Let’s take a look at a very odd occurrence to us westerners:
androgynous characters!
We’ll first take a look at Ed from Cowboy Bebop.
Can you guess if Ed is a boy or a girl?
How about Haku from Naruto?
It’s pretty tough isn’t it? I even still get a bit confused
when seeing some of these characters for the first time.
Ready for the answers?
Ed is a GIRL!
Haku is a BOY!
I don’t know about you, but when I first saw these two my
thoughts were the exact opposite. I was sure Ed was a boy and Haku, a girl. When
I found out that I was very wrong my mind had a hard time really wrapping my
head around it. I thought to myself, “Okay. This is weird.”
In western culture we would never see characters like this.
Our girls are feminine and our boys are masculine. While there are some
variations on these, we can almost always tell what gender a character is
without thinking too hard about it.
So where do these
androgynous characters come from?
Personally, I immediately thought these characters were due to
Japan’s visibly homogenous society. Along with this they actively encourage
unity and conformity with strict uniforms for students up through high school (yes,
even the public schools) and Japanese people (along with other Asian
ethnicities) are known for having more subtle differences in appearance between
males and females.
However, when I went digging for more information, I found
that this had more of a historical background than I thought.
One possible root was that during the time of the samurai,
they saw homosexual relationships as sometimes vital parts of a young warrior’s
training. The elder samurai warrior would encourage a relationship between
himself and the boy he was training, because they saw that the support of a
loyal lover would often mean the difference between life and death in a battle.
This lead to samurai literature being filled with beautiful young men who are
also fierce warriors, blending femininity and masculinity together. These
novels eventually helped influence anime, thus the “beautiful men” stereotype
being born. This idea in itself was super weird to me at first read off of That Anime Project.
After thinking it over and remembering that not all countries have the tendency
toward homophobia, like the US does, it started to make a lot of sense. Emotion
can lead to some amazing things out on the battlefield, whether it be for your
cause, or your lover.
Another interesting piece of information I found while browsing
The Anime Almanac was that in pre-WWII Japan girls weren’t really allowed to have boyfriends or
even male friends in order to save themselves for marriage during their
adolescent and teenage years. The only safe “relationship” they could have was
with other girls. These friendships would be so close that that we would
probably consider them to be lesbian by today’s standards, but back then it was
completely acceptable because they were all female. These homo-gendered
relationships became the source of the girl’s fictional stories and novels.
They were comfortable with everything being the same (gender, uniform, looks,
etc) and this became a familiar and ideal characteristic in relationships.
Which lead to it being a popular aspect of anime. Again, weird to myself and
different from the way I was brought up, but I can at least see how maybe it
became a comfortable aspect for people of Japan. Who doesn’t feel comfortable
with familiarity?
Language corner!
美少年 - びしょうねん – bishounen
handsome youth; pretty boy
侍 - さむらい – samurai
warrior;
samurai
To be fair, Ed from Cowboy BeBop is mistaken for a boy even by the other characters in the show at first.
ReplyDeleteIn Japan I've noticed that certain gender barriers are much stronger then in the US, and some are much much more blurred.
An instance of Strong gender lines is I was interested in Joining a naginata club (A type of Japanese spear), but when I inquired about it, I was laughed at. Apparently it's a girls sport. Only girls. We do certainly have some gendered sports in the states, but you do hear about girls practicing football and men playing volleyball and stuff like that. Apparently that kind of thing doesn't happen here in Japan.
An example of blurred gender lines that I've noticed actually stands in direct opposition to the last example. I had the opportunity to photograph a Koto and traditional dance happyoukai (発表会） (I think that was the term). Literally a performance meeting/party. I was one of 3 men at the event. The other two were were the video man and some guy who sat in the back at what looked like a judges table, but who also sang during intermission, so I'm guessing he was more of an honored guest then a judge (I don't think they were competing against each other). There are certain dances that are supposed to be performed by men. But since there were no male performers, women took on that role. In fact there was one woman who ONLY performs male dances.
Views on feminine and masculine are also different from in the states. One thing I've noticed, is that it is common place for people to carry bags around with them all the time. Many of these bags would be marketed as purses in America. Yet I see just as many men carrying them as women (Fanny packs are also rather popular. Though usually worn diagonally over the shoulder, across the back or chest). This thing that as an American I initially perceived as completely feminine is common place for everybody here in Japan. (Consequently my gendered association with shoulder bags has started to disappear .
Thanks so much for your comment, Daniel! I'm really glad to be able to get some input from a trusted source in Japan!
DeleteYour happyoukai experience reminds me of Noh performances, where originally all the performers were men and women weren't allowed to participate. However, in modern times it is mostly women who perform them. Which I contribute to men having to go out and work more to provide for their families and to keep up with the competition of a big population in a small country.
AS far as the "everyone carries bags" thing goes, I remember when I was there that I was surprised by the same thing. I followed a few friends into men's boutique sort of shops and they had crazy designer bags every time. I thought it was kind of brilliant because bags/purses/briefcases are super convenient! I couldn't imagine having to shove everything into my pockets. One thought I had on a possible contributer to this is that since Japan is so packed and I'd say public transportation is the main mode of transportation, bags became prevalent because you're required to carry your things (and more things) with you instead of being able to keep them in your car. I know here in San Francisco almost everyone wears backpacks or carries pretty big purses/briefcases. However, back in my hometown you would be looked at as silly if you wore a backpack outside of a school setting. (Also I was so fascinated with the fanny packs that I totally bought a really cool one when I was there. I haven't been able to get myself to bring it out much in the states, however!)
Wow, the history behind that is super interesting. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
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