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What Makes Hegemonic Masculinity So Hegemonic? Japanese American Men and Masculine Aspirations
What Makes Hegemonic Masculinity So Hegemonic? Japanese American Men and Masculine Aspirations
To cite this article: Takeyuki (Gaku) Tsuda (2020): What makes hegemonic masculinity
so hegemonic? Japanese American men and masculine aspirations, Identities, DOI:
10.1080/1070289X.2020.1851005
Article views: 96
ABSTRACT
Research on ‘hegemonic masculinity’ needs to more specifically examine its
hegemonic properties by analysing how masculine ideals embodied by white
men have become pervasive and widely-accepted by men of colour through their
voluntary compliance and consent. This paper analyses the influence of hege
monic masculinity on the lives of Japanese American men. Because they have
adopted hegemonic masculinity as an idealised standard that they aspire to, but
cannot attain, their subordinate masculinity is construed as inferior and effemi
nate, constraining their romantic power over women. Such negative assessments
are shared by Japanese American women, who are also under the pervasive
influence of hegemonic masculinity. In response, some Japanese American men
attempt to appropriate the qualities of an idealised manliness in public perfor
mances, indicating how they continue to conceive of their masculinities in
hegemonic terms. Although a few of them valorised Asian American manhood
in order to challenge hegemonic conceptions, such alternative masculinities may
eventually be appropriated by hegemonic masculine discourses to perpetuate
pre-existing racial inequalities.
KEYWORDS Hegemony; ideology; hegemonic masculinity; gender; race and ethnicity; Japanese Americans
process whereby the culture of ruling elites and those in power is imposed on
subordinate peoples to become the dominant cultural belief system of society.
In fact, a number of scholars have used the concepts of hegemony and
ideology more or less interchangeably and do not clearly distinguish between
the two (see Gramsci 1987; Laitin 1986, 92, 106–107; Scott 1985, 314–315).
Much of the work on men and masculinity, which is based on R.W. Connell’s
seminal concept of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ (Connell 1987; 2005, 76–81;
Connell and Messerschmidt 2005), also uses the concept of hegemony in
a rather general manner to refer to simple ideologies of masculinity.
According to Connell, hegemonic masculinity consists of dominant cultural
ideals about manhood, which are attributed to men in power and therefore
perpetuates their dominance through the subordination of women as well as
non-dominant men (such as gays, racial minority men, and working class males)
(see also Demetriou 2001).
Espiritu 2008, 99, 103–104, 126–127; Iwamoto and Liu 2008, 213–216; Mok
1999, 107; Nguyen 2014, 3–4). However, it is clear that Asian American
masculinity appears in such an unfavourable light in the United States
because it is viewed through the idealised lens of white, hegemonic mascu
linity and seen as feminised and emasculated in comparison. Such character
isations are largely absent among portrayals of Japanese masculinity in Japan
(e.g. see Hidaka 2009), where invidious contrasts with Western, white hege
monic masculinity are not made.
Many of the Japanese American men I interviewed seemed to feel inade
quate and inferior because they could not live up to the hegemonic mascu
line ideal they felt were epitomised by white men in the U.S. (see also Chen
1999, 588), demonstrating its pervasive reach and universal acceptance even
among people of colour. Of course, most white men are also unable to
embody the idealised masculine standard, despite the fact that it is most
often attributed to them. However, because they are part of the ethnically
unmarked majority group, such masculine inadequacies are simply seen as
individual deficiencies and do not make them feel ethnically emasculated as
a group nor produce derogatory stereotypes.
Therefore, the prevalence of hegemonic masculinity as a widely-accepted,
but unattainable standard for Japanese American men undoubtedly has
negative romantic consequences for them that reduces their patriarchal
power over women. Although masculinity is partly constructed in relation
to femininity and is often displayed in front of women, studies of hegemonic
masculinity have generally neglected its relationship to romantic desirability
and sexuality (cf. Chin Phua 2007; Nemoto 2006, 30–31). Because most of my
interviewees assumed that white men represent the natural standard of
romantic attractiveness in the U.S., they felt that their alternative, subordinate
masculinity simply did not measure up, making them romantically undesir
able to women (see also Chin Phua 2007, 911; Mok 1999, 107).
Not surprisingly, feelings of masculine inadequacy were most prevalent
among youth (who were generally single and looking for/in romantic rela
tionships) and less prevalent among older and married men. However, some
of the older men mentioned such experiences when they were young. ‘In
high school, I wanted to be white, blond, and tall’, Ron Inoue remarked. ‘I
think I could have been more popular if I was white. And I probably would
have had more girlfriends if I was white’.
Like Ron, my younger Japanese American interviewees emphasised their
lack of physical stature, strength, and sexuality when compared to white men.
