Alpantuni is the name of an Instagram account that depicts the life of the titular main character, who is a gay Muslim man in Southeast Asia. There is speculation over whether the creator is Malaysian or Indonesian; when interviewed, the creator of the comic stated that they didn't wish to elaborate whether they were from Indonesia or Malaysia. [1]
The account was created in November 2018, but rapidly gained attention in February 2019 by online Indonesians decrying it for its portrayal of homosexuality. [2] The Indonesian Ministry of Communications declared the comics to be pornographic and violating Article 27 paragraph 1 of the 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions Law on the distribution of pornographic content. [2] The account was no long accessible on February 13, 2019; [3] [2] the Indonesian government claimed that Instagram had removed the account after mass outcry from Indonesian internet users. [2] Instagram denies this, and put forth a number of alternative reasons why the account was no longer accessible. [2] The creator of the account claims that though Instagram didn't obey the Ministry's request, it did remove a number of posts for hate speech; however, the creator states that they made the choice to delete the account of fear of putting their loved ones in harm. [1]
A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses superpowers, abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their powers to help the world become a better place, or dedicating themselves to protecting the public and fighting crime. Superhero fiction is the genre of fiction that is centered on such characters, especially, since the 1930s, in American comic books, as well as in Japanese media.
Yaoi, also known as boys' love and its abbreviation BL, is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for women and is thus distinct from bara, a genre of homoerotic media marketed to gay men, though yaoi does also attract a male audience and can be produced by male creators. Yaoi spans a wide range of media, including manga, anime, drama CDs, novels, video games, television series, films, and fan works. While "yaoi" is commonly used in the west as an umbrella term for Japanese-influenced media with male-male relationships, "boys' love" and "BL" are the generic terms for this kind of media in Japan and much of Asia.
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality, and violence. They were most popular in the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s, and in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.
In comics, LGBT themes are a relatively new concept, as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) themes and characters were historically omitted from the content of comic books and their comic strip predecessors due to anti-gay censorship. LGBT existence was included only via innuendo, subtext and inference. However the practice of hiding LGBT characters in the early part of the twentieth century evolved into open inclusion in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and comics explored the challenges of coming-out, societal discrimination, and personal and romantic relationships between gay characters.
Censorship is a long term issue in Malaysia which has become more apparent as it attempts to adapt to a modern knowledge-based economy. Despite having in its Federal Constitution that subject to certain conditions, "every citizen has the right to freedom of speech and expression", Malaysia has consistently sat low on global indexes related to press and media freedom.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Indonesia face legal challenges and prejudices not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Traditional mores disapprove of homosexuality and transitioning, which impacts public policy. Indonesian same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for any of the legal protections available to opposite-sex married couples. Most parts of Indonesia do not have a sodomy law, and the country does not currently prohibit non-commercial, private and consensual sexual activity between members of the same-sex, yet there is no specific Indonesian law that protects the LGBT community against discrimination and hate crimes. In Aceh, homosexuality is illegal under Islamic Sharia law and it is punishable by flogging or imprisonment. Indonesia does not recognize same-sex marriage.
Savita Bhabhi is an Indian fictional cartoon character, created by Kirtu Comics. The protagonist was promoted mainly through comics. It has since been converted into a subscription-based strip.
Legal frameworks around fictional pornography depicting minors vary depending on country and nature of the material involved. Laws against production, distribution and consumption of child pornography generally separate images into three categories: real, pseudo, and virtual. Pseudo-photographic child pornography is produced by digitally manipulating non-sexual images of real minors to make pornographic material. Virtual child pornography depicts purely fictional characters. "Fictional pornography depicting minors", as covered in this article, includes these latter two categories, whose legalities vary by jurisdiction, and often differ with each other and with the legality of real child pornography.
Bara is a colloquialism for a genre of Japanese art and media known within Japan as gay manga (ゲイ漫画) or gei komi. The genre focuses on male same-sex love, as created primarily by gay men for a gay male audience. Bara can vary in visual style and plot, but typically features masculine men with varying degrees of muscle, body fat, and body hair, akin to bear or bodybuilding culture. While bara is typically pornographic, the genre has also depicted romantic and autobiographical subject material, as it acknowledges the varied reactions to homosexuality in modern Japan.
