helen855244
02-19-2003, 08:37 PM
AMATEUR MANGA SUBCULTURE AND
THE OTAKU PANIC
1998
Sharon Kinsella
Published in the Journal of Japanese Studies Summer 1998
approx 10 - 15 pages
http://www.kinsellaresearch.com/nerd.html
"Despite the differences of these particular male attitudes, the themes by which amateur manga genres have become defined have in common a similar preoccuption with gender and sexuality. Amateur manga genres express a range of problematic feelings young people are harbouring towards established gender stereotypes, and by association, established forms of sexuality. While young people engaged with amateur manga do not fit the social definition of homosexuality, they share some of the uncertainties and modes of cultural expression, more commonly associated with contemporary gay culture. Yaoi, june mono, parody and Lolicom express the frustration experienced by young people, who have found themselves unable to relate to the opposite sex, as they have constituted and located themselves, within the contemporary cultural and political environment. There is, in short, a profound disjuncture between the expectations of men and the expectations of women in contemporary Japan. Young women have became increasingly unwilling to accept relationships with men who can not treat them as anything other than 'women' and subordinates. Men who persist in macho sexist behaviour, - like that often depicted in boys and adults manga magazines, - are gently ridiculed and rejected by the teenage girls involved in writing parody manga, or reading gay love stories. Young men who also find this type of masculine behaviour and networking, which is concentrated within corporate culture, restricting and uncomfortable, have also been attracted to amateur girls' manga.
The themes of Lolita complex manga written by and for men, on the other hand, express the both the fixation with, and resentment felt towards, young women, by another group of young men. Despite the inappropriateness of their old-fashioned attitudes, many young men have not accepted the possibility of a new role for women in Japanese society. These men who are confounded by their inability to relate to assertive and insubordinate contemporary young women, fantasise about these unattainable girls in their own boys' girls' manga. The little girl heroines of Lolicom manga reflect simultaneously an awareness of the increasing power and centrality of young women in society, and also a reactive desire to see these young women dissarmed, infantilised, and subordinate."
THE OTAKU PANIC
1998
Sharon Kinsella
Published in the Journal of Japanese Studies Summer 1998
approx 10 - 15 pages
http://www.kinsellaresearch.com/nerd.html
"Despite the differences of these particular male attitudes, the themes by which amateur manga genres have become defined have in common a similar preoccuption with gender and sexuality. Amateur manga genres express a range of problematic feelings young people are harbouring towards established gender stereotypes, and by association, established forms of sexuality. While young people engaged with amateur manga do not fit the social definition of homosexuality, they share some of the uncertainties and modes of cultural expression, more commonly associated with contemporary gay culture. Yaoi, june mono, parody and Lolicom express the frustration experienced by young people, who have found themselves unable to relate to the opposite sex, as they have constituted and located themselves, within the contemporary cultural and political environment. There is, in short, a profound disjuncture between the expectations of men and the expectations of women in contemporary Japan. Young women have became increasingly unwilling to accept relationships with men who can not treat them as anything other than 'women' and subordinates. Men who persist in macho sexist behaviour, - like that often depicted in boys and adults manga magazines, - are gently ridiculed and rejected by the teenage girls involved in writing parody manga, or reading gay love stories. Young men who also find this type of masculine behaviour and networking, which is concentrated within corporate culture, restricting and uncomfortable, have also been attracted to amateur girls' manga.
The themes of Lolita complex manga written by and for men, on the other hand, express the both the fixation with, and resentment felt towards, young women, by another group of young men. Despite the inappropriateness of their old-fashioned attitudes, many young men have not accepted the possibility of a new role for women in Japanese society. These men who are confounded by their inability to relate to assertive and insubordinate contemporary young women, fantasise about these unattainable girls in their own boys' girls' manga. The little girl heroines of Lolicom manga reflect simultaneously an awareness of the increasing power and centrality of young women in society, and also a reactive desire to see these young women dissarmed, infantilised, and subordinate."