Update on Research Project

So, my project has developed from the very broad "I want to learn more about LGBTQ people in Japanese theater" to "I want to build off of ideas from male actors who played female roles when the samurai were in power to modern drag queens in Japan and the role of masculinity as it's seen in Japanese culture." That's a lot of ways to say that I'm curious about what makes a person in Japan "masculine" rather than "feminine," and how Japanese people react to male-identifying actors who decide to perform in female roles. There's a book that I found on Google Scholar called "Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan: Dislocating the Salaryman Doxa" by James E Robertson and Nobue Suzuki that basically takes my question and tries to answer it, while also bringing up other important questions. One of the takeaways I noticed while abroad was that the Western view of "man" is pretty different from the Japanese view of what makes a person male, and I was intrigued. (This is one of the reasons I'm frustrated that I won't be here to take the gender and sexuality reading class next semester.) Jennifer Robertson (I'm not sure if she's related to James or not) also wrote on gender roles in Japan in her book "Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan," so I'm currently working my way through both books. I also have access to a few sources from when I took Japanese history here, and when I get the chance to go home and grab them, I'll start looking through those as well. They'll have more information on the views of less-contemporary Japan, which can help to explain how the current culture has developed.