Doctoral student masturbates to fantasy child porn for PhD 'research'

A PhD researcher at the University of Manchester published an academic article about his experience masturbating to fantasy child sexual abuse material. Swedish-born Karl Andersson is currently attending the University of Manchester and describes his research as a focus on "fans of subcultural comics in Japan experience desire and think about sexual identities."

Andersson published a paper in the Journal of Qualitative Research titled "I am not alone — we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan" that describes his experimental method of masturbating to "shota" pornography.

Shota refers to japanese anime depicting young, prepubescent boys in sexual situations, most often with adult men. Lolicon is the female equivalent to shota, which is Japanese anime depicting a young girl or preteen in sexual situations, often with adult males.

Anna Slatz thoroughly researched the topic in a report for Reduxx Magazine, "The medium is largely regarded as a form of fantasy child pornography, and is illegal in many countries including Canada and Australia as a result. It is also considered illegal in the United Kingdom, where Andersson may reside."

"I wanted to understand how my research participants experience sexual pleasure when reading shota, a Japanese genre of self-published erotic comics that features young boy characters," Andersson said of his research paper, "I therefore started reading the comics in the same way as my research participants had told me that they did it: while masturbating."

Andersson described his research method as masturbating exclusively to shota media for three months and logging his masturbation sessions in a diary, which he published in his paper.

Reduxx Magazine reports on an excerpt from Andersson’s paper that "describes a shota comic he read and orgasmed to as featuring a young boy ‘sniffing’ and 'licking' the genitalia of another young boy after catching him masturbating in the bathroom. He concludes the excerpt by writing: '… and while waiting for the shot I came!'"

Though Andersson doesn’t reveal the ages of the children depicted in the sexual comics, he refers to them as "young boys."

Andersson describes that masturbating to shota was a form of "self-care" for him and for the other men who consume it.

"I experienced a sense of self-care, which I also call the 'spa effect,' since I often felt so relaxed after these sessions that it reminded of going to a spa, or why not an onsen, a Japanese hot spring." Andersson writes, adding: "While my previous masturbation habits had been rather routine, masturbating to shota became more of a ritual: carefully choosing a [comic] (what am I in the mood for today?), creating a comfortable position in the bed, dozing off a bit afterwards – it was all part of the ritual."

Andersson has also won two film prizes for a documentary he made about the men who watch shota called "Unreal Boys." The film is described as featuring "three young men in Tokyo" who "explore the limits of fantasy through the comic genre shota, which features fictional boys in sexual situations."

On his YouTube channel, Andersson regularly posts videos of his new shota purchases, that are currently available to buy on Amazon.

In a video describing his research, Anderrson says that shota is not child pornography, and that other cultures have "taken it out of context." He believes that shota consumers must "overcome their fears" of legal obstacles and social stigma.

Andersson cites another purveyor of the child sexual abuse material who prefers lolicon, the female equivalent of shota depicting young girls in sexual situations. Patrick W. Galbraith, a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies at the University of Tokyo, advocates for reducing the stigma of fantasy child sexual abuse materials. Andersson quotes Galbraith as describing a "feeling of oneness" when sharing the child porn with others because it makes him feel less alone. Andersson ends his video by saying, "I would suggest that we all create our 'impossible worlds' and share them with each other."