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Paper short abstract

Building on Asai’s (1990) concept of the maternal fantasy, this paper investigates how manga artists Tabusa Eiko and Aoyagi Chika are challenging the idealised image of motherhood as asexual, undesiring and self-sacrificing through their working practices and feminist activism.

Paper long abstract

Over the past three decades, Japan has witnessed significant social and demographic change caused in part by shifting conceptions of gender and family, with the figure of the mother becoming one of the most contested sites of gender discourse. Stories of transgression are particularly valuable for their potential as a window into the anxieties and pain of a society undergoing political upheaval, particularly with regards to changing gender dynamics and the advancement of women’s rights. As the opportunities and forms by which women can participate in cultural production in a changing media landscape have increased, representations of transgression have served as outlets for affirmative expressions of female desire as well as dissatisfaction with existing social norms. In a world now dominated by screens, visual media and internet cultures play an integral role in articulating, interrogating, transgressing and reimagining womanhood and femininity. Manga, in particular, serves as a critical space for “encompass[ing] a multiplicity of voices and experiences” by utilising metaphor, humour and the specific visual vocabulary of the medium (Seaman 2017, 112). Against the backdrop of a post-capitalist 21st century Japan suffering prolonged economic stagnation, where women’s social progress has been stymied by a conservative backlash, female manga artists and illustrators Tabusa Eiko and Aoyagi Chika draw on their personal experiences to reflect candidly on topics such as motherhood and sexual desire, women’s bodies during and after pregnancy, postnatal depression, anxiety and mental health, domestic violence and maternal ambivalence or regret. Their work, which spans a range of formats, from printed collections of manga and illustrated essays to online columns and blogs, touch on many of the issues concerning Japanese women today, including the work-life balance, marriage and relationships, gender discrimination and inequality, and childrearing. Building on Asai’s (1990) concept of the maternal fantasy, this paper investigates how female manga artists are challenging the idealised image of motherhood as asexual, undesiring and self-sacrificing through their working practices and feminist activism, both within and outside the medium of manga.