Gender, Consumption, and Bad Girls
Before entering into the analysis portion of this essay, I want to begin
with a brief discussion about gender and consumption in the sphere of
East Asian youth culture. When considering a site as broad and
conceptually slippery as youth culture, it is important to keep in mind
the ways in which it encompasses topics beyond those directly pertaining
to children. Even though the broader context for this essay is "youth"
culture, I will most commonly use the term "women" to refer to my focus
category, as that is how most of the essays and media I examined refer
to their subjects, who range in age from early teens to late twenties.
In two of our essays from the semester, women as consumers are the sole
focus of the piece, and both focus on different ways women consume ideas
of romance and relationships, either through Korean dramas or Japanese
host clubs. I find it interesting that while Angel Lin's drama essay is
examining a virtually mediated form of consumption and Akiko Takeyama's
essay on host clubs takes place in a much more physical realm, there are
intense similarities between the way women's consumption practices are
approached. The tension between traditional and modern conceptions of
women is a common theme in both essays, and both are similarly
ambivalent on the subversive capabilities of either site. In the case of
Korean drama viewers, there is a disconnect between the way viewers
perceive the slick images of urban modernity as subversive while still
reporting being attracted to the underlying reproduction of traditional
values. The female consumers of host clubs are also seen as focusing on
the surface veneer of a radical shift in gender roles (with men serving
as the objects of female desires) while ignoring the ways in which hosts
can be perceived as predatory with women remaining subjugated victims
(Takeyama 207).
The common thread here is that from the production side, women are seen
as consuming without depth, or considering anything beyond the surface
of the product. Female consumers are not dupes, rather he theoretical
work points out the ways that producers are able to create products with
an appearance of modernity or rebellion that still behaves inside the
capitalist, patriarchal system. This has important ramifications to an
examination of media representation of bad girls.
As with the other enormous categories I examine in this piece, the terms
"bad" and "delinquent" that I have attached to the women in this essay
are necessarily vague. In order to better specify what societal image I
am referring to when I use these terms, I turn to the work of Laura
Miller and Jan Bardsley. In the intro to their book, Bad Girls of Japan,
the two authors set down a list of characteristics that they and their
contributors use to define what "bad girls" are. The final list is bad
girls are "scandalously visible", "make too much money", "push girlish
behavior to extremes", have "out-of-control bodies", "do what they want
to do", and "influence good girls" (8-11) Of this list, I find the
visibility and monetary capabilities of so-called bad girls to be the
most conducive to this essay. Taken in combination with the above
theoretical discussion of female consumers, an interesting relationship
occurs wherein fictional women presented as bad due to their incorrect
consumption are in turn used to market towards real life women in hopes
of encouraging them to consume within capitalist structures.
with a brief discussion about gender and consumption in the sphere of
East Asian youth culture. When considering a site as broad and
conceptually slippery as youth culture, it is important to keep in mind
the ways in which it encompasses topics beyond those directly pertaining
to children. Even though the broader context for this essay is "youth"
culture, I will most commonly use the term "women" to refer to my focus
category, as that is how most of the essays and media I examined refer
to their subjects, who range in age from early teens to late twenties.
In two of our essays from the semester, women as consumers are the sole
focus of the piece, and both focus on different ways women consume ideas
of romance and relationships, either through Korean dramas or Japanese
host clubs. I find it interesting that while Angel Lin's drama essay is
examining a virtually mediated form of consumption and Akiko Takeyama's
essay on host clubs takes place in a much more physical realm, there are
intense similarities between the way women's consumption practices are
approached. The tension between traditional and modern conceptions of
women is a common theme in both essays, and both are similarly
ambivalent on the subversive capabilities of either site. In the case of
Korean drama viewers, there is a disconnect between the way viewers
perceive the slick images of urban modernity as subversive while still
reporting being attracted to the underlying reproduction of traditional
values. The female consumers of host clubs are also seen as focusing on
the surface veneer of a radical shift in gender roles (with men serving
as the objects of female desires) while ignoring the ways in which hosts
can be perceived as predatory with women remaining subjugated victims
(Takeyama 207).
The common thread here is that from the production side, women are seen
as consuming without depth, or considering anything beyond the surface
of the product. Female consumers are not dupes, rather he theoretical
work points out the ways that producers are able to create products with
an appearance of modernity or rebellion that still behaves inside the
capitalist, patriarchal system. This has important ramifications to an
examination of media representation of bad girls.
As with the other enormous categories I examine in this piece, the terms
"bad" and "delinquent" that I have attached to the women in this essay
are necessarily vague. In order to better specify what societal image I
am referring to when I use these terms, I turn to the work of Laura
Miller and Jan Bardsley. In the intro to their book, Bad Girls of Japan,
the two authors set down a list of characteristics that they and their
contributors use to define what "bad girls" are. The final list is bad
girls are "scandalously visible", "make too much money", "push girlish
behavior to extremes", have "out-of-control bodies", "do what they want
to do", and "influence good girls" (8-11) Of this list, I find the
visibility and monetary capabilities of so-called bad girls to be the
most conducive to this essay. Taken in combination with the above
theoretical discussion of female consumers, an interesting relationship
occurs wherein fictional women presented as bad due to their incorrect
consumption are in turn used to market towards real life women in hopes
of encouraging them to consume within capitalist structures.
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