Geisha Ideology

The play focuses on three prominent stereotypical ideas that Western males hold concerning Eastern women: the submission of Asian women to Western males, knowledge in handling the female body, and their desires for masculine Western counterparts. Ultimately, M. Butterfly addresses culturally constructed stereotypes as powerful and limiting.

The Western world’s conquest and domination of Asia is the driving source of sexual desire for East Asian women. To understand how the objectification and fetishization of East Asian women is harmful, one must traced it roots and understand how it began. The stereotypes assigned to East Asian women are rooted from the violence of wartime. The stereotypes live through the mass media’s re-imagination by books, movies, musicals and operas. East Asian women will find no peace for as long as these hyper-sexed stereotypes live.

In Chapter Seven of Practices of Looking, we start to explore in the ideas of advertising, consumer cultures and desire. Everyday, we are faced with advertisements through newspapers, magazines, TV, movies, billboards, public transportation such as buses and taxis, clothing, the internet, etc. Logos, such as signs, or anything that resemble a brand, are everywhere, they are on clothing, household items, electronics, cars, etc. Consumers are always showing off their brands and advertisements and we are used to seeing those brands and advertisements in an everyday setting. In modern media, advertisers are pressured to always change the ways they show off and get the attention to consumers, old and new. Advertisers also used present figures who were glamorous. Advertisements set up a certain relationship between the product and its meaning to sell the products and the hidden meaning we link to each of the products. Advertisements use the language of conversion. Advertisers try to create a customer relationship to the brand to try to form them as familiar, necessary, and also likeable.

Sexualizaton and objectification in the advertisements we see and the media we watch has become a very strong issue in our society. With the idea that “sex sells”, consumers don’t even realize that they’re not viewing the advertisements for what they are, but for the women (or men) that are being portrayed in a very erotic way, posed with whatever product they were hired to sell. Many articles have been written so far to challenge and assess this problem, but one written by Jean Kilbourne (1999), “”Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence” holds an extensive amount of authority. Using her personal experience with the subject, as well as studies she has conducted herself on the topic of sexualization, she talks about how the amount of sexualization in advertising affects how society views the culture and products consumers buy. She also notes that because of the quantity and prevalence of these ads, the rate of all forms of sexual assault, specifically rape (mostly towards women of all age), increase, as well as other forms of assault. It is important to examine Kilbourne’s use of rhetorical devices, such as ethos, pathos, and logos, and how effective these devices make her article. This way, it can be examined for its validity and her understanding of her own research. Kilbourne’s article is very effective through her uses of pathos and ethos, but at the same time, it loses its effectiveness through her absence of a counter-argument, as well as a lack

Historically, men have been emasculated and women oversexualized all to emphasize the dominance and desirability of the white man. Female Asian fetishization has taken many forms: schoolgirl (not only racist, peodophelic), Dragon Lady, and—the most famous—Geisha. (An example: the “indisputable classic,” Full Metal Jacket, the Asian prostitute says, “Me love you long time” to the white soldier.) The Lotus Blossom/Geisha stereotype, in which Asian women are fetishized for being “submissive,” demonstrates the disrespect and danger posed by stereotypes (61% of Asian women in the US “experience physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner.” There is nothing sexy or flattering about “yellow-fever;” it is racist. Asian women are expected to become sexual servants while Asian men are demeaned by American media’s perpetuation of these

The Kim Sisters, Wonder Girls, and Girls’ Generation, and Nicki Minaj reveal the same aspect of gender ideology: sexualized female commodities. However, through the process of globalization, they are represented in different contexts in terms of time and place. Also, feminine sexualities are depicted in different theme in regard with the level of cultural adaptation, appropriation, or subversion in the process of globalization. Koichi Iwabuchi’s concept of cultural odor and fragrance and Sun Jung’s concept of transculturality as hybridity help understand the similar but different aspects in each music video.

