Cover not available

Article published In: Journal of Asian Pacific Communication
Vol. 28:2 (2018) ► pp.251–280

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Gentle masculinity in East Asia

‘Herbivore Men’ and interlocutor constructed language

 | Yokohama City University
Published online: 10 August 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.00012.kro
Abstract
This study considers the Japanese phenomenon of sooshokukei-danshi (SKD) ‘Herbivore Men’ within larger discourses of ‘East-Asian gentle masculinity.’ Focusing on lexical variation across both scripted and naturalistic data, the current study argues that while use of salient variables by SKD identified speakers in media closely conform to stereotypically gendered usage patterns, use of these variables in naturalistic data is more complex, suggesting speakers’ engagement in the performance of a range of gendered stances. Furthermore, data indicate that rather than use of particular lexical items, e.g. a given pragmatic particle, the performance of gendered types emerges through patterns in the use of a range of items and that use of a single item does not by itself signal gendered performance. Concurrently, interlocutors ignore speakers’ use of otherwise salient variables when they do not conform to interlocutors’ pre-existing images of these speakers, focusing instead on use of those variables that confirm their metalinguistic images of the speaker.
Article outline
  • Introduction
    • SKD Language in the film Sooshokukeidanshi
    • SKD Language in smap (Sports Music Assemble People)
    • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (49)
References
Aruteishia (2009). Sooshokukeidanshi ni ai sureba [In love with a Sooshokukeidanshi]. Tokyo, Japan: Media Factory.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K. (2005). Language and identity. In Duranti, A. (Ed.) A companion to linguistic anthropology. Blackwell Reference Online. Retrieved from [URL] Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Campbell-Kibler, K. (2007). Accent, (ING), and the social logic of listener perceptions. American Speech, 82(1), 32–64. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008). I’ll be the judge of that: Diversity in social perceptions of (ING). Language in Society, 371, 637–659. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). Intersecting variables and perceived sexual orientation in men. American Speech, 86(1), 52–68. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cogan, B., & Cogan, G. (2006). Gender and Authenticity in Japanese Popular Music: 1980–2000. Popular Music and Society, 29(1), 69–90. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cook, H. (1987). Social meanings of the Japanese sentence final particle no. IPrA Papers in Pragmatics, 1(2), 124–168.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Darling-Wolf, F. (2004a). SMAP, sex and masculinity: Constructing the perfect female fantasy in Japanese popular music. Popular music and society, 27(3). 357–370. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2004b). Women and new men: Negotiating Masculinity in the Japanese media. The communication review, 71, 285–303. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davis, C. (2009). Decisions, dynamics and the Japanese particle yo. Journal of Semantics, 26(4), 329–366. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deguchi, T. (Producer). (2013, April 8). SMAP x SMAP [Television broadcast]. Tokyo, Japan: Fuji Television.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DuBois, J. W. (2007). The stance triangle. In R. Englebretson (Ed.), Stancetaking in discourse – Subjectivity, evaluation, interaction (pp. 139–182). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eckert, P. (2008). Variation and the indexical field. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 121, 453–476. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Endo, O. (2001). Onna no ko no ‘boku/ore’ wa okashikunai [Girls’ use of ‘boku/ore’ isn’t strange]. In O. Endo (Ed.), Onna to Kotoba (pp. 30–39). Tokyo: Asahi Shohan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Englebretson, R. (2007). Stancetaking in discourse: An introduction. In R. Englebretson (Ed.), Stancetaking in discourse – Subjectivity, evaluation, interaction (pp. 1–25). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Furuichi, N. (2011). Zetsuboo no kuni no koofuku na wakamonotachi [The happy young people of a hopeless country]. Tokyo: Koodansha.
Fujimoto, M. (2012). Ohagurobera: Nikushokukeidanshi [Ohagurobera: Carnivore men]. Asahi Shimbun, Retrieved from [URL].
Fujita, S. (Producer), & Wata, A. (Director). (2010). Sooshokukeidanshi [Herbivore men] [Motion Picture]. Japan: Pony Canyon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Inoue, M. (2004). What does language remember? Indexical inversion and the naturalized history of Japanese women. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 14(1), 39–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2006). Vicarious language: Gender and linguistic modernity in Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaffe, A. M. (2009). Indeterminacy and regularization: A process based approach to the study of sociolinguistic variation and language ideologies. Sociolinguistic Studies, 3(2), 229–251.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Katsuki-Pestemer, N. (2003). Japanese postpositions: Theory and practice. Munchen, Germany: Lincom.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kiesling, S. (2009). Style as stance: Can stance be the primary explanation for patterns of sociolinguistic variation?. In A. Jaffe (Ed.) Sociolinguistic perspectives of stance (pp. 171–194). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kinsui, S. (2003). Vaacharu nihongo yakuwarigo no nazo [Virtual Japanese: The riddle of yakuwarigo]. Tokyo, Japan: Iwanami Shoten.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McGloin, N. H. (1990). Sex differences and sentence-final particles. In S. Ide & N. H. McGloin (Eds.), Aspects of Japanese women’s language. (pp. 23–41). Tokyo, Japan: Kuroshio.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, L. (2004). You’re doing burriko!: Censoring/scrutinizing artificers of cute femininity in Japanese. In S. Okamoto & J. S. Shibamoto Smith (Eds.), Japanese language, gender and ideology: Cultural models and real people (pp. 148–165). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miyazaki, A. (2004). Japanese junior high schoolgirls’ and boy’s first-person pronoun use and their social world. In S. Okamoto & J. S. Shibamoto Smith (Eds.), Japanese language, gender and ideology: Cultural models and real people (pp. 256–274). New York, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mizumoto, T. (2001). Terebi dorama ni okeru josei kotoba to jendaa firuta-: bunmatsushi (shuujoshi) shiyoo jittai choosai no chuukan hookoku yori [Women’s language in television dramas and the gender filter: from an interim report on actual use of sentence final particles]. Nihongo to jendaa. 5(3). Retrieved from [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morioka, M. (2010). Sooshokukeidanshi no renai gaku [Love lessons for Sooshokukeidanshi]. Tokyo, Japan: Media Factory.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nakakita, M. (2000). Danwa ni okeru daroo · deshoo no sentaku-kijun [Appropriate choices between daroo and deshoo in discourse]. Nihongo Kyooiku, 1071, 26–35.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nakamura, J. (2000). Shuujoshi ni okeru danseigo to joseigo [Sentence final particles with respect to men’s language and women’s language]. Shinshuu Daigaku Ryuugakusei Sentaa Kiyoo, 11, 1–11.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nakamura, M. (2007). ‘Onna kotoba’ wa tsukurareru [‘Women’s language’ is a construction]. Tokyo: Hitsuji Shobo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nin, R. (2003). Shuujoshi kashira ni okeru dan/jo sa no keisei: Kindai shoosetsu ni okeru yoorei choosa o chuushin ni [The formation of male/female difference with respect to the sentence final particle kashira: An analysis focusing on examples from modern novels]. Tsukuba Nihongo Kenkyuu, 81. Tsukuba, Japan: Tsukuba University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ogi, N. (2014). Language and an expression of identities: Japanese sentence-final particles ne and na. Journal of Pragmatics, 641, 72–84. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Okamoto, S. (1995). Tasteless Japanese: Less “feminine” speech among young Japanese women. In K. Hall & M. Bucholtz (Eds.), Gender articulated: Language and the socially constructed self. (pp. 297–325). New York, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Podesva, R. (2007). Phonation type as a stylistic variable: The use of falsetto in constructing a persona. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11(4), 478–504. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). The California vowel shift and gay identity. American Speech, 86(1), 32–51. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sakata, M. (1991). The Acquisition of Japanese ‘Gender’ Particles, Language and Communication, 11(3), 117–125. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shibamoto, J. 1985. Japanese women’s language. London, UK: Academic Press, Harcourt, Brace and Janovich.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silverstein, M. (2003). Indexical order and the dialectics of social life. Language and Communication, 231, 193–229. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
SturtzSreetharan, C. (2004a). Japanese men’s linguistic stereotypes and realities. In S. Okamoto & J. S. Shibamoto Smith (Eds.), Japanese language, gender and ideology: Cultural models and real people (pp. 275–290). New York, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
SturzSreetharan, C. (2004b). Students, sarariiman (pl.), and seniors: Japanese men’s use of ‘manly’ speech register. Language in Society, 331, 81–107.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
SturtzSreetharan, C. (2006). Gentlemanly gender? Japanese men’s use of clause-final politeness in casual conversations. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 10(1), 70–92. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Teshigawara, M., & Kinsui, S. (2011). Modern Japanese ‘role language’ (yakuwarigo): Fictionalised orality in Japanese literature and popular culture. Sociolinguistic Studies, 5(1), 37–58.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ueno, T. (1972). Shyuujoshi to sono shuuhen [Sentence final particles and their surroundings]. Nihongo Kyooiku, 171, 61–77.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yamada, M. (2015). Naze wakamono wa hoshuka shita no ka [Why are young people becoming conservative?]. Tokyo, Japan: Asahi Shimbun.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Willis, Chloe
2023. Sôshokukei kara asuparabêkon made! ‘From herbivores to bacon-wrapped asparagus!’. Gender and Language 17:3 ► pp. 223 ff. DOI logo
Kroo, Judit
2021. Introduction. In Linguistic Tactics and Strategies of Marginalization in Japanese, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue