Representing masculinities in Japanese film and television

<p>This thesis by publication examines film and television representations of masculinity that present some form of challenge to established gender roles and relations. The works selected for analysis reject the notion of a single, natural or inevitable model of masculinity through the depiction of diverse forms of masculinity, and often privilege versions of non-normative masculinity. However the process of forging masculine subjectivity is often portrayed as filled with tension and contradiction, which in some cases limits the challenge the representations can make to conventional gender configurations. Moreover, even the alternative versions of masculinity offered by the works may still uphold relations of inequality and opposition, or constitute new, unachievable models of masculinity.</p> <p>Japanese film and television representations of boys and young men have been little analysed. This study seeks to expand and refine academic understandings of the ways in which fiction contributes to the construction of viewers’ gendered subjectivities by offering viewers models of behaviour and privileging some forms of masculinity over others. Such analysis can thus help to illuminate how ideologies of gender are preserved or challenged in fiction.</p> <p>Further, through the examination of film and television representations of masculinity with relation to specific socio-historical circumstances, this research also builds upon current knowledge on the changing nature of masculinities in Japan. Informed by Raewyn (R.W.) Connell’s definition of masculinity as a socially constructed process of configuring gender practice (2000, 28-29), my analysis focuses on representations of male protagonists as gendered not only through social structures but also individual practice. My research also analyses representations of the relationships between masculine subjectivities and their social worlds, and the concept of hegemonic masculinity is employed – with specific reference to the Japanese context – to explore how fictional representations articulate the configuration of gender within structures of social relations (Connell 2000, 23-29; 2005, 71-75). The integration of Japanese conceptions of subjectivity into my analysis ensures a dialogic methodological approach that explores how gendered subjectivities are constructed and expressed through relationships with others and the social context.</p>