Attractiveness and the Erotic Capital concept

I have recently been thinking of the difference in regards to the importance of beauty, between Asian and European societies (that I have the experience of living in). In certain European societies, the importance of appearance is rather diminished in some contexts or even demonised, thought of as superficial, skin deep and not going together with brains. On the other hand, in many Asian societies it is openly expressed and believed that a beautiful face can bring fortune, a good future, better chances in life etc. Hence the increase in plastic surgery in those countries. 

Related to this topic, there is an upcoming open lecture by Catherine Hakim at NIAS in Copenhagen (that unfortunately I cannot attend) on October 9. 

The lecture is called "Erotic Capital in the Northern European and Asian Context". I copy paste from the event the following: 

<< NIAS - Nordic Institute of Asian Studies and the Centre for Stratification Research at Copenhagen University invite you and others in your network to an open lecture by Catherine Hakim on 'Erotic Capital in the Northern European and Asian Context'. 
Thursday, 9th October 2014 at SFI - The Danish National Center for Social Research. 

Catherine Hakim is a renowned British sociologist and the mind behind the concept Erotic Capital:

"Erotic capital is the unacknowledged but powerful personal asset that counts just as much as educational qualifications for success in jobs, politics, media, sport and the arts. It is a combination of physical and social attractiveness that is just as important as economic, human and social capital for success in all areas of public life, as well as in private romantic and sexual relationships.  Like money, attractiveness is transportable, instantly recognisable, so is more universally valuable than qualifications, for example.

Attractive people earn more, have more friends, get more co-operation and support and achieve goals more easily both in public and private life. Doors open for them. In her bold and eye-opening book (Honey Money in Europe and Erotic Capital in the USA), renowned sociologist Catherine Hakim reveals the power and steadily-growing importance of erotic capital in our winner-takes-all societies and challenges the disapproval meted out to women and men who use sex appeal to get ahead.

During the lecture Hakim also presents evidence that beauty and elegance are valued more highly in Asian cultures (such as Thailand, China and Japan) than in the dominant Puritan Anglo-Saxon culture of northern America and northern Europe that has traditionally disparaged beauty as superficial and even dangerous or sinful.

Hakim sets out the three social and economic developments that make appearance and style more influential today than they ever were in the past: the increasing importance of white-collar and service work, rising affluence that allows people to seek luxuries, and the ubiquity of digital photographs in the media, on the internet, and on social networking sites."

 http://www.stratifikation.ku.dk/kalender/arrangementer/erotic-capital---in-the-northern-european-and-asian-context/

Date: Thursday, October 9, 2014 14:15-16:00
Venue: SFI - The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Herluf Trolle Gade 11, 1052 CPH K >>

If any of you go, please keep me updated or pm me about it!

We like to think of ourselves ("western", European, etc) as rather logic driven, scientific minded and pragmatic, but what if the Asian mindset of accepting the importance of appearance is even more pragmatic, holistic and down to earth? 

I recently found the following statistic from a job listing site, in this Guardian article:

I don't know if it's unfair, sad or good or just natural, but it definitely is something to think about.

Japanese Beauty Ideals and the National Museum of Denmark Purikura - Cosplay event discussion

Well, a lot has happened in the past months and I really didn't have the time or energy to update my blog.. On the positive side, in my consulting company I have been very busy teaching company executives transferring to Japan about intercultural communication and Japanese business.

But I have been wanting to discuss and follow up on the cosplay and Japanese culture event at the National Museum of Denmark. 

It was a very successful event and I was surprised to see the appeal of Japanese culture on such a number of very young people. I wonder what it is that triggers their initial interest for Japan. (For me it was Kendo and the Japanese aesthetics). 

First, some pictures from the event discussion: 

National Museum of Denmark, Discussing Purikura and beauty ideals with Martin Petersen, curator of the Japanese photography exhibition (that I loved and blogged about before) and Line, Danish K-pop blogger.

(And I spent some more time searching for the cosplay pictures or the name of the event's official photographer but I cannot find them, sorry next time!)

But what I really wanted to discuss here was the question directed during the talk and the one I usually get when I discuss Japanese women and beauty: "Do the Japanese do this/ that makeup/ make these changes on Purikura, because they want to look Western, like us?"

While there is some global consensus on certain beauty ideals, local, cultural or ideal differences (of what is beautiful) exist and are strong, even inside Europe.. One example, the different beauty and gender ideals I encountered between Sweden and Greece.

