"To Daichi Mao-sama: You were an absolutely new flower. There has been no other star in Takarazuka history who had displayed your gorgeous androgynous elegance. Before you, there were many orthodox otokoyaku . . . but you gave rise to a new type of player of men's roles . . . with your round face, slim body, and sinuous movements . . . When we fans first hear you sing [about love], we were swept away in a strange and fragrant world. Without question your charm was your very womanliness. Not the posturing come-on of mannish females, but an affirmation of a womanliness of female bodies. You symbolized a new era when females could begin to love themselves as themselves.
And so why you became an ordinary woman?
There are a million of actresses. There's no reason for you to become yet another actress who titillates actual males . . . Now all you do is take roles that have you pout at males and say things like, "Why don't you like me?" That kind of role is totally unrealistic; it's a pathetic joke. You've gone from being a jewel to being a mere pebble. I can never forgive your betrayal in playing women who exist for males. When we see you being embraced by a male, it's as though our dreams have been stolen.
You - Takarazuka's new flower, females' freedom and joy, our fin de siècle dream. Why did you become a woman? Just an ordinary woman!?
Yours, Hoshi Sumire."
(pp. 79, 81)
A carta acima foi escrita por uma fã para Daichi Mao (nome artístico de Tada Mayumi), uma antiga atriz do Takarazuka, depois que ela deixou o teatro e se tornou uma 'atriz comum'. A revolta da fã exprime bem o sentimento que ronda o teatro: as otokoyaku são um símbolo de liberdade para algumas mulheres japonesas; deixando de lado a androginia (aqui a representação da liberdade), elas destróem um pouco da esperanças (ou sonhos) das fãs.
É sobre isso que o livro trata: a ambiguidade existente nas relações entre mulheres representando homens; relações entre atrizes e fãs; e, especialmente, a forma como a política japonesa e a política do teatro se alinharam no último século.
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Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan
Jennifer Robertson
University of California, 1998
278 páginas
