Gender and Sexyyy

Reading: Fausto-Sterling: Of Spirals and Layers

 By birth baby has 5 layers of sex – don’t always agree with one another
 New-born identified by external genital anatomy – gender socialization
 Gender used to designate an individual identity or self-presentation – structured to specified
culture
 Sociologist use gender to refer to social structures that differentiate men from women –
separate public bathrooms etc.
 Gender fortification – for example difference between boys and girls clothing and toys – lack
of neutral products
 The sex of the body image – babies getting a sense of their own bodies
 RECAP: new-born = multi-layered sexual creature
o List of sexes produces a sense of self as a male or female – juvenile gender identity
o Pubertal hormonal sex – pubertal erotic sex - pubertal morphological sex = all of
them produce adult gender identity
o Each layer can develop independently of one another
 Typical fetal sex differentiation:
o Chromosomal sex (XX/XY) – undifferentiated fetal sex until about 8 weeks
o Gonadal sex (ovaries/testes)
o Fetal hormonal sex
o Internal reproductive sex
o Genital sex (clitoris/penis, labia/scrotum, etc.)
 Clitoris and penis develop from the same fetal tissue
 Labia and scrotum develop from the same fetal tissue
Reading: Fausto-Sterling: Of Molecules and Sex

 Logical possibilities to why mother produces more female or male babies

1. Mother’s physiological state could affect the motility and transport of X-bearing vs Y-
bearing sperm OR there might be a nutritional effect in the male that harm Y-bearing
sperm development before ejaculation
2. Oocyte development might wary depending on the mother’s physiological state,
leading to the evolution of the egg that fuses more easily with an X-bearing sperm
3. An equal number of XX and XY embryos may start out in the uterus, but one type
may grow better – more XY embryos die very early in development
 Once the indifferent gonadal tissues forms, the gonad begins to develop in either male or
female direction
 Male-determining factor on the Y chromosome -SRY + control segment gene Sox9 – in
absence of either gene potential males develop instead as females – these women have no
ovaries
 Missing genes FoxL2 and Wut4 – chromosomal females develop into males + gene R-
spondin1 – lacking = XX females with testes
Lecture Notes

 Sex/gender distinction
 What intersex treatment protocols reveal about the power of gender ideology
 Development of “gender” concept has important roots in medical theory
 Greek mythology: Hermes + Aphrodite = Hermaphroditus – hermaphrodite
 Disorders of Sex Development (DSD)
  Chromosomal sex
o 44 autosomes + 2 sex chromosomes (XX female, XY male)
o Y chromosome includes the SRY gene, which includes “testes-determining factor”
o Expression of SRY initiates testicular development of the undifferentiated gonads
(undifferentiated until 8 weeks)
o Absence of SRY expression allows the default female state to develop
 Most common type of atypical sex. Developments
o Congenital Adrenal Hypoplasia (CAH) – most common DSD
 Condition in which the adrenal gland is stimulated to produce too much
testosterone – XX females this can result in the masculinization of the clitoris,
which may appear as ambiguous genitalia at birth
 Often requires surgery
o Partial or Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS)
 Cells don’t respond to male hormones and preventing masculinization in XY
males – female appearance, lack of body hair, higher voice, female appearing
genitalia
 Atypical genitalia are not necessarily medical conditions
o Intersex conditions are not limited to ambiguous genitalia
 Gender dysphoric conditions
 John Money (1921-2006)
o The Johns Hopkins University Medical School
o Paediatric psycho-endocrinologist
o His model/protocol
 Nurture over nature
 Atypical genitals will lead to poor psychosexual development
 If begun at an early age (about 2 y.o. or below) a child can be trained to have
an identity of any gender
 To achieve this goal, the child must be in an environment in which every
social message reinforces the naturalness of the gender in which the child is
being trained
 “Proper” genitals needed
 Money – case in which he can “test” his theory
 So called John/Joan case or David Reimer case
 “circumcision” gone wrong – cut the penis off
 John Money recommended to raise him as a girl – at age 14
Brenda/David refused to play along and transformed himself to a boy
 Milton Diamond wanted to prove him wrong
Reading: Naomi Miyamoto: The Takarazuka Revue

 Otokoyaku (constant male-role performers) – abstract and ideal man (not representing the a
real man)
 Star system – pyramidal hierarchy
 5 troops – each functions as a self-contained unit performing
o Top stars – leading performers in every production
o Top stars – representative of each troupe, but is supposed to retire after several years
so someone else can be a top star
o Star system + fan support
o Top star always in the centre (plays, photoshoots, interviews)
 Fan devotion = maintained Takarazuka’s popularity for decades
  Dan clubs – highly organized, disciplined (uniforms, guards, …)
 Top star’s fanclub – most important
Reading: Haruko Okano: Women’s image and Place in Japanese Buddhism

