I would like to bring to your attention a short graphic novel entitled Nana’s Everyday Life. I was introduced to it by an ER physician who was telling me about the darker aspects of his job when he witnesses the aftermath of rape, abuse, and pedophilia in his patients. Few images are more disturbing than those of child abuse, whether real or drawn.
Illustrated in a "cute" manga style, Nana’s Everyday Life presents the trials and tribulations of Nana, a child sex-slave in Japan, who suffers torture and rape as property of the sex-slavery industry. In her innocent confusion she refers to her “owner” as “Papa”. However disgusting the premise may seem, the story begins on a humorous tone that borders Schadenfreude as hinted by the ironic title. Further into the plot the overall tone becomes more touching and ultimately ends on a heartbreaking but cathartic note. I strongly urge you to check out this short and powerful series as it can be read from beginning to end in less than ten minutes:
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| One of the less shocking episodes... |
Pedophilia is a taboo concept in America and most of the developed world. Nevertheless, the Child Pornography Industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Moral lines tend to be blurred in manga comic books where free speech rules. Sexual relationships between adults and pre-pubescent children are not uncommon in these graphic novels. In fact child pornography is so prominent in manga culture that it even has its own genre: "Roricon". A recent New York Times article addressed international criticism that the manga industry in Tokyo receives for its depiction of minors performing sexual acts and of the unhealthy popularity of photos of minors in suggestive poses.
Though many of these manga may be produced for the sick carnal enjoyment of the consumer, Nana’s Everyday Life differentiates itself as a social commentary. The images are simple, but unapologetically violent and shocking to expose the twisted nature of the sex slave industry and the lack of understanding for the children that suffer as victims. These images exist in sharp contrast with the opening image of a smiling Nana in a preschoolers uniform happily waving at the reader. She is a character whose tragic flaw is her innocence. Sadly, Nana’s literal and figurative wounds are so deep that no amount of time and love can heal her or those around her. In the end her only salvation is through tragedy.
As we finish our discussion on the effect of video game violence on player's behavior, I want ask: Does anyone believes there exists a cause-and-effect relationship between adults consuming images of nude children in graphic novels and committing acts of pedophilia?
While child pornography is indeed a terrible thing, it is no where near a multi-billion dollar industry. And the only statistics I can find in a google search come from websites with an agenda (such as shutting down porn) or are copied therefrom. The adult pornography industry may make billion of dollarsnow (consider this analysis by Forbes:http://www.forbes.com/2001/05/25/0524porn.html), and though part of my graduate thesis entailed researching pornography, I've never even come across something resembling child pornography. This is not to say that child pornography is a myth, but that the statistic you linked to is conflating the porn industry with child pornography.
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about manga, but I think there's also a difference in the portrayal of women from "western" ideals of beauty. Last night, in fact, I was enjoying an episode of High School of the Dead with my buddy and noted that while the faces of the high school girls did look young and cute ("kawaii"?) but had, in fact, gigantic boobs, signifying sexual maturity. Perhaps the lolicon concept has something to do with stories of innocence taken in a stylized way? I don't know, but I think it takes more than some comic books to make a person commit an act of pedophilia--like a psychological predisposition--an act that is so far from reason or desire.
The comic you linked to seems similar to the "serious game" concept I talked about in class--taking the conventions of a genre and using them to make the reader feel complicit in social injustice hopefully in order to inspire activism.
To be honest, it would be difficult for me to argue against someone who did their thesis on the subject, but there exist many disburbing figures of child pornography on the internet. Though the "multi-billion" figure may be a bit far-fetched considering the entire porn industry only grosses about $10 billion as Forbes suggested in 2001. However a article on Bussinessinsider.com from 2010 suggests that "116,000 searches for 'child pornography' are made on the internet every day:"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.businessinsider.com/14-amazing-facts-about-internet-porn-2010-6#its-a-tiny-part-of-the-whole-but-there-is-still-a-terrifying-amount-of-child-pornography-out-there-11)
Due to its criminal nature, exact figures regarding the revenue of the child porn industry are obscure and difficult to quantify. Also, sales of illustrated scenes of minors performing sexual acts as in the lolicon (Lotila complex) genre may not be included in the numbers. This is the particular issue in Tokyo that the NYTimes article addresses; the manga industry does not acknowledge many lolicon mangas to be child porn.
I entirely agree with your last statement. The reader feels guilty about laughing at Nana's misery in the first few episodes before he/she develops an emotional bond with the character. This is the intent of the author, who seeks to make have the reader ride the proverbial roller-coaster of emotions in order to inspire activism. Heck, the technique works pretty damn well considering it inspired me to post the topic on this blog! Otherwise I would have never considered myself an activist per se...
ReplyDeleteI think that it's just about impossible to establish any kind of cause-and-effect relationship here. Pornography in Japan is much more open than what we are used to in the United States. When I was in Japan, I saw pornography being sold in convenience stores in the airport, right on the shelves for everyone to see. On top of this, pornography depicting various forms of non-consensual sex seems to be more popular in Japan than in other countries (though this comes from a few quick skims of Wikipedia articles on the subject rather than any hard evidence).
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find any statistics that indicate Japan is a country with any more sexual violence than other countries. In fact, you'd probably find the opposite. Though this in of itself doesn't completely rule out the possibility of a connection between the consumption of violent sexual imagery and actual sexual crimes, it certainly does complicate the matter.