Wait, I’m Blonde so I Have to Bottom?—Physical Representations of the Gender Binary in Yaoi Manga

Abstract

Many people are surprised to find that yaoi manga—a genre of Japanese comics about male-male romantic relationships—is overwhelmingly produced and consumed by women. But according to scholars such as Marni Stanley and Mark McHarry, you shouldn’t be. These scholars argue that the genre gives its audience the ability to escape heteronormative female sexuality, and thereby “[dispensing] with gender difference,” by featuring characters whose bodies “move fluidly past constructions of identity, gender, and sex” (Stanley 104; McHarry 184). I argue, however, that the presence of physical cues both on cover art and in-text prevents a departure from heteronormativity. By examining Shungiku Nakamura’s massively popular series Junjo Romantica on the physical information presented on its volumes’ cover art and analyzing instances of static and agentic gender identification throughout its volumes, I have found that there are ample visual cues that tether both of the series’ main characters to either a masculine or a feminine gender role. Examples of these visual clues include blushing, trembling, and other signs of vulnerability. Furthermore, the assignment of gender roles is typically connected to characters’ desired sexual roles, which is problematic, as it links gendered personality traits to a gender-dictated sexual experience. When considered alongside several other popular manga series and acknowledgement of this trend in scholarship, yaoi manga begins to look less satisfying as a liberatory text.