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Beyond the ‘feminization of masculinity’: transforming patriarchy with the ‘feminine’ in contemporary Japanese youth culture

2005; Routledge; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1462394042000326905

1469-8447

Yumiko Iida,

Historical Gender and Feminism Studies

Abstract Contemporary Japanese society has seen the emergence of aesthetically conscious young men who employ 'feminine' aesthetics and strategies as ways of exploring and practising new masculine identities. In this paper, I explore the significance of this emerging trend of male beauty by observing and analysing the expressions, strategies and intentions of those young men who have taken to aesthetically representing themselves in these ways. This cultural trend is often described as the 'feminization of masculinity,' echoing the gendered articulation of rising mass culture in terms of the 'feminization of culture,' which acknowledges aspects of the commercialization of masculine bodies in Japan of the 1990s onward. While this view successfully links important issues, such as femininity, beauty, and the gendered representation of the self in a broader context of capitalist culture, it does not sufficiently convey a sense of agency in the young men's lively practices of exploring and expressing new masculine values and ideals. Rather than viewing 'feminization' simply as a sign of commodification, I argue that these young men strategically distance themselves from conventional masculinity by artificially standing in the position of the 'feminine', where they can more freely engage in the creation of alternative gender identities. From this point of view, the use of the phrase 'feminization of masculinity' often implies a fear and anxiety on the part of patriarchy over the boundary‐crossing practice that seriously challenges the stability of gendered cultural hegemony. Moreover, such anxiety driven reactions easily merge with nationalist inclination, as those threatened tend to seek the consolidation of patriarchal/hegemonic order by eliminating ambiguities and indeterminacy in cultural/national discourse. I conclude that the cultural hegemony of contemporary Japan could better sustain itself by incorporating non‐hegemonic gender identities, which would allow it maintain an open space for critical imagination and effectively diffuse an obsessive and ultimately self‐destructive desire for transparency/identity. Keywords: Japanese youth culturemale beautyfeminizationphallocentric discoursecounter hegemonic practicesnationalism Notes I was especially shocked in the summer of 1998, when I saw a rather ordinary looking young boy in his high‐school student's uniform sitting next to me on the Keihin‐tohoku line, one of the busiest commuter train lines, taking a cosmetic pouch out of his bag, whereupon he began repairing his make‐up in public. I noticed at least a couple of condemning looks towards him from older‐generation men, which nevertheless did not stop the boy's continuing effort, looking into the mirror and putting on the powder to 'perfect' his face. This was admittedly unusual, but I began to notice many young men who look into reflections of themselves at the subway windows checking their appearance, which was something men of earlier generations refrained from doing, at least in public. Especially noted is the popularity of body hair removal (on chest, legs and underarms) among young men who developed an acute consciousness of women's strong distaste for hairy men. On the increasing demand from young Japanese men for hair removal at aesthetic salons, see Laura Miller's 'Male beauty work in Japan' (Miller Citation2003) in which she shows how the young men's concerns are motivated by the aversion for bodily hair among young Japanese women. One can see these effeminate male features in the booming publication of music and idol magazines, such as PopBeat, Band Hotline, Junon and Potato among others, which centre on visually attractive male idols. Some archetypal images of androgynous male beauty can be found at the internet homepages of idols such as Gackt and T.M. Revolution, whose addresses are http://www.dears.ne.jp/ and http://www.tm‐revolution.com respectively. In Japanese discourse, the phrase 'feminization of masculinity' can be used in two quite different cultural meanings; one to designate the gentrification of men, especially the tendency to show greater understanding and sympathy for feminist causes, and the other, the adaptation of feminine aesthetic styles to display sensitivity, gentleness, and sophistication. However, I am here using the term, as discussed in the following paragraph, in the sense Western feminists, including Rita Felski and Margaret Gullette, use the term, to designate a universal cultural trend under a growing capitalist commercialization. A concise genealogy of the term feminization is found in Lisa Adkins (Citation2001: 2–5). One of the 'classical texts' that analysed the features of postmodern art as a manifestation of a stage of capitalist development is Fredric Jameson's Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Jameson Citation1991). In Jameson's view, 'postmodernism' is the commercial logic of late capitalism where the entire sphere of culture falls under the immediate gaze of capital, and materiality, historicity, dialectical relations and temporality are all evaporated. For more