Biography
Gail Dines, Ph.D., is a Professor Emerita of sociology and women’s studies. She has researched and written about the porn industry for over thirty years. She is a recipient of the Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights in North America and the author of numerous books and articles. Her latest book, Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, has been translated into five languages. She is the Founder and President of Culture Reframed, a non-profit organization working to stop the emotional, behavioral, and sexual harms of pornography on children and youth. She has consulted for a number of governments around the world on developing programs and legislation to address the harms of pornography.
Mandy Sanchez, Ph.D., specializes in domestic and sexual violence; the intersectionality of gender, sexualities, place, and trauma; the harms of pornography to young people and women; and justice-involved women and children. She co-founded and remains on the Research Center on Violence at West Virginia University board. She is a trained facilitator for the International Inside Out Prison Exchange Program, developing and coordinating programs on trauma/victimization in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She is Culture Reframed’s Program Coordinator.
Abstract
One of the most popular genres of online pornography today is hentai, sexualized animation, and cartoons in the style of Japanese anime. Data from Pornhub, the world’s best-known pornography website, as well as a recent report from a British regulatory agency and our research, show that much of hentai appeals to children and depicts child-like characters engaged in sexual violence. In almost every instance, this violence targets female characters. Hentai, we show, encourages adults to see minors, especially girls, as legitimate targets of sexual violence. Until the day when these depictions of sexual violence are eradicated, we call for three ameliorative steps: age verification legislation; civil lawsuits; and sex education through a porn-critical lens.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Dines, Gail and Sanchez, Mandy (2023) "Hentai and the Pornification of Childhood: How the Porn Industry Just Made the Case for Regulation," Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence: Vol. 8: Iss. 1, Article 3. https://doi.org/10.23860/dignity.2023.08.01.03
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