Resisting the Heteronormative Timeline: Japanese Women's Media and Sexuality as Subcultural Capital This seminar took place in the Hall center and it was generally about the gay boom in Japan. The speaker Sho Ogawa talked about the 1991 Gay Renaissance” issue of a popular Japanese women’s magazine “Crea” which brought about a great rise in the representation of gay men in the japanese media phenomenon which is known as the “gay boom.” This boom affected how the Japanese media, in an amazing rush of films, nonfiction and fiction books, manga (Japanese comics), and television programs spreads information about gay male’s way of life and sexuality to hetrosexual consumers. He also talked about how the earlier media boom conflated …show more content…
He then further explained how the gay boom brought a change not only in the exposure of the gay subculture or a shift from feminized images of homosexuality to masculine ones, but a change in the target audience for gay images. Also, he told us that there were actually gay male images that were produced for non-gay audiences prior to the gay boom in adolescent female teen culture (which is called the shojo culture) represented in teen magazines such as Olive or magazines such as June showing romantic relationships between adolescent boys. After about 30mins into the seminar, he talked about a movie Summer Vacation 1999 which was produced before the gay boom and it shows homosexual characters. However, unlike the films produced during the gay boom, the gay characters do not date or get married to homosexual women. Summer Vacation is an adaptation of the boys love manga “The Heart of Thomas” with young female actors acting as adolescent schoolboys who were romantically drawn to each other. In addition, he went ahead to show us a video clip from the movie and I noticed that the females playing the gay male characters were dressed like westerners and the movie setting was western. This was because at that time in Japan, homosexuality was seen to have originated from the west and therefore was western. Due to this, homosexual men in Japan were seen as almost western since homosexuality was not present in
Throughout time, the role that Women had in the early twentieth century to the present has changed drastically and it has changed for the better. Japanese American Women residing in the United States, has experienced the evolution of their culture, tradition, values and their role in society. However though it seems as if there is no time in this ever so rapid society, they still continue to pass down culture and tradition through each generation. Some key terms that are crucial in order to understand the essay are, Issei, or the first generation, Nisei, the second generation ,and Sansei, known as the third generation.Over time the Women slowly moved away form being the average Homemaker and transforming into a respected and valued member of society.
As the years have gone by, you can see the change of how gays and lesbians are widely seen in mostly every tv show or movie in today’s society. This is something most of our own parents didn’t even grow up seeing gays throughout the media. Living in today’s time period, you’re able to see how the influence has changed the way people see gays and lesbians. The nation has become more accepting of the gay and lesbian culture verses back in the days of when our parents and even grandparents were our age. Not only was is rare to see homosexuals on television, it was portrayed negatively, and now you can see it portrayed positively.
The topic of sexual orientation is both sensitive and controversial. This is evident in events, such as the Pride Parade, and also in media, where authoritative figures preach against it and speak of its “sinful nature” (Emmanuele, Blanchard, Camperio-Ciani, & Bancroft, 2010). Sexual orientation exists in various forms, it differs in the way it is viewed by different cultures, and researchers propose different perspectives to explain the emergence of an individual 's sexual orientation. In the discourse of sexual orientation,
Written by Mishima Yukio, ‘Onnagata’ is a short story not so common among Japanese literature. It uncovered love relationships between three male characters: Masuyama, Mangiku and Kawasaki. Besides the story, Mishima was a controversial influencer given his ‘homosexual past’, and there were a lot of debates regarding the homosexual contents as well as their influences in Japanese literatures. Although his sexual orientation remained as a myth even until today, but he indeed tried to hide his sentiments toward homosexual relationship in two different layers inside this story. The upper layer is the conflicts between Japanese and western influences and the bottom layer is our human nature—fear.
It is hard to challenge what is seemingly normalized in society. Especially when looking into the realm of gender and sexuality, the male and female gender accompanied by heterosexuality is often just accepted and deemed as a social norm. Social institutions such as marriage, health-care laws, and the economic system benefit those who act within the heteronormative behaviors and appropriate gender expression. The gender binary, though, is far from accurate when assuming personal identity. If someone follows the social script of the femininity, he or she is expected to be female and possess female anatomy. The same goes for men: if he or she expresses masculinity he or she is expected to be male with male anatomy. Anything outside of this expectation is deemed socially unacceptable and subject to backlash. With the strong ties Western society has to the gender binary and appropriate gender roles, it is impossible to picture anything else. The Fa’fafine in Samoa, however, present a great challenge to the norms instilled in society.
In the article “Gay ,Latino ,and Macho” by Albert Serna Jr. and the essay “Masculinity as Homophobia” by Michael S. Kimmel, the authors both address how Masculinity and Homophobia are both effect by the gender scripts that are established by institutions. However, Kimmel and Serna bring light upon the issues in different manners. Kimmel states that Masculinity is a mental burden upon men who are unable to truly express themselves without being seen by society as a “sissy, untough, uncool” (Kimmel, 44). Consequently, this leads many heterosexual males to develop an “irrational fear of gay men” (Kimmel,44).Contrary to Kimmel’s essay, Serna address how the Machismo Culture (a strong sense of masculinity) effects Josue Velazquez and Felix Rios (who are both Mexican males who are homosexual).Serna expands on how many homosexual Mexican males have been affected by the Machismo Culture by introducing the reader to the advancement of the underground queer nightclubs and bars and also to the evolution of art that is center around “sub-culture of gay Latino men”(Serna,54) that is done by Hector Silva. Through his art form, Silvia is able to bring a better look upon “the community” (Serna, 54) that the queer “nightclubs cannot” (Serna, 54).
