Week 9a-9b: Takarazuka,Otokoyaku and the Mo-dan Garu 1. Websites on gender in advertising and tropes "This is Not Sex" Web essay on the Male Gaze: Click through this web essay on how advertising positions women. So far in this course, how do you see the visual representation of women in theater reflecting the male gaze? Is it possible for women to "take back" that gaze and make it their own? tv-tropes.org: this is the home page. Start here to understand what a "trope" is. The point of this wiki website is to name all the possible plot tropes that show up in every kind of media (it started with TV, thus the name, but a very large number of the entries are from anime and manga). The two main listings of tropes pertinent to this course are: tv-tropes.org: Gender and Sexuality Tropes tv-tropes.org: Transgender Tropes The second list is actually easier to work with, because the tropes are easier to understand from their names. See discussion questions. I find this website rather addictive -- bet you can't limit yourself to reading just 5 entries! 2. Rose of Versailles (Berusaiyu no Bara) by Ikeda Riyoko a) Summary of The Rose of Versailles manga The Rose of Versailles was originally serialized in the weekly girls' manga (Japanese comic book) Margaret in 1972. It was later collected into a set of paperbacks totaling around 1700 pages. A short segment of English translated manga can be found in the book Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics (New York: Kodansha, 1983) by Frederik L. Schodt. It is currently being translated on a fan site MangaFox (through chapter 23 as of Feb. 2012) The story line of a young girl, raised as a boy, who becomes the commander of Marie Antoinette's personal body guards, was a natural for Takarazuka. The first performance of Rose of Versailles as a Takarazuka spectacle was performed in 1974 with Haruna Yuri in the leading role of Oscar. Because the original manga story was so long and complicated, Takarazuka initially produced two versions, one focusing on the Oscar and Andre love story, the other focussing on the Axel Fersen and Marie Antoinette story. In class we will be watching excerpts from the 1991 performance of the Oscar and Andre story with Suzukaze Mayo playing Oscar. We will also watch a version put on as a charity fundraising event at the Kabuki-za, with Kabuki actors playing all the roles. There was also a 40 episode anime version of Rose of Versailles, which first aired from October 1979 through September 1980. Most of the fan websites about Rose of Versailles are related to the anime version, because it has been the most accessible version in translation. Reading Questions: 1. Reading through the summary, how is this story similar to Kamakura period stories about cross-dressing women such as Torikaebaya and Ariake no Wakare? For example, why does General Jarjayes raise Oscar as a boy? How does this affect the gender-biological sex equation? Does the story support or subvert dominant gender stereotypes for women? 2. Note that in Rose of Versailles everyone knows that Oscar, although dressed as a man, is actually a woman. How does this affect the love triangles between, for example, Rosalie, Oscar and Fersen, or Andre, Oscar and Fersen? 3. How does the lack of concealment of Oscar's biological sex change the possible identification of the (female) reader or viewer with Oscar? How do you think Oscar's dying words, "Liberté ... Égalité ... Fraternité ..." (liberty, equality, brotherhood), the slogan of the French revolution, resonated with female readers? Reading the manga, what do see any hints of the political leanings of the author? Do you think she was left wing or right wing? 4. Looking at the images, when is Oscar portrayed as most "masculine"? When is she portrayed as most "feminine"? When does she seem androgynous (neither masculine nor feminine)? Why do you think these changes occur? 5. Looking at the images, what indications are there that this manga was written in the 1970s? In particular what influences can you see from popular culture in the 1970s? How does setting the story during the French Revolution help the author create the androgynous image of Oscar? 6. When we watch the Takarazuka and Kabuki versions in class, note how Oscar is represented differently from Andre. That is, in the Takarazuka version how does the actress playing Oscar convey that Oscar, although dressed like a man, is really a woman; in contrast, how does the actress playing Andre convey that he is a man? In the Kabuki version we have an even more complicated performance of gender: a male actor impersonating a female actor playing Oscar, a male actor impersonating a female actor playing Andre. How do these performances compare to "straight" Kabuki acting we've seen in class?
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