It does not facilitate normal sex, but sexualizes that which is normally not sexual (Shigematsu 1999: 130). Shigematsu adds that the male penis is often absent from lolicon (in compliance with obscenity laws, though not always soin the 1980s), and the replacements for it are objects that do not feel pleasure (Shigematsu 1999:130). Further, the face of the attacker is often not depicted (Akagi 1993: 232). Akagi sees this asa major distinction from the erotic manga that came before, where there was a sort of “hero attacker” with whom the reader identified. Rather, Akagi provocatively suggests that lolicon fans project onto girls: “Lolicon readers do not need a penis for pleasure, but rather they need the ecstasy of the girl. At that time, they identify with the girl, and get caught up in a masochistic pleasure” (Akagi 1993: 232).
Itō Gō supports this analysis:
“Readers do not need to emphasize with the rapist, because they are projecting themselves on the girls who are in horrible situations. It is an abstract desire and does not necessarily connect to real desires. This is something I was told by a lolicon artist, but he said that he is the girl who is raped in his manga. In that he has been raped by society, or by the world. He is in a position of weakness.”
Recall Kinsella’s suggestion that lolicon be understood as men performing the shōjo to come to terms with an unstable gender identity (Kinsella 2006: 81-83). If being a man ceases to promise power, potency and pleasure, it is no longer the privileged subject position. Akagi explains that lolicon is a form of self-expression for those oppressed by the principles of masculine competitive society (Akagi 1993: 232).32 Lolicon is a rejection of the need to establish oneself as masculine and an identification with the “kindness and love” of the shōjo (Akagi 1993:233). This interpretation reverses the standard understanding of lolicon as an expression of masculinity to one of femininity. This is, of course, not the only way to approach the wide range of lolicon images, but it certainly highlights the complexity of “pornographic content” and its uses.
