Tokyo Wrestlingエディターズの編集後記。編集にまつわる裏話や、世界をまたぐTokyo Wrestlingフレンズからのお便りを紹介。
Personal notes from our editors. Also discover postcards from TW friends around the world!
Notes personnelles des editrices. Decouvrez aussi les messages des Tokyo Wrestling friends du monde entier.
At the end of January, fate brought Jennifer Beals and Tokyo Wrestling together. She was in Tokyo briefly as part of a promotional tour for Japan's release of The L Word DVD.
Jennifer, always enthusiastic about connecting with lesbian media, welcomed an interview with TW.
Here she is holding up our TW flyer - Naturally, we hope she'll be checking out the website regularly!
Jennifer was really beautiful, in every sense of the word; she's perfect for promoting the L word in Japan since she clearly carries such broad appeal, particularly among women both straight and gay.
Though, until recently, The L Word's promotion campaign has been subject to some criticism - notably in blogs - for neglecting to incorporate lesbians in Japan, I found that Jennifer was very focused on reaching out to queer women in Japan!
At the end of the interview, when I asked for her message to lesbians in Japan, she excitedly replied, "No one from the press has asked me for that yet. Thank you for asking!"
After reading interviews with Jennifer in foreign LGBT media, I had always had the impression she was lesbian-friendly - and I was extremely pleased to discover that my impression was right on. When I told her that TW was a lesbian web magazine, she showed great interest.
Not only is she supportive of lesbians, but she's also very aware of the many issues faced by gay women. Moreover, she was quite keen to learn more about the situation of lesbians in Japan.
And, as if my time spent talking with Jennifer wasn't dreamy enough, we were able to meet up again the next day for a trip to Nichome, arranged with the kind help of FOX. However, since that's more of a long story, I'll write more next time!
Extra:
Links to Jennifer's appearance on Mezamashi TV has popped up on many websites, but if you haven't seen it yet, do so now - because you gotta check it out!
In this clip, the young, female host Ayapan says before watching The L Word clip, "I've really wanted to watch this. I'm sure everyone wants to see it!" However, after being shown a scene with two women kissing, she falters, "The show was much more shocking than I expected. It's so bold... I had no idea...!" It seems that a kiss between two women is still "shocking" in Japan!
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