Keywords

1 Introduction

On a decorated stage at a university cultural festival stood students in varieties of meticulously dressed josō (male-to-female cross-dressing) characters, such as a prim and proper shy woman in pink attire, a cute maid with a white ruffled apron, a high-school girl in a sailor-style uniform, a serious female student on a school ethics committee, and a bangyaru, an avid fan of visual kei bands.Footnote 1 The excited audience included not only friends, family, and supporters of the josō practitioners who helped to create this high-level josō make-up and clothing, but also many fans of josō, with whom the contestants had communicated through social media for weeks before the contest. Together they made up one of the largest of all crowds in this two-day long university festival. The student hosts skillfully facilitated this event, posing questions to the contestants who were serious about performing the female persona they had taken on. The event got lively with the contestants’ performances, such as singing, dancing, and even binge drinking. The winner, determined by both votes from the audience and the event’s Twitter site, received a prize at the end. Josō contests such as this one have recently become a central attraction at university and high school festivals all over Japan.

This chapter explores the diverse discourses and performances of josō in contemporary Japanese society, in particular, at university josō contests, known as josō kontesuto, but often abbreviated as josōkon or josokon. While josō in Japan has a long history and cultural meanings of its own (Mihashi 2008), today the culture of josō circulates widely through contemporary media, such as social media, TV programs, and magazines, and its visible influence on popular and youth subcultures can be observed in various corners of society, from josō cafés in Akihabara, the fashion of sukāto danshi (men wearing skirts), to cute otokonoko (boy daughter) characters in manga and cosplay. Kinsella (2019) observes that this new mode of josō sprang from Japanese cultural history, such as moe animation, the aesthetic of kawaii (cute), and otaku subcultures, among others, and became popular in minor genres and leading boys’ manga magazines from the turn of the century through the 2000s. By the mid-2010s, as Kinsella points out, josō was no longer a niche or otaku subtrend but a widespread theme in both social and mainstream media. Popular male idols started to appear on TV in josō dress as a matter of course, and manga, advertisement, and live events became filled with josō themes. This is also the period when a number of josō beauty contests at universities and high schools sprang up and became the most powerful attraction at school festivals.

Today, josō practices are even more prevalent in the lives of young Japanese people. Thousands of josō-related blogs, Twitter and Instagram accounts, and YouTube videos show how to improve josō make-up, how to choose josō attire, and how to lead a fun josō life. Numerous josō salons help men from all streams of society experience josō. These salons are equipped with professional make-up artists and all kinds of wigs, shoes, and clothing for josō, ranging from high school uniforms, OL (office lady) style clothing, Gothic Lolita outfits, maid uniforms, wedding dresses, kimono, and to wherever else your imagination may take you. There are even sabusuku (subscription services) for a mail-order set of clothing, make-up, wigs, and instruction booklets for doing josō for men who live in places without access to josō salons. Although there is still a persistent stigma for josō practitioners, it has become a concrete option for men who would like to dress as women. This mode of new josō, which is different from the earlier gay and nyū-hāfu (transgender) tradition, and which is not clearly related to sexual orientation, has become a new norm among young generations (Kinsella 2019).

Although this transformation of josō is highly visible, little research has been done (with exceptions such as Miyata and Ishii 2020) on this new gender and sexual construction in Japan. Some scholars had examined the meanings of josō practices, but the research was largely conducted before this transformation occurred. Miyata and Ishii (2020) point out that most of the studies on cross-dressers were done before the mid-2000s. Watanabe (1987), for instance, interpreted the act of josō as a coping mechanism of Japanese men who were under much pressure to conform to societal gender norms. As another example, Mihashi (2002) documented josō practitioners’ accounts of the commercialized space of josō that provided a safe haven for these practitioners to find one another and to express their identities together. The Japanese josō scene has since been largely transformed. Josō practitioners in Miyata’s and Ishii’s recent study (2020) on commercial facilities for josō in Osaka seem to exhibit features similar to those of the new wave of josō that Kinsella (2019) described. Josō for these practitioners is no longer a practice tied only to sexual minority identities but often a tool to express the fluidity of identities and to go back and forth between men and women, and femininities and masculinities.

Continuing with this critical project on the new wave of josō, this chapter, based on ethnographic research that I conducted with a sociolinguist, Gavin Furukawa, and a linguistic anthropologist, Shunsuke Nozawa, analyzes this new wave of josō through reflexive accounts provided by contestants at university josōkon.Footnote 2 Our research aims to find answers to such questions as: What are the motivations and interpretations for this new mode of josō among the young generation? How do these young practitioners negotiate multitudes of masculinities and femininities through different gendered perceptions and ideologies? What are the consequences of their josō practices? Are they breaking any gender boundaries? Or are they merely cultural appropriators and reinforcers of traditional gender and sexual ideologies? I will argue that these participants’ josō enactment and their reflexive metadiscourses exhibit a multiplicity of pragmatic consequences and presuppositions.

2 Hybrid Masculinities?: Theories on Cultural Appropriation

Researchers on gender first saw the need to understand masculinities in the plural through Connell’s framework of hegemonic masculinity (1995), the most influential theory in research on men and masculinities. According to Connell, the perception that the type of masculinity exhibited by elite men is the only masculinity is wrong. Multiple masculinities reside in any given society, all placed in its power constellation: hegemonic masculinity defines and subordinates marginalized masculinities and femininities. This idea of plural masculinities thus helps to analyze how multiple masculinities and femininities crisscross in constructing complex power relationships.

Recently, diversifications and changes in masculinities have attracted much attention in the field of gender and sexuality studies. Masculinities are now not only in the plural but also merged with femininities. A growing body of sociological research focuses on the emergence of recent transformations in masculinities (e.g., Demetriou 2001; Messerschmidt 2010), and the concept of hybrid masculinities is one of the most promising tools for deciphering such transformations. Hybrid masculinities can be defined as “the selective incorporation of elements of identity typically associated with various marginalized and subordinated masculinities and—at times—femininities into privileged men’s gender performances and identities” (Bridges and Pascoe 2014). This line of research tries to understand how men are increasingly incorporating elements of cultural codes from various “Others,” including “feminine,” in their identity projects. By examining hybrid masculinities in various contexts, these studies try to answer a central question: Do hybrid masculinities promote gender equality?

