JAWS 2007 Panel Sex in Contemporary Japan Publicity
JAWS 2007, Panel: Sex in Contemporary Japan: Publicity, Performance, Participation
Todd Joseph Miles Holden Professor, Mediated Sociology Department of Multi-Cultural Societies Graduate School of International Cultural Studies Tohoku University Sendai, Japan
Intimate Connections: Sexuality and Mediated Intimacy in Japan’s Teleuchi
About this paper Very preliminary work Exploratory Focusing on the connections between media, emotion, audience, connectivity strategies, gender and sexuality In Japan today
About this paper: A word about terminology Although this is a panel on sexuality, this paper is more about the nexus between gender and sexuality It looks at ways in which gender is performed in ways that emphasize or underscore sexuality Or perhaps it is about the sexual performance in ways that serve to define and/or re/produce gender
About this paper: A word about the argument In this way we are looking at gender performance via ways that sexuality is presented in the media What we shall see is that there are distinct sexualities associated with genders And in this paper, because it is TV-centered, the gender that is most often constructed via recourse to sexuality is female
Sex in Japan Although this is a much discussed topic, academically it is much less so. What has been studied has been from a queer perspective Centering, in the main, on male homosexuality
Examples Mark Mc. Lelland Male Homosexuality in Modern Japan (2000) Mark Mc. Lelland Queer Japan from the Pacific War to the Internet Age (2005) Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context Issue 12, (January 2006) Queer Japan Guest editor Mark Mc. Lelland Gregory M. Pflugfelder (2007): Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600 -1950
Exceptions Wim Lunsing: Beyond Common Sense: Negotiating Constructions of Sexuality and Gender in Contemporary Japan Looking at the range of sexualities in contemporary Japan
About Media There are various media in Japan obviously Heavily consumed are: TV Manga Anime (both on TV and DVD -- for rental and sale) Internet Cell Phones Radio
The Media Link The role of media in sexuality (in general) is also not widely explored At least not in a systematic or unified way Taking a backseat to specific genres within the medium or else specific themes across genres Specific media, especially manga and anime do receive attention For instance the case of “gender bending” as a phenomenon (focusing on Ranma or Sailor Moon) Or in categories of media, such as shojo or bijou manga. But (and surprisingly) TV is largely ignored
Drawn Discourses TV is the medium at the core of this talk Looking at a theme across genres within the one medium However, some mention should be made of another widely-consumed medium cycling messages of gender that relate to performativity and, hence, sexuality That medium is the drawn image (in the form of manga and anime).
Drawn Discourses Manga has a tradition of sexuality dating back to ukiyo-e Here we see an arresting Hokusai print titled “The Dream of the Fisherman’s wife” With themes of domination or rape, beastiality, and the sexualization of the female form.
Drawn Discourses As most of you know, manga and anime are constitute an enormous market in contemporary Japan As well as for export These media are balkanized in the sense of being comprised of focused publics youth and adult, then within those categories male and female Yet within those groupings, much more sophisticated separation occurs based on themes like sport, love, family, friendship, sadism and the like
Drawn Discourses In short, drawn discourses are robust Like TV or the press or Internet, drawn discourses reflect the multiple aspects and rich textures of the social world
Drawn Discourses: Two Zones of Performativity Here I will identify two areas out of many related to gender In both I am emphasizing themes or presentations that are implicated in performance In this way, we see the reproduction and/or resistance to the reproduction of gender identity Without going into numbers, these are significant areas measuring in volume, visibility, and communicative influence
Drawn Discourses I: Gender Bending Izawa (1997, 2000) has indicated that gender swapping dates back to Tezuka Osamu's 1953 girls' comic Ribbon No Kishi (“Princess Knight” in the West) In the early 1970 s there was Ikeda Riyoko's Berusaiyuu No Bara (“Rose of Versailles”) In the 1990 s there were a number of boys' manga: Ranma 1/2, Love, and the men's comic Noside.
Drawn Discourses In an early-2000 issue of Hana To Yume girls' comics 4 of 11 had stories where the heroine actively pretended to be a boy or was mistaken for one. In 2 others the heroine had traditionally masculine behaviors that she was trying to eliminate.