In American mainstream comics, LGBT themes and characters were historically omitted intentionally from the content of comic books, due to either formal censorship or the perception that comics were for children and thus LGBT themes were somehow inappropriate. With any mention of homosexuality in mainstream United States comics forbidden by the Comics Code Authority (CCA) until 1989, earlier attempts at exploring these issues in the US took the form of subtle hints or subtext regarding a character's sexual orientation. LGBT themes were tackled earlier in underground comix from the early 1970s onward. Independently published one-off comic books and series, often produced by gay creators and featuring autobiographical storylines, tackled political issues of interest to LGBT readers.
Gay interpretations have been part of the academic study of the Batman franchise at least since psychiatrist Fredric Wertham asserted in his 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent that "Batman stories are psychologically homosexual". Several characters in the Modern Age Batman comic books are expressly gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
Iconology Inc., d/b/a ComiXology, is a cloud-based digital distribution platform for comics owned by Amazon, with over 200 million comic downloads as of September 2013. It offers a selection of more than 100,000 comic books, graphic novels, and manga across Android, iOS, Kindle Fire, Windows 10, and the Internet.
Although, traditionally, female comics creators have long been a minority in the industry, they have made a notable impact since the very beginning, and more and more female artists are getting recognition along with the maturing of the medium. Women creators have worked in every genre, from superheroes to romance, westerns to war, crime to horror.
Internet filtering in Indonesia was deemed "substantial" in the social arena, "selective" in the political and internet tools arenas, and there was no evidence of filtering in the conflict/security arena by the OpenNet Initiative in 2011 based on testing done during 2009 and 2010. Testing also showed that Internet filtering in Indonesia is unsystematic and inconsistent, illustrated by the differences found in the level of filtering between ISPs. Indonesia was rated "partly free" in Freedom on the Net 2020 with a score of 49, midway between the end of the "free" range at 30 and the start of the "not free" range at 60.
Censorship by Apple refers to Apple Inc.'s removal, omission, or disruption of the spread of content or information from its services or subsidiaries, such as the iTunes Store and the App Store (iOS), in order to comply with Apple's company policies, legal demands, or various government censorship laws.
Ardian Syaf is an Indonesian comic book artist. He has worked for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and Dynamite Entertainment.
Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Shihab is an Indonesian Islamist cleric, the founder and leader of the Islamist group Islamic Defenders Front, which was banned by the government in December 2020. Facing criminal charges in Indonesia, he lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 2017 to November 2020. Following his return to Indonesia, he was arrested in late 2020, accused of criminal incitement for holding crowded events that violated the COVID-19 pandemic regulations.
In contrast with mainstream American comics, webcomics are primarily written and drawn by women and gender variant people. Because of the self-published nature of webcomics, the internet has become a successful platform for social commentary, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) expression.
Armin Navabi is an Iranian-Canadian ex-Muslim atheist, author and podcaster, currently living in Vancouver, Canada. In 2012, he founded the online freethought community Atheist Republic, a Canada-based non-profit organisation which now has hundreds of branches called "consulates" in several countries around the world such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, enabling non-believers to interact in societies where irreligion, apostasy and blasphemy are often criminalised and repressed. As an author, he debuted with the book Why There Is No God (2014), and in 2017 he became a co-host of the Secular Jihadists from the Middle East podcast with Ali A. Rizvi, Yasmine Mohammad and Faisal Saeed Al Mutar. In January 2018, the show was renamed Secular Jihadists for a Muslim Enlightenment, with Rizvi and Navabi as co-hosts.
Ahegao (アヘ顔) is a term in Japanese pornography for a facial expression of characters during sex, typically with rolling or crossed eyes, protruding tongue, and slightly reddened face, to show enjoyment or ecstasy. The style is often used in erotic manga, anime, and video games.