Welcome to Gaia! ::

Mine is funny cause for the computer class Im in we could have whatever we wanted for our backgrounds and so I like put up some J-Rock pics and like the guys sitting nxt to me were like "Oh their hot!" and I was like " rofl Their guys!" so now when ever I put up a new background they alwasy have to ask XD ....

Fighting against the rednecks forever!

I remember introducing Dir en Grey to each of my friends, who now all ove them. Every one of them thought they were girls, and I had to remind them over and over. Same with Miyavi. But, as my one friend put it, "Miyavi makes a cool guy and a hot girl..."

Anyways, I am Visual Kei, or atleast I'm going to be...I have some of the stuff. I will be so in my current band and on. I have also said, many times, that if anyone calls me a tranny, drag queen, or gay (no offence to anybody) I will kick their a**. I am totally into Visual kei, and I love everything about it and everybody who does it!

VK really is just crossdressing within its own unique cultural context. Japan isn't the Western world and doesn't share our values.

There's nothing wrong with dressing in drag, there's really nothing wrong with being called gay or a transvestite either except for the fact that the people dont the name calling equivocate those terms with being weird, deviant and socially unfit.

Or you can go the route to say why do appearance and behavior have to be categorized by gender?

I love crossdressers, they gain a lot of respect from me for have the guts to crossdress.

I showed a boy in my English class a picture of Mana once. He said that he was going to like like that after Christmas break, minus the dress, the hair, and the makeup. I was like "So, basically, you'll look nothing like him? blaugh "

He did end up coming back from Christmas break a goth like. He had jingly pants. 4laugh

You mean VK?

Transvestism is a lifestyle...crossdressing can be too on its own...but it is often a part of transvestism.

Also anybody also can crossdress and not be a transvestite, ne?
A boy can play at being "feminine" by doing certain gender-specific things.
So can a girl. For any length of time, IMO, I think this counts as crossdressing.
It doesnt necessarily have to say anything towards your identity or lifestyle choices unless you decide to make it a part of the way you live and experience life.

From what I've seen...VK musicians can wear the dresses and the makeup and look gorgeous and feminine on stage.
From the reactions of Western people who aren't familiar with the phenomenon that you guys have posted...crossdressing like this is often met with negativity because in our culture, it's seen as weird or perverted in some way. People automatically assume that they're gay or have something wrong with them. Our culture seems to be obsessed with how behaviors and choices reflect on what kind of person we are.

In Japan, it seems there is less uproar. There is no one shouting at these guys calling them pansies or anything. Not to say that Japan is some free place without prejudices, I think values, especially sexual ones are different than in the West. Certain topics are less taboo. Plus crossdressing in performance goes back into their history in traditional theater.
Its just that these guys can wear dresses and flounce around and then take it off and not have any moral or social labels tagged on them the way they would in the West.

( * 0*)
You're in a VK band? Nice. What style of rock? Where are you based?
(sorry Vampy if this isn't legal n__n;; )