Language & Communication 72 (2020) 56–67

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Language & Communication

White hot heroes: Semiotics of race and sexuality in

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: While the properties of gender across different cultures have degrees of overlap, repre-
Available online 31 March 2020 sentations of Japanese men in popular Western media are characterized by distinctive
elements. This article discusses popular Hollywood action films featuring ninja and tracks
Keywords: its portrayal in Anglophone media. We pay particular attention to cinematic constructions
Sexuality of masculinity and sexuality from the integrated theoretical viewpoints of sociolinguistics,
Masculinity
masculinity studies, and film semiotics. Based on the notions of linguistic and visual
Semiotics
enregisterment, we employ concepts of mediation and simulation to illustrate two
Race
Ninja
pointsd (1) a widely accepted martial arts typecasting of the ninja is a ‘copy without an
Hollywood original’ in Hollywood productions, and (2) characteristics of heroic and villainous ninja
are conventionalized via dominant discourses of hegemonic masculinity based on race.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

This article investigates ninja, or shinobi, as conceived in and through popular culture, paying particular attention to
cinematic constructions of masculinity from the theoretical viewpoints of sociolinguistics, masculinity studies, and film
semiotics. The discussion draws from mainstream Anglophone cinema, beginning from the earliest instance of onscreen ninja
outside Japandin the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967)dthrough the ‘ninja craze’ of the 1980s, and in contem-
porary films such as The Wolverine (2013). This article discusses Hollywood's ninja films through multimodal analysis, with a
focus on how practices of linguistic and visual enregisterment operate to simulate race and sexuality.
Since Lakoff's (2004 [1975]) groundbreaking work on language and gender, sociolinguistic and linguistic anthropological
research has paid attention to gender differences in linguistic practices (e.g., West and Zimmerman, 1977; McConnell-Ginet,
Borker, and Furman, 1980; Coates and Cameron, 1988; Tannen, 1991, to name a few landmark studies). Earlier research on
language and gender largely focused on issues of gendered expressions such as genderlects and women's language from a
binary point of view, highlighting differences between women's and men's speech. More recent discussions have increasingly
favored pluralistic and nonbinary approaches with regard to individual identities over more dualistic approaches based on
gender differences (e.g., Cameron and Kulick, 2003; Eckert and McConnell-Ginet, 2003; Bucholtz and Hall, 2004; Cameron,
2005; McElhinny, 2007; Ehrlich et al., 2014; Milani, 2015). Since the early 1970s, scholars from both gender and media
studies have consistently problematized mainstream media representations as too often relying on (over)simplified di-
chotomies of femininities and masculinities (e.g., Mulvey, 1973; Haskell, 1974; Kuhn, 1985; De Lauretis, 1989; hooks 1992). In

* Corresponding author. 7 Arts Link, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore,
117570, Singapore.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (P. Pua), [email protected] (M. Hiramoto).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2020.02.003
0271-5309/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 P. Pua, M. Hiramoto / Language & Communication 72 (2020) 56–67 57

the contemporary era, the accelerated reach and influence of mainstream media have made it acutely important as a site to
examine the naturalization of gender hegemonies.
Nevertheless, due to the scripted nature of the media, the fields of sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology initially
resisted engaging with media discourses as data, instead preferring naturalistic data collected from selected speakers in
specific speech communities. Only recently have researchers attempted to broaden these fields by demonstrating the use-
fulness of scripted speech or media-based data. For example, Stamou (2014: 119) comprehensively summarized issues
concerning the mediation, or institutionalized editorial processes, of sociolinguistic styles in television and cinematic fictional
speech, which she argued are ‘sociolinguistically 'real' on their own terms.’ While she acknowledged that such media speech
exemplifies staged linguistic performances, Stamou (2018) also argued for the value of media performances as linguistic data
that underscore linguistic ideologies. Likewise, Androutsopoulos (2016), in his book chapter on theoretical approaches to
mediation and mediatization, discusses new types of data for sociolinguistic investigations, including scripted speech and
media-based data. Following these studies, this article considers mediated images, scripted discourses, and naturalized ideas,
much like their naturalistic counterparts, to have the ability to convey embedded social meanings to media audiences. This
article thus complements the work of many scholars who have already demonstrated how the mass appeal of mainstream
media grants it the unique ability to reify dichotomous ideologies, including those related to gender and sexuality (Agha,
2007, 2011; Lippi-Green, 2012; Stuart-Smith et al., 2013; Androutsopoulos, 2014; SturtzSreetharan, 2017b; Hiramoto, 2017;
Pua and Hiramoto, 2018; Hiratomo and Pua, 2019).
All in all, this article discusses how popular Hollywood action films represent ninja. We demonstrate cinematic con-
structions of racial masculinity and sexuality by exploring the integrated theoretical viewpoints of sociolinguistics of fiction,
masculinity studies and film semiotics. Our findings conclude that the Hollywood ninja character is essentially a simulation,
amalgamating two cultural figures: the American hero and the Japanese ninja.