 Religions added to gender inequality (Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism) – Buddhism most

influential
 Originally – possible for women to reach nirvana if they followed the right training
o Buddha is sexless (Mahayana Buddhism – hidden penis) – belief he is male
o = women can’t reach salvation, only if they become a man
o Japanese view of women in Buddhism had not been affected by the discriminatory
statements in Mahayana sutras – changed in 8th century – female temples – Buddhism
more and more patriarchal
 Mix with Shinto – thoughts that women are impure therefore can’t reach salvation (blood is
impure)
 Only Dogen criticizes the exclusion of women
 Unequal sex roles even in new religions
Reading: Kiyoko Segawa: Menstrual taboos imposed upon women

 Menstrual hut (kari-ya)

 Hut for the village
 Isolation for even 12 days
 Common purification in sea or rivers
 Lots of different customs around each prefecture
Lecture notes:

 Gaman / gaman suru – enduring without complaint, take it, deal with it
 Onna rashisa – femininity
 Otoko rashisa - musculinity
 Kegare = pollution = associated with blood and death, proper measures for ritual segregation
or purification, must be undertaken
 Kegare in itself – not gender specific
 Nyonin kinsei – women not allowed – still some mountains and forest that women can’t visit
(“something bad could happen”)
Reading: Orie Endo: Aspects of sexism in language

 Women use language elevating the status of men in relation to women

 Gender differences in Japanese – onnakotoba – onnarashii speech style (woman-like)
 Expressions that denote differential status for women and men
o “onna” can be substituted for many sexual related terms (mistress, prostitute,…)
o ii otoko – attractive/reliable man X ii onna – sexy woman
o 女 – as kanji – negative connotation – 女々しい (feminine)、姦しい (noisy)
o Other expressions:
 Urenokori (unsold merchandise) – unwed woman after 25 years
 Busu, okame, chinkusa – terms to insult woman (ugly, etc)
 Otokomasari -superior to man , lack of femininity
 Shokuba no hana (office flower) – young office women, hired for their looks
 Onna no kusattayo na (rotten woman) – describing wimp man
 Memeshii – unmanly
  Rojo/roba – old woman
 Shujin – married women referring to their husbands – literally lord, master
 Kanai – used by men referring to their wives – the one who remains home
 Mibojin – widow – the one who is not yet dead
o Existence of words that place women in the same category as children
 Woman’s language
o Different speaking patterns from men
o Difference can be found already in Manyoshu or Genji Monogatari
o Proper feminine speech as part of women’s education – goal to make women obedient
and submissive to their men
o Today:
 Control over women through language still significant
 Strong likelihood that male audience would be turned off from the beginning
if woman wouldn’t speak in a “proper” matter
Lecture note:

 Women not allowed in the sumo ring (dohyou): could bring bad luck to the players
 Sumo = Shinto ritual
Reading: Shigeko Okamoto: Ideology in Linguistic Practice and Analysis

 Generalization: Women speak more politely and use standard linguistic forms and correct
grammar
 Examination through honorifics (keigo)
 Previous studies on gender and politeness in JP
o Women’s language/polite speech – indexes femininity or the female gender (has its
own unique structure)
o Possible explanations why:
1. Biologically determined traits – gentleness
2. Lower social status
3. Social roles
o Women don’t always use more honorifics but are expected to
 Gender and honorifics: norms and expectations
o Importance of honorifics expressed through various means: education, media
o Keigo - Linguistic capital for improving social status – honorifics associated with
higher class, status, education, intelligence, …. (important for both men and women)
o Difference probably both biologically and socially based
o Women who don’t use honorifics correctly, socially sanctioned
o Books and guides promoting the idea the women’s attraction depends on her
appearance, education and knowledge of honorifics
o Women using honorifics even in cartoons, dramas,… (female characters using keigo
to their husbands but not vice versa)
o The idea widely promoted as a norm in Japanese society
o Edo period – disciplining of women emphasized
o Ryoosai kembo – good wife, wise mother (emphasized even more before and during
WWII)
o Nyooboo kotoba = woman’s words
 Variability in the use of Japanese honorifics in conversation
o Actual language use shows intergender differences and similarities
o Older women use keigo more than younger (+ more usage of bikago)
 o Situations where men use keigo extensively (related to roles – salespeople etc)
 Rethinking the relationship between honorifics, politeness and gender (divers use)
o Use of keigo needs to be examined in relation to social and contextual diversity that
involves individual speaker
o Different individuals may have different attitudes toward keigo
o Certain linguistic expressions such as honorifics and other formal or indirect
expressions, are not inherently polite; their interpretations may vary among
individuals as well as across contents, depending on the criterion used for evaluating
them in specific contexts:
1. Politeness in a matter of evaluation of social conduct
2. Same person may assume different norms in different situations
3. Understanding of norms may vary among individuals
o For woman to maintain her identity – she must choose expressions from “women’s
language” – but most women don’t use onnarashii language all the time, they choose
the situations when to use it
Lecture Notes:

