ABSTRACT
Many gender-queering individuals and representations are policed by the mainstream media to such an extent that they become complicit in the re-inscription of a hetero-normative gender system. There are, however, some exceptions. The performance of Matsuko Deluxe – one of the most popular male-to-female cross-dressing figures in Japan – represents a rare challenge to the mainstream media’s policing process by exposing and making a mockery of its policing tactics. This chapter argues that her presence and popularity in the current Japanese media offers one possible way through which queerness can be utilized in mainstream media not to consolidate its hetero-normative attitude, but, instead, to gradually expose it for eventual modification.
