Trans Bodies, Practices, and Capitalism in Japan

So far, I have explored the lived experience, media representation, and styles and practices of transgender and gender nonconforming individuals in Japan.

Publications in this area are:

Ho, Michelle H. S. 2023. “From Dansō to Genderless: Mediating Queer Styles and Androgynous Bodies in Japan.” In Gender in Japanese Popular Culture: Rethinking Masculinities and Femininities, edited by Sirpa Salenius, 29-59. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan. (Invited chapter).

Ho, Michelle H. S. 2022. “A Different Kind of Transgender Celebrity: From Entertainment Narrative to the ‘Wrong Body’ Discourse in Japanese Media Culture” in Television & New Media 23(8): 803-821.

Ho, Michelle H. S. 2021. “Categories that Bind: Transgender, Crossdressing, and Transnational Sexualities in Tokyo” in Sexualities. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/13634607211028109.

Ho, Michelle H. S. 2021. “From Dansō to Genderless: Mediating Queer Styles and Androgynous Bodies in Japan,” in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 22(2): 158-177.

Ho, Michelle H. S. 2020. “Queer and Normal: Dansō (female-to-male crossdressing) Lives and Politics in Contemporary Tokyo” in Asian Anthropology 19(2): 102-118.

Emergent Genders

I am currently completing my first book manuscript, “Emergent Genders,” which traces the relationship between trans/gender issues and capitalism in contemporary Tokyo, Japan, based on ethnographic field research I conducted between 2015 and 2017 at josō (male-to-female crossdressing) and dansō (female-to-male crossdressing) cafe-and-bars (女装 • 男装カフェアンドバー).