space of the frame. After examining the entire gallery in order to understand the significance of triangulation, only loose answers of conjecture were obtained.
The red-haired girl is the victim because everyone in the gallery sexually assaults her. The blue-haired girl and the green-haired girl have sexual relations with the red-haired girl on an individual basis. The blue-haired girl and green-haired girl have sexual relations with each other in one image. There appear to be three assailants: a pre-pubescent with purple hair, a woman with black hair and small eyes, and a man with gray flesh. This could also be wrong, because in some scenes, may have either one or two girls covered in ejaculation with no male present suggesting that the viewer provides the ejaculation. There is a boy with a gold shirt who is assumed to be the good guy because he is shown having sex and hugging each of the three girls on an individual basis, but in two images, the red-haired girl holds a gun on the boy with a gold shirt. The boy with a gold shirt may also be an assailant, but this is difficult to determine. There is a triangulation of relationships suggested between the three main girls pictured having sex with the red-haired girl on an individual basis. The significance of the triangulation is unknown. In addition the theme and plot of this Hentai are unknown. As a westerner, there are too many codes and males in the Hentai are not clearly depicted making it impossible to determine who is the assailant: viewer, gray man, or gold boy. Many images seem gratuitous for the male gaze and the viewer becomes either a voyeur or a participant (ejaculation without a male participant) in many cases.
Many attempts and methods were used to decode the gallery: drawing triangulation diagrams, counting the repetition of slides, coding slides as to who was the victim, coding slides as to who was the assailant, coding the slides as to which male was present, which females were present and so on. Only someone familiar with reading Hentai could provide some insight to the signs, signifiers, and signifieds. At present, there is no one to consult to decipher the gallery’s secrets.
Upon viewing other galleries within the Aardvark Hentai web site it has been determined that not all the galleries are complete, therefore the gallery being analyzed, Doreikaigo, may not be the complete Hentai, even though the numbers of the gallery run consecutively without missing numbers. As an example, gallery Ojone begins with jepg image number 057. It is interesting to note that although images are missing, the Ojone gallery appears to be easier to read for a westerner because there is less sexual content. Even so, Ojone appears to be incomplete because at the end of the Hentai gallery the last few images do not seem to close the narrative. Because this is a free web site, the webmaster has no obligation to the readers to ensure that that the galleries are complete. In addition there is no information as to how the Hentai is being obtained; therefore many of the galleries may be missing images. Because Hentai is read as a series of images, missing images is the same as having pages missing from a book. This may be the explanation as to why the researcher cannot read the gallery (Whatever the name of the gallery is in the paper). In light of this fact, it is necessary to locate a paid Hentai web site and examine a different web site for the mixed methods analysis.
Color is distinctively used for the girl’s hair as this is the only method other than their clothing one has to distinguish one character from another. If one examines the girls’ faces, they all have the same facial shape. This is typical of Hentai as an art form. Predominant colors are blue, green, red, white, and brown. Flesh is next dominant, then gray. The girls are painted in bright colors so they advance out of the frame (Lohr, 2003). The background images such as the bed, wall, and door are painted in subtle tones so these objects recede into the image drawing our attention to the girls (Lohr).
Hentai rarely has text unless the premise of an idea cannot be expressed through facial emotions or a character’s actions. If the artist believes text is necessary, it is usually displayed in a text bubble near the character. The image would not have a written text to guide its interpretation for the viewer. The Japanese are accustomed to reading images as their language is compromised of pictographs.
The three girls in Figure 1 have saucer-like stylized eyes typical of Japanese cartoon art. The girls also have the facial shapes, small mouths, button noses, and vibrant colored hair of the genre. An element or distinguishing feature missing from this image is the girls wearing sailor suit style school uniforms typical of Japanese cartoon art. The different components of the image signify innocence, youthfulness, immaturity, and because these girls may be children, it signifies they are unmarried. The knowledges the image deploys are the characters are not mothers or anywhere near the age of motherhood. These knowledges are understood and codified by Japanese society. The knowledges of western culture are excluded from this representation. This image is contradictory, as one does not expect illustrations of young girls to be used for the purpose of erotic fantasies.
