Transnational Asia: Dis/orienting Identity in the Globalized World

Abstract

This article provides a phenomenological analysis of the author's transnational migratory experience situated in historical and ideological contexts. Using vertigo as a metaphor, I theorize Althusser's ideological interpellation as a process and practice of dis=orientation. Focusing on several phenomenological moments, I politicize and historicize my sense of orientedness at the intersection of my ''being Japanese'' and ''becoming Asian'' within the dialectical tension between Asia and the West. I argue that the power of ideological interpellation lies not only in the discursive logic of identity politics but more importantly in the embodied, subjectively lived, and phenomenologically significant experiences in which an individual is hailed by multidirectional ideological forces.One morning I woke up with a deep, nauseating vertigo. The room was spinning as I tried to hold onto my bed in a state of weightlessness and disorientation. The condition persisted for the next few days. My doctor later told me that I had suffered from Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV), a condition that often occurs without any specific cause and eventually fades away over time. While the cause of my vertigo was unknown, the episodes of dizziness were so overwhelming that the sense of disorientation was ingrained into my physical memory even after the vertigo itself faded away. The vertigo alienated me from my physical surroundings, turning them into something foreign, uncertain, and unreliable. It felt as if I had lost my grounding Sachi Sekimoto

Racialized im/possibilities: Intersectional queer-of-color critique on Japaneseness in Netflix’s Queer Eye: We’re in Japan!

“…More specifically, the logic of homonormativity not only circulates the influence of heteronormative ideals and constructs such as marriage, family, monogamy, and binary gender roles onto sexual and gender minoritarians (Duggan, 2002); it also bolsters the contemporary landscape of liberal capitalism that re-centers the White, cisgender, male, masculine-presenting, and middle to upper class, and the able-bodied (Ferguson, 2019;Puar, 2007). For example, the emergence of Bravo's Queer Eye series that capitalizes on the stereotypical middle-to upper-class White gay male consumerism of high-end fashion, beauty, and lifestyle is a material product of homonormativity (Shugart, 2008).…”

“…Consequently, the politics of homonationalism that concurrently works with the logic of homonormativity reinforces the superiority of whiteness in the context of the gay rights movement and maintains the inferiority of people of color as "backward" and "conservative" in and across local, national, and global contexts (e.g., Chen, 2019;Eng, 2010;Puar, 2007). For example, the U.S.-based non-profit organization Human Rights Campaign (HRC) monitors, surveils, and disciplines the way non-White, non-Western nations organize their social institutions (Chávez, 2013).…”

“…The logic of whiteness that promotes individual agency, freedom, choice, and merit institutionalizes the transnational promotion of depoliticized gay sexual identities as a liberal sign of progress. As Puar (2007) critiqued, the American settler-colonial, the imperialist orientation of homonationalism, highlights a specific relationship between sexual identities, homonormativity, liberal capitalism, nationalism, whiteness, classism, cisheterosexism, and healthism. Hence, the politics of homonationalism that maneuver the hierarchies of differences marginalize various queer and transgender people of color from multiple localities.…”

“…More specifically, the American liberal capitalism that circulates the patriotic imaginaries of homonationalism operates as the White settler colonialist logic in the historical continuum of globalization (e.g., Calafell & Nakayama, 2017;Chávez, 2013;Ferguson, 2019). Homonationalism is the whiteness of American nationalist ideology that incorporates depoliticized versions of gay sexual identities into the state and capital for maintaining its imperialist power (Puar, 2007). Because of Japan's histories that produce its upward aspiration to become like America (e.g., Sekimoto, 2014;Toyosaki, 2011), the liberal capitalism that promotes its homonationalism undeniably shapes on-going negotiations of Japaneseness.…”

“…Homonationalism is the whiteness of American nationalist ideology that incorporates depoliticized versions of gay sexual identities into the state and capital for maintaining its imperialist power (Puar, 2007). Because of Japan's histories that produce its upward aspiration to become like America (e.g., Sekimoto, 2014;Toyosaki, 2011), the liberal capitalism that promotes its homonationalism undeniably shapes on-going negotiations of Japaneseness. Simultaneously, we are interested in the way Queer Eye transgresses issues of gender, sexuality, and the body.…”