A research-focused social design project that allowed us to approach an issue without needing to come up with a solution for it.
I was part of a group of three ("The Treesome"), all focusing on different aspects of sexual education/exposure to sex, and how the general lack of transparency affects us.
My focal points were the porn industry and the stigma attached to porn consumption, specifically hentai (Japanese animated porn) – Why is hentai considered to be so much weirder than regular porn? Is it the tentacles? And then what does a preference for tentacles imply?
Are sexual interests catered to or created through porn/hentai? Does this make hentai more or less ethical? Can such judgment be made at all?
It is not a secret that the porn industry is pretty brutal. Especially women often have violent experiences and some of the porn that's out there does not depict consensual sex. So while the individual's consumption of porn is not inherently unethical, the industry itself is deserving of all the criticism it gets, and change, whatever it may be, has to happen. That was the starting point of the project but I wanted to anchor it further – As somebody who grew up with exposure to anime (Sailor Moon, Naruto, One Piece, Inuyasha, let's go!), it was inevitable that I'd come across hentai at some point. Though it's not really for me, objectively speaking, it is pretty interesting.
Sexuality is extremely stigmatized (also topic of my master thesis), but it is considered particularly odd to get it off to animated porn. The tentacles, the child-like characters, the x-ray vision, there are definitely some unique elements to it, but are those really the essence of hentai? And are they exclusive to it? The answer to both questions is no, the thing that differs is the execution.
Thus, the initial research was mostly about 'defining' hentai and discovering how diverse it really is. It is not a 'genre' of porn, but essentially the animated counterpart to it. It exists in different forms of media (animated, drawn, games, audio-only, merchandise, …) and covers any genre (and many more) that can be found in real-life porn, just with more creative freedom in how it is presented (and it gets very creative sometimes, wow).
After looking at what hentai offers, and realizing where it parallels (and diverges from) RL porn, I arrived at the question if sexual preferences are inherent or if they are created through the content people consume? Is the person watching porn/hentai with a young-looking character (not a child) a pedophile? Will they become one by watching it? Is there no correlation at all? Is the extreme brutality that the animated medium allows for worse because it desensitizes viewers, or is it an outlet that –by nature of the medium– is far enough removed from reality to not have an effect on how people (usually men) view others (usually women)? Is there a difference in how ethical hentai is opposed to RL porn or are they equally problematic in different ways? One potentially sexually exploiting the actors; the other escalating the intensity of sexual stimuli to a worrying degree – (How) Can that be combated? How can design interfere?
Unfortunately, there are no definite answers to any of these questions, the five-week module did not allow for in-depth research and coming up with concepts, yet, it opened up multiple paths to how hentai could be approached – As a threat or an opportunity, or maybe just porn.