However, they also felt the unattractiveness of Asian men was also related to
their personality, which again does not meet the standards of (white) roman
tic desirability. According to Yuki Sumimoto:
IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 7
I think they [Asian American men] are seen as more square. Like uptight, not as
exciting, spontaneous, and wild and adventurous. I think that’s a real negative
for Asian men. I think it’s a stereotype, but maybe, it is the truth, because Asians
are really studious, and studious people become like that. Kind of nerdy. So if
you look at the film industry, I don’t think there are any cases where the [Asian]
male star hooks up with a beautiful woman. It’s always a white man. Asian
Americans just aren’t portrayed as really sexy guys.
I think it has a lot to do with stereotypes. Asian men are seen as wimpy, maybe
not as assertive, a little more timid. What a girl looks for in a guy is someone
who really knows what he is doing. More assertive and masculine. And the
preconceived stereotype is that Asian guys are not like that. So white women
won’t even consider us I think. And Asians are not seen as the model of male
beauty. If you look at how the media portrays it, all the good-looking, sexy men
are either American or European. It’s almost never Asian men. The Asian
appearance is not seen as attractive.
In fact, because of their inability to meet the white masculine standard, some
Japanese American youth I interviewed explicitly admitted that they are not
capable of attracting white women. According to Steve Okura, a young man,
‘I’ve had dating conversations with my boss, whom I’m friendly with, and she
asked, “Steve, would you ever date a white girl?” And I kept telling her, I just
don’t feel I’m good enough for a white woman. I’m just not big enough, buff
enough, aggressive enough’.
Others interviewees felt they could not romantically compete with white
men even for the affections of Asian American women. In fact, one inter
viewee spoke about his nagging feeling that white men were ‘taking our
women’. Likewise, another young Japanese American man (despite being tall
and handsome in my opinion) related his feelings to me as follows:
So I’d say the images of Japanese American men are a real negative when it
comes to romance. Asexual and kind of boring. That’s probably what a person
thinks when someone says, ‘You want to go on a date? I have this great Asian
friend for you.’ And [the woman] is immediately thinking: he’s a wimpy com
puter nerd who wears glasses and he’s 35 and still a virgin.
When asked about the paucity of white women who date Asian American men,
Carol Hashimoto responded: ‘It’s how the media portrays Asian men as socially
inept. They make a good salary but that’s it. They don’t have a personality. All
they do is work hard, but they can’t carry on a conversation and they’re
awkward. That’s how they are portrayed, as nerds’.
10 T. TSUDA
actually tied to their seats). The immobilisation of the women was seemingly
necessary not only to bring them under the complete patriarchal control of
the male board members, but also to ensure that they did not run away with
white men,1 clearly symbolising how hegemonic masculinity involves the
submission of women.
Two of the subsequent performances at the meeting consisted of the NSU
board members dancing to R & B and hip hop music by imitating African
American styles and moves while first wearing basketball jerseys and then
tight shirts (they had rehearsed the performance for weeks). The audience
loved the displays of masculinity and were cheering and yelling as if the
board members were bona fide rock stars (one did an athletic backflip on
stage, which elicited the loudest roar). Throughout the performance, audi
ence members shouted things like ‘You stallion!’ ‘You’re hot!’ and ‘Stud!’ to
encourage and egg on the board members, although there was also some
awkward laughter at the apparent absurdity of Japanese Americans trying to
act like black men.
Asian American men have increasingly appropriated black masculinity as
sexy, tough, and cool in order to rebel against desexualised, model minority/
nerd stereotypes (Thangaraj 2015, 146–147), which I witnessed several times
during my fieldwork, including a performance by the UCSD Chinese American
hip hop group and a recorded performance from a Japanese American rapper.
Because Japanese and Asian Americans are racialised as foreign others, they are
unable to emulate idealised white images of masculinity (see Eng 2001, 31,
118–124; Thangaraj 2015, 88). In contrast, black hypermasculinity is more easily
accessible for them since it can be expressed through familiar forms of popular
culture (hip hop and rap music) (Oware 2011), sports like basketball, and
gestures and styles of dress (see Majors 2017; Thangaraj 2015, 88).
How effective are such attempts by Japanese American youth to defy
emasculating stereotypes and prove their manliness? As Judith Butler notes,
because staged performances can be dismissed as ‘not real’ compared to
gendered performances enacted in everyday contexts (Butler 1988, 527; see
also MacCannell 1973), their subversive potential may be limited. As a result,
they may not enhance the masculinity of these Japanese American youth in
their ordinary lives and translate into actual romantic conquests that enable
them to reap patriarchal dividends over women. In fact, almost all of those who
were cheering and shouting at the NSU meeting were other men, and not
women (some of whom seemed to think the hypermasculine displays were
a bit ridiculous, judging from their faces).
