Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
You raise a great point here.
The definitions of these terms (masculine and feminine) come not only from within a culture (in this case, Japan) but also through the glasses WE wear from the culture we are from.
Anyone that tells you they can examine another culture without bias is not only pulling your leg, but is pulling his own leg.
So I can understand how, from a "typical" American male perspective, Japanese men seem more "feminine" in some ways. They tend to have smaller physiques, and the men (and boys) that appear in the media are very fashion and hair style-conscious (like that isn't true in other places).
(That being said there are plenty of "tough guy" types who are legitimately intimidating...but that is another post...)
We see more cross-dressing and male-to-female transgenders in the media in Japan than the US, where it really doesn't raise an eyebrow in Japan. So, again, I understand the perspective of an American male looking at Japan (and Japanese media) and seeing males, in some ways, as being more feminine (or more correctly, more feminine males by ratio than in the US).
That being said, it is interesting being in Japan and watching a TV show about Thai media, and how the numbers of cross-dressers and transgenders is raised about 1000% in Thai media. As an American it seemed like a lot to me in Japan, but to Japanese it seems like a lot in Thailand.
Again, it is all about the cultural glasses you are wearing when looking at another culture.
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Yes yes this. One of my specialist subjects is cross-cultural psychology; you can get an AWFUL lot of cultural bias even when you're being very careful. Actually, one of my pieces of coursework was about images of masculinity in Japan. It's changing now, I think, but certainly prior to the millennium there was quite a different yard-stick for measuring masculinity; less focussed on physical characteristics and sexuality and much more on things like role within the family/work ethic/inter-personal relations.