Drawn Discourses II: Hyper-sexualization Before moving onto to TV, I wish to observe that a second major area of gendered discourse in manga: the hypersexualization of women.
Examples of Hyper-sexualized discourse This manga/anime, called “Amazing Nurse Nanako” focuses on an overendowed, ditzy 16 yearold maid (Nanako) who serves a brilliant physican, Dr. Ogami
Examples of Hyper-sexualized discourse In each episode she is stripped and/or sexually compromised, for instance: removing her clothes to lighten the load of a failing plane being chased naked from a hot tub and threatened with beating being stripped and placed under cold water as a scientific experiment or form of torture
The Centrality of TV in Japan Today In Japan today, there are 6 TVs for every 10 people and a diffusion rate of 100%. TV is viewed by virtually every Japanese every day (95% of the population). This has been the case since the 1960 s when the rate was also 95%. This far exceeds other popular forms of information processing: newspapers (86%), cellphones (73%), and the Internet (27%).
The Centrality of TV in Japan Today A 1990 s NHK study found that, on average, at least one TV set played 7 to 8 hours a day in each Japanese dwelling. Another study found that TV viewing is deemed as “indispensable” by 43% of the population.
The Centrality of Television in Japan Today, the average for personal viewing per day approaches 225 minutes, and has constantly topped three hours since 1960. A recent European survey places the number in excess of four hours, ranking Japan third in the world. 261 minutes, this ranks ahead of the U. S. (at 255 minutes) and behind Mexico (265) and Bosnia (287). In the most recent assessment, Japan came in second only to Bosnia.
The Centrality of TV Advertising in Japan Today Japan’s advertising market is the second largest worldwide Some Facts/Figures: Advertising outlays for TV outdistance all other media sources At 34. 1% Its closest alternative conduit is newspapers (at 19. 9%). It amounts to $223, 250, 000 just for TV Dedicated to 957, 447 ads Consuming 6, 016 broadcasting hours per year Source: Dentsu Koukoku Nenkan, ’ 02 – ‘ 03 [Dentsu Advertising Yearbook, 2002 – 2003], Tokyo: Dentsu, 2002; pp. 57, 90, 89.
The Centrality of TV Advertising in Japan Today Advertising serves not only a major motor for Japanese television; it also works as one of the major means by which cultural communication occurs. Ads serve a powerful socializing and ideological function, narrowly and repetitiously re/producing images of gender, cultural values, history, nationalism, and political, social and personal identity (among others). Here we would also talk about sexuality
Sexu-ad-ity: (Female) Bodies on Display Advertising provides a narrow, repetitive discourse about bodies -- generally female bodies -- for public display Evaluation Consciousness Gender performativity
Sexu-ad-ity: (Female) Bodies on Display This is not a discourse about men Although in the gaze, it certainly involved men
Sexu-ad-ity: (Female) Bodies on Display It is a discourse about re-constructing woman Piece by piece
Sexu-ad-ity: Deconstructing Bodies “Perfecting”, by decomposing and reassembling And sexualizing the viewer’s gaze
Sexualized Discourse, Sexified Gaze As just one example, in this ad from 2005, a game of musical chairs is presented as a ritual dance around a ring bearing significations of sexuality (as well as nationhood).
From Nation, Gender? The bodies are all: Female Lithe wellproportioned Foreign The camera attends to them in a way that sexualizes their performance as physical competition
Categories of Sexual Discourse Thinking about the examples from both manga/anime and advertising, above, we can begin to think about categories in which gender performance and sexuality are coupled.
Categories of Sexual Discourse (basically off the top of my head) I would suggest ten categories for exploration based on my encounters with Japanese media -- and particularly TV.
Categories of Sexual Discourse 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Body Presentation Body Talk Discussions of Love and Intimacy Dating Simulations and Dating Talk Extra-marital Affairs / Cheating on a Partner
Categories of Sexual Discourse 6. Sexualized Performance 7. Hidden Cameras and “Reality TV Bites” capturing sexual participation 8. Public Display / The “Public” Performance of Sexualities 9. The Commercialization and Commodification of Sexuality. 10. Compliance and Deviance
Categories of Sexual Discourse Thinking about the examples from both manga and advertising, above, we can begin to think about categories in which gender performance and sexuality are coupled.
