Gender roles are often something we don’t think about. We are socialized as guys and gals to behave in certain ways and often don’t realize it. Our media reflects these mores. Anime, like any other medium, reflects the expectations society has for its members. Aspects of anime, such as a girl cooking a bento for her favorite guy or guys acting pure and innocent, are a reflection of gender roles and expectations in Japanese society.
Gender roles are defined by culture more than physical differences between men and women. Certainly, women are pigeonholed into child bearing because guys physically cannot. However, child rearing roles are a product of culture. Japanese and Chinese cultures tend to value different roles than we do in the West. For example, independence is not considered a desirable trait for a man in China ( Sugihara, 2000).
Let us briefly trace the development of Japanese gender roles before looking into the roles found in modern Japan.
Confucian Japan
Japan was a fairly equitable matriarchal society until Confucian ideas immigrated from China. These ideas defined Japanese society up until the end of World War II. The integration of Confucian hierarchical structures where men were dominate shifted gender roles into a patriarchal system. Both men and women shared expectations under the Confucian system: loyalty and courage. Men were expected to be loyal to their lords; women were to be loyal to their family and husband. Interestingly, women could own and inherit property and family position in feudal Japan. They were expected to control the household budget and household decisions to allow men to serve their lord. During the feudal era, men were expected to be well rounded. Unlike their “macho” European counterparts, samurai were expected to be learned in literature and the arts ( Sugihara and Katusarada, 2002).
World War II and Shifting Roles
World War II marked a shift in thinking about gender roles. The Japanese government tapped into loyalty and courage to encourage the war effort. The war also sharply divided gender roles, much to the detriment of women. Women’s patriotic duty was to have children. They were encouraged by propaganda to be married to the nation. Magazines portrayed women as managers of the nation’s household. Although many women worked munition factories.
Poor women were drafted by the Japanese government to sexually service military men. Known as “comfort women,” these women worked in an assembly line-like environment. Soldiers referred to these women as “hygienic public bathrooms” or even as “semen toilets.” Officers had access to professional prostitutes. Men were expected to use these services. It was believed that guys who abstained from sex for too long fought poorly (Mclelland, 2010).
Women who stayed at home, unlike their brothers, sons, and husbands, were expected to remain chaste. They sent their men “comfort dolls.” Unlike the comfort girls, these dolls, made from cloth and buttons, reminded military men of home. They were thought to have protective properties.
Guys were forced to fight under distorted samurai ideals to the point of suicide. These ideals took the ideas of brotherly love and used them to make men fight to the point of suicidal charges and general waste of life. Kamikazes are a result of this distortion. Loyalty to Imperial Japan and courage were also fuel for the bloody violence. The film, Letters from Iwa Jima is a good illustration of these views.
I recommend watching this film if you are interested in seeing how traditional morals can be distorted to encourage violence.
Modern Japan and Traditional Roles
Post WWII Occupation abruptly changed the gender roles of Japan. Discrimination based on gender was forbidden by the Japanese Constitution. American attitudes about public displays of affection, American fashion and values changed attitudes of men and women toward each other and traditional roles. WWII essentially ended the social feudal system (Mclelland, 2010). Modern Japanese gender roles took on an odd mix of American views and traditional views during this time.
Modern Japanese gender roles revolve around their vertical society where someone’s identity is a part of their group identity. That is why honorifics are an important part of the language. They help define how a person relates or belongs to another person or group. Senpai-kohai (senior-junior) relationships are how people are ranked in companies and schools. This structure is more important than gender defined roles. Traits like leadership that don’t interfere with this vertical social structure are encouraged (Yamaguchi, 2000).
Loyalty and harmony continue to be emphasized in modern Japan. Loyalty is particularly focused on one’s company with Japan’s life-long employment system. Women still control the household, household budget, and household decisions, allowing men to devote themselves to their work. This is changing as more women start careers. Both genders are also delaying marriage. The stigma of being single is fading for both genders, most of all for women.
There are a few key ideas about gender that persist (Yamaguchi, 2000):
- Men should work outside the home
- Genders should be brought up differently
- Women are more suited to household work and child rearing than men.
- Full time housewives are valuable to society because of their family raising role.
