In the class, we analyzed the three concepts: Queer, Gay, and Post-Gay. Regarding to what we learned, I want to argue that the boundary between Gay and Post-Gay is blurring and that sometimes the two coexist. I’m going to explain about this showing an example of one Japanese famous artist, Akihiro Miwa.

Akihiro Miwa is one of the most famous and outstanding artists in Japan. The impact he has on the society is enormous firstly because he has a unique background as a gay and secondly because his songs are full of social and historical meanings. As I consider the three concepts which we learned in the class, we can find some features of both Gay and Post-Gay in this person. In terms of Gay, as he knew the existence of the concept of Gay in his teens and noticed that he belonged to this kind of people, his sexuality became visible. In addition, since he felt away from people around him such as his family and friends because of his sexuality, it can be said that this norm marginalized him. At this point, this issue is highly political. These are all features of the concept of Gay. On the other hand, it’s also true that now everyone in Japan recognises him as one great artist and has no bias against him because of his sexuality. When people see his performance, they simply appreciate him as an individual artist as they do to others. Here, we can see features of Post-Gay, which is its overcome of the Gay concept and individualisation. Therefore, through this observation of Akihiro Miwa, we can see the situation in which the two different concept of Gay and Post-Gay are coexisting.

In my conclusion, I want to point out that the boundary between Gay and Post-gay is blurring and those two are going hand by hand rather than shifting from Gay to Post-Gay. It is quite interesting to analyze deeply how these two can coexist and influence each other.