Karl Andersson

Karl Andersson

Karl Andersson is a Swedish publisher and researcher of male homosexual desires directed towards boys, and representations of boys. He is best known for Destroyer Magazine and the controversy surrounding it. In 2022, Andersson was involved in a social media outrage with Twitter conservatives and radical feminists, surrounding a peer reviewed journal article, written while studying for his PhD at the University of Manchester, England. In his below-linked article, he used masturbation as an ethnographic technique, gaining insights into boy-directed desires in Japanese culture:

Abstract: I wanted to understand how my research participants experience sexual pleasure when reading shota, a Japanese genre of self-published erotic comics that features young boy characters. I therefore started reading the comics in the same way as my research participants had told me that they did it: while masturbating. In this research note, I will recount how I set up an experimental method of masturbating to shota comics, and how this participant observation of my own desire not only gave me a more embodied understanding of the topic for my research but also made me think about loneliness and ways to combat it as driving forces of the culture of self-published erotic comics.

From I am not alone – we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan

This article roused the ire of the Rt. Hon Neil O’Brien, a Member of Parliament for the Tory Party, and the NSPCC Children's Charity and members of the online parenting community, Mumsnet (which is famously considered to be a bellwether for social attitudes in the UK). The article was soon removed from the journal website, with the following message:

"Due to ethical concerns surrounding this article and the social harm being caused by the publication of this work, the publishers have now agreed with the Journal Editors and have decided to remove the article while this investigation is ongoing in accordance with COPE guidelines."

Books and publications

Karl Andersson's Swedish book Bögarnas värsta vän - historien om tidningen Destroyer, was published in October 2010 and covers the reactions to the magazine. The book made headline in several national newspapers. Aftonbladet published a favorable review, which was criticized by the culture editor of Expressen. Key players in the initial scandals were interviewed by Svenska Dagbladet, including Andersson himself and the former chairman of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights. The English translation Gay Man's Worst Friend - the Story of Destroyer Magazine was published in March 2011, and is listed at the foot of the article.

The reactions to Destroyer have repeatedly been used in academic discourse as an example of what kind of expressions gay culture or sex radicalism may or may not include, and how that can change over time. One doctoral dissertation describes Destroyer's relevance thus:

"The tension along the culturally determined barrier between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ sexual expressions is demonstrated in the scandal of Destroyer magazine and the outrage it sparked within gay rights debates."

External links

• Gay Man's Worst Friend: the story of Destroyer Magazine (see z-lib for a full version)
• Personal site
• YouTube channel
• University profile
• PhD Student Who Wrote “Masturbation” Research Paper Also Published Graphic Teen Boy Magazines, by Reduxx (radical feminist outlet)