The original audience for the image in Figure 1 is Japanese adult men and women on their daily commute. Hentai is sold in the form of a comic book and dispensed with like a newspaper when one is through reading it. Hentai is sold on practically every street corner in Japan: train kiosks, newsstands, stalls, convenience stores, bookshops, and vending machines. In this particular case the image is circulated across the Internet. On the Internet the image is stored digitally on a computer sever. When stored in a personal computer, the image can be stored in various types of digital storage media. When stored as paper, Hentai comic books are typically stored the same way newspapers are stored and disposed of similarly. No information could be found to explain how cartoon cels are stored. When the image is on the Internet it is redisplayed on a computer monitor. When transferring the image from a cartoon cel to a computer server, the image is probably photographed digitally and uploaded to a computer server. When being sold for mass consumption, the image is probably photographed digitally, manipulated in Photoshop and printed on a tri-color press. With the advent of the Internet, more recent audiences of Hentai are adult men in western cultures particularly the United States. To say women from western cultures also view Hentai would be speculative. This is an open area for further research.
The viewer is positioned eye level with the components of the image. The position of the spectator being at eye level with the image creates equality and intimacy with the girls (Rose, 2001). The image in Figure 1 is number 5 in a series of 205 images. The first image shown is the cover that signifies to the consumer this is Hentai or adult Manga-a Japanese comic book for mature audiences. The red-haired girl is on her knees possibly vomiting or licking some transparent object, maybe a man’s testicles, with her shirt half removed, and naked from the waist down other than purple knee-high stockings. Images leading up to the fifth image. The red-haired girl has fallen and dropped her groceries. The only hint of erotica is an up-skirt shot showing the girl’s panties and a hint of an outline of her pubis. Images after image five until image 11 are also vague as to their intended meaning. Image 11 defines for the viewer that this is a Hentai gallery because the red-haired girl is naked in the shower. A girl with purple-colored hair who may be pre-pubescent as subsequent slides suggest, grabs from behind the red-haired girl’s breasts. The red-haired girl has an expression of shock and surprise typical of the genre. The images within the gallery Doreikaigo are typical of the genre: a pre-pubescent girl, lesbians, threesomes, facials, fellatio, cunnilingus, ejaculation, masturbation, anal penetration, urination, humiliation, bondage, guns, and acts of violence.
The image in Figure 1 is probably not represented elsewhere in a way that invites a particular relation with it because Hentai is a comic book type of medium. The image and Hentai are an end in itself. Technologies of circulation and display have not affected the audiences’ interpretation of the image in the east. On the other hand, the Internet, as a technology of circulation and display has affected the audiences’ interpretation of the image in the west. The Japanese interpret the entire gallery of images as a daydream and a distraction from their daily routine. Japanese audiences view Hentai for the purpose of relaxation and entertainment, not for sexual arousal and gratification. People in Japan flip through Hentai as they commute daily as westerners read newspapers. The Japanese think of Hentai art as a diversionary fantasy and because of the lack of genitalia, the Japanese feel no shame towards reading Hentai in public. Western viewers see the Doreikaigo gallery as child pornography and as sexually deviant.
There are two images within the gallery that would suggest to westerners that a girl who is not shown in the image Figure 1 is a pre-pubescent girl. In two images the girl is lying on a bed with a stuffed animal. In another image, the viewer is in a position of power looking down on the same girl. The girl is on her knees with a cookie in her mouth presumably begging like a dog. Westerners would view this child as a pre-pubescent girl. Westerners are likely use Hentai for sexual arousal and gratification. This is alluded to by using the phrase “enjoy your stay & keep your Kleenex within arm's reach!” on the home page of the Aardvark Hentai web site.
