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Constructing and Consuming an Ideal in Japanese Popular Culture

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Constructing and Consuming an Ideal in Japanese Popular Culture Running head: KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 1 Kawaii Boys and Ikemen Girls: Constructing and Consuming an Ideal in Japanese Popular Culture Grace Pilgrim University of Florida KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 2 Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………..3 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………4 The Construction of Gender…………………………………………………………………...6 Explication of the Concept of Gender…………………………………………………6 Gender in Japan………………………………………………………………………..8 Feminist Movements………………………………………………………………….12 Creating Pop Culture Icons…………………………………………………………………...22 AKB48………………………………………………………………………………..24 K-pop………………………………………………………………………………….30 Johnny & Associates………………………………………………………………….39 Takarazuka Revue…………………………………………………………………….42 Kabuki………………………………………………………………………………...47 Creating the Ideal in Johnny’s and Takarazuka……………………………………………….52 How the Companies and Idols Market Themselves…………………………………...53 How Fans Both Consume and Contribute to This Model……………………………..65 The Ideal and What He Means for Gender Expression………………………………………..70 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………..77 References……………………………………………………………………………………..79 KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 3 Abstract This study explores the construction of a uniquely gendered Ideal by idols from Johnny & Associates and actors from the Takarazuka Revue, as well as how fans both consume and contribute to this model. Previous studies have often focused on the gender play by and fan activities of either Johnny & Associates talents or Takarazuka Revue actors, but never has any research been executed on both entertainment bodies and their fans. Furthermore, this study considers the influence of feminist movements, female desires, and transcendent emptiness on the creation and consumption of the Ideal and the construction of fans’ personal fantasy narratives. This study attempts to draw common links between the construction of the Ideal in Johnny & Associates and the Takarazuka Revue and the cultural environments that have provided for his proliferation, though it is limited by its lack of perspectives from entertainment insiders and thoughtful input from fans. Keywords: Japan, gender, Johnny & Associates, Takarazuka Revue, idols KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 4 Kawaii Boys and Ikemen Girls: Constructing and Consuming an Ideal in Japanese Popular Culture “Whether they are loved or disliked, widely admired or ridiculed, idols inform their viewers about appearances and personal qualities that are considered socially appropriate and trendy.” –Aoyagi Hiroshi (2005, p. 3) Despite a strong societal consciousness of what constitutes a properly gendered member of society, the Japanese have often played with gender boundaries for popular consumption, most notably by women. If the Japanese have such strong ideas about femininity and masculinity, why then do men willingly crossdress for the delight of their hundreds of thousands of (mostly female) fans; why is that men who perform as women in one of the country’s oldest and most respected theater traditions are held up as an ideal for femininity; and why do the male players of one of the country’s most well-respected revue companies—that also happens to employ only women as actors—consistently have more fans (who are almost exclusively women) than the female players, and why does their gender play extend into other facets of their public lives? The truth of the matter is that the Japanese fall prey to the very particular societal pressures that they put upon themselves. Most upper middle class Japanese women are expected to marry and subsequently quit their jobs, act essentially as sole caregivers for any children, and do most, if not all, of the housework. Though men traditionally do not have to carry the burden of any of those responsibilities, they are expected to be the sole breadwinners for their households, which means working countless hours six days per week. The demanding nature of these social pressures of what is “feminine” and “masculine,” and what it means to be a proper individual in Japanese society has unsurprisingly created reactionary movements, if you will, against what has been considered the socially acceptable norm in both explicit and implicit ways. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 5 These movements have triggered a change not only in how women behave and view themselves, but in how men act in society at large as well, reacting to changing feminine desires and ideologies. This has led to the creation of a new type of gendered expression that is not necessarily mostly feminine or mostly masculine that many Japanese women consider an ideal man, who is embodied in popular culture by both women and men. The Ideal has been carefully constructed in response to reactionary movements, both covert and overt, carried out by women. The Ideal and his governing agencies market him to fit the desires of these women, and these women also shape his portrayal by continued consumption of successful models of the Ideal, and by rejecting those who do not live up their standards. In this way, the Ideal provides an outlet for the safe expression of non-normative or otherwise socially looked down upon gender identities. This is not exclusive to, for example, gay women (thought it can certainly include them), but instead refers to the average Japanese woman who is bound by societal norms and feels that she cannot deviate from them through reactionary movements or progressive youth subcultures. Instead, she must turn to other avenues for freedom of gender expression, and so she looks to the Ideal, who embodies the qualities that the average Japanese man (indeed, her husband) lacks, and accepts the Ideal as the model to which men should aspire to become. Masculinity is so intrinsically linked to marriage in Japanese society that if a man cannot find a wife, who could very well demand that he emulate in some form the Ideal, he must change himself to fit closer to this ideal rather than forgoing female desires at all, as has been the norm. Therefore, the Ideal not only offers a safe space for women to have a kind of gendered freedom, but he also inspires, at least some capacities, a push toward social change. In this study I consider all of the above points by laying out theories of gender and cultural identity, and applying them specifically to Japan. I also outline the histories of several KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 6 major entertainment bodies in Japanese popular culture, and consider two, Johnny & Associates and the Takarazuka Revue, in more detail. I examine the roles played by various implicit and explicit feminist movements in Japan from the Taisho Period to the more recent past in shaping the Ideal and changing the ideology of femininity, and finally, I address the question of why the Ideal is important as a tool for women to use in place of overt participation in the aforementioned feminist and youth movements. The Construction of Gender Explication of the Concept of Gender The notion that gender is something that is “done” rather than something inherent or even individually constructed has been the dominant mode of thought among sociologists for the past several decades. The concept of doing gender was first developed by West and Zimmerman in 1987 to explain that dichotomizing sex and gender simply as biological differences versus personal identity differences undermines the interactional work involved in presenting ourselves as properly functioning members of society. In order to best represent a competent member of society, gender must be accomplished as an achieved status, and so an individual is constantly “doing gender” to successfully accomplish gender. West and Zimmerman argue, therefore, that “[r]ather than as a property of individuals, we conceive of gender as an emergent feature of social situations: both as an outcome of and a rationale for various social arrangements and as a means of legitimating one of the most fundamental divisions of society” (1987, p. 126). To understand better how gender functions as an achieved status and what role our ideas of sex play in legitimating this fundamental division of society, I explore further West and Zimmerman’s concepts of gender, KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 7 sex category, and sex, and how all three work together to provide societal parameters and goals for when we are doing gender. West and Zimmerman reject the ideas of gender as a role and gender as a display because the interactional work involved with doing gender are too downplayed (1987, p. 126-7). They propose instead that we distinguish the sex/gender split as sex, sex category, and gender. Sex is determined through biological criteria such as genitalia or chromosomal typing, differences that have been socially delineated as marking an individual as either female or male. Sex category “is established and sustained by the socially required identificatory displays that proclaim one’s membership in one or the other category” (West & Zimmerman, 1987, p. 127). Generally, we assume an individual’s sex based on one’s sex category, but one’s sex category does not necessarily mean that one has met the corresponding sex criteria. Gender, on the other hand, is what individuals do to adhere to the “normative conceptions and attitudes and activities appropriate for one’s sex category” (West & Zimmerman, 1987, p. 127). Generally, then, we are identified as a particular sex at birth, socialized to understand, value, and display the relevant sex category, and in all aspects of interaction we “do” gender in an effort to “bolster claims
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