Paper short abstract:

We examine what images of normative femininity have been constructed through discourses and images in an an, an archetype of contemporary Japanese women's magazine. An attention is paid to the term kawaii in its issues published from 1970 to 2016.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I examine the images constructed in Japanese women's media of Japanese women's normative femininity and investigate what values and meanings are attached to those images, what sociocultural contexts they occur in and why, and what kind of power and commercial relations are implicit therein.

I pay particular attention to the term 'kawaii' ('cute' in Japanese), which Japanese media have used to construct an idealized 'immature' femininity proper to Japanese women since the 1980s. The term also emerged in French media at the end of 20th century, to designate shôjo (young girl) ou manga, wearers of extravagant street kawaii fashion (Koma 2017). Even if the purpose for which kawaii emerged varies according to time and place, the question remains as to why it continues to represent Japanese women in Japanese and even French media. Why have Japanese fashion magazines continued using the term kawaii to construct a Japanese idealised 'immature' femininity, even if it is actually seen that the sexualisation of women is a phenomenon observed in Japanese entertainment media (Tanaka 2016)? Why do the images in Japanese media tend to involve elements of both maturity as an adult woman and immaturity like a child or a girl?

I conducted a case study of an an, an archetype of contemporary Japanese women's magazines published from 1970 to 2016, including four inaugurals, preparatory issues that focused their special articles on kawaii, a term that emerges repeatedly as a keyword in an an's portrayal of Japanese femininity. With these, I analyse why the term 'kawaii' has been used despite its changes in significance over time. In my paper, I shall present the findings of this analysis and highlight the media's construction of normative structural characteristics of women.