2. Enregisterment, Japanese popular media, and Japan in popular media

In subscribing to gender-dichotomous binaries, the mainstream media have tended to oversimplify or simply omit socio-
linguistic nuances such as the multidimensionality of discursive and social practices of real societies and speakers (Agha, 2005).
Johnson and Milani's (2010) work on media discourse proposes that the social meanings with the most exposure eventually
emerge as dominant. Initially arbitrary characteristics are codified as, for instance, feminine or masculine and then iterated
transgenerationally. Before long, they become part of common sensibility and are taken as normative. Given its power to shape
cultural discourses, defined by Kiesling (2005: 696–697) as 'culturally shared ways of thinking, doing, making, evaluating and
speaking' (see also Gee, 1999) the causal relationship between the process of naturalization and the production of essentialist
ideologies is pertinent to discussions of mainstream media including commercial and popular cinema. This is especially so
because the most exportable and exported forms of contemporary mainstream media often uncritically reproduce antiquated
hegemonic and normative cultural discourses (Fairclough, 1995; Milani, 2015; Starr, 2015; Baker and Levon, 2016).
In order to understand ways in which certain communicative signs (both linguistic and visual) function to synthesize
indexical ones, this article draws from the concept of enregistermentdhow communicative signs come to be attached to
indexical signs of the individual's social and communicative practices such as styles, characteristics, behaviors, and other
(assumed) personal attributes. In particular, Agha's (2005: 38) approach to enregisterment clarifies how media discourses
play key roles in determining how ‘distinct forms of speech come to be socially recognized (or enregistered) as indexical of
speaker attributes by a population of language users.’ In other words, enregistered meanings in media discourses reflect the
sociocultural consensus of the worlds within which they exist (Krotz, 2009). As linguistic products of cultural hegemony, they
articulate naturalized ideologies and social practices.
The combination of enregisterment and linguistic regimentation enables typecasting to function as a shorthand for social
meaning. In typecasting, mainstream media not only reproduce the stereotyped (even fictional) languages themselves, but
also, through these languages' intertextual and discursive practices around race and sexuality, reproduce contextualized
assumptions about power relations. As a result, semiotic processes such as erasure, role language, and typecasting occur at the
expense of fidelity to sources of origin. That is, realistic attributes of fictional characters become secondary to mediatization
processes; thus, media characters effectively become a ‘copy without an original’.
Conversely, analyzing linguistic and other semiotic representations in media can reveal ideologies that drive stra-
tegies of enregisterment. This article examines popular Hollywood films that import the figure of the ninja from Japan.
Its exploration of these films' semiotic regimentation in relation to gender, sexuality, and ‘Japaneseness’ helps the study
to parse racialized ideologies concerning femininity and masculinity. In this way, this study borrows from the field of
raciolinguistics but also departs from its current focus on issues of social justice such as discrimination, civil rights, and
political movements (e.g., Alim et al., 2016; Rosa, 2016; Rosa and Flores, 2017). While raciolinguistic methodologies tend
to focus on issues that are immediately relevant to sociological issues, this article seeks to affirm the relevance of such
scholarship to media forms. Using the processes of enregisterment as a tool to uncover ideologies imposed on ninja
characters in Hollywood films, this article examines the feedback loop between race and sexuality and the construction
of hegemonic masculinity.
In the realm of Japanese popular media, Kinsui (2003, 2007) pointed out the regimentation of language that can be seen in
the yakuwarigo or ‘role language’ of imaginary speakers of Japanese. Grouping linguistic features used by stereotypical
characters in various media (e.g., novels, dramas, anime), Kinsui explained that the selected linguistic registers are assigned
58 P. Pua, M. Hiramoto / Language & Communication 72 (2020) 56–67

according to semiotic guidelines that enable audiences to quickly identify characters based on well-known stereotypes. The
relevance of role language in relation to Japanese women's language (JWL) was demonstrated by Inoue's (2003) analysis of a
fictional character, Yukie, from the novel Sekiryô Kôya ‘Solitude Point’. Inoue observed that Yukie's rural, working class family
origins are conveniently erased by her use of JWL, which gives the character the image of a stereotypical Japanese woman.
Likewise, Nakamura (2013) discussed how JWL is mapped onto female protagonists in translation. Role language thus takes
part in the regimentation of the Japanese language by correlating specific linguistic registers' pragmatic and semantic
meanings with character ‘types.’
Similarly, role language as used in Japanese typecasting constructs linguistic imaginaries associated with specific gender
roles, as in fictional young male Caucasian characters' use of the greeting yâ ‘hi’ and the sentence-final particle sa
(Nakamura, 2013), as well as so-called buke-kotoba ‘samurai's language’ in historical epics. In the latter, for example, the
copula gozaru and first-person pronouns sessha and soregashi are typically used by samurai or ninja characters instead of
the default copula desu/masu or default pronoun watashi. In more contemporary contexts, the typecasting of masculine
first-person pronouns boku and ore, or sentence-final particles have been discussed in relation to media forms including
anime, manga, novels, and TV shows (Inoue, 2003; Unser-Schutz, 2015; Robertson, 2017; SturtzSreetharan, 2017a;
Dahlberg-Dodd, 2018).

