CNN: “Japan is a Sexist & Repressed Nation of Perverts”
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Apr 4, 2010 07:36 JST
- Tags: Censorship, Eroge, Feminism, Mass Media, Politics, USA
CNN has followed up on its successful resurrection of the RapeLay furore with yet more eroge muckraking, coming out with such gems of unbiased journalism as “It is terribly easy to condemn Japan as a sexist and repressed culture with a government that chooses to look the other way.”
CNN’s star Japan bashing reporter Kyung Lah, herself Korean, now digs out a leftist academic whose pathetic excuse for a teaching career includes teaching a variety of fluff courses on anime and “Japanese popular culture,” in order lend weight to the usual facile feminist critique of Japan as being a hellish nation were women live in abject bondage as mere sexual objects.
In the two days since CNN.com posted the story on hentai games (specifically, the “RapeLay” video game), there have been thousands of comments, more than a million page views and many questions about how a culture can produce this genre of games and then quietly allow the industry to thrive.
It is terribly easy to condemn Japan as a sexist and repressed culture with a government that chooses to look the other way. Part of that would be true, but the reason hentai continues to thrive in a country as progressive as Japan is a complex cultural issue.
Kyle Cleveland, an associate professor of sociology at Temple University in Japan, teaches a course called “Youth and Deviant Subcultures in Japan.”
Yes, there is enough material to fill an entire university level syllabus. Cleveland explains that the outrage from critics is borne through the prism of their own cultures, a Western sensibility with an entirely different cultural norm than what exists in Japan.
“Japan is a patriarchal society. It has been historically and remains to this day,” said Cleveland. “It’s no surprise that this is expressed in mass media and pornography. The moral entrepreneurs that are scrutinizing Japan have both a feminist history and cultural tradition that is simply not in play in Japan.”
According to the 2009 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap report, Japan ranked 101 out of 134 countries, called abysmally low by women’s groups considering it is the world’s second largest economy.
“What you have in Japan is policymakers and politicians who are in some ways blind to these issues because you have a relatively male-dominated, elderly political class that was raised under a different set of gender norms and have never acknowledged the feminist critiques that have become integrated in American and Western consciousness. There are whole sets of non-issues that are not raised for political debate in Japan, so they don’t filter into the consciousness of most Japanese people,” said Cleveland.
But they are becoming issues in our borderless digital world. Japan’s Gender Equality Bureau of the Cabinet Office told CNN that the government was aware the international community is outraged by the games.
The national government is considering making possession of child pornography illegal — currently it is not. But this possible change to the law is due to outside pressure, not internal protest.
Cleveland says Japan has some of the most heinous examples of child pornography in the world. “It’s a country that has been held to task by the U.N. for human trafficking and exploitation of women.”
“Japan has ways of expressing sexuality that are practically indecipherable to a Western sensibility but that are so normalized in Japan that the Japanese don’t often understand or acknowledge the critiques that are made against them,” Cleveland says.
Cleveland believes the international debate will pressure Japan to amend its laws, making it harder for hentai games to be sold and distributed. He believes Japan will not comply for moral reasons but because “it’s politically expedient.”
But he cautions those who are appalled to take a look within their own culture.
“What provokes people about Japan is the cultural distance which inclines people to see Japan as exceptionally lurid or perverse simply because it expresses sexuality in ways outside of Western norms. Japan is in some ways not that different than other cultures, including the United States, which has its own gender problems that are quite apparent.”
Incidentally, the reporter responsible for this latest bout of muckraking, a Korean born American named Kyung Lah, was sacked from her previous broadcasting job after a scandal erupted over her cheating on her husband with her boss.
She also admits in an interview that she thinks “about the larger question of being Korean every single moment,” or in other words that she is most probably infected with the Korean hyper-nationalism which frequently manifests itself in irrational hatred of all things Japanese.
Just why CNN would think it is appropriate to have a feminist adulterer and Korean nationalist engage in a smear campaign against Japanese culture on its network, all by way of a resurrecting a year-old story whose main effect seems to have been encourage illegal downloads of a game now pulled due to feminist pressure and in any case never released outside Japan, is an interesting question.
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http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/
Look at the bottom of the page for a poll. Time to get voting.
Heh...They should also put this next to it:
"Should America Ban Violent Video Games?"
One involves genital mutilation, while the other involves getting ripped in half by a chainsaw mounted on a gun~
Violence is violence and I love it~
It's all 2D anyway~
oh god i lol'd at the results
No comment to CNN. Good picture.:D
Why that reporter...
>Korean
Ah.
I see someone's been taking their "how to avoid libel" classes.
ie: It's terribly easy to condemn Kyung Lah as a syphilitic whore of a woman who can't get an orgasm without murdering a dog. Part of that (specifically, the part about being a woman) would be true, but why she's still employed at CNN remains a mystery.
Some serial killers actual cum the moment they kill their victims...Kinda like a wet dream...
That aside, she'll get what's coming to her if this affects the hentai community...
Karma's a bigger b*tch after all...
