- 著者
-
海老原 暁子
- 出版者
- JAPAN SOCIETY FOR GENDER STUDIES
- 雑誌
- 日本ジェンダー研究 (ISSN:18841619)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.1998, no.1, pp.17-27, 1998-07-31 (Released:2010-03-17)
- 参考文献数
- 11
A feminism comic book “Shinkirari” is a fine piece of work which gives a vividdescription of how a common housewife becomes a determined, independent woman. In this thesis, the problems of conjugal relations under the yoke of gender are investigated with “Shinkirari” as a text from the point of what a husband calls his wifeand how this type of labelling changes.Chiharu Yamakawa is a housewife in her earlythirties. Her husband is a typical male chauvinist of the apres-guerre generation. Hisown reason tells that men and women are equal, but he finds it hard to clearly imaginethat his wife also has her own dreams and goal in life. He takes it for granted thata house wife be unconditionally subordinate to her husband who works outside andmakes the money. As a natural result, he speaks to Chiharu in a peremptory tone andcalls her “Omae”. As the personal pronoun for the second person in Japanesere alistically represents human relations, what a Japanese couple call each other in sucha way that a husband calls his wife “Omae” and a wife calls her husband “Anata”is in general obviously unbalanced and explicitly demonstrates that the couple are byno means on an equal footing. Chiharu calls her husband “Anata” too, but starts tohave doubts about her position in marriage and begins to complain about her husband'sconduct. She also starts to feel negative towards her husband calling her “Omae”, as“Omae”-a word that holds a person in contemptcan lead to discourse that naturallycontains the feelings of disdain, jeer, unconcern, and ridicule of the counterpart. Chiharu makes up her mind to open a shop. Naturally, her husband is stronglyopposed to her going into business, but finds that Chiharu now has determine dresolution and gradually admits that he has to give way. From that time on, theexpression he uses to call her changes from “Omae” to “Kimi” which implies that therelationship between the two has now turned to be more equal. Chiharu's shop getsgoing and she turns a tidy profit, far beyond her husband's imagination. One evening, he speaks his mind to her, “Honestly speaking, I feel afraid to see you standing onyour own two feet. I can't help but think that you will not need me any more someday.” His remarks indicate the fact that the Japanese man and wife are connected witheach other only for reasons of economy, that at least men think their conjugal statusis maintained in such a way, and that they do not realize how much their wives arethirsty for a more spiritual relationship. The stronger economically turns out to be themaster in marriage. The relations are clearly demonstrated in the language used. Thestatus quo will be maintained as long as the language is used and reproduced in thenext generation. We can say, therefore, that the way a man refers to his wife is nolonger merely a word.