3. The ninja in Hollywood: a simulacrum of Japanese history and culture

Free from the samurai's style of rigid ethos of honor in combat, and characterized by stealth, devious methods of assas-
sination, and unorthodox techniques of guerrilla warfare, the ninja has become the archetypal Japanese antihero, especially in
the West. The ninja has been mythologized in various ways in popular media. However, before we discuss the different ways
the ninja is represented in cinema, let us first consider the enregistered meanings in the ninja's mediated identities within the
cultural contexts of Japan and the Anglophone world. The concept of simulacra provides a productive framework within
which to do so.
In contemporary discourse, the notion of simulacra carries an air of futurism. Films such as The Matrix (1999) and Inception
(2010) played vital roles in establishing the cinematic medium's capacity to present onscreen worlds as simulations of distant
possibilities, blurring the boundaries of dreams, memory, reality, and hyperreality. These readings draw upon Jean Bau-
drillard's Simulacra and Simulation (1994) originally published in 1981, which is itself built upon Platonic understandings of
simulation as intentionally distorted renderings of an original form. Baudrillard introduced his theory of simulation by
drawing a parallel between it and the inventive origins of imperialist cartographical efforts. He argued that through the
creation and plotting of maps, colonial Europe was able to represent territories hitherto uncharted with some degree of
mathematical objectivity. The map was thus, from the beginning, thought of as a mirror of the real. Baudrillard, however, was
skeptical of the equivalence between the real (territory) and the reproduced (map). ‘The territory no longer precedes the
map,’ he writes in the opening chapter; it is rather ‘the map that precedes the territorydthe precession of simulacradthat
engenders the territory’ (Baudrillard, 1994: 1). A comparable idea was raised by Anderson in his 2006 revision of Imagined
Communities, a landmark study on nationalism originally published in 1983. Anderson drew on Thongchai Winichakul's
(1994) discussion of how, in spite of never being colonized, Thailand's borders were dictated by colonial powers because it
was bordered by colonized countries. Following Winichakul, Anderson saw maps and the mapping process as vital to the way
nation-states come to perceive themselves in relation to each other. In this way, the map is not a model of physical reality, but
a model for it. While the crucial interventions of Anderson and Winichakul are largely located within the realm of nationalism,
there are productive ways to read them alongside Baudrillard's simulacra. The printed map, as pointed out by all three, is not
the consequence of national self-imagination so much as a guide for the nation to perceive its own self-image. Film can
therefore be thought of as a descendent of the map in this regard, and as a powerful tool to define and redefine national and
historical imaginings. Moreover, because film is a global(ized) and exportable medium, it often excises images and figures
from their original contexts and imbues them with new meaning and significance.
Building on these ideas, this article argues that Hollywood ninja films constitute simulacra wherein racialized permuta-
tions of masculinities are enregistered. Aside from the samurai, the ninja is perhaps the most romanticized of Japanese
warriors within and outside of Japan. Historically, the ninja is most often associated with fourteenth century Japanese feudal
society where they functioned as covert operatives, often mercenaries, known for their stealth and unorthodox techniques of
warfare, espionage, and assassination. Historians note that the ninja's covert combat skills were deemed underhanded and
thus dishonorable; ninja were consequently considered lower in status than samurai, who adhered to the strict code of honor
known as bushidô ‘the path of samurai chivalry’ (Ratti and Westbrook, 1973; Turnbull, 2003; Crowdy 2006). Within Japan, the
ninja's aura of mystery became a popular topic by the end of the Edo period with the proliferation of Japanese popular
literature during the Meiji Restoration (circa 1868). Ninja were imagined to have possessed mythical powers such as invis-
ibility and the ability to travel underwater or underground, and to otherwise manipulate nature. In contemporary Japanese
popular culture, some versions of the legend and folklore of ninja can be found in all forms of mainstream media for people of
all ages, from the earliest silent movies to the twentieth-century manga and anime hit series, Naruto.
Over time, the ninja has been iteratively modified in fictionalized versions both within and outside of Japan, and has been
particularly popular in Hong Kong period films and Hollywood cinema. As previously mentioned, within mainstream
Anglophone cinema, the ninja was first introduced in You Only Live Twice (1967), when British secret agent James Bond visits a
secret ninja training school nestled in the middle of a bustling Japanese city. Later in the film, Bond is nearly assasinated by a
 P. Pua, M. Hiramoto / Language & Communication 72 (2020) 56–67 59

villainous ninja who attempts to poison him in his sleep. This first appearance established the ninja's shadowy talents in the
collective consciousness of the American public, a trope that eventually propelled the ‘ninja film’ into a popular subgenre in
the 1980s.
As opposed to the futurist qualities mentioned earlier, the simulacra presented in these films are nostalgic. They are
romantic(ized) recollections of bygone epochs in Japan's past where folkloric ninja steal through the night. By Baudrillard's
(1994:2) definition, then, what the Hollywood ninja film presents is a ‘hyperreal’ world, one ‘produced from a radiating
synthesis of combinatory models in a hyperspace without atmosphere.’ In recreating historical periods without grounding
them in (or even being concerned with) historical accuracy, these films create an uncanny alternate universe, tapping into
that which is familiar and iconic about the ninjadfor instance, guerilla warfare, espionage, assassination, and stealthdwhile
showing no obligation to cultural fidelity. As such, the figure of the ninja is firmly situated as part of the historical imagination
of feudal Japan, yet almost completely severed from all other aspects of this historical context. To quote Baudrillard (1994:2), a
simulacrum ‘is no longer anything but operational. In fact, it is no longer really the real, because no imaginary envelops it
anymore.’ In other words, the ninja in Hollywood cinema has become nothing more than a referent, an empty signifier of old
world Japan.
While the romanticization of the ninja in Hollywood films explains how they may be understood as simulations, it does
not fully explain the dissonance between the white American ninjadwhat we have termed the Hollywood ninjadand its
historical equivalent. Discussion of ninja in Hollywood films are complicated by racial politics as the assumption that the ninja
is Japanese is no longer always true. In this article, more than half of the films depict white American men (and mutated male
turtles) whose heroic identities are rooted in their ninja personae. As a result of these complex entanglements of national
history, race, and masculinity, the ninja in Hollywood films functions as an ongoing site of contestation for hegemonic
masculinities informed by contemporary racial (geo)politics.
Drawing on the aforementioned theoretical ideas from the sociolinguistics of fiction as well as the field of film semiotics,
the goal of this paper is to contribute to existing literature on the cross-flows of gender, sexuality, and race. It aims to do so by
deconstructing how hegemonic discourses of masculinity intertwine with the mapping of a Japanese archetype (i.e., the
ninja) onto white American bodies.

