From dansō to genderless: mediating queer styles and androgynous bodies in Japan

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the mediation of androgynous bodies and styles in contemporary Japan by mapping the relationship between dansō (female-to-male crossdressing) and genderless (jendāresu). Dansō refers to gender-crossing practices usually by individuals who are assigned female at birth, whereas genderless is a mode of fashion emerging in 2010 which theoretically denotes styles that do not distinguish between genders. Drawing on media coverage of dansō individuals and genderless joshi (girls) in the 2010s, supplemented by ethnographic research conducted in a Tokyo dansō cafe-and-bar, I argue that these individuals embraced genderbending practices before being named as “doing” dansō or genderless. Through their distinct but related androgynous practices, they construct alternative identities and ways of being and retrospectively become interpellated as “dansō” and “genderless.” Further, I suggest that dansō and genderless not only allow us to rethink the gender binary, particularly in queer studies and transgender studies in a transnational context, but also the connections between style and gender and sexual subjectivities. Placing dansō and genderless on a spectrum instead of considering the two as separate phenomena opens up new conversations about androgynous bodies at the intersections of queer studies, fashion studies, and cultural studies in Asia.