No joke here. I just think stuff like this is interesting.

  • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    But they sure do have a culture of sexualizing pre-pubescent girls and then making some weird excuse as to why it’s okay!

    I say this as an avid fan of Anime; but I sometimes have to quit shows over it.

      • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Really? Because other than weird outliers like Cutie or whatever, that’s not really a thing in American culture; at least not in public media. The clergy is another story altogether! Like sure, there’s plenty of sexualizing 16 and up; but japan is shameless about it, these girls look 10-12 half of the time. They only JUST raised the age of consent from age 13 to age 16. It was the lowest in the world just prior.

        It’s just a weird culture overall - everyone being shamed into looking exactly the same, insane emphasis on working so hard you keel over from it, etc.

          • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            That’s not really a popular thing in America. Especially for younger girls.

            • bizarroland@fedia.io
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              3 months ago

              Oh yeah so it’s not like a nationwide thing that constantly goes on in every single city and state in America or anything.

              Oh wait, it is. Beauty pageants are fucking everywhere my friend.

              And also, if you want to talk about dealing with the people that sexually assault underage people, you should start with the major players first and then work your way down.

              You can start with the Catholic Church and then all of the other churches, for instance. There’s your hot spot, a location where men are given an inordinate amount of power and respect and authority within very small and insular communities without any direct oversight.

              Pedos love that shit.

              • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Oh yeah so it’s not like a nationwide thing that constantly goes on in every single city and state in America or anything.

                Yeah, you’re right. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Beauty_pageants_in_the_United_States – Here’s all of them. They fit on a single page. Most of them stopped completely after the pandemic. They aren’t something watched by millions on TV, or attended in droves; so in comparison – yeah. Across the whole of the USA; they’re popular in some deep red states – Kentucky and the like, and like 2 companies try to push them; but they are largely a BLIP in America’s cultural significance.

                Meanwhile, in easily half of this seasons Anime; I could show you bits where they’re pushing incest, or sexualizing minors. There is a HUGE difference in the acceptability of that shit when it comes to Japan. They’re moving in the right direction, and curtailing it - but it doesn’t even compare.

                • glimse@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  (adding to your point) By the names alone, the vast majority of those are for adults. So not only are they wrong about the popularity of pageants, they’re wrong to imply pageants are an example the US sexualizing adolescents

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  That is not even close to all of them. Every county in every state has a Miss ___ County which go on to the state fair to be the Miss for the whole state. They are often teenagers. There is also usually a “Junior Miss” category for younger teens or even pre-teens.

                  Where I live, there is a county pageant and a city pageant. Neither are on that page.

                  Believe it or not, Wikipedia lists are not necessarily comprehensive.

                  • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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                    3 months ago

                    Every county in every state has a Miss ___ County which go on to the state fair to be the Miss for the whole state.

                    This shit stopped ages ago. Dunno what bumfuck state you live in that still does these, but it’s not as widespread as you purport.

              • SoJB@lemmy.ml
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                3 months ago

                Additionally, it seems like suburban Americans love making these pedo accusations while pretending the US isn’t a hotspot for global pedophilia.

                Like, have these people ever even seen a Japanese middle school? Look at those kids and tell me unironically they’re being sexualized.

                Yes it’s still weird as hell to sexualize kids in media. Gee I wonder where they picked up that habit from as a colony of the West.

                American 12 year olds regularly walk around in crop tops and “leggings” and a kid can’t walk 100 feet in America without being sexually harassed by old men.

                Just more typical “x is bad in bad country, but good in good country” rhetoric from the right and liberals. Oh look they united again, I just can’t stop seeing it happen for some reason.

                • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  I’m not saying America doesn’t have these problems. I’m saying America doesn’t put these things so directly in the media that you actively have to avoid it.

                  violence on the other hand, is a whole different story. You wanna avoid acts of violence in American media? You practically can’t.

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          Really? Because other than weird outliers like Cutie or whatever, that’s not really a thing in American culture

          The majority of anime is not made for Japan’s general domestic market. There are niches in Japanese society who consume weird anime, but it’s not like your everyday normal business dude is watching them.

          It’s just a weird culture overall - everyone being shamed into looking exactly the same, insane emphasis on working so hard you keel over from it, etc.

          That’s just because they’ve lived in what is essentially a defanged fascist government since the end of WW2. During the Meiji restoration they basically destroyed their own culture and reinvented themselves as empirical conquerors. Unlike Germany after ww2 the empirical ruling class wasn’t prevented from participating in government, so they’ve basically had a long line of war criminals followed by the children of war criminals controlling the government since.

        • Soulg@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          other than weird outliers

          Any anime or manga that sexualizes young children are also weird outliers, yet they’re being treated as the norm?

          • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            When they’re more than half of what is produced in that sphere…they are no longer an outlier.

        • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          You know a bunch of Southern states are trying to lower the marriage age, right?