“But I am still a girl after all”: A Discourse Analysis of Femininities in Popular Japanese Manga Comics

<p>Where progression towards gender equality is concerned, Japan lags behind most other developed countries with its culture which heavily values tradition. However, its traditional gender roles may be changing as the birth-rate declines and women take up the increasing opportunities opening up for them in the workplace. Within the contexts of these tensions between traditionalism and change, this study investigated the constructions of femininity in popular Japanese manga, one of the most consumed forms of media in Japan which also enjoys global popularity. As such, this study approached manga as a potentially important resource for identifying the available meanings of being a young Japanese woman in contemporary Japanese society. To date, little research has examined manga, and much of the available literature has used content analysis or focused solely on superheroine characters and the romantic interest. As a point of difference, this research implemented discursive analyses and sought to identify a range of femininities made available to readers in manga. It examined four titles within two genres of manga: the shounen genre targeted to male audiences and the shoujo manga, targeted at a female audience. The research employed a feminist, poststructuralist framework to identify the ways in which constructions of femininity in manga drew on dominant Japanese discourses of femininity as well as more globally produced postfeminist discourses associated with popular culture. The study found that manga overall produced femininities within both traditional and contemporary postfeminist discourses. Analyses also highlighted the limited meanings of femininity made available to young female audiences of shoujo manga through dominant postfeminist, empty representations of ‘empowerment’ whilst also underlining the problematic dominance of sexist portrayals of young women in shounen manga. Further, the storylines of shoujo manga were found to be replete with romantic narratives, prioritising romance and marriage as a means to happiness. These findings may identify the implications of such femininities on how young Japanese women view themselves, and are viewed by others globally.</p>

“But I am still a girl after all”: A Discourse Analysis of Femininities in Popular Japanese Manga Comics

<p>Where progression towards gender equality is concerned, Japan lags behind most other developed countries with its culture which heavily values tradition. However, its traditional gender roles may be changing as the birth-rate declines and women take up the increasing opportunities opening up for them in the workplace. Within the contexts of these tensions between traditionalism and change, this study investigated the constructions of femininity in popular Japanese manga, one of the most consumed forms of media in Japan which also enjoys global popularity. As such, this study approached manga as a potentially important resource for identifying the available meanings of being a young Japanese woman in contemporary Japanese society. To date, little research has examined manga, and much of the available literature has used content analysis or focused solely on superheroine characters and the romantic interest. As a point of difference, this research implemented discursive analyses and sought to identify a range of femininities made available to readers in manga. It examined four titles within two genres of manga: the shounen genre targeted to male audiences and the shoujo manga, targeted at a female audience. The research employed a feminist, poststructuralist framework to identify the ways in which constructions of femininity in manga drew on dominant Japanese discourses of femininity as well as more globally produced postfeminist discourses associated with popular culture. The study found that manga overall produced femininities within both traditional and contemporary postfeminist discourses. Analyses also highlighted the limited meanings of femininity made available to young female audiences of shoujo manga through dominant postfeminist, empty representations of ‘empowerment’ whilst also underlining the problematic dominance of sexist portrayals of young women in shounen manga. Further, the storylines of shoujo manga were found to be replete with romantic narratives, prioritising romance and marriage as a means to happiness. These findings may identify the implications of such femininities on how young Japanese women view themselves, and are viewed by others globally.</p>

O milagre da juventude: uma análise linguística de exemplares de discurso publicitário da indústria antienvelhecimento

In this work, we aim to analyze how the cosmetic industry communicates the idea of aging and how it offers solutions for reversing this natural process, in the advertising speeches about face creams, aimed at the female audience. We built a corpus of 112 texts on cosmetic products, collected in beauty catalogs, websites of beauty brands and retail chains in the perfumery and cosmetics market, which have a set of texts in European Portuguese on the theme of “aging”. From a perspective of Lexical-Semantic analysis with contributions of the Discourse Analysis Pragmatics we tried to identify linguistic patterns to understand which discursive strategies were manipulated when advertising products promise to reverse the natural aging process. We observed that brands have products where the name is not always self-explanatory of the function it proposes and without great commitment to the possible solution, as aging and the respective physical marks are understood as the result of a process that the skin suffered and not the person.