4. Data: ninja heroes and villains

In order to investigate the mediated masculinities and sexualities of the ninja as presented in Hollywood films, this
article surveys films spanning the 50 years following You Only Live Twice, with close examinations of six key films: The
Octagon (1980); Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), the first film adaptation of the comic book series of the same
name; Beverly Hills Ninja (1997); Ninja (2009) and its sequel Ninja II: Shadow of a Tear (2013); and The Wolverine (2013).
These films were selected to represent the most popular works in the subgenre of ninja films; all are highly ranked on the
‘Best Ninja Films’ lists of major online film resources such as Internet Movie Database, Rotten Tomatoes, and Screen Rant (as of
March 2020). It should be noted that these films are not usually classified into the same genre; The Octagon and the two
Ninja films are martial arts films, while The Wolverine is a straightforward action film. On the other hand, Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles is a family-friendly comedy and Beverly Hills Ninja is an adult-oriented parody peppered with sexual
innuendoes.
Nevertheless, this article demonstrates how the films can be productively examined together through a focus on the films'
main characters, all of whom are men who take on ninja personae. Discursive strategies of constructions of different types of
masculinities will be demonstrated with a multimodal discourse analytical method. While there are films that depict female
ninja (also known as kunoichi), none of them are discussed here, as they fall outside the article's focus on masculinities.
Table 1 lists the heroic and villainous characters who are affiliated with ninja in the films under discussion. A further
classification is made, denoted by superscript numbers after each character's name, to indicate the character's narrative sig-
nificance; primary heroes and villains are marked with a superscript 'a' while their sidekicks are marked with a superscript 'b'.
While it is easy to identify the primary heroes in the films, it can be more challenging to categorize primary villains,
especially as several films feature multiple antagonists, such as Ninja II's Nakabara and Goro. We therefore categorize an
antagonist as the primary villain if he is confronted by the primary hero in the film's action-packed finale, a confrontation we
term ‘the Final Fight.’ For example, even though the primary hero (Casey Bowman) of Ninja II pursues Goro for most of the
film's narrative, their battle takes place in the middle of the film before a twist ending reveals that Nakabara (Casey's corrupt
senpai ‘senior’) is in fact the sinister mastermind. The Final Fight between Casey and Nakabara, the film's primary hero and
villain, takes place at the end of the film, and its outcome resolves the film's narrative arc.
Additionally, in The Wolverine, neither Ichiro Yashida nor Logan (Wolverine) are, by strict definition, ninja. However, both
characters are closely affiliated with ninja folklore throughout the film; for example, Yashida is of samurai lineage. The Black
Ninja Clan is obligated by tradition and duty to protect him and thus aids Yashida in fulfilling his mission to kill Logan (see Fig.
1). Despite being American, Logan is treated similarly to the other Hollywood ninja discussed in this article, as will be outlined
below. Importantly, The Wolverine repeatedly references Logan's memories of surviving the 1945 Nagasaki bombing,
emphasizing Logan's presence during a deeply significant moment in Japanese history and securing his belonging as an
honorary fellow countryman.
60 P. Pua, M. Hiramoto / Language & Communication 72 (2020) 56–67

Table 1
List of films where the primary (denoted with superscript a) or secondary (denoted superscript b) heroes or villains have ninja affiliations.1

Title Year Setting(s) Heroic character (implied ethnicity) Villainous character (implied ethnicity)
The Octagon 1980 Los Angeles (USA) Scott Jamesa (white American) Seikuraa (Japanese)
Unnamed city in South America
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 New York City (USA) Raphaela (white American) Oroku Saki/Shreddera (Japanese)
Michelangeloa (white American)
Donatelloa (white American)
Leonardoa (white American)
Master Splinterb (Japanese)
Beverly Hills Ninja 1997 Unnamed rural area in Japan Harua (white American) Nobub (Japanese American)
Los Angeles (USA) Gobeib (Japanese)
Ninja 2009 Shizuoka (Japan) Casey Bowmana (white American) Masazukaa (Japanese)
New York City (USA)
Ninja: Shadow of a 2013 Osaka (Japan) Casey Bowmana (white American) Nakabaraa (Japanese)
Tear (referred to Unnamed city in Myanmar Gorob (Japanese)
as Ninja II) Unnamed city in Thailand
The Wolverine 2013 Alaska (USA) Logan/Wolverinea (white American) Ichiro Yashida/Silver
Tokyo (Japan) Kenuichio Haradab (Japanese) Samuraia (Japanese)
Nagasaki (Japan)
a
Primary hero/villain.
b
Secondary hero/villain.

Fig. 1. Still from The Wolverine (2013). Logan battles the Black Ninja Clan. All rights reserved. AF archive/Alamy Stock Photo, 2018.

5. Racialized heroism: white american ninja versus Japanese ninja in Hollywood

As can be seen in Table 1, heroes and villains are divided along lines of ethnicity. All villainous ninja characters are of
Japanese descent and are strongly identified as such through visual and linguistic indexes such as clothing and accent.
Heroic ninja characters, on the other hand, are almost always white American men. Furthermore, among the twelve
heroic characters across six films spanning nearly 40 years, the Japanese (i.e., nonwhite and non-American) characters
are sidekicks, while the primary heroes are white Americans.2 This is even more remarkable considering that five of
them are not even human; Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are
mutated turtles, while Master Splinter is a mutated rat. All five of them belonged to the same home and therefore were

1
It is worth noting that several characters of Japanese descent have Japanese-sounding names that do not adhere to actual Japanese naming conventions.
Nevertheless, characters such as Seikura, Oroku Saki, Gobei, Kenuichio Harada, and Ichiro Yashida are given names which, despite being mere inventions,
are able to simulate Japanese names so as to accentuate ethnic identity. Similarly, in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, and
Leonardo are conventionally perceived as white Americans despite being named after Italian Renaissance artists and being nonhuman; this will be further
discussed in the analysis below.
2
Since Casey Bowman appears in both Ninja and Ninja II, he is counted twice to make a total of 12 heroic characters represented in Table 1.
 P. Pua, M. Hiramoto / Language & Communication 72 (2020) 56–67 61

