As you may or may not remember from my introduction, my research interest involves teens and graphic novels. This week’s blog is about manga, and graphic novels and manga often get cast in the same boat, so I’ll differentiate between the two here. I’m sure you’ve all seen an example of a graphic novel; essentially, a thick comic book. Manga is very similar, except is adheres to Japanese cultural distinctions of being read from left to right, back cover to front. Manga, like the graphic novel, is a format for fiction genres and non-fiction. Manga also has a very, very rich tradition in Japan. In Japan, EVERYONE reads manga; old people, young people, women, men, girls, boys. Manga are to Japanese like magazines are to Americans. Now that you know what manga is, consider this case...
As a side note, Amazon.com has recently made manga that portrays male homosexual relationships unavailable for Kindle download on their site but they do allow other manga to be downloaded.
Knowing what I know about the history of comics in the U.S. and the popularity of manga today, I think this is an especially touchy subject, particularly for libraries. What do you think? If these manga were in the library, what would you do as the librarian?
From the research I did for my Request for Reconsideration project regarding the PROTECT Act of 2003, I found the category of "virtual child pornography" to be interesting (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_cartoon_pornography_depicting_minors). The argument seems to be that by depicting cartoons or other fictional graphics of children performing sex acts, this portrays children as sex objects and may encourage child abuse or act as a gateway to child pornography using actual children.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about this, but I do think it's at least a bit creepy that there are reports on an "epidemic" of adult men in Japan that prefer manga/anime over real women (http://www.icaruscomics.com/wp_web/?p=742) and that there are people who have fetishized manga/anime depictions of young girls to a pretty extreme degree (http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-pillow-cases-37-year-old-man-in-love-with-his-anime-cartoon-pillow/)
But being creepy isn't always illegal, right?
Lastly, I find Amazon's censorship of self-published adult male homosexual digital-manga ridiculous in that they are inconsistently allowing other types of pornographic ebooks. I get that Amazon might have certain guidelines you have to follow to self-publish via their site, but it looks like they are picking and choosing to censor titles based on some "hidden agenda".
I know some patrons take issue with some of the sexualized characters in Manga. They generally also take issue with comic books or graphic novels that contain similar content. However, these Manga sound as if they were specifically drawn to depict and be about sexual acts with children. Libraries do not purchase books of child pornography (and most have a policy prohibiting viewing pornography on computers) so I do not believe that these Manga should be part of a library collection. They are drawn for a different intent, they are not just a Manga series that perhaps has more sexual scenes or characters than another. All genres or formats can be manipulated for negative purposes. This does not mean that you generalize and condemn the entire Manga format, but you most definitely do not include works that are intentionally portraying child pornography. As to this case…if the collector did not know that these Manga contained such content than he shouldn’t be punished. However, if he was specifically seeking these books than I think it does fall under the Protect Act to sentence him to some sort of punishment. The law exists for a reason. This case does not seem to be an attack on Manga, it is against “art” depicting sexual child abuse. I find it interesting that the comic book executive claims the drawings are “not obscene” but the defendant’s lawyer says, “If they can imagine it, they drew it,” he says. “Use your imagination. It was there.”
ReplyDeleteI agree that anything that portrays children in sex acts is a very touchy subject. Honestly I think anything that portrays children performing sex acts should fall into the category of children's pornography and should be illegal, so I guess as a librarian I would most likely not add it to my library collection or I would weed it out. However, I guess it depends on the age of the children depicted because would I weed out a regular book with a teen sex scene, no, so why would I weed out a Manga book with a teen sex scene. So I guess I would ask, does age matter in a Manga sex scene?
ReplyDeleteHave you ever noticed that even when it's teens that are depicted in manga and Japanese animation, they often look younger than they're supposed to be? This might make it difficult to determine the age of the people involved, unless you can determine this through text.
ReplyDeleteI found Amazon's ban of gay ebooks to be very odd, too--especially since it didn't say anything about other editions, like, say...print! Does this mean you can get these types of titles in print but not electronic form? If so, why? It seems to me that whatever their agenda is, it's not consistent. You would think that if they were targeting this group, they would refuse to sell _any_ materials. On the other hand, maybe they are banning only ebooks so they can say, "Hey, you've still got print" so they don't look as bad.
I hate to tell them, but that sort of tactic generally doesn't work.
Cassie, via Amazon, you can self-publish e-books and books that can be printed "on demand" (http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller-account/mm-summary-page.html?topic=200260520). Since Amazon offers this as a service to authors, you have to agree to their terms (https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=APILE934L348N). Their terms give them wide discretion and they are vague, so it looks like Amazon is taking issue with certain types of self-published ebooks using their vague terms as their basis for doing so.
ReplyDeleteThe options for self-publishing are rapidly increasing, but some of the options are more limiting to authors who produce content that is "controversial" to some (for more on self-publishing, check out http://reviews.cnet.com/self-publishing/ and http://to.pbs.org/b9mcrZ)
Personally I would weed Manga involving child sex acts out of the collection. I think that it would fall under the legal definition of obscene.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do think that in the case of the collector that it should matter that he was a collector of manga in general and not just that type of manga. Some people are just OCD in that they must have a complete collection. Some of the greatest art collections (public and private) in the world are evidence of this.
As far as Amazon goes, I read the legalese and it appears as if they hold the unilateral right to reject any material they see fit from the Kindle Store. Seems like a case of censorship to me. There should be an internet uprising especially if more risque heterosexual titles are available. That is flat out homophobia.
This definitely sounds like a case of something taken too far. The man obviously had nothing else depicting child pornography in his home and is known as an avid collector - so this would be punishing him to make an example, not to prevent child abuse. Also, these were opened by customs. He hadn't even seen them yet! How do we know he knew the extent to which the acts were depicted?
ReplyDeleteIf these were in my library...it's hard to say what I would do without seeing them. I would probably leave them unless someone complained. However I doubt I would work hard to buy anything for the library that someone had been criminally convicted of purchasing.
The whole subjectivity of the thing is what bothers me. What is a sex act? Is two teenagers kissing going to be obscene? In Kill Bill the movie, isn't there a rendering of a child prostitute performing a sex act before she kills her "client?" Is Tarantino going to be brought up on charges next?
The Amazon thing is indefensible. It is another case of a corporation being big enough to get away with pretty much anything they want.