伪娘或男性气质的危机？

2010年，一名男选手穿了一件粉红色的裙子和高跟鞋，还与浓妆现身在“快乐男声”的阶段，这是唱对中国男性竞争的受欢迎的电视节目。歌唱比赛和评委很多观众都被他的外表欺骗了，我认为他是个女孩。然后，大约一个热议的变装，，易装癖者和阻力皇后脱离与此情况下（国际在线2010）。事实上，男性采用女性服饰，看起来女人味是不是在ACG文化领域屡见不鲜。 ACG代表动画，漫画和游戏，特别是指日本的动画，漫画和游戏。女性与美少年角色始终出现在日本女孩的漫画，他们会看起来非常相似，交叉连衣裙异性后女孩（鹤见2000年）。伪娘是一个日本词来描述这种类型的变装者。虽然伪娘的表现似乎没有任何区别拖皇后和异装癖，他们是三个不同的概念，有很多分歧。然而，在介质中使用伪娘这个词来指代一些概念，似乎相似，如淑女男孩和变性人。那么结果来与公众有关此类型的男生的误解和偏见。因此，本研究拟通过分析他们的男子气概来解决伪娘的那些误解和理解媒体如何影响他们的发展。In 2010, a male contestant wore a pink skirt and high heels, also with heavy makeup to show up on the stage of ‘Happy Boy’, which is a popular television show of singing competition for male in China. The judges of the singing contest and many audiences were cheated by his appearance and think he is a girl. Then a hot discussion about the cross-dressers, transvestites and drag queens is brought out with this case (CRI Online 2010). In fact, male adopts female dress and looks feminine is not uncommon in the realm of ACG culture. ACG stands for animation, comic and game, particularly refers to Japanese animation, comic and game. The feminine and beautiful boy characters have always appears in Japanese girls comics and they will look very similar to girls after cross- dress in opposite sex (Tsurumi 2000). Otokonoko is a Japanese term to describe this type of cross-dressers. Although the presentation of Otokonoko seems to have no differences to drag queens and transvestites, they are three different concepts and have many divergences. However, the media over used Otokonoko this term to refer some concepts that seem similar such as lady boy and transgender people. Then the result come with the public is the misunderstanding and preconception about this type of boys. Therefore, this research proposes to resolve those misconceptions of Otokonoko by analyzing their masculinities and understand how media affect their development. 

Who is Otokonoko?

Otokonoko (おとこのこ, In Kanji is 男の娘) is a term from ACG culture; the meaning of this term is ‘female-man’ or ‘false woman’. It actually refers to those boys who look extremely feminine and almost no diffident to girls or even be feminine than girls. This type of male images very first appears on girls’ manga. For satisficing the fantasies of the same sex romantic relationship from female readers; the male characters in girls’ manga was created with feminine appearance, for examples they look ectomorph, have long hair and big eyes (Shamoon 2008). 
To define and explain the term of Otokonoko, some ACG fans base on their experience to edit an unofficial document on the Internet and they named the document as ‘The White Paper of Otokonoko’. In that paper, Otokonoko was defined as those people with male biological sex but born with feminine appearance, and they can show the femininity with or without make up; although born with feminine outlook, they still has male mind and also can show their masculinity. According to this description, those boys who have strong body and masculine appearance cannot be defined as Otokonoko. ‘Wanna to be a pretty girl!’ is the first non-academic book in Chinese which specifically about Otokonoko and the teaching of being Otokonoko. In that book, Otokonoko refers to a new finding image for men when they are dressing as women, but it does not mean every man can be an Otokonoko through cross-dressing. There are some physical and psychological requirements to standardize Otokonoko. From physically, soft and non-muscular facial contour as well as body figure is necessary to them, so they will through make up, slim down body to achieve visual femininity. From psychological, dress as a female does not mean they hate their male identity. In contrast, they love their natural identity and appearance, because only they can verify the identity both man and woman, so they think they are ‘the omnipotence’ (SanYe 2008). For getting more detail information, the requirements for the members in Alice Cos Group can be used for references. Alice Cos Group is the most popular and historical Otokonoko and cosplay group in Chinese ACG realm; they require the height range of their members must between 162cm to 175cm, and the weight range should between 55kg to 70kg. Additionally, they need to have the feminine features such as small shoulder and small face. For having more beautiful outlook, they will also spend money and time in skincare. In other words, Otokonoko can be understood as the extreme example of metrosexuality that is a term created by Mark Simpsonand it refers to the men and his masculinity will not reject the femininity (Hall 2014).The idea of Otokonoko aims to express a kind of aesthetics in male-female body; it is the same beauty exists in a person whatever it displays with male or female identity. Therefore, transgender people and hermaphroditesare not included in the types of Otokonoko. Moreover, men dress in female clothing but looks not feminine enough and the cross-dressing for comedy are also not themanifestationof Otokonoko, because that is breaking the aesthetics in Otokonoko culture.
Beauty is the advantage of Otokonoko when they practice in cosplay, which means costume play, but since 1970s in Asia it especially refers to wearing costume to represent an ACG character (Okabe 2012). Otokonoko can freely switch their identity between men and women, so they can perfectly represent and display the image of their favorite male and female ACG characters. Because of this androgynous charm, they are popular in some of ACG fans. Basically they live and social with male identity, but sometimes they wear clothing of opposite sex and use female identity to take part in social activities, for example, going to ACG conventions and cosplay. Their demeanors and representations can be understood as a form of performance arts. In traditional Chinese and Japanese drama, female characters are almost played by male actors and those of them are called Dan roles or female impersonators (Zhou 2012). The film ‘Farewell To My Concubine’ is a good example to demonstrate the concept of cross-dressing in art. Nevertheless, what Otokonoko do is not totally has the same meanings with cross-dressing in arts. To those female impersonators, they cross-dress to please audiences for seeking the values of their existence (Zhou 2012). Compare to them, what Otokonoko did is tending to please them and display their values of existence. Animations, comics and games are related to the realm of fantastic, but not a part of reality (Tsurumi 2000). Through dressing in opposite sex and cosplay, not only the fantasy of their favorite ACG female characters will be satisfied, but also the psychology of autogynephilia. Otokonoko is the result of the impact between traditional culture and contemporary culture. 

