So, you might be wondering what I've been up to these last few days. Mainly school, life, watching the world burn...

And recently, I learned of the existence of the series Naked Education, by Channel 4. It mostly seems to be about teaching body positivity to middle-school aged children, which might be a healthy goal (in the classical sense of body postitivity)... if it wasn't about exposing oneself to children in a major way. Having seen the series, it's basically education via flashing, and there's something purile about it.

And it's all uncensored, to boot. Even to the kids.

As if that wasn't disgusting enough, the UN has recently decided to attempt to decriminalize sexual acts towards minors. Adolescence is defined by the UN as ages 10-19, and they recently passed a bill that makes things much more grey, not to mention the sheer number of actual pedophiles they've had on their board. This is the same group, as it turns out, that tried to ban anime for having "pedophilic" content, hiding the skeletons in their closets. Read More »

Well, looks like someone broke the rule about no hatewatching! So I'm gonna have to record straight on Velma. It's time for some Mature Musings.

If there was ever a children's show, it was Scooby-Doo. Even the ghosts were not really ghosts, but guys in a mask, speaking to its family-friendly nature. It's why whenever Scooby-Doo makes horror content, it's that the danger is real, whether it be the real monsters of Zombie Island, or the bloody terror of Scoobynatural. Naturally, Mindy Kaling's Velma show is the exact opposite, with a shower scene of teenage girls in the beginning, self-unawarely talking about how gratuitous it is.

We're not talking about Velma.

Instead, we're talking about something much more wholesome. In Big Top Scooby-Doo, the actual Velma is trying out for a cannonball shoot. When the cannon fires... her outfit goes flying, not her, and we see her for a bit. Read More »

Here's a fun one, one that serves as yet another reminder that Yes, It Can Be Done!

How many of you remember Pepper Ann? It was an old 90's cartoon by Sue Rose that had character designs assisted by Tom Warburton. The show tackled some bold topics, including, in one instance, the idea of Pepper needing a bra due to her reaching that important crossroad of girlhood. (A later Tom Warburton production, KND, would share this lack of stigma of the female undergarments.)

This one is a particularly interesting find: Pepper Ann in a homage to The Birth of Venus. Nothing objectionable showing for a children's show, even if it is of a girl. Nothing problematic, nothing harmful. Artful in all regards. I only wish I could find the context.

As I keep saying, there is nothing "inherently sexual" about the female body. It's really only a big deal if you make it such, so all we need do is not make it such a big deal. I'm sure the rule of "I know it when I see it" applies here, too. Read More »

I'm trying to post more regularly, with the help of my friends and contributors suggesting more content. As I said before, it's hard to find content these days, but I did find something for some Mature Musings.

After the success of Regular Show, the creators worked on a show for more mature audiences called Close Enough. I can't say I've seen much of this show, but it certainly seems head and shoulders above the average Adult Cartoon. That is, it doesn't seem heavily to rely on vulgarity for the sake of its jokes.

But for the sake of this blog, one of the best gags was in the episode "Secret Horse". In that episode, a magic horse lost in a windstorm helps teach the cast to dream, including the main female protagonist Emily. She imagines herself on an Avatar-inspired adventure, before the jig is up and everyone reveals their own dreams because of the horse. Read More »

As suggested by blog contributor Fitilas III, I'm going to share another example that Yes, It Can Be Done!

Today's case is from 1975's The Ladybug's Song. The premise of the show is that the seven children of the Issshuu family, who each represent days of the week, are trying to help move forward after a family tragedy. The central character is Hiyoko, the youngest daughter in the family. She's five, and the cheerful child of the group.

The reason I bring her up is because she often flashes her rear end on many ocassions throughout the show. All of it is portrayed for comedy, nothing sexual about it; she is five after all. These scenes do a good job of using her nudity for comedic purposes, and they help picture classical humor that is equal-opportunity in nature.

There is, however, an asterisk on this tale, because eventually this kind of thing kinda becomes a "No Girls Allowed" entry. These scenes eventually stop being commonplace as the series goes on, no doubt because it was seen as imitable. But this, too, fascinates me. Japanese culture wants girls to grow up into proper ladies, especially older Japanese culture. There are clear roles for each gender, and each one works from their strengths. It's not like our western culture that tries to flip the balance of power and grant all the power to one group, nor is it happiness in slavery. It's simply a cultural difference. Read More »

One of my friends recently lost his Google account to the internet police. He was suspended for sharing pictures with what Google deemed “unacceptable exploitation of minors”. I say “what Google deemed” because, having seen the images through another outlet... he exploited nobody. The picture was simply of cartoon boys showing nothing that anime doesn't show even to this day.

Drawings of children in innocent situation are turned over to the Sentinels of Silicon Valley and turned over as signs that someone should be arrested. Never mind that if the worst cases were to happen to an actual child, Twitter's former management would protect the offending user and simply hide the evidence to the masses. Actual pedophiles get more support than those who simply draw art the mob finds unacceptable.

One day, I can only pray we stop treating girls of all ages with kid gloves and forever stop saying No Girls Allowed. As time goes by, however, my prayers seem to be getting answered less and less.

