cherry, kittredge - womansword
Apr. 22nd, 2010 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingblossomWomansword by Kittredge Cherry is an interesting book that I never would have noticed if I hadn't come across it in Strand about a month ago. In glossary format, it manages to break down about eighty Japanese phrases that pertain to women in a number of linguistic, sociological, and historical contexts. It's also fairly dated: it was written in 1987, and as such, some of the information that it offers isn't as pertinent as it would have been about twenty years ago. I still have to wonder about the usage of words like otoko-masari, and Cherry's reiteration that it's never, ever a good label in the modern world.
Still, it's an even-handed, well-researched study that also has the advantage of cohesive organization. The book groups idioms into different categories -- female identity, young adulthood, married life, motherhood, work, sexuality, and aging -- managing to work in a lot of anecdotes that are often glossed over by other researchers. As this, it's a solid resource; if anything, I wish that it had been longer and gone even more in-depth.
The author here assumes Shounagon Sei would have been considered an otoko-masari, or in other words, a woman capable of outshining a man in any traditional male space. (See: intelligence. Physical strength. Vigor.) And with this definition, there are negative connotations that fail to come through in direct translation. Notably, Kittredge Cherry says this word is a put-down that implies a lack of femininity.
If this is the case, it seems strange to apply it to Shounagon Sei, the same woman who used to make lists about fashion trends she found distasteful (I've heard someone call The Pillow Book the LJ of the Heian era, which is a pretty accurate description). From what Cherry writes, otoko-masari applies directly wrt soto, but nothing I've come across suggests that Shounagon Sei was ever looked down upon in public. Just the opposite, in fact. Moreover, otoko-masari is a modern term, not an archaic one. So...does she have a basis for her claims? Or am I just reading too much into this?
Also interesting: Cherry's write-up on junketsu kyouiku, a term used as double-speak by conservative speakers. "As the word suggests, they believe the main reason for teaching about sex is to condemn it outside the purifying sanctity of marriage -- especially for women. Purity education was abandoned officially decades ago in favor of "sex education" (sei kyouiku), but the topic remains almost untouched in the Japanese education system."
Likewise, the rampant flower imagery used to describe women becomes even more strikingly obvious while reading this book. There's shokuba no hana for the office flowers* who are expected to just stand around and look pretty, and kou itten -- literally "a touch of scarlet" -- to describe a sole woman among a group of men. Young women are known as tsubomi until they lose their virginity, and a man seated between two women is said to have "flowers in both hands." An attractive older woman (aka: Christmas Cake past her prime) used to be called an uba-zakura. The list goes on: kabe no hana. Shinbana. Hanamichi and hanadai. And of course, yamato nadeshiko. The sheer volume of words get exhausting to list after a while.
I'm sure there's equivalent vernacular in English; unfortunately, I can barely think of anything off the top of my head. Any thoughts?
*"Office flowers" are different from the OLs because the former are given even LESS work than the latter. Hard as it is to believe.
Still, it's an even-handed, well-researched study that also has the advantage of cohesive organization. The book groups idioms into different categories -- female identity, young adulthood, married life, motherhood, work, sexuality, and aging -- managing to work in a lot of anecdotes that are often glossed over by other researchers. As this, it's a solid resource; if anything, I wish that it had been longer and gone even more in-depth.
The author here assumes Shounagon Sei would have been considered an otoko-masari, or in other words, a woman capable of outshining a man in any traditional male space. (See: intelligence. Physical strength. Vigor.) And with this definition, there are negative connotations that fail to come through in direct translation. Notably, Kittredge Cherry says this word is a put-down that implies a lack of femininity.
If this is the case, it seems strange to apply it to Shounagon Sei, the same woman who used to make lists about fashion trends she found distasteful (I've heard someone call The Pillow Book the LJ of the Heian era, which is a pretty accurate description). From what Cherry writes, otoko-masari applies directly wrt soto, but nothing I've come across suggests that Shounagon Sei was ever looked down upon in public. Just the opposite, in fact. Moreover, otoko-masari is a modern term, not an archaic one. So...does she have a basis for her claims? Or am I just reading too much into this?
Also interesting: Cherry's write-up on junketsu kyouiku, a term used as double-speak by conservative speakers. "As the word suggests, they believe the main reason for teaching about sex is to condemn it outside the purifying sanctity of marriage -- especially for women. Purity education was abandoned officially decades ago in favor of "sex education" (sei kyouiku), but the topic remains almost untouched in the Japanese education system."
Likewise, the rampant flower imagery used to describe women becomes even more strikingly obvious while reading this book. There's shokuba no hana for the office flowers* who are expected to just stand around and look pretty, and kou itten -- literally "a touch of scarlet" -- to describe a sole woman among a group of men. Young women are known as tsubomi until they lose their virginity, and a man seated between two women is said to have "flowers in both hands." An attractive older woman (aka: Christmas Cake past her prime) used to be called an uba-zakura. The list goes on: kabe no hana. Shinbana. Hanamichi and hanadai. And of course, yamato nadeshiko. The sheer volume of words get exhausting to list after a while.
I'm sure there's equivalent vernacular in English; unfortunately, I can barely think of anything off the top of my head. Any thoughts?
*"Office flowers" are different from the OLs because the former are given even LESS work than the latter. Hard as it is to believe.
no subject
on 2010-04-23 05:07 am (UTC)no subject
on 2010-05-20 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-05-21 07:25 am (UTC)The only other things I can think of are terms like "shrinking violet" and "wallflower" but those can be gender neutral, I guess?
no subject
on 2010-05-21 03:58 pm (UTC)You know, I've seen "shrinking violet" and "wallflower" used in gender-neutral terms online (particularly TV Tropes, where there doesn't seem to be a distinction), but I've only heard those words applied to females irl.
no subject
on 2010-05-13 03:26 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-05-20 10:55 pm (UTC)I can't say I've ever heard the term "cougar," though!
no subject
on 2010-05-20 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-11 04:41 pm (UTC)