Personal honor and behavior governed by a specific code are signature characteristics of Japan's storied warrior-scholars: the samurai. This code, known as Bushidō (literally "Way of the Warrior"), governed a way of life that separated the samurai from the rest of Japanese society. However, Bushidō would, ultimately, influence the entire nation. This paper examines the origins, functions, and impact of Bushidō in the context of samurai culture and contemporary Japanese thought.

Similar to all nouns in the Japanese language, geisha, does not possess singular or plural forms. The word is composed of two kanji. The primary kanji, "gei", means art. The latter kanji, "sha", means person or doer. If you were to translate the word "geisha" to the English language, the most literal rendition would be "artist". There is another term that geishas go by and that is "geijo". This word is most commonly used to refer to geisha indigenous to western Japan, including Kyoto.

The class system in Japan was divided into four castes from the 12th to the 19th century, and one of the few exceptions to the caste rule were the geisha. Merchants were the bottom tier, followed by artisans, then farmers, and finally, samurai. People such as actors, minorities, and criminals were not bound by the system, but were often below the lowest level, living off of what they could find, and were in a constant state of desperation. The unique quality of the geisha in this situation is that they were

Jugun ianfu was a term used by Japanese people to describe prostitute women during the Asian Pacific War. Another name to describe it was “comfort women”. Unlike geisha who worked as courtesan and/or artist, the practice of jugun ianfu was a planned and brutal sexual enslavement and was considered

So it could be said one significant factor in Japanese culture is idealization, and Geisha is a component of this fantasy. They are pulled out from themselves as women and then become an illusory form. When Sayuri wears the twelve layers of elegant kimonos with exquisite makeup, stepped on those expensive black wooden clogs,

Amongst all of these advertisements, a natural link is developed between the visual representation and the product/idea being sold. In the first ad, a masculine link of control and success was created between the picture and job, targeted for both elder men and women. For man, their natural state of superiority would increase if he took this job. For the woman, her natural lower class state would move up to that of manís. The perfume ad, on the other hand, is attracting female customers only. The feminine feelings of happiness, peace, beauty and truth are linked through objects from nature, such as the sky and clouds; and these feelings are stereotypically viewed as feminine. The third ad selling a vacation trip is directed mainly toward college students. The presentation of freedom, adventure and relaxation grab studentsí attention, especially for those who really need to get away from school stress. The ad targets all sorts of students, those ìmasculineî ones who are seeking adventure and those

It is no secret that for centuries, the Japanese woman has been, to most observers, a model of elegance and graceful beauty. A picture of a kimono-clad, modest, and often silent woman has been plastered everywhere, allowing for the upmost passive subjection. If we look deeper into this image of woman, can we tell if this picture is complete? How do these women painted in representative images far in the modern world? The ideal woman in Japan is expected to be both a good wife, and a wise mother. Though these seem like reasonable expectations, there is a much deeper meaning to them that has shown signs of being outdated. During the 1800’s and 1900’s, women were subjected to society’s vision of them, and could not break free for fear of the

In this analysis, the author examines the staging of male and female subjects in visual discourse by deconstructing advertisements that involve gendered subjects, examine gender on an institutional level, and look at gender as a performance. Advertisements are the most conventional ways to portray commercial realism, something that could be real because they don’t look peculiar or weird- they look normal. The big question asked by Erving Goffman, author of the book, “Gender Advertisements” is why do these advertisements not look strange to us when in fact they really are (Jhally)?

Power, prestige, personality, and a pleasing face: Chairman Ken Iwamura of the Iwamura Electric Company has it all. Undoubtedly, such a man would attract the great admiration of many. However, the Kyoto geisha, Sayuri Nitta, stands as an exception. She does not admire the Chairman. Instead, she is obsessed with him, so utterly entranced by his charm as to devote her entire life to having him become her danna. This intense love is the primary reason she transforms from a scared, reluctant young girl, Chiyo Sakamoto, into a manipulative and seductive full-fledged geisha. Analyzing Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha through a psychoanalytical lens reveals that Sayuri Nitta’s fixation upon Chairman Iwamura emerges ultimately due to her