Manchester investigates PhD student’s masturbation paper

The University of Manchester is investigating how one of its PhD students was allowed to publish a journal paper describing how he masturbated to sexualised images of young boys.

The Sage journal Qualitative Research, which published the paper subtitled “Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan” by the Swedish doctoral candidate Karl Andersson, will also review how the article on a manga comic genre depicting sexual encounters involving young boys was vetted, amid calls for its editors to resign.

The controversy erupted after the paper, originally published in April, was widely shared online this week. The Conservative MP for Harborough Neil O’Brien tweeted: “Why should hard-working taxpayers in my constituency have to pay for this academic to write about his experiences masturbating to Japanese porn?”

In the open-access paper, Mr Andersson, who thanks his PhD supervisor at Manchester “for always encouraging me to go where my research takes me”, explains how he decided to “masturbate only to shota” for three months. Those experiences led him to conclude that “it’s impossible for your brain to be blank during masturbation”.

However, some academics challenged his research claims for “masturbation as a method” and questioned the lack of any mention of ethics approval by his university or publisher, with one academic telling Times Higher Education that it was the “most morally offensive paper I have ever read”.

Others highlighted that possessing fictional images of minors in a pornographic context is banned in the UK, although it was unclear where the research was conducted and different rules relating to cartoons apply in Japan and countries such as the US and Germany.

“Masturbating to images of young boys and passing it off as scholarship normalises paedophilia,” said Alice Sullivan, professor of sociology at UCL, adding that “it suggests a complete lack of intellectual or ethical standards” at the journal, whose “editors should consider their positions”.

“Wanking is not a research method; it is just wanking,” continued Professor Sullivan, adding: “People attempting to defend this on academic freedom grounds do not understand what academic freedom is or why it matters.”

Mr Andersson’s PhD, on “how fans of subcultural comics in Japan experience desire and think about sexual identities”, is funded by Manchester’s School of Arts, Languages and Cultures.

Michelle Shipworth, a lecturer at UCL’s Energy Institute, said she struggled to see how a “three-month masturbating spree with Japanese ‘comic’ images of child porn constituted a ‘form of disciplined inquiry that aims to contribute to a body of knowledge or theory’”.

The “deeply problematic” paper – which may have been exempt from ethics review as it did not involve other participants, she suggested – “brings legitimate and usually highly valuable humanities, social science and qualitative research into disrepute. As a social scientist who uses qualitative methods, I find that very disturbing,” said Ms Shipworth.

Mr Andersson did not respond to THE’s request for comment, but recently posted a YouTube video in which he mentioned he was reviewing his research plans after they were rejected by a university ethics committee. In another video, he described shota comics as a “brilliant example of extreme expression” which “blur the gap between fiction and actual reality” and questioned the rationale for some countries’ decision to ban the comics.

Manchester said the publication of “the work of a student, now registered for a PhD, has raised significant concerns and complaints which we are taking very seriously”.

“We are currently undertaking a detailed investigation into all aspects of their work, the processes around it and other questions raised,” it added.

Sage said it was “investigating” the paper to see if it complied with guidance from the Committee of Publication Ethics.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com