There is a predominance for cute characters among Japanese virtual YouTubers (VTubers). Men who publicly use feminine avatars to conduct online entertainment are called babiniku in Japan. This research paper investigates whether embodying cute avatars impacts males’ perception of self. Examining the process leading some online performers to turn into outwardly feminine characters, we address the reasons why babiniku reproduce gender stereotypes. Our presumption is that such role play is part of a strategy with purposes yet to be deciphered. We deployed quantitative and qualitative methods, such as survey and semi structured interviews, to collect first-hand testimonies from 24 babiniku participants. This article contributes to an existing literature about digital gender swapping with avatars and Japanese cross-dressing from an anthropological perspective. As stressed by the babiniku who took part in this research, digital cross-dressing enables them to create a world where they can indulge in fancy and fantasy. All together with their fans, babiniku build a notion of femininity that allows users to act and live outside of societal pressures.
Au Japon, les simulacres affectifs se multiplient sous la forme d'amante numérique, de boyfriend téléchargeable ou de copine interactive, programmés pour reproduire les mimiques de la séduction sur un écran de poche (smartphone ou console sans fi l). L'attachement aux personnages fi ctifs porte le nom d' « air amour » (ea ren'ai), par allusion à l'air guitar. Humour révélateur de ce que les consommateurs, hommes et femmes, font de ces jeux au Japon : des outils pour signifi er le refus d'un monde ironiquement appelé « l'espace en 3D » (sanjigen no kûkan), c'est-à-dire « l'ici-bas ». La pratique de l'air amour (ea ren'ai) s'inscrit de fait dans une logique d'interaction avec l'invisible. Il s'agit de convoquer un être, en détournant les rituels de rencontre amoureuse au profi t d'une scénographie dont les formes, hyper-codifi ées, fournissent la mise en signes ostentatoire de ce que les adeptes des jeux nomment eux-mêmes « la fuite de la réalité ».
L'amour d'air au JaponRituels de rencontre avec des voix venues d'ailleurs par Agnès Giard dossier 118
Taking as a point of departure the status accorded to sexual orgasm in Western societies, we take a step back from modern "orgasmolatry" as well as from its critique. By considering the choices made in other cultural worlds and making room for concepts of sexuality among Amerindians of Amazonia, the latest Japanese sex toys, and the debates surrounding cybersex, it envisages new interpretative approaches to a topic that has spawned an abundant literature in other fields. Our aim is to open up avenues for reflecting on notions about the experience of orgasm in different cultural contexts. What exactly does the orgasm mean elsewhere? Is it viewed in the same way as in the West? Where it is cultivated as a sensitive moment in relationships between the living, what types of sociocosmological connections does it reveal?
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