Lecture Series ‘Gender and Sexuality in East Asia’ (2/5)
Around 2010, cute male characters, drawn visually identical to bishōjo (beautiful girl) characters, moved beyond erotic computer games (erogē) and into cosplay and cute cross-dress fashion subculture, on campuses and online. By the middle of the 2010s, M2F cute and girlish boys were also a tangible theme in advertising and major media production. The well-trained bodies and willing faces of young girls lining screens and interfaces in the city, became infiltrated by male talents and pop idols in cute cross-dress. This paper explores the pick-up and adaptation of cute as a male visual aesthetic in subcultural practices and fashion and considers its complex play with transformation and masculine identity. Details

Speaker:
Sharon Kinsella, The University of Manchester