General Yuzuru Chat

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

26 分, vanadiezzさんが言いました:

Funnily, I don't really see him as a paradox. He surely is capable of acting totally dorky and serious at times, but that is something he controlled at will. And very well too, if I may say so.

 

I see him more like as a kaleidoscope; with his sensitivity and competitiveness as an integral part of him, yet shaped also with an external circumstances and also family/cultural background.

 

All those make him totally unique and I wish there are others like him (because the world just need it, lol) but at the same time I also acknowledge that the chance (of having more people like him) is slim.

 

Well, that is why he is such an inspiration.

 

 

 

 

 

Wow. I like that description a lot. It's in fact a lot more accurate than mine. Paradox seems so much more limited, now that you've shared this. I think paradox is what a lot of people still see him as but what he really is more like is a kaleidoscope, due to all his facets. Thanks!! *^_^*

 

I still maintain that at his very core, he carries a scarily fierce desire to dominate, and this part of him is interconnected with all these other facets of himself. But who he is at his very core, is that, to me. Because I dunno how else to explain the very first underlying impression I got of him back when I knew absolutely nothing about him, when, for all intents and purposes, all he looked like to the naked eye was a skinny and adorable teenager having the time of his life.

 

And hey, there can only ever be one Yuzuru Hanyu. Just as there can only be one you. I know it sounds cheesy, but who cares, if it's true? ^^

[rockstaryuzu]

32 minutes ago, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

 

 

I still maintain that at his very core, he carries a scarily fierce desire to dominate, and this part of him is interconnected with all these other facets of himself. 

 

You can't be a top athlete without that characteristic; it's literally impossible. I have to agree that Yuzu is one of the most...integrated... human souls I've ever seen. That is, he is always wholly and completely himself - he's never trying to be something or someone else for the sake of pleasing others (I mean, look at the footage of him at the Emperor's Garden Party...talking up a storm with someone who's supposed to be descended from a deity, no less, and he looks as if it's just a regular day in the park!). He's self-contained in that regard. And I think that characteristic is what makes it possible for him to appear as a lovely celestial maiden, or as a total testosterone-driven rock god (as in LGC), and not seem at all out of place in either role. Because it's still the same Yuzu, who knows who he is, on the inside. Both of them are Yuzu, and more importantly, both of them are him at the same time. It's not either/or with him when it comes to masculine/feminine...it's 'and'. And it's 'and' all the time. 

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

When we're talking about his style having a gender fluid quality to it, we're only discussing it in the context of his skating style right? And despite everything we've discussed, I still find that it has an inherently male quality to it that, say, Weir's style does not seem to carry. If we're talking gender fluid style, my idea of it is more like Weir's. Hanyu's has a fey quality to it but to me the leaning is still more towards the masculine. Not the typical sort but a sort that's unmistakably homme. It's pretty consistent throughout all his programs, including NS and HK. But that's just me. 

 

If we're going beyond skating to his overall personality, which we can only base mostly on how how he comes off in interviews, he seems to exude pretty regular dude traits to me for the most part. 

[rockstaryuzu]

19 minutes ago, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

When we're talking about his style having a gender fluid quality to it, we're only discussing it in the context of his skating style right?

 

Yes. Although he does have some cutesy-girlish behaviours IRL too. As for his off-rink style, I've heard it described as 'early Japanese teenager'...which seems about right. 

 

My point was that, whatever style he wears/genderness he exudes, it all comes from the same place: within himself. And I don't  attach any particular meaning to it; I'm old enough to understand that a mature personality always has traits that may not normally be associated with a person's gender. in my opinion, it's impossible to be a fully developed  male or female personality without having and being comfortable with traits of your opposite gender within your own psyche. 

 

So what I'm saying is, I see in Yuzu a man who knows himself well and has come to terms with every aspect of his personality, and because of that he's able to pull off things like Haru Yo Koi and Etude and H &L and still not be too girly. 

 

 

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

34 分, rockstaryuzuさんが言いました:

Yes. Although he does have some cutesy-girlish behaviours IRL too. As for his off-rink style, I've heard it described as 'early Japanese teenager'...which seems about right. 

 

I mostly sum that up to him still getting doted upon (by other skaters, by his team of people, by his sponsors, by his fans, etc.), given the fact that he's essentially a prodigy, so even though he's all grown up and can handle even situations most other full-grown adults can't, there's still a part of him that remains child-like. Like, if we have loving families that we no longer live with, even though we all try to be mature and responsible adults most of the time, we tend to revert back to our kid selves sometimes when we visit home. He just has an extremely cutesy way of showing it because...well, some people are just born that way I guess. >_< He's never particularly cutesy when he's with, say, Oda, because he sees himself as the straight man to Oda's funny man. He seems downright domineering, in fact, in most of his interactions with Oda that I've seen, lol. Tho I've also seen rarer instances where Oda was in big brother mode and Hanyu calibrated his attitude to match it (i.e.: bratty lil bro).

