Japanese Pornographic Art:
How Making the Taboo Mainstream Creates a Healthy Society
How Making the Taboo Mainstream Creates a Healthy Society
By Sean Ptacek
Throughout Japanese history much of the consumed art has been pornographic. From the shunga books of the Edo period to the modern pornographic manga comic books, pornography has always been a part of Japanese popular culture. What makes this subject interesting is the way in which pornography has become so accepted and un-taboo in recent history. In fact, except for the ruling parties in Japan , pornography has always been accepted by the public and provides a fun way to explore sexuality without actually engaging in any sexual acts, especially for the younger generation. This process of making pornography more fun and even comic takes away the taboo surrounding sex and makes society much more open about the subject which in turn leads to less sexual deviancy in Japan . This point can be greater emphasized when comparing Japanese and American views on pornography and sex.
In America , pornography and sex in general have always been considered taboo and not to be talked about. Even today, more conservative state governments such as Texas are trying to not teach children anything about sex, just teaching abstinence and the evils of premarital sex. These attitudes have led to the United States having extremely high rates of teen pregnancy and sexual deviancy because children have had to learn everything by experimenting with sex and watching pornographic movies which are very degrading to women and provide an unrealistic but extremely graphic illustration of sex. Pornography is just as popular in the United States as it is in Japan , but society as a whole is still prudish and the billion dollar industry remains underground and invisible. This invisibility of the subject, as well as the graphic, aggressive and un-fun nature of American pornography are the key differences between Japanese and American pornography and the reasons why the people of Japan are so much more sexually healthy and “normal.â€
The slow process of making pornography completely mainstream started in the 1700s with shunga books and since the subject has taken centuries to become completely mainstream society has had time to adjust and become comfortable. America , on the other hand, has not changed its prudish attitude about sex and pornography since the inception of the country and does not look like it will anytime soon, which still leaves the country a few centuries before it will become sexually awakened. Awakened is a good way to describe Japan ’s views on sexuality and infers a sense of being taught about the subject, which is one of the two main reasons that shunga books became so popular in the Edo period.
Originally shunga books had two purposes in Japan ; to advertise the local brothels in the Yoshiwara and to teach children and women about sexuality. The advertising aspect of the shunga books pertained only to wealthy men who could afford a prostitute. The acceptance of prostitution at the time helped to make the shunga books popular but it was the teaching aspect and the artistic style itself that really drove shunga’s popularity. The pictures themselves, while sometimes graphic, were all drawn in a similar style which included enormous phalluses and a somewhat feminine depiction of men, as can be seen in the pictures below. The unrealistic nature of these drawings help to make them less taboo and more fun to look at and explore than something like modern American pornography. Children and women could look at the pictures and learn some amount of sexual mechanics while at the same time laughing and enjoying the ridiculousness of the pictures – women were an especially good market for shunga books because they were not always allowed to travel freely and the books provided a safe way for women to escape, if only just for a little while. It is this light treatment of sex that shunga thrived on and the reason that only those in the government could take offence to the books. There were many different censorship reforms that were brought down upon shunga during the Tokugawa regime but the medium survived by breaking the rules. Shunga books remained popular and in the mainstream with respect to common society. Japanese people of the time probably all saw some form of shunga and it was so popular that famous artists such as Moronobu even published some prints for shunga books, such as the shunga image and book cover below. The popularity of shunga books in the Edo period led to a mainstream, if not governmental, acceptance of pornography and as time passed pornography showed up again in manga comic books.
Modern Japanese manga has many different genres within itself and some of them are very pornographic. In fact, for women one of the most popular genres revolves around popular characters from animation series being portrayed in gay relationships, it is called ya-o-i. There are also multiple other pornographic genres that include bishojo (beautiful young girls) and rorikon (“Lolita complexâ€). What is interesting about modern manga is that it still maintains a light, comic treatment of sex while still being very graphic. Looking at the pictures below from a girl’s comic it becomes apparent that modern manga contains some very graphic images. But even when the comics become very graphic they are still comics, a point that can explain the acceptance and popularity of this kind of pornography. Manga did have trouble with the Japanese government in the 1980s and 1990s when censorship again reared its ugly head, but eventually even the Japanese government even accepted the art form. The fact that real people are not being portrayed in sex acts and the continued use of enormous phalluses and stylized human forms creates an unreal world for children, as well as adults, to explore and learn about from the safetyof their own homes. By making sex and pornography completely mainstream and within the realm of open discussion Japan creates a culture that can deal with its sexual questions and problems in a safe and open manner. This openness is the key difference between Japan and America when it comes to the topic of sex and pornography. The openness is also the key reason why Japanese society does not have problems with teenage pregnancy and sexual deviancy, children know what sex is from an early age and there is no taboo around the subject stopping them from discussing the subject with their friends, parents, or teachers.
In conclusion, shunga books and pornographic manga comic books have contributed to an evolved and open view on sexuality in Japan . Starting with shunga books and moving on to modern manga, Japanese society’s views on sex were made more and more public and open and contribute to a society that is sexually healthy and does not have the sexual problems of a society such as the United States. The comic and unreal portrayal of sex acts in Japan helps children to learn about the subject from a young age and do not demonize the act of sex like traditional American views. By not taking the subject so seriously artists have been able to teach society about sex in a fun way without ever degrading real women and without the violent nature that most American pornography illustrates. Overall, American culture could learn a lot from Japanese culture in this respect and should find someway to achieve the same openness if America is ever to solve the problems of teenage pregnancy and underground sexual deviancy that currently plague the nation.
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Questions:
Do things of this nature both decrease numbers of sexual deviancy and also stimulate safer, healthier attitudes towards sex throughout society as a whole?
Does the proliferation of mainstream, pornographic material of this kind break taboos associated with sex in children?
And if "not talking about" or denying the existence of sex inadvertently triggers high rates of teen pregnancy, what, if any, would be the implications of not taking sex so seriously?
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