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Gender Stereotypes In Sanae's The Black Lizad

Decent Essays

Modern girls were a rising phenomenon in Japan during the 1920s and 1930s, modern girls was a pre-war culture term to name the independent young women in Japan. Occupations opened for young women across the country such as the position of a shop-girl at a department store (Freedman, et al. 21). The role of Japanese women was changing quickly; no longer was there an urgency to become a wife, young women could then enter the job force. Although revolutionary, it subsequently caused a backlash. Modern girls were often viewed as perverted, sexual deviants and a danger to traditional Japanese families (Freedman, et al. 23). The negative view of modern girls translated into Edogawa Rampo’s golden age literature and his perspective on this cultural …show more content…

Although the setting was set in the modern time, Sanae was a traditional Japanese girl. She was demure, quiet and non-conspicuous. Despite the Black Lizard’s plot to kidnap and collect the beautiful Sanae into her human collection, Sanae was rescued by Akechi Kogoro in the Black Lizard’s first attempt and spared of the second attempt as well as the humiliation of being stripped naked when Akechi Kogoro replaced Sanae with her doppelganger, Sakurama Yoko. From Sanae’s characterization, it could be surmised that her traits were viewed as harmless and innocent, even preferred by society because she was not viewed degenerated, but rather a victim of the effects of modernity. The characterization of modern women in Edogawa Rampo’s The Black Lizard and Beast in the Shadows revealed a lot of the cultural phenomenon of modern girls and dokufu. Modernity’s effect on Japanese women were viewed with suspicion and caution, a lot of this was due sensational reports about female criminals. The outlook of the modern girls translated into literature where they are usually portrayed as sexual deviants, silver-tongued, and compulsive to kill or

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