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NEWS: Manga Artist Megumi Igarashi Appears in Court on Obscenity Charges

I guarantee that if one man, just ONE, were arrested over the Kanamara Matsuri, you'd see the law repealed within a week.

MaxSouth wrote:

There is nothing obscene in human body (or sex). Those fake hypocritical morals are insult to humanity, what actually obscene is those stupid laws.

I think you are being a little bit extreme calling the laws an "insult". There are many reasons why and how genitals became an obscene part of the body, and it stretches to the earliest humans. First, with the invention of clothing, body parts naturally became covered with comfortable cloths that offer warmth and small protection. Second, growth of the ideas of faithfulness to one's spouse spurred the behavior of only having intercourse with your soul mate, leading to the shamefulness of exposing your genitals to people other than your loved one. There are other reasons as well such as peer pressure and protection. Imagine how easy it would be for a rapist to rape someone if the woman were walking around with their vagina open. Sometimes it not the cultural aspect, but rather all the other factors that contributed to this. There may not be anything obscene in the human body, but that still doesn't mean you get to walk around flashing your junk at people.

Cptn_Taylor wrote:

How about drawing manga/doujinshi with prepubescent characters having sex ? It's ok. But oh my, draw one uncensored penis or vagina (of adult characters) and the whole world comes crashing down on you. That's Japan.

That is illegal though, it didn't used to be, but it is now. Any that are being made are probably being self published online.

There's arguments to be made for exposure to the elements, for sure, but I'm not sure that monogamy and clothing are as intertwined as you'd assume. No other monogamous animal has developed clothing, so clothing isn't a primary component of monogamy (and we're not really monogamous to begin with, at least not on some biological absolute level. That's all culture and possessiveness.) As for that last argument, no amount or lack of clothing seems to affect rape cases. If that were the case, cultures that wear the full-bodied burqa would have no instances of rape, ever, which we know isn't the case. We could argue that there's a limit of minimal clothing before the benefits of clothing in this context start having diminishing returns, but either way that's not really the answer there at all. As a not-so-equivalent-analogy, that would be like trying to put an end to theft by arresting people that don't have their doors locked at all times. A locked door does little to stop theft, and the law addresses a variable that only seems causative at first glance and ultimately punishes people for the wrong thing.

Most nudists don't go around "flashing their junk", that's not the point. The point isn't to draw attention to your junk, if anything it's to do away with all the clothing meant to accentuate and advertise your junk (within the confines of "acceptable" as mostly set by media). It's the not-wearing-makeup of clothing.

Edit: I think ultimately these laws are in place for our comfort, whether reasonable or not. It's got more to do with our discomfort with sexuality and the sexualization of nudity. When it's a poster or something we're kinda removed from it, as opposed to having naked people in our space. I think most societies would have to change drastically before these kinds of laws could be repealed, but until then it makes sense - it means less discomfort and social tension to have them in place.

This is what america did to japan in the 19th century to "open up": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakumatsu.
They are not living in their culture anymore and lost even more of it after WW2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postwar_Japan
Like their partner germany. They actualy teach us stuff at school here''. I will never call japan saints(ot the yankees or us) but their culture is a bit in the toilet or at least in a chaotic state right now. Just read about this. It is criminal that i(my whole team) am beeing payed by tax dollar to chill an a libary all day but these cops were payed too: animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-07-25/core-magazine-head-editor-2-more-arrested-for-obscene-manga-photos
If i started a list where i spotted 2/3 of an erect dick or half a vaginal in a seinen(or sometimes a josei/shonen) magazine we would be still here tomorrow. They advertises vibrators visibly at sex shops at train stations over here btw. Next to a polic box ! Not a joke. Come to Bonn.

Being monogamous really doesn't make sense in living organisms, because it does not aid in the survival of the species. However, this is one thing that distinguishes us from animals.

Blanchimont wrote:

...

Really? You're the one who's saying we should be naked in public if we want to, so it's YOU who should be enlightening me.

But here's one reason because f*ck it, hygiene. The parts of the human body around the waist serve a number of functions, one of which is waste disposal. No matter how much we attend to our personal hygiene the sweaty nature of our body makes the places we sit down on full of germs and bacteria. If nudity was allowed then every public space I sat on could have had a sweaty naked bottom on it. The public table I eat off in a park could have been sat on by a naked person whose scrotum rested right when I've just put my sandwich. I shouldn't need to be overly careful.

By wearing clothes we're keeping the unpleasant parts of our body contained within fibers that prevent most of the germs from touching surfaces we make contact with. Removing that layer of protection would have serious implications for our society's health.

...Please give a logical and reasonable answer why not, preferably one which is not prejudiced, or clouded by emotions.

Personally, when talking about Japan, or any culture that isn't our own for that matter, whoever we are, we need to get OUT of our own cultural standards before we call them out for being 'hypocrites', not simply because... you don't like or do not understand their policies.

Foreign influence is what got Japan to enact that stupid obscenity law in the first place and I think that's what it's going to take to get it repealed.

I just wonder how many people of influence have the courage to stand up and do the right thing here.