"the reason hentai continues to thrive in a country as progressive as Japan is a complex cultural issue."
So all they're trying to prove is that everything that isn't they way America wants it to be is an 'issue'?
“Japan is a Sexist & Repressed Nation of Perverts”
And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Amen...I love Japan that way~
Cleveland sounded pretty sensible to me. I feel a bit sick as a man every time I see a woman pour a drink for a man in anime. The oppression it represents is just disgusting.
Doesn't stop me from enjoying raep hentai, though :)
I hate watching women get killed in anime since I think it's a bloody waste of a cute girl...
But that doesn't stop me from popping a boner and fapping to their corpse though...
I see that they have nothing else to report about regarding home affairs. After all, we already know that close to 10% or so of America's working population is unemployed, or as they would say it "lazy bastards", the whole Republican rage over Obama's Health Care Bill ids starting to die down a bit and they don't really seem to care what else is going on in their own country anymore.
So what do they do? They go the 'Fox way' and make up stories that are guaranteed to play on people's basic emotions. Anything with the words 'child' and 'porn' will surely create a huge flame war among the overly worried parents who are too busy with work to actually care for their offspring and leave their babies in the hands of people you can trust less than your average stranger.
The biggest reason for this "hate Japan" business is because they don't understand the country's culture, morals and values. They only see the excesses and not the good stuff that comes from Japan. And making a sensationalist story will still attract more viewers than a well-thought out, balanced and properly investigated story where both sides can defend themselves equally.
Of course, every country has a few skeletons in its closet, Japan is no exception. But why do outsiders feel the need to tell other countries what is right or wrong? I'm sure the country itself can do that just fine.
*Sigh*
When the f*ck are they ever going to leave Hentai--, er, Japan alone..?
Probably not in any of our lifetime...
But yes, Japan can do without outside interference...Especially from feminists, moralfags, and ignorant religious zealots...
If it weren't for the moralfaqs in the past there probably wouldn't be censored hentai today
I don't want to live in a country were Korean born American women sexually oppressing little boy's into having sex with them.
Perhaps Americans feel that their live porn industry is being infringed upon…or maybe they are jealous that their bloodlust, having real life consequences, is not considered as kinky as fictional H? I don’t need to look far to realize that the USA has several issues to work on before churching the relatively tranquil Japan.
this is what happens when you give women an opinion
On hentai anyway...Hentai should be a religion...
Everything else, I care not about...
People need to start countering this misinformation with correct information. It isn't a goddamn "game" like grand theft auto. It's PORN I keep seeing people talk about the goddamn children and how their parents should watch them better. You can find LOTS of fantasy rape videos which AREN'T illegal, so why the hell should a interactive pornographic video be?
Seriously they're trying to put this under the guise of a "game" similar to mortal combat and grand theft auto so they can get support and money, when in fact it's just fantasy porn which you interact with!
Spread the information that this is an interactive fantasy video, no it is not a game which you play casually to have "fun".
LMAO wow, I know the guy who did this interview. I went to school there XD He makes some good points though. You go, Kyle Cleveland!!
Japan is my heaven!
They know what men needs and they have it.
Not like in europe - My country is so feministic!
It sucks
This is another example of idiotic, ignorant and narrow-minded media at its best. To start with:
“Japan is a patriarchal society. It has been historically and remains to this day,” said Cleveland.
-Well, that and almost every other country in the world, yours included too.
Cleveland says Japan has some of the most heinous examples of child pornography in the world. “It’s a country that has been held to task by the U.N. for human trafficking and exploitation of women.”
-Last I heard, child exploitation wasn't just confined to Japan, what happened to the other child-unfriendly countries then?
“What provokes people about Japan is the cultural distance which inclines people to see Japan as exceptionally lurid or perverse simply because it expresses sexuality in ways outside of Western norms.
-Er...Western ideals aren't the only ones around, you know. Nor are they always the best.
Well, that's my side.
americans only care about their selfs and their own ideals =/
Western norms and ideals? They forgot that Japan is the EAST
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
hentai is bad, mmkay? it's bad.
stupidest article ever
I don't know about you people but my highschool had like 15 pregnant chicks, and majority of kids where fucking each other, and thats in the school, out of school is worse =/, I hate cnn
Why am I NOT surprised at this comment, unfortunately the "good ole US of A" seems to think it is ok to criticise other countries for their "failings" [in their eyes certainly not mine] as if they hold a gold + moral seal on society.
Personally America annoys the crap out of me, sorry I will rephrase that, the politicians of America annoy the crap out of me, as I come from their "lapdog" the UK.
Why can't people just clean up the crap they have in their own countries and leave the rest of the world to do their dirty laundry themselves [assuming the said country has any in the first place]
This is not an anti American post as I have friends from many nations the USA among them.
Because nothing gets America off than policing the rest of the world...
Funny thing is that here in Brazil we have a sexually open culture, where women who say they are "right" to display more commonly than the prostitutes themselves who make money with your body, and nobody to this day controversy has not done about it. Ero-games are a part of Japanese culture, other countries should not try to interfere with that. Where is the political freedom of the countries that are obliged to maintain a "standard" worldwide on topics that have long been treated as natural?