raised, so to speak, in the same context. Yet the turtles are clearly white Americans; they converse in distinctly American
accents and marked, iconic up-tempo youth speech, with extra emphasis on stressed vowels (e.g., dude [duːd], babe
[beɪb], totally [təʊtəli], or cool [kuːl]). Meanwhile, Master Splinter is clearly Japanese; he speaks in a slow and somewhat
overstated foreign-accented English without contractions or reduction of coda consonants. Master Splinter also has the
habit of lecturing the turtles with thoughtful proverbs that evoke East Asian philosophical sayings. For example, he
cautions the angst-ridden Raphael, 'Anger clouds the mind. Turned inward, it is an unconquerable enemy' (underlining
indicates strongly enunciated, unreduced phonemes). This is a good example of a yakuwarigo ‘role language’ assignment
in a Hollywood film, as these characters' voices effectively work as part of film narrative and semiotics. The racialization
and gendering of nonhuman characters are reminiscent of Lippi-Green's (2012) work on Disney films. By way of their
linguistic performances, these nonhuman characters, who would logically be portrayed in nongendered and non-
racialized ways, conform to a longstanding pattern of determining which races, cultures, and genders fulfill the criteria
for heroism.
Needless to say, such patterns are not unheard of. Much has been written on this topic in the wake of Connell's (1995)
landmark work on masculinity, but perhaps most noteworthy is an article by Connell and Messerschmidt (2005). Defining
hegemonic masculinity as the ideological power to dictate the parameters of gender(ed) normativity, Connell and Mes-
serschmidt reaffirmed the validity of Connell's original framework on the stratifications that govern constructions of mas-
culinity. Despite not discussing mainstream media such as popular cinema at length, Connell and Messerschmidt (2005: 839)
recognized the power of ‘social agents’ such as the medium of mainstream cinema in ‘construct[ing] hegemonic masculine
fantasy models’.
Keeping this in mind, the white American Hollywood ninja becomes an intriguing figure through which to analyze
hegemonic masculinity. As an amalgamation of two cultural figures, the American hero and the Japanese ninja, the Holly-
wood ninja character evokes the aura of Japan and the ancient mythology of Japanese ninjas but is modeled after archetypal
American heroes constructed to align with dominant ideals of hegemonic masculinity. In fact, the Hollywood ninja embodies
the mainstream Anglophone media's racialized conception of heroism through emphases on two fundamental qualities of
American masculinity: (hetero)sexual virility and independence.

5.1. Racial heroism, sexuality, and the virile ninja

The more manifest of these two qualities is the white American Hollywood ninja's physical superiority in comparison with
their nonwhitedor, in the case of the selected films, Japanesedcounterparts. Extended screen time is dedicated to the
Hollywood ninja's well-built body, often through framing his bare chest in long takes and close-ups.
In the earliest film discussed in this article, The Octagon, Chuck Norris plays the protagonist, Scott, a white American
who is forced out of retirement and back into the ninja world to take on his wayward Japanese half-brother, Seikura.
Scott is physically impressive; his Teutonic build does not go unnoticed by the many women who openly voice their
attraction to him throughout the film. Of the three major female characters in The Octagon, all take a romantic liking to
Scott. Consider Extract 1, an exchange between Scott and Aura. Although Aura, a Hispanic revolutionist, was formerly a
member of Seikura's gang, upon meeting Scott, she pledges allegiance to the latter's mission and enacts her submission
to him through an offer of sex.

Extract 1: The Octagon. Scott and Aura rest in a motel room on the last night of his mission.
1. Scott: Aura.
[Scott extends his hand across the distance between their beds to comfort her. She takes his hand and looks at him longingly.]
2. Scott: Go to sleep.
[Scott withdraws his hand and places it under his head to expose his sculpted chest.]
3. Aura: Be a lot easier if I could come closer.
[Aura moves to Scott's bed, undresses, and kisses him passionately.]

Earlier interactions between Scott and Aura do not set up a romantic premise, but once they are alone, Aura is quick to
initiate an intimate encounter with him. Scott's sexual magnetism is visually tied to his muscular physique, which, in
accordance with the compulsory heterosexuality inherent in the construction of hegemonic masculinity, causes him to
appear irresistibly virile to all women.
The necessity of ascertaining the hero's virility is evident even three decades later in Ninja. The film's opening
sequence takes place in the ‘ninja dôjô’ (‘ninja school’) where Casey, the only white American, is juxtaposed with fellow
Japanese practitioners of ninjutsu (‘the art of ninja’). His Japanese peers, clad in martial arts attire, gi and hakama (a
strange choice, as this uniform is more commonly used by practitioners of other Japanese martial arts such as aikidô and
kyûdô), are shown sparring with one another in a montage of quick shots while Casey, on the other hand, is training
alone and is topless, a fact underscored by the slow-moving camera panning upward to emphasize his sinewy bare torso.
Much like in The Octagon, women are effortlessly seduced by Casey's physique. Take, for instance, Extract 2, from a scene
after Casey is shown practicing the bô ‘hand staff’ in the dôjô alone. In a short one-minute scene, the film creates a
62 P. Pua, M. Hiramoto / Language & Communication 72 (2020) 56–67

connection between Casey's physical prowess and his ability to arouse the romantic interests of two women, Kiko and
Namiko.

Extract 2: Ninja. Kiko brings Casey a bowl of water after his practice session with the bô.
1. Kiko: Casey-san. Water?
2. Casey: Thanks, Kiko.
3. Kiko: You are always working so late more than anyone else.
4. Casey: I guess I'm not so good at sitting still.
[Namiko enters the dôjô.]
5. Namiko: And not so good at bô stance either.
[Kiko departs abruptly, leaving the two alone.]
6. Casey: Well your father seems to think I have potential.
7. Namiko: So does someone else

In spite of his professed observance of the dôjô’s rules, Casey's gi is improperly tied and, with each movement, reveals his
chest. Significantly, the scene unavoidably evokes phallic symbolism underpinning Casey's mastery of the bô, a long wooden
shaft, and the women's fascination with it. Fig. 2 is from a scene where Casey demonstrates mastery of a katana, a traditional
Japanese sword. It must be noted, however, that this weapon was not historically used by ninja; its inclusion not only
demonstrates the film's investment in aligning Casey with phallic imagery, but also the use of well-known Japanese symbols
to simulate his skills as a Hollywood ninja, regardless of their actual association with ninja.

