Cute Men in Contemporary Japan

Slade, T

Cute Men in Contemporary Japan

Slade, T

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Publisher:: Intellect Books
Publication Type:: Chapter
Citation:: Crossing Gender Boundaries Fashion to Create, Disrupt and Transcend, 2020, pp. 78-90
Issue Date:: 2020-12-20

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Slade, T https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5889-9472
dc.contributor.editor	Reilly, A
dc.contributor.editor	Barry, B
dc.date.accessioned	2023-01-04T00:04:25Z
dc.date.available	2023-01-04T00:04:25Z
dc.date.issued	2020-12-20
dc.identifier.citation	Crossing Gender Boundaries Fashion to Create, Disrupt and Transcend, 2020, pp. 78-90
dc.identifier.isbn	1789381150
dc.identifier.isbn	9781789381153
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/164665
dc.description.abstract	One of my first experiences of living in Japan was noticing how very different it was to be a man – to dress the part. Japanese men seemed to have a freedom to be decorative, as though they had skipped Flügel’s (1930) ‘Great Masculine Renunciation’ and its prohibition on sartorial expressions of male vanity. But more than socially sanctioned male display there was another aesthetic at work, that of cuteness, which men also seemed free to use in their clothing and styling choices. Maturity never seemed to be a dress imperative; men could use this cuteness unreservedly. In Japanese, kawaii means cute or adorable, and it is probably the most commonly used word in the country: ubiquitous and affirming. Donald Richie noted, ‘one cannot, in Japan, escape from the cartoon, the comic book-atmosphere, the cute’ (2003: 53). And it would seem to remain anecdotally true today that the cute is still everywhere in Japan. To many it would appear to be an aesthetic preference that has always existed in Japanese popular culture; yet, this chapter will trace the beginnings of the modern manifestation of the aesthetic of kawaii in Japan to the early 1970s, a period immediately following significant political and social unrest. Though some aspects can be traced back, especially its prevalence in manga and anime, this is certainly the period when it fully entered fashion and self-styling. While the development of kawaii and its political meaning from the late 1960s has been extensively studied (Kinsella 1995), particularly with regard to women, and the postwar reconceptualization of masculinity also has been extensively studied (McLelland 2000), this chapter aims to explore how this aesthetic of kawaii contributed to these new forms of masculinity and how the internal logics of the aesthetic itself have changed with time.
dc.format.extent	14
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	Intellect Books
dc.relation.ispartof	Crossing Gender Boundaries Fashion to Create, Disrupt and Transcend
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
dc.title	Cute Men in Contemporary Japan
dc.type	Chapter
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building/School of Design
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access	*
pubs.consider-herdc	false
dc.date.updated	2023-01-04T00:04:23Z
pubs.place-of-publication	UK
pubs.publication-status	Published
dc.location	UK

Abstract:

One of my first experiences of living in Japan was noticing how very different it was to be a man – to dress the part. Japanese men seemed to have a freedom to be decorative, as though they had skipped Flügel’s (1930) ‘Great Masculine Renunciation’ and its prohibition on sartorial expressions of male vanity. But more than socially sanctioned male display there was another aesthetic at work, that of cuteness, which men also seemed free to use in their clothing and styling choices. Maturity never seemed to be a dress imperative; men could use this cuteness unreservedly. In Japanese, kawaii means cute or adorable, and it is probably the most commonly used word in the country: ubiquitous and affirming. Donald Richie noted, ‘one cannot, in Japan, escape from the cartoon, the comic book-atmosphere, the cute’ (2003: 53). And it would seem to remain anecdotally true today that the cute is still everywhere in Japan. To many it would appear to be an aesthetic preference that has always existed in Japanese popular culture; yet, this chapter will trace the beginnings of the modern manifestation of the aesthetic of kawaii in Japan to the early 1970s, a period immediately following significant political and social unrest. Though some aspects can be traced back, especially its prevalence in manga and anime, this is certainly the period when it fully entered fashion and self-styling. While the development of kawaii and its political meaning from the late 1960s has been extensively studied (Kinsella 1995), particularly with regard to women, and the postwar reconceptualization of masculinity also has been extensively studied (McLelland 2000), this chapter aims to explore how this aesthetic of kawaii contributed to these new forms of masculinity and how the internal logics of the aesthetic itself have changed with time.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/164665