Mickey Mouse Marries Goofy

[Guest thaiworthy]

Two weeks ago, the happiest place on earth got a whole lot happier. Tokyo Disneyland, in a move that surprised and delighted thousands across Asia, announced their support of gay marriages . . .

 

Will Gay Marriage Ever Be Legalized in Asia?

 

While gay marriage is not currently legal in Japan, nor anywhere else in Asia, Mickey and his friends will, from now on, allow any gay couple to host their marriage ceremony on the grounds of the theme park and its resort.

While this decision may seem, to some, like a huge step forward for gay rights in Asia, for others, it's just another example of how far they have to go for legitimation. For the latter group, the reminder that they cannot enjoy the same legal rights as hetero couples might be even more sharply felt by the fact that one of the few places in which they can even hold a ceremony is a children's park built around a notion of make-believe.

With US President Barack Obama's open support for gay marriages in the United States, homosexuals and liberals across Asia have begun to hope this might lead to their own leaders rethinking their countries' stances on the issues. But the reality is that Asia is still far more conservative than America. In many nations, the main issue is not whether gay couples can be legally married but whether they can live their lives without fear of official persecution.

 

http://www.bigthink....galized-in-asia

[Guest fountainhall]

The Japanese are masters of appearances. If all appears well, it must be well. If Tokyo Disneyland is permitting gay weddings, then it is surely a sign that Japan is finally changing. Alas! What lies beneath the surface calm in Japan is often something very different. And so it is with gay weddings, as this heading in a Guardian article a couple of weeks suggests -

 

Fake gay weddings in Tokyo Disneyland are not a fairytale come true

The Disneyfication of gay marriage in Japan does the country's civil partnership campaign few favours

 

Let’s get one other issue out of the way first – cost. Weddings in japan are lavish affairs. They usually take place in the ballrooms of large 4- and 5-star hotels and oblige guests to spend one night, one reason why rooms are so expensive if you as a visitor want to stay over a week-end. That Tokyo Disneyland wedding in Cinderella’s castle, complete with Disney character guests, will cost the LGBT couple a whopping ¥7.5 million (US$95,000).

 

The number of such ceremonies will therefore not be high.

 

And what about this being seen as a landmark decision in the furtherance of LGBT rights? Alas, again!

 

News that a lesbian couple will be allowed to "perform" a non-legally binding commitment ceremony in Tokyo Disneyland is being celebrated as a victory for the burgeoning civil partnership campaign in Japan. But in a country where apolitical fantasy dress-up is a national pastime, a fake wedding in an imported land of make-believe is hardly a victory for LGBT rights.

 

At Tokyo Rainbow Pride last month, I asked dozens of individuals of varying ages, political persuasions and non-straight identities about the one thing the Japanese government could do to improve their lives. "Give us civil partnership" was the resounding answer. Currently, gay couples living in Japan often resort to adopting one another as a means of full legal protection, and while the country signed a UN protocol last year promising to protect its LGBT citizens, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is yet to be outlawed.

http://www.guardian....n-not-fairytale

 

In an article the previous day, The Guardian had quoted one of the couple adding, despite her excitement about her ‘marriage’, that taboos surrounding sexuality had forced many gay and lesbian couples to keep their relationships secret.

 

"There is still a lot of prejudice at work and in people's homes to prevent a lot of us from coming out," she told Reuters. "Also, when the only public gays you see are the comedians on television who are the butt of public ridicule, it's hard to find a good reason to come out."

http://www.guardian....se-gay-marriage

 

Under the surface, homophobia is alive and thriving in the land of the rising sun - Mickey Mouse or no!

[TotallyOz]

Thanks for sharing this link. It is much appreciated. I enjoyed the read and the discussion afterwards.

 

There seems to be a great deal of Japanese porn. I mean, more than Thailand and any other Asian country. I don't think this relates to gays being accepted but I am curious how accepted gays are in society. It is so interesting that so many countries that are so close to Thailand and very open mindedness are so closed off and insecure about homosexuality.

 

It is only recently that I felt the US was moving in the right direction and that may all disappear in the next election.

 

Personally, I'd love a gay marriage at Disney World. A castle as a back drop? Yumm.

