pornography and sexuality (was: Re: censorship cont....)

[udo helms]

Birgit Kellner schrieb:

> Anyway, my main question is whether Japanese pornography has ever been
> subjected to thorough sociological studies regarding its consumption.
> Who consumes pornography (male/female/age/social layer), who consumes
> what type of pornography (magazines/films, or different genres such as
> S/M), and under what conditions (solitary consumption/consumption with a
> partner)? To the extent that I am familiar with the literature, not much
> THOROUGH (but lots of not so thorough) work in this area has been done
> in the US/Europe either, so I would be curious as to the state of the
> art in Japan.

Try Anne Allison: Permitted and prohibited desires-Mothers, comics and
censorship in Japan, Westview Press 1996

> Further questions, to which hopefully someone might have some sort of
> answer:
> Has there been any noteworthy Japanese feminist reception of pornography
> which would take into account possible differences between the
> socio-sexual function of pornography in Japan as compared to the US (or
> Europe), as well as differences between the respective societies in
> terms of gender-segregation etc.?

Shigematsu Setsu: The Law of the Same” and Other (Non)Perversions: Woman’s
Body as a “Use-Me/Rape-me”Signifier, in: U.S.-Japan Women’s Center: U.S.
Japan Women’s Journal, English Supplement No. 12, S. 154- 177, see also
Allison

> Lastly, what about pornography for women (as far as I can see, it
> doesn't seem to exist): Debated, discussed or ignored?

There's a whole bunch of pornography targeted at women, though evidently
less graphic, in Ladie's Manga. Contents often involves male bi- or
homosexuality, a topic which is seldom featured in male heterosexual
material, the reason being that it's still not so easy to come out of the
closet in Japan (last year's gender workshop in Mülheim / Germany laid some
focus on that subject, I'll have to go thru my file collection to find a
report on that). Homosexual porn is in addition generally confiscated by
Custom's since the exhibition of male genitalia is still considered
"obscene", and not produced openly for the same reasons. Lastly, there's
the example of Uchida Shingiku, a hard-core manga artist who was raped by
her stepfather during adolescence and wrote the best-seller "Father Fucker"
on that subject, including some reminescence on her present work.

Hope this helps you a bit,
                                            Udo Helms