Vagina Art – Igarashi Megumi fights Japan for her

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1. The penis is awesome. It’s the best thing in the world. Let’s build a festival around it.

2. The vagina is a scary and obscene thing that you should never show to anyone, unless it’s your husband who took your virginity or the doctor who gave birth to you.

3. Oh, child porn cartoons are totally fine.

This pretty much sums up the contradictory, irrational (and infuriating) mentality of Megumi Igarashi’s 2015 legal and social battle between Japan…

…and her vulva.

April is Igarashi’s anniversary

Igarashi, also known as Rokude Nashiko (meaning “good-for-nothing child” or “prodigal son”), started out as a manga artist specializing in vaginal models.

“Why did I start making this kind of art? It was because I had never seen anyone else’s vagina and was too worried about my own. I had no idea what a vagina should look like and I felt like mine was abnormal,” Igarashi said.

However…

When her work received strong opposition from society, she did not back down. She decided to mass produce her work and make it known to as many people as possible.

Her collection includes phone cases, necklaces, remote-controlled cars, chandeliers, etc., the most famous of which is the “deko-man” (decorative manko/vagina)

Meet the adorable Deko-man

This was the beginning of her fight against the unbalanced attitudes towards male and female genitalia in Japanese culture…

An example is the word “manko”, which is always censored in print and banned from use by female announcers (even terminating and ruining careers) – male announcers may receive minor penalties. Male announcers, on the other hand, seem to use the word freely, even to the point of pop culture status.

Despite all the difficulties, things went as smoothly as expected.

…until she tried to build a kayak in the shape of her vulva.

Famous boats

The crowdfunding campaign was simple – high-level donors received 3D data of the kayak, and all other donors received a 3D scan of her vagina.

The Japanese authorities lost their minds at this time. Police arrested her on indecency charges in July 2014. A week later (after a petition of more than 21,000 people) she was released.

But that’s not the end of it.

Later that year, she was arrested again (along with writer Kitahara Minori) for allegedly displaying obscene materials in a sex shop.

The scary truth: Japanese law apparently allows law enforcement officers to detain you for up to 23 days without reason.

The incredible court drama didn’t end until 2016, when Igarashi was found not guilty of the kayaking charges (because there was “no immediate suggestion of female anatomy”), but was found guilty of “obscene electromagnetic recording” and “obscene electromagnetic recording medium transmission” in the 3D vaginal scan…

…be heard by a female judge.

The fine was about $3,500 (although I hope she gets help with her legal fees, too).

Side note: While everyone was shocked at the way this female judge ruled (and it was widely seen as a betrayal of women), maybe this was the most merciful sentence she could have given? This is completely speculation on my part, but who knows what is going on in the political background and how it will affect the judicial system. It’s not hard to imagine.

There is a bright side to everything

The aftermath of Igarashi’s ordeal ends up being much more enjoyable.

She published a book, What is Obscene?: The Story of a Good-for-Nothing Artist and Her Vulva, was welcomed into North America as a celebrated artist, had a child with her husband Mike Scott (frontman of the Waterboys), and moved to Ireland.

It looks like Koji Igarashi has been getting some much-needed rest and creative freedom over the past few years.

However, she She vowed to continue fighting against female censorship in Japan.

She is not fighting alone.

This hypocrisy is prevalent in media, merchandise, and mindsets across the country.

From the most The vague legal language about what counts as “obscene” – The final outcome will depend on where a particular judge or police officer personally believes the boundaries are.

Next up A lot of television shows that demean women (e.g., “How much difference can you make in your cleavage”) — and we haven’t even touched on Hentai yet.

Another strange thing…

On the one hand, hentai censors male and female genitalia equally (from varying degrees of pixelation to little black squares on the “tips” – but there are still plenty of breasts). And, while there is a lot of male-dominated female porn, there is still a fair amount of female-dominated male material.

Well, you still don’t see a lot…

on the other hand, It wasn’t until 2014 that courts ruled that child sexual abuse images were illegal, but such cartoon depictions are still allowed in comics..

However, this conflict seems to be more a reflection of the mentality of the ruling institutions rather than the porn industry – because porn is porn and the government has the responsibility to regulate it.

Maybe the government isn’t ready to give up on the porn tax?

Want to better understand hentai censorship in Japan? Read below:

The History of Tentacle Porn – Missionary, Slut Scrolls, and Censorship

One of the more humorous comments came from John Stewart, who pointed out that “you arrested a woman for 3D printing a vagina, but you let dicks have their own holiday.”

That festival is the Shinto Kanayama Matsuri (かなまら祭り, meaning “Steel Penis Festival”), held every spring at Kanayama Shrine (金山神社) in Kawasaki, Japan. It’s a whole event, with penis-shaped sweets on skewers, kids wearing penis hats or penis costumes, and people parading around a mini shrine with steel penises.

Japan is not the only one

This is not to say that Japan is the only country to be so hypocritical.

There are many countries and cultures (if not all) where a similar polarization of freedom/restriction exists.

• Men can walk down the street topless, but women can’t… unless you’re on a stretch of sand somewhere in Europe. That’s OK, because you’re giving yourself skin cancer.

• We deify breasts when they flash cleavage at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, but we demonize mothers who breastfeed in public.

• Men have their own struggles. Only in recent years has full-frontal male nudity become acceptable outside of North American pornography.

• Forget a male kindergarten or early childhood education teacher – hey, we like When they become great fathers, but you think Spending all day with kids who aren’t yours, teaching them stuff? Oh my god, you must be a sexual predator.

I’m not the only one who’s tired of this crap.

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Have you ever bought any Igarashi merchandise? Read her books? Are there other sex comparisons that you find equally frustrating? Share them in the comments!