Fig. 2. Still from Ninja: Shadow of a Tear (2013). Casey Bowman practicing in the dôjô. All rights reserved. Pictorial Press Ltd./Alamy Stock Photo, 2018.

Indeed, the image of the white American Hollywood ninja as physically imposing is one of the most effective enregis-
terment strategies of virile male heterosexuality. The muscular male body becomes visual shorthand for a hero, an exemplar
of hegemonic masculinity. In both of the scenes discussed above, the virility of the white American Hollywood ninja is
highlighted to enhance his heroic image.
These portrayals are, unquestionably, racially specific. The ease with which Casey and Scott embark on romantic liaisons is
in stark contrast to the general asexuality of their Japanese ninja counterparts. In comparison, Masazuka from Ninja, for
example, lies decidedly outside of hegemonic masculine boundaries. Consider Extract 3; Masazuka has been expelled from
the dôjô by Namiko's father (their sensei) and retaliates by kidnapping Namiko.

Extract 3: Ninja. Masazuka reveals his feelings of betrayal to Namiko.

In speaking Japanese, Masazuka is made an Other; the linguistic performance reminds audiences that he is a Japanese
man and thus does not meet the criteria for American heroism. This is further established by Masazuka's choice of words;
 P. Pua, M. Hiramoto / Language & Communication 72 (2020) 56–67 63

by declaring that he ‘loved’ (line 1) his sensei, he recasts the relationship from professional/communal to personal/
intimate. Additionally, the verb aishiteita ‘loved’ is usually reserved for romantic relationships. This is, of course, not a
claim that Masazuka saw his sensei romantically, but it is possible to attribute Masazuka's apparent asexuality to his
homosocial devotion to his sensei. Still, it must be granted that his feeling of betrayal is mainly rooted in being cast out of
the clan and denied accession as sôke ‘the succeeding master’, which he saw as his birthright. However, it cannot be
overlooked that Masazuka is completely devoid of (hetero)sexual yearning. As the conversation in Extract 3 unfolds,
Namiko is held captive in Masazuka's secluded lair, hog-tied and vulnerable. Yet he poses no sexual threat to her and is
single-mindedly focused on exacting revenge for being denied ‘what he wanted the most’ (line 2). This implied asexuality
is commonly enregistered in constructing the masculinity of Japanese ninja characters in Hollywood films. Other villains
in the films discussed here receive similar treatment: Seikura (The Octagon) is surrounded by kimono-clad Japanese
women but pays them no attention; Nobu (Beverly Hills Ninja) does not have a relationship with any woman although his
white American partner-in-crime has a lover; and Nakabara (Ninja II) does not interact, romantically or otherwise, with
any women throughout the entire film.
Perhaps the most illuminating aspect of hegemonic masculinity's racialization of heroism is that the patent impotence of
the Japanese ninja in Hollywood films is not only reserved for villains, but applies to heroic figures as well. In The Wolverine,
Japanese ninja Harada persistently tries to rekindle a romance with his childhood sweetheart Mariko. Although Harada's
affection for Mariko is sustained into their adulthood, her romantic interest in him has waned and her attentions have shifted
to the white American Logan. Extract 4 details Harada's final attempt to win Mariko back.

Extract 4: The Wolverine. Harada attempts to dissuade Mariko from defending Logan
by invoking their romantic history.
1. Harada: Mariko, ore-o shinjite kure. Muzukashii koto-ka? Ore-tachi motto
‘Mariko, trust me. Is that hard? We used to be bonded with
2. tsuyoi kizuna-de musubareteta. Ima demo sôdaro?
stronger ties. We can still be, right?’
3. Mariko: Sôyo ne.
‘Perhaps.’
[Mariko kisses Harada, steals his knife, and stabs him before running to Logan.]

Like Masazuka in Extract 3, Harada speaks in Japanese in this pivotal scene. Once again, race is highlighted, by way of
linguistic performance, to disqualify a Japanese man from accessing a key aspect of hegemonic masculinity, in this case
heterosexual virility. Though Mariko has shown no intention of reuniting with him since their teenaged years, Harada has
nevertheless held on to the idea of a romantic reconciliation. This scene sets up a romantic triangle between Harada, Mariko,
and Logan, and in doing so, illustrates the hierarchy between white American and Japanese masculinities. Despite knowing
Logan for only a few days, Mariko is demonstrably attracted to him. The film portrays the relationship between Mariko and
Logan as a stark contrast to the chaste teenage romance between her and Harada: Mariko and Logan are sexually intimate on
their first night together. After being caught in the rain, Mariko and Logan return to her house and change into yukata
‘summer kimono’. Mariko ties Logan's obi ‘kimono belt’ in soft candlelight, while the camera's high angle emphasizes how
Logan towers over her. The two kiss and presumably engage in sex, as intimated by a cut to the next scene where a topless
Logan lies in bed with Mariko. The implication of the scene is clear; Logan's heroic ability (or suitability) cannot be disen-
tangled from his muscular physicality or his consummate (hetero)sexuality. The larger implication is that men like Harada,
being Japanese, are incapable of mustering virile heterosexual masculinity. This point is made clear in Beverly Hills Ninja with
two heroic characters, a highly competent and attractive Japanese ninja, Gobei, and an extremely clumsy and unattractive
American ninja, Haru. Haru's successful endeavors, including saving a lead female character from her troubles, are secretly
supported by his sworn-brother, Gobei. In the end, the female becomes romantically involved with an incompetent Haru
rather than the highly skilled Gobei.
Masculinity, as Connell (1995) argued, is racially mediated. As Japanese men, heterosexual virility is a quality that
Masazuka and Harada are unable to achieve. While they can only aspire to hegemonic masculinity, the white American
Hollywood ninja is, by default, virile and alluring. In short, in these mediations of Japanese ninja, their masculinity is no
different from that of other East Asian male characters in wider mainstream Anglophone cinema, whose ascribed racial
characteristics typically include impotence and asexuality (Pua and Hiramoto, 2018).

