Noll, Tamiko Ortega
(2004)
Pragmatic Singles: Being an Unmarried Woman in Contemporary Japan.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
The concept of an unmarried Japanese woman carries a variety of changing meanings for both women and men. In the past unmarried Japanese women were viewed as a conceptual anomaly vis-à-vis the dominant rhetoric of universal marriage. In contemporary Japan women are marrying later or even choosing not to marry at all. Demographers view the personal actions by unmarried women as cumulatively accounting for a large component of the declining birthrate. Such analysis of vital records has instilled panic among government officials already fearful of the rapidly aging population and its effect on Japan's future as a nation. In this dissertation I explore how unmarried Japanese women create and sustain their identities despite a public rhetoric that marginalizes, degrades, or even denies their existence as a social category. I argue that unmarried Japanese women are not "parasite singles," the homogenous entity that the Japanese government and media have portrayed them to be. Nor are they a part of an explicit, organized feminist revolution. Drawing upon social theories which examine the tensions between practice and ideology, agency and structure I argue that unmarried Japanese are responding to a specific set of economic, political, and social conditions in which they find themselves. The cultural dialogue associated with "being unmarried" exposes how the government naturalizes and rationalizes the marital union to support its interests in maintaining productivity of the core (male) workforce, and the reproduction of future Japanese citizens. Based on ethnographic data collected in a city in rural Japan, I discuss how linguistic expressions and metaphors create images of "being married," how normative rhetoric about productivity in relation to women's life course defines appropriate employment and leisure activities, and how unmarried women's bodies are a site of state control through contraceptive regulations and other government policies. A focus on the discourse surrounding unmarried women exposes how they are positioned as key players in the maintenance of latent cultural logics regarding the family, work, nation, and reproduction. Even so, through their everyday enactments of "being unmarried," through resistance and compromise, unmarried women in this local city force and enforce change in the social landscape of contemporary Japan.
Share
| Citation/Export: |
|
| Social Networking: |
|
Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| ETD Committee: |
|
| Date: |
25 June 2004 |
| Date Type: |
Completion |
| Defense Date: |
23 April 2004 |
| Approval Date: |
25 June 2004 |
| Submission Date: |
5 May 2004 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Faculty of Arts and Sciences > Anthropology |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
cultural anthropology; gender |
| Other ID: |
http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-05052004-112248/, etd-05052004-112248 |
| Date Deposited: |
10 Nov 2011 19:43 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 13:43 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/7783 |
Metrics
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}