Book Talk: GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN MODERN JAPAN

The University of San Francisco Center for Asia Pacific Studies welcomes Professor Sabine Frühstück to discuss her book Gender and Sexuality in Modern Japan, which describes the ever-changing manifestations of sexes, genders, and sexualities in Japanese society from the 1860s to the present day. Analyzing a wide range of texts, images and data, Frühstück considers the experiences of females, males and the evolving spectrum of boundary-crossing individuals and identities in Japan.  These include the intersexed conscript in the 1880s, the first “out” lesbian war reporter in the 1930s, and pregnancy-vest-wearing male governors in the present day. She interweaves macro views of history with stories about individual actors, highlighting how sexual and gender expression has been negotiated in both the private and the public spheres and continues to wield the power to critique and change society.

GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN MODERN JAPAN

Book talk by Sabine Frühstück, Koichi Takashima Chair in Japanese Cultural Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara

Tuesday, March 28, 5:30-6:45 pm

HYBRID (In Person & Online) McLaren 252

Free and open to the public. Registration required.

Sabine Frühstück is interested in the study of modern and contemporary Japanese culture and its relationship to the world. Her research has engaged several intellectual fields and, in addition to English, has appeared in Japanese, German, French and Russian. Her books include Gender and Sexuality in Modern Japan (Cambridge UP, 2022), Playing War: Children and the Paradoxes of Modern Militarism in Japan (U of California Press, 2017), Uneasy Warriors: Gender, Memory and Popular Culture in the Japanese Army (U of California Press, 2007), and Colonizing Sex: Sexology and Social Control in Modern Japan (U of California Press, 2003), along with edited volumes on the history of childhood, masculinity, sexuality, and leisure.

Community Partners: MA in Asia Pacific Studies, Gender and Sexualities Studies at the University of San Francisco