瘦男出头
| Dec 8, 2007 |
| Skinny is in for Japanese guys |
| Now that the women are stronger, it's the men who want to be slender and fragile |
| TOKYO - There was a time when slimness was the absolute prerequisite for urban Japanese women, when designers like Shinichiro Arakawa and Yohji Yamamoto professed a flat refusal to make clothes for women who weren't fragile and thin, whose chests and hips were barely discernable through the fabric. That aesthetic went out when the health and exercise boom came in about seven years ago. The new Japanese woman, according to fashion critic Ikuko Hirayama, is 'strong, robust, bursting with energy. She takes care of her body but is not obsessed with being thin. She's proud of her biceps and also proud of her sexuality'. Accordingly, the most popular relaxation sport for single working women nowadays is 'boxercising', or the combination of boxing moves plus aerobics, which is said to increase adrenaline flow by 80 per cent and is an ideal way to blow off aggression and stress. In stark contrast, it's the men who want to be slender, vulnerable and protected. Young males between the ages of 18 and 30 make up the slimmest segment of the population and the ideal fashion weight as decreed by the apparel industry is 57kg, for a height of 175cm. Many men try to adhere to that figure and some claim they want to be even skinnier. Junichi Shirakawa, 25, who works at the denim boutique 45 RPM, said his goal is to get his weight down from 57kg to 55kg, although his height is 182cm. 'Being really skinny is essential, not just for fashion and work purposes but also because girls seem to go for thin guys,' he said. Both Shirakawa and his girlfriend like the fact that she weighs more than he does, and is the leader of the couple. 'She's a lot stronger than I am, can lift heavy things and go drinking until dawn. 'I admire that about her, and feel protected when I'm around her,' he said. Older than him by five years, it was Shirakawa's girlfriend who made the approach, started the dating process and decided what course their relationship would take. 'Frankly, I think women should be in the driver's seat. Society and relationships work better that way,' he said. Shirakawa likes to wear his girlfriend's clothes and often shows up for work wearing her blouse and jeans, to the general approval of his co-workers. Hirayama said: 'For young men, wearing women's clothes has almost become a status symbol - a confirmation of being slim and pretty and, therefore, desirable. 'Young women, on the other hand, are less interested now in looking beautiful for the benefit of young men. They dress up for themselves, for their own satisfaction.' This seeming reversal of traditional gender roles has spawned such interesting fashion items as the 'unsexy miniskirt', a term coined by TV commentator Ryuichi Fujita. All the rage this autumn is the short, short skirt combined with boots or ballet shoes - the salient feature of this look is that it shows a lot but says nothing and is consequently 'apolitical and not sexy at all', said Fujita. Indeed, it seems that Japanese women have reclaimed sexuality as their very own and now dress to enhance their self-esteem rather than to please the male gaze, which was what a big part of street fashion had been about. Now that the male gaze is focused primarily on the men themselves, the equation of short skirts and wolf whistles just doesn't work anymore. As Hirayama said: 'The term kawaii (cute) used to be something that described women, or female attributes. Now women are more likely to use that to talk about men and what they're wearing. As a result, more young men aspire to be cute.' Indeed, young men claim to want to be pursued and then nurtured - they often hate to make the first move and often shy away from conflict. 'I never fight with my girlfriend because I know I'll lose' is how Shirakawa put it. 'It's just a lot more comfortable for me if I go along with everything she says.' IHT |
-叶子言
posted by 叶子 sirennights at
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