East Meets West in . . . Bishonen vs. Male Popstars! Only the prettiest one will win!
Or: "Using a bunch of words the average human being doesn't know and defining them by simply linking to TVtropes since everyone knows it's the best wiki out there."
I've wanted to write about this for months and now I finally am. Hot dang.
Bishonen are a funny thing. Made to be a fantasy for women they are more comparable to the homosexual subsection of "twinks" with their perfect flowing hair, slender builds, and androgynous beauty. Personality-wise bishonen come in all varieties but some common types include: Sadistic Bastard, Stupid But Pretty, What Do You Mean He's In High School?, Strong And Silent, ADD, Tsudere, etc.
In my Youth and Immaturity class, a class that was chronological in nature, bishonen were a topic on conversation rather early on in the semester during the tie we were first discussing "boy love" stories from around the 1920s. The IDEA of the bishonen has existed in the Eastern world long before the popularity of manga and anime. The Western world of that time however, seems to lack an equivalent. There were "dandies" but dandy refers to a style of dress more than an actual physical presence. There have been cross-dressers forever but a cross-dresser in this case would be a man who solely places himself on the female side of the spectrum through extensive work. In fact, the reason for the lack of a Western bishonen equivalent in this time could have to do simply with the Western ideas of homosexuality versus the Eastern ideas. In those times, neither in the East nor West were the "beautiful boys" an object of attraction for women.
Fast forward to the the end of my semester when were are having our lesson on yaoi and bishonen, virtually the same topic but in the time of the 1970s-today when visual mediums like manga and anime are present to actually show the bishonen instead of just describing him. My professor asked us at one point early on in the conversation, "Do you think bishonen exist in real life?" The best answer came from a girl in the class who while definitely an otaku, was one of two very intelligent and eloquent otaku in class who was also not "fangirly." She said that bishonen do exist but that they are a phenomenon that can exist in the Eastern world more prevalently because the defining characteristics of a bishonen work in tandem with the ethnic characteristics of Asian men. Then she said thata the closest thing the Western world has to a bishonen is probably David Bowie.
After Sarah (the Japanese major; not my roomie/co-DJ) and I exchanged glances and nodded in agreement and a love of the Bowie, I started thinking about other Western answers to the bishonen and I came to one immediate conclusion: Boy Bands.
Boy Bands is probably too specific a term to use since it really only refers to the 4 or 5 boy groups of the late 90s who were known for their dancing as much for their singing. Really I mean male popstars. This ranges from Frankie Avalon (Elvis doesn't count for a lot of reasons but it should be obvious why not by the end of this entry) to Justin Bieber. Obviously the musical standards for male popstars changes from decade to decade where initially they just had to be one guy singing, then eventually they added in dancing, then many guys singing and dancing, and now a male popstar pretty much has to play an instrument and at the very minimum give the impression that they had a hand in writing their songs.
For the male popstar, their personality development comes through their songs (in contrast to bishonen who are characters in a manga or anime and thus must be somewhat developed as a function to a story). However, like the bishonen, their personality development is often secondary to their aesthetics. While picking a male popstar to fixate on, the music may play a part and often will if the listener is above the age of 11 in the same way that the personality of a bishonen may be a factor for a fangirl who is more concerned with story than your average fangirl (probably 16 or older). But it's those younger age groups that I am concerned with. The decision to like a singer or watch an anime could be as simple as seeing the star or the bishie and being drawn to their physical appeal because one thing that popstars and bishonen inarguably have in common? They're cute. Often pretty, maybe handsome, definitely cute. And not "hot." This distinction is important.
The appeal of the male popstar probably spans the ages of 8-16 (most prominent from 9-12) with a few older exceptions while the bishonen appeals to ages 12-25ish (most prominent from 14-18). The difference in the ages of the consumers should show a difference in reasons for consuming since logically the same age groups should like both male popstars and bishonen since their appeal is virtually the same. A male popstar is the real life incarnation of a bishonen.
But here's why they're different.
The male popstar in their purest form is wholesome. Male popstars sing about dancing, parties (where no drugs or sex are mentioned), being your best, heartbreak, and not much else. They can't be seen doing anything inappropriate and though they probably get laid a lot, they aren't supposed to ever implying that they aren't virgins even if they are 25 or have had a steady girlfriend. This fact may have reached it's climax (if you'll pardon the irony) with the Jonas Brothers and their purity rings.
