Sites of attractiveness: Japanese women and westernized representations of feminine beauty

Abstract

Ever since Japan's entry into global geopolitics, scholars have identified Japanese popular cultural texts as a terrain on which this country's complex relationship to the West is negotiated. Few studies, however, have adequately addressed how such texts—and Western influence in general—might be experienced differently by different groups and/or strata of Japanese society. Inspired by the work of postcolonial feminist scholars who argue that gender, race, class, and cultural identity must be examined in relationship to each other, this study focuses on a group of 29 women with whom the author conducted interviews and extensive participant observation during eight months of fieldwork in a small Japanese community. It examines, in particular, how these women negotiated Westernized representations of feminine beauty omnipresent in the Japanese media. This article argues that even though informants assertively critiqued and actively negotiated media representations, their own conceptions of attractiveness—and their daily relationships to their physical selves—matched those of the Westernized media‐defined ideals. In view of these findings, it concludes with a call for a more systematic and critical assessment of gender in transcultural relations.

Notes

Fabienne Darling‐Wolf is Assistant Professor at Temple University's School of Communications and Theater. Correspondence to: Department of Journalism, School of Communications and Theater, 2020 N. 13th Street, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, U.S. Tel: [phone]; Email: [email protected]. This paper was presented at the Global Fusion conference in St. Louis, Missouri, October 13‐15, 2000. It is based on research conducted for a dissertation supervised by Hanno Hardt (hanno‐[email protected]) at the University of Iowa (defended February 2000).

These titles also reflect to some extent my informants' age, as I would not use last names or the title “san” for informants younger than I. I would call younger informants by their first name, generally followed by the suffix “chan” employed to refer to young people (especially girls).

Thick tall white socks worn by high school girls in uniform pushed down on their ankles.

My informants referred to Caucasian noses as high, as opposed to flatter Asian noses.

A fair complexion is indeed a long‐standing standard of beauty in the Japanese cultural environment. In his analysis of the evolution of Japanese conceptions of female attractiveness Kon (1969) notes that a white face has been a beauty requirement in Japan at least since the Heian Period (784–1192).

Literally “child girl.” Youthful image adopted by numerous Japanese female celebrities.

For an in‐depth analysis of my informants' negotiation of their racial and class identity please see my article in the June 2003 issue of Feminist Media Studies (Darling‐Wolf, 2003b).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fabienne Darling‐Wolf

Fabienne Darling‐Wolf is Assistant Professor at Temple University's School of Communications and Theater. Correspondence to: Department of Journalism, School of Communications and Theater, 2020 N. 13th Street, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, U.S. Tel: [phone]; Email: [email protected]. This paper was presented at the Global Fusion conference in St. Louis, Missouri, October 13‐15, 2000. It is based on research conducted for a dissertation supervised by Hanno Hardt (hanno‐[email protected]) at the University of Iowa (defended February 2000).