 

The cutesy 8-year old seems to come out every so often when he's with people older than he is (a perspective he doesn't seem to particularly associate with Oda...), especially women, or when he's addressing his fans, a lot of whom are older than him anyway...and are women. And also middle-aged dudes who are enamored by his charms...

 

34 分, rockstaryuzuさんが言いました:

So what I'm saying is, I see in Yuzu a man who knows himself well and has come to terms with every aspect of his personality. 

 

That's an excellent way of summing it up. You will hear no disagreement from me here. ^.~

[Moria Polonius]

1 hour ago, Murieleirum said:

 

I think she meant both - meaning, he looks androgynous and it's an image that's hard to sexualize - ergo, asexual vibe. Even though I showed her LGC multiple times... weird. 

 

 

Ah, I see. LGC, though.... That program is so deliberately over the top and camp, that I don't find it strange that it doesn nothing to kill the "asexual" performing vibe. 

[rockstaryuzu]

54 minutes ago, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

I mostly sum that up to him still getting doted upon (by other skaters, by his team of people, by his sponsors, by his fans, etc.), given the fact that he's essentially a prodigy,

That, and acting cute is a bit of a Japanese thing anyway. Are you familiar with other Japanese celebs (actors, singers, etc?) ? If you watch the Japanese entertainment world, you'll see a lot of 'cute' behaviours from both men and women, some much much older than Yuzu. 

 

I think it's important to make a distinction here: acting dominant, as Yuzu often does, is not really related to being either masculine or feminine. It's a social trait that can be expressed by both genders. 

[rockstaryuzu]

1 hour ago, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Hanyu's has a fey quality to it

See, I wouldn't say that. I would say it about Weir. But for me, with Yuzu, it's more like the grace and beauty is the feminine side of his masculinity. Like, only the most secure, most confident, most alpha of men could express those feminine traits so naturally, without self-consciousness, fear, or embarrassment, because it just never occurs to them that any one could see them as anything other than masculine. I think it's beautiful, but it's also very old-school. There was a time 200-300 years ago (in the West anyways), when it was the natural place of a gentleman to be beautiful, graceful, and elegant. Yuzu reminds me of that. 

[glilikoi]

I don't really like using the word "alpha", when discussing gender, except perhaps as a joke, because it has a connection with the whole creepy redpill/incel/whatever subculture. I know it's been kind of co-opted into the regular vocabulary now, but I still really dislike its connotations. In any case I agree that Yuzu seems really confident in his identity and that's why he can play towards different gender roles so well. 

 

This discussion also reminded me of this Tumblr post which gives an interesting perspective on this topic. The author wrote this after some people had been claiming that Yuzuru is "gender non conforming" due to the fact that many of his costumes and programmes were considered "feminine". They argue that Yuzu is probably not (intentionally) subverting any gender norms, and that there may be a significant difference between how Japanese and Western audiences read gender in performance. In Japanese culture, performing femininity is perfectly acceptable for male artists and even a sign of artistic maturity. Anyway, I can't summarise all their points here but it's an interesting read. 

http://doramaticbites.tumblr.com/post/171551859613/to-the-japanese-hanyu-may-not-be-gnc 

[Whee1000]

Here...some beauty and some beast. (I don’t know, he kinda looks like someone dropped the pizza. )

[Tsubakindy]

13 minutes ago, Whee1000 said:

Here...some beauty and some beast. (I don’t know, he kinda looks like someone dropped the pizza. )

 

Is this the wild Swanyu from WTT gala? I would never forget LGC Swanyu and that crazy trio dance in the end

[kaeryth]

 

 

 

[OonsieHui]

1 hour ago, Whee1000 said:

Here...some beauty and some beast. (I don’t know, he kinda looks like someone dropped the pizza. )

 

 

 

Brian: Javi could you get that for us?

Javi: (drops pizza) oops.

Yuzu: NOOOOO!!!! WAAHHYYY YOUUUUU DROPPPPE THE PIZZZZZAAAAA?!?!?!? 

Brian: Yuzu don't you think that's a bit of an overreaction? 

Yuzu: (skates away dramatically) NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! 

[rockstaryuzu]

6 hours ago, glilikoi said:

In Japanese culture, performing femininity is perfectly acceptable for male artists and even a sign of artistic maturity

It's also a time-honored tradition in kabuki and Noh theatre, which are done by all male performers.

[Lenylan]

Hace 15 horas, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Plenty of people here, myself included, have voiced our displeasure at some of his choices that we feel can sometimes be rather....dubious

I would like that plenty of people don't feel the need to judge his choices as they're "dubious" because he is the skater, he is the one who performs, he is the one who expend a lot of time making his choices and not a single person here would have the right to tell his choices are "dubious" maybe you don't like them, but not as if they are wrong choises.  I guess this is a supporting forum, or am I wrong?