Cyberbullying as a way of causing suicide in the digital age

The fundamental basis of legal systems based on common law is that people have free will and are accountable for their actions. Particularly difficult and controversial issues of criminal liability arise when one person instigates another to commit suicide, and, accordingly, issues of free will, causality, and responsibility become increasingly important. The reasons for committing suicide are primarily socio-economic in nature. A certain proportion of suicides are those that occur due to the negative impact of third parties on the victims. In this case, the investigative action must establish that the perpetrator displayed intent in his or her actions in such a way as to expose the victim to a high risk of serious psychological harm. In the era of digital transformation, special attention must be paid to the relationship of the criminal with the victim, carefully studying the social networks of both, taking into account the fact that a typical participant in Internet communication leading to suicide is emotionally unstable, subordinate, insecure, secretive, unassertive teenager, and this category is represented to a greater extent by a female audience. The scalability of digital interventions allows to penetrate populations beyond the reach of conventional mental health care. Thus, there is a need for the use of digital Internet interventions, including to assist in the work of law enforcement agencies in the detection of Internet communities that instigate and incline people to commit suicide. It is concluded that the era of digital transformations is constantly evolving, social networks are becoming more accessible for both criminals and their victims, as a result of which the corresponding requirements for the investigation and subsequent prosecution for incitement to suicide become more complicated. The scientific proposals of legal scholars presented in the study are aimed at solving the corresponding problems

Depicting emotions for a male or for a female audience: Do children adapt the content of their drawings to the audience gender?

When depicting emotions, children have been shown to alter the content of their drawings (e.g., number and types of expressive cues) depending on the characteristics of the audience (i.e., age, familiarity, and authority). However, no study has yet investigated the influence of the audience gender on children’s depiction of emotions in their drawings. This study examined whether drawing for a male versus for a female audience have an impact on the number and type of emotional information children use to depict sadness, anger, and fear. Children aged 7 ( N = 92) and 9 ( N = 126) were asked to draw a figure and then to produce three drawings of a person, to depict three emotions (sadness, anger, fear). Children were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions: they were instructed either to draw with no explicit mention of an audience (control condition) or to draw so that the depicted emotion would be recognized by a male (male audience condition) or by a female (female audience condition). A content analysis was conducted on children’s drawings, revealing the use of seven types of graphic cues for each emotion. We found numerous differences between the three conditions relative to the type of cues used by children to depict emotions, particularly for anger and fear and particularly at the age of 7. Overall, children used facial cues more frequently for a female audience and contextual cues more frequently for a male audience. These results are discussed in terms of their implications in clinical, educational, and therapeutic settings.

From Novels to Video Games: Romantic Love and Narrative Form in Japanese Visual Novels and Romance Adventure Games

Video games are powerful narrative media that continue to evolve. Romance games in Japan, which began as text-based adventure games and are today known as bishōjo games and otome games, form a powerful textual corpus for literary and media studies. They adopt conventional literary narrative strategies and explore new narrative forms formulated by an interface with computer-generated texts and audiovisual fetishism, thereby challenging the assumptions about the modern textual values of storytelling. The article first examines differences between visual novels that feature female characters for a male audience and romance adventure games that feature male characters for a female audience. Through the comparison, the article investigates how notions of romantic love and relationship have transformed from the modern identity politics based on freedom and the autonomous self to the decentered model of mediation and interaction in the contemporary era.

The False Dmitry and James the Old Pretender: Mary Pix’s The Czar of Muscovy

The British dramatist Mary Pix’s (1666–1709) play The Czar of Muscovy (1701) has received limited and inconsistent critical attention compared to her other plays. This paper offers a fresh analysis of the play, which depicts the rule of the Russian pretender Dmitry Ivanovic, which lasted from 1605 to 1606 when he was killed in an uprising. The reading centralizes the history of false Dmitry during the Time of Troubles and his dramatic role as a figurative representation of the English Catholic pretender James Edward Francis Stuart (James the Old Pretender). Pix manipulates the public and private image of the False Dmitry (called Demetrius in the play) to undermine the Catholic pretender James’ claim to the English throne. This can be seen through a comparison of their public image and similar biographical details. Demetrius’ private image displays his tyranny and effeminacy, which are exposed through his treatment of the key women in his life: Queen Marina, his supposed mother Empress Sophia, and his captive Zarriana. In their own ways, the three women help him to reach the throne only to destroy him. Their dramatization as powerful agents who face oppression and achieve triumph is a message to Pix’s female audience to emulate the female characters and prevent the restoration of the pretender. Thus, Russian history emerges as a dynamic and unifying force that transcends time and geography.

