Adult manga in Library....

[ScrumYummy]

I just gets me that the books have a big flippin' box on the front that says TEEN. And nobody seemed to notice or care.

This was my reply to the topic on the AC:

[Kugyou]

Further wonderfulness regarding manga and libraries. I'll wait for you to read the article, then I've got something strange to say.

http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/8510.html

Read it? Cool. Now for the double-whammy.

When I was in high school, all those years ago, I remember peeking through the art & art history section of my school "media center" (a library with two computers, and the AV equipment only teachers could use). In said section was a book that for all my recollection I can only believe was on the history of Japanese animation. I remember being interested in the book because I was doing a report on the migration of japanese animation into America (this was 1996, when anime was still this totally new thing). However, the book was unusable. It focused entirely on the adult aspects of anime and manga, just about claimed that manga's role as "irresponsible pictures" meant that it was about expressing fantasies of rape and abuse, and in essence boiled down to JPNESE R PERVS LOL. Funny that this book was considered A-OK by our media center specialist - the same man who decided that a book on nude photography was too racy for high school eyes, and that art books with graphic nudes shouldn't be allowed either.

And to point back to a previous comment I made:

http://home.hiwaay.net/~tfharris/pulpculture/columns/030807.shtml

Behold, the obscenity trial of Jesus Castillo.

In the immortal words of the prosecuting attorney, "Comic books are for kids."

[Yunni]

I'm sorry - but this made me giggle:

[Silver Adept]

[Ultrawolf]

That is -really- really crappy Kugyo.

[Kugyou]

Stuff like what that prosecutor said really makes me wish we could do something about what lawyers can and cannot say during closing arguments. As it stands, an attorney is pretty much allowed to testify without being sworn in, without the possibility of being cross-examined, and without scrutiny from the opposing counsel. Even better if you get to make the last statement, because there's absolutely zero chance the other guy can rebut you. To further elaborate on Volfie's "took advantage of the jury" comment, the guy told them to ignore the testimony of an expert witness.

The main theme in all three of these cases is the same: someone is threatened with some sort of draconian action (oversight or jail time) because they ran afoul of a "community standard" that they may not have even known. In the case of the manga (or manga history) in the library, it's just about gotten to book-burning status - a community deciding that it needs to tell its library what exactly it can and cannot have within its walls. In the case of Jesus Castillo, he sold an adult item to an adult who just happened to be out for blood (note that the article specifically identifies the buyer as an undercover police officer). That's the one thing I hate about obscenity laws - they are completely subject ot the whims of each community, so something that is considered commonplace in L.A. could get you an obscenity charge in Salt Lake City. There just seems to be a problem with the rights structure here. I've always believed in the following:

• Federal law where it does not conflict with a state's right to sovereignty (as provided by the tenth amendment).
  
• State's rights where they do not infringe upon personal liberty.
  
• Personal liberty as far as it does not infringe upon the liberty of others.
  

Shouldn't a law that can apply to any citizen of the United States apply to them all equally? Where in the Constitution does it make it a job of the government to protect a community from things it doesn't want to see? I can understand a law like this being different between countries, but allowing such a wide variance in a law within a country just leads to division and ignorance. Those who keep a restrictive hold on what is considered obscene are labeled as prudes, and those who would rather move away from an area than deal with that sort of restriction are labeled as perverts.

Then again, I'll admit that I'm against obscenity laws as a whole because their only argument stems from the slippery slope "think of the children" argument.

ZOMG A CHILD COULD SEE THIS WE MUST PROTECT THE CHILDREN!

Mm-hmm. How about you just don't let little Johnny take a peek in my bookshelves and voila, he won't see all the naughty dirty copies of Ranma 1/2. No one's forcing your kid to see anything. Funny how people talk about "exploited children" when a teen manga contains the silhouette of a breast, yet no one seems to care when those same well-adjusted children are paraded about as "damaged goods" so that their parents can call hellfire down upon the makers of said manga.

[~Tsuki~]

[Silver Adept]