Women and Democracy in Cold War Japan

Description

Women and Democracy in Cold War Japan offers a fresh perspective on gender politics by focusing on the Japanese housewife of the 1950s as a controversial representation of democracy, leisure, and domesticity. Examining the shifting personae of the housewife, especially in the appealing texts of women’s magazines, reveals the diverse possibilities of postwar democracy as they were embedded in media directed toward Japanese women. Each chapter explores the contours of a single controversy, including debate over the royal wedding in 1959, the victory of Japan’s first Miss Universe, and the unruly desires of postwar women. Jan Bardsley also takes a comparative look at the ways in which the Japanese housewife is measured against equally stereotyped notions of the modern housewife in the United States, asking how both function as narratives of Japan-U.S. relations and gender/class containment during the early Cold War. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgments 1 Introduction Japanese housewives in the 1950s: Debate amid the reality gap The American housewife in the Cold War Postwar Japan as contact zone: Interactions between American and Japanese women The view from the twenty-first century The gender gap and the charisma housewife Beauty queens on the global stage Imperial princesses and the succession controversy 2 Dueling Etiquettes: Mrs Mogi Takes on the Occupationnaires What Mrs Mogi wrote The beautiful life: The occupationnaire in Japanese media The famous four respond to Mrs Mogi Asahi readers’ attack Mrs Mogi Criticism and support for Mrs Mogi from Nippon Times readers Mrs Mogi responds The Ladies Forum on etiquette Conclusion 3 The Housewife Debate of 1955 Inciting debate: Ishigaki Ayako and “The Secondary Occupation Called the Housewife” Housewives fight back A Marxist response from Shimazu Chitose A Marxist response from Shimazu Chitose On personal spaces and social issues: Fukuda Tsuneari, Ishigaki Ayako, and Hiratsuka Raichō Conclusion 4 What Women Want: The Postwar Appetite Creating history anew: Th e debut of the exceptional postwar woman Desires of the ordinary majority What’s so funny about women’s desires: Men get the last laugh Conclusion 5 Fashioning the People’s Princess: Shōda Michiko and the Royal Wedding of 1959 The princess in global popular culture The prince, the princess, the people: Home sweet home Mass-mediated spectacle, fandom, and the victimized royal A fractured fairy tale: Dismantling the people, deconstructing the princess Conclusion 6 Japan’s Miss Universe: Beauty Contests and Postwar Democracy Kojima Akiko: The ambitious postwar girl Long Beach, California, 1959: Miss Japan becomes Miss Universe Japan’s Miss Universe Miss Universe returns to Japan Conclusion 7 From the Housewife’s Kitchen to the Witches’ Den: Fantasies of Female Power in Enchi Fumiko’s Masks Beauty and deceit in Masks: An introduction to plot and characters The housewife The fashion model Telling time in Masks The kiss: On board with the Americans In the witches’ den with Toganō Mieko The loss of woman-power Notes Bibliography Index