------- Message Date: Fri, 4 Jul 1997 12:43:47 +1000 (EST) From: Caroline SeawrightBack to the Ranma 1/2 Library Fanfic ArchiveReply-To: Caroline Seawright To: ranma@usagi.jrd.dec.com Subject: Ranma 1/2 and Japanese Society Message-ID: I've started reading a rather interesting book called "A Half Step Behind, Japanese Women Today", a book that comes from a series of interviews with many Japanese women, trying to find "honne" (deep truth) underneath all the "tatemae" (surface truth) about women in Japanese society. Ranma, it seems, turns out as such a jerk because he seems to be like the typical male, but more so (especially towards Akane). And, well, it seems that it was probably a GOOD thing that he was away from Nodoka for so long ... otherwise he may just have turned out even worse than he already is. "As the child gets older, the mother - not the father - is the disciplinarian. There is little scolding or corporal punishment. Instead, misbehaving children are excluded from family activities or, as they get older, are simply made to feel guilty because they have disappointed their mothers. Children are indulged (we might say "spoiled") until they enter school..." From another book, A Japanese Mirror, I believe it was called, says that Japanese mothers let the sons do _anything_ they want, and the only punishment is to say that "Mother doesn't love you any more" if they get too out of hand. The Japanese mother forges a very strong bond with her son, by babying him all his life - except when she withdraws her love as punishment. So many Japanese men end up doing _anything_ their mother wants, to keep her love - even right into adulthood. Many men would even do what their mother says, even over their wives. Which leads to another point - the women often take on the "role of mother rather than wife to their husbands". So when the man gets home after work, he expects to be babied, and for whatever he says to be done. ("This is known as 'mi no mawari', around-the-body care") Ranma already is shown to have part of the "mother complex" - he loves his mother so much that he's willing to risk seppuku to see her (though later on he does run off... ;p ) But in this case, instead of Nodoka withdrawing her love in "punishment" for failing to be a man, Ranma has to look out for being forced to commit seppuku because he disappointed his mother! It seems that Ranma could be such a jerk due to being raised by Genma, an even worse jerk (probably due to being spoiled by his mother!), but also because of the role of Japanese men in society - that women are there to do what they require. It's not quite a case of "all females are lower than me, so should be treated in this way"... rather, it's more like "this is the woman's role, and this is mine, so this is how we have to act". But, even though the woman gets the rough end of the stick, they do hold power above the men, in the home! (Though if a woman doesn't 'gaman' (endure, I think), she either runs away or kills herself. There is divorce, but this is seen as a very bad thing, esp. for the males - who could easily lose their job ... the company may think that if he can't handle home life, how could he handle a job?) Which leads to another point - Akane isn't the traditional girl. She isn't one of the girls who is shy, raised meekly to obey males, to do everything they want as they want it... she is strong. (But it is normally a bad thing for a woman to be "strong" in Japan, as can have connotaions of "being oppressive" and "caring for one's self" above anyone else. But she is only strong in the areas that she won't baby Ranma, and she expects him to be faithful to her. Although she is not very good in many feminine passtimes, such as cooking and sewing, etc, she does fit in very well with her friends at school, and within her own family. She is also an enourmous attraction for the boys at her school - maybe they want someone different from the traditional Japanese girl. But, like many girls her age, she is shy with boys - and the way these lot were introduced to her (thanks to Kunou), she isn't very happy to even try to get to know any of them! But whatever the attraction is - Ranma has that attraction for her, too. Maybe he's not really used to girls obeying him - after all, he was running around with his father for most of his life, and he probably didn't even know what girls were till he met the Amazons in China! ;p So, like many Japanese teenagers, he is rather shy around girls. Maybe his extra brashness is due to being so shy - so he can't relate to her properly, so treats her worse. And this is compounded by his feelings for her. Now, on to engagements. "Marriage in Japan is the building block of society, the brass ring, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, beyond which most young women rarely think." It also seems that there is a magical age in Japan, where a girl has a used-by date for getting married. "Terireiki", the appropriate age for marriage, for a woman, is 25 or younger. ("Women are like a Christmas cake - no good after the twenty-fifth.") Akane is definately set up to be saved from her "old maid" years, since she is engaged to Ranma. (Not that she really needed it, with all the boys chasing her, but ...) There are, it seems, a few different ways that people are married in Japan, today. There are: Omiai (arranged marriages), mukoyoshi (where the husband is adopted by the wife's parents, so he takes their family name - a rather unmasculine thing to do), and love marriages (in vogue with the young people in Japan). "At least one in four marriages are still arranged." Ranma and Akane have had their omiai. Unfortunately their first meeting as male and female wasn't... hmmm... a very good meeting. It seems that their parents gave them the old fashioned omiai - "Omiai was still an arranged marriage and not just an arranged meeting. If love came later, all well and good. If it didn't, it didn't. In any case, the purpose of marriage - the continuity and strengthening of two families - had been accomplished." Though there was no go-between - the two fathers set it up themselves - it was still an omiai. They arranged the marriage, but set it up for Ranma and one of the Tendou girls. They'd let the children decide which girl Ranma would have. Other than the option they gave, it was all set up. One day Ranma would be brought to the Tendou house, he would meet the girls, and one of them would be picked, and the two would get married. And