There is a cornucopia of evidence that audiences other than the Japanese people have produced a meaning for Hentai that differs from the Japanese interpretation. There is very little academic analysis on Hentai in many respects, but evidence does exist that there is a definite need for deeper analysis into Hentai creating a subject wide open for both primary and secondary research. Western audiences interpret Hentai as deviant sexual pornography taken to the extreme and consider Hentai as child pornography due to the symbolism of sexual encounters and sex acts with children and adults. The Japanese claim most western photographic pornography is sexual deviancy taken to the extreme, but also say that they find scenarios in western photographic pornography as comic because of their absurdity in attempting to bring fantasy into reality (Allison, 1996). It is interesting to note the Japanese view on western pornographic material and raises questions that cannot be explored in this paper.
The Doreikaigo gallery is typical of the genre Hentai. Trouser-like dress slacks signify the presence of a man. All the sexual acts depicted within the gallery would not lead to procreation. There are a few slides that appear to be penetration, but that could be easily argued away as anal penetration. The girls in the gallery look like girls and not adult women. When a penis is shown it is broken up through the use of a mosaic of censor squares. The same is also done for girls’ pubis. There is one female who appears as though she may be an adult as the eyes are not drawn in a saucer-like style. The viewer is given the impression that she does receive vaginal penetration which would indicate a variance from the research, but on the other hand, one could argue that what is seen is anal penetration. The placement of the censor squares prevents the viewer from knowing which is correct, anal penetration or vaginal penetration. Therefore because all the typical signs, signifiers, and signifieds that are found in Hentai are within the gallery, the ideology of motherhood remains protected and the goals of the state are accomplished.
Japanese women in order to escape typical gender roles of mother and housewife enforced through Japanese government policies read Hentai for the purpose of entertainment and escapism. This fantasy world is filled images of extreme sexual deviancy and young women being dominated by men and performing demoralizing, submissive sex acts. Because no one can prove without a doubt if the women illustrated in Hentai are young women of childbearing age, adolescents, or pre-pubescent girls due to Japanese censorship laws, the prime role and the ideology of the state for women to hold motherhood as their highest achievement is kept sacred through the use of an alternative system of symbols. Therefore, Japanese women whether in the real world or the fantasy world receive the same ideological message from the Japanese government; the ideology of motherhood. Japanese women will remain trapped in a dichotomy until such time as consumers that they demand that mature women are illustrated in a more credible fashion. On the other hand, changes in the semiology will not occur until such time that the Japanese government changes the current censorship laws that have been in place for almost 100 years, changes its phallus-centric philosophy of the law, and comes to terms with its apocalyptic fear of loosing Japanese culture and ethnicity either from mixing with other ethnic groups and races, in addition to loosing its death fear of the United States as imperialists.
Reading Hentai is the same as viewing a kinetoscope?
Invented in 1891, by Thomas Edison’s assistant, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson the kinetoscope would move a 50 foot 35mm film loop in front of an incandescent lamp and a lens while the viewer peered through a peephole. Behind the peephole was a spinning wheel with a narrow slit that acted as a shutter, permitting a momentary view of each of the 46 frames passing in front of the shutter every second per second. The device tricked the brain into thinking the images were moving. in 1894 the kinetoscope was publicly exhibited through the first kinetoscope parlor which opened on Broadway, in New York City. The kinetoscopes were coin operated and played early Edison motion pictures. After depositing a nickel, the patron viewed a 20-second- to one-minute-long movie.
While growing up in the early 1960’s, there was an old time amusement center called the “Jolly Roger” on Hempstead Turnpike in Farmingdale, NY which had this and many other old arcade devices. At the time, the devices were not being considered for their antique value but were viewed as a commodity that the company was trying to reap profits from. In other words, this was an old time arcade that was just antiquated and probably built in the late 1920’s would have been state of the art at that time. The entertainment owners were just trying to make a living on the equipment that they had purchased through the years. In the 1970’s, the arcade could no longer keep up with the advent of newer electronic arcade games and had to close down shop. On the other hand, the antiquate equipment, still functional was now more valuable as museum pieces and antiques of a time long gone. What were originally commodities now had historical value and all the equipment was sold as such.
