Boutiques are filled with cosmetics and beauty products intended for
both males and females, and it’s often difficult to discern the gender
of passersby. Since a gendered appearance (“feminine” or “masculine”)
often (but not always) denotes the sex of a person, Japan’s recent
“genderless” fashion styles might confuse some visitors – was that
person who just walked by a woman or a man?
Although the
gender-bending look appeals equally to young Japanese women and men, the
media have tended to focus on the young men who wear makeup, color and
coif their hair and model androgynous outfits. In interviews, these genderless males insist that they are neither trying to pass as women nor are they (necessarily) gay.
In premodern Japan, aristocrats often pursued
male and female lovers; their sexual trysts were the stuff of classical
literature. To them, the biological sex of their pursuits was often
less important than the objective: transcendent beauty. And while many
samurai and shoguns had a primary wife for the purposes of procreation
and political alliances, they enjoyed numerous liaisons with younger male lovers.
Only
after the formation of a modern army in the late-19th century were the
sort of same-sex acts central to the samurai ethos discouraged. For a
decade, from 1872 to 1882, sodomy among men was even criminalized. However, since then, there have been no laws in Japan banning homosexual relations.
It’s important to note that, until very recently, sexual acts in Japan
were not linked to sexual identity. In other words, men who had sex with
men and women who had sex with women did not consider themselves gay or
lesbian. Sexual orientation was neither political nor politicized in
Japan until recently, when a gay identity emerged in the context of
HIV/AIDS activism in the 1990s. Today, there are annual gay pride
parades in major cities like Tokyo and Osaka.
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