Lesbian Discourses in Mainstream Magazines of Post-War Japan

Abstract

SUMMARY This paper elucidates the changes in the meanings associated with the term rezubian(the Japanese term for “lesbian”) through an analysis of its discourse in magazines for general readership published in post-war Japan. The category of “rezubian” first appeared in mainstream magazines in the 1960s as a generic category that referred to both “masculinized women” and “women who engage in sexual acts with other women.” Masculinized women, in particular, were called “onabe.”At first “onabe” denoted “a tachi rezubian,” meaning a lesbian who plays “top,” but gradually a distinction came to be made between “rezubianwho are onabe” and “rezubianwho aren't.” The early 1990s saw the differentiation of “onabe” as a category distinct from that of “rezubian.” Focusing particularly on this process of differentiation, this paper traces the transitions in the signifying practices pertaining to the category rezubian.