[Guest fountainhall]

The Japanese porn industry is huge and by far the biggest in Asia. Wikipedia estimated quite recently that the porn industry now accounts for 1% of Japan's GDP. That equals the total Japanese Defence budget!

 

In some ways Japanese society is quite like Thailand's: basically very conservative and traditional. It's also pretty hard to understand. On the one hand, it is a country which for centuries has valued the group far more than the individual. If you stand out, if you deviate from accepted norms, then you are squashed like a square peg into a round hole (oops, pardon the pun!).

 

On the other, there is so little habitable land for its 127 million or so population that everyone has traditionally been forced to live virtually on top of each other. So houses are very tightly packed together with little space between each. Since they all used to be built of wood and flimsy paper screens, the Japanese became used to hearing – but not hearing; knowing – but not knowing; seeing – but not seeing. Maintaining the harmony of the group, of the village, of the company, of the school and so on became of paramount importance.

 

So if two men or women live together, that is accepted, even though many may know they are gay. However, such is the stigma of being gay, this will not be discussed – except perhaps in hushed tones when the housewives are doing their shopping or their menfolk are drunk in some bar after work. You know – but you do not know. The key is not to disturb the harmony. If the gay couple does – perhaps by holding hands in public or writing letters to the local ward office in the city – then they have become the square peg! No longer will they get the polite smile and bow from their neighbours. They have become non-persons.

 

That’s perhaps only a slight exaggeration. It’s easier for gays to live in big anonymous cities now. Far more difficult in the smaller towns and villages. And the pressure on gays to get married remains, especially for sons. In my long blog about my visit to Japan at the end of March, I mentioned a great evening I had in the 24 sauna in Shinjuku. The young man I was with eventually told me that he was married and had two young sons. The only day he could ‘be himself’ was Saturday when he would lie to his wife about having to work. Late in the evening he’d return to Japanese normality. He said he could never come out and be accepted either by his family or at work. So he chose to stay in the closet, waiting for every Saturday to be himself. That has to be tough!

 

Things are changing – but very slowly. Tokyo has a small gay Pride Parade which drew all of 2,500 this year, and this in a city of over 18 million! Gay areas like Shinjuku-ni-chome are accepted. Other people know - but they don't know! But life for many gays consists of watching porn, going to bars or a sauna, and hooking up by phone. Japanese gays were masters of using their advanced 3G phones to hook up long before even gayromeo hit other countries!

[Guest fountainhall]

A few more thoughts.

 

I have written before with much enthusiasm about Alex Kerr’s excellent book “Bangkok Found”. That book is a kind-of follow up to his earlier, even better prize-winning book “Lost Japan”. A couple of short excerpts perhaps sum up Japanese society far better than any other I have come across.

 

In one chapter, he discusses Japan’s habit of keeping foreigners out, a tradition that’s almost as old as its recorded history. That remains to this day. Of course there are foreigners who live and work in Japan – as I myself did for two years – but the gaijin (foreigner) is merely tolerated, not accepted. As Kerr writes:

 

Japan is like an oyster. An oyster dislikes foreign objects; when even the smallest grain of sand or broken shell finds its way inside the oyster shell, the oyster finds the invasion intolerable, so it secretes layer after layer of nacre upon the surface of the offending particle, eventually creating a beautiful pearl. However, while pearls may vary slightly in size or luster, they all look very much alike. In the process of coating, not a trace remains of the shape or color of the grain of sand inside. In like manner, Japan coats all culture from abroad, transforming it into a Japanese-style pearl. The finished pearl is a thing of great beauty – often, as in the case of the tea ceremony, more refined than the original – but the essential nature of the original is lost . . .

 

The history of keeping foreigners out is inextricably bound up with Japan’s smoothly functioning social systems – which is why Japan has not allowed in large numbers of foreign workers or students, even though its industry needs the cheap labor . . . Allowing people of many races, creeds and philosophies to move too freely in Japanese society is viewed by conservative government officials as destabilizing. For the time being, therefore, the doors stay open only a crack.

 

Kerr might have added – so with foreign ideas, especially those that might destabilize society, like civil partnerships and gay marriage. They can never become oysters.

