The more I study feminine shifts in Korean men’s body ideals and fashions of the past decade or so for my MA thesis, the more I’m forced to acknowledge their many Japanese origins beyond the narrow Korean ones that I originally identified. Still, sometimes the differences in culture are just too great for some Japanese trends to ever catch on here, not least because – as Tom Coyner also points out – the socialization process involved in Korea’s mandatory military service for men will always be a strong mitigating factor against them from ever becoming too girly.
If, that is, there’s even a trend to be followed. While interesting, the following article most reminded me of the minor revelation I had ten years ago, which was that sometimes it can be the very act of reporting on trends itself which is what actually creates them, perhaps particularly with the case of the New Zealand Herald that I was reading at the time, which can still make the closest claim (albeit still not quite) to being New Zealand’s only national paper in a population of only four million, and which was thereby very influential in what was still largely a pre-internet age. At least, I think that creating rather than reporting on a trend was the hope of the author and designers featured in this article, although in reality common sense, basic human physiology and innate sexual drives will surely ensure that anorexic men who like being dominated by their larger girlfriends have never been and will never be anything but a fringe minority of any society. Yes, even in Japan too.
In Japan, it’s the men who want to be skinny and cute
By Kaori Shoji, International Herald Tribune
There was a time when slimness was the absolute prerequisite for urban Japanese women, when designers like Shinichiro Arakawa and Yohji Yamamoto professed a flat refusal to make clothes for women who weren’t fragile and thin, whose chests and hips were barely discernible through the fabric.
That aesthetic went out when the health and exercise boom came in about seven years ago – the new Japanese woman, according to the fashion critic Ikuko Hirayama, is: “strong, robust, bursting with energy. She takes care of her body but is not obsessed with being thin. She’s proud of her biceps and also proud of her sexuality.” Accordingly, the most popular relaxation sport for single working women nowadays is “boxercising,” or the combination of boxing moves plus aerobics, which is said to increase adrenaline flow by 80 percent and is an ideal way to blow off aggression and stress.
In stark contrast, it’s the men who want to be slender, vulnerable and protected. Young males between the ages of 18 and 30 make up the slimmest segment of the population and the ideal fashion weight as decreed by the apparel industry is 57 kilograms, or about 125 pounds, for a height of 175 centimeters, or 5 feet 8 inches. Many men try to adhere to that figure and some claim they want to be even skinnier.
It was when reading that highlighted part that I first started having misgivings about the article, as I thought that it was claiming that Japanese men that age are lighter than women: ludicrous of course, but then that at least would be in the spirit of it. Otherwise, to point out that they are the lightest group amongst Japanese males as a whole would be as profound and informative as, say, also informing readers that 18-30 year-olds would be the group most likely to be born between 1978 and 1990. So…either the author is padding (no pun intended), is stupid perhaps a little overzealous in getting her (his?) point across, or thinks that readers won’t notice or care about either. Not exactly a good sign.
Twenty-five-year-old Junichi Shirakawa, who works at the denim boutique 45 RPM, said that his goal is to get his weight down from 57 to 55 kilograms, although his height is 182 centimeters. “Being really skinny is essential, not just for fashion and work purposes but also because girls seem to go for thin guys,” he said.
Both Shirakawa and his girlfriend like the fact that she weighs more than he does, and is the leader of the couple. “She’s a lot stronger than I am, can lift heavy things and go drinking until dawn. I admire that about her, and feel protected when I’m around her,” he said. Older than he by five years, it was Shirakawa’s girlfriend who made the approach, started the dating process and decided what course their relationship would take.
“Frankly, I think women should be in the driver’s seat. Society and relationships work better that way,” he said. Shirakawa likes to wear his girlfriend’s clothes and often shows up for work wearing her blouse and jeans, to the general approval of his co-workers.
Hirayama said: “For young men, wearing women’s clothes has almost become a status symbol – a confirmation of being slim and pretty and, therefore, desirable. Young women, on the other hand, are less interested now in looking beautiful for the benefit of young men. They dress up for themselves, for their own satisfaction.”
Needless to say, a quick internet search of fashion critic “Ikuko Hirayama” reveals nothing but this article or expressions of sheer incredulity at the notion of a man wearing women’s clothes to work
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