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Genders, Transgenders and Sexualities in Japan

Edited by Mark McLelland, Romit Dasgupta

Published August 11th 2005 by Routledge – 224 pages

Series: Routledge Studies in Asia's Transformations

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Description

Incorporating Japanese language materials and field-based research, this compelling collection of essays takes a comparative look at the changing notions of gender and sexual diversity in Japan, considering both heterosexual and non-heterosexual histories, lifestyles and identities.

Written by key Japanese authors and Western scholars the volume examines how non-conformist individuals have questioned received notions and challenged social norms relating to sex and gender. The chapters depict the plurality of gender positions; from housewives opposed to gender roles within marriage to heterosexual men wishing to be more involved in family life. Including material not previously published in English, this volume gives an overview of the important changes taking place in gender and sexuality studies within Japanese scholarship.

Reviews

'This collection fills a major gap in the field of Japanese studies on transgressive genders and sexualities, and does so with insight, originality, and a fine sense of contemporary Japan's contradictions and dynamism.' - Karen Kelsky, East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

'These are interesting, insightful and readable essays that should be of interest to a broad range of readers and that contribute to and call for further critical discussion of gendered/sexual plurality and difference as part of the everyday as well as the extraordinary in (and out of) Japan.' - Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context

'The book under review is a welcome addition to the study of genders and sexualities in modern Japan. The book has achieved the primal goal set by the editors to introduce a wide range of gendered and queered practices in Japan to non-Japanese speakers.' - TANAKA Masakazu/Kyoto University

Contents

Introduction 2. Hegemonic Gender in Japanese as a Foreign Language Education: Australian Perspectives 3. The Origins of ‘Queer Studies’ in Postwar Japan 4. Transgendering Shojo Shosetsu: Girls’ Inter-text/Sex-uality 5. From The Well of Loneliness to the Akarui Rezubian: Western Translations and Japanese Lesbian Identities 6. The Politics of Okama and Onabe: Uses and Abuses of Terminology Regarding Homosexuality and Transgender 7. Salarymen Doing Queer: Gay Men and Heterosexual Public Sphere 8. Being Male in a Female World: Masculinity and Gender in Okinawan Shamanism 9. ‘Understanding Through the Body’: The Masquerades of Mishima Yukio and Morimura Yasumasa 10. An Introduction to Men’s Studies 11. Rethinking Japanese Masculinities: Recent Research Trends 12. Salarymen Doing Straight: Heterosexual Men and the Dynamics of Gender Conformity 13. Feminist Futures in Japan: Exploring the Work of Haruka Yoko and Kitahara Minori 14 Commodified Romance in a Tokyo Host Club

Author Bio

Mark McLelland is a research fellow in the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland. He is the author of Male Homosexuality in Modern Japan (RoutledgeCurzon) and co-editor of Japanese Cybercultures (Routledge).

Romit Dasgupta lectures in Japanese language, Japanese Studies, and Asian Studies in the School of Social and Cultural Studies at the University of Western Australia. He has published widely on the topic of Japanese masculinity in edited collections and academic journals.

Name: Genders, Transgenders and Sexualities in Japan (Hardback) – Routledge 
Description: Edited by Mark McLelland, Romit Dasgupta. Incorporating Japanese language materials and field-based research, this compelling collection of essays takes a comparative look at the changing notions of gender and sexual diversity in Japan, considering both heterosexual and non-heterosexual...
Categories: Asian Studies, Japanese Culture & Society, Gender Politics, Sexuality - Gender Studies