I'm really tired of explaining over and over again why what Jiraiya did to Naruto is child sexual abuse. Over and over again just to be asked to explain it again and then for the people who ask to deny it "because it's a gag"
It's triggering. It's disrespectful. It's child sexual abuse apology.
It is child sexual abuse despite it being a running "gag" and Naruto coming up with it as a "prank." Think about what led up to him creating this prank. Why he does it and for who? Would Naruto do this if he wasn't a neglected child who no one pays attention to or gives any love? Would he feel the need to "prank" his teachers and guardians and other adults if he didn't experience extreme neglect and ostracization?
It doesn't matter that it's a gag! The gag is based on real social norms. The social norms being the abuse of children, misogyny and rape culture. In real life these things are also not treated seriously and taken as jokes. That's the reality Kishimoto, who is himself a misogynist and perpetuator of rape culture, is drawing from. Just because it's a gag doesn't take away from what it is. A misogynistic running joke about the sexual abuse of women and children. Even if it's a "joke" this joke is such a big part of Naruto's character and interactions with others that it is ridiculous to not take it seriously when analyzing him.
If there was a racist joke in a manga, just because to the author it's a joke, that doesn't make it not racist. Even if the racism has no consequence in universe (because the author is racist and in control of the story), that doesn't mean it's not racist. For you to take the author's pov of "it's okay and not racist because it's a joke" is a moral failing on your part. Authors are flawed. They have their own biases and bigotry. Of course a misogynist will not think he's misogynist.
Let's do another example. A fic writer writes a fic where a character is raped during sex with their love interest. This character says no several times. They get pleasure from the nonconsensual sex but they are also depicted as torn and rejecting the love interest's advances. The love interest is shown as remorseful but the character who was raped forgives them and tells them they did nothing wrong because they love them. If I point out to the author that this was rape, they might say actually no it's not. Because the character didn't care and didn't think they were raped. But the sex depicted was nonconsensual. It was sex where one didn't take the other's "no" seriously and kept going. But the author does not think so because in real life they would not see it as rape or they think it's normal. That doesn't make it not rape. The rapist was even remorseful but the author still doesn't think it's rape. Because they are drawing from real life and this is a common reality. This is a real example that has happened many times when I used to read fics. It happens in fiction with all sorts of abuse. They depict it somewhat realistically, with the remorse and the victim forgiving the abuser. So the author sees this in society and even fiction, writes it into a story, but without realizing what it is is abuse. The less generous take is that the author might be abusers themselves. But we live in rape culture and a culture that doesn't see abuse as abuse. I have interpreted abuse as not abuse myself at times, regretfully, and people have shown me I was wrong.
Kishimoto is similar. He wrote a very realistic child abuse victim in Naruto. A child who is so extremely neglected and abused he will go to great lengths to get attention and affection. One of those ways is his sexy jutsu.
It's really realistic that Naruto, after having been regularly sexually abused by the older man Jiraiya, and knowing that using his body to seduce and give sexual favors gets him what he wants (attention, people's time and acknowledgement) that he would then try the same on Killer Bee when Killer Bee is paying him no mind. This is the behavior of a child that has been repeatedly sexually abused. Kishimoto might not view it this way but he is not drawing from thin air. He is drawing from social norms and things he has observed.
To deny that Jiraiya, a man in his 50s, witholding attention and education to a child he is responsible for, so that said neglected and abandoned child will feel that he has no other choice but to perform sexy jutsu for him, to deny that what he did is child sexual abuse IS child abuse apology.
Naruto is a poster boy of child sexual abuse. An orphan who is ostracized by everyone including adults and children. A child who does drastic things (like vandalizing the hokage mountain) for attention. A child who has had to depend on himself from birth because he had no other option. A child who is unkempt and rowdy and unhygienic because he had no one to raise him. Abusers like Jiraiya know this and take advantage of this. This is the kind of child that predators gravitate towards because they know they are easy targets. Jiraiya does this to multiple children. Not just Naruto.
From Mindhunter by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker:
Kishimoto might not have consciously written it that way, but that's what he wrote. For fans to deny the abuse that Jiraiya is doing to Naruto is fans actively participating and enabling the kind of society and culture that lets this happen without consequences. Exactly because you refuse to see it for what it is. Child sexual abuse. A 50 year old man making a 12 year old perform porn for him.
Jiraiya brings Naruto to brothels. He teaches him how to peep on women. He makes him edit his porn novels.
Jiraiya also abuses Naruto in other ways. He steals and spends the money 12 year old Naruto has worked hard to save up because he has no parents or others looking out for him (except Iruka) for example. He also withholds food from him depending on his mood.
Back to the sexual abuse of a child. Naruto shows behavior that is common in children being abused. They tire of the "game" even with the rewards and get annoyed by their abuser and show their discomfort. Naruto does this a lot but he still in the end, yields to Jiraiya's wishes.
There's a comment Naruto makes that is very alarming. Another realism that Kishimoto unintentionally wrote because he is taking from real societal, cultural norms and phenomena.
"I'm starting to think that all adults are weak against this jutsu." This tells us that Naruto regularly uses sexy jutsu to seduce adults and that adults like it/"fall" for it. And in Naruto's child mind, he gets the upperhand on them. We see him do this with Iruka, whom in the original japanese he actually calls a pervert because he always gets nosebleeds (which in japanese media means they are horny or feeling extreme affection/attraction) when Naruto does sexy jutsu. He does this to Konohamaru's handler too. And the same thing happens. The adult man gets a nosebleed. He repeats this learned behavior with many adults because he is a sexually abused child and this is one of the few ways he feels power over the adults that tower over him and abuse him. And it's also how he gets attention and affection from Jiraiya. To get Jiraiya to teach Naruto, he has to perform these sexual favors for this 50 something year old man. Naruto's hypersexuality is telltale sign of csa.
If you deny that that's sexual abuse, I sincerely implore you to seriously reconsider your thinking and beliefs. This is an extremely triggering topic for me and many others. To see people so callous and even blaming Naruto for it, as if it is something he could have chosen to do as a child who is abused even before the sexual stuff, a child who is written by a misogynist cishet man, can make one feel insane.
I don't know how I can make it any simpler.
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