1 JAPANESE SOCIETY ANTH 1784 Monday 18 00 20 30 Instructor Dr Gabriella Lukacs Review Questions for Exam 2 October 28 2013 Definitions Parasite single 70 of women who are in their 30s and quit their work to live with their parents Ie extended family 3 or 4 generations that would live together patrilineal system only one child inherits property Service wife a bad marriage is the wife s fault i e wife is selfish not pleasing husband no communication necessary between husband and wife regarding marital problems Family service fathers are removed from family life except on the weekends they will do family service Assisted dating enjo kosai school girls high school age go on dates with older men for a disposable income sometimes provide sexual services insufficient evidence that it was happening on any significant scale Academic Pedigree Society school is totalizing experience school life infiltrates into the sphere of what constitutes play consequences bullying violence shut ins avoiding to go to school since it is so stressful Ganbaru culture I ll do my best Educational mother manage the child s life and make sure to get the best out of the child s potential tiger mom Tarento Tarento I are not talented do not have private personas and Japanese viewers are intimately familiar with the tarento Tarento II easy to identify with tarento has to be familiar with the tarento system to enjoy TV in Japan Questions 1 According to Anne Allison why do corporations pay for entertaining their male employees in hostess clubs How do corporations benefit from this practice Corporations pay for hostess clubs to help male bonding debasing women identities are reinforced in a masculine way 2 Anne Allison argues that in hostess clubs women are central to the construction of manliness Explain how Women facilitate the male bonding by complimenting them and allowing them to feel good about themselves 3 Allison writes And for all the work she does to make each and every man feel good the mizu sh bai woman i e hostess is degraded put in place of 2 subordination and emptied of any identity other than that of reflecting a man in his p 187 Explain how hostess work degrades women Women are faceless and are just there to be insulted while they compliment the businessmen degrading men cannot be rejected because it is paid for 4 According to Karen Kelsky what is the yellow cab phenomenon symptomatic of in contemporary Japan The negotiation resist or reinforce of cultural norms of gender race and sexuality in Japan 5 What does Kelsky think about young women who engage in sexual relationships with foreign men while traveling abroad Does she think that the yellow cab phenomenon is real She does not think that it is real because it is basically just for women to gain leverage and articulate critique of Japanese culture 6 In Kelsky s essay how do Japanese office ladies characterize foreign men and how does Kelsky interpret these portrayals Women writers write about having foreign lovers to criticize patriarchy in Japan 7 According to Amy Borovoy how does normal family life accommodate alcoholic husbands In other words what are the dominant ideologies that prevent women from fighting their husbands alcoholism Husband is usually not at home dominant ideology relationships should be like air like breathing if something goes wrong then it is all the woman s fault 8 It is a prevalent belief in Japan that a good marital relationship is supposed to be like air Explain what this means If you breathe normally you don t notice you are breathing it is just that easy marriage should be just as easy has breathing 9 According to Borovoy how can marriage be a source of empowerment for women Marriage and family are a woman s passport to community participation involves stability and privilege 10 What are the commonalties between Borovoy s chapter and Shall We Dance in terms of the ways in which they portray marital relationships Women except their husband to go out on weeknights and drink with their friends have an actual social life while the mother stays home and tends to home and children Normal family life can accommodate drinking and women just cope with that fact 11 According to Merry White what is the main role of the education system in the lives of Japanese children 3 School achievement is seen to confirm virtue education is a force for reducing cultural variety for patrolling conformity Japanese mothers prefer children who have regular habits avoid causing trouble for others and who persevere 12 According to Anne Allison what do stories of mother son incest tell us about the Japanese system of education The entrance exam and the over presence of mothers in the lives of their children both want to succeed at normative role expectations incest occurs in the context of social performance 13 In Allison s essay what are the main reasons that drive mothers in popular myths of mother son incest to engage in incestuous relationships with their sons 3 factors motivate mothers the desire to be good mothers sexual frustrations and attractions to their sons 14 What evidence does Norma Field give to support her claim that Japanese children are overworked She says that the presence of adult diseases among children high cholesterol ulcers hair loss diabetes 15 According to Norma Field how does the state participate in maintaining a system of education that requires children to spend much of their time preparing for classes and exams Standardization of testing alliances between schools cram schools and employers censoring of textbooks 16 Scholars of Japanese media highlight that the tarento are different from American celebrities How so American celebrities have separation between their public personas and their private selves while the Japanese tarento do not have private personas 17 Lukacs argues that in watching television dramas the tarento are the primary source of pleasure for Japanese television viewers How does she explain this tendency It is easy to identify with the tarento television becomes more interactive and it constructs a sense of the communal 18 How does Lukacs explain the development of the trendy drama Are response to the erosion of mass middle class society in the wake of the recession are a strategy to reinvent television a mass medium in the era of the market fragmentation