Visual Kei came over to Europe from Japan at the turn of the millennium. The subculture is characterized by aesthetic production practices in which conceptions of the body and gender seem fluid. The familiar gender binary is transgressed: assignations to the poles of 'masculine' and 'feminine' are made more difficult, and heterosexual desire is also questioned. How do subjects constitute themselves in and through practice? And through this, how do they become recognized, possible, livable? Nadine Heymann's ethnographic study investigates this question in relation to Bourdieu's theory of practice and Butler's concept of performativity.

Nadine Heymann forscht zu Subkulturen, Social Media, Geschlecht, Körper und Selbsttechnologien. Sie lebt und arbeitet in Berlin.