Posted in: Comics, Manga | Tagged: manga, university

Outrage At University PhD Student's Research Methods Into Manga

A university research paper detailing Swedish PhD student Karl Andersson's examination into adult sexual attraction to young boys, has attracted considerable criticism in the media and social media this week. This is as a result of the focus in the paper on the student recording his thoughts and feelings while masturbating over images of young boys in "shota" manga publications. Manchester University has launched an inquiry into this after details hit social media, on publication. Shota, or shotacon, abbreviated from Shōtarō complex, is a form of manga that concerns the attraction to young, or young-looking, male characters, where prepubescent or pubescent male characters are depicted in a suggestive or erotic manner.

The study, titled I am not alone – we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan. was published in the journal Qualitative Research in April of this year, with the author describing it thus; "I wanted to understand how my research participants experience sexual pleasure when reading shota, a Japanese genre of self-published erotic comics that features young boy characters. I therefore started reading the comics in the same way as my research participants had told me that they did it: while masturbating. In this research note, I will recount how I set up an experimental method of masturbating to shota comics, and how this participant observation of my own desire not only gave me a more embodied understanding of the topic for my research but also made me think about loneliness and ways to combat it as driving forces of the culture of self-published erotic comics." He also notes "I happened to live alone during this experiment, and I had newly become single after a long relationship – these factors probably contributed to my willingness and eagerness to explore this method."

The nature of this study only hit Twitter this week, courtesy of lawyer Helen Dale, and saw outrage from academics, MPs and members of the public.  The publication Qualitative Research now states "On August 9th we began investigating the publication of the paper "I am not alone – we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan," published earlier this year. We are continuing with our investigations and will consider closely all guidance from the Committee of Publication Ethics and ensure that any actions taken comply with COPE standards."

Conservative MP Neil O'Brien tweeted "Why should hard-working taxpayers in my constituency have to pay for an academic to write about his experiences masturbating to Japanese porn? The non-STEM side of higher education is just much too big, producing too much that is not socially useful." The publication of the paper however states that he "received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article, but that seemed beside the point. A Cambridge PhD student M Jane tweeted "How was a description of the author masturbating to the images of young boys peer reviewed and published?" The Times Higher Education quotes Alice Sullivan, professor of sociology at UCL, stating "Masturbating to images of young boys and passing it off as scholarship normalises paedophilia" amd "it suggests a complete lack of intellectual or ethical standards" at the journal, whose "editors should consider their positions. Wanking is not a research method; it is just wanking. People attempting to defend this on academic freedom grounds do not understand what academic freedom is or why it matters." Ben Sixsmith of The Critic adds "What is disturbing is not just that Mr Andersson had these thoughts, and not just that he considered them worth expressing, but that other academics read and accepted them." While a research flyer for the study, printed in Japanese, has now been found and translated, which includes asking respondents about the difference in interest between manga shota and actual photographic child pornography, stating that this was the most important question in the study.

As a result of the paper being spread wide, a Vice Magazine interview with him from ten years ago has come to light, interviewing Karl as the publisher of a website Breaking Boy News, which began "the guy behind the website – Karl Anderson, a Swedish artist – also publishes a printed version of the website (also called Breaking Boy News), as well as another magazine featuring slightly older naked boys and manga about older men having unprotected sex with little boys. He's like the Larry Flynt of sexualising children, which totally isn't a good thing. I spoke to him about just what the hell he thinks he's doing."

Mr Andersson did not respond to THE's request for comment, but recently posted a YouTube video in which he mentioned he was reviewing his research plans after they were rejected by a university ethics committee. In another video, he described shota comics as a "brilliant example of extreme expression" which "blur the gap between fiction and actual reality" and questioned the rationale for some countries' decision to ban the comics.

Manchester University has stated that the paper, "the work of a student, now registered for a PhD, has raised significant concerns and complaints which we are taking very seriously. We are currently undertaking a detailed investigation into all aspects of their work, the processes around it and other questions raised."

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