Male homosexuality in Japanese popular culture and identity

Japanese Queer

In "Is There a Japanese Gay Identity?" Mark McLelland (2000) examines the depiction of male homosexuality in Japanese popular culture, focusing on modern and postmodern (twentieth and twenty-first century) manifestations. Addressing sexual identities and cultural norms in Japan from an American or Western point-of-view is inherently problematic. The American identity category of gayness is politically different from gayness in Japan. This article distinguishes between Japanese and American/Western concepts of sexuality and sexual orientation. Using the methodology of exploring popular culture in Japan, the author concludes mainly that Japanese homosexuality is featured prominently as erotic entertainment, but that homosexuality is not an identity category or a political issue. As a result, there is a range of homosexual erotic media in Japan without what can be called a "gay community." Westerners, projecting Western ideals of social equality, view the Japanese trend as being politically problematic. McLelland (2000) questions whether it is fruitful to frame Japanese sexual identities as problematic.

The process of forming a distinct personal queer identity, including the joining of queer communities, is referred to as "global queering," (McLelland, 2000, p. 459). Global queering is recognized as a means of political empowerment: a way of encouraging individual self-expression based on sexual desire and orientation. Same-sex desire is expressed socially, and that outward social expression becomes culturally acceptable and normative via the transformation of political and social realities. As a result, persons with same-sex attraction can "come out" as gays and lesbians, and cease living a heterosexual lie. The process of global queering therefore has significant merit, as a way of promoting mental and social health. Whether the merits of global queering transcend culture remain to be seen. Few cultures outside the North American and Western European domain recognize the value of global queering, and view homosexuality and homoeroticism as being purely sexual or erotic in nature, having no valid political or social dimension. This means that homosexuality can be tacitly accepted, but a homosexual personal identity or homosexual community is unheard of or simply not cultivated. Likewise, political issues like gay marriage are non-issues when viewed from a framework of traditional society with heteronormative and patriarchal values such as Japan.

One of the points that McLelland (2000) makes is that homosexuality in Japan is conflated with transgenderism and transexuality (p. 460). Male homosexual characters in Japanese cinema, literature, books, and manga are generally feminized, depicted as cross-dressers in the typical "queen" mode (McLelland, 2000, p. 460). Likewise, lesbians are not just women attracted to women; they are women who want to be, or identify with being, men. Japanese media in all its forms depicts homosexuality and trans-genderism as one and the same phenomenon. McLelland (2000) explores Japanese language and especially its neologisms replete with English loan words to show how gender identity and sexual orientation issues are conflated. Interestingly, there is a high degree of specificity in the representation of different gender and sexual identities in Japanese language. There is, for example, a different word for a person who identifies with being the opposite of their biological sex and who wants the operation (toransusekushuaru) and someone who identifies with being the opposite of their bioloigical sex but who does not want the operation (toransujendaa).

These are direct loan words: the former being "transsexual" and the latter, "transgender." There are, on the contrary, no words that would connote what being gay and lesbian are in the Western sense: that is, people who have same-sex desire from within a stable and biologically-informed gender identity. McLelland (2000) also ties this linguistic dimension of Japanese culture to references to Japanese social commentary related to media depictions of gays and lesbians. Japanese critics claim that the media is too "voyeuristic," and depicts only the most bizarre and extreme forms of sexual expressions and behaviors (p. 462). Depicting the lives of ordinary gays and lesbians would not be entertaining; meaning that homosexuality and transgenderism are viewed generally as being forms of titillation rather than meaningful personal identities and subcultural group identities.

Thus, the problem exists wherein homosexuality is depicted as deviant and extreme. Yet on the other hand, there is a culturally insensitive and equally as problematic perception that "homosexuality" (gay or lesbian) is a monolithic identity construct that can be globalized. The globalization of homosexuality is not necessarily a good thing, even if the overarching ideals of activists pushing for social justice and equity are good.

McLelland (2000) offers some opinions on how the problem can be navigated and transcended. For one, Western media allows for the development of a "gay media" that embraces multiple identities and lifestyles. A heterogeneous "gay" culture has emerged whereby individuals can safely and successfully express themselves. Such a heterogeneous media does not exist, at least yet, in Japan. There is no "gay media" in the same sense; only eroticisms capitalizing on gay and transgender imagery, and those images are likely not to be controlled by what would be otherwise members of a gay community. In the same way that African-Americans and women are manipulated in the media by whites and men, gays and lesbians are also manipulated and lack control over their own identities, cultures, and expressions in Japan.

It is not necessarily beneficial for individual or society to overly politicize homosexuality. As McLelland (2000) notes, recent analysts claim that politicizing gay media has created a conformist mentality. Persons who come out of the closet are expected to conform to certain ideals and exist within the boundaries of the gay community rather than having gayness being one part of a multifaceted and complex individual identity. McLelland (2000) welcomes belief in fluid identities, and identities that are formed organically out of their culture of origin. In Japan, there may not be a need for gay media or gay community in the Western sense. To think otherwise could represent a new and ironic form of cultural imperialism.

McLelland's (2000) research in Japan consisted mainly of interviews and surveys with same-sex desiring men. The author refuses to label same-sex desiring men as "homosexual" because the word has Western identity connotations that are distinct from Japanese identity connotations and this is the crux of the argument. McLelland's (2000) interview subjects indicated a high degree of ambiguity regarding sexual orientation. They are men who desire other men, but who do not mind the idea of marriage to a woman within the construct of Japanese social harmony and tradition. Many of the men actively do not like to be identified as "gay," which would be deemed "closeted" by a Westerner. Indeed, the dual consciousness and problematic lifestyles are replete with potential deceptions of self and other. This is precisely why McLelland's (2000) article is important. Some view the current state of affairs in Japan as problematic because being "gay" should not be viewed as something socially undesirable. Moreover, the fact that same-sex desiring men in Japan view marriage as a meaningful social institution is a strongly sexist and patriarchal construct. The woman's desire and feelings are not a consideration. The man wants a socially acceptable family, and it matters not to him that he does not want to sleep with his wife.