From the 17th to 19th centuries, gender could be neither binary nor biological.<\/b>
Generation Z refers to individuals born during the mid-1990s and early \u201800s often billed as the \u00a0generation most likely to fully embrace gender fluidity. According to one report, around 56 percent of teens ages 13 to 20 know of someone who identifies themselves using gender-neutral pronouns like \u201c they \u201d or \u201cze.\u201d Regarding sexual orientation, the study found that approximately\u00a0 one-third of the demographic \u00a0has chosen to identify as neither heterosexual or homosexual,\u00a0indicating that they are bisexual \u201cto some degree.\u201d
When it comes to matters of gender and sexuality, however,\u00a0the prerogatives of this up-and-coming age group are not necessarily unprecedented. In fact, many living during Japan\u2019s Edo period, which stretched from the early 1600s to about 1868, recognized a third gender centuries ago. That gender was known as \u201c wakashu,\u201d or \u201cbeautiful youths.\u201d
The cultural subgroup typically consisted of adolescent boys who had not yet entered into adulthood,\u00a0and in the interim, were seen as androgynous, culturally permitted to present as both male and female and as the objects of desire for both men and women. That is,\u00a0until they removed their forelocks in a coming-of-age ceremony known as \u201cgenpuku.\u201d
An exhibition dedicated to the portrayal of wakashu \u00a0 in Japanese art is now on view for the first time in North America. Titled \u201c A Third Gender: Beautiful Youths in Japanese Prints,\u201d the show features erotic prints from the 17th to 19th centuries in which gender and sexuality are depicted as playful and flexible.
The works depict a radical moment in Japanese history that often goes unacknowledged even today. As Asato Ikeda, a guest curator of the exhibition, told The New York Times: \u201cEven though we have this rich tradition of gender, prints like these are not found in our textbooks. We don\u2019t do these kinds of exhibitions in Japan.\u201d
The Edo period was characterized by peace, economic growth, isolation from the West and a rigid social order. Within this era of tranquility and prosperity blossomed a renewed interest in art, entertainment and sex, all of which converged in cultural practices like Kabuki theater, red light\u2013style pleasure districts and erotic prints known as \u201cshunga.\u201d
Given the strict hierarchies that divided class and age in real life, these realms opened up space for fantasies to play out and experimentation to flourish. The wild imaginings and the power plays they alluded to are visualized in the vivid woodblock prints that circulated for cheap throughout the two Edo centuries. Within them, older men and women make love to wakashu, pictured as flirtatious and desirable.
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Upon first glance, wakashu appear like women, donning elaborate hairstyles and long-sleeved kimono robes, known as \u201cfurisodes.\u201d Yet a shaved triangular patch toward the top of the head is the defining mark that identifies the alluring youth as wakashu. A sword peeking out of a samurai sash can also disclose their biological sex, as can their genitals, which occasionally appear in some of the more erotic prints.
The images also depict cross-dressing in various forms\u00a0\u2015 women sex workers known as \u201chaori-geisha\u201d who dressed as wakashu to appeal to male clients aroused by masculinity, enacting a sort of drag within drag. Men also performed female roles on the Kabuki stage, where women were banned, as fluctuating actors known as \u201connagata.\u201d
The tradition of the wakashu died out around 1860, when Japan was infiltrated both militarily and culturally by the West and, as a result, broke with their more experimental traditions. Today, same-sex marriage is still not legal in Japan, although some cities do grant partnerships \u00a0between LGBTQ people. Open attitudes regarding gender identity and sexual experimentation, however, are most evident in the stunning imagery crafted centuries ago, when gender was not conceived of as either binary or biological, but a fluctuating range of identities and performances, of pleasure and play.
\u201cA Third Gender: Beautiful Youths in Japanese Prints\u201d is on view through June 11 at New York\u2019s Japan Society .<\/p>\n