As you can see, these persistent gender ideas have roots in feudal Japan. The roles also work within the vertical social structure of senior-junior relations. Generally, traits associated with individualism like assertiveness, independence, and self-reliance are poorly regarded by the Japanese compared to conformity, being affectionate, and having leadership abilities. Again, the typical American ideal of the “macho” alpha male is frowned upon in Japanese society. Guys are expected to be well rounded in art, music, literature, and more just like in feudal Japan (Sughara, 2002).
Japanese society has a pair of key concepts that explains the sometimes strange contradictions us Westerners see: tatemae and honne. Tatemae is who one is supposed to be. It is a set of morals people agree upon, such as being loyal or devoted to work. Honne is who someone actually is: the personal opinion and who the person is in reality. The gender roles and traits I’ve outlines fall under the concept of tatemae. The way people really live in Japan, women having careers and men staying at home, are honne (Yamaguchi, 2000).
Anime’s Portrayal of Tradition and Modern
You can see these traits and roles in anime. Girls in anime make a huge deal out of making lunch for their favorite guy because it is a wifely thing. At the same time, the ideal male character is rather feminine to our Western eyes and is able to cook well. Cooking well shows how the character is well rounded and able to support the woman should she have a career of her own. The misogyny you see with women being …hornier…than the guys is a product of the “comfort girls” of the past and freedom from the constraints traditional society had on women. Some of this shift in sexuality is a backlash from when guys were expected to be highly sexual.
In many anime series, parents are largely absent. Often they are away at work. This is a reflection on the expectation of men (and increasingly women) to be loyally devoted to their workplace. It is also easier to have comedic antics without serious adults around! When parents are around, you mostly see the mom at home with the father almost always away. Again, the traditional idea of women running the household so the man can work. Sometimes you see the roles reversed; in those cases the stay-at-home dad is quirky and weird. This is an illustration of how odd this is to the norm. Although these dads tend to also be modern.
Anime likes to play with the concepts of tatamae and honne. The stay-at-home dad is one illustration of this. Out in public he is often put-together, but at home he is quirky and weird.
A Few Oddities
There are a few small oddities with Japanese gender roles. Sweets are considered unmanly. In order to make sweets manly, some bakeries have taken to making huge portion sizes so guys can feel less feminine about having a sweet tooth. This is an anime trope that is only partially true. Women are thought to like more elaborate and sweeter desserts than men.
Gender roles are more fluid than people think. They are a product of culture and period. Gender roles are mostly a consensus. Rarely are they honne. Gender roles are slowly changing, particularly for women. It is becoming acceptable for both guys and girls to be single for longer. Girls are able to have careers, and guys are becoming stay-at-home fathers. These changes are reflected in anime and other media. In any case, there is very little difference between gender role expectations with guys and girls. The traditional foundation laid in the feudal era will remain, but it will also become more flexible.
It should be interesting to see how this flexibility will be reflected in anime.
References
Mclelland, Mark (2010). “Kissing is a symbol of democracy!” Dating, Democracy, and Romance in Occupied Japan 1945-1952. Journal of the History of Sexuality. 19[3] p 508-535.
Sugihara, Yoko and Katsurada, Emiko (1999). Gender Differences in Gender-Role Perceptions Among Japanese College Students. Sex Roles. 41. p. 775-786.
Sugihara, Yoko and Katsurada, Emiko (2000). Gender-Role Personality Traits in Japanese Culture. Psychology of Women Quarterly. 24 p 309-318.
Sugihara, Yoko and Katsurada, Emiko (2002). Gender Role Development in Japanese Culture: Diminishing Gender Role Differences in Contemporary Society. Sex Roles. 47. p. 443-452.
TV Tropes. Real Men Hate Sugar. Retrieved from http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealMenHateSugar.
Yamaguchi, Kazuo (2000). Married Women’s Gender-Role Attitudes and Social Stratification. International Journal of Sociology. 30[2] p. 52-89.
