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Why is cross dressing and gender bender so mainstream?

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Prideless:
I dont know if I used the right word when I said mainstream but ive seen anime and manga often enough to where cross dressing males and gender bender stuff happens quite often.

I would like to know if this is an actual cultural thing in Japan where it is positively received more so than other countries?

If so Id like to know the origin or how did Japan become influenced so much to where society(if true) males in it actually like to cross dress and enjoy gender bender stuff.

I dont have anything to much against it, but its hard for me to comprehend how is it funny or interesting when a guy transforms to a girl or when guys love to wear girls clothing.

forgive me ignorance and please enlighten me. i am quite curious. i am not interested in starting a debate.

thanks for reading.

datora:
.
Anime/manga is a pretty small subset of Japanese culture.  Gender-bending & crossdressing within that sub-culture shows up regularly, most often for "crazy" comedic relief and such (and, largely because it is so "taboo"), but is still a fairly minor micro-culture within that sub-culture.  So, characterizing it as "mainstream" or somehow prevalent in Japanese culture at large is stretching it quite a bit.  Probably no more so than in most modern cultures.

Overall, your comments are probably more reflective of you seeing Japan through anime glasses.  It would be fairly similar to someone from another country looking at San Francisco gay culture, especially a few gay pride parades, and concluding that all of America is like that.


As a side note: girls dressing up as guys is pretty hot.   :P ;D  Your viewpoint of crossdressing and gender-bending as being only guys masquerading as girls is a bit of a tell.  ;)

And BTW -- this probably is a topic that should be in the Lounge.

xfreidax:
If you look at Japan's Visual Kei subculture, you can see the real life version of this particular pop-culture phenomenon. Granted it's not strictly cross dressing but they definitely redefine gender norms with androgynous looks.

What does this say about Japanese acceptance of cross dressing? I dunno, maybe not much. But aspects of this practice is seen in their popular culture. If you look even deeper, at their traditional theater arts, it was normal for men to play female roles. Like in Kabuki for example. I believe the art is still practiced this way today, men performing as females. This same practice and tradition is also seen in certain forms of Chinese theater/opera. So it has deep roots in East Asian culture.

logos:

--- Quote from: xfreidax on April 05, 2012, 05:15:17 AM ---If you look even deeper, at their traditional theater arts, it was normal for men to play female roles. Like in Kabuki for example. I believe the art is still practiced this way today, men performing as females. This same practice and tradition is also seen in certain forms of Chinese theater/opera. So it has deep roots in East Asian culture.

--- End quote ---
That's no different than in english culture...and crossdressing is still "frowned upon" by society

As for genderbender/crossdressing in anime, I don't understand why it's used so often as a comedic element, but it's not like its something exclusive to japanese anime, go turn on the TV I doubt it matters where you live, find a sitcom and I'm sure at least a few of the episodes in that series have an element of crossdressing.

SeventyX7:
Crossdressing as a comedic element is common in the west as well.  Britain was all about it a couple decades ago (I don't think they are so-much now).

Crossdressing does seem much more sexualized in the anime/manga culture than anywhere else irl I've ever seen, though.

Prunus Girl, Maria Holic, Happiness!, Baka to Test...

Shit, there's a magazine dedicated to sexualization of traps (Waai) and anthology comics about it too.

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