Examination of Sexualized Depictions of Young Schoolgirls in Anime: Opinions and Perspectives of Japanese Women

Date

2023-9-13

Author

Gül, Sungur Alp

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The prevalence of sexualized images and depictions of young girls has become a common point of criticism from the West, and there have been demands to better regulate such content. This paper examines sexualized depictions of young schoolgirl characters in anime and manga as well as Japanese women’s opinions, perceptions, and social acceptance of them, with importance to social and historical content. Using scenes and illustrations from several anime and manga, the sexualization of schoolgirls and criticisms pointed towards them are investigated. These topics were then discussed with Japanese women. Most of them did not approve of relationships between teenagers and adults and were against sexualized images of young characters in anime without proper context, and they have been found to have a more disinterested stance compared the Western criticisms. These results point out that for the most part, the Japanese women shared the concerns of the Western critics towards sexualization of young girls, albeit with more tolerance depending on the context.

Subject Keywords

Sexualization, Gender, Anime, Manga, Schoolgirl, Fantasy, Lolicon

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/105628

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Graduate School of Social Sciences, Term Project