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- Convenor:
-
Hiromi Tanaka
(Meiji University)
Send message to Convenor
- Stream:
- Media Studies
- Location:
- I&D, Piso 4, Multiusos 2
- Start time:
- 31 August, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
The panel concerns the gendered dimension of contemporary Japanese media with a focus on gender representation in women's media and formation of a gender-specific community of audiences and examines what kind of gender norms are (re)constructed and how these norms are negotiated in media spaces.
Long Abstract:
Existing research about gender and media has long pointed out that media is a major gendered area of contemporary societies. Women as well as racial, ethnic and sexual minorities are not only underrepresented, but represented imprecisely in media. When women are portrayed, they are often depicted as having traits typically seen as 'feminine': being passive, domestic, caring, subordinated to men, performing roles that are primarily assigned to women. They also tend to appear as the sexualized objects of a 'male gaze'. However stereotypical and unrealistic they are, these images of women are widely disseminated through media, even beyond national boundaries in the process of globalization. Researchers are concerned about the images, because they can have a negative impact on audiences such as a distorted self-image, anorexia and disturbance in cognitive function. Behind all these phenomena lies a fact that most media contents are produced in an androcentric organizational and industrial settings.
All these general findings of gender and media research so far can apply to Japan, too. It is, however, crucial for Japan researchers to take a closer look at the Japanese context due to its own historical and cultural conditions which help constitute current Japanese gendered media spaces.
This is the task of this panel. The panel concerns the gendered dimension of contemporary Japanese media with a focus on (a) gender representation in media texts and (b) formation of a gender-specific community of media audiences. It shall examine what kind of gender norms are constructed and how those norms are negotiated in socio-cultural spaces created by media texts and audiences. The first two presentations study gender representation in women's magazines (VERY, I LOVE mama, an an), while the third presentation concerns female audiences called fujoshi. Overall, the panel shall highlight the way that dominant gender norms are (re)constructed in today's Japanese media and critically assess the possibility of change in gender structure embedded there. It shall address the importance of socio-cultural spaces of media as contested sites of negotiation of hegemonic gender norms that appear to be rigid rather than flexible and subject to change.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Kanae Takahashi (Meiji University)
Paper short abstract:
This presentation examines portrayals of ideal lifestyles in two contemporary housewives' magazines, VERY, and I LOVE mama and argues that gender norms that women should be 'good mothers and beautiful wives' are reinforced in these contemporary magazines.
Paper long abstract:
Housewives' magazines, of which publication began in the pre-war era, constitute a distinct genre of Japanese women's magazines and since then have offered various images of married women's lifestyles. A new trend began in 1995, when a new magazine titled VERY was published by Kobunsha. VERY was new in that it was a fashion magazine. This was followed by the publication of several other fashion magazines targeting housewives. Regarding readership, these magazines were segmented according to social stratification. While some magazines present luxurious products and lifestyles, others obviously target mothers in lower social strata, offering advice for inexpensive ways of cooking and fashion. In short, being stylish has become a new norm for younger generations of Japanese mothers. Caring not only own family but also own self used to be no choice for many housewives several decades ago. Here arises one question: Is this new trend a sign of liberation for women? A sign of diversification of women's lifestyle?
This paper attempts to answer this question by examining portrayals of ideal lifestyles in two Japanese housewives' magazines, VERY, and I LOVE mama. VERY targets college-educated, middle-class, full-time housewives, while the latter, published in 2009, targets young mothers or 'gal mama' in rather low social strata. The paper explores which lifestyles are constructed as an ideal way of life for housewives in these magazines published between 2010 and 2013. Identifying not only class differences but also commonalities between two magazines, we will argue that gender norms that women should be 'good mothers and beautiful wives' are reinforced through discourses and images constructed in both magazines published in Twenty-first-Century Japan.
Kyoko Koma (Meiji University)
Paper short abstract:
We examine what images of normative femininity have been constructed through discourses and images in an an, an archetype of contemporary Japanese women's magazine. An attention is paid to the term kawaii in its issues published from 1970 to 2016.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper I examine the images constructed in Japanese women's media of Japanese women's normative femininity and investigate what values and meanings are attached to those images, what sociocultural contexts they occur in and why, and what kind of power and commercial relations are implicit therein.
I pay particular attention to the term 'kawaii' ('cute' in Japanese), which Japanese media have used to construct an idealized 'immature' femininity proper to Japanese women since the 1980s. The term also emerged in French media at the end of 20th century, to designate shôjo (young girl) ou manga, wearers of extravagant street kawaii fashion (Koma 2017). Even if the purpose for which kawaii emerged varies according to time and place, the question remains as to why it continues to represent Japanese women in Japanese and even French media. Why have Japanese fashion magazines continued using the term kawaii to construct a Japanese idealised 'immature' femininity, even if it is actually seen that the sexualisation of women is a phenomenon observed in Japanese entertainment media (Tanaka 2016)? Why do the images in Japanese media tend to involve elements of both maturity as an adult woman and immaturity like a child or a girl?
I conducted a case study of an an, an archetype of contemporary Japanese women's magazines published from 1970 to 2016, including four inaugurals, preparatory issues that focused their special articles on kawaii, a term that emerges repeatedly as a keyword in an an's portrayal of Japanese femininity. With these, I analyse why the term 'kawaii' has been used despite its changes in significance over time. In my paper, I shall present the findings of this analysis and highlight the media's construction of normative structural characteristics of women.
Saori Ishida (Meiji University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the way that dominant gender norms affect identify formation of female manga fans called fujoshi and their activities of reading and producing manga. The paper argues that their 'deviant' way of enjoying manga is accompanied by their conformity to 'normal' femininity.
Paper long abstract:
Since the 1970s female manga fans started producing parodies of boys' manga works in which male non-romantic, non-sexual bonds were depicted. In this parody-making they uniquely replace homosociality characterizing these bonds with homosexuality. Women who read manga this way are today called fujoshi, which literally means 'rotten girls'. They are seen as 'rotten' due to their 'deviant' way of enjoying manga: they find pleasure in homosocial male bonds, though they, as women, are supposed to be heterosexual, enjoy rather heterosexual romance and relate themselves to a female protagonist in a romantic relationship with a guy. As 'deviants' they often hide their identity and are thus invisible in mainstream media. This, however, led to the emergence of their own media and community for mutual exchange and circulation of their own works. This phenomenon of fujoshi poses some question to gender researchers. On one hand, they opened up a new horizon to manga reading by intervening heteronormativity in this type of media. On the other, it is unclear how far fujoshi themselves are free from conventional gender and sexuality norms. Hereby it is important is to explore their negotiations of hegemonic gender and sexuality norms embedded in original works and their everyday life.
This paper examines the way that dominant gender-sexuality norms affect fujoshis' identify formation as well as their activities such as reading and producing manga. Analysis of data collected through interviews with seven fujoshi women leads us to argue that fujoshi develop self-perception of being 'deviant', but they do not necessarily reject the gender norms that urge women to conduct a typical 'feminine' way of life. In short, their 'deviant' way of enjoying manga is accompanied by their conformity to 'normal' femininity.