Apple tablet christened iPad | A-cup breasts not acceptable to Aussies, Kiera Knightly crestfallen

Meet the iPad.  It gets 10 hours per charge and starts at $499.  It’s a big iPod.

Bow down to our new overlord.

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You know, a lot of the prejudice against porn manga, especially claims that they universally depict underage characters, has always had a cultural, even racial component, at least to me.  And the glorification of large breasts, the acceptance of the C+ cup as the feminine ideal, even though that does not reflect the reality of even most Western countries, I’ve always seen as one of the greatest pop culture absurdities.  Now it seems the Australian government has taken that absurdity to new heights.  According to the facetiously-named Somebody Think of the Children, the country has denied classification to certain mainstream pornographic magazines for containing A-cup breasts, effectively banning them from sale and sending a message to all gracefully endowed women that they are simply not “woman” enough. This is directly related to the wording of Australia’s anti-porn laws which, in their zeal to “protect children,” are written broadly to include fictional depictions and those that may cause confusion to the viewer.  Do plastic surgeons in Australia have a powerful lobbying group?  Absolute insanity.

Come on, Australia, I thought you guys were cool.  (Spotted via Sankaku Complex)

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J-List explains the vagueness of Japanese pronouns and prepositions, as well as the tendency to end phrases prematurely.  That happens far too often in porn manga…

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Yaoi Briefs responds to the Hamilton College student op-ed about a yaoi appreciation club at the school.  Being a yaoi reader, the writer took more personal umbrage at it than I.

To give a little further thought on this… one of the core arguments of the Hamilton op-ed is that yaoi and the like objectify men, and such similar treatment for women would not be tolerated.  On some levels, yes, yaoi does sexually objectify people.  As do most entertainment, art, media in general.  And I have absolutely no problem with that, as someone who has never believed the tortured logic brought against it.  But there is a difference between the objectification of men and women, or more accurately, how the two are perceived… the objectification of men is explicit (by which I mean clearly expressed, intentional, obvious, attention-grabbing), while the objectification of women is not, because it’s pervasive.  As Yaoi Briefs alluded to, objectification of women is everywhere; the association of femininity with sex is ingrained in the culture.  Men are discussed conservatively in terms of machismo instead of sensuality.  In art class, a nude sculpture of man is critiqued on the life and forcefulness it exudes, but we speak of the sexual allure captured by a female nude without batting an eye. We see women modeling lingerie in Sears catalogs, but declare holy war over some Calvin Klein billboard featuring a guy in his undies.  The real issue critics of yaoi have with it, I suspect, is not of unfair treatment, but the casting of men in sexualized roles, especially in a submissive context.  A great deal of people are still uncomfortable with that.

Too bad for them.

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And unfortunately for us, ero manga has not quite commanded the same kind of academic attention as yaoi clearly has.  I guess there’s no great mystery as to why we like our books…bweheheh.

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Completely not comics related… Japan Probe has a couple videos of a contest between three delivery restaurants: Domino’s Pizza, Shanghai Express, and Hishizen Sushi.

1.  I don’t know how they did it, but they made a Domino’s pizza look good.  Why can’t we have corn and mayonnaise on ours?

2.  I would personally harpoon a whale for a quality fast food sushi delivery place that gave you that much fresh food for 50 bucks, under 20 minutes.

3.  I’d probably do the same for that Chinese restaurant, too.

4.  Did I mention they made Domino’s Pizza look good?