5PM: Thoughts on lolicons + other stuff.

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imK

Artful Dodger
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Hi NUF.


I'm actually supposed to be working on three blog posts I have due by midnight. My muse has decided to take a break so I figured I'll do this one first while I wait for their return. This first post will be all over the place topic-wise, so bear with me.

The first time around I made an account solely because I happened across some great translations here and wanted to store my bookmarks. Sure enough I ended up forgetting the login details to that account, so I made this one. It wasn't until recently I noticed the forum tab and decided to click on it. The topics and interesting personalities keep me entertained while I work, shortening long hours as they fly past me.

I recently joined in a post about loli vs. paedo and to be honest I'm still thinking my way through it. My original introduction to the term was in the early 90's, having read Nabakov's work "Lolita", which details an adult man's obsession with the titular character, a 12 year old girl named Dolores Haze. Not knowing how far I can walk up to the forum rules without falling off the cliff I'll go as far as to say I found it a disturbing, thought-provoking piece of literature and the memory of it has stuck with me ever since.

Young teenage me was introduced to j-rock by my half Japanese cousins and I started getting into visual kei in a time where you had to mail order everything. It took me 5 nerve-wracking weeks waiting for my Gackt-era Malice Mizer set to arrive before I could finally hang my prized poster on the wall alongside other favourites including Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Snoop Dogg, Massive Attack, Chemical Brothers, Busta Rhymes, Portishead and Led Zeppelin. Through the magazines my cousins regularly brought back from their trips back to Japan I became familiar with Lolita style and fashion (among other subcultures there), recognizing that the original Lolita I had read wasn't the only definition of the genre.

The internet improved and I was into my late teens. Chatrooms were big on this side of the world and everybody was in them. Predators were more open about their intentions back when the internet was still on its training wheels. You could be in a chatroom with 200+ other complete strangers in an open general channel with little kids and there would still be people ERP'ing, asking for nudes, demanding nudes and throwing A/S/L's in the shared chat like it was the end of the world and they all needed lose their V card. It was wild times for sure.

I joined a bunch of chat rooms and forums for gaming, music, etc and got to meet people from all over the world. Some of those people were loli's, most of them around my age and heavily into the vibe of it. Style-wise, I was more into rock/garage rock/alt rock/grunge/whatever you call it, too many genres, but it didn't stop me from asking questions and admiring loli-culture as a unique fashion and mindset of its own. As far as I know, I didn't meet any children around this time, only fellow teen-early 20's peers who were like me: Determined to represent themselves honestly, openly enjoying the things they liked despite the derision of their more mainstream peers (and society in general).

Years later I kept floating around the internet in my spare time, meeting people and finding friends who shared the same interests I did. I'd largely avoided hentai since the 2D exaggerations of the female form did nothing for me and I wasn't into the dub-con/non-con majority of material widely available. I felt disturbed when I first came across 2D loli-hentai, especially since it was mostly extremely young girls (aged 10-14 on average), making a hasty retreat any time I caught a whiff of it. Out of boredom I eventually dived into the deeper and darker parts of the internet I suspected existed and deeply regretted being right. Humanity is equal parts profane and divine and I really don't want to explain any further than that.

Interestingly, writing this post helped me figure out my answer to the question "What do you think of legal lolis?". I'll go post it after this and hope I don't inadvertently encourage another flame war. My reply is if it's non-sexual and purely a nostalgic fondness for youth, innocence and naivety I have no problem with it. If it's sexual and based around underage young people, I'm against it. If it involves adults, I feel uncomfortable and dislike it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to decry it.

Well, I better get back to work. Those blog posts won't write themselves and I only have a couple of hours left to get them all done. No rest for the wicked.

You, orematcha, Momoyuki and 7 others like this.

Comments

    1. imK Feb 14, 2020
      @MadraRua thank you for your comment and you don't sound preachy at all - just honest and passionate. I agree with you that there should be a line and anything to do with sexualizing our vulnerable young is where I put my foot down.
      MadraRua likes this.
    2. MadraRua Feb 14, 2020
      And today I learned what a 'loli' is.... :eek: I find the portrayal of young children or prepubescents in a perverse or sexual manner to be completely out of bounds. It's a taboo topic for sure, but you have to draw a line otherwise things can get ambiguous and those with nefarious intentions learn they can get around legal stop checks. Child pornography or the exploitation of children for sexual gratification, even if it's just a drawing, is based on some form of reality depending on the individual. Where does it stop? That's the point. I think it's an obsession or predilection that's best not to be encouraged at all.

      I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound preachy and I'm all for 'each to their own' but in this case it's best not to go there in the first place.
      celleit likes this.
    3. imK Feb 14, 2020
      Thank you @blues86 and @otaku31 for visiting my blog. I am absolutely the artful dodger, caught up in my own illusion of cleverness <3 Luckily for me I have a bunch of friends and family to pop that bubble on the regular. Completely agree with your statement about lolicon being more than just another term for sexual desire when it has expanded in so many different directions over time.
      blues86 and otaku31 like this.
    4. blues86 Feb 14, 2020
      Wow I know you are a good writer.
      I basically agree that it's not okay to look at children in sexual way. And it seems I am not long enough in internet.
    5. otaku31 Feb 14, 2020
      @celleit Your stance on the issue reflects your custom title(?) *reminds you that even the Artful Dodger gets caught eventually*
      It's more the origin of the term than it's present usage that makes me uncomfortable. I like children, too, almost always in manga and sometimes (cuz real kids can be brats) in RL as they remind me of my lost innocence (like you said). I don't obsess over them, tho. But kids in hentai? No way! That said, I think this community uses the term "lolicon" more in a lighthearted, jocular manner than in any dubious, questionable, depraved way (tho there are some who might think otherwise).

      But I agree with you. If someone looks at children (even fictional ones) in a sexual way, they've got problems. I'm also against the excessive advocacy/promotion of prepubescent figures/bodies under the thinly disguised banner of "legal loli"; there's far too many of those in JP media nowadays.

      I think I've talked too much, so...
      *checks pocket* Whew, safe!
      Bye! :sushi_bye: