Androgeny

[UAShenlong]

Is it a trend in Japan or is it a cultural aspect of Japanese culture?

What IS up with so many Androgenous J-Rockers?

Did Mana set of the androgeny craze or something?

Not saying there is anything wrong with it - I like it and I am for it but I was just wondering... what is up with Japan and androgeny?

 

[Xelyna]

It's not a trend- people here just happen to look like that. Several times a day I see someone who I'm not sure is male or female, and it kinda scares me. Especially if I think they're hotO_o;;
I have actually met and talked to some people (J-Rockers included) who I am still not sure if they are male or female. If you look at Japanese art, though, I think Japan has always been this way...

 

[Orchid]

I think that the source of androgyny in j-rock and visual kei came from primally two things:

1. The glam rock/hair metal scene explosion in the 1980s
2. Traditional Japanese plays where the male plays the female role, as the female was not allowed to participate in a theatre production in a major role or at all at the time

 

[Formless]

Mana certainly is not the first person to dress like this. I'm just curious to know why you thought so. Visual kei has been around well since the 80's, well before Mana was involved.

Personally, I think the whole androgeny of it is to actually set gender apart from the music. To "blur the gender line" so to speak.

 

[Eresjkigal]

and androgeny surely doesn't appear in the japanese music scene only, it's not like it's something typically japanese. it's not really a trend, just how people want to look.
oh well, it seems that for mainstream guys it's cool to be "metrosexual" nowadays and everyone must be bi etc.

 

[UAShenlong]

Then she would take that as a compliment.

 

[UAShenlong]

Mana certainly is not the first person to dress like this. I'm just curious to know why you thought so. Visual kei has been around well since the 80's, well before Mana was involved.

I know X-Japan sort of started V~Kei in a way but I say that because Mana did it best. I guess what I ment by "craze" was, Mana reinforcing it and making it even more popular. :?

 

[navate]

Mana certainly is not the first person to dress like this. I'm just curious to know why you thought so. Visual kei has been around well since the 80's, well before Mana was involved.

I know X-Japan sort of started V~Kei in a way but I say that because Mana did it best. I guess what I ment by "craze" was, Mana reinforcing it and making it even more popular. :?

X Japan was far more popular than Mana. Mana's name and image is very niche.

 

[Formless]

Mana certainly is not the first person to dress like this. I'm just curious to know why you thought so. Visual kei has been around well since the 80's, well before Mana was involved.

I know X-Japan sort of started V~Kei in a way but I say that because Mana did it best. I guess what I ment by "craze" was, Mana reinforcing it and making it even more popular. :?

I see no proof that Mana made it more popular at all. All he really did was coin the terms "EGL" and bring it to a more mainstream level. X-Japan isn't very.. VK to me. I see Luna Sea as one of the main VK founders because not only did many bands emulate their dressing style, they emulated their sound too.

 

[UAShenlong]

Mana certainly is not the first person to dress like this. I'm just curious to know why you thought so. Visual kei has been around well since the 80's, well before Mana was involved.

I know X-Japan sort of started V~Kei in a way but I say that because Mana did it best. I guess what I ment by "craze" was, Mana reinforcing it and making it even more popular. :?

I see no proof that Mana made it more popular at all. All he really did was coin the terms "EGL" and bring it to a more mainstream level. X-Japan isn't very.. VK to me. I see Luna Sea as one of the main VK founders because not only did many bands emulate their dressing style, they emulated their sound too.

"and bring it to a more mainstream level."

Thats what i've been meaning to say.

 

[sailorKa]

2. Traditional Japanese plays where the male plays the female role, as the female was not allowed to participate in a theatre production in a major role or at all at the time

Kabuki's Onnagatas! *happy-ness*

By themselves they are already quite androgynous. Add to it that they wear androgynous clothes+make-up and you get well, them.

Because of Traditional stuff like Kabuki and the influence of Glam music... It's fairly easy how they took that direction.
X japan coined the term "Visual" but they didn't certainly start the trend. Representing themsleves visually along with their music has been the concern of many musicians, way before X japan or Mana were born~

As Kazuo said, Luna Sea is a good example. To me, SADS, Kuroyume & Kiyoharu were influential in that sense too. (SADS the most)

--k

 

[Formless]

Mana certainly is not the first person to dress like this. I'm just curious to know why you thought so. Visual kei has been around well since the 80's, well before Mana was involved.

I know X-Japan sort of started V~Kei in a way but I say that because Mana did it best. I guess what I ment by "craze" was, Mana reinforcing it and making it even more popular. :?

I see no proof that Mana made it more popular at all. All he really did was coin the terms "EGL" and bring it to a more mainstream level. X-Japan isn't very.. VK to me. I see Luna Sea as one of the main VK founders because not only did many bands emulate their dressing style, they emulated their sound too.

"and bring it to a more mainstream level."

Thats what i've been meaning to say.

But just EGL though.. not VK at all. Like sailorKa said, Kuroyume helped bring it to mainstream along with X-Japan, Luna Sea and Buck-Tick.

 

[Peffkitten]

Androgyny cuts both ways...
There are those theatre troupes made entirely of women dressed as men, acting out love stories and wooing their mainly-female audience. Uhhh I can' t remember the name... I think it begins with T... I will look it up...
But different cultures have different standards of masculinity and feminity, it's all subjective.

 

[faith]

Onnagata aren't meant to be androgenous though! That's the weird thing....

While performing, they are suppose to be entirely female in gender, and off stage they should still be female.
However, most of them have wives and children. So they're not so much androgenous as heraphroditic, I suppose.

The same with Takarazuka male role performers.

I think a lot of what you see as androgeny is just a different culture's idea of what's male and what's female...

Although I did see one man in Omotesandou once, and I had to stand there and stare at him for a few minutes before I got that he was male...Like, he had the whole tank top and stretch jeans going and everything, and his hair was hiding his face >_<
Normally when men, even the uber-skinny Japanese men, wear stretchy pants I go "eeew," but he pulled it off well O_o...and that's when I started trying to look cool. Can't have a man out-womaning me...
(people at dance clubs also tend to be androgenous)

 

[Arison]

Oh, come on, people. You're all forgetting one important person who started it all!

Susumu Hirasawa!

 

[faith]

That man-woman