To answer this important question, many studies on hybrid masculinities explore the complex relationships between men and femininities, with most of these studies focusing on men representing the heterosexual-identified majority and using femininities to strengthen their masculinities. For instance, Barber (2008) depicts white men who rely on beauty work formerly coded as “feminine” to form professional-class masculinities. Messner (2007) analyzes Arnold Schwarzenegger’s speech and how he mixes his toughness with symbolic displays of compassion to gain more power. And a predominantly white, middle-class boxing gym in Rabii’s study (2021) promotes the discourses of “love, bridgework and sparring with care” to differentiate this gym from other gyms where the members claim to represent violent masculinity. In spite of its surface-level feminine philosophy, however, this gym discursively forms American hegemonic masculinity and discriminates against women by assuming they are weak and unskilled. This gym thereby unwittingly uses hybrid masculinities to gain power as a white-collar, male-centered gym. These studies conclude that hybrid masculinities are for securing power among men who already have it, and they do not change the existing system of inequality. Thus, although some studies argue that hybrid masculinities have a liberating effect, many studies reveal how hybrid masculinities merely obscure and hide persistent gender inequality.

In fields other than sociology, the concept of hybrid masculinities has not found widespread adoption, but scholars of such domains as race, the arts, law, and language have extensively discussed the issue of cultural appropriation, which encompasses the notion of hybrid masculinities. Cultural appropriation can be defined as “the taking of the items (whether tangible or intangible) including ideas from one culture by another” (Arya 2021, p. 1). The act of cultural appropriation becomes extremely problematic when the culture is appropriated from a marginalized group in a way that denigrates and lessens the value of the peripheral group only to elevate the status of the mainstream group (e.g., Arya 2021; hooks bell 1992; Young 2010). Hill, a linguistic anthropologist (2008), calls attention to the danger of linguistic appropriation (see also Bucholtz 2011; Chun 2009), another form of cultural appropriation, based on her research on widely circulated loan words from minority languages by white middle-class people, such as mock Spanish, and stresses the serious consequences of this seemingly innocent language practice. These acts of borrowing words are never neutral because they denigrate and stereotype minorities by reshaping their images and words in a harmful way. Hill defines this “borrowing-as-theft” as linguistic appropriation as follows:

In linguistic appropriation, speakers of the target language (the group doing the borrowing) adopt resources from the donor language, and then try to deny these to members of the donor language community. They attempt this denial through formal legal prohibition and informal monitoring and censure […] But they also achieve it indirectly, by reshaping the meaning of the borrowed material into forms that advance their own interest, making it useless or irrelevant, or even antithetical, to the interests of the donor community. This reshaped meaning may then be imposed on donor speakers. (Hill 2008, p. 158)

Japanese young men’s josō practices may be interpreted as a form of this harmful borrowing from female culture, depending on their motivations and interpretations. By referring to the concepts of hybrid masculinities and cultural appropriation, this chapter focuses on the various motivations and interpretations of young josō practitioners and analyzes how these practitioners bricolage femininities and to what purposes. Through contrasting interview extracts explaining contestants’ interpretations of josō, I will be asking crucial questions about their practices: What relationships do the josōkon contestants have with femininities? Are their masculinities “hybrid” and “cultural appropriation” merely reinforcing hegemonic masculinities? Or are they instead blurring gender boundaries and representing a change in gender inequality?

The participants in this research had diverse interpretations of what it means to dress as a woman and their own motivations for taking part in this culture. Not all the contestants interpreted josō as a means of expressing their gender and sexual identities. Indeed, none of the research participants we interviewed explicitly identified themselves as transgender. Understandings of josō shared by participants ranged from a tool for expressing one’s identity to the path of an entertainer, to the showcasing of feminine beauty, to a means for self-discovery, and finally, to a resource for accruing social capital. It seems that these young people strategically borrowed hybrid performative styles and created a complex indexicality (e.g., Silverstein 1976) of masculinities and femininities.

How can we then understand such diverse interpretations of josō? One common classification of josō that repeatedly came up in interviews with josōkon contestants was whether the motivations are external or internal. The internal motivations of josō mean that the participants practice josō out of their internal need to express their gender and sexual identities. External motivations, on the other hand, have nothing to do with josō participants’ gender and sexual identities; rather, practitioners with external motivations engaged in josō to gain power, popularity, social capital, or whatever resides outside their identities. Some participants described the internal and external motivations as belonging to two different kinds of people. To give an example:

Extract 1

Onna ni naru no ga suki nan datte iu hito to, kosupure no ichikeitai to shite josō wo miteru hito to, tabun zenzen chigau to omoi masu. Noka, onna ni  nattara wadai ni naru kara onna ni naru no katte iu.

“I think it’s probably completely different from those who want to be a woman or those who see josō as a type of cosplay. Or (for me) it’s about becoming a popular topic of conversation [wadai] by becoming a woman.”

In this first excerpt, this josōkon participant is discursively constructing different groups of people with different orientations and motivations for josō. The first group consists of those who want to be women, which we might describe as women of trans experience, a woman being born in a man’s body. The second group he describes is of cosplayers who see josō as an extension of that practice, also sometimes referred to as cross-play. The josōkon participant then goes on to position himself in contrast to these other groups, explaining his motivation through the use of the noun wadai, a gimmick or topic of conversation. In this data, he constructs two different kinds of motivations, one internal and gender-based, and the other external with social and performative purposes.

In the following section, by using this emic categorization of josō as an object of investigation, I will closely examine the interview excerpts of five josō practitioners—three of whom seem to have external motivations and two of whom seem to have internal motivations—and illuminate how they interpret the labor of josō in relation to their complex positioning of gender, sexualities, and femininities. On the surface, the external motivation seems to be akin to “hybrid masculinities” and “cultural appropriation.” Josō practitioners with an external motivation seem to externalize femininities as their resources and employ them for their own purposes. On the contrary, those with an internal motivation internalize femininities and use them as part of their own identity. But is this distinction as explained by the josōkon contestants always a clear-cut dichotomy? Is it always the case that internal motivations promote gender equality and that external motivations project harmful hybrid masculinities and cultural appropriation? I argue that this emic distinction of the internal and the external is only part of the complex motivations for josō, as becomes evident in the following analysis.

