That Shotakon Article!

Shotakon flirted with popularity about six years ago with BL fans, but it quickly went south. Most shotakon is now relegated to the hardcore manga fringe, and not read by the majority of Japanese BL fans. These men and women in Japan who are shotakon fans, have no interest in ‘real’ children, just like most female BL fans in Japan have no interest in ‘real’ gay men. 0_0.

I’ve seen this notion thrown around that the Japanese are tolerant of shotakon, and their laws reflect this because: “they have low cases of child sexual abuse in their country”. This is CRAP. Where there’s humans hobbled by moderate-to-radical morality, set down by a ‘civilized’ society, there will always be clear lines in the sand about sex with children. Just look at any given BL manga where the adult male protagonist has sexual issues. Many Japanese BL mangaka create angst-ridden characters who’ve suffered sexual abuse as kids; these memories of abuse are never pretty and depicted as traumatic–you’re supposed to have sympathy for the character. By portraying such abuse, as abuse, it’s rather clear to me that Japanese people have a lucid understanding of what the sexual victimization of a child is. This being said, let’s not get the impression that shotakon is a scary popular niche, and that Japanese BL fen love it because they don’t see child abuse as a crime. It’s accepted by its fans because shotakon is not real, and it’s not popular with ero manga readers because…child abuse, is.

Perfect example of Western hostilities: The Shotakon Ronsou at y!Gallery [I fucking love the word RONSOU!] from last year. Shotakon is a Japanese aesthetic that has no equal in Western Culture. There’s a reason for that…many creators and fans who like Japanese Shotakon [I include myself in these ranks] have a real issue with underage males depicted in erotic art, drawn in a pointedly western style. Why? Because ‘Western shota’ [to me, this identifier is invalid] is just too real. Over at y!Gallery, artists were uploading 3D renders of underage males and illustrating ‘western’ looking boys in sexual situations, and this struck a raw nerve in even those of us who religiously purchase Dr. Ten. There’s a big difference between the purely fantastical moe-boy from Japan with his big eyes, little mouth, chunky head, and boy boobs - and something illustrated to resemble my son or his friends, or the kid who delivers my newspaper. 0_o. I’ve yet to see any boy in real life look anything like something drawn in X-Kids. 0_0.

There’s a huge divide in the western fandom in regard to shotakon. I think this stems from the fact that we, as westerners, celebrate victimization. I know, that sounds so salacious, but let me explain what I mean before you start linking Crat in your LJ’s to burn me in effigy.

In Japan, abuse is not talked about, yet it’s acknowledged as abuse, and dealt with privately. So private in fact, that the concept of anyone admitting victimization is ludicrous; it’s equated with shame not just on you, but on everyone involved. What makes the family [in Japan] look bad is the ultimate shame.

In the West we’re taught to talk about abuse, bring it into the light in order to create a ‘social awareness’ to the problem; so naturally, when something like shotakon comes along, there’s going to be a loud, if not overly-dramatic, outcry–normally by those who’ve been victimized, or those who know child victims. Former victims, and those who know victims, simply cannot and will not tolerate any depiction of what they perceive as a child in a sexual situation, and because our culture defines vocal acknowledgement of such issues, these foes of Shotakon will thus be VERY VOCAL about their dislikes.

Is their reaction wrong? No.
Can it cross the line? Sometimes.

I remember back in 2000 [or 2001?], fandom writer Nora wrote an article for the Aestheticism fanzine called Overcoming Shotaphobia: Sensei Strangelove, or How I Learned to Like Shotacon. In it, she dared to address how she overcame her discomfort with shotakon and learned to just like it, once she realized it was not child pornography. She explained that by understanding the young boys in shotakon were allegorical, as opposed to being based on real life children, it made her acceptance a bit easier. The reaction to her article was nothing short of ‘hysterical’, and I don’t mean the funny sort.

Some played the defensive card early, stating that Nora was telling them to lighten up, it’s fantasy, if you think otherwise, you’re twisted. But that wasn’t what she was saying; she was just pointing out that to her, the need to stick real-life connotations on something that’s pure fantasy, was flawed.

“Here is where the Japanese mindset seems to deviate most from the Western. Shotacon isn’t real, isn’t meant to be real, and shouldn’t be interpreted as real. Even when an unpleasantly realistic situation is depicted, the medium itself reminds the reader that it isn’t real. The suffering or sexualized child in shotacon is mere ink and paper. And only an already-unbalanced person would think otherwise.”

Now her use of the word unbalanced is likely what set many on the defensive. Would I have used this word? Probably. The sheer fact that some fen took this so personally didn’t shock me at all. Some were obviously too close to the subject matter at hand and perceived all of Nora’s article in a hostile light; the topic of child abuse kept coming up in comments over and over…and I asked myself, this is an article about Shotokon not being real, right? While on AMLA, the replies were kept within the confines of civil debate, but over at the Doujinshi ML, where the article was also posted, things got completely out of hand. The reactions there [one of them suggested that Nora herself might be child molester] clearly indicated to me that PC-ness was nothing short of a defense mechanism for those unable to separate shotakon from child porn. Sorry, but that is completely ‘unbalanced’ behavior.

In her closing Nora stated:

“My feelings on those who are linking reading shota to committing acts of child abuse: you didn’t read my article. The whole point of it was that people can like shota, and not like child porn, because they are two completely different, unrelated, things. To assume that shota fan = potential child molester is to assume that yaoi fans (females, anyway) are all planning to get sex changes, so they can act out their fantasies.”

There will never be a form of rationality in Western society that logically separates what disturbs in fiction, art, or in the media, from disturbing real life situations. It’s just not possible. So is there such a thing as Western Shota? No, in my eyes there never will be. Are those who create what they consider ‘shotakon’ with clearly western boys, child molesters? No. It’s just art. Do I have to accept that art? No, but I refuse to resent those who do.