5.2. Racialized heroism, masculinity, and the lone ninja

The second quality that contributes to the tension between the Japanese ninja and the white American ninja hero is in-
dependence; the Hollywood ninja is portrayed as having an individualized sense of self in lieu of a communal identity. The
enregisterment of this hybrid character's masculinity is enacted through tapping into ninja iconography while simulta-
neously divorcing him from any semblance of clan association. The extrication elevates him to the status of a singular, in-
dependent character, as is typical of American heroes.
64 P. Pua, M. Hiramoto / Language & Communication 72 (2020) 56–67

At the minimum, the Hollywood ninja film espouses an unconventional belief that clan traditions are able to accommodate
personal desires, as can be seen in Harada's final scene in The Wolverine. As a member of the Black Ninja Clan, he is bound to
the ancestral tradition of protecting the Yashida family, especially the elderly family patriarch, Ichiro Yashida. However, the
ailing Yashida believes he can reverse his disease and achieve immortality by absorbing Logan's mutant powers of accelerated
regeneration. To execute his plan, Yashida dons giant robotic armor to become the Silver Samurai in an attempt to kill Logan
and extract his bone marrow. For most of the film, Harada dutifully defends the villainous Yashida, perhaps partly in the hope
that his loyalty will earn the affection of Mariko, who is Yashida's granddaughter. However, as shown in the scene detailed in
Extract 5, when the Final Fight between Logan and Yashida (as the Silver Samurai) peaks, Harada chooses to defy his master,
thwarting the latter's plans to kill Logan.

Extract 5: The Wolverine. Harada martyrs himself to protect Logan from the Silver Samurai.
1. Harada: Yamero!
Stop!
2. This is not the way.
[Harada shoots an arrow into the Silver Samurai’s eye and receives a fatal wound in return.]
3. Harada: Master!
[The Silver Samurai throws Harada’s limp body aside and leaves him to die.]

Significantly, Harada switches from Japanese to English at this crucial moment. He resists Yashida by imploring, ‘Yamero!’
‘Stop!’ (line 1) and articulating a personal morality that directly conflicts with his master's mission and his own sworn duty.
Yet, even in professed disobedience, Harada nevertheless retains his deference to Yashida, calling the latter ‘Master’ (line 2)
even after being fatally stabbed.
The importance of clan association and tradition is portrayed as instinctual to Harada, perhaps by virtue of his Japanese
ethnicity, but the white American Hollywood ninja does not experience the same separation anxiety. In the films discussed in this
article, the dominant image that emerges from the Hollywood ninja's association with a clan is the dôjô, a training compound for
martial arts. Admittedly, many films within and outside of Japan depict practices of aikidô, karate, kendô, and jûdô within the halls
of a dôjô, even though historically, ninja do not train in a dôjô, nor are ninja clans associated with physical schools. Thus, the whole
representation of ninjutsu dôjô in the Hollywood films is a simulacrum as defined by Baudrillard; it is a copy without original.
Despite the historical inaccuracy, nonetheless, the dôjô remains a prominent feature of Hollywood ninja films and has
become synonymous with the ninja's upbringing. Although they are white Americans, Scott (The Octagon), Haru (Beverly Hills
Ninja), and Casey Bowman (Ninja and Ninja II) all grew up in ninja dôjô. Likewise, in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the sewer
where the turtles live acts as their dôjô. It is there that Master Splinter, their sensei and adopted father, teaches them ninjutsu.
Yet, the profound significance of the dôjô in Hollywood ninja films does not stop the white American Hollywood ninja from
leaving it. He invariably sets out on his own to mete out his own brand of moral justiceda move uncharacteristic of Japanese
ninja who traditionally act as a unit in accordance with hierarchical instruction. This portrait of the independent protagonist,
a lone ranger of sorts, is a hallmark of American heroism. It is, however, a stark departure from conventions governing
heroism in Asian martial arts cinemas, such as those of Japan and Hong Kong, which dictate that men of honor are beholden to
their clan above all else (films depicting the Chinese folkhero Wong Fei-hung come to mind). It is noteworthy that most of the
ninja antagonists in the films discussed, such as Seikura (The Octagon), Shredder (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and Masazuka
(Ninja) also operate outside the walls of the dôjô, but only do so because they have been exiled on account of self-serving and
unsavory behavior. Seikura and Shredder both operate their own dôjô, where mercenaries and gangs learn ninjutsu for
criminal exploits. Masazuka uses his experience and skills as a ninja to conduct political and corporate assassinations in
exchange for a luxurious lifestyle. The pattern that emerges is that ninja of Japanese descent are cast by Hollywood as
cowardly and/or irredeemably immoral. These films' mediation of Japanese ninja as foils to the moral heroism of the white
American Hollywood ninja is grounded in moral failure.
Contrary to the Japanese ninja, the white American Hollywood ninja is motivated by morally justified personal missions
and vendettas. As part of his heterosexual virility, the Hollywood ninja often seeks to defend or avenge a wife or lover; in his
view, his role as protector and husband is of paramount importance. This is made clear in Ninja II and Beverly Hills Ninja, two
Hollywood ninja films that, on the surface, are wildly divergent. The former is an action film starring the accomplished martial
artist Scott Adkins as Casey, the brawny titular ninja hero (previously mentioned in Extract 2), while the latter is a slapstick
comedy starring funnyman Chris Farley as Haru, the overweight and clumsy runt-of-the-dôjô. Yet, despite these differences,
both Scott and Haru follow similar trajectories.
Extract 6 details a scene after Casey discovers that his lover has been murdered by rogue ninja. Overwhelmed by his desire
for revenge, Casey approaches his senpai, Nakabara, to plan his mission.