 How does gender bias manifest in Japanese?

o In kanji with onna-hen that suggest negative qualities associated with women
o Words and phrases that suggest negative qualities of women
 Speech/Language as behaviour subject to gendered expectations
o Is women’s language simply a description of how women speak?
 Ideology = beliefs that shape behaviour
o Not simply bad description, but including norms and expectations that shape
behaviour
o Normative, prescriptive
 Okamoto’s counterproposals:
o Women and men are divers in various ways, including the speech contexts in which
they operate
o Honorific expressions are not necessarily polite
 Development of women’s language
o Nyobo kotoba
 A sociolect developed during the Muromachi period by attendants performing
around the body care for members of the imperial court
 Patters: moji-kotoba (koi = komoji, tako = tamoji, kami = kamoji)
 Mono-kotoba (yasai = aomono, udon = atsumono)
 Reduplication (o-kotoba, o-nigiri, o-naka, o-den)
o Meiji Restoration (1868)
 Centralization of state power in a modern nation – state – mobility of
population
 Establishment of mass, compulsory education
 Mobilization through principles of gender as seen in slogans
 Fukoku kyohei – rich country, strong army
 Ryosai kenbo – good wife, wise mother
Recorded Lecture Notes:

 Ochiai – Have women always been housewives? – the transition of household form and
function and gender roles and relations with the shift to a modern industrial economy
 Sengyou shufu = professional housewife
 How have household functioned in the past and how they function now?
o New division of labour inside and outside the house
 ie 家
o literally a house, place where people live
o also represents entity that has continuity over time – ancestors belong there as well –
changes of members
o one major form of household, came to be dominant among households with property
o characteristics:
 A “stem” form (as opposed to joint households) – inheritance remains as a
whole and is not divided
 Corporate nature – collective
 Good name of the ie – most important, people supress their individual needs
for the collective good for ie
 Organization of authority by gender and age
 Production and reproduction combined in one unit
o Developmental cycle of the ie
 Triangle = male, circle = female
 Head of family – man, koshu
 Main wife – female, shufu
 First male child – chounan – stays in the family
 First female child – choujo
 Second male child – jinan – moves out – bunke – second household
 Married in woman (daughter in law) – yome – needs to be fertile + strong
enough to work on the fields, marriage finalized until she bares a child, if she
doesn’t she’s sent home
 Patrilineal principal = inheritance through first male child
 In case family has only daughters
 First daughter stays home and marries
 Adopted son in law – mukoyoushi
o Who minded the children? The emergence of motherhood
 Fathers necessary in child care – especially with more children
 Japanese idea – baby sleeping with their parents 川
 Responsibility for childcare was diffuse, and not usually so burdensome
 Older children provided labour, including childcare work
 Fathers were the trainers of male children, especially those who would be
taking over the father’s position
o Shifts with Meiji
 The Meiji Restoration 1868
 Establishment of the nation-state
 Mobilization of the people for national aims
 Leveraging of gender ideology in mobilizing people
 With modernization, men moved to factories and offices and older children to
school.
 Women with children, beginning with middle- and upper-middle class
women, were left in charge of the home, and of dependent children.
 = the modern family
 Ryousai kenbo = good wife, wise mother
o Edo period ideas of women’s roles – roles of women as child bearers and trainers not
strongly emphasized
 Woman was supposed to be subordinate to her lord – husband
  Women thought of as stupid
 Mother’s love = sweet poison
 Childrearing – fathers roles
o Meiji – change to good wife, wise mother
 Girls higher education law
 Discontinuity of the passive role of women as housewives
 State is mobilizing gender roles for state purpose – women – serve to the state
– therefore should serve for the household
 New civil code adopted in 1898 with the ie formalized at the core of family law
o Household head recognized in law
o Any property of the wife transferred to household head’s controls
o Father had full custody of children
o Son of second wife given priority in inheritance over daughter of primary wife
o Adultery committed by women grounds for divorce, while adultery by men only
punishable if partner was a married woman and he was sued by the husband
o Women under age 25 and men over 30 needed household head’s consent to marry
 The modern professional housewife, the middle class okusan, only became dominant from the
1960s (Ochiai)
 The professional housewife is a dying breed (Yamada)