They are pretty much trying to destroy a culture that existed before they were even born...
Hentai goes back over 100 years ago...
Hell, even tentacle sex~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dream_of_the_fishermans_wife_hokusai.jpg
Oh no! It's Cirno's News Network again!
I think there was a term called "It's none of your business".
I do not know why Japan allows the US to make criticisms on their own culture; because essentially what the US is doing is "imposing" their western unto them on the basis of "moral" grounds.
I've seen episodes of Star Trek that tackled this issue of culture vs morality vs civilisation vs international relations. Apparently CNN doesn't get it; if a culture has established itself as such, and there isn't much trouble brewing up, might as well live with it. It's not like "apartheid" or the "holocaust". There isn't anyone getting killed as a result of this culture.
CNN seems to want to point out other country's problems and choose to ignore their own set of problems. People forget that Africa isn't the only country with malnourished children, and Japan isn't the only country with a twisted porn industry. The US has a share of both.
someone pass this to 2chan :3
Funny, a leftist and extreme rightist (as nationalists are) joining together?
"Japan is a Sexist & Repressed Nation of Perverts"
- does it took CNN so long to realize ? (only joking:)
Why they don't look at Islamic countries before they mess with Japan.
And if Japan is sooo bad, why do they have such a low crime rate ?
They are only jealous because they don't have Miku :)
this made me laugh because the feminist's are allway's raging about some really dumb crap that really isn't there business in the first place and they really mean to rape the item that is so called deemed offensive and really i just laugh at them for making such big deals over nothing
"...have never acknowledged the feminist critiques that have become integrated in American and Western consciousness."
And thank fucking Christ for that. Whatever gender inequality issues Japan has are infinitely preferable to feminism.
Also, this article is stupid and probably 90% factually inaccurate.
It's rather funny really, people find it in themselves to be outraged at a videogame, yet the fact that you can quite littelary buy a child in some of the poorer countries to do with as you wish goes unnoticed
I support Japan's eroge/hentai industry no matter what genre is involved...Futa, guro, loli...
I care not for what the rest of the ignorant world thinks...
They don't know what their missing anyway~
VIVA LA HENTAI!!!
Let's be fair; Japan IS a nation of perverts. That's why we love it!
Or I prefer, Japan has the best shit.
It only means Japanese has more juice on the wall instead of women.
CNN is also called the Communist News Network. CNN, ABC,NBC and CBS have announce that they are liberal network and are democratic party supporters which are leftist.
Not once will CNN tell the truth about Mr. Obama. Why would you expect CNN say something good about Japan.
Ask your right-wing leaders and preachers what they think of otaku culture. Prepare yourself for a shock.
And how about your own violent country where everybody does not need to have their own gun and your govt also choose to look the other way too ! Why US always want to change other country's culture ? I am sure they would love to march into any country like they did to Iraq in the name of helping them to reform or liberate them, while US actually has the shortest history or culture when compare to the countries they invade.
no wait sorry we meant the US is a country of repressed perverts japan is very open in there perversions
Yes, because Japan marries and rapes little children like they do in the Arab countries :sarcasm:
Boy, that last sentence was a mouthful.
Alternate title for the CNN piece.
Attention American Moral Faggots:
Japan isn't a nation cowed by religious fanatics who will never set foot into their country to spout bigotry and intolerance.
We have to shame Japan into pretending to be moral like us...just don't let them know how hypocritical we are or they might not take us seriously.
Remember fucking over japans artists is more important than restricting our out of control corporate greed which is rotting this nations soul from the inside out.
Lovingly yours: YCO Your Corporate Overlords.
So the head of a certain country is found out to have covered up the sexual assault of thousands of people over his lifetime...and Japan is the country run by fucked up old men?
The priests in the catholic church are "well intentioned pedophiles" but japans drawings are vile sinful and we must follow the words in a book written by farmers and goatherders that says said pedophile king is infallible and force our christian bigotry...I mean superior morality on them?
We must show them proper christian morals...aka how do excuse pedophilia using the holy bible.
Pope: has his priests go on child rape world tours and he's holy great and awesome
Japan's politicians: let drawings of space alien robot animal princesses having futa sex get published and they're evil heathens.
Maybe the pope will go to japan personally and convert everyone to shotacon......catholicism.
The countries spiraling down the economic abyss so the solution has to be spend our money prosecuting people who have drawings that make us uncomfortable in our pants.
PS CNN hasn't been a news network for around a decade.
Their "news programs" are jackasses reading and reporting on bullshit like debates between #obamaizantichrzt, #endofworldnobama, the psychotic that runs redstate, a discredited journalist, a washed up journalist, a budding journalist who realized he made a terrible career decision by signing up to that network, a drug addicted homeless man, and a random guy walking down the street all in an octobox while larry king ponders how a man that looks like a turtle can still have sex with young women.