3 The Meaning of Josō and Femininities: External and Internal Motivations

3.1 External Motivations for Josō vs Hybrid Masculinities

For some josō practitioners, josō appears to be derived from external motivations. It is a form of performance, a cultural practice, a modality of “characterization,” a means to make a leap from their ordinary life, to set themselves free, and a resource to gain popularity, power, recognition, and social capital. These josō practitioners consider that josō has little to do with their gender and sexual identities. Having an internal motivation is not only disavowed by many of the participants but is also occasionally constructed as being particularly unwanted by some. For example, A participated in a josō contest simply because he has long legs and a slender figure, which he believes are great attributes to express feminine beauty. A does not like it when josō is used as an expression of gender and sexual identity, and what he calls gendā-teki na mono (something related to gender.) For him, it is impossible for a man to pass as a woman, and he hates it when men seriously want to become feminine or a female, which he thinks is unnatural.

Extract 2

Etto, boku wa hontō ni josei ni narō to wa omotte nakatta node, toku ni, akumademo, boku no ishiki to shite wa, josō na node. Tatoeba, e::ttō, joseitekina kachikan de mite dansei no hō ga ii tokoro, tatoeba, dansei no hō ga tōzen suratto shite masu shi, ma:: sono::, hosoi shi, sō desu ne, sōiu tokoro ha, etto, aru imi, sono josei no kachikan no naka de, josei wo uwamawatte iru tokoro da to omou node. Sōiu tokoro wo, sono dansei to shite, e::, josō wo shite, ano::, sōiu sono (josei no) bitoku wo uwamawatteikutte iu no wa zenzen ii to omou n desu kedo, sono josei ni naru, josei sonomono ni narutte iu to, chotto boku wa kenokan desu ne, yappari. Ma, sō desu ne. Hai.

“Well, I was not seriously trying to be a woman. In my mind, it is just josō. For example, well, in terms of feminine values, men are better in some respects, for example, men naturally have better features, well, slimmer figures, I think. In those aspects, well, in a way, men are better than women at being feminine. I don’t see any problem at all with doing josō by using these features, as a man, and doing better than a woman in (female) virtue of beauty. But becoming a woman, a real woman, disgusts [kenokan] me. Well, I think so.”

In this excerpt, A’s comparison of josei (women) and dansei (men) is striking: he argues that men have better figures and therefore are better than women in realizing feminine values. A’s stance is firmly in male identity and masculinities, as shown in his repeated reference to “man,” and its contrast to “woman.” His stance draws a clear boundary between men and women, and he claims that men as a category are better at expressing feminine beauty. Josō for A is a performance simply to express his ideal woman and his aesthetics as a man. Through reappropriating femininities and using his male body, with a slim figure and long legs, he creates an ideal feminine beauty and in doing so gains social capital at the university as an important figure at the festival, acquiring power over some women he considers to be less beautiful than he, a man. For A, josō is simply men wearing women’s clothing, and it has nothing to do with expressing sexualities. Josō as something done for performance, devoid of any political motivation for the purpose of gaining social capital, is totally fine. However, the idea of an internal motivation for doing josō, in other words, being a trans woman is seen in a negative light, creating kenokan or a feeling of disgust.Footnote 3

These external sources of motivation are subject to the dominant heteronormative hegemony of Japanese society and universities as well. Make-up helpers, mostly mothers of the contestants and their friends, explained in interviews that they understood josōkon as young men’s attempt to create an unrealistic, virtual view of ideal women. These young men often go to boys’ high schools, of which there are many in Japan, and often have little contact with real women until they enter a university. This interpretation of josō as a creation of an ideal woman might well be a product of the often gender-segregated Japanese educational system and widely circulated traditional images of Japanese women.

Moreover, A feels uneasy not only about transgender and gender-diverse people but also with certain women when they express femininities. In his interview, including the following excerpt, he extensively criticizes the “improper” pursuit of feminine beauty displayed by women whom he determines to be ugly and to lack aesthetics. He developed such a critical perspective about women, which he calls misogyny, during his traumatic transition from a boys’ high school to a co-ed university. He was suddenly thrown into a competitive romantic market at the co-ed university where women bakeru (disguise or completely change themselves into) fashionable beings, men fiercely fight for women, and they all maunto wo toru (one-up) him and make him feel left out. He had no clue whatsoever about how these women and men operated in the field.

Extract 3

Yononaka no sono onna no hito tte, tatoeba kōkō kara daigaku ni hairu atari no atari de, etto, bakeru ja nai desu ka, koto ga ōi. De, nani ka soko de, ano::, nan darō, e::tto, jibun wa, e::tto, sono zenzen sono yōshi toka, sono kankei nai fū ni ikitekita noni, aitsura wa, sono nani ka shiranai aida ni sono sonzai ni kizuite ite. Sore de, sono ano nani ka, etto, tatoeba, ano::, aipuchi desu toka, anō, sonō nan darō, Shinjuku no PARCO mitai na toko toka, sono, tokoro de, sono kaimono wo shitari shite, nani ka e::tto, biishiki mo nai kuse ni yoku wakannai noni, oshare ni natta ki ga shite, sore de sore wo sono nani ka, e::, konkyo to shite, ore ni maunto totte kuru zo, mitai na. De, ore yori ue dazotte omotteru zo, mitai na. Sore ga chotto yurusenakutte, boku ha. Nanka, de, keshō haida ra, moto no jagaimo ga korogaru noni, sore wa nani ka boku to shite, hen na kibun ni natte. Hai.

