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Gender and Sexuality in Shoujo Manga: Undoing Heteronormative Expectations in Utena, Pet Shop of Horrors, and Angel Sanctuary

Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: This study examines how gender and sexuality operate within English-language translations of shoujo manga, the genre of Japanese comic books that are marketed for young female audiences.This study uses the theoretical work of Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, and Judith Halberstam to do an explicitly queer, feminist close reading of Revolutionary Girl Utena, Pet Shop of Horrors, and Angel Sanctuary, three manga titles whose protagonists perform their own genders and sexualities in ways that run counter to or subvert heterosexual expectations.It argues that dislocating shoujo manga titles from their Japanese context, which constructs gender and sexuality in ways that are different from how gender and sexuality are constructed within the United States, provides a space in which heteronormative constructions of gender and sexuality are challenged or questioned, and suggests that English translations of Japanese manga titles provides rich grounds for rethinking gender and sexuality.I owe the deepest thanks and appreciation to Dr. Ellen Berry and to Dr. Kim Coates for their endless patience with me as I struggled through the writing of this thesis, and for their excellent advice and feedback on my writing.I am a better scholar and writer for having had the privilege of working with them.I am also indebted to Ken Irwin and Amy Fyn for their guidance as I conducted research for this project.I am equally grateful for the support of the circle of friends I have found here in Bowling Green, especially the Stitch & Bitch regulars; though I may not have done much of the former, I did plenty of the latter-thanks for listening to me while I did, and not telling me to shut up! Finally
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2464043220
FWCI:
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Cited by: 4
Related to: 10