1) "Beautiful Prince Reference Book: Where are the real boys? Am I actually a girl or a boy?" (pg.51- 58)
What follows are mini interviews with 14 different Visual Kei/Ouji style people, who answer a lot of interesting questions. At the end of the article it reveals their gender. The questions they asked were:
"What are you wearing?
Do you like men who look like men? Or women who look like men?
Do you want to live your life as a woman or a man?"
Most people they interviewed said that they'd like to spend their time 50%/50%, or that they'd rather live primarily as a man.
"When you dress in men's clothes, do you change your speech patterns appropriately?"
Most people said they didn't, or they spoke in a way so that there was no need to. For those who don't know, men and women speak very differently in Japanese. There are different grammatical structures and vocabulary depending on your gender, and even now, most people stick to their gender patterns. So this is really important.
"A male you've seen, where you thought, wow, I want to be like that?"
Some of the responses were: A tolerant man, a man with an overwhelmingly male presence, a man who is caring and kind, a man who is taller than 180cm (ahahaha), Sid Vicious, Johnny Depp, the magician Alister Crowley, hide (NOT hyde from L'arc en ciel, but hide from X JAPAN)
"Are there any man-like women you admire?"
For reference, I think this article was meant playfully, not as a deep exploration of the psychology of crossdressing, if this even counts as crossdressing(??).
2)"Top 10 jobs that lolitas want to have"(pg.83-90)
The most entertaining part of it is that they actually list 16 jobs. But they feature each job, have a little description of what it actually involves on a day to day basis, and have an interview or two with famous people with that job.
#1)"Jobs involved in art"
*How do I become an illustrator/mangaka?
*Interview with Mihara Mitsukazu
*Interview with Imai Kira
#2)"Things related to Medicine" (I did NOT expect that)
*How do I become a nurse/dentist/pharmacist?
*Interview with a dental student and a nurse
#3)"Fashion Designer"
*Interviews with designers from Angelic pretty, Baby, Innocent World, H. Naoto
#4)"Voice Actress"
*Interview with Tamura Yukari, anime voice actress
#5)"Jobs involving Cakes and breads"
#6)"Shop Staff"
This generally refers to working at some cool brand store, not just any store.
#7)"Researcher"
#8)"Writer"
#9)"Civil Servant"
#10)"Personal Involved in the Apparel Business"
Things like marketing, being a buyer
The other six:
translator, veterinarian, maid cafe waitress, herbal healer, librarian, graphic designer
3)"Can You Mix Lolita with Your Workplace?"(pg.90)
What follows is an interview with 5 people, 2 who think they will one day wear lolita to work, and 3 who think they never would. Why? These are nice little soundbites, but their real answers are much longer.
In favor:
"I'd definitely wear lolita to work because it's who I am." (from a lady in Marketing)
"There's no point in buying it if I don't wear it." (a lady who is an assistant to a business manager)
Against:
"I would never wear it to work evereverever! I'd rather have it as something to look forward to on my days off." (occupational therapist)
"I like my life to be clearly divided, so I wouldn't mix lolita and work." (business department worker)
"I want to use lolita to escape from my workday."(Informations department worker)
I thought you might find that interesting since this is a topic that gets debated frequently on egl, and I feel like we have much the same arguments.
If you'd like me to translate any of these in full, I will next weekend if I get enough interest, so comment away. c:
