Young women are also rushing to the "World of Human Bodies" exhibition now being shown at the National Science Museum in Ueno, Tokyo. An investigator from Weekly Playboy discovers that high-school girls sporting chapatsu (died brown hair) and coeds wearing mini skirts and long boots, the types rarely seen at science museums, are forming crowds in front of glass cases containing such specimens as a sliced human body and skulls. A spokesman for the exhibition tells Weekly Playboy that 60 percent to 65 percent of visitors are women, mostly in their late teens to early 20s.
"Everyone in our class is talking about this exhibition, so I came today to check it out," offers a female senior high-school student. She adds that many students at her school are avid readers of "Shukan Murder Casebook."
Criminal psychologist Akira Sakuta says that women may be drawn to dead bodies and murder cases because of their sense of aggression is normally repressed. "Other women might develop sympathy for the criminal (as they read his murder story) and even feel a sense of criminal accomplishment in the end through identification with the protagonist," suggests Sakura who offers his expertise to "Shukan Murder Casebook" as a supervisor.
A 25-year-old woman who loves murder stories and corpses endorses Sakata's view. Analyzing her own fascination, the woman says, "When I was sexually awakened, I went mad over horror movies and splatter videos. I think women masturbate psychologically by watching cruel scenes, just like men release their accumulated sexual energy by looking at nude phottos." (TI)