This week’s readings were quite interesting to me, as I was fascinated by the especially feminine angle that they all seemed to portray, discussing the different facets of life of women in Japanese society. The stories centered on women in the workplace, women’s relationships to their significant others and self-ideal, and bodily perception. The most striking story of the week, I felt, was "The Most Boring Red on Earth", as it is most shorter than the rest of the weekly readings, however it got to its point in a particularly poignant way-- Rika's discomfort and humiliation towards having her period quickly changes into admiration after viewing it in a different life, no longer forcing herself to ignore it for what it is. The story reminded me of "Smartening Up" from last week, in which a woman reclaims her identity towards parts of her body/self that she feels ashamed about.
One narrative that frustrated me this week was "The Lonesome Bodybuilder". At the end of the piece, the main character seems to have a better relationship with her husband and yet still maintains her job appropriately and has a better peace of mind and confidence. What made me upset, however, was that her husband didn't feel like he appropriately redeemed himself by visiting her at the gym. Their entire relationship was founded on his need for self validation at the expense of her needs, and I didn't feel like his motion to see her at her hobby made up for that fact.
I was hoping we could talk about the significance of the baby in the first story ("Diary of a Void"), because I was unclear about the message-- was it that she felt the only way for her to be treated equally was to have a child? Or was it more of a tale of her coworkers unlearning their dependency on her work?
No comments:
Post a Comment