A Tall Tale: The Myth of Sexual Dimorphism and the Queering Heterosexual Bodies in Aya Nakahara’s Lovely Complex
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Date
2017
Authors
Smith, Cassandra M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Human sexual dimorphism has been employed in the creation and perpetuation of naturalized heteronormativity and essentialist gender roles on the basis of biological differences. The connection between size and gender is often made evident within expectations of what a heterosexual couple must look like, with the man taller and the woman smaller. The following is a queer and feminist theoretical analysis of Aya Nakahara’s Lovely Complex, a shojo anime that follows a taller than average high school girl and her failure to properly perform femininity within the norms of her social context. Her romance with a shorter than average male peer provides a platform for this analysis, which aims to reveal the heteronormative myth of sexual dimorphism. Heterosexual bodies which cannot successfully and seamlessly inhabit the heteronormative dimorphic spaces around them are effectively queered by those spaces. This queering is important to understand by way of attending to the process of negotiating and deconstructing heterosexual dimorphism, as well as the ways in which heterosexuals creatively achieve feelings of “comfort” in spaces that are actually restrictive and that have never allowed them to feel comfortable before.
Description
64 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of Women's and Gender Studies and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, Spring 2017
Keywords
Manga, Feminist theory, Heteronormativity, Height, Sexual dimorphism, Anime