I am really hacked off about this.
A couple of days ago ds11 comes home from school and says a friend is reading One Punch Man (number 22 for those familiar) in the "free reading" class – title is bad enough as it relates to killing someone with one punch – ds says that it is very, very violent and explicit and in particular the drawings of the females are weird. He draws one for me. I look at it dumbfounded as it looked like a woman wearing S&M from ds' drawing. I say I will find the book online and have a look. Didn't have time that evening and yesterday he comes home and says he has looked again and he really wants me to look it up on the computer as he saw other women which were disturbing and he wanted to know what I thought.
I have a look and find “mosquito girl” - a young slim woman with huge breasts with cut outs where the nipples are, showing the nipples and the material cut out all the way down so basically the character is no wearing knickers or anything there at all, so a very sexily drawn naked young woman with bits of material down the sides and around the breasts but no other covering and nipples showing – in all sorts of positions – in youtube videos shown fighting etc.
Then I find “Do-S” - a curvy blonde, very slim, huge breasts wearing a leather bondage S&M costume – tiny bits of leather covering nipples, costume basically bits of black leather held together with leather cords or metal, wearing thigh length costume with stiletto heels, leather dog collar with metal diamonds around neck, a muzzle on her face. (FOR F-S SAKE). (NOT THAT I AM REALLY HACKED OFF ABOUT THIS OR ANYTHING).
Ds says most of the kids in the class including girls are reading these books, or other mangas, which are marketed to children. The front cover is a young sweet looking normal boy and the blurb on the back is “boy hero fights for good” or something.
I am guessing parents and teachers see it is a cartoon and think nothing else of it.
The write up for these female characters is how powerful and strong they are – so this is the narrative girls are absorbing, that dressing like this is “powerful”. Goodness only knows what narratives the boys are absorbing.
This is basically child abuse, isn't it? Porn and grooming in plain sight?
I remember a comment on here where a mother said that books are not as bad as films but in fact clever writing paints a picture in the mind and can have a profound affect – positive or negative – and when I looked at the drawings I felt the same emotions and responses I would have to watching live porn.
This is also in video form on youtube. Apparently these books are in the town library and given to children without question.
I do not mind what other adults do, I am liberal as long as no one is being abused and that the adults are making choices, and as an adult I can decide not to look again, I was utterly disgusted and woke in the night feeling stressed about it, but I know that the effect on me will be minimal. Children do not have the same judgement, cannot handle the feelings related to adult sex stuff, cannot make choices, cannot foresee the sort of harm it could do them, without adult help. and I am assuming most of the adults are not aware of what they are looking at half the time and so children keep looking.
I really just cannot imagine the effect this is going to be having on all the children reading this sort of things regularly, the effect on how they treat each other in the future and what they would find “normal” and acceptable.
Children can't handle the feelings related to adult sex stuff, they can't put it in context or make choices or value judgements for themselves.
What with this and violent video games it is not surprising that mental health problems are spiralling, teens are filming each other in degrading ways and posting it online, violence against women and children ever increasing,is it?
Do people agree? It seems it is all over the place, this and similar things, and children feel that if they don't join in they will get left out.