I've seen this before. Issues: 1. Pathological framing; the whole focus is 'Japan as a nation is pedophilic' 2. Discussion switches between cartoons & real children constantly 3. Talks ethical media consumption with no sources on media consumption & lacks citation; 4. Xenophobic
5. Uses a lot of assumptive language such as the term "Feel" "I feel" "men feel" "they feel" You're not supposed to assume people's feelings when you write something like this; you provide either proof, quoted anecdotes, or unassuming language.
For instance, this entire paragraph has NO citations and it's pretty loaded with heavy claims.
Again heavy claims with not one citation in sight. I'm NOT saying these things do not happen, but for a Senior thesis, there should at least be some kind of source referenced here for technical reasons alone. It's a bad look.
This is quite a loaded statement "the sexualization of young girls and the promotion of consumerism became intrinsically tied in Japan"
Again should have a citation literally anywhere before that direct quote.
The piece also switches often. It goes between the porn industry, to sexual trafficking, to prostitution, to cartoon minors in anime/manga, to 'male pedophilia is built into Japanese culture' etc. It's like trying to pull as much proof as possible of Japan's "seedy underbelly"
OH, the other key point I wanted to make is that it's focus is supposed to be "pedophilia" the author should have just focused on 'sexual abuse'; she mentions adult industries w/ adult women constantly. At most, often mentions minors under 18 in trafficking, but not CHILDREN.
And yet she decided to continue while having no actual studies that support the "normalization" theory her entire paper relies on. How are the existence of drawings and cartoons connected to the trafficking of real people? How do you prove it's correlated to an INCREASE?
"What right do I have to pass judgment on Japanese culture?... It's because i'm afraid it will spread across the globe and taint us all, unlike my pure America that very much does NOT tolerate pedophile culture :'^(. Save the children."
I find it wild the author of this was able to cite at LEAST 3 to 4 accomplished scholars & experts in their fields who provide proof as to why the 'fiction/reality' argument is not valid, & the rest of their paper goes on to have no actual citations in support of their claims.
TLDR; Can cite multiple people who disagree with them and poke holes in their reasoning but can't cite anyone who actually substantially proves their whole paper's thesis.
More wildly broad, heavy statements with literally no support given whatsoever with that very not-subtle "America has ethics and is at risk of being tainted by Japanese cartoons" energy
Framing like 'Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid' is being played on daytime television and being watched at the rate Game of Thrones was.
For instance, as a bare minimum, there aren't even any Japanese sources referencing these problems. She references a bunch of things she claims are happening while providing no links to the real world: studies, reports, news articles, press, conference presentations, etc
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Ppl easily outraged by taboo in fandom should think of fandom as having random BDSM Dungeons "Oops. I opened the door to the room where consenting adults engage in weird fantasy play & am very uncomfortable time to leave" and move on instead of making it everyone else's problem🧵
Also a good test is that if you're already enraged by even the thought of BDSM existing you're already part of the problem because you have an inherent misunderstanding of fantasy & consent which goes triple for fiction because it's not even fantasy occurring in real life🧵
& Yes this is in response to the phenomenon of people talking about toxic ships & taboo media like
"😈muahaha" while still being completely aware of what is Good vs. Bad to do IRL because it's a fantasy discussion, but the outraged randos think they're being 1000% serious💀
"Women 30+ shouldn't be in fandom"
My bastard in Christ, you wouldn't have the transformative queer fandom we do today if not for women & queer ppl in the 60s & 70s going absolutely batshit for kirkspock, hosting whole events & making zines, respect your matriarchs heathen 🫵🏽😩
And this is just touching on the US, but this also goes for Japan too.
"Please do not share these online safety resources from actual legitimate websites like RAINN & UNICEF that specialize in child safety because OP is a proshipper" I'm honestly surprised it took so long for this to happen. Again, please read the academic resources I linked.
I don't give a shit if you share the resources from me or post them on your own, just that they're being shared. They existed outside of shipping discourse and are put together by specialists who are actually versed in protecting youth.
If anyone doesn't feel comfortable interacting w me or blocks me good for them! What I care about is them being aware of & sharing online safety straight from FIELD EXPERTS & to have more discretion in who they trust & what red flags to watch for from randos in their circles
"Fiction affects reality!" aka the History of moral panic and censorship repeats itself 🧵.
Linking to threads on historical moral panics and moves towards censorship in the West (particularly the United States) over the past 150 years.
You'll see a lot of familiar sentiment
The issue with 'sex-negativity' & 'purity culture' was never that people have personal boundaries, the issue has ALWAYS been with people obsessing over OTHER PEOPLE's sex lives & attempting to exert control over THEIR sex lives & sexual expression, thus violating THEIR boundaries
Nobody gives a shit if you hate something or don't like something that's your business and you have every right to not like something. The issue the whole time has been the attempt to sanitize how other people live and create media.
i.e., why the issue with censorship and conservatism
being the behaviors you see from overreaching religious organizations trying to pass legislation to limit and ban access to content they find personally offensive despite there being literally no evidence it causes harm.
People who keep trying to argue that "We don't live in a pro-murder culture and that's why things like murder and (non-sexual) violence are perfectly okay in media" just keep proving every day to me that they are not living in reality but instead some babied White suburban bubble
You jackasses have you looked at the news once in the past 5 months. Or ever? Genocide? Doesn't happen! Slavery? Who's that? The KKKlan? Is that a music group? School shootings, Gun violence & the US military? Military occupation? Colonialism? pro-military culture? Not a problem!
I've seen more than once someone like this even say 'murder is less bad than sexual violence but If I knew someone close to me who had been murdered I'd probably feel different'
okay so now you're just admitting it's all about your personal feelings and nothing else?