Posted January 03, 2023
clarry: I quite mean it when I say enjoying 2D animu girls has little to do with attraction to real kids. That of course applies to "mature" anime characters as well; imagine your stereotypical neet hikikomori with body pillows of busty anime ladies having zero interest in real women and you understand.
But that's just a broad-strokes observation; it's impossible to speak for everyone. I wouldn't be surprised if, for some, manga were just a way around that problem you refer to.
This is an interesting point you raise. Not for the sake of the topic mind you, but more from a humanity pov. It feels a bit like saying 'your emotions are not you'. A way to differentiate between what you feeling and who you are. Your feelings, these sometimes raging waters wanting to pull the uneducated down into that dark hole that should not be looked upon, and sometimes the educated too, don't get me wrong here, usually have grounds for expressing themselves the way they do. But that's just a broad-strokes observation; it's impossible to speak for everyone. I wouldn't be surprised if, for some, manga were just a way around that problem you refer to.
Sorting through them is another point. Most humans will find coping mechanisms of sorts. Some actually manage to deal with them. It is sometimes hard to understand why people choose for extreme coping mechanisms. Certainly, if the observer is of the mild department, experiencing live as a breeze passing by. But at the moment that someone softly whispers ' he/she has gone through 'stuff'. Most people manage to find some forgiving sense in their hearts.
Of course you may have had something else in mind all together. I do remember quite fondly how at a certain point in my life i walked about with a shaven head uniformed in a certain branded trainings outfit to let the whole world know that i was a fond of a musical genre. I wish we had those body pillows back then ;)