A researcher suggested that Hentai readers were viewing Hentai the same way that people in the 1920’s and 1930’s viewed kinetoscopes. I disagreed with this having personal experience with the kinetoscope as a child and now having some experience with how Hentai is read. Hentai readers are not reading at such speeds to create moving images, rather this is the natural reading rate at which they absorb the messages contained within the Hentai. Reading Hentai is a semiotic experience and the viewer quickly absorbs the messages between signs, signifier, signified creating the artist’s intended discourse in the reader’s mind. Therefore the kinetoscope and Hentai reading are not the same.
Allison, A. (1996). Permitted and prohibited desires: Mothers, comics, and censorship in Japan. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Anime. (2005). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime
Barthes, R. (1982). Empire of signs (R. Howard, Trans.). New York: Hill and Wang.
Bresnan, P. (2002). Awakening: Introduction to the history of eastern thought. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Buruma, I. (1984). Behind the mask: On sexual demons, sacred mothers, transvestites, gangsters, drifters & other Japanese cultural heroes. NY: Pantheon Books.
Chalmers, S. (2001, August). Tolerance, form and female dis-ease: The pathologisation of lesbian sexuality in Japanese society. Intersections. Retrieved October 27, 2005, http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue6/chalmers.html
Commodore Perry and the opening of Japan. (2002). Department of the Navy, Navy Historical Center. Retrieved December 8, 2005, http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/teach/ends/opening.htm
Doreikaigo gallery, image 005.jpg. (n.d.) Aardvark Hentai. Retrieved December 2, 2005 from http://www.aardvarkhentai.com/main.htm
Escapism. (2005). Wikipedia. Retrieved December 8, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escapsim
Grigsby, M. (1998). Sailormoon: Manga (comics) and anime (cartoon) superheroine meets Barbie: Global entertainment commodity comes to the United States. Journal of Popular Culture, 32 (1), 59-80.
Hentai. (2005). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hentai
Ikegami, Y. (1991). The empire of signs: Semiotic essays on Japanese culture. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Ivy, M. (2000). Revenge and recapitation in recessionary Japan. South Atlantic Quarterly, 99 (4), 819-841.
Kleinhans, C. (2004). Virtual child porn: The law and the semiotics of the image. Journal of Visual Culture, 3 (1), 17-34.
Levi, A. (1996). Samurai from outer space: Understanding Japanese Animation. Peru, IL: Open Court.
Lohr, L. L. (2003). Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual literacy. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Penley, C. (1989). The future of an illusion: Film, feminism and psychoanalysis. London: Routedge.
Pennington, E. (2000, Summer-Fall). When escape is a trap: The gendered construction of identity in Japan. SAIS Review, 197-205.
Petty, G. (2004). Sexuality in American and Japanese comic books. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://academia.memory-motel.net/grad/comicsexuality.pdf
Pointon, S. (n.d.). Orgasm as apocalypse: Urotsukidoji: The legend of the Overfiend. New Zealand Writers Guild. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://www.nzwritersguild.org.nz/overfiend.html
Poitras, G. (1999). The anime companion: What’s Japanese in Japanese animation? Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press.
Pornography. Dictionary.com. Retrieved December 8, 2005, from http://www.dictionary.com
Rubin, J. (1984). Injurious to public morals: Writers and the Meiji State. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Rose, G. (2001). Visual methodologies. London: Sage Publications.
Rubin, J. (1984). Injurious to public morals: Writers and the Meiji State. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Saiko S. (1958). Judgment upon case of translation and publication of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and article 175 of the penal code. In Series of Prominent Judgments of the Supreme Court upon Questions of Constitutionality, No. 2. Tokyo: General Secretariat, Supreme Court of Japan.
Templeton, R. (2003). PHIL 334 Asian philosophy class notes. Baltimore: University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Adams, J. (1999). Of mice and manga: Comics and graphic novels in art education. Journal of Art & Design Education, 18 (1). Retrieved October 27, 2005, from Academic Search Premier. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=4407951
Allison, A. (1996). Permitted and prohibited desires: Mothers, comics, and censorship in Japan. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Anime. (2005). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime
Barthes, R. (1982). Empire of signs (R. Howard, Trans.). New York: Hill and Wang.