In recent news, manga publisher Udon censored their release of the manga Summer Time by refusing to show the bust and behind of one of the female characters. Their reasoning behind it is that, as the character depicted is 15, depicting her breasts would be considered child pornography, thus, illegal. On the surface, this argument makes sense...

...but if you believe that, then it should come as a massive surprise that Dragon Ball, published in the US by Viz Entertainment, does not censor 12-year-old Goku's privates despite him being far younger, and an actual child. Of course, a 16-year-old Blooma is also censored in the english release, the same areas as the character in  Read More »

How's everyone doing! To ring in the new year properly, I'll share an example that proves that Yes, It Can Be Done!

Teen Titans had a large popularity increase in 2003, no doubt thanks to the new series on Cartoon Network. This series, more intended for younger audiences than the concurrent Justice League series, showcased an incarnation of the team with a more comedic slant. And, as tends to happen, the comic book heroes were adapted into a comic book based on the animated series, mostly as a gateway for younger readers to enter the mainline comics one day.

One of those issues, Issue 8, had a very striking moment towards the climax. The villain, Mad Mod, was using designer clothing to brainwash the public, and of course, the solution is to defabricate everyone through usage of the latest tech Cyborg came up with. This results in a moment where Beast Boy, Starfire, and random citizens are shown sans clothing. Read More »

This issue of the comic based off the Teen Titans cartoon from 2003 will be featured in its own showcase that Yes, It Can Be Done! But for now, I'd like to emphasize something I think I needed to elaborate more often.

On the left side, there's the example from the issue itself. This is intended more as a comedic approach, showing just enough to be done in an amusing way. And, thankfully, Starfire is just as exposed in her appearances as Beast Boy is, and the drawing quality does its best to de-emphasize her sexuality.

On the right side is a piece of fanart that shows how this comic could've looked if a sexual approach was taken. Note that the anatomy of both Starfire and Beast boy is more alluring, with Star's pronounced breasts and Beast Boy's chest hair. Both male and female are drawn in a sexual way, and I can respect that. Read More »

Good day, everyone! It's been a while since someone decided to Ask ArcRoyale, but someone has, and I feel inclined to answer.

Today's question comes from two people, who both write: Dear ArcRoyale: You keep ascribing a perverted meaning to certain animators of female sexuality. Why is that?

That's actually a two part question, one of why and one of what. So, let's focus on the “why” first.

Fact is... I've been influenced a little bit by some of the things I've come across in the years since this blog began. This blog started in the early 2010s, and since then, we've had countless sexual abuse scandals by those in charge of major corporations. Sometimes, #MeToo really is true, sad to say.

The interesting part is that quite a few of these happened in the halls of those who complain about female sexuality. The president of Sony complains about Read More »

I think it's a good time to get back to our roots, but with a twist. It may not be Saturday, but it's a good time for some Mature Musings.

I've talked once or twice about The Simpsons episode "Natural Born Kissers" a few times. In one of my previous encounters with the episode, I called it one of my favorite examples of nonsexualized female nudity.

Unfortunately, I have to rescind my praise. The nudity is very sexual, and I can prove it.

Recently, storyboards were leaked online for the episode, and they depict some scenes that were not in the finished product... and revealed one scene was not in it.

The scene with Homer and Marge and the garden ornaments was storyboarded just fine, but was originally supposed to start after the Police Dog sniffs Homer's underwear. This scene is kept in the finished episode, but the addition afterwards is removed: a small conversation between Homer and Marge where they bicker like an old married couple. I think the scene could and should have been kept in, because it demonstrates a good dynamic between Homer and Marge. Read More »

I've been looking for something to talk about on my blog for some time now. For a while, I toyed with making this an archive of sorts. But I'm back, because something has just been unavoidable to talk about.

Disney recently announced the casting for a live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. This remake is set to feature a black lead who announced proudly on Twitter that she will not be bleaching her skin. Well, of course she won't, that would just be Whiteface. This is, of course, hot on the heels of the racist casting of a black woman as the red-headed Ariel, but hey, those gingers don't have souls, amirite?

It may sound like I'm being horribly, horribly racist. But that's only because Disney is. Their casting choice for Snow White? It was done in a racist cartoon. By the name Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarves. Read More »

In all my time running this blog, I expected to have it taken down for the same reasons I did my Tumblr page: some concerned parent or parent-minded person complains to the staff because they mistook my message for being about pornography. I must reiterate that such was never my intention. This is about equal treatment and giving everyone a fair shot.

I was never expecting the subject of what I am about to talk about to be the reason my blog could be deleted. But then, here we are. What I am about to say could get my blog terminated, but I don't care. If I don't say something, that'll go against my values. And if I can help to raise awareness of this issue, then so be it.

Recently, Sony has been receiving a lot of criticism for the sequel to their acclaimed title The Last of Us, for a variety of reasons that don't quite fit the nature of my blog. However, when the game was finally released, it was discovered that a graphic sexual scene had been placed in the game. Now, this wouldn't normally be a case to talk about... except for the fact that Sony has had a history of censoring other titles on their game systems for far less explicit content, raising the question of why Read More »

It would seem the more things change, the more they stay the same...

