Diff anon but your answer on sadomasochism enlightened me. 'It doesn't have to be sexual' changed my whole view. It's because we're exposed to that term as negative/sexual hence we never give a thought beyond that. Also what's ur opinion on people calling the Mirko stuff as Torture p*rn. I disagree with it but I realised I may be missing something they are seeing.I feel this happens to many chrs.Endv,Ngnt,Sgrk,Bkg. Plus she's still going strong. Had she been in pain, I would have somewhat agreed
One need not look much farther than the centuries of religious art to get a sense of how universal sadomasochism can be as an artistic theme lol.
As for your question, I think "torture porn" is the catch-all term people are using to describe a bit more than just what the term sounds like. There are a few porn tropes and such that people seem to be spotting, but like...this is complicated. Maybe more complicated than I'm about to treat it, or maybe more complicated than those people are treating it.
On the one hand, you have the issues of exploitation and addiction and other psychological consequences of the porn industry. I don't think it's fair to hold a Japanese manga responsible for these issues (especially when it's, you know, not porn), but I can understand why people might feel uncomfortable about what they're seeing for various reasons. There are also those who will feel uncomfortable with violence or gore in general (although let's be real, MHA has plenty of that already). No one has to be comfortable with what's going on. And I'm not out here to defend the objectification portion of fetishization that harms people in real life. If someone has been harmed by that before and they see something worth speaking out about, that's fair.
On the other hand, I draw the line at white knight advocacy. There may be those who see signs of familiar fetish tropes in Mirko because of her dark skin or lost limbs, but there are two sticky issues with jumping to conclusions here:
1. Western tropes don't necessarily translate to other parts of the world. The USA especially has a tendency to ascribe its conceptions of race to other countries, and that makes for some pretty awkward criticism of Horikoshi if you don't take that into account. Dark skin exists and is perceived differently in other cultures. There are dark-skinned Japanese people. We can't just assume anything about race when we see what WE might perceive as one race in a manga. White people LOVE to ask the question "Why are there so many white people in anime?" without stopping to think "Wait, ARE they actually white, or am I just assuming that because I think the default is white?" (Hint: It's almost always the latter.)
2. Just getting mad on behalf of a marginalized group doesn't qualify you to speak out. I've seen some people who are members of the groups Horikoshi's treatment of Mirko allegedly objectifies, and while not all of them have the same takes, a non-negligible number of them seem far more exasperated with the flat discourse from the fandom condemning Mirko than with Mirko's treatment. Anyone who cares about these issues could do a lot more good by empowering the voices of people they actually think are hurt by this than spouting their own asinine takes. I for one am particularly annoyed with the retaliatory desexualization and infantilization of amputees and the physically disabled that many people are engaging in without much consideration. One behavior by others that affects me as a disabled person is how many people love to speak on my behalf because they truly believe I'm not capable of speaking for myself and that they have my best interests at heart. And to them: You know what? Fuck you. I have my own opinions and you don't speak for me. Try listening for once. And for what it's worth? I'm a sexy disabled motherfucker too.
As far as Mirko goes, she's living up to her ideals. She has regrets about not taking down Shigaraki when she had the chance, and she probably attributed some of that to her injuries and loss of limb at the time. Now she's getting a do-over regarding that, and she's fucking rocking it. Maybe there are some bits that I could stand to have handled differently, or maybe I'm overly used to weird anime bullshit, but regardless, I'm fully convinced if I look into a mirror and scream "Struggle!" three times, Mirko will jump out of it and bite open my neck, and I for one welcome that sweet, bloody, badass death.
