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Not myself tonight: subjunctive selves and the in-sincerity of service in Japanese queer nightlife

Not myself tonight: subjunctive selves and the in-sincerity of service in Japanese queer nightlife Abstract What is the relationship between truth, sense of self and being a professional in Japanese queer nightlife? For service industry professionals’ spontaneity is not a fruitful quality to cultivate to establish oneself. Instead, commitment to customers’ satisfaction and adaptability to their wants, needs and grudges are considered by customers and providers to be paramount qualities of a service professional. Drawing on my ethnography at Japanese-style gay bars in Shinjuku Ni-chōme (Tokyo) and other Japanese urban centers, and from studies on the Japanese self, religious practice and authenticity, I propose in-sincerity as an analytical tool to describe how service professionals orient their practice. At Japanese-style gay bars, in-sincerity represents a strict approach to work involving withdrawing parts of one’s self and concocting subjunctive selves (customized versions of one’s self that occupied an illusive 'as if’ dimension) for customers’ entertainment. The co-creation and reproduction of bar legends at Zenith bar exemplifies the surfacing of these subjunctive selves by inextricably entangling factual information and the imaginary worlds of both service professionals and customers. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asian Anthropology Taylor & Francis

Not myself tonight: subjunctive selves and the in-sincerity of service in Japanese queer nightlife

Francioni, Marcello
Asian Anthropology , Volume 22 (2): 17 – Apr 3, 2023
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17 pages

Not myself tonight: subjunctive selves and the in-sincerity of service in Japanese queer nightlife

Abstract

Abstract What is the relationship between truth, sense of self and being a professional in Japanese queer nightlife? For service industry professionals’ spontaneity is not a fruitful quality to cultivate to establish oneself. Instead, commitment to customers’ satisfaction and adaptability to their wants, needs and grudges are considered by customers and providers to be paramount qualities of a service professional. Drawing on my ethnography at Japanese-style gay bars in Shinjuku...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
ISSN
2168-4227
eISSN
1683-478X
DOI
10.1080/1683478X.2023.2178098
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract What is the relationship between truth, sense of self and being a professional in Japanese queer nightlife? For service industry professionals’ spontaneity is not a fruitful quality to cultivate to establish oneself. Instead, commitment to customers’ satisfaction and adaptability to their wants, needs and grudges are considered by customers and providers to be paramount qualities of a service professional. Drawing on my ethnography at Japanese-style gay bars in Shinjuku Ni-chōme (Tokyo) and other Japanese urban centers, and from studies on the Japanese self, religious practice and authenticity, I propose in-sincerity as an analytical tool to describe how service professionals orient their practice. At Japanese-style gay bars, in-sincerity represents a strict approach to work involving withdrawing parts of one’s self and concocting subjunctive selves (customized versions of one’s self that occupied an illusive 'as if’ dimension) for customers’ entertainment. The co-creation and reproduction of bar legends at Zenith bar exemplifies the surfacing of these subjunctive selves by inextricably entangling factual information and the imaginary worlds of both service professionals and customers.

Journal

Asian Anthropology – Taylor & Francis

Published: Apr 3, 2023

Keywords: Japan; Queer Nightlife; Sincerity; Insincerity

References

  • Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch-Box as Ideological State Apparatus
  • An Ethnography of Dinner Entertainment in Japan
  • Bukatsudō: The Educational Role of Japanese School Clubs
  • Rethinking Fakes, Authenticating Selves
  • Maintaining Cultural Boundaries in Retailing: How Japanese Department Stores Domesticate 'Things Foreign
  • FtM Crossdresser Escorts in Contemporary Japan: An Embodied and Sensorial Ethnography
  • To Wrap or Not to Wrap: Politeness and Penetration in Ethnographic Inquiry
  • Wrapping and Japanese Presentation: Is This Waste or Care?
  • Interactive Practices in Shinjuku Ni-Chōme’s Male Homosexual Bars
  • Moving in Time, out of Step: Mimesis as Moral Breakdown in European Re‐Enactments of the North American Indian Woodland
  • Rehearsed Spontaneity and the Conventionality of Ritual: Disciplines of ‘Salat’.”
  • Spiritual Education’ in a Japanese Bank
  • Geiba¯ wa fuyō nanoka? “waka-sen” geiba¯ ni okeru aratanaru senryaku [Have Gay Bars Become Unnecessary? New Strategies at “Waka-Sen” Gay Bars’]
  • Unqueer Queers—Drinking Parties and Negotiations of Cultural Citizenship by Female-to-Male Trans People in Japan
  • Moral Breakdown and the Ethical Demand: A Theoretical Framework for an Anthropology of Moralities