 

Lost Japan by Alex Kerr

Published by Lonely Planet Publications

[ChristianPFC]

The Japanese porn industry is huge and by far the biggest in Asia. Wikipedia estimated quite recently that the porn industry now accounts for 1% of Japan's GDP. That equals the total Japanese Defence budget!

 

This number is difficult to believe, but I read the same number (1%) elsewhere. I just wonder who is buying and watching all this porn. I recently sampled a bit (free from the internet) to confirm that it is true: they really pixelate genitals! Who on earth buys porn where the genitals are pixelated?

 

The plots are strange: a fully clothed guy with sunglasses undresses, touches and sucks the main actor, who has a facial expression like being at the dentist's and getting a root canal. This seems to be a common plot that appears weird to me. (Just some generalisations from a small sample.) But they have gorgeous twinks!

[Guest fountainhall]

Sorry Christian, it seems I was wrong! The percentage of GDP is actually a lot higher than 1%!

 

According to another Wikipedia article on Prostitution in Japan, the value of that part of the ‘industry‘ is equivalent to 2% - 3% of GDP.

 

http://en.wikipedia....tution_in_Japan

 

This is borne out by another site which states prostitution amounts to between 1% and 3% of GDP in Japan, and that Japan comes second only to the Netherlands.

 

For many countries, prostitution is an important element of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Thus, in the Netherlands, the industry of prostitution is 5% of the GDP; in Japan, the percentage is between 1 and 3%.

 

http://miradaglobal....emid=34&lang=en

 

So, if prostitution is merely a part of the overall sex industry, the whole industry will clearly account for an even higher percentage of Japan’s GDP. It would therefore seem to be closer to 5%!

 

I also found another interesting article on the net – this time about internet pornography, although not specifically related to Japan. It provides statistics up to 2006. Presumably the numbers have grown considerably since then. Were you aware that by the end of 2006 -

 

every second - US$3,075.64 was being spent on pornography?

 

every second - 28,258 internet users were viewing pornography?

 

every second - 372 internet users were typing adult search terms into search engines?

 

every 39 minutes: a new pornographic video was being created in the United States?

 

http://internet-filt...statistics.html

[Guest fountainhall]

The plots are strange

 

As to the plots of Japanese movies, these are again related to Japanese culture. Traditionally in Japanese culture, the women have been totally submissive to men. So this is portrayed in straight sex movies with the girls moaning excessively with every 'thrust'! That is then translated to gay movies with the guys who are being penetrated similarly making such submissive gasps. It has absolutely nothing to do with any pain or satisfaction.

 

Perhaps surprisingly, penetration was rarely a part of Japanese gay magazines or videos until less than 20 years ago. Then the videos were even more wooden and lacking in any kind of emotion. They were merely beautiful guys in lovely apartments, posing and fondling in a multitude of ways, with an unemotional orgasm at the end.

 

As I have said in an earlier thread, it is the surface impression in Japanese society that is all-important. You do not show emotions and keep an impassive face wherever possible. So in gay movies, the tradition has been that the actors behave in similar fashion. That is finally changing, and many of the more recent movies have guys who really do smile and seem to be enjoying the sex scenes with other guys. (And I agree with ChristianPFC, many of these guys are just drop dead gorgeous).

 

Thankfully, also, the pixelation is being steadily reduced as producers keep testing the limits of Japan's notorious Article 175 of the Criminal Code. This forbids creating and distributing “indecent” materials. By leaving something to the imagination, the movies are considered ‘decent’ – in that they are not wholly ‘indecent’! Surface impressions, yet again! But the supreme irony is that in Japan you can buy machines which will un-pixelate the movies!

 

Interestingly, Japan was always pretty unconcerned with sexual matters until the Americans forced the opening up of the country in the mid-1860s. The advent of western ideas, particularly with American missionaries and Victorian morality, led to the control of information and the start of fairly strict censorship of politics, literature – and sexual habits.

 

After the defeat of Japan In World War II, the new constitution abolished most forms of censorship. However, censorship of pornography remained as part of an overall censorship of the press. So, as in China and many other parts of Asia - including Thailand, it is the west, western thinking and western religious values which are to be blamed for the reshaping of Asian attitudes towards sex and morality.