Vagina Kayak Artist Charged With Obscenity

Every now and then, it's nice to know that America isn't the only place on earth with puritanical sex laws, but it's sad when that reminder costs someone their freedom. For the past few months, we've been covering the saga of Megumi Igarashi, an artist who sold various wares that were 3D printed from a mold of her vagina, and it looks like doing so has her facing a pretty serious set of obscenity charges.

According to XBIZ (link below), Igarashi, who goes by the name Rokudenashiko when creating her art, is staring down the barrel of two years in prison and a 2.5 million yen fine (a little over $20,000). 

"My works are all meant to induce friendly laughter because they involve cutely decorating sexual organs. The works are not obscene," Igarashi read out loud in court.

Adult entertainment industry attorney Lawrence Walters told XBIZ today that Igarashi might be a victim of moral panic in a country that bans the depiction of genitalia.

"For a high-tech country like Japan, the citizens still seem to have a strong prudish streak running through their culture," Walters said. "The idea that ‘data’ allowing a 3D model to be created could ever be considered ‘obscene’ is highly questionable. Until the model is actually printed, we’re talking about a bunch of 1s and 0s.

"This sounds like a bit of a political witch hunt against a controversial artist, but reinforces the fact that people are still being jailed for artistic expression." 

Here are my two cents on this, for whatever they're worth. Japan clearly has a double standard when it comes to genitalia. They have no problem with dicks. Hell, they have an entire festival devoted to worshipping cocks. They either need to just say that they don't like vaginas or back the fuck off. Seriously Japan, you're coming dangerously close to being uncool. 

Via XBIZ