Exploring the Categories Time will not permit me to go into every category today. I leave that for the longer paper Here I will focus on some examples with overlap: Body Presentation Body Talk Sexualized Performance Public Performance of Sexualities
Sexual Performance in the Kitchen As I have explored in published work, food shows are a major TV genre So, too, a theme that runs through and unites various genres It is a content area that enables national identity to be formed and through which cultural nationalism is re/produced As such, it serves as an emotional unifier and provides a “binding function”
Sexual Performance in the Kitchen Food is often coupled with sexuality - usually in the form of women who prepare food Generally for a male in-studio audience Who critique, comment, sample and often render verdicts on culinary winners and losers (who are often women)
Sexual Performance in the Kitchen One of the best examples in this regard is “Ai no Apron” (Aprons of Love) This show has been running in various incarnations for over 4 years. In this clip we see the key themes of gendered performance that is “sexualized” 3_aprons. webarchive
Gendered Performance in and around the Kitchen What this clip shows is the essence of “Sex Discourse” in TV The clip, itself, is not over sexualized In fact there is no overt talk about sex It is, though, heavily reinforcing of gender stereotypes
Gendered Performance in and around the Kitchen The thrust of the show is that women talent (idols, singers, or actresses) generally are klitchenchallenged Warning: A good “girl” should not copy this approach
Gendered Performance in and around the Kitchen They perform for men, who estimate their worth (independent of their talent) based on their ability to cook.
Gendered Performance in and around the Kitchen The clip emphasizes that: The woman who is most “feminized” wears pink She dresses and acts “cute” She is depicted as frail (afraid to catch and kill the fish) In these regards she is unabashed, unapologetic, gender
Gendered Performance in and around the Kitchen Furthermore: She is unable to think and plan out her meal She lacks basic cooking skills To the amusement, but also ridicule of the male panel of judges
Sexual Performance in the Kitchen Another late night offering features Tsuyoshi Kusanagi of the longestrunning, most successful boys band in Japan (SMAP). Here, women are asked to prepare food However, they often “perform” this act in various forms of undress. Kusanagi_cooking 1. w ebarchive
Sexual Performance in the Kitchen Kusanagi and his team comment as they view the kitchen activity. So, too, does a female talent in inset. Comments are of the order of: “she’s falling out of that outfit. ” Or: “look she even knows how to beat an egg. ”
Sexual Performance in the Kitchen In this segment a woman’s job was to make an omelet… Although this was not the main focus of the spot
Sexualized Competition in the Kitchen Another night, featured a competition -characterized not by food type, but by what the cooks were wearing. Kusanagi_competition. webar chive
Sexualized Competition in the Kitchen Note the excited reaction by the male panel of viewer/judges And the attempt by the female judge to terminate the exercise Also the troubled (even pained) reaction of the female commentator in the inset.
Sexualized Competition in the Kitchen Important is the way that the camera works as voyeur, for surveillance. It serves the function of intrusive male gaze, often visually assaulting women in ways that -- were this out in “the real world” would be offensive and violative.
Making Meaning out of Sexualized Cuisine The angles and postures suggest as much They are exaggerated, abnormal, beyond the ken of the everyday. It is almost as if we are transported into the realm of private male fantasy.
Making Meaning out of Sexualized Cuisine The off-camera chuckles from the staff are audible And (since we cannot see them) these sounds underscore the sense of spying. The models, themselves are oblivious to the commentary, continuing in their chores without acknowledging the banter among guests and reaction by staff.
Sexual Theatre At the same time, the models seem fully aware of what this is all about. Certainly not an innocent turn with the pots and pans.