Lecture notes – Looking for Fumiko notes

 In activist groups women couldn’t take part in many activities – called toilets (only there for
men to relieve themselves)
 Mitsu – frustrated with this position – she was sexually abused, no one helped her, she felt
alone
o Realization made her start the Lib. Movement
o Liberation from the toilet (talked about positions of women and men)
o Household in charge of women – men don’t waste their energy on domestic issues
 Lib women shared their experiences – realized faults of society
o Wanted to create their own communication network
o Published their own books – self expression
o Didn’t demand change from society – wanted to change their life first – once women
change, society will too (small scare – gradually get to change the whole nation)
 1972 – protest against limits on abortion
o Government saw women as machines from producing babies – notion wide protests
o Law defeated
 Chupirei – actively engaged with media fro attention – presented what media wanted –
compared to the whole lib movement
 Lib movement most likely didn’t go on because once you have a different opinion life gets
harder = women bullied in their jobs or unable to find a job
Lecture Notes

 Japan followed pro-natal policy regarding abortion until the late 1940s
o To make country stronger – abortion not allowed
o During war – supressed fertility – after war – baby boom
o Too high reproduction rate – abortion allowed + distribution of condoms
 Maternal Health Act
 o Abortion allowed if women has:
 Designated doctor
 Partner consents
 Continuation of pregnancy may damage mother’s health
 Due to parents’ bad economic situation (no proof needed, self-determined)
 Woman is a rape victim

 Rituals of manhood (created status, manhood = status, need to earn the status)
o Calendrical
o Rites of passage
 Rituals: special clothing, food, space, vocabulary¨
 Rituals have a “script” – already written, already exist in society, social script
 Rituals are symbolic
 Uganda – Gisu – Imbalu – example transition into manhood
 Ordeal
o deliberate social planning, pushing boys out of their comfort zones to prove endurance
o arrangement around male roles
o reward and punishment, humiliation and acceptance
o manhood = endurance, withstanding pain
 Spiritual training
o Bank recruits – training
o Women – learn stuff to transition from work to marriage (takes two weeks)
o Men – 6 weeks, training on doing your hardest for the bank, teamwork
 Roto – dress in strange ways, walk around and ask strangers for work
 Asking for work = grateful for being given work
 Endurance walk
 Walk on a hot summer day, can’t accept water
 Group – can’t compete, single file, hard to complete
 Still finding energy to take few more steps until they collapse –
overcoming your limit
o Female x male path

 Gender difference and different tasks, life careers and beliefs about human capabilities
 Ikigai = what makes life worth living, what motivates people
 Hegemonic (dominant) masculinity
o Multiple masculinities – usually one version that’s dominant
 In Japan – sarariiman – symbol of masculinity = backbone of production,
prestige (other models: actors, singers, sportsmen,…)
 Sarariiman dominates
 Some forms of masculinity become subordinate to others
 Women’s peripheral position in the Japanese labour force
o Women are overrepresented in the bottom part of Japan’s dual economy (big
companies – stable work, bonuses, benefits vs small companies – not many
advantages – more women on the teams)
o Women are overrepresented in irregular positions
 Regular employment = degree of stability, low chance of being fired
  Irregular = part time but does same task as full time employee would; contract
= fixed term, employer decides if woman gets another contract after one
expires; dispatch or temp sector = not paid by the company, paid by the
broker company who found the job
o Women tend to occupy peripheral positions within the core (core = regular workers
within large corporation)
-------------------------------------------MID TERM ----------------------------------------------------

 EEOL = Equal Employment Opportunity Law

o United Nations Decade for Women (1975-1985)
o International initiative to promote improvement in the conditions of women in areas
of education, health,…
o Elimination of all discrimination against women
o Effective from 1981
o Japan agreed to make it a part of domestic law
o Practices at the time that were not in conformity with the convention:
 Field of employment:
 Positions designated as male and female
 Mandatory retirement for women earlier than men
 Restriction of women from “dangerous” work
o Lead to the EEOL
o First version weak
o Placed requirements upon employers “employers shall make effort to….”
o No enforcement mechanisms
o Mediation of disputes required the consent of the employer
o Two trade system in a number of places:
 Shift from gendered male/female tracks to job-content based, career trajectory
based
 Career track X clerical track
o First revision – 1997-1999
 Expanded the number of areas covered for elimination discrimination,
recruiting, hiring, training,…
 Prohibited discrimination in hiring and promotion areas
 Sexual harassment against women prohibited
 Removes the protective provisions
o Second revision (2007, active till now)
 Prohibits indirect discrimination
 Transfer and mobility can no longer be a condition for hiring
 Makes firing or demotion of women during and a year after pregnancy illegal
 Sexual harassment against both women and men prohibited
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LECTURE NOTES