This excerpt was written in 1995 and now it is 2017, that is a 22-year difference. Tons have changed in the past 22 years for the LGBTQ community, such as the fact that there is a gay parade annually, they have the right to get married in all 50 states, and now being gay is not such a shock. So much has changed in just 20 years diversity wise in America. Pop culture welcomes members of this community and accepts their diversity and individuality to be who they truly
Growing up as a Catholic, Puerto Rican gay boy in the 90s and early 2000s, I struggled to discover my queer identity as well as queer representation in the media I consumed. Being gay was something that was never discussed. If it was brought up, it was usually in hushed tones (I remember being introduced to my uncle 's close 'friend ' each holiday) or as something negative (I still remember the sting of being called a faggot in elementary school). This reflected exactly how homosexuality was portrayed in media at the time. Queer characters and homosexuality were at best portrayed in codified, 'blink-and-you 'll-miss it ' labels and affectations, or at worst, something to laugh at, pity or even hate. As someone who still regularly watches reads comics, watches Saturday morning cartoons and plays video games, it is so exciting to discover the lengths of progress that has been made in queer representation in all ages media. In this paper I hope to detail the highs and lows of LGBTQ representation in all ages media and highlight the impact of media representation.
While many believe that homosexuality has only been seen in mainstream media for only a few decades, it has actually been with America cinema since the early 1920’s. The portrayal of homosexuality in film and TV has come a very long way since the 1920’s. What viewers see on TV about homosexuality is really just a representation of America’s changing public view on the subject. While we have come to accept the topic of homosexuality in American society more willingly, we have substituted much of our prejudice about gays with the stereotypes that we see on TV constantly. Because as a society we are constantly forced to see these stereotypes, we are being halted in our progression to accept all different kinds of lifestyles.
This is significant because the media is responsible for society’s view on homosexual relationships. Throughout the year’s media has portrayed heterosexual relationships as the norm and shielded the homosexual relationships from public view. This has serious effects on the LGBTQ community. Some of these effects include individual’s self-perceptions and self-efficiency in terms of coming out and achieving a fully developed identity. With the use of the internet in the novel, the men are slowing paving a new view on homosexuality, educating the
Alan Ma Eng (111) – 6377 Critical Response Essay A variety of words, such as queer and gay has had an alternating definition that’s been changed by society, in a way we wish to use it. The article, “Queer Evolution,” was written by Martha Irvine, a journalist at The Associated Press. She believes that the definition of “queer” has been socially accepted to “describe any sexual orientation beyond straight,” despite its history as a derogatory term. Although the author provides some good points, she lacks the discussion of the history of the word queer and detailed statistics to prove her quotations to be true.
With this said, I will explore the importance of the bar scene in the development of gay gender perspectives, and to do this, I will use both Chauncey and Mushroom to show the how the bar scene provided a gateway where it was possible for homosexuals to birth a unique culture and custom tailor a set of guidelines for ones gender expectancies.
Sex culture in modern day Japan has demonstrated to be an integral part of their cultural identity and is more progressive than any other countries. Japan’s sex culture has surpassed boundaries that are standardized in other countries. The West sees the Japanese as emotionless, controlled and even sexless. Publicly they are shy, reserved and terribly proper, however Japan is an extreme contradiction. If we examine the surface of their culture, the private life of these Japanese people can be a real eye opener. The role of sexuality and more specifically the role of pornography in women’s lives is perhaps the biggest debate among the people from the West. This paper will examine how pornography is gendered in Japan and the effects of this to the West. It will also delve into the Japanese cultural identity and its contradistinction to the American cultural identity. An important argument that people may debate about is the fact that Japanese people have the oddest sexual culture that outstands their cultural identity.
Throughout many countries around the world, homosexuality has always been subjected as a controversial matter. The societal attitudes towards the behavior of homosexuality vary substantially across Asia. Surprisingly, there are two conflicting attitudes toward homosexuality. Some Asian countries strongly condemn against homosexuality, whereas some Asian countries visibly accept homosexuality. Judith Butler explained that gender is represented as a stylized repetition of acts or imitation. She described the categories of sexuality and gender as a form of performativity (Butler 1996, 368). This essay will focus on China and South Korea and explore the experience of gender identity via to the socio-cultural contexts. This essay will also look
In the last decade, the issue of homosexuality has been widely discussed and known in Hong Kong. People have more opportunities to approach the word `homosexuality' in their daily life through literatures, movies and occasional news revealing celebrities' homosexual behaviors. Simultaneously there has also been significant growth in commercial venues such as restaurants and bars, catering to gays and lesbians. In short, the social context of Hong Kong and the attitudes gays and lesbians are likely to hold about their sexual orientation are very different from those of previous generations.