Rice & Gravy

Gay Men and Body Image (1): Deconstruction of Gay Men in Media

It's been said that more gay men are conscious of their body than heterosexual men. Indeed, many gay men frequent fitness gyms to shape up their physique, as if they were to maintain and enhance their masculinity.

As an MPH student, I've been particularly interested in gay men's body consciousness: how it is created and reproduced; and what kind of impact it brings to their health. Needless to say, self-image of gay men correlates with a variety of issues, from their psychology such as self-esteem to their use of steroids and club drugs.

It is quite obvious that an image of gay men portrayed by gay media has a significant impact on gay men's self-image. A typical male model appeared in advertisements targeting gay men is an athletic young white man with six-pack abs. Why white? Why athletic body with sic-pack abs? If you deconstruct the advertisements, they convey a lot of powerful symbols, a collection of which represents a stereotypical gay man which many gay men, as a result, strive to become.

What is interesting is that the stereotypical image of a gay man portrayed by media has had an impact on gay media of other cultures. The other night, I was watching LOGO's Round Trip Ticket in which gay scenes in Hong Kong were presented. In that episode, a host of the show was interviewing a Hong Kong gay magazine publisher and its photographer. Their interview was shown together with several images of semi-nude young Chinese male models photographed by the photographer. I was quite surprised with the fact that all the Chinese models had a similar physique: athletic, toned, lean body with six-pack abs. Also, they were all "white" in complexion. What does this tell us? To me, it is kind of globalization of a stereotypical gay male (in a very racial way), undermining so much diversity in gay male populations. For real, so much can be said about this (to be continued).

Anyone for SHABU or SHABU-SHABU?

Chrystal Meth is becoming synonymous with gay men because of its popularity in the gay community, despite the fact that it is also widely spread among heterosexuals (particularly white) in rural areas in the US.

Having said the above, Crystal Meth, or Methamphetamine, was originally synthesized by a Japanese chemist in 1919. And there's no doubt - it is widely spread still in modern day Japan, and it is called Shabu on the street.

In Japan, Shabu is associated with an image of Yakuza: Yakuza, in this case, is a Meth dealer rather than a user. I think it is part of the Japanese police campaign to make Shabu synonymous with Yakuza so as to scare people off from using Meth. Yet, as a result, it is also hiding some facts. Many Japanese businessmen, housewives and students are hooked on Meth and this is not widely known to the public. At the same time, other facts, such as its use and harms, are also not well disseminated. Instead, the Japanese Meth users are criminalized as a result of association between Shabu and Yakuza.

By the way, Shabu-Shabu is a totally different thing: it is one of the expensive Japanese delicacies like Sushi and Tempura. You dip thinly sliced beef into a pot of boiling water, cook it till medium rare (or well-done) and dip into sauce (usually sesame-based or soy-sauce based). It is not known as widely as Sushi or Tempura, but it is really good and healthy. If you are in New York and want to taste it, give me an e-mail and I will let you know a really good Shabu-Shabu restaurant.

Who's Coming after Godzilla?

I bet no one in Japan 10 years ago even dreamed about Japanese baseball players playing in MLB.

When I see Ichiro and many others in ESPN, I can't help but to think how Japanese baseball has changed so dramatically since when I was a kid. I thought (and my friends also did) MLB players were so powerful that "little" Japanese players could not ever win over them. I know this is another Western imperialism, but I was totally blinded by it for real.

While I am particularly impressed with how Matsui the Godzilla has become so highly recognized by the US baseball fans, I have been following another Japanese monsters who were invading US stadiums.  One guy that I really liked was Iguchi of White Sox. His record from the last season was not as good as Matsui, but he did pretty good considering White Sox won the World Series, which he definitely contributed as the No. 2 hitter. He is also a good-looking guy with his non-Japanese facial features. Check him out for this year's season.

Evolution of Japanese Hip Hop Music

"Japan is good at copying American technologies and using them to create better products than its American counterparts, like cars and electronics" - so I have been told about Japan's economic success. I'd say that the same can be said about Japan's copying American sub-cultures. In particular, I've been overwhelmed by influence and impact that American hip hop culture has made on Japan during the past decade. I really did not know, for example, Def Jam Japan was established until very recently.

