Refashioning Gendered Language and Body Among Japanese Youth at University Drag (Josou) Contests

抄録

In this paper, we explore the discourse and performance of josou, ‘men dressing as women,’ based on our ongoing qualitative research on participants in university josou contests. We argue that these participants turn josou into diverse technologies of the self (Foucault 1988) through refashioning their own language and body and mobilizing a network of expertise and social relations for their labor of transformation.