Analyzing the Challenges of Female Audience Participation in Iranian Stadiums

Background and Aim: The purpose of this article is to examine the barriers and challenges for female spectators in Iranian stadiums and to provide facilitating strategies. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study with an overview of the prevailing conditions of society as well as reviewing Iranian law and referring to sports legal and legal texts. The researcher examines the fatwas of Shia authorities and the historical background of Iranian sports from 1970 to 2019, and the presence of women in stadiums in the past, and examines the conditions for collecting relevant material in this field. Results: Women were free to attend Iranian stadiums in the pre-revolutionary years, and Iranian women could freely watch national and club games, but in the post-revolutionary years, in line with the Islamic Republic's policies on the separation of women and men and the views of authorities. Shi'a imitation and religious rulings and religious issues were limited. As part of the country's overall policies on women, sport was also affected by these policies, and it seems that removing these barriers should be seen in a broader theoretical framework. Conclusion: By examining the current state of the country and examining Iranian law and referring to Iranian history from 1970 to 2019, the researcher has concluded that we do not have a law prohibiting women from entering the stadium, which is a public place. They are there to watch the matches and cheer on their favorite teamn

Build it and the women will come? WTSN and the advent of Canadian digital television

In fall 2001, over 200 digital television channels were launched in Canada. One of those channels was WTSN (Women's Television Sports Network)-the world's first 24- hour television network exclusively dedicated to broadcasting women's sports. In the fall of 2003, however, WTSN ceased broadcasting operations. This analysis of CRTC policies and personal interview data with Canadian media members argues that while the demise of WTSN can be attributed to the unfortunate pitfalls associated with early digital television rollout and cultural policies, the network's downfall is best explained in substantially more ideological terms. From the outset, WTSN entered uncharted waters in the Canadian television sport landscape, attempting to showcase women's sports to a predominantly female audience-a demographic that has yet to materialize for mainstream sports programming. Résumé : En automne 2001 au Canada a lieu la lancée de plus de 200 chaînes de télévision numériques. Une de ces chaînes est WTSN (Women's Television Sports Network), le premier réseau de télévision au monde entièrement dédié à la diffusion des sports féminins 24 heures sur 24. WTSN, cependant, disparaît des ondes dès l'automne 2003. Cette analyse des politiques du CRTC et d'entrevues menées par l'auteur auprès de professionnels des médias canadiens soutient que, bien qu'on puisse attribuer l'échec de WTSN à certaines politiques culturelles ainsi qu'aux problèmes reliés à l'expansion trop hâtive de la télévision numérique à l'époque, on peut aussi tirer avantage d'une approche plus idéologique pour expliquer la disparition de ce réseau. En effet, en offrant les sports pour femmes à un public composé majoritairement de femmes, WTSN dès ses débuts s'est aventuré dans un territoire inconnu par l'univers des sports sur les ondes canadiennes, la majorité des femmes n'ayant pas encore montré un intérêt soutenu pour la programmation sportive à grand public.

Build it and the women will come? WTSN and the advent of Canadian digital television

In fall 2001, over 200 digital television channels were launched in Canada. One of those channels was WTSN (Women's Television Sports Network)-the world's first 24- hour television network exclusively dedicated to broadcasting women's sports. In the fall of 2003, however, WTSN ceased broadcasting operations. This analysis of CRTC policies and personal interview data with Canadian media members argues that while the demise of WTSN can be attributed to the unfortunate pitfalls associated with early digital television rollout and cultural policies, the network's downfall is best explained in substantially more ideological terms. From the outset, WTSN entered uncharted waters in the Canadian television sport landscape, attempting to showcase women's sports to a predominantly female audience-a demographic that has yet to materialize for mainstream sports programming. Résumé : En automne 2001 au Canada a lieu la lancée de plus de 200 chaînes de télévision numériques. Une de ces chaînes est WTSN (Women's Television Sports Network), le premier réseau de télévision au monde entièrement dédié à la diffusion des sports féminins 24 heures sur 24. WTSN, cependant, disparaît des ondes dès l'automne 2003. Cette analyse des politiques du CRTC et d'entrevues menées par l'auteur auprès de professionnels des médias canadiens soutient que, bien qu'on puisse attribuer l'échec de WTSN à certaines politiques culturelles ainsi qu'aux problèmes reliés à l'expansion trop hâtive de la télévision numérique à l'époque, on peut aussi tirer avantage d'une approche plus idéologique pour expliquer la disparition de ce réseau. En effet, en offrant les sports pour femmes à un public composé majoritairement de femmes, WTSN dès ses débuts s'est aventuré dans un territoire inconnu par l'univers des sports sur les ondes canadiennes, la majorité des femmes n'ayant pas encore montré un intérêt soutenu pour la programmation sportive à grand public.