A UoM student published a paper on his experience masturbating to ‘young boy characters’

A Manchester University PhD student has published an academic paper which documents his experience masturbating to comics of “young boy characters”.

For three months, Karl Andersson masturbated to a sub-genre of underground Japanese comics known as Shota. He published a 4,000 word paper about his experience titled: “I am not alone – we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan”.

In the paper, Karl described Shota comics as showing young males in a “cute or, most often, sexually explicit way”. He explained: “After each masturbation session I would write down my thoughts and feelings – a kind of critical self-reflection”.

His aim was to “untangle” this “largely unresearched knot of desires” of the link between the sexual desire for fictional young boys and its connection to sexual desire for actual children.

The paper also documents his routine he would do before masturbating to the comics. This included buying himself a “special lamp” that made the reading easier. He said: “[This] showed that I respected myself and that masturbating to shota was something to feel proud and not ashamed of.”

Karl abstained from other forms of pornography during the three months, in order to see what happened to his body.

He also said that his eagerness to explore this method of research was influenced by the fact he had recently become single after a long-term relationship and had been living alone.

His research has fueled a lot of criticism particularly from some of the academic community on Twitter. MP Neil O’Brien took to Twitter to question why hard-working taxpayers should pay for an article “that is not socially useful”.

In the author biography of his research paper, it states his PhD is funded by the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at Manchester University.

He has also admitted on his YouTube channel, without financial support from the university, he would have been unable to complete his PhD.

When The Manchester Tab reached out directly to the university to ask if its funding had supported Karl’s study, Manchester Uni refused to comment saying instead it had opened an internal investigation and therefore would not “be able to expand”.

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.”

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Fallowfield fresher caught with £250k cash at Piccadilly station convicted of money laundering

• A Manchester Uni applicant who ‘lost non-refundable £1,000 Master’s deposit’ has died

• Manchester apologises for its statement which caused ‘further upset’ after student death

Featured image before edits via Shutterstock / ironbell