>> 33
>> Experience has shown me that while pictures of flesh and blood girls in bikinis are considered an acceptable part of hetrosexual male life, pictures of ink and paint girls in same are not. I know this, yet I'm not willing to throw away my collection.

That is so true. I finally understood something is not quite right when my non-otaku, non-nerd, fairly moderately geeky if not normal friends started giving me otaku related objects for presents... It shocked me so deeply that I can't quite describe it. Basically I got rid of almost all otaku related stuff I had and only kept the dvd's of the shows I collected so far of off internet and about 10 mangas & comics. Everything else was either thrown away or given away.

It's easier for people to understand if a guy watches a porn movie or a mag from time to time - but it's near to impossible to explain a poster with Belldandy or Lacus Clyne, let alone a bikini-clad anime gal. Or a figurine of an anime girl in very skimpy bikini. For I have been a fairly open otaku and now am not - I understand this on a personal level. I have it in my mind that to have a real relationship with a real woman overrules any of my otaku needs.