Female Identity in Japan

Is western influence in both the media and society affecting the authenticity of traditional gender roles and female identity within contemporary Japanese Culture? The face of unfamiliar and irrelevant representations is it difficult to assert as sense of identity. Although this is a concern of female assertion of identity and position in many different cultures, including western cultures like the United States. The essential issue that is wished to be resolved within these findings is whether cultural imperialism is the disabling factor of the female identity within Japanese society. Cultural Imperialism is referred to as the development and maintenance of a relationship between two or more countries or societies based on the idea of integrating and imposing a new set of cultural ideals or attitudes from the perspective of a superior culture. This can be in the form of legal policy, military action or cultural ideologies. In relation to this case study, we will investigate the western influence presence in contemporary Japanese society and its effect on the Japanese female to assert cultural identity and feminine ideologies.
Darling-Wolf (2003) report on the media and western influence on Japanese woman conceptions of attractiveness examines the ideologies about gender identity held by Japanese woman from various backgrounds in relation to western representations of female attractiveness within Japanese Media and Pop Culture. Darling-Wolf argues that this expose has both benefited and suffered Japanese woman, detailing that compared to their male counterparts "exposure to Western civilization that initially sparked concern with women’s rights in Japan in the mid-nineteenth century" among the female society. Although a movement i...

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