What Ouran High School Host Club Taught Me About Gender, Rape Culture, and Myself
Trigger warning: mentions of rape, sexual harassment, and assault
I’ve always been drawn to stories that use gender and gender performance as a plot device. From Mulan to Twelfth Night, the concept of someone taking on a different identity in order to achieve their goals fascinated me while I was growing up. I encountered dozens of these stories before I had ever heard of being transgender, and in most of them, the character in question returned to their assigned gender presentation after achieving the goal at hand. Mulan won the war and got the guy and then went back home to live as a woman. In Twelfth Night and it’s retellings, Viola reveals her true identity as a woman as soon as her male persona is compromised by the return of her twin brother. In these stories, the reason for presenting as male comes from external pressures and sexist standards- despite the cosmetic similarities to accounts of trans life. However, one of these stories that I encountered in childhood had a different ring to it.
Ouran High School Host Club, an anime television show, presented itself as a satire of the Japanese shojo genre (or girls’ comics). Like a lot of other anime’s, it wasn’t afraid to explore gender. Crossdressing, gender-bending, and queer relationships seemed more common in the world of anime and it’s on-paper counterpart, manga; as opposed to American animation and comics. Some aspects of this are even apparent in the anime that has made its way to American television stations, where it was available for consumption by children and teens, like myself. For example, despite censorship by American broadcasters, Sailor Moon’s infamous female “kissing cousins,” and Pokémon’s cross-dressing Team Rocket still made appearances on Cartoon Network.
Ouran tells the story of a group of wealthy, pampered, and ignorant teenage boys, who have organized themselves into the titular Ouran High School Host Club. Bored with excess free time at a wildly expensive private school, the group leader, Tamaki, rounded up his friends into a host club. Traditionally, Japanese host and hostess clubs are establishments were an all male or all female staff will serve alcoholic drinks and provide entertainment in the form of singing, flirtatious conversation, and other performances. Likened to a strip club, minus the nudity and dancing, host clubs profit from the lonely and desperate and often uphold gender roles.
Ouran’s host club is a bit different from those that appear on Japanese streets. The boys invite their female classmates to spend their afternoons flirting with their favorite hosts, but there is no alcohol involved, and interactions are usually limited to conversation and romantic strolls. The hosts each perform gender differently, in order to ensure that every girl has her pick of a variety of “types”. For example, Tamaki is chivalrous and romantic. The other host’s “types” include strong and silent, cute and boyish, and refined and intelligent. A pair of twins in the club flirt with each other, which the host club’s clients fawn over, representing the commonality of straight women who find yaoi, or boy’s love comics, adorable and sexy.
Haruhi, a non-wealthy student who attends Ouran High School on a merit scholarship, finds their way into the club by accident. Dressed androgynously, with a short, masculine haircut, and glasses that obscure their large, feminine eyes, Haruhi wanders into the host club’s meeting room in a desperate search for a quiet area to study. In the process of trying to excuse themself and continue their search, they accidentally knock over a valuable vase intended for auction and find themself in a massive debt to the club. An agreement is made, and Haruhi, who was perceived as male by the club members, becomes the “host club’s dog”.
Haruhi eventually becomes a host themself, after charming several of the host club’s clients, and undergoing a makeover by the other hosts, that renders them “as pretty as a girl-” but still masculine enough to pass as male to their classmates.
During this process, the various members of the club figure out that Haruhi is biologically female. This concludes when Tamaki, who has taken Haruhi under his wing and who has assumed that Haruhi is both gay and into him, makes the same discovery. “Haruhi…” he inquires, “So, you’re a girl?”
“In my opinion, it’s more important for a person to be recognized for who they are rather than for what sex they are.”
Haruhi’s response was unlike anything I had heard before “Biologically speaking, yeah… Listen Senpai, I don’t really care whether you guys recognize me as a boy or a girl. In my opinion, it’s more important for a person to be recognized for who they are rather than for what sex they are.”