“Women in this society start to disguise [bakeru] themselves, say, when they move from high school to university, right? Well, that’s often the case. At that moment, well, how should I put it, I myself had lived without thinking about my appearance, but without my realizing it, they [aitsura] begin to notice the existence (of appearance). And well, for example, well, they use eyelid glue, or what is it, say, go shopping at a place like PARCO in Shinjuku, but they have no aesthetics and no idea, but they think they  have become fashionable. And then, well, based on that, they one-up me [ore] and think they are superior to me [ore]. I [boku] can’t accept that. Well, without make-up, they are just potatoes lying on the ground. That’s something, really something that makes me feel strange.”

In this extract, A explains that upon entering a university, women suddenly try to bakeru as fashionable women by shopping at PARCO (a building devoted to fashion-related shops) and putting on aipuchi (eyelid glue to make double eyelids), even though they have no idea about aesthetics and fashion. A argues that women he determines to be ugly should know their place and that they should not try to one-up him. For A, it is not acceptable that these women, just like potatoes beneath their make-up, feel superior to A, who has aesthetics and who could be more beautiful than they through josō. In this excerpt, too, A presents a sharp contrast between women and himself—a man—and belittles women, manifested in his shift of pronouns. In this interview, A mostly used boku, a polite masculine pronoun, indexing the character of “interviewee” and “student” in relation to the addressees who are older researchers. In the narrated event of women disguising themselves as fashionable and one-upping him, however, A shifts his pronouns from the mildly masculine boku to the strongly masculine ore. A deprecatory second-person pronoun, aitsura, is also used to address these women in a confrontational way. This ore and aitsura characterization in the narrative event points to a character in a hostile relationship with women, whom he views as a threat to his status.

These extracts reveal that A has a sense of entitlement to femininity. He uses josō as a tool to create a heteronormative notion of femininities to his own external purpose while simultaneously denying some women’s and trans people’s right to express their femininities. Josōkon, as he explains in the interview, is after all a place for men like him, who are confident, popular, reasonable, good communicators, and winners in real life. Therefore, A’s case represents one typical manifestation of hybrid masculinities that draws on the power of the heteronormative hegemony of Japanese society and universities. A’s use of feminine resources is also clearly linked to appropriation, especially in the way explained by Hill in an earlier quote. A adopts feminine resources and denies these resources to women. He reshapes feminine resources to be owned not by women but by men who have aesthetics.

The distinction of the external and internal purposes of josō, however, is not as clear in other josō participants’ accounts as it is in A's case. For example, B says that josō is not related to his sexuality but is deeply connected to his pursuit of entertainment. In some parts of the interview, B’s motivation seems clearly external. In both Extracts 4 and 5, there are similar foci on the external sources of motivation for B.

Extract 4

Sore mo akumade wadai zukuri ccha wadai zukuri desu kedo. Ma:: danseisei to joseisei no ryōmen de nani ka hyōka sare taga tterutte iu bubun mo aru no kana.

“There’s also still a sense of doing it for the sake of attention. Well, there’s also the part about being appreciated [hyōka sareru] for having both masculine and feminine sides, I guess.”

Extract 5

Ma, jibun ni ironna men ga arundatte iu yōna bubun mo, chotto mitehoshikatta no kana to omou. Soto ni mukete apīru shitakatta no kana to, ima demo omoi masu.

“Well, there is probably a little part where I want to be seen as someone who has several sides. I guess I sort of want to make an appeal to the people around me [soto ni mukete apīru]. I still feel like that.”

In Extract 4, B refers to winning both the josō and the male beauty pageants at his university. He explains that wadai (a gimmick) is a motivating force for doing both contests, and he also uses the verb hyōka sareru (to be appreciated or recognized), which shows that the motivation does not come from within him so much as from outside. In Extract 5, B continues to explain the external nature of his motivation. B’s use of the adjective phrase mitehoshii (want to be seen) and the phrase soto ni mukete (looking outward) apīru (making an appeal) shows that B’s motivation comes strongly from a type of social capital gained by the perceptions of other people around him.

Extracts 4 and 5, however, also show that femininities are not just a resource for B’s performance, but also part of him. He says that he has several sides, including both femininities and masculinities, and he wants other people to value multiple aspects.  Unlike A, who considers femininities as an external tool to achieve societal power, B would like to acquire and express his femininities as his mode of expression. Furthermore, B discovers femininity as part of himself through the development of his josō practice. As B explained in Extract 6 and in other parts of the interview, femininities are something he creates with much preparation and labor. Simply putting on a wig, according to him, would not be josō. When he appears on josōkon stage, he is not nervous. He is in the zone. He is a comic, queen-like josō persona, completely different from how he otherwise perceives himself. With the audience’s enthusiasm and laughter, an extraordinary space is created, in which he is set free. Josō is something that enables him to make a leap in his performance.

Extract 6

U::n, nan darō? Ma:: demo, hontō ni sono toki (butai de) wa, kanzen ni boku ja nai kanji desu ne. kanzen ni jinkaku ga chigau natte iu. Kore, ma:: kanari jūyō na kankaku kamo shirenai desu kedo. “Boku ja nai na” tte. Nanka hontō ni (josō no kyarakutā mei) to shite mō betsujinkaku to shite minna no mae ni dete, sōnarikitte, betsuno jinkaku ni kataku shite nanika iroiro dekiru, jiyūhonpō ni dekirutte iu.

“Well, what is it? Yeah, but in that moment (on stage), I feel that it’s completely not me. I’m a completely different character. This, well, may be a very important feeling: ‘This is not me.’ I am really [the josō character’s name.] I appear in front of everyone as a different character, I am completely immersed in it, and I give myself over to this other character, that lets me do various things, freely.”

In Extract 6, B says that his female character is completely different from him, and yet he is completely immersed in it on stage. B gives himself to the female character, which lets him do various things freely. When he takes josō seriously as a form of performance and art, femininities seem to enter deeper into his identity. In this performative context, B’s feminine and masculine identities seem to have fused and become one entity. B’s account thus deviates from the simplest definition of hybrid masculinities, showing the complexity of the boundary between femininities and masculinities, and between the self and the other.

This complexity of hybrid masculinities is also shown in the next extract, in which C, another participant at a university josō contest, explains that he would like to obtain “cuteness” through female clothing, a sign of femininity that he considers is no longer just for women but for men too. Femininities have been accepted in men’s world, particularly in young men’s generation.