Some people asked during the discussion at the Museum, if the changes Purikura machines make on the pictures is the result of the Japanese women's desire to look Western. Even if there is some partial truth to it (because of the globalisation of beauty that applies to all countries) and some of the characteristics that are considered to be Western are sought after in Japan, this doesn't mean that they (characteristics) are sought after because they are Western but because they objectively satisfy the Japanese beauty ideals and aesthetic. In previous academic research (see for list of references my MSc research), it was discussed how the Japanese think of whiteness as a characteristic of Japaneseness, and regard it as the true Japanese colour. 

White skin is regarded as the original Japanese skin. Big eyes are also considered beautiful. I did not focus on discussing eyes with my informants during my research but I was told that "foreigners have beautiful eyes because they are big, with long eyelashes". So the focus is not on looking like foreigner, but looking like the Japanese idea of beautiful, which includes big eyes. Also, in Japanese manga, "good" characters are drawn with big eyes usually, while the "bad" guys have small "linear" eyes, that express their evil thinking and anger. It's not at all that in Manga the good guys are european and the bad guys are asian! The eyes are merely expressing the characters. In that case, the big eyes symbolize the good and pure character probably. Maybe, this explains the preference for big eyes. 

Purikura machines also cater to the Japanese ideal and importance of youth. The face shall have big eyes, small mouth, soft skin, like all babies have. Purikura machines usually enlarge the upper part of head so that the lower part looks smaller (or vice versa). It looks pretty weird (like a baby) on the result, but I've noticed most purikura machines the last years give this result. How is THAT beauty ideal Western?

This ideal is in sharp contrast with the Mediterranean countries that I can speak of, for example. I know in Greece and Italy, the ideal is to have a fuller, big mouth and the naturally round eyes are made to look almond shaped with smoky eye makeup. Also, we are supposed to have a TAN, not be white. Baby faces are desexualised, so that men might be heard saying: "look at her, her face changed and she's finally become a woman". And if one has a baby face, they're trying to look older with make up or clothes.

...... And I can think of many more examples of why we should not think that "they want to look like us"....

It's a Eurocentric opinion to think that big eyes and white skin symbolise "western" or "us".. Instead we should look at it from the Japanese (or Asian) perspective. It doesn't have to be that everyone has an obsession with looking Western. 

J-PopCon in Copenhagen

J-popcon is a Danish Japanese pop culture convention that started back in 2000 and has been happening since 2003 non stop. As I hear, every year it becomes bigger and better.

This year it takes place March 28-30, so there's still time to visit this weekend! For the official site and program, visit http://www.j-popcon.dk/en/

J-popcon has a big focus on cosplay, with shows, competitions etc and as such it attracts a quite young group of people. However, its variety of events and themes turn it into a full celebration of Japanese pop culture! I was very surprised to see so much Japanese pop culture in Denmark. At the convention one can try kendo, karate, calligraphy, Japanese tea ceremony, learn about J-kei and K-pop or Japanese fashion subcultures, eat Japanese food provided by Japanese restaurants in Denmark (even sweets such as kakigori and taiyaki), read in the manga cafe, visit the maid cafe, watch Japanese animation and films in the two cinema rooms, and much much more. This year they also had the Swedish Yohio in concert.

In the dealer room, you can buy anything from cosplay costume clothes to bento boxes, Japanese snacks, gyaru accessories, kigurumi, character goods, kawaii bags and all those awesomely beautiful and cute Japanese thingies that we all love to find in Japan.

 

The dealer room, above. 

 

 For your gyaru, lolita etc needs

New kawaii characters. I love the bunny on the right bottom corner.

 The Japanese omatsuri style tent where you can eat your bento, taiyaki or Japanese curry.

Some cosplayers preparing

Besides finding matcha chocolate and my favorite character stickers

what I enjoyed most was the handmade items being sold by young artists. So much creativity, I wish I could buy from each one of them so as to support them all! Handmade jewellery, manga art, paintings, and small handmade gifts. Here are some links and addresses of the ones I really loved:

sw-13.deviantart.com

winter-lark.dk

theluckyangel  

Notebook decorated with hand sketch painting

Sagoslottet Creations makes this Dekoden art.  Decoden means decoration for electronic devices, such as smartphones and iPods.  

Visit the pages and support these kids :) Again, I'm not advertising anyone and these kids don't even know me, I just love art and I think that these talented young artists have great aesthetic sense and taste. 