Barthes, R. (1984). Mythologies (A. Lavers, Trans.). New York: Hill and Wang.
Bogdan, C. (2002). The semiotics of visual languages. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs.
Bolton, C. A. (2002). From wooden cyborgs to celluloid souls: Mechanical bodies in anime and Japanese puppet theater. Positions, 10 (3), 729-772. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from Academic Search Premier. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=8699572
Bresnan, P. (2002). Awakening: Introduction to the history of eastern thought. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Buruma, I. (1984). Behind the mask: On sexual demons, sacred mothers, transvestites, gangsters, drifters & other Japanese cultural heroes. NY: Pantheon Books.
Chalmers, S. (2001, August). Tolerance, form and female dis-ease: The pathologisation of lesbian sexuality in Japanese society. Intersections. Retrieved October 27, 2005, http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue6/chalmers.html
Commodore Perry and the opening of Japan. (2002). Department of the Navy, Navy Historical Center. Retrieved December 8, 2005, http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/teach/ends/opening.htm
Doreikaigo gallery, image 005.jpg. (n.d.) Aardvark Hentai. Retrieved December 2, 2005 from http://www.aardvarkhentai.com/main.htm
Escapism. (2005). Wikipedia. Retrieved December. 8, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escapism
Flanagan, M. (n.d.). Mobile identities, digital stars, and post cinematic selves. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/wide_angle/v021/21.1flanagan.html
Grigsby, M. (1998). Sailormoon: Manga (comics) and anime (cartoon) superheroine meets Barbie: Global entertainment commodity comes to the United States. Journal of Popular Culture, 32 (1), 59-80.
Hentai. (2005). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hentai
Ikegami, Y. (1991). The empire of signs: Semiotic essays on Japanese culture. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Ivy, M. (2000). Revenge and recapitation in recessionary Japan. South Atlantic Quarterly, 99 (4), 819-841.
Kleinhans, C. (2004). Virtual child porn: The law and the semiotics of the image. Journal of Visual Culture, 3 (1), 17-34.
Kress, G., van Leeuwen, T., & Arnold, E. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. London: Arnold.
Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the New Media Age. London: Routledge.
Levi, A. (1996). Samurai from outer space: Understanding Japanese Animation. Peru, IL: Open Court.
Lohr, L. L. (2003). Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual literacy. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Manga. (2005). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga
Mirzoeff, N. (1999). An introduction to visual culture. London: Routledge.
Penley, C. (1989). The future of an illusion: Film, feminism and psychoanalysis. London: Routedge.
Pennington, E. (2000, Summer-Fall). When escape is a trap: The gendered construction of identity in Japan. SAIS Review, 197-205.
Petty, G. (2004). Sexuality in American and Japanese comic books. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://academia.memory-motel.net/grad/comicsexuality.pdf
Pointon, S. (n.d.). Orgasm as apocalypse: Urotsukidoji: The legend of the Overfiend. New Zealand Writers Guild. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://www.nzwritersguild.org.nz/overfiend.html
Poitras, G. (1999). The anime companion: What’s Japanese in Japanese animation? Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press.
Pornography. Dictionary.com. Retrieved December. 8, 2005, from http://www.dictionary.com
Prosser, J. (Ed.). (1998). Image-based research: A sourcebook for qualitative researchers. London: Routledge.
Rose, G. (2001). Visual methodologies. London: Sage Publications.
Rubin, J. (1984). Injurious to public morals: Writers and the Meiji State. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Saiko S. (1958). Judgment upon case of translation and publication of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and article 175 of the penal code. In Series of Prominent Judgments of the Supreme Court upon Questions of Constitutionality, No. 2. Tokyo: General Secretariat, Supreme Court of Japan.
Templeton, R. (2003). PHIL 334 Asian philosophy class notes. Baltimore: University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Tyner, K. (1998). Literacy in a digital world. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbam Associates.
van Leeuwen, T., & Jewitt, C. (Eds.). (2001). Handbook of visual analysis. London: Sage Publications.
The Home Page · The Integral Worm · My Resume · My Show Car · My White Papers · Organizations I Belong To