 Yuko Ogasawara: Gossip – Office Ladies and Salary Men: Power, gender, work in Japanese
companies
 What are OLs?
o Position in the workplace – peripheral within the core
o Position in the life course – “way station or blind alley?”
 o Social type, or social character – “parasite singles” (= generally young people,
working, but still at home, mother takes care of them – should be including all youth,
but mainly used for women)
 What women gossiping were concerned about:
o Courtesy, empathy, generosity, competence
 Were OLs, in Ogasawara’s account seeking equality with their male co-workers?
 Moral economy: transaction that seek a balance , or fairness in a situation of inequality
Lecture notes

 What is the significance of OL’s use of the term ojisan?

o Distancing
o Women not interested in local politics within the company – their plan is to get
married and leave, don’t have to pay attention/care about the hierarchy of the
company (men will stay there – should know)
o “women and male workers are not in the same ring”
 Women’s activities + women’s work at home and in the workplace
 Beyond the Gender Gap in Japan – Gill Steel
 Important points
o The gendered organization of the workplace (and the domestic unit) were shaped by
deliberate state policy (from Meiji and post Pacific war), designed to create an
efficient system for labour, production and social reproduction
 Ryousai kenbo = good wife, wise mother
 New Life Movement
 Sengyou shufu = professional housewife
o The gendered division of labour is deeply embedded in corporate and domestic
practices and in identities
 “corporate practices” are modelled on the image of the male worker married
to a full-time housewife
 Life-long employment
 Long working hours
 Seniority-based wages and promotions
o By design (1) the model worker (=male) is flexibly available to the workplace, and
expected to work overtime
o Women have been given the tasks of childrearing and household management.
Importance has been given to these tasks and the role is identity-conferring. These
tasks are overwhelmingly performed by women even if they are working in the labour
force full-time. Men tend to do little
 Due to the time and energy they must devote to household and childrearing duties women are
unable to meet standards applied to the model (male) worker, and are promoted much more
slowly and at much lower rates than men
 “second generation discrimination”
o These gendered structures of labour also create different views of qualities of workers
based on gender and different expectations regarding their probable and proper paths
forward.
 Glenda Roberts: Leaning out for the long span: not pushing, if I have more responsibility I
will have even more work (Contrast to Leaning IN)
Lecture Notes

 Research
  “progressive” company where research was done
 “mommy track” – accommodations for women who want to be mothers
 Examples of 3 women:
o Ohashi-san: Ambitions for promotion, but not offered until quite late in her career
o Hayakawa-san: Not looking for promotion, children priority, wants to be useful to
company, got certain rewards – manage her second shift with schedule adjustments
and help from her mother in law
o Kodama-san: not looking for promotion, but aware of the inequalities at her
workplace, needed to take care of her children while sick, stress affecting her mental
health – bad relationship with husband
 Think about “choice”
o Women’s choice regarding how to negotiate “work-life balance”
o Good worker x good mother – good worker = role for men
o Women – arranged accommodations – allowed to take care of children, allowed to be
a different worker – need for time off accommodated
o = mommy track – remodel of the ideal worker
o Men not allowed to take time off when child is sick = women responsibility – men not
allowed to
Lecture Notes

 O-hitori-sama – focus on family in Japanese society

 Complementary incompetence – both genders have their strengths and weaknesses – one isn’t
very good at some things, but the other one is = they come together to cover their
complementary incompetence
o Works with binary framework – heteronormativity
 (weddings)
 Motherhood – biological, historical, social and cultural construct
 Bosei no shinwa = myths of motherhood
 “The spirit of a three year old lasts until one hundred”
o = what happens to a child in the first years will stay with them for the rest of their life
o = weight put on mother, because she stays with the child
 Demography
 Age pyramid – not really a pyramid
 Total fertility rate – ideally 2.1 – replacement
 After WWII Japan – TFR 4.32 – doubled – Baby Boom
o End in mid 50s
o Lump moving through the age pyramid
 The Baby Boom Echo – Baby Boomers having babies – less babies than their parents had
 TFR – below replacement rate
 1966 – no babies = women born in the year will kill their husband
o = according to the Chinese zodiac (TFR 1.58)
 Women = staying in work as long as possible (ideal worker model)
Lecture Notes

