Pop Culture Tuesdays V

Sexuality and gender is such a taken for granted fact of life that when something is brought up that reveals just how much we take it for granted, and we are forced to think about it, it is one of the most uncomfortable experiences a person can go through.

Yet it is these disturbing 'exceptions' that also reveal the fact that there is nothing 'natural' about gender and sexuality.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that gender is best thought of as a continuum, with masculine and feminine on opposite sides of this spectrum, but they don't necessarily exist as either-or options. An individual will likely fall closer to one pole than another, but because it is a continuum there is nothing to prevent a person from moving back and forth (as a likely-inflammatory side note, I think sexuality works the same way; ie gay/straight).

The real fun is not to be found on the poles of the spectrum, but it's in the middle where things get interesting. In the case of the gender spectrum, the middle is that fun, wild-west frontier known as androgyny.

For reasons that I won't even being to speculate on, Japanese society seems to be a society much more comfortable with the whole androgyny thing.

Surely, you want visual examples, of course! It wouldn't be a Tuesday post without some eye-candy!(?)

OK. Bonus internet points to those who correctly guess the genders of the people in the following pictures (For the sake of simplicity, you only get to choose male/female, in reality everyone in the pictures would not be so easily labeled male or female, and would better fit into the magical category of Androgynous.).


Who's male? Female?


A little more difficult...


What's hiding under the dress?


A freebie...but in my opinion, the best example of androgyny.


Think carefully on this one.



So, you surely want answers.

They're all male. Or rather, all would be categorized as male by sex. As for gender, that's a whole different (potentially confusing, in more ways than one) issue.

Where you a little attracted? Just a little? Don't lie, yes you were.

It's OK, don't fight it, androgyny is hot.

Topics Found on JET Forums

5) Questions of the feasibility of bringing over in-line skates and skating to work.

4) The usefulness of the Kindle.

3) Best places to paraglide in Japan.

2) Questions on becoming a JET with Aspergers.

1) Wondering whether “Life drawings (books and sketches)” are forbidden.

If these people are so on top of things that their only concern is where to paraglide, whether to bring in-line skates (and as a minor digression; how the fuck can you plan on skating to school when you know neither a) where you will be living and b) where you will be working), or whether they will have customs problems by bringing over “Life drawings”, then more power to them.

I’d be willing to bet that this is a classic case of cart-before-horse.

And “Life drawing” guy: Seriously? Seriously?!? Get a less creepy, less Davinci, and more social pastime.

Pop Culture Tuesdays IV

Giant, glassy eyes?

Check.

Super high pitched voices?

Mmmhmm.

Uncomfortably sexual outfits?

Yup!

It must be a Japanese anime!



I've even included the translated version of this anime's opening credits so you can appreciate the always popular messages of 'Gender stereotypes are cool!' and 'Working hard and being obedient is the best!'

Whoa! Let's Slow Down A Little

Omiyage. Visas. Contacting co-workers and predecessors.

This going-to-Japan thing is suddenly becoming very concrete and real. There is no panic like the 'Oh shit, this is moving from very abstract to very concrete' panic.

The reality of it suddenly hit me when I was contacted by my predecessor this week. While I'm still slightly disappointed by my Okinawa placement, I've found out that I'll be in the capital city of Naha, which makes things much more tolerable (A real city! With people! And things to do!). Just as exciting, I'll be teaching at (allegedly) the best/most competitive high school in Okinawa. I was also contacted by the person I'll be working with. She's Canadian. But that's OK, no one's perfect.

And on a somewhat related note, omiyage is horseshit. I'm not really a huge fan of condensing a city, much less a country, into a trivial gift. It combines the fun of buying a gift for someone you don't know, with a price limit too low to get anything worthwhile, along with the added excitement of the fear of breaking some cultural taboo!

For those of you unfamiliar with the rules of omiyage I'll be doing a post on what I believe to be the critical rules at a later date.

Pop Culture Tuesdays III

Part of my love of Pop culture is its ability to take another culture or element from High culture and use this element for its own purposes or adjust it to 'the way it should be'. This element goes through several layers of filtering/translating and by the end of the process the meaning of the element in the new culture may be totally different from its meaning in the original culture.

Yet it is not just elements of a culture that can become filtered, it can be an entire culture.

"Kill Bill" is one of my favorite movies. Partly because it's intensely watchable, but also because it is truly a case study in Pop Culture. I'm still discovering the references found throughout the movie, from the cinematography, to the lines, to the music. And in a step in Pop Culture evolution that really turns me on, Lady Gaga's music video "Telephone" references "Kill Bill" on several occasions, bringing the cycle full circle and putting "Kill Bill" in the same category of the films it referenced. God that's sexy.

Anyway "Kill Bill" also, I believe, is/was critical in subtly bringing Japanese culture into mainstream American culture. The Japanese culture in the film has been filtered and fitted as the purposes of Pop Culture required and the result was not really Japanese culture represented, but Quentin Tarentino's version of Japanese culture. It resembles the original, but it is also something completely unique. It is rooted in Japanese culture, but stylistically very Quentin Tarentino, and this melting pot to create something original-but-not is distinctly Pop Culture.

And for that, "Kill Bill", its interpretation of Japanese culture, and its role in propagating Japanese culture without the public really realizing it (aka propagating Japanese "soft power" for all you PoliSci/Sociology scholars out there), earns a spot in Pop Culture Tuesdays:




And this entrance is probably one of the best in movie history:



Seriously. Pure Sex.