Recently in Texas there was a proposal or legislation called Senate Bill 20 to supposedly ban anime or certain anime with specific Japanese cultural norms. I am absolutely against this ban as a Texan, especially as an artist who draws realistic still life and live models. I believe that all art should be fully expressed and without limit. The freedom of expression in art and an artists rendition has the possibility to change the world and get people to see, feel, and understand origional concepts, expressions, and artist portrials.
Moreover, I also need to address many cultural norms in Japan is seen as taboo in the west involving minors, fetishes, and non-integratable cultural traditions such as their controversial age of concent. It’s my extreme strong belief that we absolutely should protect children and minors at all costs and keep them away from harmful or very terrible adult content. However, and controversially, I also believe we should protect all artist expressions even if it portrays minors and extreme levels of deprivaty and degeneracy. In my view, art should always be expressed regardless of what it is or how extreme. Moreover, I understand the logic that people want to ban bad and harmful things to protect others. Therefore, to prevent ped0philia and to protect minors, I want to suggest a policy with a list of ideas for artists who want to express terrible ideas and visual expressions yet preserve their freedom for art and vision. My policy is perhaps artists who create extreme, questionable, or degenerate content can have a special liscense in which they can display their art while protecting minors, and preventing ped0philia. I believe we can create something called an Extreme Artist Liscenses which can include the use of an adult ID, label system, rating system, or even specialized liscenses in order to show the world their art.
To add detail to the important use of a label system, we can warn others that a content is: 1 extreme, highly controversial, or very taboo, 2 the artist is of a solid state of mind and does not intend to hurt anyone with their content, 3 their extreme content is intended for adults 18+ or older, 4 there is a respect and hard boundary for fantasy and imagination with no intention to overlap or reflect such ideas in real life and especially towards minors, 5 the artist has a desire and makes the effort to protect and respect minors in real life, 6 they understand the difference between fantasy and reality and that they should never overlap, 7 there are cultural differences with Japan’s culture and the west that an audience should be aware of, 8 and that viewer discression is heavily advised for seeing their content with the proof of an adult ID.
I would prefer this Extreme Artist Liscense policy than a ban on artist content and their expressions. Art is art, and when you take away expression, you ruin the purpose of art and you will end up with an underground economy and a cap on artist expression which could stifle ideas that can take humanity, human-thinking to new and better ideas, visions, considerations, and changes.
With all this together, we can make a world that is a lot more safe, where personal freedoms are preserved, where people persue happiness in whatever it may be as long as it harms nobody, and create a culture where all ideas can exist, improve, evolve, and build humanity.
Lastly I want to include that I believe this is the path Texas should of taken, and I believe this Extreme Artist Liscense policy proposal should be implamented nation-wide to protect minors and artist expression. I believe this can be a win-win for all parties, especially for protecting the anime artform, creator’s visions, and the preservation of innocence for minors.