 Fatherhood
 Abenomics – plan to stimulate the JP economy (named after Abe Shinzo)
o Government spending
o Borrow money reforms
 o Structural reform – womanomics
 “Josei kagayaku” – move women to the workforce in greater numbers + make them promote
in greater numbers
 Men’s place in the workplace and family
o Hegemonic masculinity / marginalized masculinity
o Jishin, kaji ---- ??
 From the ie to the corporation
o Shifting form of labour
 Feminized environment – mother takes care of everything
o Father eliminated from the family – father-less society
 When fathers retire = they are in the way
 “ikuji wo shinai otoko, chichi to wa yobanai”
o “Men who don’t raise their children, we don’t call them fathers”
 Movement for men to want to raise their kids; “give us the space”
 イケメン 育メン
o Ikumen – men involved in childcare
 From 2014 – childcare leave benefits have been increased
o Family stability: By sharing the joys and difficulties of childcare, the couple’s bonds
deepen. Childcare stress on mother is reduced and second or later child becomes
easier to raise
o Positive effect on work – more sensitive to time, with increase in productivity +
sharing information enhances teamwork
o Mom will thrive – working while childbearing becomes easier, field in which women
are active will broaden
 2016 – 3.1% men taking parental leave
o Japan not lacking in the legal policy measures
o Tanshin funin - married man sent on a transfer without the family
 Refuse – act of insubordination – could be fired
 Ishii-Kuntz – 4 main points
o Parental responsibility – men should participate in childcare
o Providing diverse environment – healthy interactive experience
o Men’s experience of socialization as young person – men had father not present –
want something more positive for their kids
o Desire of the wife – especially when she earns money
 Has more power in the couple – bigger choice
 Can suggest that the husband should participate more
 Time off = not appreciated by the workplace – time off legally guaranteed but very possible
they will lose a chance to get promoted higher
Lecture Notes

 Prostitution Prevention Law

o Prostitution damaged the dignity of people, goes against sexual morals (sei doutoku)
o Disturbs the proper morals (fuzoku) of society
 Prostitution – receiving compensation or promise of compensation for sexual intercourse with
a non-specific partner
o Narrow definition of sexual intercourse – governed only penetration between
biological man and woman
 Baishun, baibaishun = prostitution
  Sei fuzoku – sex industry
 Fuzoku jo – sex worker
 Mizu shoubai – host clubs – etc. – not straight up sex work
 Many things outside of the prostitution prevention law (handjob, blowjob, etc. possible)
 Many things outlawed but regulated: soap land, love hotel, stripclub, adult shop, fashon
herusu, delivery herusu,….

READING: Akiko Takeyama – Intimacy for Sale

 “hosuto” – selling romantic companionship, love and sometimes sex to indulge their female
clients’ in fantasies, often for exorbitant sums of money
 Multi-billion dollar sex and entertainment industry
 Host club phenomenon at the juncture of Japan’s post-industrial consumerism and globalizing
neoliberal reformation
 1970s shift to consumption-oriented economy
 Hosts commodified, work in exploitative working conditions yet entrepreneurial
Hosting in Japan’s Neoliberal Situation and Global Economy

 Neoliberal traits – privatization, market deregulation – promoted since late 1980s

o Neoliberalism in Japan – ongoing national project with roots in the country’s
socioeconomic shift since the 1970s
 Group oriented values and ethics idealized
 Competitive society, self-responsibility valued as the key sources of both individual freedom
and socioeconomic liberation
 Neoliberalism as a situation
 Global economic trends, Japan’s social values and ethics and individual desires intersect and
shape intimacy for sale
 Host club – embodiment of the intersection – attracts young working class men
 Host clubs spreading all over Japan
 For many men – host club = opportunity to achieve upward mobility toward luxury, wealth
and elite status despite their background
 Hosts’ bodies – investment tool for engineering and expanding the opportunities for their
success, fame and financial gain
 Appearance – seductive masculine image
 Trying to be an attentive companion – sympathetic and concerned, making a client feel
relaxed and happy
o Sometimes after-hours dating and sexual encounters
 Women visit them and spend money on extremely overpriced foods and drinks
o Even if the woman doesn’t eat anything – expected to pay for the table and tip the
hosts
 Most host justify their job for flexible work style, performance based pay, chance for
networking
o Contrast with the salaryman job

An Affect Economy and Casino-Like opportunity

 Stock market for romance

  No skill needed, only demands devoted effort
 Hosts’ bodies are commodity objects – taken good care of
 Affective labour – produces and manipulates affect such as romantic feelings, companionship
and sense of well-being
o Key component to affect economy – in Japan service and entertainment industry
o Capitalizes affect – mode of attachment
 Club owner exploits hosts’ affective labour to create greater surplus value
o hosts are aware of that – commodities
 voluntarily submit to the exploitative nature of their working conditions in order to win the
fierce monthly sales competitions
 staying in the business to test themselves
 only few alternatives in Japan for people with minimal job education and no work experience
o unemployment
o force workers into the affect economy
 ex-salarymen working as hosts
 gambling – finding a wealthy woman that will support them (rare)
 casino-like nature of the job – appealing
o thrill of playful earning and spending for the pleasure of the here and now
 pachinko, gambling
 expansive clothing etc – gifts from clients
 more effort more money
 idealized values
Commodified, Yet Entrepreneurial Male Subjects