it was Akane that was chosen. Problem was that Akane wasn't one of the obedient Japanese girls who would go quietly and happily into the marriage. (In a traditional omiai, a go-between sets up a meeting between two families of similar background, to cement an alliance between the two families. The female and the male only meet once, then on their next meeting, it would be either their engagement party, or their wedding day. A modern omiai is slightly different - the male and female can look at photos and applications for omiai of the perspective spouse, and they have the right to veto the omiai...though that is rarely done, because of the honour the children should show to their parents, if the parents wished for one person in particular for the omiai. Then the perspective couple can meet, they can date for a little while, and then they would have their engagement party and then their wedding day. If an omiai was set up by the parent, and the child refuses to marry, or if they want to marry a love match, and the parents do not approve of the partner, yet they still marry, the family can disown the child and throw them out of the family! Since the two clans - the Saotome and the Tendou clans - seem to be both old (they have ancestoral homes in Tokyou!) and they are both martial artist families, it would probably be very bad for Ranma and Akane to refuse the omiai. Akane seems to break off the engagement a few times - but they always get back together again. Maybe it's not only to do with honouring their parents that they get back together... Maybe it's Akane "withdrawing her love" from Ranma, like a mother would do when her child is bad, and then giving it back once he's been punished enough?) But because of that 'problem', Akane's strength and her personality, Ranma himself ended up falling in love with Akane ... And Akane, in her turn, ended up falling in love with Ranma. But the tatemae of the situation is that they don't want to get married, and that they don't really like each other. The honne of the situation is that they are in love with each other ... but they both don't really want to admit that honne, even to themselves. So while they both try to figure out the honne, they keep up the outward tatemae of the situation. But still, along the way, the honne of the situation comes shining through. Now onto cuteness in Japan. (I haven't finished the book, and I just found this part now, so ...) "Most Japanese girls want to be known as kawaii (cute). That's the highest compliement a young woman can be paid... kawaii connotes an innocence and naivete - almost a childishness - that is considered very attractive in girls." Even Japanese women, it seems, act like and want to be thought of as girls. (Well, Hinako's got that bit down, alright!) This seems to be very serious in Japan - and Ranma's insult (kawaikunee), is a very hurtful one to Akane. It's not only saying that she doesn't look pretty, but that she's got a bad personality, that she's not attractive at all, and she's very unfeminine. We all know that this is not what Ranma really believes, since he himself has called her kawaii many times. But there is also a phenominon in Japan of girls who take being kawaii and try to be even moreso - they are called burikko ('buru' to put on airs and graces, 'ko' child/girl). This is Azusa. "the word and concept first gained popularity ... with the original burriko, cutesy-wutesy singer Seiko Matsuda... one of a long line of innocent, virginal talent-o dressed in frilly, petticoated party dresses and adored by Japanese boys and girls alike. In a female variation of the Peter Pan complex, burikko try to act younger and purposly vacuous... They wear cute bows, cute shoes, cute ribbons, and cute, girlish party dresses... But the real tip-off is the giggling. All Japanese girls tend to giggle a bit, but the burikko have raised the art to new heights." Why do they act like this? It seems that Japanese boys find burriko girls attractive. They act cute and act like they don't have much of a mind of their own - and I guess it all comes down to the mother complex... if a girl acts like that, then she'll be the perfect one to look after and baby him. She'll be totally devoted, and she'll look after him, and she'll do whatever he wants, and they'll all be happy. She'll stay at home - she obviously isn't 'strong', and will not want to go out and get a job, and so she'll be the perfect wife and mother. (When a Japanese girl marries, she finally becomes a woman, the book says.) So the act is a way to bring security to the girl (though in some cases it may not be so much of an act as something ingrained into them.) This is why Azusa has the voice she does in the anime - she's the burikko of all burikko girls in the Nerima area! She has the act in the manga, she dresses the right way, and her speach patters in the Japanese are right ... so, although some may complain about her voice, it's the only proper voice for Azusa! After all, she's burikko! And that's why she's got so many fans - she's a burikko idol skater! The next person of interest is Konatsu. Although male, he's been brought up in the traditional manner fitting a Japanese girl. "Japanese women are trained to be shy and to defer to others, particularly men. Several well-known proverbs pervade their thinking. 'Resignation is the first lesson in life.' 'A woman's thinking is shallow'." And look at Konatsu - he's been raised with these ideals in his mind, and so he's shy, he is deliriously happy when someone thanks him, or gets him to do less work than he did with his step family, and he works very hard with very little in the way of reward - yet he's still thankful and happy. Konatsu is the traditional of all traditional girls in the Nerima area! Then his step family ... though it seems like a Cinderella story, there have been many, many old stories of step mothers abusing the daughter of the family in Japanese tales. Sort of like the Japanese mother-in-law vs daughter stories, there are the step-mother vs daughter stories. Konatsu is the victim/daughter in another one of these stories ... Ah, well ... that's enough for now, I think ... I haven't yet finished the book, so there may be more later, if I find out anything more interesting to add! Kun-chan... -- ************************************ * http://www.ecr.mu.oz.au/~caseawr * *++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++* * High Priestess of Ryouga * ************************************