Extract 7

Mohaya genjō kawaii tte, mō futsū ni dansei no sekai demo ukeirerare tsutsu aru n ja nai ka to iu no wa hitotsu ni omottete. Tatoeba, nanika josō no shōgyōka tte yappa aru to omou n desu yo, hitotsu niwa. Sono janīzu ga josō shite bangumi detara, shichōritsu agaru mitai na. Kōiu shōgyōka sareteru sono kawaii tte iu mono wo, mō orera no sedai to shite wa, bunka to shite hitotsu ukeire rarete mo ii n ja naikatte iu noga hitotsu omotteite. Ma::, soremo fumaete, boku ha konkai no (josōkon no)shutsujō dewa aru n desu kedo.

“I’m thinking that being cute is, if you look at the situation now [mohaya], already [mō] gaining acceptance in men’s world. For example, I think josō is actually commercialized for one thing. Like when Johnny’s idols (massively popular male idol groups) do josō (on TV), the ratings go up. I am thinking our [orera no] generation should already [mō] accept such a commercialized cuteness as a culture. This is why I’m participating (in the josō contest).”

C goes on to explain in Extract 8 that for men, although it is difficult to attain a feminine attire and cuteness, many men nonetheless wear female clothing now, which is an indication of men’s acceptance of women’s culture. Moreover, C explains in Extract 9 that the Japanese fashion industry for men is still based on the old generation’s values, but his younger generation is definitely changing attitudes toward fashion.

Extract 8

Menzu muke no kawaii tte dezain meccha muzukashikute. Iya, kao wo sonnani kawaiku naitte iu no ga, kakkoii ja nai desu ka, yappai otoko no hō wa. Kawaii ja naku te, kakkoii tte keiyōshi ni nacchau n de. Ni taishite, kawaii fuku tte dōshitemo misumacchi de awanai kedo, soreto dōji ni, kawaii taipu no nanika kao shiteru otoko no hito ha, ma, kekkō boku no tomodachi demo, sono, hitotsu ni, ma::, kore (C no kiteiru fuku) kanzen ni joseimono nan desu kedo. Mō kono kawaii tte iu bunka no juyō no arikata no hitotsu kana to iu no ha omotte masu.

“It’s really hard to find cute clothes that suit men. Well, after all, men’s faces are not that cute, but rather cool, aren't they? An adjective for men is definitely not cute, but cool. Men definitely don’t look right in cute clothing, but at the same, men with cute faces, actually I have many friends who wear women’s clothing. For that reason, well, one thing is, this (what he is wearing) is actually completely female clothing. I think this is one of the ways that the culture of cuteness is already [mō] accepted (by men).”

Extract 9

Ma::, somosomo no hanashi, danseifuku tte sono dansei fasshon gyōkai tte mada kasseika shite nakutte. Nani ka yappari dōshitemo kyūtaiizen no, “Otoko ni wa fuku ha dōdemo yokute, sūtsu de bishitto kimete shigoto shiyō!” mitai na, sōiu kachikan ga bokura no ue no sedai ni mada manen shiteru n de. Nanika sono, ima hanashiteta Ryuchell toka, nanika ima no geinin janai desu kedo nani ka tarento san de iru ja nai desu ka. … Arette, hitotsu ni nanika bokura no sedai no bunka no ketsujitu de atte, nanika sono fukusō toka mitame, fasshon ni kanshite dansei ga kyōmi wo motte shutaiteki ni yatteiku no ha, ma, bokura no sedai ni yappa arun de.

“The bottom line is that men’s clothing, men’s fashion industry, hasn’t been vitalized yet. Old-fashioned [kyūtaiizen] values, like ‘Men’s clothing doesn’t matter. Let’s just look sharp in suits and work!’ still prevails in the generation above us. But like, I was just talking about Ryuchell (a popular TV personality in genderless fashion), like not a comedian but a talent … That is the fruit of the culture of our [bokura no] generation. Men are interested in, and actively engage in, clothing, looks and fashion. That is our [bokura (masculine pronoun) no] generation.”

Do C’s descriptions of men incorporating femininities demonstrate hybrid masculinities or do they actually point toward the collapse of the gender boundary? C’s accounts seem to show that C and other men incorporate femininity from men’s standpoint and as men’s resources. C repeats “mohaya/mō (already)” three times in Extract 7, and once again in Extract 8, to stress that cuteness or femininities have already been accepted and banalized in men’s world as their culture. As shown through these accounts, C seems to take a stance toward male identity and masculinities, as is demonstrated by his contrast of dansei (man) and josei (woman) and a masculine possessive pronoun, orera no, in Extract 7. From the standpoint of men, C tries to incorporate cuteness through women’s clothing, which is sometimes difficult because men generally have a cool, not cute, face, but C demonstrates that many men, including him, especially those who have a cute face, wear clothing specifically made for women. In Extract 9, C asserts that men of the new generation actively pursue clothing, fashion, and looks and create their own realm of fashion. In this extract, too, his repeated reference to men, men’s fashion, men's clothing, and men’s generation indicate that his footing is in the men’s field.

C’s accounts show that his firm positioning as a man and the act of utilizing femininities from his position as a man apply to hybrid masculinities and hence do not change the gender boundary. The new generation of josō practitioners, like C, mobilizes cultural images and societal discourses of myriad femininities, masculinities, and sexualities, which seemingly feminize masculinities. Such feminized masculinities, however, might be commercialized and commodified only to give men new ways of expressing their masculinities, and these hybrid masculinities might only reinforce the boundary between men’s and women’s world; paradoxically intertwining masculinity with femininity would then reinforce the overlap but also the separation between maleness and femaleness.

