Alpha, Beta, Gamma Males: Asian/American Men and Audience Research

Abstract

Through an audience reception analysis, this paper exposes and explores issues surrounding the expression of Asian/American masculinity and argues the importance of transnationality in intercultural communication and Cultural Studies works. Fifteen Asian/American male participants viewed the Japanese film, Train Man (Densha Otoko, 2005). In my analysis of their interview data, I looked at the ways in which participants distance themselves from stereotypes of Asian (men). This distancing generally occurred by projecting Asian stereotypes onto subject groups within the same racial category ("Asian") who belong to different nationalities, generations, and/or ethnic groups. Participants, however, through their own transnational positions, also demonstrated the ability to understand masculinity and manhood as it is conflated with race and nation in a way that was both inclusive and non-violent/non-aggressive. These findings suggest that scholarship regarding Asian/American masculinities need to take into account the ways in which the current Eurocentric scholarship is limits how we currently talk about non-normative masculinity and that a more transnational approach would provide different ways of discussing masculinity.