Intended Versus Inadvertent It may also be important to distinguish between 2 kinds of performance Those which, though, sexualized, may not have the models (full) complicity And those which do, thereby leading to intended, gratuitous display
Inadvertent Performance In this program, aimed at testing endurance in front of a voting audience, this contestant is dumped into a tub of scalding water to see how long she can last. The camera (host and audience) thrill in the exposure wrought by her physical pain Gameshow_public_perfomance. webarchive
Intended Performance By contrast, consider this Saturday evening Osaka-based show concerning brain type. This January, 2007 segment is nothing if not soft porn. A woman in a black, tight-fitting skirt, black panties, a pink bra with her breasts bursting out of the top is depicted on her hands and knees. She straddles dominoes (for no apparent reason), pulls her skirt up over hips, then pulls her panties tight into her bottom
Intended Performance The camera roves behind her and she pulls her skirt over hips The camera then shoots up at her vagina. As she pulls her panties aside, her anus is actually exposed and must be blotted out Throughout she rocks forward as if in sexual ecstasy. She actually rubs her vagina as 2 male hosts comment in an off-site inset.
Pornographic Performance Her performance elicits reaction from an on-site interviewer, a roving reporter, and in-studio hosts.
Sexual Performance or Public Assault? Other shows -- which often employ the same formatic tropes -- employ sexualized content based on women under hypnotic influence. There, women must complete tasks. Physical or intellectual The former reveals body The latter, mind
Sexual Performance or Public Assault? An example of body exposure under hypnosis is the following late night show Once hypnotized, women crawl an obstacle course hypnotist_race. webarchive
Sexual Performance or Public Assault? The tasks are set up to titillate -- if not demean
Publicly-Sanctioned Sexual Assault The camera’s role is to spy -- and expose
Publicly-Sanctioned Sexual Assault The results are observed not only by the hosts and the viewers at home … They are witnessed by an in-studio, allmale audience
Pornographic Performance In many ways it doesn’t much matter if this is actual hypnosis or simply play-acted. It all amounts to public sexual performance.
Pornographic Performance Although, if it is hypnosis, then we ought to criticize exploitation on the verge of publicly sanctioned videorape.
Pornographic Performance And, if mere acting, the we should be asking about a system of broadaccess communication that encourages women to pose and perform in such ways.
Discussion: TV and Emotions The final thread that must be woven into this discussion is one of emotions. It is really about how TV does its work.
Discussion: TV and Emotions I have shown in ethnographic work published with Ergul (2006 a) that TV is employs tropes and strategies that intentionally manage -- if not engineer - emotions. TV in Japan does this both through form and content.
Discussion: TV and Emotions The forms that it employs include: Yume-jin (famous folk) who cycle through the endless procession of shows (day after day, hour by hour, channel to channel) in ways that create immediate comfort, awareness, and connection with the viewing audience. Group/collective experience Talent-audience collaboration in the processing of information in the same moment Emphasis on tasks (such as eating, buying, traveling) Spying/surveilling eye (often with celebrities viewing the lives and acts of “everyday people”
Content In terms of content, I have mentioned food shows. Other content areas that are widely sampled are athletics often involving what I call “sports” (Holden 2006 b, 2007) athletes successful in international competitions
Content The final area of content that I would point to as extensive is the sexualized discourse that I have discussed here. Everyone has an interest in sex, it seems; when sex is on the dial, people pay immediate attention. Because it is shared (in interest and practice) sex is binding It is emotionally engaging, probably because it is physiologically riveting
Sexual Discourse as Binding Whatever the reason, if one codes TV content, one would find sex pervasive As talk In performance In its practice and experience, it is reproducing The act of reproduction brings communicators and consumers of sex discourse into a linked community.