Recently, one of my home pages, DeviantArt, went through a bit of a transition into a new layout. This layout, DeviantArt Eclipse, ended up pushing away more of its followers than past layouts had, but a few veterans stayed on. That could be because of the fact that there's no website quite like it that lets you submit a wide variety of content of varying levels of quality... but that, in the end, is just a fancy way of saying it holds a monopoly over creative content, that nobody can compete with it. At least, nothing that I know of.

So, because it has such a stranglehold on the creative industry, anyone who gets sucked into it must follow its code of conduct, and through a bit of a connection to a user I've admired, little old me got sucked into a bit of a mess. Not my first. What happened? Read More »

...sigh... once again, Hollywood has determined that, even with regards to the past, there are still No Girls Allowed.
This was brought to my attention quite recently. The 1984 comedy Splash has received edits on Disney Plus, Disney's streaming service. Apparently edits are made to hide the female protagonist's naked bottom, and ones quite clumsy as well. It's all in the name of retaining the PG Rating for the movie, since PG and G are basically the same thing now, it would seem.
Never mind that X-Men: Days of Future Past has a scene where Wolverine gets out of bed in the nude, and he is clearly supposed to be the subject of the Female Gaze. Never mind that Thor Ragnarok does the same thing Splash does, showing off the innocence of the character whose bottom is being shown by having them not care about the taboo. Never mind that those two films are ones you can and have marketed to children/adults, as Read More »

I'm back. Some time has passed. I know I usually do this on Monday, but hear me out.
One common way cartoons denigrate men while putting women on a pedestal is in using their nudity for humorous purposes. Even if a female is being sexualized, they're still considered attractive by the camera. Thus, it's more akin to a photo shoot; while the most common thing that happens to men is more like pantsing.
One need only look at Dexter's Laboratory in order to see what this kind of thing looks like. Dexter, the main young boy character, frequently ended up losing his clothing, to the point that a whole episode, "Streaky Clean", focused on his nudity in a, quite frankly, humiliating situation. His attempts to clean his clothes automatically resulted in him burning them off, and he had to return home totally nude. Read More »

When I look around the internet, I see all sorts of commentators turned into political figures. Maybe it’s a sign of the times we live in, but generally, when I look at a YouTube channel that’s labeled “Computing Forever”, I expect news on the latest tech, not a lecture on the evils of Big Tech. We definitely can’t ignore the changes to the digital public square but… I still don’t want to end up like them. I just don’t.

That’s part of the reason I’ve found it so hard to talk about things on this blog. It feels like I’m a broken record, heck, I felt the record being broken a while into the process. But the Current Year of 2019 has given me no shortage of things to talk about, and yes, I can relate it to the content I’ve already covered.

Remember when I talked about Mortal Kombat 11, and how violence was seen as more acceptable than sexuality, more specifically, female sexuality? Well, Netherrealm and DC have finally caved in and are rumored to be releasing costumes based on the MKII outfits for the female ninjas, which happen to show just a little bit of skin. They’re still tasteful outfits, but it does show the company as two-faced. “We’re willing to pander to this crowd… but you gotta sell that nostalgia!” Read More »

Alright, this one will be Adults Only. That’s what happens when you have to bring up things like Mortal Kombat in polite company.

Sometimes you’re just stressed. You see a guy, you see a gal, they look good, better than you’ll ever look. And well… your hands are screaming at you. You need to relieve some tension. So you do what comes naturally: you grab some head.

Now, now. You might have read that wrong. By “some”, I mean the singular unknown form. By “head”, I mean the one on top of the torso. So yeah, you grab some head, from some guy.

And you rip it off. You rip it right off their body. And you don’t even rip it clean off; the spine is still attached.

Ladies and gentlemen… today we’re talking about Mortal Kombat.

Now, the debate going on with violent video games has lasted for quite a while. The instant an actor allowed his likeness to rip out the heart of the likeness of another actor, all while being broadcast in the public space of the arcade, that debate was lit. Those ESRB ratings we have today? Those were MADE by Read More »

This has probably been the shortest-lasting comeback I have ever made. I have my reasons: after I had posted the message of my return, I had posted a long post on the nature of what makes a character attractive, and why the then-current Super Bowl halftime show with Maroon 5 didn’t have the same response as the Janet Jackson issue. The post was long, and one of my best work, I’d say so myself.

That’s when Soup ate it in another of its outages. No, I didn’t have a backup.

Frustrated with many things in real life, I gave up and searched for another topic to write. And after a while, I looked up recent items in the news, and came across something very interesting. I think it’d make a good subject for this blog, given the on-and-off-again focus it has.

Another YouTube Armageddon has taken hold, one that happened over the comments of pedophiles negatively commenting on a channel of a wholesome family. Because of those comments, the channel was demonetized, as in, all income was removed, while YouTube’s only statement was that the comments of others could hold them liable. Read More »