What does it mean if a guy gets called a heroine in japan?

[Anonymous]

I saw a post where a guy gets called a heroine in Japan and I am confused. He doesn't have any feminine features or behaviors or anything and is perfectly manly. Maybe it is a cultural thing. I would like to have your opinions.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

Did he actually get called ヒロイン or was it English translation? Sometimes the translations to English are really strange and so incredibly off.

I also asked my wife about this as she is pure Japanese (I am only half and did not spend my teenage years here in Japan) and she never heard of such a thing.

I am not aware of so much really emasculating slang or banter as with English speakers where they can call other men things like "sissy" or "pussy" so much. Admittedly my wife and I are both in our 40s though so we might be out of touch a bit with what very young Japanese people say to each other these days.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

Typically Japanese culture is somewhat androgynous. It isn't like in Western countries where it is considered unfashionable for men to adopt what might be considered more feminine qualities like timidness, submissiveness, agreeableness, or even adopt some more feminine fashion (a lot of young Japanese men these days even wear cosmetics). I don't care for it but even very shy and feminine boys like this are popular in Japan:


So it is not necessarily considered so uncool for a man to take on some feminine qualities here and people usually don't tease men for it so much like they do in the West. So I'm very confused why the man was called "heroine" if he was called that. My wife and I might be able to figure out more with some extra details.

[Asker]

He is kind of soft I guess but I don't know how that can make someone feminine tbh

[Asker]

It can be a mistranslation but I'm not sure as I didn't see the original Japanese wording. Thanks for the help tho

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

No prob!

[NamerOfStars]

I would guess a mistranslation of some kind.

[aceleon]

just tries to emasculate him or confused hero with heroine

[In_Trance]

nothing