Sexuality, defining Gender In this paper I have conflated sex and gender For some, perhaps a point of criticism Yet in the examples offered, we can see sexuality (in the form of sex talk, body performance, and public viewing) working to define gender This is especially true, in TV, for females who perform sexuality and men who view and validate the sexuality Each, in their own way, are defining and shaping dominant conceptions of gender, while neutralizing marginalized forms (of thought and practice)
Problematic Cases: Female - Female Discourse This is not to say that discrepant data doesn’t appear The case of “Hard Gay” -- a celebrity cashing in on his image as a 1970 “Village People”retread So too, cases of female to female contact Such cases are quite extensive, actually Consider this example of a former AV star, Miki Sawaguchi, introduced on a wide show and the female host decides to explore her breasts Miki_Sawaguchi. webarchive
Close calls In such a case we have to recognize that traditional lines of sexual discourse are not actually being crossed In Japanese mediations (as in society at large) female-female contact is often tolerated As I have shown in my work on Japanese Gender ads (Holden 1998, 2004) They are less problematic if one sees them as pandering to “male gaze” or male conceptions of hyper-feminized sexuality
The Expansive Roles of Women The sexualized discourse that I have pointed to in this discussion today is heavily female-centered It cannot really be said to be completely “heterosexual” as: It is not always the case that men are implicated in the consumption of female bodies and sexuality And female serve as voyeurs or co-experiencers/coconsumers of female sexualized activity and display
Distinguishing Types of Female Performance We should recognize that there are differing kinds of performance at work in which women perform with women “inadvertent” as in the case of the cooking competition (where their bodies are juxtaposed in separate spaces) or the hypnotized race (where they often bump into or crawl over one another) “intentional” as in the case of females performing sexualized tasks together (as in touching another woman’s breasts) And in fact this activity can be found in numerous TV mediations
Example of Co-Production of Sexualized Performance One example of this can be found in the video by AV idol, Reon Kadena Reon_Kadena_Breast_Test. webarchive In this particular video, another female is asked (by the male hosts) to adjust Kadena’s breasts (which are bursting from her bikini) She also is encouraged to touch them and asked to comment on their feel
Example of Co-Production of Sexualized Performance
Example of Co-Production of Sexualized Performance Another example of intentional sexualized coproduction by women can be seen in this show: sumi. webarchive young bikinied women perform sumi-e on one another’s bodies, with the stipulation (by a male producer off-screen) that the brush be held in the mouth… To perform this task, the women have to climb atop the other and engage in close physical contact. The other women call the painter “sensei” and offer words of encouragement and congratulation
Example of Sexualized Co. Production
Other Forms of Sexualized Discourse Although much of my presentation has taken up examples (and cases) of sexualized performance, other kinds of sexual discourse exist An example is sex talk, which can be indirect or direct It can come in the form of men asking women what other women’s breasts feel like In traditional entertainment shows like those hosted by Sanma, celebrities will discuss stories of their escapades, affairs, and sexual activities -- generally played for laughs.
Direct Sex Talk For instance, direct talk can be found in shows where people discuss sexuality or sexual practices Here, in pictures taken from this clip, a generally female audience and two male hosts receive instruction on bondage using a live model. bondage_training. webarchive
Direct Sex Talk: an example
Indirect Sex Talk Indirect sex discourse often involves men Since women are the primary targets of direct sexual discourse An example can be found from a recent sports digest show It followed new Yankee baseball import Kei Igawa, to a nightclub and he met a stylish blond-haired American woman. They threw darts together and were shown conversing. On the show it was mentioned that Igawa was single; it was implied that he would be able to enjoy an active dating life in America this coming year. Igawa, on the show’s set appeared to blush and denied that this would be his future course
Conclusions That sexualized discourse is ubiquitous in contemporary TV programming cannot be denied It should be observed that this is not necessarily a new development The “publicity” or “publicness” of sexuality has existed in Japan for centuries
Conclusions However, in the past this publicness about sexual discourse may have been confined to a particular district, class of people, certain private enclaves in society What is different about today is that through TV (and increasingly the Internet) this private sphere has become increasingly opened to the public
Conclusions In identifying the extensive amount of sexualized phenomena being mediated in contemporary Japan, we note that much of it in the dominant media centers on women Most mediations involve an appropriation and commanding use of the female image These re/produce particular kinds of female performance Not necessarily in ways that are supportive of female autonomy or nurturing of female power
Conclusions Women and men are both complicit in the consumption of these performance. Not all validate the performance -- as the insets of females reacting to these performances indicate. In short, the audience experience is gendered to process both male and female reaction to female sexualized performance
Conclusions In concluding I readily acknowledge that there is a large amount of same-sex discourse going on in other media However, one point of this talk has been to make clear that TV is not a medium for such discourse At least not involving men And when it does it tends to validate long-held, dominant conceptions of feminized sexuality ubiquitous in the society.
Conclusions However, to the degree that TV is the mostconsumed medium in Japan today, these observations are significant As as the most extensive means of distributing messages of gender performativity -- and specifically the association of women with sexualized performance -- attention should be accorded it.
Thank you for your attention
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