Extract 6: Ninja II. Casey and Nakabara discuss his plan for vengeance.
1. Nakabara: It seems like revenge.
2. Casey: You can call it what you will.
3. Nakabara: You cannot go.
4. Casey: I don't have a choice, senpai.
[Nakabara relents and hands Casey a map of the rogue ninja's hideout.]
5. Casey: Dômo arigatô gozaimashita. ‘Thank you very much.’
 P. Pua, M. Hiramoto / Language & Communication 72 (2020) 56–67 65

In Extract 6, Nakabara ostensibly attempts to discourage Casey's bloodlust, although he does so in a cursory manner. Such
flimsy disapproval of the Hollywood ninja's desire to leave the clan for personal (romantic) reasons is also seen in Beverly Hills
Ninja. In Extract 7, Haru pleads with his sensei for permission to leave the dôjô, located somewhere on the island of Kyushu, to
seek a woman in Beverly Hills.

Extract 7: Beverly Hills Ninja. Haru seeks his sensei's approval to rescue a woman.
1. Haru: Sensei, believe me. This woman's telling the truth. . All my feelings
2. tell me Sally Jones is in trouble. . My mission is clear. I must go to
3. the hills of Beverly, find Sally Jones and save her.
[Sensei hands Haru a pouch of gold coins.]
4. Sensei: Though I think it is wrong for you to make this journey, I want you to
5. take this. Use them only for necessities.
[Sensei pulls Haru in for an affectionate embrace.]

In Extracts 6 and 7, the white American Hollywood ninja expresses his desire to leave the dôjô on a personal mission. In
contrast to more traditional practices in martial arts, the white American Hollywood ninja does not take pride in abdicating
from personal relationships in obedience and commitment to the collective brotherhood of the dôjô (Hiramoto, 2012).
Further contradicting tradition, neither Casey's senpai nor Haru's sensei forcefully deters them, instead bestowing gifts to
help them on their way. Hollywood ninja films frame the dôjô as a somewhat egalitarian space where juniors are respectful,
but take the words of a senior/master as more of a suggestion than an instruction. These actions not only enable the white
American Hollywood ninja's personal sense of moral heroism, but legitimize his individualized self-perception. Viewed
from the perspective of the teachings and practices of Asian martial arts and Confucian ideology, Casey's and Haru's dis-
obedience is incompatible with Japanese heroism, or bushidô. However, the same acts seamlessly align them with the
American ideal of personal independence as a heroic quality and, along with heterosexual virility, a tenet of ideal
masculinity.

6. Conclusion

By adopting an interdisciplinary methodology that draws from sociolinguistics and film studies, this article has examined
the masculinities represented in cinematic constructions of white American and Japanese Hollywood ninja; these are, of
course, fictional. Nevertheless, as Stamou (2014) and Androutsopoulos (2016) convincingly argued, mediated identities are
rooted in and reflections of everyday perceptions and interactions. Hollywood ninja films offer a lens through which to
analyze hegemonic and subsidiary masculinities inflected by race, in a different way from existing sociolinguistic studies on
race and masculinity in Hollywood films (e.g., Bucholtz and Lopez, 2011).
While the white American Hollywood ninja is created through explicit allusions to Japanese culture, language, and
the nation's feudal past, it cannot simply be thought of as an imitation of the historical Japanese ninja, nor can it be
called an emulation of the traditional Japanese ninja. A more accurate description, this article hopes to have shown, is
that the white American Hollywood ninja is a simulation, one that is enregistered by linguistic, visual, and cultural
concepts of heroic masculinity. As a result, the ninja in Hollywood films becomes an intertextual body within which
meanings of masculinity and race are enmeshed, and a site upon which subsequent contestations are waged. While
ostensibly seeking to reconcile contradictory ideals of heroism intrinsic to the Japanese ninja and the American hero,
portrayals of the white American Hollywood ninja are, in actuality, embodiments of American heroism's privileging of
hegemonic masculinities. Heterosexual virility and independence remain fundamental, and race continues to be the
primary factor underpinning the construction of ideal heroes. Though the Hollywood ninja may don ninja attire, master
skills, and grow up in a dôjô deep within rural Japan, his heroism is indisputably contingent on his ability to evoke white
heterosexual masculinity.
In conclusion, in addition to discussing the usefulness of scripted speech to uncover linguistic ideology regarding mas-
culinity and race, we hope to have contributed new perspectives on how mainstream media might be in conversation with
the growing body of work in raciolinguistics. As masculinity becomes implicated by sexual and racial typecastings onscreen,
the films examined here affirm Connell and Messerschmidt's (2005:832) observation that hegemonic masculinity is not
‘normal in the statistical sense [because] only a minority of men might enact it’. Hollywood ninja films' cultural represen-
tations of geopolitics have persistently adhered to imagined hierarchies of race in discourses of hegemonic masculinity. The
hegemonic masculinity of the Hollywood ninja and the de facto sterilization of other men like the Japanese ninja become ever
more evident in the microsphere of popular cinema.

Acknowledgements

Our sincere thanks go to the journal's editors and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions
of this paper. We are greatly indebted to Laurie Durand, Momoko Nakamura, Joseph Sung-Yul Park, Rebecca Lurie Starr,
Andrew Wong, and the NUS Sociolinguistics Reading Group for their invaluable assistance and encouragement at various
66 P. Pua, M. Hiramoto / Language & Communication 72 (2020) 56–67

stages of this project. Hiramoto also gratefully acknowledges the support given to her project by an NUS FRC Research Grant
(FY2014-FRC3-003).

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