A close analysis of C’s discourses, however, reveals that the relationship between hybrid masculinities and the traditional gender binary in C’s case is more complex. C claims cuteness through female clothing as what men own, which exhibits a feature of hybrid masculinities, but in fact, C also criticizes the traditional gender norms that created the gender boundary in fashion. For instance, C, through sharply contrasting men in the old generation and in his generation, C criticizes the former for holding a kyūtaiizen (old-fashioned) value that fashion is not for men. He also criticizes the male fashion industry for being underdeveloped because of the traditional gender norms on fashion. Moreover, in a follow-up interview sixteen months after his appearance at a university josōkon event, while still identifying with a male identity, C talked extensively about gender non-binary and the mixing of femininities and masculinities. For example, C talked about the crisis of masculinities and a gender-non-binary society, as shown in Extract 10.

Extract 10

Dakara, kekkō otoko no bōryokusei toka, tabun, (kikikan ga atte), tabun kekkō kono hanashi tte dokka de giron sareteru to omou n desu kedo, jendā- furī ga, jendā- furī no yononaka ni natta toki ni, josei ga dansei ni chikazuku no ka, dansei ga josei ni chikazuku no ka, tabun josei ga dansei ni yoru yori mo, dansei ga josei ni yoru to omou n desu yo ne.

“So, probably (there is a sense of crisis in) men’s violent nature, and I think there must be some debates on this, but gender-non-binary, when society becomes gender-non-binary, do women get closer to men or do men get closer to women? Probably rather than women getting closer to men, men will get closer to women.”

In this extract, C recognizes that there is a discussion about a sense of crisis in masculinities. He envisions a gender-non-binary society which, upon its realization, will see femininities, not masculinities, prevailing. In the same interview, C also explains his view on the ideologies of desirable and undesirable femininities, which he came to realize through heated debates among josōkon contestants about what the correct josō really is. According to C, many josōkon contestants uphold the traditional ideas concerning women and girls, and have a very narrow image of the correct and desirable femininity and josō. In this interview, he criticized those contestants for ganko ni (stubbornly) defending the uniform image of “kiyoku tadashii (pure and correct)” josō, which conforms to a conventional prim and proper image of women. These contestants in return criticized C for having done a josō that evokes undesirable feminine figures, such as “kyabajō (female companion in a hostess bar)” and “bangyaru (an avid fan of visual kei bands).” C thought that it was not fair to deny certain kinds of femininities and advocate for only an image of unrealistically traditional femininity in josō practices, as shown in Extract 11. After pointing out that other contestants’ josō figures always have black hair, which actual young women rarely have, C says:

Extract 11

Iya datte boku kurokami no onnanoko kirai desu mon, tanjun ni. Dakara … iru ja nai desu ka, chotto akarui iro nuketa onnano ko ga sukitte iu hito ga zettai sokosoko iru naka de, soredemo josō ni nattara, minna kurokami ni mukatte iku. Datte, … moshimo honto ni otoko ga minna kurokami no onna no ko ga suki nan dattara, josei tte sonna ni, joshidaisei tte minna kami someru ja nai desu ka. … (Kurokami no josō wa) kyokō ni nezashite iru mono de. Sono kyokōsei tte iu mono ga nanka hito wo ganko ni suru no ka. ... Dakara, tatoeba, kyokō dakara koso, (josōkon sankasha) minna kurokami no onnanoko tte mono ni taishite no akogare wo hyōgen shiyō to shichatta, mitai na. Sore igai no josō wa josō deha nai to kangae chau. Nazenara, sore wa jibun tachi no kyokō ni sonzai shinai kara.

“Well, I simply don’t like girls with black hair. So, ... there are definitely fair amounts of people who like girls with dyed hair with bright colors, but when it comes to josō, everybody heads toward black hair. If … every man liked black hair, you know, but women, female university students always dye their hair, don’t they? … It (black hair for josō) is rooted in their (josō practitioners’) fantasy [kyokō]. The fantasy is probably making them stubborn. That's why they all end up trying to express their longings for women with black hair (in josō). They think that other kinds of josō are not real josō because they don’t exist in their fantasy.”

In Extract 11, C argues that mainstream josō practitioners express an unrealistic form of femininity represented by black hair and that this type of femininity resides only in their fantasy. C’s keen analysis reveals the ideology of acceptable and unacceptable femininities, which he passionately talked about and tried hard to understand. C’s accounts demonstrate his urge to understand the system that impedes the non-binary fashion and society he hopes to see realized. It is true that C’s stance as a man does not change, that his motivation for josō can still be classified as external, and that his use of josō can be cultural appropriation of femininities. He has a critical perspective on gender norms, however, and his worldview on gender seems to be shifting and moving toward a non-binary thinking. His example shows the complexity of the dominant ideologies about gender and sexualities; it further indicates a possibility of hybrid masculinities that would not solely reinforce the gender binary ideologies in society.Footnote 4

3.2 Internal Motivations for Josō

In contrast with A, B, and C, who interpreted josō as their external resources, for many young josō practitioners, josō is an expression of gender and sexual identities and something derived from their internal motivations. D, a participant and an organizer for a university josō contest, explains that josō is inseparable from the construction of hisFootnote 5 gender identities. D’s participation in the josō contests is motivated by an instability, what he calls fuantei (unstable), regarding his gender, as he explains in Extract 12.

Extract 12

Boku mukashi kara kiwamete seijinin ga fuantei datta n desu yo ne. Danseisei ga tsuyoku deru koto mo aru shi, joseisei ga tsuyoku deru koto mo aru shi, de, jibun no naka ni sono joseisei to danseisei ga ryōhō aru n datte iu no wa wakatte te … Demo josō shiteru toki tte iu no wa, joseisei de antei shiteru n desu yo ne. Un dakara, boku ni totte wa, sōiu imi ga aru no kana tte iu no wo omoi hajimeru to, ano, josō shiteru toki ha josei de kotei sarerushi, nde, teikiteki ni josō shiteru aida wa, josō shite nai toki mo danseisei de kotei sareru n desu yo ne. Sore wo ishiki suru to, a, sōiu sōchi nan datte omou to antei suru yō ni nari mashita ne.

“My gender identity was unstable [fuantei] for a long time. There are times when masculinities are stronger, and there are other times when femininities are stronger, and I have always known that both femininities and masculinities reside within me. … But when I do josō, I am stable with my femininities. Yeah, so I started thinking about what josō means to me in that way, and then, well,  when I do josō, I am stabilized as a woman, and when I do josō regularly, even when I stop doing it, I am stabilized as a man. When I became aware of that, I realized that josō is such a tool, and I felt stable.”