The problem for the male popstar with said wholesomeness is that when he decides that he is sick of hiding behind a kid-friendly facade, he can't just do what female popstars do and sex-up their image. Female popstars have always had the underlying fact that they are okay for girls to relate to and okay for boys to lust after so a gradual change to (usually) a slut, while always met with scorn from concerned parents, will keep the same audience as they are aging too. If a man tries this after being a wholesome popstar it is often seen as unbelievable and will more likely lose the fans they once had. Their image in inescapable (which is why A.J. MacLean of the Backstreet Boys literally led another life as a solo artist so he could be himself outside of BSB).
The male popstars wholesome image is a gateway for very young girls who are just finding some idea of their sexuality but while the immature boys at school play in mud, smell funny, and are interested in guns and robots, the male popstar sings about things a girl is more interested in as she is starting to get a more developed idea of her sexuality as a heterosexual girl (or a gay boy). She starts to realize that she likes boys in a way she does not like girls. The male popstar is the transition from female companionship to teenage dating. The girl will think they are cute, maybe imagine kissing or hugging them, but the concept of sex is not a pressure or even a topic to be discussed.
On the contrary bishonen are not wholesome. While often virginal, drug-free, and high school aged, bishonen actually do intend to appeal sexually to an audience often with innuendo-laced speech, shirtless scenes, and some kind of romance or ambiguously gay bromance. This is why bishonen appeal to an older age group who are more sure of their sexuality and more aware of themselves as sexually mature people. The connection to the male popstars in terms of escapism comes through the medium of yaoi.
Often a girl who is a fan of bishonen is not interested in the idea of themselves sexually involved with a bishonen in spite of their sexual attraction. Instead a girl will imagine the bishonen sexually involved with another bishonen. While this could simply follow the same logic men have when asked why they like girl-on-girl (one is hot; two doing hot things to each other is better), there is a bit more to it than that for the 14-18 year old sexually mature female. The bishonen's androgyny makes him the perfect in between as a person a girl can relate to as well as a person a girl can be sexually interested in and it is through this connection that a girl will imagine the bishonen in a sexual situation as a replacement for herself (source: James Welker's "Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: "Boys' Love" as Girls' Love in Shôjo Manga."). It is an acknowledgment of one's sexuality as well as an avoidance of any real life sexual behavior that has pressures and uncertainties and insecurities attached to it. Bishonen and yaoi are another step in a heterosexual female's journey to a real relationship.
Obviously there are exceptions of people who just think guy-on-guy is hot or people who think a homosexual relationship between two bishonen would work better than if either one of them were to find a female companion but often the real case is a personal reflection and escape.
On another note, straight men are disinterested in male popstars and bishonen unless they can personally relate to them (many guys liked boy bands in the 90s because that's simply what everyone listened to). Gay guys are into either of them if they happen to be into the cute twink-type although they often resent yaoi because it is usually not an accurate representation of a real homosexual relationship. Lesbians often seem to find a confusing attraction to them for their feminized qualities but it usually doesn't go much deeper than that.
Personally, aside from having a crush on "Titanic"-era Leonardo DiCaprio when I was eight, I have never been into the androgynous male for these reasons. I listened to boy bands when I was nine because everyone did but I never found any of them attractive. I used to think there was something wrong with me because while I knew I liked boys, I just didn't think Justin Timberlake or Nick Carter were cute. In fact, I can't really remember being attracted to any specific guys (*cough* who weren't non-bishonen cartoons *cough*) after Leo until Ewan MacGregor when I was 12 (and he's still hot).
With bishonen, I often don't enjoy mediums with bishonen in them. There are plenty of hot guys in "FMA" but they aren't bishonen (you could try to make a case for Ed, Al, and Ling straddling the bishonen line but they're too muscular and too much like normal teenage boys especially Ed, the angry, swearing teenager). I like L from "Death Note" (in my icon above) but he's not a bishonen; his counterpart Light is. In fact, L was supposed to be ugly. I bet the author was surprised to find that everyone thought L was so cute.
To pick a more bishonen-ful medium like "Hetalia" I tend towards the guys who have more dominating, masculine personalities or simply the intellectual qualities I am always attracted to like Russia, America, Germany, and Austria. Even in "Ouran" the perfect parody (that people don't realize is a parody) of the reverse harem shojo anime, the only guy I really like is Kyoya who is the smart one who doesn't participate in the club activities and instead does all the financial work. And I have a moe for glasses (Hi Recycling Boy and American Lit. Professor!).
Maybe I'm not feminine enough to get either male popstars or bishonen. Or maybe it's because I never had any questions about my sexuality or my existence as a sexual being even as an eight-year-old (and yes, I know that's unusual). I don't know.
[/end rant]
New icon. Because Ling would totally make inappropriate jokes in the face of danger.