And that declaration made all the difference. Unlike Mulan and Viola, Haruhi’s personal identity lined up, to a degree, with their presentation. They weren’t disguising themselves as male in order to be a host; rather, they were presenting in a way that felt natural, and in a way that happened to align with the host club’s goal of charming classmates. After this exchange, Haruhi agrees to continue to present as male at school and at the host club, to keep working to pay off their debt. But their presentation is only changed marginally by the host club’s makeover. Haruhi is widely adored by the club’s patrons, quickly becoming second only to Tamaki in terms of popularity.
Just like the host club patrons, I was charmed by Haruhi. They seemed so comfortable in the in between, and I admired how they floated easily up and down the gender spectrum. Haruhi’s unique view on gender is uncommon, even in anime. Though unusual treatment of gender isn’t unheard of within the genre, it still isn’t prevalent, and occasional cross-dressing is definitely very different from Haruhi presenting as male daily, and being thoroughly indifferent to gender. According to an analysis of the shown on the website Bitch Flicks, Haruhi refers to themself with gender-neutral pronouns in the original Japanese, but this doesn’t translate into the English versions, likely because this was before the singular they began to gain popularity.
Haruhi performs gender at school by wearing a boy’s uniform and by working as a male host. In their free time, Haruhi dresses in a truly androgynous fashion, wearing combinations of masculine and feminine clothing. When they are alone with friends from the host club, Haruhi’s mannerisms are slightly more feminine then they are when other schoolmates are present. Their voice is a bit higher, and they are more likely to grin and giggle when in a good mood. Though Haruhi seems to behave androgynously by default, they definitely become an active curator of their gender presentation when those who aren’t wise to their identity are nearby. In the presence of host club patrons, for example, Haruhi’s voice is slightly lower and slower paced, and they show less emotion in their facial expressions. Guides for transgender men on how to “pass” as male often include these behavioral changes as a key element to being perceived as the correct gender. Additionally, Haruhi, with the help of the other host club members, goes to great lengths to avoid being “outed” as biologically female. For example, in the third episode of the series, “Beware the Physical Exam!”, one of the other hosts has to bring in a specific doctor to do Haruhi’s annual medical exam- one who promises not to reveal their secret.
As a young, closeted nonbinary person, Haruhi really spoke to me and gave me a positive example of what I could be- secure in an identity that didn’t conform to binary gender. But just because Haruhi was such a beacon to me, doesn’t mean the show didn’t have its problems.
Granted, the show was touted as satire, and as such usually presented misogyny with a degree of self-awareness. But that doesn’t and shouldn’t protect the story from scrutiny.
Throughout the series, Haruhi is often forced to don feminine apparel by the host-club when there are no clients around, and the members of the group never let Haruhi forget that they are biologically female. When I watched the show originally, this didn’t bother me much. It was funny, even, to see the rest of the club members giggle and fawn whenever Haruhi would don a sundress or other feminine attire. Now, though, after identifying as nonbinary for several years, these scenes make me squirm. They remind me of how some parents get excited when their trans kids dress in ways that match their assigned gender. But if I wear a dress around my parents, that isn’t them getting a victory in the battle for my gender; it's me being comfortable enough in my identity to wear something more “binary”- and it’s a reflection of my belief that clothes don’t have a gender. Haruhi wearing a sundress is fine- I take no issue with that- but when they were pressured into dressing femininely, or when it is celebrated like some sort of accomplishment, it feels uncomfortable and problematic.
In Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power, Sandra Lee Bartky indicates that “Parents and teachers” (and bossy host club cohorts) “have extensive influence admonishing girls to be demure and ladylike, to “smile pretty,” to sit with their legs together. The influence of the media is pervasive, too, constructing as it does an image of the female body as spectacle .” Likewise, the host club treats Haruhi’s body as spectacle, and their behavior as malleable, to a point. Bitch Flicks picks up on this too, stating:
“The show’s frequent displays of Haruhi being pressured into wearing dresses and the male characters stating how cute and adorable they are plays into the American stereotype of the Asian girl/woman as an object, a “China Doll,” to be looked at, admired, and eroticized.”
When I was introduced to Haruhi throughout the show, the character instantly made sense to me, even though I had never before seen a character that androgynous before. However, it is clear throughout the series that Haruhi’s host club cohorts do not share this understanding.
The members of the host club continually try to understand Haruhi’s femininity, in one episode struggling to find something that scares them, partially in the hopes that Haruhi’s fear will drive them to seek comfort in another member of the club.
Haruhi’s assigned gender leads the host club members to treat them differently, even though it is pretty clear that Haruhi doesn’t identify strongly with that assigned gender.
In the same episode, which is widely regarded as by far the worst episode of the series, the Host Club becomes upset with Haruhi after they attempt to fight off a pair of men who assault some of the host club’s clients on a private beach. Afterward, the group confronts Haruhi, repetitively stating that because Haruhi is a girl, they shouldn’t have tried to fight off two men. The group continues to harass Haruhi over the incident, with one boy going as far as “pretending” to threaten to rape Haruhi, as to demonstrate how truly helpless they, as a girl, are. This particular episode is infamous for perpetuating gender stereotypes, rape culture, and victim-blaming. Though the same content could have been framed in a way that pointed out the deeply troubling and problematic nature of the club’s actions, instead Haruhi concludes that the boys were justified, even thanking the boy who climbed on top of them in bed in order to “prove his point”.
Haruhi’s assigned gender leads the host club members to treat them differently, even though it is pretty clear that Haruhi doesn’t identify strongly with that assigned gender. The assault episode illustrates this, as does almost all of the boys’ exceptional interest in gaining Haruhi’s attention. The members of the host club poke fun at one another and act like friends, but with Haruhi, things seem very different. There’s this edge of difference, which appears when Haruhi is dressed up, or “protected”.
This behavior is sexist, and Haruhi is aware of this throughout the series. Despite this, they choose to dismiss and ignore the antics of the others because, as they state over and over again, all the other hosts are idiots.
All of these issues could’ve been handled differently- morphing messy plot devices into something with more substance. Haruhi almost always ignores how badly they are treated, but instead, the writers could’ve made room for Haruhi to call out their cohorts for being bad friends, for reducing them to their assigned gender, and for “pretending to threaten to rape them”. I would cut all ties to a “friend” that did such a thing, but Haruhi remains docile, accepting what happens to them as their “friend” looking out for them and trying to teach them something. Even though that “something” is that, as an assigned female person, you are vulnerable to rape at all times and from all people. Even “friends”. Even if Haruhi didn’t react outwardly to that encounter, which happens sometimes, because trauma, the show could’ve at least made some effort to show that what happened wasn’t ok.
In conclusion, Ouran High School Host Club, a satire anime, taught me profound things about gender, and what gender could mean for me. However, the show also showed me sexism and misogyny. It made me aware of rape culture- but didn’t lend any hints about how I should be interpreting what seemed like a constant, male threat to my “vulnerable” female body.
Despite the forward-thinking nature of gender-nonconformity, Ouran is very far from being revolutionary in its treatment of gender.
Unique in being a show where gender is a primary theme, Ouran High School Host Club provides representation of a gender non-conforming character, and shows how this character moves through social situations and performs gender to meet social needs and personal preferences. Despite the forward-thinking nature of gender-nonconformity, Ouran is very far from being revolutionary in its treatment of gender. Sexism is thinly veiled, and despite Haruhi’s progressiveness as a character, none of the other characters respect their autonomy and androgyny, with the other host club members constantly directing attention to and obsessing over Haruhi’s biological sex. It’s not impossible to treat gender non-conforming characters with genuine respect, as proven in another anime, the Japanese version of Sailor Moon. Ouran High School Host Club is a novel anime with an interesting premise and a promising protagonist. It is honest in how reactions to gender nonconformity are often negative. However, its sexism overpowers Haruhi’s unique voice, resulting in a bad taste left in my mouth at the end of each episode.
