Just when I thought Academia couldn't sink any lower.

It does seen unlikely he’s coming at this from a safeguarding angle
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroyer_Magazine

Fladdermus that's interesting

I don't have knowledge of academia but I have a few media and publishing connections.

i can't work out whether people are turning up to work too stoned to see anything or if it's all just a big con. Like some reporters who have lauded highly problematic people and then claimed they knew nothing of the problems.

this seems similar. It looks like it didn't get passed by the uni but shouldn't they have commented by now?

the journal knew what they were publishing.

we might be crossing a rubicon, along with recent police visits for hurty feels for people who are...I thought...on the wrong side of the law.

his defence will be "cartoons".

Fladdermus, glad to hear your DH is reporting to the relevant authorities. Thank you.

'Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Elisabeth Lund Engebretsen for commenting on an early version of this article, the two anonymous reviewers for providing useful feedback, and my PhD supervisor Sharon Kinsella for always encouraging me to go where my research takes me.'

'Author biography
Karl Andersson is a PhD student at the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, University of Manchester (UK). He has a master’s degree in Visual and Media Anthropology from the Free University of Berlin (Germany). Karl’s graduation film about shota culture in Japan, Unreal Boys, won the award for Best Student Film at the Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival 2021 (USA). His PhD research is funded by the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures.'

DH (academic) says this is career ending. What he thinks has happened is that the university have taken him on as a PhD candidate but he hasn't had any funding for his 'research'. He's either lied about what he's doing or he's had no supervision. DH expects his PhD supervisor and the supervisor's boss to be in deep shit over this. The bloke himself will either be sacked, or if for some reason he can't be it'll only be a matter of time before they 'manage' him out. His career is over.

There is no way the university or ethics approved this.

The journal that published this will also be in the shit. This won't have gone to peer review as peers would have rejected it on ethical grounds. The editor has most likely approved this directly. This happens with smaller journals who don't always use peer review. The publishing house will go nuts once they find out. When similar things have happened in the past (although he says this is worse) the editor of the journal and sometimes the board have all been sacked.

Heads will roll once the right people know, and if they don't already know, they will soon. DH is currently writing to his contacts at Manchester university and the publishing house to make sure they know as he's absolutely furious. He's also reporting it to the police.

This is his PhD Supervisor, whom he thanks in his paper:

www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/sharon.kinsella.html

'Sharon Kinsella has been focusing on the cultural language and political symbolism of both mass media and cultural production and subcultural forms and reactions in Japan since the early 1990s. Earlier work looked at cuteness and infantilism as rebellion; the educational and class factors behind the political and commercial transformation of manga for adults in the 1990s; otaku subculture and Lolita complex subcultures. Her first book Adult Manga (2000) is about the class sociology and politics of manga for adult readers between the 1960s and the new millenium.

Sharon’s second book, Schoolgirls, Money and Rebellion in Japan (2014) incorporates research on girls’ street styles and male journalism and in particula the media focus on kogyaru and ganguro street fashion and 'compensated dating' (or school girl prostitution) as one siginificant moment in the 'cult of girls' in the 1990s to the 2000s. Sharon's current research on otoko no ko ('boy daughters') and the rise of new modes of male to female cross-dressing within two-dimensioal kyara ('animation character') culture, and live amongst young men, examines a new phase in the cult of the girl, from 2006 to the present.'

This is why I am puzzled

I put his name on Twitter and cannot find a single negative comment about him. The paper, yes.

i imagine everyone is wary of the legals.

Gaspo I think the need to be careful arises when we discuss an individual. Not sure how to be careful talking about this erm event without pointing to the author though.

He’s got his name and photo on his article on Researchgate. He’s not doing this under cloak and dagger! He’s proud of that article. I’m sure he is hoping to make his name for his innovative and creative participant observer research method!

Given the current state of academia, he could still prove right.

Why would we have to be careful about naming this chap? We're discussing his published, peer-reviewed academic journal article and his Ph.D. research project. It's all in the public domain already.

He’s been named and his photo published on twitter.

So he hasn't been named on social media etc

I suppose we are the ones who have to be careful.

wasn't James Lindsay banned from twitter for ...comments about paedophilia? There's also not enough info for me to see why he was banned.

Sickening isn't it. Probably testing whether cartoon images satisfy the urges as well as the real life images. Red flag 🚩 alert to all involved.

I'm not sure he lives in Manchester, or even in the UK. Berlin?

Do they?
I also want names of who cleared this. They need police visits.

I've read the paper, it's definitely not about that. It's a highly positive (from his point of view, not anyone else's!) recount of his experience using cartoon images of young boys for sexual gratification. It even describes the scenes he was reading and the exact point at which he came- really repulsive reading. I wouldn't be surprised if he DID intend his work to inform policy makers, but not in the way one would hope sadly.

Lots of things disturbed me while I read it, but the thing that particularly shocked me was that he doesn't even acknowledge that his subject is, at best, controversial and likely to (rightly) inspire total disgust. I think he mentions in one sentence that it's a 'sensitive' topic or something like that. He explores all of these reasons that his respondents cited enjoying this material- but not once does he seem to consider the fact that they probably like it because they're paedophiles. Instead, he gives all sorts of 'wholesome' reasons that they want to masturbate over it, and IMO it's a blatant attempt to justify it. They're not pedos, they're NOSTALGIC for their younger days! Bleurgh. I honestly think I'll report it to the police 🤮

What's the betting that the police won't be interested in this at all, not even to "check his thinking"?

At least the people of Manchester now have a name and photo so they can avoid this man.

Japanese Studies.

What exactly is their topic? I assume you have to do one - the people I know who have down PhDs have been studying education, history, English, psychology… not w*nking…

What "studies" do you need to know that wanking over cartoon images of kids is fucking weird?

I'm not an academic and I don't have a Ph.D. but my understanding is that before an article can be published in an academic journal at least one suitable academic has to read it and recommend whether it's good enough to be published. They would be looking at whether the topic is rigorous enough and falls within the journal's area of interest. They would also do a detailed report advising any changes that need to be made before it can be published. The Editor of the Journal would read this report and make a decision. So if I'm right about this at least two other academics have read this article and decided it was fit to publish. I wonder if Qualitative Research has a letters page.

Grim. Manchester used to be a great university too.

Hang on, can people explain this to a non PhD thicko?

This guy published a paper about the images of children he likes to masturbate to and he's not being investigated by the police?

And who are these "peers" who are reviewing this paper?

He also says his research is about participant’s experiences of desire and identity.

I really, REALLY don’t think he is coming at this from a child protection angle.