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.

Those shades of gray are kawaii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The problem itself is not actually one that is alien to other cultures. It is seen other places as well, but it is slightly more exaggerated here; this problem being intelligent/well-off women. In what you are used to, smarter women have a smaller pool of eligible mates. This is not to say that they are being elitist (although I would hate to see them with a knuckle dragger), but that many men are turned off or scared by this type of woman. The skewing is increased in Japan and it is quite sad.

To give one example of many, a woman in a smaller city was the owner of a small, but successful, business. However, she was single and was looking to marry in the near future. The problem, as you can guess, is that she was pretty much shit out of luck. Her choices were few. If she wanted to stay in the area, she had to either run the business and stay single or quit and have plenty of choices for mates. True, if she was living in Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, maybe even Kyoto, she would have a higher probability of finding someone who didn’t immediately shit their pants and run screaming when they heard of a successful woman. Even then, the options and choices are still much smaller than they should be. Men should be begging for women like her, but they’re not.

Dammit Keiko, I wanted my coffee 20 minutes ago.

Now it’s not to say that they have to keep their ass in the kitchen and constantly make their man pie nabe, but they can just decide that they’re going to start a home business either. To quote a useful article from Pepperdine:

In contrasting women’s roles in business, we must consider that Japanese women have played a very traditional role in Japan’s post-World War II era. In the traditional household, men go to work and earn income to support their families, and women stay home and raise their children and care for elders. Even though women work after graduation from school, they are expected to leave school when they get married or give birth to children. If they should decide to re-enter the business world, they tend only to get clerical work featuring lower wages than men earn, regardless of the woman’s level of education.

For many years, this system in Japan isolated women from participating in society and prevented them from acquiring technical knowledge or social skills and from establishing a network of business colleagues. In the Gender Empowerment Measure Index, which evaluates whether or not women are able to participate actively in economic and political activities and take part in decision-making, Japan has been ranked 43rd among 80 countries evaluated. In contrast, the United States was ranked 12th, and Norway was ranked first in 2005.

It is quite true that Japanese women have been making inroads as of late, but even/when they work, it’s rarely anything more than secretarial, clerical, or retail. Computer companies? Engineering firms? Sausagefests. Even more so than you might be used to. It’s (mostly) not that they don’t want to, it’s that even if they wanted to, the societal pressure is that it is not work for women.

The pressure will probably lessen over time, but now, it’s still quite stifling.

For anyone that knows a little about the male brain probably knows that there are more male geniuses and more fucked-up (psychopaths, sociopaths, as well as those that are mentally disabled) males. This is women’s fashion in Japan.

The average outfit of many Japanese women is really nice and probably very expensive. Most of the time it matches well. The really good ones can get some things to match that you wouldn’t have guessed would go well with each other. That’s the good part.

The bad part is that some either try too hard and others just suck at fashion, but still try. Both end up really bad. I really wanted to take some pictures, but it’s not an easy thing to take pictures of people and pretend like you’re not taking pictures of people. Since I couldn’t take any pictures, I have some items that some Japanese women like to wear.

1. High heels with pointy ends. All colors, all styles, but pointy ends.

2. Camo pants. Does this look good on anyone?

3. Skirts (many of them are quite short).

4. Cowboy boots and hats. I really wish I knew why.

Sometimes wearing one (or more) of these works. Sometimes it’s a train wreck. No matter what, it’s something to look at.