PhD student publishes paper telling how he masturbated for three months over extreme Japanese comics

A PhD student has published a research paper in which he details how he masturbated for three months extreme Japanese comics featuring young boys. 

Karl Andersson is researching subcultural Japanese comics at the University of Manchester but is now being investigated after publishing a paper in which he began masturbating after ‘hitting a wall’ in his studies.  

So the student claims to have embarked on a three-month stint of masturbating to the same subject matter as his ‘research participants’ and make notes on each session – shunning regular pornography and sex.

He said: ‘I happened to live alone during this experiment, and I had newly become single after a long relationship – these factors probably contributed to my willingness and eagerness to explore this method.’ 

However Karl’s own thesis describes the material – known as shota – as a genre of self-published erotic comics that feature ‘young boy characters in a cute or, most often, sexually explicit way’.

After publishing his 4,000-word paper in April, the piece has been subsequently been discovered by horrified social media users and shared on Mumsnet, where it has been branded a ‘PhD in w***ing’.

Outraged mothers questioned how the visual anthropologist’s ‘sickening’ material had got past the university’s ethics process and even been funded by the university.

One excerpt notes how he felt while masturbating to a comic which depicted a boy and his friend masturbating together.  

However Karl’s study even thanks his PhD supervisor Dr Sharon Kinsella – who herself specialises in ‘Lolita complex subcultures’ at the university – for ‘always encouraging him to go where his research takes him’.

Some parents were unable to even finish the study’s introduction and described the contents ‘unspeakably grim’ as it documents pleasuring himself in great detail while discussing ‘pubescent boys’ and ‘the period of puberty’.

The University of Manchester said they had had ‘significant complaints’ that they were ‘taking very seriously’ and confirmed they were conducting a detailed investigation into the individual’s work.

Visual anthropologist Karl claims after conducting interviews and carrying out surveys, his research hit a wall and he decided to copy his participants by only masturbating to shota comics and noting down his thoughts and feelings.

He says he did this for three months and also had a ban on any other type of porn, sex or any other ‘sexual relief’.

Karl has published the academic article thesis titled ‘I am not alone – we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan’ in the Journal of Qualitative Research.

So the student (pictured) claims to have embarked on a three-month stint of masturbating to the same subject matter as his ‘research participants’ and make notes on each session – shunning regular pornography and sex

Karl wrote: ‘I therefore started reading the comics in the same way as my research participants had told me that they did it: while masturbating.

‘In this research note, I will recount how I set up an experimental method of masturbating to shota comics, and how this participant observation of my own desire not only gave me a more embodied understanding of the topic for my research but also made me think about loneliness and ways to combat it as driving forces of the culture of self-published erotic comics.’

Karl writes that he’d just come out of a long-term relationship when he began the experiment which contributed to his ‘eagerness’.

He wrote: ‘For a period of three months, I would masturbate only to shota comics. For this purpose, I would use d*jinshi and commercial volumes that I have bought or been given during fieldwork in Japan.

‘In short: I would masturbate in the same way that my research participants did it. After each masturbation session I would write down my thoughts and feelings – a kind of critical self-reflection – in a notebook, as well as details about which material I had used, where I had done it, at what time, and for how long.

‘I would not be allowed to have any other sexual relief during this ‘fieldwork’ in my own sexuality: no regular porn, no sex with another person, no fantasies or memories – it had to be shota every time.

‘I happened to live alone during this experiment, and I had newly become single after a long relationship – these factors probably contributed to my willingness and eagerness to explore this method.’

Karl argues that the research gave him ‘not only gave me a more embodied understanding of the topic for my research but also made me think about loneliness and ways to combat it as driving forces of the culture of self-published erotic comics’.

Social media users were quick to point out that his PhD is based on ‘w*nking’ and one described it as ‘hugely disturbing’.

One commentor wrote: ‘This is pushing the limits of my commitment to academic freedom.’

Another said: ‘In all seriousness, how do we permanently cancel these kinds of people? How do we eliminate them from universities and screen them from ever entering again?

‘Obviously, many universities have failed to uphold the requirements for serious scholarship, so what action can we take now?’

Another wrote: ‘How did this get past Manchester University’s ethics process? Masturbating to images of children and writing it up for public consumption does not seem ethical to me. This is hugely disturbing.’

One wrote: ‘I literally can’t think of anything to say beyond registering my outrage. Is there any way to challenge the funding for this?’

One said: ‘Is there a professor of w*nking studies yet? If not, I’d apply myself but I’d probably be over qualified.’

Karl’s website states he has a background in journalism and publishing and an MA in visual and media anthropology and a BA in linguistics.

It says he is ‘particularly fascinated by ideals and how we relate to them, as can be seen in the title of my master’s thesis: Unreal Boys: An experience-led exploration of desire towards fictional characters among fans of shotacon manga in Japan’.

His own Twitter account boasts he is a student at and ‘funded by’ the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at The University of Manchester.

Karl claims that when surveying and interviewing participants about ‘their relation to shota comics, what kind of shota they like, how they see themselves in relation to the story, how they engage with shota concretely (how they read or draw it), what shota gives them and so on’, he realised that almost all of them said they’d masturbated to it.

He says when he tried to question participants about it, the conversation would stall and he eventually hit a wall.

Karl wrote: ‘I tried to inquire about the details of these masturbation sessions, but it was hard to know what to ask, and the conversation sometimes stalled.

‘In addition, it would have been impossible for me to grasp how the intellectual reasoning, for example, of entering an alternative past, was connected to the bodily sensation of masturbation without me ‘doing it’ myself.’

Karl has also made a film on the subject named Unreal Boys, that explores the ‘controversial phenomenon that blurs the borders of actual and virtual realities’ and claims the filmmaker ‘participates actively in the shota culture’.

His website claims the award-winning film is ‘based on extensive fieldwork and part of a master’s thesis in visual anthropology’.

A University of Manchester spokesperson said: ‘The recent publication in Qualitative Research of the work of a student, now registered for a PhD, has raised significant concerns and complaints which we are taking very seriously.

‘We are currently undertaking a detailed investigation into all aspects of their work, the processes around it and other questions raised. It is very important that we look at the issues in-depth.

‘While that investigation is ongoing, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further at this time ‘

Karl Andersson was contacted for comment but failed to respond [contacted since Tuesday midday on email, Twitter and Facebook and chased repeatedly. Called on number we believe to be his and sent message. Asked uni press office to pass on our request for comment to him too].

PhD supervisor Dr Sharon Kinsella was contacted for comment.