Humanities: Miyasaka, Natsumi [CGS NewsLetter 001]
TV drama is an interesting research material, especially for those scholars of gender expression in fiction like myself. Stating this as an excuse, I habitually watch popular TV dramas, both Japanese and foreign, and I cannot help noticing the huge difference that lies between Japanese and English (or American) dramas. The latter, reflecting social maturity perhaps, seldom contains the old gender-stereotype. For instance, they do not differentiate any occupation by sex. We see male and female lawyers fighting evenly in a courtroom. There are as many female doctors as male ones, and male nurses as female ones. We see a couple with a wife as an office worker and a husband as a homemaker. Whether or not these images sincerely mirror the actual situation in society is another issue. At least, these dramas do not impose on women negative images as their role models through such a public and influential media as TV.
Looking back at Japanese TV programs, I was horrified by the images broadcasted everyday. Recently we have a very popular drama dealing with medical society. The doctors and professors in that drama were all male. The pharmaceutical company people were all male. The lawyers were all male. So, where were the other sex?? Oh, here they were, they were nurses, wives, mistresses, daughters, secretaries..... And this is supposed to be a contemporary drama. More outrageous was its storyline. According to the story, women only exist to comfort men when they are tired from stressful battle with other men. Good women are those who are caring, decent, forgiving, and sometimes silly. I felt dizzy imagining how many young men say, after watching this drama, "Don't you think this mistress is such a perfect woman?"
This drama is not exceptional. Another popular drama for young viewers, featuring a big star, is no better. It contains a classical stereotype of sporty male and supporting female, and is not very far from costume plays (JIDAIGEKI in Japanese). Again, women are there to comfort and heal men, who are hurt and exhausted from the battle. Of course we see on screen fashionable boys and girls with witty conversation. But it is only a reproduction of male-centred values fashionably rearranged. According to the producer of this drama, its key phrase is to be "the good old days". Judging from the content, they seem to mean the days when men were domineering and women were oppressed and subservient. OK, the days were old, but were they good? For whom?? I think only men can look back at those days and be nostalgic about them.
We should not overlook the vice these TV programs bring about by telling there are only crude entertainments, and they are not seriously made. Some of the popular programs have the viewing rate of more than 30 %. And main viewers of these dramas with top stars are young generation who run the future Japan. If extremely gender-biased view of man/woman is broadcasted as an ideal, this is a serious problem. I suppose many of the young generation accept this 'ideal' without much questioning. It is no surprise when girls want to have a virtual affair with their dream man, and become like the female character of a drama, chosen and loved by him.
It is only TV, but this is serious. TV programs are so influential that we expect their creators to be aware of their responsibility, and to have fair sense of human rights and gender sensibility. However, Japanese media is said to be most underdeveloped, from the point of male/female balance. The power still lies in the hands of male producers and creators, while women are used and consumed. In such an ill-balanced society, Japanese TV programs are made daily according to the male narcissistic logic.
Since distribution of information has a vital role in our modern world, we need to question why we let such a misogynistic group to occupy the controlling post. The producer does not dare to say "I miss the days when men are more domineering". But he can let a popular actor say it and the society raves. This is really dangerous.
Of course, I am aware that men in Japanese media are not particularly exceptional. It just reveals the gender biased view existing in Japanese society. Therefore, when I compare TV programs in the world, I feel distraught, confronted by immaturity of Japanese society.