The new Japanese woman : modernity, media, and women in interwar Japan / Barbara Sato.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sato, Barbara Hamill.

Contributor:

Class of 1897 Book Fund.

Series:

Asia-Pacific

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Japan--History--20th century.

Women.

Social conditions.

Social change.

History.

Feminism.

Sex role.

Japan.

Sex role--Japan--History--20th century.

Feminism--Japan--History--20th century.

Social change--Japan--History--20th century.

Japan--Social conditions--20th century.

Physical Description:

xiv, 241 pages, iv unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Durham, [N.C.] : Duke University Press, 2003.

Summary:

Presenting a vivid social history of "the new woman" who emerged in Japanese culture between the world wars, The New Japanese Woman shows how images of modern women burst into Japanese life in the midst of the urbanization, growth of the middle class, and explosion of consumerism resulting from the postwar economic boom, particularly in the 1920s. Barbara Sato analyzes the icons that came to represent the new urban femininity -- the "modern girl," the housewife, and the professional working woman. She describes how these images portrayed in the media shaped and were shaped by women's desires. Although the figures of the modern woman by no means represented all Japanese women, they challenged the myth of a fixed definition of femininity -- particularly the stereotype emphasizing gentleness and meekness -- and generated a new set of possibilities for middle-class women within the context of consumer culture.

Contents:

Women and the reality of the everyday

The emergence of agency : women and consumerism

The modern girl as a representation of consumer culture

Housewives as reading women

Work for life, for marriage, for love

Hard days ahead : women on the move.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [213]-232) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1897 Book Fund.

ISBN:

0822330083

082233044X

OCLC:

50643905