information, see Glay's official website: http://www.glay.co.jp. One can find visual images of L'Arc‐en‐Ciel and listen to their songs on a number of internet sites devoted to them. What is interesting here is that both Glay and L'Arc‐en‐Ciel have been, at least initially, categorized as bijuaru‐kei bands, that is, groups whose popularity is dependent on their good looks, but they gradually reduced the visual component of their appeal (e.g. literally reduced the amount of cosmetics they wore). This brings us back to the significance of beauty in contemporary Japanese youth culture, and the necessity of representing oneself in visually appealing images in order to get one's message across. The simple dissemination of a political message has, perhaps, lost its efficacy long ago, even more so in a televisually oriented contemporary youth culture where visual appeal is far more important to becoming known and getting heard than other forms of creative endeavour, such as writing, which carries far less influential power. Brod argues that this is exemplified in the view of masculinity in traditional philosophers such as Plato and Rousseau, who 'considered any sort of play acting or pretension to be corrupting of the masculine virtues' (Brod Citation1995: 13). According to Brod, Joan Riviere's article 'Womanliness as Masquerade' was originally published in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1929, and reprinted in Formations of Fantasy, 1986, Victor Burgin, James Donald and Cora Kaplan (eds.). Here, Thornman is citing from Hilary Radner's reading of an article from Vogue in which Radner finds ambiguous implications in the act of masquerade, which represents 'an active subordination'. Thornman summarizes this ambiguity arising from the position of women who are 'both inside and outside the system of consumerism, complicit with it but in constant negotiation' (Thornman Citation2000: 144). Here, manliness/fatherhood is seen to be endowed with the 'mental strength' (i.e. superior abilities for objective judgements and the power of creating principles) and 'spiritual superiority' (i.e. attitudes to respond to transcendental moral demands and the desire to achieve greater justice, honesty, politeness and intellect), while womanliness/motherhood is characterized by greater tolerance, gentleness and the ability to generate good relationships, which are derived from greater emotion, sensitivity, affection, the senses, intuitive understanding and groundedness upon the body/earth. See Hayashi Michiyoshi's internet homepage: http://wwwoo7.upp.so‐net.ne.jp/rindou/about.html. Quoted from the articles found at the above internet homepage under the headings of 'Kyouiku' (Education) no. 1: 'Kyouiku ni okeru Fusei no Yakuwari' (The Role of Fatherhood in Education) and 'Fusei' (Fatherhood) no. 13: 'Otokorashisa ni tsuite kangaeru' (Thinking about Manliness). According to Thornman, Luce Irigaray argues that women are described as both fetish commodities and agents of resistance in consumer culture, with an emphatic voice of the former. Indeed, her observation of women's gender performance is not too optimistic: 'Women … become fabrications, "disinvested of [the] body and reclothed in a form that makes [them] suitable for exchange among men," fetish‐objects invested, like religious fetishes, with the fantasized characteristics of masculine desire, but without access to desire of their own' (cited in Thornman Citation2000: 127). On the other hand, however, she also finds an aspect of resistance in performance, that of mimicry, by actively participating in consumption and thereby deliberately 'convert[ing] a form of subordination into an affirmation', while at the same time they are not entirely absorbed into this function, but remain elsewhere (cited in Thornman Citation2000: 127). Although Irigaray's view encapsulates the dilemma of women representing themselves in phallocentric discourse, in which thoughts and actions are interpreted according to the hegemonic narrative, in order to subvert them they must remain at the 'margin' of patriarchal discourse. One finds a series of essays written by two Japanese feminists very useful here, Yukiko Kimura and Ai Mamana, What Japanese Women are Really Like (Citation1999), see especially pp. 62–65. Admittedly, these are not the subversive representations of the female selves recognized in feminist literature, but Japanese women gained standing in positions of decision making by freely utilizing their sexuality as a weapon and this marked substantial progress from the conventional ideal of femininity, in which women are not supposed to be placing demands on their male partners. On this ideal female type, see Treat (Citation1996). On the subject of the kogyaru, works by Miyadai Shinji are illuminating: see, for example, his The Obscure Spite of Transparent Being (Miyadai Citation2001). These toys and gadgets include things like tamagotchi and purikura. The former is a virtual pet on a small portable computer screen which demands care (food, cleaning, etc) from its owner, and the latter, a coin operated photo‐booth in which one constructs a play narrative of one's identity represented in stylized mini‐photo stickers. Japanese anthropologist Miyadai Shinji argues that young girls, compared to boys, are more capable of adapting themselves to such other‐oriented identities, and thus successfully coping with the challenge of the information