I have been really impressed with how R&B has been absorbed by the Japanese music industry and come out as truly unique like Toshi Kubota, Kiyoshi Matsuo and so many others (also see Japanese R&B (J-R&B)), but I did not have good impressions about Japanese Rap. It's primarily because it sounds "funny" when Japanese rappers try to rhyme; Japanese finds its beauty in lyrics through making the number of Japanese alphabets, or phonetic units, limited in each line and not through making rhymes. For example in Haiku, a poet needs to limit his/her use of alphabets (which are like mono-syllables in English) to 5 in the first line, 7 in the second and 5 again in the third. The art of Haiku comes from how the poet can express his/her messages beautifully and phonetically within his/her limited use of alphabets (hence words). So, Japanese are not used to rhyming, which to me is part of what makes rap music a form of art.

Yet, I must admit: Recent years, Japanese rap music has evolved and leveraged itself to a great extent. Japanese rappers still try to rhyme; but, they do choose (seemingly) words carefully so that rhyming doesn't sound really funny (which has been a great discovery to me as a Japanese!). On the top of it, they add a bit of Japanese pop flava. So, they do sound really cool and unique. Dragon Ash and other artists under the Def Jam Japan label are really good. I think they can't be merely labeled as Japanese Hip Hop any more - so how can we call it? 

BACHI: Do I get sick because I'm bad?

I found an interesting column in today's AM New York that I almost every day read on my way to work.

Ellis Henican was talking about the story of Rev. Pat Robertson, who made a controversial remark on the current condition of Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon. The story has its punchline at the end, which made me grin a lot during my bumpy ride in the 4 train to Grand Central Link to the AM New York column.

After all, money goes beyond the words of God; but I was more interested in this notion of "being sick as a result of doing something wrong hence being penalized by Supreme Being."

When I was a kid in Japan, I was taught not to do something "wrong," and my Mom always told me that I would be penalized by God. In Japanese it is called "Bachi," literally meaning "punishment by God or Buddha," and comes with a verb "to hit." For example, they say "the Bachi will hit you if you do XYZ," or "the Bachi has hit you because you did XYZ."  So, the "Bachi" does implicate some sort of "corporal punishment" in a Japanese sense and I guess that is why it is often used in the context of injuries and diseases: "You got sick because you are bad!!" And indeed, it is a great source of stigma and discrimination as well as prejudice, if you think about it.

Urban Legend among Gay Men: Recreational Use of AIDS Drugs

LA times reported that some HIV-negative men are taking AIDS drugs and engaing themselves in unsafe sex. Furhtermore, these drugs are as available as Viagra in party/bar settings. Seemingly, more people want to bareback so badly??

Because of the ARVs, HIV/AIDS is getting like an "endemic" disease rather than "epidemic", and people are not getting so serious about the consequences of HIV/AIDS; perhaps it was in such an environment where this "urban legend" (i.e. taking AIDS drugs before having sex prevents infection) was born.

Link to the LA Times article on this topic

Postcards from Buster: Gay Parenting Harmful to Kids?

In November last year, one of my favorite TV programs, "In the Life," featured an episode of a Lesbian couple with three children living in Vermont who was to be introduced in the PBS' educational program called "Postcards from Buster." Buster is a cartoon rabbit character who visits a family and introduces how they live: it is meant for educating kids on diversity by introducing "different" types of families, ethnic wise, religious wise, etc. PBS apprently wanted to feature a family of gay parents with kids, but this episode was disapproved by the Education Secretary, who I understand oversees PBS (?) and who thinks that a two-mom family poses "harms" to other kids in the US! This whole story presents multiple layers of issues that makes us think: from the Gov't intervention in public broadcasting to, of course, the very question - "is being a gay harmful to kids?"

Link to "In the Life" , Link to a letter from Lesbian mothers featured in "Postcards from Buster" , More info on this topic from wikipedia