 hosts stigmatized – due to sex-related work and sleazy business practices

 female hostesses – natural sex roles of caring for men
 “lowlifes who prey on women”
 Historically – male mistress, gigolo depending upon women
 Reversed social pyramid
 Contrast of salaryman vs hosts
 Club – highly competitive work environment and job insecurity
 Lower ranking hosts – money barely enough to survive in Tokyo
o Saving money on food, furniture, housing, daytime clothes
 Physical problems due to irregular lifestyle
o Alcohol, smoking
o Little sleep and little nutritious food
 Occupation lifespan – short
 Physical and emotional hardship
 Hosts quit after three months or so
 Why won’t veterans leave
o Jeopardizes their legitimacy
o Need of a workplace
 Hosts technically self-employed – to avoid pension etc
o Club has few employee expenses
 Hegemonic masculinity and marginalized masculinities
READING: Akiko Takeyama – Commodified romance in Tokyo Host Club

 Reflects Japan’s fad-driven consumer culture

  Reflects economic power of Japanese women – free-spending habits evolved from satisfying
material wants to less tangible desires
 Changing attitudes of Japanese women – avoiding confines of Japan’s marriage and family
system
 Many go to host clubs to relieve stress, many also to pursue a fantasy of romance (including
sexual encounters)
 Gijiren’ai pseudo-romance
 Men as resources to create more woman-friendly lifestyle
 Japanese media represent women as victims of sleazy and manipulative hosts
Late capitalism and the supremacy of romance

 Gender division of labour (post war)

o Men – breadwinners, women – homemakers
 80s women new positions – more financially independent
 Women postponing or avoiding marriage
o And married women having less children – to enjoy autonomy and financial
independence
 Some men questioning their social role
 Increased karoshi
 Masculinity crisis
 Dating and marriage pushed via media
 Promoting romantic relations
 Stimulus for greater consumption
 Host club as a consumer space where romance is easily obtainable in exchange for money
Hosting service in host clubs

 Space heavily decorated – no windows = customer left her everyday life outside
 Hosts to many gentlemen like things to help the women relax
 Efforts made to construct a fantasy world in which women will willingly spend money to
satisfy their desires
 Hosts – seductive masculine image – slim bodies, tanned, trendy hairstyles and expensive
brand suits and accessories
 Hosts are listeners, expressing sympathy and concern, take time to comfort them
o Responds to customers’ romantic aspirations and requests for more intimate attention
(outside dating, sex)
 Everything expensive
 What entices them to pay those prices and spend great sums of money at the host club?
o Many possible explanations:
o Hosts manipulate them into buying more – if they don’t have the money, hosts
suggests working in the sex industry
 Women do not feel like victims – going there is a personal choice
 Couldn’t function in the west – because of the ladies first gentlemen nature
o Japan male dominated country – feels good be experience ladies first

Women’s desires and social context

 Are women victims or is their participation a sign of liberation

 Once married – women not treated as individual women
o Husbands show less interest
  But hosts always pay attention, compliment the women etc
o Boost of self confidence
 Hosts – first submissive to the customer then shift the roles when she falls in love
 Might support the notion that women are victims and host are manipulative
o But neither of them see it like that
 Hosts see women spending as self-devotion and clients as personal choice
 Women actually believing the pseudo-romance is real
 Hosts not directly asking for money – let women do it voluntarily
 Women encouraged to devote themselves to men and live vicariously through projecting
themselves onto their men
 Host/hostess – profession that diagnoses the desire of the customer and then converts these
desires into something tangible and exchangeable for money
Non-penetrative sex

 “end” is male not female orgasm

 Women having to choose between security or excitement (safety – marriage, excitement –
promiscuous)
 Women today seeking commodified romance so as to revel in feelings of sensual excitement
not readily experienced in monogamous relationships
 More than 80% of hosts have had physical relations with their clients
o Almost all engaged in some sort of sensual contact including dancing, touching,
kissing,…
 Majority also had penetrative sex with some clients
 Non-penetrative sex
o Satisfaction through cuddling etc
o Connection more important to women than physical relations
 Women cannot have sex without love
LECTURE NOTES

 Contraception
o Non-medical
o Medical – better with both method and user effectiveness
 “Japanese couples tend to use ineffective methods effectively”
o = big reliance on non-medical methods
 What does the contraception use tell us about the culture???
 Why this use pattern?
o Availability – conservative society and medical establishment
o Women’s embarrassment – obtainable without visiting the doctor
o Construction of conjugal sexuality – cantered on reproduction
o Power and gender relations – condoms and withdrawal are male oriented methods
 Sex and gender roles
o Women’s sexuality connected to motherhood, men’s sexuality connected to pleasure
o Husband’s expectations of wife’s sexuality: Men are expected to take the lead
 Sexual assertion – risks a woman’s femininity
 “risshinben no nai sekkusu” – sex without heart
o Representation of male sexuality = servicing of the men
 Sex as domestic service along with other services (cleaning, cooking)
 Men expected to display discipline in areas of sexuality in a workplace context
 o Little ogling and catcalling (but groping)
o Little sexual talk at work (but company sponsored “sex tours)
 Contrast with beliefs in the US
o Western feminist view of oral contraceptives for “controlling one’s own body”
 Pills for contraception legalized for purposes of contraception only from 1999 in Japan
Lecture Notes

