Information AboutLolicon |
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is a Slang Portmanteau of the phrase "Lolita complex". The phrase is a reference to Vladimir Nabokov 's book, '' Lolita '', in which a much older man becomes sexually obsessed with a twelve-year-old girl. In Japan, the term is used to describe an attraction to girls below the age of consent, or an individual attracted to such a person. Outside Japan, the term most often refers to a Genre of Manga and Anime where childlike female characters are depicted in a sexualized manner or engaged in Sexually Explicit acts. The equivalent term for the sexualization of or attraction to young boys is Shotacon . Critics claim that lolicon can contribute to actual Sexual Abuse of children, and several countries have attempted to criminalize lolicon's sexually explicit forms as a type of Child Pornography . Defenders argue that such criticism of lolicon is a Correlation Implies Causation fallacy, lolicon is protected by freedom of expression, and restricting sexual expression in drawings or animated games and videos might increase the rate of sexual crime by denying pedophiles a harmless outlet for their desires. LOLICON IN JAPAN Generally, lolicon is a term used to describe a sexual attraction to a girl who is under the legal Age Of Consent , both perceived and actual Pedophilia and Ephebophilia , or has Underdeveloped Secondary Sexual Characteristics . Strictly speaking, ''Lolita complex'' in Japanese refers only to the Paraphilia itself, but the abbreviation ''lolicon'' can refer to an individual that has the paraphilia as well. Lolicon is a widespread phenomenon in Japan, where it is a frequent subject of scholarly articles and criticism.Kinsella, Sharon. Adult Manga. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8248-2318-4 Many general bookstores and newsstands openly offer illustrated lolicon material, but there has also been police action against lolicon manga. Sexual manga featuring children or childlike characters are called lolicon manga.Gelder, Ken. ''The Subcultures Reader'', 2nd ed. Oxon: Routledge, 2005. p. 547. ISBN 0-415-34415-8 These are generally legal in Japan, although '', 18 May 1999 Lolicon manga are usually short stories, published as Dōjinshi or in magazines specializing in the genre. Common focuses of these stories include taboo relationships, such as between a teacher and student or brother and sister, while others feature sexual experimentation between children. Some lolicon manga cross over with other Hentai genres, such as crossdressing and Futanari . Kodomo No Jikan is an example of a series that, while not pornographic, draws on lolicon themes for its plot. Origin According to the Japanese Wikipedia, "Lolita complex", as a term for the Psychopathology , became known in Japan in the early 1970s with the translation of Russell Trainer's ''The Lolita Complex''. Shinji Wada used the word in his , an Alice parody manga in 1974. However, the "lolicon manga" genre closely related to manga media began with Hideo Azuma 's works, such as , in the early 1980s. Azuma had been publishing some sexual manga featuring young girls in his own self-published magazine ''Cybele'' prior to that time. Azuma's works became popular among schoolboy readers because most of the pornographic manga up until then had featured mature women influenced by Gekiga , but Azuma's works are not pornographies in a strict sense though they contain many sexual elements. Following Azuma's success, some pornographic manga magazines, such as ''Manga Burikko'' and ''Lemon People'', began featuring prepubescence girls. Throughout the 1980s, notable lolicon mangaka who published in these magazines include Nonki Miyasu , Kamui Fujiwara , Yoshito Asari and Aki Uchida . Lolicon and gender roles In 1998, Kinsella offered a somewhat different version of the origins of lolicon manga, stating that it is an outgrowth of a style of amateur manga drawn by women, popular in the 80's, which featured male homosexual love stories and parodies of famous boys' manga. In the late 1980s she states that men began to follow these women's styles in writing amateur manga about girl characters: "Lolicom manga usually features a voluptuous girl heroine with large eyes and a pre-pubescent body, scantily clad in an outfit which approximates a cross between a 1970s bikini and a space-age suit of armour. She is liable to be cute, tough and clever." "Amateur Manga Subculture and the Otaku Panic" , by Sharon Kinsella, ''Journal of Japanese Studies,'' Summer 1998. Retrieved 2007-06-08. As the genre created by and for men evolved, according to Kinsella, it moved from these cute, tough heroines towards depictions of girls as sexual victims: naked, helpless, fearful, sometimes bound or chained and was expanded into computer games and animated videos. Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki stated in an interview with Animage in 1988 that while he prefers to make his heroines girls, "It's difficult. They immediately become the subjects of rorikon gokko (play toy for Lolita Complex guys). In a sense, if we want to depict someone who is affirmative to us, we have no choice but to make them as lovely as possible. But now, there are too many people who shamelessly depict (such heroines) as if they just want (such girls) as pets, and things are escalating more and more." He expressed concern as to what this might mean for "human rights for women." original source: ''Animage'', vol. 125, November 1988 Retrieved 2007-06-08. Kinsella asserted that amateur manga expresses a disjuncture in cultural expectations of gender roles in Japan. The amateur parodies of famous manga drawn by women ridiculed the