The Love Between 'Beautiful Boys' in Japanese Women's Comics

Bibliographic Data

ID3628340
AuthorsMark J Mclelland, Mark Mclelland (corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume9
Issue1
Pages13-25
Publication date2000-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Gender Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0958-9236 • E-ISSN: 1465-3869
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/095892300102425
OpenAlexW1969534898
LanguageEN
Citations received24
References cited14

This paper investigates why the love between 'beautiful youths' (bishoonen) should have become one of the most recurrent romantic tropes in comics both written by and aimed at Japanese women. I argue that women writers draw upon mainstream representations of homosexual men as somehow feminine, but treat this stereotype favourably, creating the figure of the 'beautiful youth' an androgynous being who possesses a feminine sensibility and yet experiences all the advantages of a male body. I show how mainstream Japanese culture attempts to limit women's sexuality to its reproductive role within marriage, troubling women who express themselves sexuality outside marriage with the image of the 'menacing foetus' I argue that the beautiful youth is a figure of resistance: one way in which Japanese women can picture themselves as loving freely in a Patriarchal system, without being subordinated to the reproductive constraints of the family

Art · Comics · Human sexuality · Literature · Mainstream · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Romance · Sensibility · Sociology · Stereotype (UML) · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology

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