Recently, I attended Colossalcon 15 in Sandusky, Ohio, and picked up an "Anime Starter Kit" grab bag for 35-some dollars. Included inside was a copy of "Here is Green Wood." It looked good, an early '90s classic anime which seemed to be fairly popular with a quick Google search. I thought it would be fine and popped it in. Boy, was I wrong. When the character, Shun, was first introduced, I was thrilled that a trans woman character was introduced! My smile quickly faded to a look of horror when a scene was shown with Shun in the restroom followed by an explanation that he was merely pretending to be a woman to haze new students at the boarding school. I immediately ejected the transphobic trash from my Xbox One and labeled it as such with a sticky note. After some contemplation and unwinding with Jacksepticeye YouTube videos, I recalled seeing something about the strange sexuality and identity mentalities that arise in Japan and decided to investigate.
The concept of being transgender differs from how it has developed in the Western world. That isn't to say that transgender individuals do not exist around the world the same way, but rather how their culture views it and shows it in their media in different ways. The character Shun is not the only confusing character for Western trans viewers of Anime — the surprisingly popular character Grell from "Black Butler" always throws me for a loop. Around 1603 to 1868 women were banned from kabuki theater performances, a classical dance-drama performance type that was known for elaborate makeup, which prompted men to fill the women's roles. In English, a fitting word for kabuki would be "bizarre." The men maintained this lifestyle and appearance inside and outside the theater. This can be compared to Western drag queens today. However, the Japanese took it one step further and the men were socialized as women.
The Japanese language makes things a little problematic as well — like many other languages around the world it is a gendered language. However, unlike Spanish which is a "romance" language, the actual words of men and women are changed. If you are a women, your language is spoken differently than a man. From what I have learned of Spanish culture, I can only imagine the issues this could cause for transgender people.
It is an extremely common theme in anime and manga culture for people to "disguise" themselves as a different gender. The most popular that comes to mind is "Ouran High School Host Club." I have not watched it personally, but my understanding is that a female student disguises herself as a man to enter an all-boys school. There's something unsettling about that to a Western consumer.
It is important to note that the actual transgender community in Japan is also behind the times. Most still use the now shunned and outdated terms MTF and FTM to describe themselves. Personally, I have no issues with it; however, I explored my identity at the tail end of the era of these terms (somewhere during the mid to current 2000s when at least half of the majority still used them).
Though the internet offers little information to pick from and sort through to discover more sources of the transphobia which is rampant through many different forms of Japanese culture and media, it is my hope that the transgender culture is doing well on the other side of the world.
