DOI: 10.5507/ff.25.24465821.02

Virtual Fashion and Identity in Japan: Counterculture in an Age of Global Transparency

Liudmila Bredikhina (A.), Agnès Giard (A.)


This chapter investigates babiniku fashion practices in Japan as a kind of countercultural action. Babiniku are a group of virtual YouTubers (VTubers). VTubers are known to be entertainers using 3D or 2D computer-generated avatars to create online content without exposing their physical features to public scrutiny. Babiniku are typically male VTubers who “incarnate” feminine characters for online performance activities. The most popular ones adopt a “cute” (kawaii) appearance and wear girly outfits, seemingly conforming to stereotypical gender norms and expectations. Ambivalent as it may be, fashion plays a significant role in babiniku VTubers’ strategy. We hypothesize that animating and customizing feminine avatars enable certain men to reshape their identity and challenge social expectations related to self-presentation. Virtual bodies and fashion can be deployed as resources to play with gender norms and elude the contemporary imperatives of authentic self-modeling. This study is based on long-term participant observation and key-informant interviews since November 2019. a virtual fashion shop was opened on the Japanese website Booth to investigate fashion consumption and creation in May 2020. We also surveyed 24 Japanese VTubers using a feminine avatar for the purposes of this paper.

pages: 29-55



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