In addition, the audience for such staged performances (and others
I observed during my fieldwork) consisted of only Japanese and Asian
Americans. In this manner, they are an example of the ‘marginalised masculi
nities’ of non-dominant men who embody aspects of hegemonic masculinities
but remain marginalised nonetheless (Connell 2005, 80–81). For instance,
IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 13
although black men (and other men of colour, such as Latinos) have interna
lised hegemonic masculine standards, they lack the resources to fully realise an
idealised manhood through social mobility because of their socioeconomic
marginalisation, causing some of them to engage in less desirable forms of
hypermasculinity that involve sexism, homophobia, violence, and risk-taking
(Majors 2017, 16–17; Oware 2011, 26; see also Arnaldo 2019).
Asian American masculine displays are not necessarily socioeconomically
marginalised, but often ethnically marginalised and confined to the safe spaces
and privacy of local Asian American communities, where such performances
are supported in a positive atmosphere free from criticism, racialised stigma,
and microaggressions (see also Chin 2015, 58). For instance, I wondered how
the attempts of NSU board members at the general meeting to act masculine
and sexy in front of women would have been received by a white male
audience. As for their rendition of hip hop dance and black masculinity, they
may have faced snickers and even been ridiculed and laughed off the stage by
an African American audience. In contrast, masculine performances by blacks,
such as through rap music and athletics, are more likely to be displayed to the
general public as part of mainstream American popular culture and sports (see
Alexander 2004, 383; Majors 2017; Oware 2011). The marginalised confinement
of Japanese American masculine performances to co-ethnic audiences limits
their public impact and ability to challenge prevailing racial stereotypes.
Among Japanese American men, taiko (traditional Japanese drumming)
has become another way for them to publicly perform their masculinity in
a hegemonic manner (see Konagaya 2005). Taiko became wildly popular after
the 1990s among Japanese American youth and there are now hundreds of
taiko ensembles.
Because taiko performances are loud and physically powerful, they can be
a demonstration of masculinity for young Japanese American men. This is
especially the case when they play huge drums, which can range from 6 to 10
feet in diameter and require considerable strength and stamina. The massive
pounding can reverberate throughout a large hall and produce a truly hyp
notic effect. Therefore, the taiko performances of Japanese American men
can counteract how they have been stereotypically represented as effemi
nate, small, and weak (Konagaya 2005, 134–135) as well as passive and
asexual model minorities.
This was emphasised by Steve, who used to be president of the UC San
Diego student taiko ensemble. ‘Because of images of Asian men as kind of
wimpy with really flimsy physiques, to be able to play taiko is very empower
ing’, he noted. ‘A Japanese American [playing taiko] is buff, and especially on
those huge odaiko drums – just railing on those. You’ve got to have good
muscles and endurance to keep that up. So yeah, there’s definitely a masculine
feeling from that’. In fact, a number of young Japanese Americans claim that
playing taiko makes them feel ‘cool’, ‘hip’, ‘flashy’, ‘trendy’, and ‘sexy’.
14 T. TSUDA
masculinities and may no longer be that patriarchal. They claim that a shared
cultural image has emerged of the ‘New Man’ epitomised by the ‘white,
college-educated (heterosexual) professional who is a highly involved and
nurturant father, “in touch with” and expressive of his feelings, and egalitarian
in his dealings with women’ (1994, 202). Although it is again questionable
whether these dominant white men actually live up to such standards, it may
become a cultural ideal nonetheless that eventually obtains generalised
hegemonic acceptance and consent. However, according to Hondagneu-
Sotelo and Messner, this new image of the ideal white man:
requires a counterimage against which to stand in opposition. Those aspects of
traditional hegemonic masculinity that the New Man has rejected—overt phy
sical and verbal displays of domination, stoicism and emotional inexpressivity,
overt misogyny in the workplace and at home—are now increasingly projected
onto less privileged groups of men: working-class men, gay body-builders,
black athletes, Latinos, and immigrant men (1994, 207).
In other words, despite its greater democratic inclusivity, this transformed hege
monic masculinity continues to be claimed by dominant white males (and
eventually by relatively privileged ‘model minorities’ such as Asian Americans)
and its previous, negative aspects, which have been expunged, are now attrib
uted to the marginalised masculinities of the working class, African Americans,
and socioeconomically disadvantaged immigrant minorities. As a result, this
reformed masculine ideal begins to operate like its hegemonic predecessor as
it becomes entrenched across society and is used to judge marginalised mascu
linities as undesirable and inferior, thus maintaining and reproducing unequal
racial hierarchies where whites (and Asians) are positioned above Latinos and
blacks. In this case, although cultural hegemonies may be transformed, prevailing
ethnic and social inequities continued to be perpetuated.
Note
1. As noted earlier, there were interviewees who were concerned that they could
not romantically compete with white men, who are ‘taking’ Asian American
women away from them.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
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