Transsexuality In Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen
The presentation of Transsexuality in Banana Yoshimoto’s novella “Kitchen”
Transsexuality has for a long time been a taboo subject in Japan .In Banana Yoshimoto’s Novella “Kitchen” there is a very positive representation of transsexuals in order to make any possible transphobic reader look past their own hated and/or uncomfortableness towards transsexual people and enjoy the novel .
One way in which Yoshimoto went about creating a positive representation of transsexuals was through the character Eriko and how beautiful her character is. Her character was referred to as “an incredibly beautiful woman”(Yoshimoto.B page 11) when you first meet her, this could have been a technique Yoshimoto used in order to create a more loveable character
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Chica was described as a lot more obviously transgendered , and was also referred to as a “transvestite”(Yoshimoto.B page 82). There are many different possible objectives Yoshimoto may have had in this , one of which being that she wanted to display a character who isn’t as “believable” as Eriko , in order to show that a trans persons worth shouldn’t contingent on whether or not they are attractive or believable enough . The word “Transvestite”(Yoshimoto.B page 82) is used to describe Chica , which is actually a very problematic word to use on a transsexual, because the word transvestite by definition is a man who dresses as a woman , or vice versa . This word has been branded as a slur amongst transgender people as it is saying that essentially they are playing dress ups and it is not truly who they are . This fused with Chica’s insecurity and lack of believability creates an image somewhat opposite of Eriko’s. The key thing that both characters do share is their loveliness and a compassion for Yuichi, it is stated by Chika that she is like a second mother to Yuichi when she says “Don’t get me wrong , honey . I’ve known that boy since he was so-oo high. There’s nothing funny between us, we’re like parent and child.”(Yoshimoto.B page 84) The love that both Eriko and Chica both have for Yuichi is done in order to paint the transgender community as loving ,nurturing and protective . By having two different transsexual characters that are presented as caring , strong and loving the transsexual community is being shown to be good people , and it resolves the negative stereotypes that could have been already present for
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