Battle of the Sexes!

. Gender segregation in Japan is as clear as 20/20 vision. In a traditionally patriarchal society gender distinction are still evident in Japanese culture. The colour of elementary school bags traditionally differ between black for boys and red for girls; soccer and baseball are regarded as male sports only; and women working are generally tied to the service industry as well as their jobs, compared to men, are less valued in society. Although Japan has moved forward from oppression of women and such--meaning women in Japanese society have more security (as shown in the picture above), freedoms and responsibilities, there are other aspects of Japanese culture, including Nihonjinron, which also stresses gender stratification. Nevertheless, Japanese language is the thread that neatly holds Japan's social fabric of patriarchy together.

First, male and female speech commonly occur in informal concepts of self and other through spoken and written grammatical differences. For example, in referring to the self, boku is used by males and atashi by females. Second, the voice pitch reflects femininity or masculinity, especially for women, and has become a cultural expectation in speaking Japanese. Finally, and maybe most obvious, is in choice of first names.

Here are some examples of common names:

Female: (child can be added)

- Pretty - Flower - Pure - Snow - Fall - Dance - Bright - Good smell - Truth - Beautiful -

Male: (sometimes take a Kanji from father’s name)

- Fast - Strong - Studious - Smart - Big -

In these pictures my friends are demonstrating how their use of words and the meaning of there names show femininity or masculinity. On the top: 私の名前は～です。(Watashi no namae wa...desu) This part of the sentence means "My name is..."

僕 (boku) also refers to the self, but is only useable for males.

早希 (Saki)
The sa 「早」means early and ki 「希」means hope.

貴史 (Takafumi)
The taka 「貴」means respect and fumi 「史」means history.

In my opinion, there seems to be more words and phrases used by men only, whereas women often use the terms that can be appropriate for both genders.

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The follow link provided information for this blog:

• http://www.coolest.com/jpfm.htm

To read more on this subject I suggest the following source:

• Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People by Shigeko Okamoto, Janet S. Shibamoto Smith
• Katsue Akiba Reynolds' review on this text is also worth reading.