Quand les hommes se font passer pour des garçonnes : de l’agentivité du travestissement en moga dans le Japon de l’entre-deux-guerres

The growing interest for gender fluidity in social sciences, and especially in history and anthropology, interrogates the genealogy of gender categories. Therefore, any researcher faces a problem of vocabulary, insofar as certain categories come from recent concepts that do not align with the catego...

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Main Author: Camille Lenoble
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Genre, Sexualité et Société
Series:Genre, Sexualité et Société
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/gss/7453
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author Camille Lenoble
author_facet Camille Lenoble
author_sort Camille Lenoble
collection DOAJ
description The growing interest for gender fluidity in social sciences, and especially in history and anthropology, interrogates the genealogy of gender categories. Therefore, any researcher faces a problem of vocabulary, insofar as certain categories come from recent concepts that do not align with the categories of gender and sexual behavior of the past. However, I suggest here to study gender fluidity through the Japanese case and its category of “cross-dressing”. On the one hand, the widespread popularization of sexual concepts during the 1920s and 1930s had an influence on the constitution of new subjectivities. On the other hand, the emergence of the flapper in Japan certainly prompted the rise of a femininity that challenged the hierarchy between the sexes. But the flapper figure also inspired the constitution of new subjectivities among men who “recognized” themselves in her. With an unseemly attitude that was considered as “masculine”, the flapper probably constituted a new model of cross-dressing that resulted in the creation of a new “transvestite” identity, with a more pronounced agency and power of subversion than “traditional” femininity could offer to men who wanted to pass as women.
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spelling doaj.art-472f58a197ec41f0ab626eae8948166f2024-02-13T14:51:42ZfraGenre, Sexualité et SociétéGenre, Sexualité et Société2104-37362810.4000/gss.7453Quand les hommes se font passer pour des garçonnes : de l’agentivité du travestissement en moga dans le Japon de l’entre-deux-guerresCamille LenobleThe growing interest for gender fluidity in social sciences, and especially in history and anthropology, interrogates the genealogy of gender categories. Therefore, any researcher faces a problem of vocabulary, insofar as certain categories come from recent concepts that do not align with the categories of gender and sexual behavior of the past. However, I suggest here to study gender fluidity through the Japanese case and its category of “cross-dressing”. On the one hand, the widespread popularization of sexual concepts during the 1920s and 1930s had an influence on the constitution of new subjectivities. On the other hand, the emergence of the flapper in Japan certainly prompted the rise of a femininity that challenged the hierarchy between the sexes. But the flapper figure also inspired the constitution of new subjectivities among men who “recognized” themselves in her. With an unseemly attitude that was considered as “masculine”, the flapper probably constituted a new model of cross-dressing that resulted in the creation of a new “transvestite” identity, with a more pronounced agency and power of subversion than “traditional” femininity could offer to men who wanted to pass as women.https://journals.openedition.org/gss/7453prostitutionflappermediacross-dressingJapan
spellingShingle Camille Lenoble
Quand les hommes se font passer pour des garçonnes : de l’agentivité du travestissement en moga dans le Japon de l’entre-deux-guerres
Genre, Sexualité et Société
prostitution
flapper
media
cross-dressing
Japan
title Quand les hommes se font passer pour des garçonnes : de l’agentivité du travestissement en moga dans le Japon de l’entre-deux-guerres
title_full Quand les hommes se font passer pour des garçonnes : de l’agentivité du travestissement en moga dans le Japon de l’entre-deux-guerres
title_fullStr Quand les hommes se font passer pour des garçonnes : de l’agentivité du travestissement en moga dans le Japon de l’entre-deux-guerres
title_full_unstemmed Quand les hommes se font passer pour des garçonnes : de l’agentivité du travestissement en moga dans le Japon de l’entre-deux-guerres
title_short Quand les hommes se font passer pour des garçonnes : de l’agentivité du travestissement en moga dans le Japon de l’entre-deux-guerres
title_sort quand les hommes se font passer pour des garconnes de l agentivite du travestissement en moga dans le japon de l entre deux guerres
topic prostitution
flapper
media
cross-dressing
Japan
url https://journals.openedition.org/gss/7453
work_keys_str_mv AT camillelenoble quandleshommessefontpasserpourdesgarconnesdelagentivitedutravestissementenmogadanslejapondelentredeuxguerres