Becoming imaginable : Japanese gay male identity as mediated through popular culture

This thesis will examine how gay men are depicted in mainstream Japanese pop culture. To be discussed are: gay-themed comics for girls, mainstream movies in which the protagonists are gay, and finally, gay men's magazines which are gay authored and consumed. In examining how fantasies in these texts respond to the needs of various readerships, it is possible to understand how important and challenging it is for gay Japanese men to create identities of their own, identities which will allow them more possibilities than the prevailing facade of compulsory heterosexuality, complete with marriage and children