Issue No. 6 (February 2003) — Gender In Asia

abstracts

By Mark McLelland

This paper argues that Japanese women's media which portray images of foreign (nearly always white) men and Japanese gay men as objects of desire and fascination for Japanese women function as rhetorical mirrors whose real intent is to reflect back the supposed deficiencies of 'traditional' Japanese men. The paper concludes that women's media are being used as a vehicle for anti-male rhetoric, a channel for an indirect discourse of complaint whose main purpose is to critique the perceived shortcomings of ordinary Japanese men.

Key terms: Japan, masculinity, homosexuality, women, media.

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By Andrea Ash

In this paper, I focus on contemporary Asian art that deals with images of women, by women or about women. I canvas issues pertinent to the position of women and art production in the social setting of contemporary Asia and Asian Diaspora. I begin with a brief historical discussion of images of Asian women as traditional, masculine and Western. In recent times nudity and eroticism has had mixed reactions in the Asian public realm. Many contemporary Asian women artists have turned to the female body as a primary subject of the female experience. Gender, sexuality and power are distinct sites of struggle in the politics of difference for Asian women artists. Western modernist and colonialist presumptions, however, still persist in many cultural institutions. The local and global contexts of Asian women artists and their creations are seen as contested sites. As an exemplar in this paper, the exhibition Text and Subtext: Contemporary Art and Asian Women provides a critical framework that suggests provocative ways of rethinking contemporary art created by Asian women in which identity and cultural practice are to be conceived. Contemporary women artists in a local and global realm have demarcated a critical space for the articulation of a transnational Asian culture.

Key terms: Asian art, Diaspora, Women Artists, Gender, Identity.

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By Mike Danaher

This article examines the inter-relationships between environmentalism, left-wing politics and feminism in Japan. Using a historical perspective, the article identifies alliances and significant areas of influence between these three social and political movements. The article concludes that there exists support networks between the three that are important to maintaining their vitality and membership. The article also finds a lack of a wider vision characterising these movements.

Key terms: environmental movement, LDP, Japanese Socialists, Seikatsu Club.

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By Than Than Nwe

In many ways, historically and today, women of Burma hold a unique and enviable position. At home and in business activities, women in Burmese society compared to women in its two historically powerful neighbours, India and China, have greater legal rights (traditionally, equal to that of men) and enjoy a high degree of tolerance and independence. Yet, on the other hand, there is strong evidence of gender-specific cultural practices that undermine this apparent equality. This is sanctioned by the Buddhist religion, of which the paper provides an insightful view of; of Theravada Buddhism’s influence on gender divisions and how these divisions are expressed and the boundaries defined in private and public spaces.

Key terms: Juxtaposition of equity and inequity, Geographic space, Theravada Buddhist societies, concept of hpon, Spatial division, Spiritual hierarchy.