macho male stereotype, and appealed to both women and men who found the stereotype unattractive. She suggested that lolicon manga, on the other hand, expresses male resentment towards and a fixation with young women, who have become increasingly powerful in contemporary Japanese society, and "a reactive desire to see these young women disarmed, infantilised, and subordinate." Male interest in girls' manga expresses simultaneously, "fear and desire" towards women. Kinsella argued that a parallel situation exists in the west, both as to the most popular forms of manga imports and the popular parodies of Star Trek, Red Dwarf and the like, and to the underlying sociological conditions being expressed. There are some female mangaka who draw lolicon, notably Kaworu Watashiya , author of the most controversial lolicon innuendo manga known in the west, and Yukiru Sugisaki . Rizelmine anime is based on Sugisaki's manga. LOLICON IN THE WEST The meaning of ''lolicon'' has evolved much in the , 2006 as CONTROVERSY AND LEGAL ISSUES Opponents of illustrated lolicon pornography claim that even fictional material encourages viewing children as Sex Object s and can contribute to actual Sexual Abuse .1 Others dispute this argument, saying that there is no direct evidence to support the claim that viewing pornography leads to sexual crime, and that restricting sexual expression in drawings or animated games and videos might increase the rate of sexual crime by eliminating a harmless outlet for desires that could motivate crime.2 Akiba Angels 06/04/2006. Retrieved 2007-06-28 Diamond and Uchiyama suggest that there is a strong correlation between the dramatic rise of pornographic material in Japan from the 1970s onwards and a dramatic decrease in reported sexual violence, including crimes by juveniles and also the number of assaults on children under 13. They cite similar findings in Denmark and West Germany, and conclude that the widespread availability of sexually explicit material can in fact reduce the rate of sexual crimes. Diamond and Uchiyama also state, however, that it is probable that the reduction of sex crimes by and upon juveniles in Japan is due to other factors as well: the demands of the increasingly competitive educational system on children's time, an increase in consensual sexual outlets such as prostitution and pre-marital sex, and "socially positive proactive forces" such as sex education in schools and stronger family supervision at home.3 A Japanese non-profit organization called CASPAR has claimed that lolicon and other anime magazines and games do encourage sex crimes. The group, founded in 1989, campaigns for regulation of depiction of minors in pornographic magazines and video games. "Lolicon Backlash in Japan" Anime News Network 01/13/2005. Retrieved 2007-06-07. Public attention was brought to bear on this issue when Tsutomu Miyazaki kidnapped, murdered, and had sexual intercourse with the dead bodies of four girls between the ages of 4 and 7 in 1988 and 1989. "Serial killer Miyazaki must hang: Supreme Court" , ''The Japan Times''. 01/18/2006. Retrieved 2007-07-07. The Tokyo High Court ruled him sane, stating that "the murders were premeditated and stemmed from Miyazaki's sexual fantasies," and he was sentenced to death for his crimes. "Court rules serial killer Miyazaki sane" , ''The Japan Times,'' 06/29/01. Retrieved 2007-06-07. Public sentiment against animated child pornography was revived in 2005 when a convicted sex offender and lolicon was arrested for the murder of a 7-year-old girl in Nara. "Lolicon Backlash in Japan" Anime News Network 01/13/2005. Retrieved 2007-06-07. The murderer, Kaoru Kobayashi, claimed that he had become interested in small girls after watching an animated pornographic video as a high school student. "Child porn, if animated, eludes regulators" , by Akemi Nakamura, ''The Japan Times''. 05/18/2005. Retrieved 2007-06-07. According to Michiko Magaoko, director of a non-profit organization in Kyoto called Juvenile Guide, founded in 2003, approximately half of the 2,000 pornographic animation titles distributed in Japan every year, including films and video games, feature schoolgirl characters. Mitsui Kondo, representative of an Osaka-based child protection agency, argues that these films may distort attitudes towards girls: "Such a situation makes our society more dangerous to girls....We've got to think about it before talking about freedom of expression." Legal status in Australia In August of 2007, an Australian was sentenced to pay an Au$9000 fine for attempting to import eight DVDs of Japanese anime found to contain child pornography and 14 found to contain sexual violence. "Customs National Manager Investigations, Richard Janeczko, said that it was important to understand that even cartoons or drawings such as those depicted in anime were prohibited if they contained offensive sexual content." Australian Customs Service: Man fined $9000 for smuggling child pornography . Retrieved August 17 , 2007 . Legal status in Canada Section 163.1 of the Canadian Criminal Code defines child pornography to include "a visual representation, whether or not it was made by electronic or mechanical means", that "shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of eighteen years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity", or "the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under the age of eighteen years." The definitive Supreme Court Of Canada decision, R. V. Sharpe , interprets the statute to include purely fictional material even when no real children were involved in its production. From paragraph 38 of the decision:
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