Good Wife And Ikenbo Research Paper

As Japan has risen as an economic and industrialized world power, so too have the issues that come with such a change in a society. One such issue is eating disorders, which, as of late, have become a silent epidemic in Japan. While there are several cultural influences which may be causing this, part of the issue is the ideal of Ryosaikenbo. In the culture, “Japanese women today… are troubled by the social expectations of females, because a great many working women have the additional pressure of doing housework and are expected to be a ‘good wife and wise mother’” (Davies & Ikeno, 179). A good wife and wise mother involves conforming to sex and gender roles of one’s society, which can be a stressful experience for many women, especially when
While there are many ways that a woman can feel successful in life, one such way for Japanese women to feel this way is to follow this ideal, and be a loving, caring, and sensible wife and mother. The meaning of this has changed over the centuries since the term was first used, yet women still have expectations in their public and private lives that are influenced by this idea. Feminism in Japan has been fighting for equal rights, including legislation for equality in education and the workplace, teaching girls about the dangers of sex work, and helping girls and women understand the control each female has over her own reproductive and sexual bodies (Mackie, 12). This work has changed the way women respond to the ideal of Ryosaikenbo, yet it still influences a woman’s everyday life. The ideal has clear sex roles set for women, including being submissive to husbands while caring for children, but also encompassing appearance, which should be as thin as a woman can make herself. The thin ideal is causing wide spread body image issues. While many women’s issues are improving in Japan, body image in young women is reaching the lowest levels of all time, which is causing eating disorders that can be deadly if untreated. Women are influenced by advertisements daily, and such images depict the ideal body type for the culture. This body type is
Clearly, a person must first be willing to admit there is a problem with their eating habits, and that person must be willing to enter treatment. Once this is accomplished, the first priority in treating eating disorders, is ensuring that the patient recovers to a healthy weight (Hartung & Stevens), this can limit the physiological issues that are caused by being underweight. The next steps can often be the most difficult, which is dealing with the mental issues and helping the patient to recover healthy self-worth and self-image. The next step of treatment, once low weight is not causing imminent danger, is psychological treatment of the disease. The evidence based treatment, is the case of all three eating disorders is, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which addresses the fact that the woman with the disease is over-evaluating herself based on body weight and shape (Wilson, Grilo & Vitousek, 201). When treating any person with a mental disorder, it is important to help him or her to think in a healthy way, and to ensure that it will continue far in to the future. If only the physical symptoms of the disease are treated, the person will relapse soon after leaving treatment for the disorder. While these treatments work for many patients, helping to improve quality of life, there are still patients which have relapse of eating disorder symptoms. More treatment