I have come across numerous titles that, while they feature different narratives, characters and styles, they have all invariably held with the pornographic themes of objectification and domination, even in cases when it is a woman instigating the sexual encounter. The common theme is inequality in power, where one individual is coerced, sometimes violently, to the sexual whims of another, and is then depicted as enjoying this subjugation. While there are instances more in line with what feminists would label as erotica depicting a more equal display and acceptance of pleasurable sex my perusal of free sites tend to find more of the pornographic than erotic persuasion.
The hentai girl is not a representation of an actual woman there is no physical woman with a lifetime of identity, agency and choices that has led to the appearance in the narrative. Without any ability to claim agency, all potential control over her representation is in the hands of the creator. As ink-and-paint or pixels, these representations are malleable, able to be shaped into any position that serves the whim of the creator. This vulnerability means her body can be horribly disfigured, with breasts larger than anything physically possible, and she can be subjected to activities impossible in live action depictions, such as the spectacle of tentacle rape and some forms of bestiality, bondage and other fetishes. She can have no say over any of this, as she is not a flesh-and-blood woman the creator or consumer need to identify or empathize with. She is a lifeless doll, with no legal rights, no voice, and no choice but to be the way she is animated. And this relationship between creator, consumer and hentai girl could give men the wrong idea about how to react to any and all women: without proper experiences and information countering such representations, men could be desensitized into seeing all women as these dolls.
Some may argue that hentai should not be considered the same as live action pornography because of the exaggerations possible due to it being animated; thus, it cannot be seen as anything but humorous, a playful stress release, and not a threat the same what they live action, which uses real women, can be. Others still may argue that hentai is just the ultimate expression for the creators and consumers fantasies due to the malleability of the text. However, the same has been said about live action pornography, and how the fantasy elements of such works relate to the consumers acceptance of certain attitudes towards women. Fantasies not tempered by reality can take a strong hold on the viewer, and can be unleashed to horrible results.Also, not all of hentai is of the extreme exaggeration found in some subgenres like tentacle rape. A large portion of hentai is depictions of real world events, such as bukkake in a train or school classroom, aligning them with similar scenes of orgies in live action pornography. If these images are not challenged by other information about the reality of sexual relationships, especially heterosexual ones, then the viewer may perceive these images to be the norm, regardless if its in a cartoon or not. As post-modernist Jean Baudrillard would argue, the very fact that the women are simulacra hyperrealized and idealized versions of something that does not and cannot exist in physical reality may make the consumer perceive them as more real than real. The malleability of the hentai may make this depiction worse if the consumer becomes the creator. Creating doujinshi hentai that imitates and thus reinscribes the same ideologies of official hentai can reinforce this perception of male dominance and female subservience. The reality of the hentai girls being unreal can create a vicious cycle that only strengthens the negative portrayal.
