Posted in Feminist Friday, Geek Culture, Gender, Media, tagged cisswap, cosplay, fandom, Feminist Friday, genderbent, genderswap, rule 63 on 2015/02/13| 52 Comments »
Welcome, Feminist Friday readers! Although I’ve written about the wonderful world of genderswap* before in regards to Ôoku, today I’ll be taking a look at mainstream- and fan-created genderswapped works in English-language media and what they reveal about social norms and fans.
You may have read “Bilbo Baggins is a Girl,” but for me, it’s not just reading Bilbo as a woman. (more…)
Posted in Gender, Halloween, Media, Visual Culture, tagged Buzzfeed, genderswap, horror films on 2014/10/23| Leave a Comment »
Quick video link today via Buzzfeed’s “If Women In Horror Films Were Played By Men.” (Video is slightly NSFW.)
Posted in Culture, Gender, Theatre, tagged genderswap, Sherlock Holmes, Vicious and Vulgar on 2014/08/11| 3 Comments »
For fans of Sherlock Holmes, I wrote a guest post on Have You Nerd? about Vicious and Vulgar, a play about fandom, fanworks, and “Femlock”:
Photo credit: Shawn Baker. Used with permission.
Posted in Ôoku, Gender, tagged Arikoto, Ôoku Eien, Bechdel Test, Denbe, Fumi Yoshinaga, genderswap, Gyokuei, Keshôin, manga, manga review, Nobuhira, O-den, Oooku, representation, Tsunayoshi, writing, Yoshinaga Fumi, Yoshiyasu Yanagisawa, Ōoku on 2014/05/09| 4 Comments »
New to Ôoku? Start here. Introduction to this arc here.
Major spoilers for the Iemitsu (vol 2-4) and Tsunayoshi arcs (vol. 4-6), including the drama and the Ôoku: Eien film. Warnings: the plot of this story arc contains sexual assault and abuse, dubious consent, murder, the death of a child, and back-stabbing, and is generally NSFW.
Tsunayoshi plays a game with her daughter Matsu-hime. Vol. 5, p. 16.
One aspect of Tsunayoshi’s character that I found fascinating was her relationship to beauty ideals. (more…)
Posted in Ôoku, Gender, tagged Arikoto, Ôoku Eien, Bechdel Test, Denbe, Fumi Yoshinaga, genderswap, Gyokuei, Keshôin, manga, manga review, Nobuhira, O-den, Oooku, representation, Tsunayoshi, writing, Yoshinaga Fumi, Yoshiyasu Yanagisawa, Ōoku on 2014/04/14| 1 Comment »
Introduction here. Spoilers for the Iemitsu (vol 2-4) and Tsunayoshi arcs (vol. 4-6), including the drama and the Ôoku: Eien film. Warnings: the plot of this story arc contains sexual assault and abuse, dubious consent, suicide, murder, and all the back-stabbing. I’ve kept the mostly images PG-13 (there’s a little gore in one) but the content is not safe for work.
“I’m not like the former Shogun, who agreed to anything.” Vol. 183.
Let’s start with the most obvious point: Tsunayoshi can be a morally reprehensible woman precisely because the Ôoku has equal gender representation, both in her story arc and the work at large. (more…)
Posted in Ôoku, Geek Culture, Gender, Manga, Reblog, tagged Fumi Yoshinaga, Gender, genderswap, Have You Nerd?, manga, Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Translation, Yoshinaga Fumi, Ōoku on 2014/03/07| 3 Comments »
Vol. 8, p. 188. Yoshimune and Hisamichi
I know most of my readers are familiar with Yoshinaga Fumi’s Ôoku, but in case you’re new here or would like to recommend the manga to a friend, I wrote a guest post over on Have You Nerd? introducing the English-version of the manga.
In 1716, Tokugawa Yoshimune, the great-granddaughter of the first Tokugawa shogun, become shogun herself, despite being the third daughter of a branch family and having a low-ranking concubine as a father. During her reign as Shogun, Yoshimune enacted a number of reforms, though she maintained Japan’s closed-country status for fear of a foreign invasion if anyone learned that the country was actually run by women.
Not the version of Japanese history you learned in school? Then get thee to a purveyor of fine manga, for you have much to study.
Full article: “History Lessons from the Tokugawa Matriarchy: Ôoku: The Inner Chambers” on Have You Nerd?
If you’d like to read my more in-depth analyses of the Japanese version, check out my Ôoku masterpost here on the blog.
Posted in Ôoku, Gender, Manga, tagged alternate history, Arikoto, Aso Yumi, Ôoku: Tanjô, female sexuality, Gender, gender expression, genderswap, Gyokuei, Iemitsu, J-drama, Kasuga, Masakatsu, Matsudaira, Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Oooku, Sakai Masato, samurai, shipping, Tabe Mikako, Tanaka Koki, Yoshinaga Fumi, Ōoku on 2014/02/14| 3 Comments »