Otokonoko and Cross-dressing

Simply look at Otokonoko; their demeanors are no differences to transvestites, drag queens and transgender, but actually there are some significant divergences between the presentation as well as phycology of Otokonoko and those three concepts of cross-dressing. The drag queen is an idea of performance for pleasing audiences (Richardson 2010). However, as the discussion in last paragraph that the cross-dressing of Otokonoko is not totally for pleasing audiences. Richard Ekins and David King (1995) think that all the demeanors as long as involved in changing gender, such as transvestites, transsexuals and drag queen are included in the term ‘transgender’. That means the people who aim to alternate their gender are the gender bender. In deed, under this description, Otokonoko should be classified as a gender bender and what they did is about transgender. To be more specific, Richard Ekins (1995) use a term ‘male femaling’ to describe the men experience of being women, and they think that male femaling will practice in three aspects. First, the body femaling which refers to change sex because of the desire of female sex and female body; male femaling is focus on biologically in this idea. To Otokonoko, they are satisfied with their sex and they have no reasons to abandon their male sex, so what Otokonoko did is not relevant to body femaling. Second, the erotic femaling that is about gaining pleasure and sexual excitement through self-femaling. For example, the transvestites will have exciting via cross-dressing. Obviously, Otokonoko dress as a female is not for the physical pleasure. In fact, what they gain in cross-dressing is happiness, but not sexual excitement. Therefore, the cross-dressing by Otokonoko cannot be defined as erotic femaling. Forasmuch, can the behaviors of Otokonoko be explained in the last aspect of male femaling practice? The third one is gender femaling and it refers to the male-femalers adopt the consciousness of female, such as female behaviors and emotions. That gender femaling seems is the most appropriate definition to the demeanors of Otokonoko. In the five forms model of gender variance, it details five types of the experience in being opposite gender, and there are (1) hermaphroditic, (2) two-spirit tradition, (3) cross-gender roles traditions, (4) woman/boy-marriage and (5) cross-gendered rituals (Bolin 1996). The first type refers to the unclear sex of an individual in biologically. The second type refers to the adoption of opposite gender in culturally. For example, dressing as the other gender and imitate their behaviors. The third and the last types are quite similar. Both of them are indicating the demeanors that associate with other gender, and difference between them is depending on the consideration of transgender person’s situation. The fourth type woman/boy-marriage is involved in changing the gender role system. For instance, woman takes a husband or father role in family and is regarded as a man. To sum up, what Otokonoko did seem more closed to the description of two-spirit tradition.
However, the above definitions and explanations of male femaling behaviors are only focusing on the desire of opposite gender, sexuality and the advantages when being women. None of them can show the complete understanding of Otokonoko and their demeanors. In the definition of Otokonoko, it can be seen that their male femaling experience base on the starting points of subculture, aesthetics and the power relation in the same gender, and it is a new concept to break through the gender binary. There are many diverse reasons affect male to cross-dress and it is not suitable to say that cross-dressing is only for experiencing women (Bolich 2006). Therefore, it is inappropriate to simply define Otokonoko as a drag queen or relate them to transvestite. Otokonoko is a new concept and example of cross-dressing, and they have special cultural meaning and values. Thus, Otokonoko this term is unique and cannot be instead.

What is masculinity?

Cross-dressing is a kind of presentations to subvert the conventions of gender and sex (Butler 1990). But I think it has two starting points to the cross-dressers. Some people might gain the authorities of heterosexuality to present homosexuality through cross-dressing and transgender. Some people might emphasize the specification and cultural cognition of opposite sex via cross-dressing, just like Otokonoko. It can be explained that the aim behind their action is to develop masculinities in dominating women. When a boy fulfills the development and understanding of their masculinity, they will think about the differences between men and women (Davis 2010). Those understanding of gender and sex differences will remind boys to avoid being femininity but should be masculine in mental and physical. The masculine mental and body will help to develop the male identity in both the inner and outer of a boy (Easthope 1990). Look into Otokonoko; although they highlighted their male mind, they are still deficient in men body and it implies that they arenot completely men even though they have penis. Therefore, they try to set up an omnipotent image and emphasize the flexibility of gender to develop their masculinity. 

Conclusion总结

Otokonoko is a derivative of ACG culture and this term can be related to the image of cross-dressers. However, the ideology of Otokonoko is not equal to the transgender people, drag queens and transvestites. The presentation of Otokonoko is more relate to the concept of aesthetics and the message they want to express is more likely about the construction of masculinity in complicated way.Otokonoko is an appropriate exemplification to prove the diversification of men’s masculinity. They not only have some feminine characteristics, but they also have integrated feminine outlook and behaviors. Despite this, it cannot to say that they are lack of hegemonic masculinities or totally belong to the deviant of traditional men’s masculinities. Therefore, the study about Otokonoko culture and their masculinities are valuable when this culture is being hot and popular in Asia.  

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