Sunday, June 17, 2012

I am now a Pornographic Researcher...


Joking of course haha. In the subject of Leisure Concept, I thought of an interesting argument on the topic of 'The DarkSide of Leisure", sub-topic: Internet Pornography, so I thought many of my student would probably argue the same thing, that why I take a different approaches of argument, into more interesting aspect of the internet pornography "Is animated Pornography Morally Acceptable: A Reflective Paper". 
My lecturer loves the paper, that he even asked me to do further researches. 

I am not a good writer, I have to thank my dear friend for helping me :)
I just feel a little proud of my achievement when my ideas was taken into interests compare many other student. 

Here is the assignment below:


Is Animated Pornography Morally Acceptable: A Reflective Paper


With the advent of information and communication technologies such as the Internet, the discourse of pornography has dramatically taken centerstage, not to mention has become a heated topic not only among the digital film industries but also among the academicians. Research shows that 28,258 internet users are viewing pornography every second (Lecture notes, 2012). Not only that, the internet pornography has gained larger revenues compared with multi-national companies such as Microsoft (ibid). On internet pornography, anime or animated porns are becoming more popular than the actual ones. Animated pornographic characters are drawn in attractive ways of images that are appealing and ideally beautiful and sexy, giving satisfactory looks to the viewer. Critics, however, argue that while pornography to some extent is good and legal, the animated ones use pervert images of under-age characters. This reflective paper looks into the moral issues of animated pornography or whether it is acceptable or not by the society.

There are pluralistic views on this topic. Many people find animation pornography acceptable, pointing out that it is nothing but a form of leisure, which can result in self gratification. One person has quoted on the internet blog that, “I don’t like real porns; it makes me feel strange because they’re real people… I hate seeing their faces. I guess it’s because it makes it personal” (Onision.net). The issue apparently, based on the quotation above, is on the images. Some prefer animated character images over the real ones. In anime, one can create an ideal image of his/her desire. Specific body parts and sexual positions can be tricked and emphasized to please either the creator’s or audience’s desire. Some people think that one’s choice for anime over real ones can be either out of his fetish in it or just out of his love for animated art. They look at animated cartoon pornography as a piece of art, or as an expression of one’s sexual behaviour in comic form. Another blogger pointed out “my opinion is that Hentai (Japanese animated adult theme) is a pure fantasy and that there are no harm made; it is acceptable” (ibid).  What the blogger was trying to drive at is that there are no identities involved in the act. Hence, the issue of any harms and demoralization is unlikely to happen. An example of animated cartoon that was loved and generally accepted by the society despite the exposure of some sexual scenes was the one in the US called Betty Boop (see Appendices).

On the contrary, animated porns are said to be immorally upright. One comment from an anonymous source stated that most of these types of porns involve under-age characters showing no decency and morality (createdebate.com). He added that it can be akin to the concept of child pornography. It can encourage paedophilia. Even if there are no real people involved in it, but the message and images put across can create a wrong motivation and attitude to the viewers. The increasing reported news on raping (especially on child and women) can be a result of this. Since pornography industry started to explode in mid-1990s, survey showed that 69.8 percent of women have been “verbally coerced” into unwanted sex, and in UK 2006 there is as much as 33 percent of all women said that they been forced into sex (http://english.ohmynews.com)

While I agree with some people saying that animated porns are nothing but a form of leisure and creative expression of one’s sexual desires, I however contest that they should not be merely understood and analyzed in the context of art and self expression. Leisure, when not managed well, can cause deviant behaviour (Bramham, 2002). It can result in socio-psychological effects, so to speak. Bramham said there are three types of abnormal forms or deviant kind of leisure. They are invasive, mephitic and wild leisure. Invasive refers to people associated with self, usually the loner who unable to build relationship, and alienated, fantasies are mostly associated with, especially with the option of animated pornography. Mephitic tendencies according to Bramham are the pursuit that accepted as morally abhorrent or harms to others, such as scene of aggression, abuse, pleasure in dominating over victims, paedophilia, content violence serial of killing, and rape. Wild tendency refers to behaviour that pushes limits of experience over the edge for personal gratification or pleasure. Example of which is Gang rape scene.

With the easy access to Internet, children are more likely to be the victims of animated porns. Children love images and arts that animated porns use. According to the statistics the average age of a child’s first exposure to pornography is 11, and 90 percent of children ages between 8-16 have viewed pornography online (internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com). Children may have the idea that it is normal behaviour of those sexual acts. 

I strongly support the legalisation in Australia against child pornography (maybe it be animated or not). According to the Custom Media Release 2007 (http://customs.gov.au), a person can be found guilty for importing child pornography and anime pornography depicting sexual violence. Policy makers must review all of these cartoon films released to the public. A case was already found using famous the Simpson character to showcase sexual acts.
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References
Bramham, 2002, 'Rojek, the sociological imagination and leisure', Leisure studies, vol. 21, no. 3, p.221.
Veal, A. J. 1992, ‘Definitions of leisure and recreation’, Leisure options: Australian journal of leisure and recreation’, vol.2, no.4, p.44-48.
Perper, T & Cornog, M 2002, "Eroticism for the masses: Japanese manga comics and their assimilation into the U.S", Sexuality & Culture, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 3-126.
Onision 2011, sex & orientation, viewed 24 May 2012,
Yawar, A 2006, ‘The End of Sex, Oh my news, Korea, viewed 25 May 2012,
CreateDebate, n.d., Is animated or cartoon portrayal of pedophilic child pornography morally acceptable? , viewed 26 May 2012,
Ropelato, J n.d., ‘Internet Pornography Statistics’, TopTenReviews, viewed 25 May 2012,
Custom Media Release, 2007, $9000 fine for importing child pornography, Australia Government, viewed 25 May 2012,


Appendix A: USA Betty Boop character in Cartoon.





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