Ask John: Should Anime Fans Reference Sexism in Adult Anime?

Question:
In a recent post you stated that, “It’s responsible to point out an anime that advances a harmful gender or sexual stereotype.” My question is whether this responsibility extends to hentai?

Much (I would estimate 80% or more) of hentai contains non-consensual sex, whether forcible rape, or rape through coercion. The women are often powerless, and the consequences after the rape/sexual slavery are rarely comprehensively shown. Also, the “rape myth” that after things get going, the woman enjoys it despite herself, is frequently propagated.

So, if it is responsible to be informed and speak out against sexist stereotypes, shouldn’t this responsibility extend to hentai? Wouldn’t it be hypocritical if it doesn’t?

Answer:
Anime fans living outside of Japan are particularly affected by a conflict of interests and principles. Western, Judeo-Christian morality encourages us to admonish illustrations of immorality, vice, and abuse of civil and social liberties because such illustrations may encourage tolerance and even enactment of such unethical behavior. Whether or not illustrations of reprehensible behavior (in entertainment or even in news media) actually do encourage criminal behavior has been intensely debated for decades and never conclusively proven. While our social conditioning demands that we object to any illustration of immoral behavior, fictional or not, our personal interest in anime encourages us to want to advocate Japanese animation whenever possible, to whomever possible. The fact that anime frequently contains imagery contrary to Western morality creates a dilemma for Western fans. The sense of social responsibility to condemn depravity opposes the personal desire to promote anime. Ultimately, each anime fan has to weigh this moral balance on a personal scale. Furthermore, each individual anime fan should consider the forum and audience to which he or she will discuss anime, then decide if drawing attention to less savory aspects of anime is relevant or necessary.

I firmly believe that adult anime should not be separated from all other types of anime. Certainly, adult anime should only be viewed by mature adults, but in academic discourse, anime is anime, content notwithstanding. If one wishes to cite illustrations of potentially influential gender and sexual stereotypes found within anime, adult anime should absolutely be examined. It would be irresponsible and misleading to exclude reference to adult anime in any such discussion. From the perspective of a social scientist, a lot of adult anime provides the best possible example of immoral influence in anime. But a proponent of anime may not always be in a position to cite arguably immoral characteristics of anime.

From the perspective of an anime fan, I believe that the impression of anime dominant in English speaking culture is largely due to people emphasizing the lascivious, gratuitous aspects of anime. The traditional, commonplace stereotypical assumption about anime among Westerners in North America, Europe, and the Southern Hemisphere is that anime is full of excessive violence, scantily clad women, and lots of sex and giant robots. This impression comes from the fact that during its earliest impression making years outside of Japan, both proponents and critics of anime focused on only the most controversial aspects of anime. In order to combat this perception, an anime fan may choose to selectively focus attention only on positive aspects of anime.

I’m not suggesting that anyone should overlook or ignore sexist, offensive content in any anime, and I don’t think that anyone, critic or proponent, should disregard potentially hazardous content in anime. But I wish to stress that adult anime is available only to adults; and societies all across the world agree that adults are responsible for themselves and are capable of intelligently interpreting images and influences to make rational decisions. Furthermore, while I don’t wish to encourage anyone to disregard or de-emphasize images of unethical conduct in anime, I don’t think that it’s necessary or even advisable for most people to draw attention to controversial content in anime. I think that advocates of anime best serve their own interests by promoting the positive aspects of anime. Not emphasizing or drawing attention to unsavory aspects of anime is not the same thing as denying the existence of such content. For example, in my own discourse on anime, I don’t hesitate to admit that some examples of Japanese animation contains sexist, immoral and offensive content. But unless I’m directly asked about these examples, I don’t make an active effort to draw attention to such content because my personal interest lies in promoting the positive, educational and entertaining values of anime, not encouraging the stereotype that Japanese animation is lascivious, gratuitous exploitation.