Gender and J-Pop

Our mixtape project will explore the gender and sexuality issues of Japanese pop, also known as "J-Pop." J-pop has several prominent female artists and groups who have asserted stereotypical views of femininity but there have been others who have transgressed certain ideas of female gender roles in Japanese culture. Such artists include Ayumi Hamasaki and SPEED. However, for the purposes of this project, it is important to define gender within the cultural context of Japan; this imperative because while some aspects of "J-Poppers" may appear to be gender-bending in American culture, they are accurate portrayals of Japanese socially constructed norms of gender and sexuality.

Ginny Driscoll and Elvira Tran