age in which boys often fail to adapt (which tends to result in hikikomori, the retreat into one's own room). Simultaneously, however, he also sees in both boys and girls a very similar sense of detachment, a typical feature of the other‐dependent self in a highly information oriented culture. See, for example, his Etiquette for the End of the Millennium (Miyadai Citation1997). The visual images of yamanba and ganguro are found, for example, in the following internet site: http://www.angelfire.com/art/jap/ganguro.html. Solomon‐Godeau argues that the erotics of the androgynous male ideal serve the following three functions for men, none of which have anything to do with a challenge to patriarchy: the medium for the 'narcissistic identification' with the represented image of the beau ideal; the 'fantasy of possession and mastery' by standing in the position of the displaced/colonized feminine; and 'an escape from the uncompromising fixities' of hegemonic masculine ideology (Solomon‐Godeau Citation1995: 5). Judith Butler makes a similar point referring to the implication of drag on feminism, that it is not more than 'a site of a certain ambivalence,' which 'may well be used in the service of both the denaturalization and reidealization of hyperbolic heterosexual gender norms' (Butler Citation1998: 451). Observing Japanese youth culture today, it is likely in my view that those who adopt androgynous looks remain within the gravity of heterosexual attraction rather than seeking homoerotic romance. Although it is possible to imagine those who indulge in the narcissistic pleasure of standing simultaneously in the position of masculine and feminine for a moment, few of them would actually be interested in gay affairs. Stuart Hall, for one, has criticized the way that the cultural modernization of 'the masses' is seen as a threat to the establishment, reflecting the fear of those who perceived 'their political and cultural aspirations, their struggles and their pacification via cultural institutions' would destabilize the social order and the elite dominated culture, if not signalling civilizational decline. While appreciating this insight of Hall, Huyssen calls attention to another hidden subject of the debate, namely women who are waging a major challenge to male dominated culture. See Huyssen (Citation1986: 47). Indeed, various feminists have made efforts to advance the goal of better articulating feminine values via inventing feminist narratives, epistemologies, and aesthetics. Felski herself thinks seriously about this. She argues that a possible solution can be sought, for example, in rereading and rewriting patriarchal modern myths from a female perspective, as done by J. S. Mill, but she also warns of the danger of recreating another universal myth of gendered modernity in simply replacing masculinity with femininity (Felski Citation1995: 7). Felski approaches the gender/modernity question not by providing a 'grand philosophical summation', but rather she aims to 'unravel complexities of modernity's relationship to femininity through an analysis of its varied and competing representations' (Felski Citation1995: 7). Along this line of thought, conservative critic Hayashi Michiyoshi criticizes 'feminized men' as eroding the notions of motherhood. As I noted above, the phrase 'feminized men' in Japanese is used to designate both those who pursue feminine‐type fashion style and appearance and those who endorse feminist causes. This dual meaning assigned to the phrase reveals the operation of the phallocentric gaze, which uncritically links and equates the symbolism of femininity, feminine aesthetic styles, feminism as a movement, and the lived women. In this slide of meaning, resentment to any one of them is automatically and simultaneously transposed to all others, and this constitutes a ground for morally and emotionally aspired condemnations against 'feminized men' and feminists in the name of idealized motherhood. Referring to this aspiration of the bodily ego to obtain a sense of 'wholeness' and 'unity,' Dana Nelson attributes the source of this aspiration to cultural education rather than internal desires in infantile bodies as Lacan discussed. She argues: 'Lacan suggested that it is "organic disturbances and discord" which prompts the child to seek out the form of the "whole body‐image." However, it seems to me that the reverse is actually true: it is the cultural premium placed on the notion of a coherent bodily ego which results in such a dystopic apprehension of corporeal multiplicity' (Nelson Citation1998: 27). The patriarchal gaze, however, may be understood as a lack (or refusal) of ability to engage in self‐criticism and the authorization and justification of its absolute status by the rejection of being in the position of the 'looked upon'. Dana Nelson, citing Lee Edelman, characterizes this scopophilic exercise of the masculine subject as follows: 'If the fantasy of masculinity … is the fantasy of non‐self‐conscious selfhood endowed with absolute control of a gaze whose directionality is irreversible, the enacted – or "self conscious" – "manhood," … is itself a performance for the gaze of the Other …[I]t is destined therefore to be always the paradoxical display of a masculinity that defines itself through its capacity to put others on display while resisting the bodily captation involved in being out on display itself' (Nelson Citation1998: 81–87).