“Quick! Arrest that girl before she thinks too hard.” We don’t allow women to think only to protect you, the common citizen. If a woman thinks, it will be like 9/11…. but with estrogen!

This cultural malignancy that I discussed last time isn’t just seen within the walls of Japanese companies. Well, being a cultural thing that sort of means that it probably does exist outside of office setting. Nonetheless, it still confounds me to certain degrees as to why a culture has taken this path; actually, thinking about all of the cultures that we need to axe, it doesn’t confound me in the least. Whatever, it’s still sad and I’d like to see it become an aberration, like the odd, skeevy relative that you sometimes think is a registered sex offender (I think this might be my future role).

In the realm of business and politics, the problem with women is about the question of power. In a normal everyday setting, this problem digivolves into a question of intelligence. In many places, there exists denial that women can do certain things. For my generation, it can easily been seen in video games. The stereotype being that few to no women play them and if any do, it is either that they cannot play with men as their abilities are inferiour or that they should be playing a game that better suits their interests. Of course this isn’t true.

Is there a gun that shoots cute puppies at the enemies?

Now different facets of this problem exist in different environments/times in one’s life. In Japan, it’s a tremendous pressure that constantly assails anyone that has a vagina (pretty much). For many women, it is all encompassing, never ending, and almost impossible to run away from. Honestly, I think it’s very similar to what the Chinese did to women’s feet in the past (if you want to see a better picture of what they did you can look here, but it’s fucking disgusting), but applied to the brain.

Unwritten conditions are placed on Japanese women by the men, which they must follow unless if they feel like receiving a huge package of shun. An example from actress/director Kaori Momoi:

“Actually, I have been directing for a while, but in Japan, men find smart women unattractive. So I didn’t showcase my name. Now that I’m older, I’m at a point where I can reveal my name as a director.”

I know that many Japanese men think this, but I really don’t understand why it goes so far. It’s not just that they were scared of her, but they found her intelligence unattractive. What is up with this? And this isn’t even close to the end of what they must conform to (or deal with). It includes how they talk, how they laugh (squeaky), clothes they wear (skirts are important), phone etiquette (at least one octave higher than their regular voice, if not higher (this is changing, but not as fast as it might seem from the article)), their hobbies, what they watch, and so on.

The pressure that a society uses to influence is not one that is easily recognized. The reason women are conditioned to act this way is because it is what men like. Why do men like this type of stuff? I’m not even sure if they understand why. Even if they don’t notice, they are being nudged in this direction from the first time they do their first kamehameha (If you don’t watch much dubbed anime, female voices in them are ridiculously higher than any normal Japanese female voice).

Let’s leave these squares and go do some sexy philosophizing.

Some women decide they really don’t like this force and they try many ways to circumvent it. Kaori showed us one way that this can be done. Another way, which some women prefer for its simplicity, is to marry someone that isn’t Japanese and/or move. Yes, some women here want to date a western man just for the sheer fact that they are western (and have blond hair like everyone else from North America), but there is another group of women that use this as an escape from the system.

I don’t know. I don’t get it, I must be an anomaly. I find women more attractive if they can talk in depth about pretty much anything outside of entertainment/fashion, particularly science and philosophy. But in Japan, I’m easily the minority male in more ways than one (the obvious being not Japanese). This means that the I do not get along with the average female and they don’t get along with me. I don’t mind relegating them to just eye candy, especially since they seem to have already decided that (for many) that’s pretty much all they want to be. Besides, although I hold the minority viewpoint, I get to have all the smart and successful women to myself. This is me laughing at the stereotypical Japanese man, stupid fuckers.