D said that he felt his gender identity to have been extremely unstable for a long time; he has known that both femininities and masculinities reside within him, sometimes with an emphasis on femininities, at other times identifying more strongly with his masculinities. When he did josō, he realized that his fuantei (feeling of instability) dissolved and both femininities and masculinities appeared fixed. Because josō stabilizes his femininity, even when he is not doing josō, his masculine identity, too, is stabilized, and his identity as a whole becomes stable and controllable. He came to understand that josō is an important tool for his identity operation.

Similarly, E, another participant at a university josōkon, seems to have an internal motivation to practice josō. E feels sheer joy in expressing femininity and cuteness through his josō and he participated in a josōkon in the hope of changing society so that people would think that josō is interesting. For him, femininity and cuteness are not something external but something that naturally emerges from inside. The following extract is from a follow-up interview sixteen months after E participated in the josōkon as a contestant. For this occasion, I, together with my co-investigators Shunsuke Nozawa and Gavin Furukawa, accompanied E to a josō salon where we watched as a salon beautician helped E to change into josō. We then interviewed E while he was dressed in a cute pink josō outfit.

Extract 13

Ayumi::

Pōzu ga umaitte, (saron no meiku-appu āthisuto) sugoku homerareteta desho (josō sabisu ni tuite kuru shashin-satsuei de)?

E::

Nanka shizenni dechau n desu yo. Kokoro ga sugoi onnanoko ni nacchau n desu yo. Jubun no naka de nanka kawaii onnanoko zō mitai na mono ga, tabun itsumo aru n da to omou n desu yo ne. Sore wa, (josō shite) iza jibun ga sore ni chikazuitara, mō ano, nanka katteni dechautte iu ka, sōiu tokoro ga aru n desu yo.

A::

“(The make-up artist at the salon) praised you a lot for your pose (for the photo session that came with the josō service).”

E::

“I don’t know why but it comes out naturally. My heart becomes very girly. I think I probably always have some cute girl images in my mind. When I come close to the image (by doing josō), it tends to come out on its own and that is how it is.”

As shown in this extract, E’s girl inside comes out naturally when he does josō. He always has some images of cute girls in his mind, and he is automatically turned into those images. In another part of the interview, E says that this image of a cute girl emerges so naturally when he does josō that he wonders what his real gender identity is. He considers himself male but at the same time, he suspects that this recognition might merely derive from his body being that of a male since he feels differently when he does josō.

Extract 14

Sō desu ne, ano, nanka seijinin te nan darōtte iu noga ichiban ōkikute, nanka ichiō watashi wa seijinin no dansei tte koto ni natteru n desu kedo, nanka sonota ni sakki no koto de, iwayuru omoi mono wo hakoberu, ma::, ano kokkaku mo sōiu kanji dakara, dansei to omoi, eto, ninshiki shite iru ni sugi nai desu yo ne. Nanka sō desu ne, seijinin te nan darō mitai na. Demo, jibun no kokoro no naka wa moshi ka shitara, josei kamo shirenai desushi, n::, sono nanka jibun no kono karada no tokuchō ni ma:: nante iu ka, jakkan gohei arimasukedo, damasareteru dake ja nai ka toka. Toku ni kō yatte kigaete onnanoko rashii koto ga wakidetekuru no wa, moshika shitara, sōiu koto nano kana, mitaina kanji desuka.

“Well, uh, the biggest thing is what gender identity is. My gender identity is supposedly male, but as I mentioned before, I recognize myself as a man maybe just because I am able to carry heavy things, or uh well, I am well-built, or things like that. Well, like, what is gender identity really? But I may be a woman at heart. Well, I might be, maybe this is the wrong way to explain it, but I might just be deceived by my physical features. Especially once I transform into a girl like now, feminine things spring out, and this may mean that, perhaps.”

In the next extract, E says that he is not entirely unsatisfied with the male clothing he wears most of the time, but when he does josō, he can feel “the happiness and fun” he could never experience in male clothing. According to him, this is the very reason he transforms into a girl. Worth noting is the wording he uses: he does not say “do josō” but “become a girl.”

Extract 15

Betsu ni dansei no fukusō ga iyatte koto wa nai desu shi, dansei no fukusō shitetemo ano tanoshimeru koto ha ari masu kara. Iza, kōyatte josō no fukusō shite miru to, kono kakkō dakara koso kizukeru tanoshisa to shiawase ga arutte iu ka, sōiu fū ni omou n desu yone. Dakedo nanka ima no dansei no fuku kiteru jibun niwa soko made tsuyoi fuman ga aru wake ja nai n desu kedo, demo kō shite miru to, kōiu kakkō shite miru to, dansei no kakkō dato zettaini ajiwaenai mono ga arunatte. Tabun sōiu mono wo kanjirareru no ga, nanka fuku wo kite, onnanoko ni naru imi kana::.

“It’s not that I hate male clothing. There are some fun things to do when you wear male clothing. But once I put josō clothing on this way, I think that there is fun and happiness that I can find only in this clothing. But well, it’s not that I’m strongly dissatisfied with myself in the men’s clothing I usually wear, but once I dress this way, I put on this kind of clothing, I realize there are things that I would never appreciate in men’s clothing. Probably, I can feel those things, that is the reason why I put on the clothing and become a girl.”

