I wouldn't usually cover a story that everybody on the internet is already all over (I have a Mazinger blog to run here), but this one has worrying consequences for pretty much every American manga/anime fan. Christopher Handley has been in some very serious trouble lately. His crime was importing some manga from Japan: a package was randomly searched by the postal inspector, and they decided they did not like what they saw. They didn't like it so much, in fact, that Handley's house was raided. We don't yet know what the comic in question was, but that's not really the point. It can be the most unimaginably horrible thing ever put to print and the government still wouldn't have the right to break into a private citizen's home. Simple reason: it's not real.
Let's get to what's bubbling under the surface here: lolicon makes me sick, guys. Hell, a lot of my own comics make me sick. But it's got absolutely nothing to do with what makes us sick. Fiction contains these things. Should anybody ever be sent to jail for fiction? Why? What does that accomplish? At best, we've prevented something from happening that we had no way of knowing would actually happen, punished a theoretical crime. Good job?
Anyway, long story short, Handley's been in legal hell since '06. Jerked around and manipulated by clueless law enforcement (an ad for Gaogaigar was used against him, I kid you not), yesterday he finally put in a guilty plea, finishing the government's long work of wrecking his life. He could be put away for up to 15 years for comic books. This is insane.
As fans of anime and manga, and under the insanely strict standards applied to Handley, I wouldn't be surprised if all of us have something that could be deemed obscene by an overzealous postal inspector. I've got my Koike comics, mainstream fans have their sexualized teenagers, and the moe fans have, well.. everything. How many jails would we need to fit everybody who ever bought that Hellsing volume where the Nazi vampire takes a big ol' bite out of a baby? It's child abuse, you know! So, yeah, it's draconian madness and all, but let's stay safe. Let's all not order any comics from Japan for a while, okay? Especially if we're in Iowa. Hell, if I was in Iowa I'd be getting around to burying my comic books under the earth forever about now. Write your representative, give to the CBLDF. Listen to Neil Gaiman.
(note: I am an hour from Book-Off NYC and sacrifice nothing by this course of action)
What pisses me off is that while the government is wasting its time legislating fantasy and law enforcement is wasting its time on hunting witches, children are hurt, abused and violated in this country. Actual children. What positive goal does putting Handley away achieve for us as a society? I just don't see one. The way I see it, the people doing this are just doing it so they can feel better about themselves, so they can say they "protected the children". The children in question, of course, are imaginary: but then, we seem unable to tell the difference anymore. Mission accomplished!
I own Gunsmith Cats. Yeaaaaaah.
Isn't Right Stuf based in Iowa? This has gotta be uncomfortable for them.
Posted by: BotageL | May 21, 2009 at 04:50 PM
Thank God _I_ never bought Gunsmith Cats.
All this child-pornography paranoia really strikes me as the worst kind of Freudian vengeance being unleashed across the middle-American psyche.
Unwilling and unable to honestly confront the moral complexities and ambiguities associated with the sexualization of children, and the uncomfortable things they say about fundamental human sexuality, people abandon all manner of common sense and demonize anyone who even, like Handley, merely comes in contact with the material, let alone gets off on it. There really seems to be a VERY pronounced subconscious fear across American society today that any of us could turn into a pedophile AT ANY TIME if even allowed to idly SPECULATE about sex with/among children.
Sure, it's awful when kids are sexually abused and/or exploited for pornography, but it's not something that's going to go away by treating anyone with the slightest bit of tingle for kiddie bits like depleted uranium. And it's especially troubling that the idea is that any kind of thematic exploration of sexualized children is tantamount to endorsing and/or getting off on the sexual exploitation of children. It always seemed to me like one of the biggest ways to AMPLIFY the problem is to declare it off-limits to debate -- you pronounce the witch-hunt tendencies in people whose hearts react faster than their minds, and you drive the actual pedophiles/abusers into greater desperation knowing that they're going to be all but crucified if discovered. Why the fuck SHOULDN'T this stuff be allowed in (relatively) harmless fictional venues?
Whether it's actual sickening lolicon tripe or legitimate dramatic exploration of child prostitution, pedophilia, etc., I really think it's MUCH healthier to clear the air about this shit in the immaterial world of fiction. Nobody likes to think too hard about the dark side of human sexuality that these issues suggest, but I think at least in fiction, we can more clearly delineate the edge of the abyss, and be more confident that the vast majority of us are in no danger of plunging into it without warning. No more of this "oh my God, what if he's a pedophile...what if I'M a pedophile?" garbage. People get off on some embarassing or troubling shit, and since that's not going to go away, we need to man/woman up and deal with it.
Still, I can understand the Handley guilty plea, whether it was his idea or his defense's. The poor guy is one puny weeaboo in the belly of the middle-American beast, and his opponent is all the collective deep-seated sexual psychic terror of the law-enforcement apparatus of the American status quo. He didn't have a chance in hell. The only hope now is that the judge will at least have the sense to slap him on the wrist rather than throw the book at him.
That said, I am already thinking about "weeaboo-in-prison" gags. I invite you all to contribute!
Posted by: Ben Reed | May 22, 2009 at 10:18 AM
According to http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/05/handley-pleads-guilty-in-manga-obscenity-case/
"The Handley case began in May 2006, when customs agents reportedly intercepted a mail package from Japan addressed to Handley containing what they deemed obscene material, 'including books containing visual representations of the sexual abuse of children, specifically Japanese manga drawings of minor females being sexually abused by adult males and animals.'"
Meanwhile, I like the way you stood up for other fans (such as women trying to enjoy cons without getting harassed) in http://subatomicbrainfreeze.typepad.com/subatomic_brainfreeze/2008/08/convention-dr-1.html ! Now I wonder what side Handley was on back then - on the side of us who don't like harassment, or on the side of people who do or excuse harassment. I've seen people in recent days going all "stand up for the lolicon community so they'll stand up for you when it's your turn" but for some of us our turn already happened...
Posted by: Pearl | May 23, 2009 at 08:58 AM
"That said, I am already thinking about 'weeaboo-in-prison' gags. I invite you all to contribute!"
Y'know how some people go "but it's part of Japanese urban culture, you should be more understanding!!!" about the minority of salarymen who have Lolita complexes and offer middle-school Japanese kids designer handbags in exchange for sex, offer pimps money in exchange for sex with enslaved Thai kids, jerk off to manga glorifying rapes of kids instead when they can't afford the real thing, etc.? I wonder how many of them are outraged by the idea of Handley getting raped in prison, instead of going "but it's part of American prison culture, you should be more understanding!!!"
Posted by: Pearl | May 24, 2009 at 08:52 PM