The Transformation of Japanese and Korean Women
The Old, The New: The transformation of Japanese and Korean women
Identity is actually something formed through unconscious processes over time, rather than being innate in consciousness at birth. There is always something 'imaginary' or fantasized about its unity. It always remains incomplete, is always 'in process', always 'being formed'. – Stuart Hall
Today, when we talk about Japanese or Korean women, we picture someone who is educated, who is empowered, who is independent; We picture women clad in fashionably short skirts, equipped with newly polished nails, a face decorated with make up and newly done hair, strutting in the streets of Tokyo or Seoul. However, what is unknown to us is how Japan and Korea’s women of today came to be. The women of today didn’t just come up out of nowhere. They are so to speak, socially and historically constructed, a product of change, of events and incidents that took place many years ago and is gradually “in process” and “being formed” even until this very moment. What are remarkable is how both these women despite being from different countries; share some similar aspects in arriving at where they are now.
According to Barbara Sato, Author of “The New Japanese Woman: Modernity, Media, and Women in Interwar Japan”, due to social changes happening around the globe, from technological growth to industrial expansion to the acceleration of urbanization, the image of the feminine had been redefined. This redefined image challenges the existing perception of what the feminine is and who she should be. It is in other words, a transition from the perception of the feminine as a traditional Japanese and Korean wife to one as a multifaceted modern woman.
During the Choson period in Korea and the Meiji Period in Japan, women were seen as the second gender, as inferior to men. During these periods, both Korean and Japanese people upheld the Confucian way of life where women are lower in the hierarchy of societal relations than
Identity is actually something formed through unconscious processes over time, rather than being innate in consciousness at birth. There is always something 'imaginary' or fantasized about its unity. It always remains incomplete, is always 'in process', always 'being formed'. – Stuart Hall
Today, when we talk about Japanese or Korean women, we picture someone who is educated, who is empowered, who is independent; We picture women clad in fashionably short skirts, equipped with newly polished nails, a face decorated with make up and newly done hair, strutting in the streets of Tokyo or Seoul. However, what is unknown to us is how Japan and Korea’s women of today came to be. The women of today didn’t just come up out of nowhere. They are so to speak, socially and historically constructed, a product of change, of events and incidents that took place many years ago and is gradually “in process” and “being formed” even until this very moment. What are remarkable is how both these women despite being from different countries; share some similar aspects in arriving at where they are now.
According to Barbara Sato, Author of “The New Japanese Woman: Modernity, Media, and Women in Interwar Japan”, due to social changes happening around the globe, from technological growth to industrial expansion to the acceleration of urbanization, the image of the feminine had been redefined. This redefined image challenges the existing perception of what the feminine is and who she should be. It is in other words, a transition from the perception of the feminine as a traditional Japanese and Korean wife to one as a multifaceted modern woman.
During the Choson period in Korea and the Meiji Period in Japan, women were seen as the second gender, as inferior to men. During these periods, both Korean and Japanese people upheld the Confucian way of life where women are lower in the hierarchy of societal relations than