46. A Husband is Unnecessary: Yoshiya Nobuko & Japanese Girls' Culture
History is Gay
Leigh Pfeffer
4.6 • 536 Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2023
⏱️ 103 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode has EVERYTHING: gay haircuts, yearning, rage against the patriarchy, they were *roommates*....let's talk about the magical world of Yoshiya Nobuko, girls' culture, and lesbian fiction in Taishō era Japan! Leigh is joined by guest host Erica Friedman, speaker, editor, researcher and an expert on all things Yuri. Yoshiya Nobuko was an extremely popular writer in 20th century Japan who lived with her beloved female partner for 50 years and her legacy continues today as "the Grandmother of Yuri.". The tropes and storylines established in her writing can still be seen today in queer girls stories in and outside of Japan– get ready to learn all about modern Japan's very own Sappho. After all, it's all in the yearning.
Erica Friedman writes about Yuri anime, manga and related media on her blog Okazu, and can be found on Twitter as @okazuyuri, Bluesky as Okazu and @EricaFriedman@mastodon.social
Erica's book By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga is the first in-depth study of Yuri in English.
Outline
0:00 Introduction
7:29 Socio-Historical Context
24:00 Who Were They? Bio Time
41:36 - 43:42 Content Note: discussion of WWII
48:37 Why Do We Think They're Gay?: Some More Socio-Historical Context
50:12 - 55:30 Content Note: discussion of pathologizing of homosexuality
55:30 - 58:00 Content Note: discussion of suicides in the news at the time
58:34 Word of The Week: "S Class"
1:06:56 Why Do We Think They're Gay?: Yoshiya's Life
1:17:47 Queer Themes in Yoshiya's Fiction
1:21:30 -1:22:39 Content Note: brief reference to suicide
1:30:07 Pop Culture Tie-Ins
1:36:00 How Gay Were They?
1:37:15 Conclusion and Sign off
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, and welcome to History is Gay, a podcast that examines the underappreciated and overlooked |
| 0:05.7 | queer ladies, gents, and gentle enbies that have always been there in the unexplored |
| 0:10.3 | corners of history, because history has never been as straight as you think. |
| 0:37.7 | Okay. Hey, everyone, it's Lee, welcome back to History is Gay for another wonderful fun episode. |
| 0:40.8 | I'm really excited to bring this one to you. I am joined today by a wonderful guest host named Erica Friedman, who is the expert on any and |
| 0:49.8 | everything Yuri related. |
| 0:52.4 | I'm actually the second most expert in the world. |
| 0:55.9 | There's a guy in Japan who knows more than me. |
| 0:58.1 | Okay, so the North American expert. |
| 1:00.8 | The North American English language expert on Yuri. |
| 1:07.0 | So, hi, Erica. |
| 1:08.4 | How are you? |
| 1:08.8 | Hello, Lee. |
| 1:09.3 | It's such a pleasure to be here. |
| 1:10.7 | Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. It was funny. We got connected in a funny way. I had original plans to do this episode like a year and a half ago with a friend who was like, hey, let's talk about this person. Let's do this thing. And it never ended up manifesting. And he was like, |
| 1:29.1 | you know who you should reach out to, is this really amazing scholar and all around amazing, |
| 1:35.0 | knowledgeable person, Erica Friedman. And then you followed me on Twitter. I did like that same week. |
| 1:42.6 | Yeah. And I was like, oh, oh, and then you reached out. |
| 1:45.7 | You're like, I have an episode idea about this really cool person. |
| 1:49.2 | And I could not believe the serendipity of the universe. |
| 1:54.0 | It really was serendipity. |
| 1:55.3 | I wrote you and you were like, oh my God, I was just talking about you like days ago. |
... |
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