To be a true non-conformist would be quite difficult I think, might have to make your own clothes?. Or wear non at all.

There is a tribe in Africa where the young guys put on makeup, have their hair beaded, put on their snazziest robes, then go to the village meeting and pogo up and down, flashing big smiles and flicking their eyebrows like stop signs.And they are after the lassies, so they are NOT gay, no matter what it looks like to an outsider. What scope there for a non-conformist?, might be room for a pogo stick salesman, or a rental agency for a strobe-lighting set up.

Although I did see the most awesome guy-girl couple on the train once. They were both in matching red kimono, looking like they just stepped out of some kind of futuristic ancient Japan. Their costumes were all style – good quality, lots of accessories but nothing out of place or too over the top. One of them had a bell somewhere which rang whenever they took a step. Even their hairstyles went perfectly.

“We are all individuals!”

“You’re all different!”

“Yes! We are all different!”

I actually agree with a lot of this–I think my very first post on Japundit was about this subject.

America is an amazing place for personal freedom. But as a result, I often feel like many people “act out” to seem individual, even if they aren’t.

http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/01/18/construction-worker-fashion/

(to me that is making a rebellious fashion statement)

That’s all fine to a point, but it means that we individualistic types have to gloss over the large part of anyone’s existence that depends on conformity. Everyone is cool is some way, or different in some way, but American boys, as a rule, all dress pretty much the same.

When I first came to Japan, I constantly heard from other foreigners how all Japanese are conformists, and have nothing original to say – and it can appear that way at first glance. Japanese accept that conformity is required, and they don’t don’t feel the need to wear a nose-ring to the office, or to make some other demonstration of their uniqueness in a place where it’s not relevant. Outside of the office, school, or family, though, anything goes.

Americans, despite their desire to stand out, still need to conform – so there is a contradiction.

I don’t know if I just explained myself or made it worse!

Of course, people will always label someone based upon what they are wearing. Before anything else, we see the clothes and the body language, which reflect a person’s choice ands circumstances. We may completely misjudge, but that doesn’t mean they are useless as indicators. As we get more information, we incorporate it. With this kid, it’s simply the picture.

I hate the whole “is he gay or not” thing that seems so important to some people. But, if I had to judge based on this picture, my first impression would be that he is very much not gay.

I agree we are all conformists. The Japanese have accepted that fact, live with it, and in their own way become less conformist. Americans, meanwhile, seem to have a real problem with it, as it challenges the usual American notions of individuality.

We are all conformists.

Unlike the US and the UK, young Japanese men do not fear being thought “gay.” It doesn’t carry the heavy negative associations, so, in a sense, they are freer to express themselves than many American boys – who are terrified of being thought different enough to be called gay. I usually bring this up when someone says Japanese kids are conformists.

The bloke in the picture really does look gay to my eyes, if I am not riding censor on my sterotyping, after all I am a product of ’70s NZ culture, “men” only wore fur jackets if the fur in question had been on something they killed with a knife while their pig-dog held its ear.
When I was a teenager, any “man” that had a haircut that showed signs of having been “styled” was likely to be kicked to death if he went drinking in the public bar with the other “men”. Seriously, you dressed like, acted like, the typical man, or you risked being attacked as a “Poofter”.

I have had a lot of asian friends over the years, and only two of the blokes ever really seemed like “men” rather than boys in that superficial sterotypical image thing, it is a lot to do with their style of dress as well as the slight builds. All crap of course, because “you shall know them by their deeds” or something. Nelson was a little pint sized bloke, with a suspicious attachment to a “band of brothers” and no-one called him unmanly, did they.

Chinese men especially the young ones, in Auckland, are well dressed in the extreme, they make a habit of offering the “impressed-by-me” logo side of all their accesories to the world. ESPECIALLY electronic gear, chinese blokes MUST buy the smallest cell-phone, it seems. (I realise this is, again, sterotyping, but there is a grain of truth in it)

To me, it just seems strange beyond belief. I mean… do they *seriously* think someone is going to mistake them for people who are rich enough to afford ‘Louis Vuitton’? What’s the point of buying fake imitations of expensive brands? But a girlfriend said that she considers a fake brand as normal as buying a very similar shade of lipstick by an expensive maker but buying it cheaper by some mass-market company. I pointed out that a shade of lipstick doesn’t have the fake brand name all over it… .

In the end, I could get her point but I guess there’s just this visual disconnect that I don’t understand.

I don’t even wear clothes that have ‘impressed-by-me?’ logos on them (the companies can pay *me* to advertise their stuff). When I get logo’ed stuff as presents, if at all possible, the razor comes out and the logo comes off or, if it’s impossible and I’m not really in need of it and it’s very ‘impressed-by-me?’-ish, the item goes straight to the charity shop.