Thanks, Chris, for your careful research and non-judgmental reporting. I wonder if you could help answer a question. I recently watched a YouTube video by a talented musician named Shawn Wasabi. He’s really amazing. Watching “Spicy Boyfriend” with my college-aged son, I commented that I was really impressed with Shawn’s ability but then admitted that I was a little distracted by his pink feathered outfit and silky white bedroom setting. I would assume he was purposely communicating an effeminate and/or homosexual message based on the visuals. My son seemed offended by this and asserted that gender roles are entirely different in Japan and that guys aren’t considered effeminate or gay for this kind of dress there. He didn’t cite any real basis for his assertions, so I’ve done some reading online this morning because I’d like to know how to continue the conversation with him on this intersting topic. Can you help bring some clarity to us? Thanks so much!
Thanks for the kind word. Well, you are both right. While homosexuality isn’t a part of identity as it is here in the West (see this article for more information), a guy can still dress with the goal of being effeminate. My girlfriend went to Tokyo last year (sadly, I was unable to go with her for various reasons), and her assigned liaison was a gay man who dressed and acted effeminate as part of his public performance persona and his lifestyle–he’s an American who splits his year between the US and Japan. However, there is also a branch of music called Visual Kei, what we could call 1980s hair metal or goth rock, that involves dressing to appear as women or at least feminine. But the bands do this to appeal to young Japanese women. They appear as effeminate, but the groups I’m familiar with don’t focus on homosexual issues. It’s just a part of that music genre’s style.
I hope this answers your question. You are both correct. It just depends on context and who you are talking about.
That football pic is not from Japan but China. I’ve been in Japanese for two years. Women are slaves and cooks giving “smile”. Football pics are obviously out of their range.
Thanks for the correction! Sometimes I will stumble in my image selections.
and yet 71% of the suicides there are men:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Japan. Why is that?
Maybe it’s because male workaholic culture that treats them like robots(the women probably also came from work and yet they don’t act like robots):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35hCo_grAqw
where the *women* are complaining about how they don’t recognize their husbands after retirement because they spent all day at work:http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=1491039) .
That’s why we see men in japan completely giving up on relationships with women. I delve into why here:https://www.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/49rtni/why_is_a_guy_whos_preoccupied_with_his_image_and/d0umlii/
Explaining how gender is nothing more then a social class with women on to making a comparison to aristocratic men of the past who also wore makeup,jewelry, and high heels.
You cover a lot of ground in your comment:
1) Wikipedia isn’t always reliable. The percentage you cite from the article dates to 2008. Suicides remain the leading cause of death for people ages 15-39, and that includes men and women. Nearly 15% of suicides involve people over 70 years old. However, the general rate is on the decline (Japan Times, 2016).
2) That’s an amusing music video : ).
3) Yes, that is an issue. I’ve touched on that too. It’s called Retired Husband Syndrome
4) Many factors go into why men and women struggle to form relationships. I touch on some of the reasons why men and women in Japan aren’t forming relationships as often in my article about dating.
Your comment on Reddit is interesting. In my studies of Japanese culture and its various time periods, I found gender roles vary widely depending on social class. Urban class women, for example, had more freedoms than samurai women. During the Heian period, aristocratic women has far fewer freedoms than the lower classes because of the upper-class’s culture. Gender, and the roles associated with it, has a strong socioeconomic element.
Reference
Japan Times (2016) Suicides down in 2015 in Japan but numbers still serious among young, elderly. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/05/31/national/social-issues/suicides-2015-japan-numbers-still-serious-among-young-elderly/
What about girls with dicks? And men with pussies? Can they have a life, a job?
Or do they have to hide what they are and to lie? Do many commit suicide, like here?
Or do they live as total exploited outsiders, like here in the 70s before they could change
their name- and sexentry somehow (some, not all)?
I did some digging to better answer your questions:
True hermaphrodites are rare in human populations. This is defined by the presence of both male and female reproductive organs, but there is a lot of variations in how the organs may be present. In rare cases, puberty will cause normal appearing gentiles to transform into a hermaphroditic combination (Heier, 2014). Because of the rarity of this condition, particularly in the premodern world, few cultures address it.
In Japan, hermaphroditic people were associated with disease and bad karma. They were ostracized and men with female genitals were barred from military service. The late Tokugawa writer Kanaga-ki Robun used hermaphrodites to portray strong women as abhorrent and a deviation from nature. That tells us how many viewed hermaphroditic people. But later writers would use the gender as an argument for homosexuality’s normalcy and women’s rights (Winston,2014).
