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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Sexuality
Vol. 6:2 (2017) ► pp.232–261

Constructing identities on a Japanese gay dating site

Hunkiness, cuteness and the desire for heteronormative masculinity

| Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

By analysing 200 posts on a Japanese gay dating Bulletin Board System (deai-kei BBS), I investigate how users strategically deploy language to construct desirable identities and “sell themselves” online. Drawing upon both quantitative and qualitative analysis, I demonstrate that users of the BBS creatively manipulate stereotypical identity categories known as Types (taipu) to construct highly nuanced yet specific discourses of the Self and the desired Other. Through a discursive analysis of the strategies users employ to construct their own identities, and the identities of their desired partners, I argue that identity categories marked as masculine and hunky (sawayaka) are privileged as more desirable than feminine and cute (kawaii) identities. Through this analysis, I suggest that users of this particular forum appear to valorise heteronormative masculinity, which they link to being hunky. Furthermore, I argue that being cute is considered undesirable due to its perception as transgressing normative masculine gendered traits.

Keywords: Japan, identity, desire, gay dating sites, heteronormativity, masculinity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Gender, sexuality and the Japanese language
    • 2.2Heteronormativity and language use on dating sites
  • 3.Research design
    • 3.1Theoretical framework
    • 3.2Data collection
    • 3.3Data analysis and coding procedures
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Instances of “gendered language” on the forum
    • 4.2Presenting identities through Typing
    • 4.3Meta-discourses of identity
    • 4.4Desirable identities
    • 4.5Undesirable identities
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 October 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.6.2.02bau
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