When I asked him what kind of happiness and fun he can obtain from practicing josō, he explained:

Extract 16

Wari to mō kotoba niwa deki nai n desu kedo, sugoi watashi josei ga urayamashii n desu yo ne. Tatoeba desu kedo, densha toka de, tonari no seki de suwaru no ga, dansei no tonari to josei no tonari ga aiteitara, doko ni suwaru no? Shizen to josei no tonari wo erabu hito ga danjo tomo ni ōi yō na ki ga suru n desu yo ne. Sōiu imi demo sugoi josei tte urayamashii desu shi, dansei futari (Gavin Furukawa to Shunsuke Nozawa) niwa hontō ni kizutsukanai de hoshii n desu kedo, anō, sugoi tatoeba, hanzairitsu mo takai, ano, dōshitemo nanka chikara de osaekomu mitaina bōryokuteki na imēji ga nuguenai n desu yo ne. Anō, onaji seibetsu tte dake de, sono ichiin ni natte iru no ga, sugoi iya desu shi, anō, gyaku ni josei no sugata dattara, sōiu koto wo kangaezuni, mushiro kawaii hito dattara, kawaigatte moraeru. Sō omou to, dansei tte iu shakaiteki na yakuwari kara hanarerareteru yorokobi mo arimasu shi, josei no hō ga danzen me wo hiki masu shi, sōiu tanoshisa to ka kōfuku toka mo ari masu.

“I can’t really explain this through words, but I am really envious of women. For example, on the train, if there is an empty seat right next to a man and another seat right next to a woman, which seat would you choose? I think most people, regardless of their gender, would sit next to the woman. In that sense, too, I am really envious of women. I hope I’m not offending the two men here (Shunsuke Nozawa and Gavin Furukawa), but well, for example, the crime rate for men is high, well, I just can’t wipe away the violent images of men holding down people by force. Well, I hate the fact that just because I am the same gender, I’m a member of this category. On the other hand, if I have a female look, I don’t have to think about these things. Rather, if I were a cute person, people would pamper me. Then, I could feel the joy of getting away from the social roles men have to bear, too, and women get far more attention, so I would feel fun and happy.”

E stresses that he is envious of women for being unthreatening: according to him, people feel more comfortable sitting next to women than men on the train, for example. For him, men represent force and violence, behavioral images E doesn’t want to be associated with. On the other hand, a cute female look allows him to be approachable, appreciated and  pampered, all of which give him reasons to practice josō.

The comparison between C’s and E’s discourses sheds light on the complexity of the relationships between josō practices and hybrid masculinities. First, note the differences between C and E. E seems to be driven by internal motivation, whereas C seems to be driven more by external motivation. C contrasts men and women and talks about “men’s” world and “men’s” generation, incorporating cuteness through feminine clothing, even though it is not clear if femininities are entirely external to C when he feels that femininities have become a part of men’s culture. On the other hand, it is interesting that the difference seems to be flipped when C rejects traditional ideas about women and girls that other josōkon contestants seem to uphold, and when E cultivates rather stereotypical female cuteness for his josō. Despite their differences, however, C and E share a number of attitudes and interpretations about josō. Both C and E hope that the old-fashioned gender values will change, although C’s hope is mainly about fashion and E’s hope encompasses a broader identity. Moreover, C and E share their doubt about violent masculinities and envision a gender non-binary society. As the comparison between C and E makes clear, josōkon contestants’ complex reflective accounts demonstrate that their motivations are too complex to analyze with the notion of hybrid masculinities because their femininities and masculinities are deeply intertwined.

4 Conclusion

As is evident from the above analysis, each josō participant has his own interpretation of what it means to dress as a woman and his own motivations for taking part in this josō culture. The diverse interpretations of josō are too complex to analyze with the concept of hybrid masculinities (defined as masculine men borrowing elements of femininities to construct masculine identities for advancing their own heteronormative agenda). The myriad interpretations of josō also went beyond the analytical capacity of the external/internal distinction, which emerged from the emic categories that contestants explained in the interviews. On the surface, this emic distinction seems to differentiate josō practitioners’ theories of josō. Some practitioners interpreted their josō as nothing related to their identities, but rather, as relating to relational and societal benefits, and others considered their josō experiences as shizenni (naturally) springing out from inside themselves.

The diverse interpretations of josō motivations, however, defy the dichotomy between the internal and external, and the assumptions of hybrid masculinities, because femininities and masculinities are deeply intertwined in josō contestants’ interpretations. There were participants at josō contests who constructed hybrid masculinities and committed cultural appropriation by using and commodifying femininities, and in doing so gained social capital or new ways of expressing their masculinities. One participant seemingly used hybrid masculinities for his pursuit of josō entertainment, yet, in his performance and in the course of his josō history, the simple distinction between femininities/masculinities, female/male, woman/man, internal/external, and self/other blurred. Yet another participant, while keeping a firm stance on his maleness and masculinities, thus exhibiting some signs of hybrid masculinities, explored the possibility of crisscrossing femininities and masculinities that led him to envision a more gender non-binary society. Moreover, there were also josō practitioners who constructed josō from their internal motivations. For them, femininities were not something to borrow from the outside. Both femininities and masculinities already resided within these practitioners and josō was an important tool for their identity operation. Their complex androgyneity clearly shows that, as Judith Butler (2004) suggests, femininity emerges in men, as masculinity emanates from women, and femininity and masculinity do not belong to differently sexed bodies.

The contestants also seem to disagree on such issues as what forms of femininities and masculinities can be considered acceptable in josō. Some contestants reject the traditional images of women in doing josō, while others promote a stereotypical femininity and cuteness. Furthermore, contestants have different positioning toward the issue of gender equality. There was a participant who considered that men are superior to women, while some participants shared their vision for a gender-non-binary society, in spite of their differences in motivations and ideas about josō. In this way, josōkon participants created complex indexical fields (e.g., Eckert 2008) of different constellations of masculinities and femininities, gendered norms, and the interpretations of josō. The differences and similarities in those indexical fields overlap, contradict, and intertwine, revealing the surprising combination of gender identities and bodies, and femininities and masculinities, which further complicates the idea of gender polarity.

The meaning, or pragmatic effectiveness, of josō performances thus cannot be reduced to a binary gender structure and decontextualized within the framework of masculinities and femininities, or gender and sexualities, which the notion of hybrid masculinities seems to assume. Rather, these performances convey a complex intertwining of all these categories together with other modalities of difference, making them an index of the contemporary sociocultural condition. The complex endeavors of josōkon contestants not only disregard the idea of gender as binary but also question what gender as non-binary means. All the josō practitioners interviewed engage in the complex negotiations of gender and sexual normativities through using their cultural knowledge of gender, which simultaneously blurs and reinforces gender hegemony.