Let me put it this way. Burberry has a special “in Japan only store” with merchandise you can only but “over there,” so devoted are people to the brand.

I’m fascinated by these kinds of topics. Truly.

That whole ‘New Romantic’ movement back in the early ’80s in the UK leaned heavily on foppy dandyism (and eye make up on men) so the ‘feminized’ style has been around outside of Japan, too.

OK. It may not have been as obvious as this current Japanese beautiful men phenomenon but you did see New Romanitic-y stuff in almost-mainstream magazines and places like ‘Eye’ magazine (when it was still stapled together and came as photocopied pages).

But I don’t think the style ever made it to North America (really), and aside from sad-looking Goth boys who didn’t go outside of black for their eye liner, I can’t think of any other recent style, fad or movement that embraces ‘feminine’ traits.

I wonder how pervasive it is in Japanese youth at the moment (because, let’s face it, it’s always about the youths with money) and what sparked it (or even if it’s a phenomenon or a natural continuation of some social thing).

I’m still working on trying to figure out if Japanese young people are just as or more brand-obsessed about products than North Americans… .

Actually, I don’t know. Is it?

I mean, the fashion craze in Japan is a modern cultural phenomenon, as any devoted reader of FRUITS knows. Maybe it’d be good for Japundit to have some pretty pictures of boys . . .

Seriously, the whole metrosexual/Japanophile/loving clothing thing is quite fascinating, now that I think about it. Initially, I just wanted to make a point about young men and fashion in Japan. But after having watched Hana Yori Dango (where all the men have manicures), I’m thinking that there is something a little deeper going on with the new generation.

“The next day my friend tells me that a couple of the people we had gone out with asked if I was gay and she told them no, I was just metrosexual.”

I’d guess you have style, Natajan, which I, for one, appreciate.

You know, in this country, urban folk often think I’m girly and frilly. I remember in the beginning, dance teachers were always yelling at me “Attitude! Where is your attitude!” And I had none. Now I see them yelling at the Japanese girls who come to class, and I know how they feel.

In Japan, I often feel like the Incredible Hulk, if that makes any sense. It is wierd how travel can distort your sense of yourself.

As for how common Gackt is . . . he’s definitely popular. Girls love him. Is it a look many guys go after? Maybe in clubs. One young guy I know, for example, for whom I took some special makeup to Japan to give to a girlfriend, intercepted some of the eyshadow for himself. Not that I ever saw him wearing it. And he’s definitely straight.

When you get to Japan, Natajn, I think you’ll be interested to see how things look. And in the meantime, just check out some Arashi videos.

And Tony, you know you DO have Beckham in the UK, who is just about as metro as a man can get! No surprise he’s so popular in Japan . . . on the Yamanote-sen train I had to watch video after video of him doing some kind of “art” project with a football. Gah.

Multiple people have mentioned already that Japanese cannot simply be put into the gay catagory by how they look and TofuUnion sited Gackt as a description of some Japanese boys. I watched the linked video and(even ignoring his rather feminine look but rather focusing on his actions) if he isn’t gay i would assume he is bi-sexual. Is this look and idea what is common among Japanese youth or even what they strive for?

I know its common in the states for women to wear clothing that would have normally been associated with men, but unless you are gay its very uncommon to see the other way around. As I’ve not been to Japan yet, I guess I’m just curious as to if dressing, as we see in the above picture, is a common fashion.

The ‘metrosexual’ phenomenon always made me feel unsettled since, frankly, it seemed to have been driven by buying products, buying services, buying into an image, buying, buying, buying.

That and making men just as neurotic about their looks as some women have allowed themselves to become.

[The above statement is made with tongue (flaccidly) in cheek and is made soley for the purposes of trying to sound vaguely sympathetic].

Tangent Alert: my girlfriends in Paris and I have distilled the difference between Frenchmen (or at least Parisiens) and Englishmen (or at least Londoners).

It all comes down to… haircuts. Frenchmen, as a whole, have better haircuts and they seem to have sukoshi more style in their social uniforms. But you shave off all the head hair, in general, the Parisiens and Londoners don’t look all that different, on the whole.

One of my cousisns and I have been emailing this week (practicing the kanji, JP) about HYDE of L’arc en Ciel. Similar deal. Very, very pretty boy. I think I’ll have to put up some YouTube videos too so folks can see.

Thanks, TofuUnion.

I don’t know whether it’s right or not. But I could imagine how he looked like. As an example, take a look at Gackt. He is a rock musician. (Everybody on her taste.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXO5DHfHaDc&mode=related&search