Because of how feudal Japan required people to have their place, people who didn’t fall into line faced consequences. As the saying goes “the nail that stands gets hammered down”.
Because of the idea of karma, not everyone who had both genitalia had to hide who they were. They had the option of working off their karma as monks, nuns, or as lay people. I couldn’t find any data on suicide rates.
References
Heier, J., (2014) A Review of Anatomical Presentation and Treatment in True Hermaphroditism, Best Integrated Writing, 1.
Winston,L (2014) The Trope of the Hermaphrodite in Modern Japan, Harvard Asia Quarterly. 16 (3). 22-30.
はじめまして、ばばき です。9年間 日本に いましたから、日本語話せるです。日本の かのじょ、ほしんです。できれば、日本人けっこん したい です。よろしくお願いします。
I decided to respond in English for those readers who read little Japanese (like me!).
That is great that you’ve learned Japanese over the 9 years you’ve lived there. Many people share your desire to marry someone from Japan, but don’t let that desire limit you. A good partner, who isn’t Japanese, may well live nearby.
Enjoyed this article.The lack of moralizing and objective tone made a tough subject a bit more digestible.
I would say that while anime is definitely a reflection of cultural norms there is a heavy element of subversion inherent in the genre as well. Art being one of the less socially restricted outlets of Japanese culture.
I wonder if it would be fair to credit subversive anime with a portion of a modern societal change. Or is it merely a symptom/irrelevant in the creep of the globalization and homogenization of culture?
When it comes to feedback loops, separating causes and influence can be difficult. I would venture anime is both a mover of change and a result of changes already taking place. Anime didn’t become widespread until America’s occupation of Japan after World War II. As such, anime grew up in a culture that had American ideals and role identities forced upon it. It is natural for anime to pick up many of these forces of change and encourage them. At the same time, anime is also a popular product that reflects what is already going on in Japanese society. Finally, anime is an international product which needs to appeal to wider, Westernized markets. This appeal may well be the main reason why some anime is subversive in regards to Japanese gender roles.
The Japanese government views cultural exports like anime as a means of projecting soft power, much like how American movies promote American ideas. Anime could well be considered subversive for Western society.
It is a difficult question to answer. It is a question relevant for American media, as well.
To be honest Japanese culture is a little frightening to my westernized view of the world. Probably why I find it so fascinating. The complex use of situational honorifics, emphasis on composure and propriety, and the idea of social inequality/duty as currency for furthering relationships is extremely alien to my mind.
I’ve been having fun poking around this blog, thanks for posting (with citations as well)!
I am glad you are enjoying our little blog! Japanese culture is fascinating with its mix of familiar Western elements and exotic Eastern culture. The social aspects of their culture, particularly senpai-kohai relationships, trouble me.
I will have to think on how to research anime’s subversion on Western culture. Sexuality immediately springs to mind. I will add it to my (long) topic list. Otaku culture itself is small, but anime has shook many aspects of the United States. Our series on the most influential anime touches on some of these silent quakes.
Oh and I would very much like to see an article about how anime could be considered subversive to a western audience.
Otaku culture? But that is so small in the west it seems negligable at best?
Well I’ll definitely bookmark it, thanks for the link. It was good chatting with you.
PS: Dunno if you watch seasonal anime but if you haven’t checked out “shimoneta” you might find it interesting. It’s a social commentary/comedy about censorship in future Japan. I’m eagerly awaiting the next episode, which is rare for me.
I will have to check it out. Thank you!
Are than any books or articles that discuss the gender elections in Japanese society for in the 21st century? I am working on a group project and came across your website. I thought you could help because your site was very informative.
I managed to dig up a few articles that may be useful.
Newsweek has an interview with Makiko Tanaka from 2001. It lists several prominent women you may want to research. http://www.newsweek.com/japan-tough-talking-tanaka-153617
Japan Times has an article that states only 15% of election candidates are female as of 2014. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/12/02/national/politics-diplomacy/another-low-japans-gender-gap-15-election-candidates-female/#.VaHkoZdrDX4
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LA Times, 2014, has an article about female members in Abe’s Cabinet. The author accounts their challenges and workload. http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-women-politics-20141104-story.html
I didn’t find any books or articles in the academic databases I use beyond these links. I hope they prove useful and provide a few more starting points for your own research.