 Epistemic injustice – 2 kinds

o Testimonial – someone making statements believe or not believed on the basis of their
position in social groups (gender, race, ethnicity)
o Semantic injustice – access to concepts by marginalized groups
 Sexual harassment – coined by feminists in 1970s – form of discrimination
 Recognition of unequal power relations between men and women, first in the workplace
o Regulation of sexual harassment in the workplace – EEOL – issued 2006
 1 in 15 Japanese women surveyed had experienced rape
 70% of Japanese women who have been raped don’t tell anyone – 4% report to the police
o Less than half of reported cases are sent to prosecutors
 Higashi koyuki – I don’t want to pretend it didn’t happen
 Shiori Ito – Black Box, Hadaka de oyogu
 Flower demo
o Case of rape in Nagoya – girl abused by her father since 2 nd grade of junior high
 Frequency and severity of abuse increases
 At 19 – breaking point from physical abuse – daughter files a victim report
o Court recognized
 Father’s abuse + sexual abuse – rape
 Her mental state
 Such a state that resistance was difficult (feeling that resistance is useless)
o Decision:
 Quasi forced sexual intercourse
 Inability to resist
 Judge – father not guilty – later appealed and convicted
 4 similar cases in March 2019
o Protesting the injustice = flower demo

 Behaviour x identity
o The question is not whether homosexuality exists – it does in almost every society of
which we know – but how people incorporate homosexual behaviour into their self-
identity
 Japan – weight and value of marriage as a route to social normality and recognition
Lecture Notes

 Gender diversity – historical and cross-cultural variation

 Widespread dominant gender ideology
 Biocentric model of gender – flows naturally from sex
 Gender polarity – two and two only (two sexes, two genders) = the gender binary
 Cross-cultural diversity
o Third and fourth gender?
 o Berdache, two spirits people – Native American – not want to fit into LGBTQ+ - had
traditions and categories before the movement
o Tom/dee – tomboy – transmasculine, disidentify with lesbians
 Dee – cis women in relationship with tom
o Waria
o Hijra – India – live in communities, Hindu belief – legally recognized as 3 rd gender
o Kathoey – Lady boy – outdated, shouldn’t be used anymore – Thailand
 Hormones freely available – able to self-administer transition
 Beautiful boxer
 The biomedical model
 Ways of thinking, belief
 Technologies, practices
 Institutions
 Medicalization – Transformation of behaviour, bodily conditions, or psychic states into
treatable conditions
 Medicalization of transgender begins in Europe
o Dora Richter – 1891-1933 – first person to undergo sex change operation
 Gerda Wegener x Lili Elbe – the Danish Girl
 Medicalization of gender diversity in post-war USA
o Harry Benjamin
 Early medical procedures in Japan
o First 1951 – Nagai Akira – Akiko
 Blue Boy trial 1965-1969 (Blue Boy originally crossdressing group of performers)
o In Japan got applied to male body prostitutes
o Guilty verdict in sex change operation
 Medical specialization in mental disorders


Physical - body Deviance – action

Mental disorder
distress

Mental - health

 Transsexualism – 1980
 Gender identity disorder – 1994
 Gender dysphoria – 2013
 Gender incongruence - 2019
 2015 – 1st partnership certificates
 Changing one’s legal gender marker in Japan
 Torai Masae – one of the first publicly known transmen
 Law concerning the exceptional treatment of gender of those with Gender Identity Disorder
(2003, revision 2008)
 Condition for changing gender on the family register (kouseki)
 o Has reached the age of 20
o Not currently married
o Currently has no minor children
o Non reproductive organs or they are non-functional
o Has genitals of those resembling the opposite sex
 Many jp trans people don’t mind showing their pretransition pictures
 One-kyara
Lecture Notes

 Heteronormativity – combination of the ideological and the institutional

o Attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, assumption that man should be with a woman
o Institutional – marriage
 Normalizing of the heterosexual couples
 Heteronormativity
o References power in form of beliefs and institutional practices
 Concern the naturalization that couple should be of an opposite gender
o In work heteronormativity – women expected to leave – put on different tracks
 Less reliable in the labour force
 Women should rely on men with income
 Difficult for two women to live together
 UN terminology
o SOGI – sexual orientation gender identity
o + ESC – expression and sex characteristic
 Kitahara Minori - meh