This book is concerned with the construction of gender identities and the language used by Japanese sexual minorities such as bisexuals, lesbians, gays, and transgendered and transsexual people. It contains extensive empirical research investigating power, identity, and desire among sexual minorities by analysing their language in various contexts, including print media, interviews, and TV shows. It particularly puts weight on onē kotoba, which has recently become a well-known category of language, used by effeminate gay men. The book contains seven chapters, an introductory chapter and six numbered chapters, notes, a bibliography, and an index. Japanese data are transliterated into a phonological alphabet and presented in their English translations. The book is accessible to those who are not familiar with Japanese.
The introduction deals initially with the problematization of earlier studies on Japanese language and gender, which claim two separate linguistic genres for women and men, based on an essentialist notion of gender. It also emphasizes the lack of research in the area of Japanese language and sexuality. The chapter discusses the situation of homosexuals and transgendered people in Japan and introduces Japanese terms referring to sexual minorities. From Ch. 1 onwards, each chapter focuses on a different empirical study. Ch. 1 investigates advice columns in commercial magazines for lesbians and bisexuals and for gay men, providing an idea of what Japanese lesbian and gay communities are like and the social and sexual issues surrounding them. Ch. 2 presents linguistic analyses of lesbian speech in lesbian bars in Tokyo. It explores gender categorisation and references in the speech, which reflect the identity constructions of lesbians at the bars. This chapter further examines linguistic features such as pronouns and sentence-final particles, highlighting the participants’ extensive use of “masculine” forms.
Chs. 3 to 6 deal with gay men's speech in a range of contexts. Chapter 3 traces effeminate gay men's speech by looking at speech by danshō (male prostitutes) in the late 1940s. The analysis demonstrates how they constructed their gender identities through linguistic features such as first-person pronouns and sentence-final particles. Parallels can be drawn here with aspects of onē kotoba discussed in the subsequent chapters. Ch. 4 introduces onē kotoba by examining an “imagined” onē kotoba in a script written by a gay writer and demonstrates its linguistic features imitating stereotypical women's speech. Ch. 5 explores “real” onē kotoba used by TV celebrities and activists, discussing five claims made by Abe's gay consultants, including the views that onē kotoba is (i) a result of bar culture, (ii) evaluated negatively among gay men, and (iii) an imitation of so-called women's speech. Ch. 6 concludes the book with an investigation of gay men's reasons for using onē kotoba through interviews with them. It reveals that these reasons involve their sexual identities, establishment of solidarity in gay communities, and other personal matters.
As the field of Japanese language and sexuality has not yet been extensively researched, this book will contribute by presenting a variety of language data of sexual minorities with discussions of the relationships between their identity, power, and language.
