October is Fetish Month #4 Shotacon – Mother Complex or just Gay Loli?
Posted on | October 11, 2007 | 11 Comments |
| Classic pedarasty – girls squee when older men fuck young boys up the butt till they scream…really! They do!
As we head towards mid-fetish month, I thought it fit to cover the fetish most related to the one that caused the most contention last March – Lolicon.
Shotacon is to Lolicon as Latte is to Cappuccino – made of the same delicious ingredients yet distinctly and irrevocably different (OK, perhaps that was a rather tenacious analogy). Unlike Lolicon which is a contraction of a Western phrase (Lolita Complex – from the novel “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabakov), the “shota” part of Shotacon is entirely Japanese in origin.
Shotarou was a young male (read: jailbait) character in a long running detective anime (Tetsujin 28-go), famed for his sunny disposition, pretty boy looks and an anal sphincter that could cut steel (well, perhaps not that last one). In other words, he was a landmark “shota”. Girls and women that had or desired relationships with him were then accordingly “shotacon” or “Shotarou Complex”.
Broadly, shotacon refers to all relations involving underage males, be they homosexual or heterosexual, but as I said (and Konata reiterated in Lucky Star 22), there are many different ways of construing it.oes it refer to boys that are actually underage or boys that look underage but actually are not? In this article, we will be assuming that it encompasses both.
The most common or garden Shotacon is a mature lady (MOTHERLY TYPE OJOU), usually with DISPROPORTIONALLY LARGE BREASTS (Because everyone knows that childbirth causes swelling of the breasts to inhuman proportions), who takes a shine to a neighbourhood boy or even her own son (Yay! Incest!), leading to seduction and sexual hijinks.
Less common forms of shotacon involve younger women either accidentally falling for or being forced into situations with underage boys (or even siblings). There is usually a degree of denial that they care anything about the boy – and why should they? He’s usually so young he probably doesn’t even know that boys and girls have different thingies.
Lying somewhere in the middle are the couples involving both underage boys and girls, which, I suppose, in the strictest sense, is neither Lolicon or Shotacon since it doesn’t involve an illicit relationship, but it’s still worth a mention.
| Loveless – pederasty in anime. Chains plus bishies apparently makes it great. Oh and there’s yuri in there somewhere as well…
The last and most important category of shotacon is the yaoi (homosexual) subtype. Most commonly, this involves an older (usually pretty) boy who “befriends” (not in the Nanoha sense) a younger boy in an ALTOGETHER-NOT-ENTIRELY-UNSEXUAL way and proceeds to show him the ways of the world; presumably also including a comprehensive course on BROWN LOVE. (c.f. Loveless)
THe importance of this last part relates to the history of real life Shotacon and how it exists in society today. Boy love has never been and probably will continue not to be uncommon. The most well known partakers were probably the ancient Greeks (Of course where we get the term “Greek love” for anal sex), where high ranking Greek men would commonly befriend younger men for sexual acts. It was so common and part of everyday life that it even persists in their legends and Gods. (Zeus, it was said was rather fond of boys as well as girls and certain animals…) This tradition of erotic practices between adult and adolescent males is known as pederasty (lit. boy love in Greek). Most Greek men of this era engaged in relations with both women and boys, with the choosing of one or the other exclusively being the rarity. The relationship was well regulated. It was sanctioned by both the state and the religious establishment and had to be approved by the father of the boy – much like when a girl was to be married off. Relationships ranged from platonic to fully sexual and the older man would also have certain responsibilities – for example catering to the boys education
Feudal Japan, it seems, had a similar system to ancient Greece called shudo or wakashudo (way of the young). This involved high ranking officials (samurai) taking young boys under their wing for training and obviously sexual favours. This had a prevalence comparable to its Greek counterparts, with a great volume of literature on the subject – 457 titles from the 17th to 18th centuries alone.It was (obviously) a great honour to be taken care of in this way. The apprenticeship would start from very young and would transform into a platonic friendship when the youth became of age or would wither away.
Victorian England was not without its shadowy corners (in fact, it was pretty much 99% shadowy corner) and while it was common for young girls to be sold into prostitution, it was also common for young boys (before puberty) to dress as girls for the adulterers and philanderers looking for a bit of fellatio on the side, or even some illicit Greek loving in a dark alleyway. Not exactly the most unpleasant way of earning your pocket money, but it might not be your job of choice. Old schools such as Eton also were well known to practice a form of pederasty between teacher and pupils which was not entirely unbeneficial – many went on to become renowned statesmen and the like.
Even today, when prostitution and child extortion has been clamped down upon, Shotacon still remains as rife as it once was. It’s difficult for a week to go by without some man possessing some power having been found to be abusing boys in their care. Baden-Powell, the man who founded the Scouts movement was a known Nazi sympathiser and partaker of boy loving, so no guesses why he wanted to gather underage boys in one place away from all the adults.
| Yukihiro Ayaka – A textbook shotacon – She goes squee when little boys dress up in girls clothing…and then she dies of bloodloss. Needless to say she’s one of my favourite characters in Negima!
So after all that, it’s probably safe to say that apart from its frank outlawing, Shotacon as pedarasty has been a part of the culture of countless countries in all continents whereas Shotacon involving heterosexual relationships is far far rarer and more a work of fiction rather than being based on the everyday.
