Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Mainstream Femulating in Japan

Memedanshi-2012-09-05

Since rising from defeat in World War II, Japan has been a leading source of innovations that have become mainstream throughout the world.

The list of Japanese innovations is long and I will not enumerate them here, but you can view this slideshow to see what I mean. (Yes - I was surprised that the Japanese invented the felt tipped pen, too.)

So which Japanese innovation is going to go mainstream next?

According to a video report from Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), male-to-female crossdressing is exploding in Japan and "is becoming more mainstream in a society that once had rigid gender lines."

I was aware of Japanese femulation, blogged about it here in the past, but I had no idea it was becoming "more mainstream." 

According to the ABC report, "Toshinaga Hijikata has published a series of books offering men advice about cross-dressing. Sales have now passed 130,000 copies. He says Japan is slowly learning that not all men want to be macho."

I researched Toshinaga Hijikata and found the following in an article on The Asahi Shimbun website:

"'It started with (manga and anime). I think it lowered the threshold for wearing women's clothing by attracting attention on the Internet,' says Toshinaga Hijikata, editor in chief at WAaI!, a magazine published by Ichijinsha that specializes in covering otokonoko.

"In 2007, Ichijinsha published Onnanoko ni Naritai! (I want to be a girl!), a book with information on how to dress like a woman. Subsequent books have made it into a three-volume series that has sold more than 110,000 copies.

"Hijikata says that most people who like the 'cute boys' that appear in manga and video games are mainly men, many of whom then try to be like these otokonoko.

"'They simply want to be part of the ideal female community they perceive,' says Hijikata.

"Typical fantasies are the images of young girls playing in a field of flowers or whispering secrets in the corner of a classroom, he says. The otokonoko seek out to be part of the group and the beautiful imagery they project, Hijikata says.

"'Perhaps cross-dressing is their ticket to a women-only world,' he says."

I looked for Onnanoko ni Naritai! and found 44 pages of the book on Photobucket. I also found three volumes of Hijikata's magazine, WAaI! (Boys in Skirts), online here: Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3

Gyrlgling, I found femulating Japanese males everywhere! One link led to another with still more Japanese femulators!

My head was overloaded with all this information and I was convinced that crossdressing was indeed going mainstream in Japan.

As they say at Sony, "What's good for Japan is good for the States."

Will crossdressing become more mainstream in the USA, too?

(Thank you, sissyslave4domme, for the heads-up about the ABC story.)

7 comments:

  1. Stana, interesting info from Japan. They had cross dressing TV shows in the past but have not seen any recently.
    You posted a link in May for "Fools Paradise" on Fire Island. They held their Black & White theme party on 9/1. They have just posted images on their page and photobucket account.t
    There are fabulous Femulations on the various pages.
    I hope to see more Womanless Pagent images in the future.

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  2. Stana,

    You and I are both over 6' tall. When it comes to passing or even just blending you just cannot hide the height.

    Most Japanese men do not face this issue. I have been to Japan and do not think I ever encountered anyone my size. I do distinctly recall walking with an American friend who understood Japanese. As we were passed by two Japanese girls walking in the other direction the girls were talking among themselves and in referring to me used the Japanese word for 'monster'.

    Most Asian men have the height, weight and body structure to pass better than us here in the States.

    Pat

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  3. It's not how tall you are, it's how you carry it. I have a female cousin who is 6' 4" She is the most beautiful and desirable woman you ever saw in your life.

    She was an ice skater in the European version of Ice Capades, traveled all over the world, and dated and had more offers of marriage from millionaires and household name movie stars and musicians than she can probably remember. And that was back in the 70's when few women were that tall. These days there are 6' and over women all over the place.

    And yes, Japanese T-Girls have it made. I have yet to see one that ISN'T completely passable.

    In fact, in my next life I don't even ask to come back as a woman - I'd be just as happy as a tiny little Japanese boy.

    I've never met a T-Girl who wasn't obsessed about some part of them that they felt blew their passing - likewise I have never met a woman, no matter how beautiful who hadn't found one thing about herself that she singled out and thought made her ugly.

    Many thing are more in our head, than in anyone else's eyes - height I think is one of them.

    Calpernia Addams once said that when she used to go out to clubs before all her operations were complete, she'd go alone. 'Cause if there's just one chick with some height on her, guys just think "Whew...she's a tall drink of water." But then if there's 2 tall ladies, more eyes and attention gets drawn to them and guys get to talking like "Damn...those girls are as tall as you Jimbo." And all hope is lost if you go in with 3. She said you might as well wear a neon sign that blinks "MAN MAN MAN" and your old testicles as earrings.

    Tall girls can pass, but you have to stop focusing just on your height, and pay attention to other behaviors that are just if not more important.

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  4. I think we are only a few years behind them. I have noticed a mainstream acceptance of trans people. And when I go out nowadays, out myself to sales associates they don't even blink a eye. So yes we are ripe for the picking I sense a sea change.

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  5. Your femulating picture of the day looks like it is just a photoshopped girl and guy...just my opinion but doesn't look real.

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  6. I'm very happy for the Chinese lady-men, they can easily be a man and a woman if they so choose! I fervently hope the mtf cross dressing notion comes to the USA real soon!

    Thanks, Stana.

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  7. Kandi --- The original image was too small to fill The Femulated spot, so I used Photoshop to enlarge it. Details were lost in the enlargement, so I used Photoshop again to sharpen the image, but there was only so much I could do (you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear). I considered not using the image, but after all the work I invested in it, I decided to use it anyway.

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