The Search For Sex-Positive Hentai by David Ochart

Any thoughts on this article?

It's The Maru Sue, the day those peoples are anything but clickwhores is the day the sun freezes.

Well, I know nothing about the site it's on but it's obviously some sort of comic blog with a stupid name. According to their "About Us" section they love feminism and are super inclusive while actively trying to make "geekdom...safe and open for everyone." And that's where they fail. You can't take a blanket term for a group of associated subcultures and make it safe and open. There's a reason that these kinds of things skirt around the edge of the mainstream, but I guess the folks at the Mary Sue don't realize this.

As for the article itself there isn't much to say really. It seems to have been written by a rather immature fellow who wants to tell people what to think and doesn't really want to thoroughly research his topic. He seems to think that rape fantasies are really horrible and alienate women despite the fact that he harps on yaoi, which he identifies as targeting women specifically, for also largely focusing on rape. And then at the end he sort of backpedals and pretty much says, "hey guys, I know that I said that things that depict non-consensual sex are flat out wrong, but some women might enjoy this weird weeb porn after all, so whatever!" So end the end he just kind of rambled and reinforced negative stereotypes about hentai, good for him.

I read their stuff pretty often (I'm a nerd girl and I like my nerd news) and have thought about writing up a responding article for submission since it was obvious they had no idea how to navigate hentai, and it's also quite out dated. The site itself has issues with the hypocritical stances they take since it's based on whatever definition of feminism their writers decide to follow. (and there are a LOT of different interpretations) I've held off though because as stated above and with most blog sites it's click bait oriented. I doubt they've even be interesting in posting whatever I wrote up. But seeing as vanilla is the most published thing on here it's obvious they didn't really try in their research.

Hentai has something for everything, even feminists looking for sex positive stuff. In response to the article I've started a sex positive collection, though I honestly haven't been keeping up with it too much.

Dunno if anyone else can see my collections but here it is: Sex Positive

It's just basically a feel good, consensual, happy sex collection.

I'd say go for it. It's on them whether or not they decide to use whatever you send in but it would be good if they would actually post something on the topic written by a reasonably well-informed person. Helpful for their reader base too, or at least the ones who may be on the fence about this sort of thing.

The only warning I've got is that I wouldn't sugar-coat the truth too much. Negative stereotypes exist for a reason. The world of hentai is one with far fewer inhibitions than the world of mainstream live-action pornography and this allows for an interesting breadth of topics and styles but also for some truly bizarre and depraved shit. If you do send people down the path to enlightenment, make sure to mention that ol' David was not entirely wrong but that he just sort of scratched the surface. Also if your article could avoid David's moralizing, that would be awesome as well.



And yes, your link works just fine and it looks like a nice enough collection though I have yet to take the plunge and subscribe so it is really just a list on my end.

I actually emailed one of their writers. She'd written an article complaining about SoulCalibur hiring Yamatogawa to design female characters, and I decided to email her and maybe start a conversation. But so far I haven't received a reply. I'll just put it on here because it contains some thoughts I do want to talk about:

Hi Sam!

So, I recently read your short article on The Mary Sue where you complained about Soucalibur hiring hentai artist Yamatogawa. Personally I don't care about that game, or gaming in general, so I don't mind your complaints. But I do take issue with you implying that Yamatogawa's work is misogynistic.

Don't worry, I'm not going to rant and hate here. The thing is just that: I'm a huge fan of hentai, and I'm also a feminist. So of course I prefer hentai that are more women-friendly, and I would disagree with David Ochart that it's difficult to find. In the case of Yamatogawa I find his stories to do a good job of portraying female characters with personality that enjoy sex, as opposed to simple fetish-toys. Sure not everything he's written is consensual, but his latest book is a collection of stories that are romantic as opposed to edgy (you can find more information about it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/digitalmanga/vanilla-essence-a-heartwarming-erotic-manga-anthol/description).

Another thing I also want to talk about is: does hentai need to be sex-positive? Vanilla (heartwarming hentai) is currently the most popular genre by a wide margin. I used to think that was perfect, but now I'm not so sure. In the last year or so there have been many hentai-fans who have spoken up about their disdain for the vanilla-dominance and requested that publishers caters to more obscene fetishes and taboo subject matters. We have seen a response to that with Project-H publishing Deep Stalker and FAKKU publishing Bestiary 3.

As much as we want to encourage healthy attitudes about sex and women, can we also acknowledge that a large aspect of pornography is to indulge in taboo? We all have that side to ourselves that we don't share with others and intellectually know is wrong, but that we can't help to desire in secret. Obscene fetishes and dark fantasies that we feel ashamed of yet enjoy having catered by works of fiction like Deep Stalker or Bestiary 3. I'll admit that even I'm not above that (though I won't tell anyone in what sort of way). So is it really right to wish that it didn't exist?

Just some food for thought.

You should stop reading the Mary Sue, Everwood, you can't earn any knowledge from a bunch of people who don't give a shit about journalistic integrity, specifically because they are not journalists.

Everything they write is poorly made and poorly educated pieces of opinion, this is complete garbage but it's good for them because it entices you to click.

Good e-mail. I've grown really tired of diabetes vanilla myself. The level of vanilla in a story I like would be Couple by Kosuke Haruhito (which I think is pretty sex-positive) or Bougainvillea by Akinosora. One thing I actually dislike about standard vanilla is the girls' expressions. Many have tears and pained expressions. I love love love ahegao because it means the girl is actually enjoying the sex quite obviously.

Aaanyway, while I'm sure the article is just an opinion trying to be passed as journalism, I hope your e-mail gives them some pause. Because fuck if they think the fetishes I have shouldn't exist. I ain't ashamed.

The article that I responded too was pretty much garbage. It was just her venting her rage about SoulCalibur and dismissing people who might disagree with her. Clearly she resented the argument about freedom of speech when really that is a valid argument.

I still identify as a feminist. The thing is, I read this article once that criticised the saying: I'm for equality but I'm not a feminist. The article was clear to point out that such reasoning does exist because of the terrible state modern feminism is in, with blogs circling online demanding misandry in the name of feminism. But it also made it clear that if you stand by equality at all, then you should have no problem calling yourself a feminist. Otherwise you're a hypocrite (and there are few things I hate more than hypocrisy).



I totally agree with you about girl's expressions. I much more prefer vanilla with ahegao, rare as it might be. It just makes it feel more real, whereas tears just makes it feel too purified if you will.

I haven't received a reply to the email yet. Part of me wonders if she just erased it right after reading it.