Back to Japanese anime and manga then. In non-ero manga, the most common form is the latter classical pederasty with the older man and younger boys – possibly a relic of the bygone days of wakashudo literature. What is perhaps the most interesting in hentai manga and both hentai and mainstream anime is that the first type of Shotacon (older bakunyuu mothering Ojou) persists in far more material than the latter (Greek borderline gay paedophilia). Surely, like Lolicon, it should be the other way around?
As we look deeper into the mindsets behind the both of these, the differences become more apparent. Yaoi shotacon of the classical variety is as much about control and abuse of power as Lolicon and rape. In this genre, the thrill could be construed as coming from the domination and complete trust of the young boy being used and abused to the older one’s ends. Unfortunately, since yaoi is rather significantly less popular with the predominantly male otaku population, yaoi shotacon is less accessible and popular than straight lolicon – something that more men perhaps, can empathise with.
However, straight shotacon of the former type has a very different flavour. Although it could also be taken as an abuse of power – the mothering woman using the trust and respect of the young boy to carnal ends – in most storylines this simply isn’t the case.
| Shotacon type 3 – underaged loving between prepubertal boy and girl. For one thing – doesn’t really happen and for another thing – never lasts. Everyone knows that for a lasting relationship you have to leave then win her heart as an osananajimi ^_^ – Sakura/Tomoyo yay!
If we again consider that the target audience is mainly male, and would not understand the thrill of power that an older woman might feel seducing a young male – we feel that there must be another explanation. In fact, I would say thtat there are two chief reasons why shotacon ends up having man-appeal:
Firstly, if we envisage that men would empathise mainly with the viewpoint of the young boy as experiences that they may have had when they were themselves passing through Puberty Station, then one explanation pops out. Since it is very common for boys during puberty to develop crushes on older women and even fantasise about losing their precious virginities to a more experienced partner, then it seems that the repetition of such fantasy storylines brings back memories of the past and remembering how it was to be young, horny and fancying anything with a skirt that wasn’t a Scotsman (and conveniently glossing over the acne, emotional trauma and premature ejaculation that came with it, of course).
The other, more simple reason, is the bald enjoyment of the voyeurism of a forbidden act. Just like Lolicon, straight Shotacon carries with it a degree of debauchery, especially if it also involves incestual elements. And, as I have repeatedly demonstrated throughlout this and last fetish month, just the mere elevation of the debauchery factor increases guilty enjoyment and creates fetishists.
So all in all, what have we learned? In the real world, Shotacon is an illicit, back alley, on-the-altar-in-church-after-dark, shadow of its once “great” history, but its representation in anime is far more fictitious, focussing on pubescent fantasies and heterosexual underage debauchery rather than it’s sister Lolicon, whose matierial matches more closely its real life counterpart. And for this reason, shotacon should remain morally more acceptable than lolicon, even though at base principles, it’s still just another illicit liason.
And anyway – where else in the world would you find a ten year old boy with a penis the size of a Polish man’s lunch and whose semen volume is measured in gallons?
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11 Responses to “October is Fetish Month #4 Shotacon – Mother Complex or just Gay Loli?”
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October 12th, 2007 @ 12:04 am
I guess I’m type 3 lol
*hides pics of sakura making out with shaoran :P
October 12th, 2007 @ 1:59 am
For some reason, this post made me think of the shoujo manga Please Save My Earth, which features a relationship between a 7-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl … which is surprisingly believably and not nearly as gross as it sounds ^^; I guess that’s only to say that even though the non-hentai heterosexual form of this kind of relationship is rare, there’s an example of it ^_^
October 12th, 2007 @ 1:23 pm
lol, these are interesting!
hm, I think on could say that the older man-younger boy type of shotacon is more common that people think. A lot of “ukes” are drawn like 12 year old boys…
October 13th, 2007 @ 3:01 am
UGH!!! My eyes bleeding when seeing thos yaoi pics!!!
October 18th, 2007 @ 11:30 am
YAOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII~
*drooldrooldrooldrool*
October 19th, 2007 @ 10:19 pm
When I do delve into heterosexual relationships, it usually involves a shota in some way. For instance, my favorite hetero pairing right now is Negi/Nodoka (teh cuteness), which I guess is type 3. Of course, shota/ojou doujins will always be the hotness.
I think I blame Evangelion for this. While everybody else was pairing Shinji with Asuka or Rei, I though the only one who could balance him out was Misato, and thus began my addition to straight shota.
Or perhaps because of my love for yuri, I prefer the male to act a bit feminine in his love-making role. Millia/Bridget (or any GG girl/Bridget) is shotacon, but to the uninitiated looks like yuri.
November 9th, 2007 @ 2:15 am
Don’t forget the young boy with young boy variety…
November 19th, 2007 @ 7:46 pm
Oh? Are Polish people known for eating much in the UK? This is the first time i read something similiar and honestly, I’m interested. Where would that comparison be coming from?
April 5th, 2009 @ 9:28 am
AHHHHH! Paedophilian animes! Shotacon: 2 Yaoi 2 Shorties. Lolicon: Chibi-Hentai-Shoujo-chan
Too much Eros. So much Love. Lolicon get more attention. And Shotacon is like SD-Yaoi. Hentai is not the same with Shotacon and Lolicon.
April 15th, 2009 @ 4:29 pm
The style of writing is quite familiar . Did you write guest posts for other blogs?
September 26th, 2009 @ 3:23 pm
Thank for your preciouse time in coming up with this post. Can you provide more information on this topic? I’ve already subscribed to your post via Google News Reader to let me read them as soon as possible.