Readers of this blog are probably well-acquainted with the idea that modern societies are behavioral sinks for humans.
Before I can explain Kurata Hideyuki’s notions of chivalry as a motivation for moe (萌) in fiction, I have to explain the controversial claims surrounding oxytocin and the emotional bonding resulting from sex.
The prevailing opinion of the manosphere is that female promiscuity is incompatible with subsequent female faithfulness in marriage. This opinion has many detractors, e.g.:
Psychologist Dr. Rebecca Turner has rebutted as “complete pseudoscience” Dr. Eric Keroack’s claim that too much sex can cause women to lose their ability to bond. Dr. Turner, a professor in the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) at Alliant International University, is the author of original research that was misrepresented by Kerouac
… Dr. Keroack is the co-author of a paper that claims having sex with multiple partners alters brain chemistry in a way that makes it harder to form relationships later in life.
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/525396/
Dr. Rebecca Turner does not find many supporters in the manosphere. Also, note that the claim is not that too much sex causes women to lose their ability to bond – the claim is that sex with too many different partners causes women to lose their ability to bond.
summarizes
http://socialpathology.blogspot.ca/2012/03/sexual-history-divorce-risk-ii.html
and
http://socialpathology.blogspot.ca/2012/03/promiscuity-data-guest-post.html
So what is going on in the modern sexual marketplace?
Every year, some fraction of sexually mature female virgins decides to try having sex.
A few men who either have good genes or good luck manage to deflower these virgins. Very few of these defloration-originated relationships last long enough to blossom into permanent marriage. (Note that these deflowerers do not have the socially recognized right to insist on marriage, whereas in a strictly patriarchal society they could say, “It doesn’t matter that you don’t love me – you must either marry me now, or your reputation will be ruined.”) Many of these deflowerers probably do want to marry the girl that they deflowered – if they have any residual sense of patriarchal sexual ethics, they will feel cheated when the newly deflowered women deserts them and jumps to different mounts on the “carousel.” At the very least, however, these men must admit that they have had some kind of “romance” with their sex.
Modern Cultural Marxism tells women some very cruel lies: that they should not settle for an imperfect man, that they can have babies when they are 35 years old, that their intuition is the best guide for mate selection.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of sexually active men are willing to have sex with almost any willing woman, so the non-virginal women can get plenty of no-strings-attached sex. If they have any residual sense of patriarchal sexual ethics, they will feel cheated because they are forced to treat promiscuous women as if they are as valuable as virginal women. While this resentment is not likely to make these men into celibate monks, it does not bode well for their future opinions of women. Note that while these men can get sex, they often can get nothing resembling romance – many men get no virginal partner, no emotional bonding, no sentimental infatuations. These men do get to see the ugliest sides of promiscuous women – such a man knows what it is like to be hen-pecked by a woman that has had many more sexual partners before age 21 than he will ever have in his entire life.
As the three links above argue, after some period of promiscuity, promiscuous women frequently marry, but their marriages are usually less stable than those of women who had fewer partners before marrying. Some women never marry.
Many men are left unmarried, very inexperienced with sex, and entirely unacquainted with romance.
To quote an excellent paper by Galbraith, which I will be analyzing over the next few posts:
Syu-chan, a self-proclaimed otaku in his thirties, explained his fetish for schoolgirl uniforms and related little sister characters in moe anime as coming from his inability to consummate the young love he dreamed of as an adolescent. ‘By my late twenties I realized that what I didn’t have back then is what I will always want. I will always be single.’ When asked why he didn’t try to find a partner now as an adult, he explained that people like him – an otaku long on hobbies and passion and short on looks and money – are excluded from the market of love.
A strictly patriarchal, monogamous society tries to ensure that each respectable, sexually active man will get paired off with a virginal woman. The woman’s respectability depends on her faithfulness to her husband. There will be aberrations around the edges of the “respectable” community in such a society – there will be whores and eunuchs and frustrated gays – but by and large such a society will manage to reproduce itself.
Japan has never been strongly patriarchal. To quote a research PDF hosted by the United Nations:
The total fertility rate in Japan fell from 2.75 births per women in 1950-1955 to 2.08 births in 1955-1960. Total fertility remained at the near-replacement level between 1960 and 1975, and it resumed falling slowly…
2.08 is sub-replacement fertility. Japan hit that point back when Ian Fleming was still writing books – and Fleming noted (with apparent shock and horror) that Japan had legalized abortion. The Sexual Revolution started before 1860, but it was being waged as an underground war between 1860 and 1969. Even though patriarchal marriage appeared to be strong in the West from 1860 to 1969, it was being eaten away from the inside.
And that is why Kurata Hideyuki writes adventure stories, some of which conclude in patriarchal marriage. (I won’t say which of his stories do so, because that would spoil the surprise ending.) Men who are more aggressive and less sensual than Syu-chan are still dreaming of a life that includes love and patriarchal marriage.
For the moment, no new patriarchal society appears to be forming. (Possibly some Westerners are successfully starting Quiverfull movements, but I don’t have any knowledge of such religious groups.) For the next few decades, many men – such as Syu-chan – will be excluded from the “market of love,” will grow old, and will die without offspring. For the sake of our societies, we had better hope that these men had bad genes, because their genes are leaving the gene pool.
I don’t think the current globalized behavioral sink will be able to last for more than a few decades at the outside. It is very likely that the globalized system has already begun an escalating series of crises with the financial crisis of 2007-2008.
Currently Western feminism seems to be trying to destroy the USA in a fanatical fury of groundless harassment. Such self-destructive behavior draws on the resources of the USA, but weakens the USA against international competition of every kind; therefore I do not think it can last for long.
So long as the current globalized system of consumerism persists alongside feminism, there will be a considerable market for moe merchandise. If globalized consumerism falls, we may very well see the collapse of the production companies and publishers that mass-market manga and anime. In that event, the market for moe merchandise will collapse, and sufficiently frustrated otaku will have to hire whores to hug them instead of buying hug pillows.
It would be interesting to see whether feminism could lose its influence while globalized consumerism lived on. If patriarchal societies could coexist with consumerism, presumably commercial fiction would reflect the new reality of patriarchal marriage, and porn would resemble “bonnet rippers” more than “bodice rippers.” I doubt the moe merchandise would be able to retain its current market share in such a world.
Future installments of this series of posts will further dissect the Galbraith article on moe quoted above.
gaikokumaniakku 