Yes, I'm aware that the manga's author is a woman. That's not the point. And I'm aware that the teacher "doesn't respond." That's not the point either.
The point is that the story's main character is an eight-year-old cocktease who is *actively trying to get an adult to have sex with her.*
This is problematic to me.
Think of it this way. What if this were a comic published by some conservative Christian group, and the main character is a child who is constantly trying to provoke their parent into beating them with a belt. The parent is soooo embarrassed by the thought of beating the child, because what would the other parents think? But the whole point of the story is about how this kid really, really, really *wants* to be physically abused. Oh, and sometimes, even though the parent doesn't *want* to, their hand "accidentally" slips and they smack their kid. Hah, physical abuse is so full of "lulz." What a great comic. Surely no one could ever pick up any harmful ideas from it.
Would you argue "But the parent doesn't ever actually beat the child!?"
Or would you be able to see that some people might take the obvious lesson from the story: "Children need/want to be beaten, and when they act in a certain way, they are doing it on purpose because they *want* to be beaten." Even if it never happens in the story, *that's the message*.
The problem is that if an adult male looks at an eight-year-old-- and let's say she falls over and flashes her panties, the way the main character of Nymphet/KnoJ tends to do. And that adult thinks to himself, "She's doing that on purpose, to get me hot," that's creepy enough *as it is*, to imagine that an eight-year-old could actually trying to seduce an adult male in full understanding of what that means. When we're talking about a fictional character-- it doesn't matter whether or not he then "resists" her "advances." It's bizarre enough to have established, in the fictional universe, that an eight-year-old is actually capable of making advances.
I can't imagine not finding Nymphet/KnoJ creepy on those grounds. To me, reading a series where a child really *wants* to be molested is no different from reading a series where women really *want* to be raped, or black people really *want* to be enslaved, or where people over 65 really *want* to be euthanized for the good of everyone, and oh, it's certainly not *my* fault for doing it, they *wanted* it! They were totally asking for it!
"But he never actually molests her" would be a good defense in real life, if we were talking about a real life teacher dealing with a real life sexy child who was trying to get in his pants. But the difference is that in real life, there are no cute, happy, sexy little eight-year-olds running around actively trying to entrap adult males into having sex with them. (And if there are, the right response is not "gosh, how embarrassing! I'll stand here and blush a lot" but "Child psychologist, ASAP, and can we find out something about this kid's home life, because something isn't right here."
But Nymphet/KnoJ is a story that purposely establishes its main character as a sexy little eight-year-old cocktease, and gosh there's just *nothing* that the teacher can *do* about it except stand there and *take* it, over and over and over again. There's more than a little hint of "oh, no, Bre'r Bear, please don't throw me in the briar patch! I'd just *hate* it if you threw me in the briar patch. No, seriously, no! Oh, I'm really hating this! So much!! Let's do it again in the next issue."
no subject
Yes, I'm aware that the manga's author is a woman. That's not the point. And I'm aware that the teacher "doesn't respond." That's not the point either.
The point is that the story's main character is an eight-year-old cocktease who is *actively trying to get an adult to have sex with her.*
This is problematic to me.
Think of it this way. What if this were a comic published by some conservative Christian group, and the main character is a child who is constantly trying to provoke their parent into beating them with a belt. The parent is soooo embarrassed by the thought of beating the child, because what would the other parents think? But the whole point of the story is about how this kid really, really, really *wants* to be physically abused. Oh, and sometimes, even though the parent doesn't *want* to, their hand "accidentally" slips and they smack their kid. Hah, physical abuse is so full of "lulz." What a great comic. Surely no one could ever pick up any harmful ideas from it.
Would you argue "But the parent doesn't ever actually beat the child!?"
Or would you be able to see that some people might take the obvious lesson from the story: "Children need/want to be beaten, and when they act in a certain way, they are doing it on purpose because they *want* to be beaten." Even if it never happens in the story, *that's the message*.
The problem is that if an adult male looks at an eight-year-old-- and let's say she falls over and flashes her panties, the way the main character of Nymphet/KnoJ tends to do. And that adult thinks to himself, "She's doing that on purpose, to get me hot," that's creepy enough *as it is*, to imagine that an eight-year-old could actually trying to seduce an adult male in full understanding of what that means. When we're talking about a fictional character-- it doesn't matter whether or not he then "resists" her "advances." It's bizarre enough to have established, in the fictional universe, that an eight-year-old is actually capable of making advances.
I can't imagine not finding Nymphet/KnoJ creepy on those grounds. To me, reading a series where a child really *wants* to be molested is no different from reading a series where women really *want* to be raped, or black people really *want* to be enslaved, or where people over 65 really *want* to be euthanized for the good of everyone, and oh, it's certainly not *my* fault for doing it, they *wanted* it! They were totally asking for it!
"But he never actually molests her" would be a good defense in real life, if we were talking about a real life teacher dealing with a real life sexy child who was trying to get in his pants. But the difference is that in real life, there are no cute, happy, sexy little eight-year-olds running around actively trying to entrap adult males into having sex with them. (And if there are, the right response is not "gosh, how embarrassing! I'll stand here and blush a lot" but "Child psychologist, ASAP, and can we find out something about this kid's home life, because something isn't right here."
But Nymphet/KnoJ is a story that purposely establishes its main character as a sexy little eight-year-old cocktease, and gosh there's just *nothing* that the teacher can *do* about it except stand there and *take* it, over and over and over again. There's more than a little hint of "oh, no, Bre'r Bear, please don't throw me in the briar patch! I'd just *hate* it if you threw me in the briar patch. No, seriously, no! Oh, I'm really hating this! So much!! Let's do it again in the next issue."
Gag me.