UN Elimination of Discrimination against Women in anime and video games

The United Nations committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women recently, drafted legislation calling for Japan to ban all “sexual discrimination” against women in video games and anime. The committee states that it is “concerned with the normalization of sexual violence and cartoons featuring rape, gang rape, stalking, and the sexual molestation of women and girls”.

While it is understandable to be concerned about such themes as rape, it is not real! Nobody is actually being harmed, as this is merely animation that was created in the imagination of the artists. As disturbing and offensive as such animations may be, banning them is an attack on not only the imagination of Japan, but all mankind! It seems South Park’s imagination land episodes held a bit of foresight to them after all.

One such anime that springs to mind is Ninja Scroll, and it’s infamous rape scene. However, seeing this did not make me a fan of rape nor did it “normalize” it for me. If anything, it reflected an ugly aspect of life that unfortunately does happen. And isn’t that what art is supposed to do — to reflect the condition of the world in which we live? Although games, anime, and comics depicting rape and other forms of sexual violence may seem immoral, I reference Oscar Wilde when I say that art IS immoral.

I’m sure there is much debate to be had on this topic, and I would love to hear your thoughts on the legislation!

thanks JK for the post!

source: www2.ohchr.org