About 
They did it last year, they are doing it again for San Diego Comic-Con in July. The Bad Idea San Diego Comic-Con Tiki Party.
Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment
Liberal Democrats To Discuss The Legalisation Of Hentai
Today sees the Liberal Democrat Party conference in Brighton continue. The British political party that only one term ago was part of the Coalition government alongside the Conservative Party, with a number of MPS in senior ministerial roles.
But that was until they were slaughtered at the last General Election for getting in bed with the enemy.
Now led by my university acquaintance Tim Farron MP, himself a regular reader of Viz Comic, today's conference will be considering a matter relating to comic book law.
The party has published a policy document calling for laws to be softened on extreme animé porn known as "hentai", the Japanese word for "perverted". Hentai is famously the preferred personal viewing option of nerds around the world, featuring mythical tentacled creatures and Japanese schoolgirls. Which LibDem wants to declare an interest…
The paper is called Sex Work and is a Policy Consultation Paper, written to explore the issue and related matters and can be read in full here. It mostly covers prostitution and its role in society. It is also receiving greater press scrutiny after a Liberal Democrat councillor at the conference has gained a lot of press attention for asking why school careers officers shouldn't recommend prostitution as a career option for graduating students.
Hentai is only mentioned as a side issue, as below – alongside the tiger issue Guido also highlights.
A number of high profile cases prosecuted under extreme porn laws have failed to result in conviction – for instance, R v Walsh [2012] where a man had video and images of acts he himself had performed, and R v Holland [2010] a man who had been sent a WhatsApp pornographic video purporting to be of a tiger and a woman engaged in a sex act but which turned out to be a man dressed as a tiger – a fact that was only uncovered in the courtroom. These laws not only cover scenes where no damage was caused, but also hentai and anime pornography where no real people are involved at all.
The paper doesn't call for a change in these laws, but clearly wishes to raise the discussion of such.
British law in this case specifies images of under-18s, created for the purpose of sexual arousal, and that covers drawings as well, defined as "non-photographic visual depictions of child sexual abuse". A small number of individuals have been arrested, charged and prosecuted under these provisions.
Most manga that might feature such imagery would not fall foul of this law, as it would be part of a wider narrative purpose, but that's the kind of thing that might only be decided in court.
A part of a wider general discussion, the Liberal Democrats are looking at the whole sex industry before recommending or voting on policy changes. It is unlikely, however, that they will be in any position to do anything about it for some time.
But would it be a policy Guido's libertarian tendencies – or tentacles – would favour?
Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!
Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!