Harajuku is a Tokyo neighborhood that gave and gives birth to many visual and fashion styles for the world. If you spot a trend in Harajuku, six months to a year later you'll probably see it in European and American fashion magazines and young brands such as Berska, Topshop etc. "Western" magazine editorials often feature unique accessories that are obviously bought from the countless stores of Harajuku.

So on the way back from J-PopCon, I felt like I'm walking for the last train home from Harajuku: girls in full Japanese uniform were dragging their little suitcases in a total Harajuku style (for those who've been there, you know what kind of suitcases I mean). From behind I couldn't guess if they're Japanese or Danish. Japanese culture is becoming seriously popular and mainstream abroad. This year, J-PopCon counts approx. 3000 visitors.

Seeing so much demand for Japanese culture makes me very proud and happy, as in my heart I feel a part Japanese. Not only because I spent a long time as a resident there, but also because I was there young, I grew up in Japan and the culture shaped me as a person as much as my birth culture did. I don't say "home" culture, because that, I consider Japan to be "a home away from home" as well. The fact that the Japanese made me feel like family also adds to my affection.

And Japanese culture is so powerful visually and so rich in context, aesthetics and meaning, that of course it was a matter of time (and digital communication) before it was transferred and localised abroad. Go Japan!
And congratulations to the J-PopCon organizers, of course, for managing this convention!

Japanese Whiteness and Ideal Femininity

In my forthcoming participation in the panel discussion organised by the National Museum of Denmark (see here ), I am going to discuss Japanese beauty ideals, based on the research findings of my Master's thesis.

The original thesis, complete with the interviewed women's profiles, methodology, interview quotes and analysis can be downloaded from the Lund University archive:  http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=24923&postid=3990921 . Beware, its 66 pages!

And here is an abstract:

"The purpose of this thesis was to explore gender norms, beauty ideals and social
practices and the way these become ‘visible’ on the Japanese female body as
(re)producing the ideal Japanese femininity and skin color in particular. In order to
achieve that, I investigate and identify these norms, the mechanisms that implement
them on the body and the attitudes and expression of resistance against them. The
concept of biopower is used to explain the above process and findings. The research
used both secondary and primary data that was retrieved through eleven deep
interviews and participant observation, during two months of fieldwork in Japan in
2013. As the effects of power on the gendered body become central in this research,
gender and Foucauldian theoretical perspectives were used to analyse the data. During
the analysis I found patterns in the women’s opinions, enabling me to answer my
research questions. The study found the main norms to maintain that Japanese women
have a unique Japanese skin that should be baby soft, ‘white’ and fair, should have
natural beauty, look young and innocent, behave in a cute way, avoid conflict or
standing out and be subservient to men. The mechanism of implementation of these
norms is self-surveillance, based on the forbidding and producing character of
biopower. Women supervise themselves to conform to the norms, fearing that their
lack of conformity will lead to social sanctions such as loneliness and social
exclusion. While they have positive attitudes towards resisting biopower and are
willing to resist some norms, in the end they find it difficult to overcome all the
disciplinary norms they are subjected to".

Feel free to contact me for more information.

Purikura and Cosplay event at the National Museum of Denmark

You remember my blog review of the excellent exhibition on Japanese photography in the National Museum of Denmark. You can find it here.

This coming Friday on the 7th of March, I will be discussing Japanese beauty ideals in a "late" event organised by the Danish National Museum. The event focuses on Cosplay and Purikura and in relation to these there will be a panel discussion on beauty ideals in Japan and Korea.

Details about the event are here: http://natmus.dk/nationalmuseet/aktiviteter/museum-late/ and here
http://www.mynewsdesk.com/dk/nationalmuseet/pressreleases/selfies-og-selviscenesaettelse-paa-nationalmuseet-963669

The information is only in Danish though, sorry about that my non-Danish speaking readers in Sweden.. Visitors are welcome to visit in costume. Even if cosplay is not your cup of tea, at the event you can have fun taking pictures in the Purikura booth, listen to the panel discussion on beauty norms and purchase food and drinks.

The important thing to note is that entrance is free and it's from 6 to 9 pm. 18.00 to 21:00 in Scandinavian translation, that is. Hope to see you there!

Documentary on Suicide in Japan

In Japan it's very important to respect social rules and norms and work as hard as possible to achieve the best possible result. It is not so easy to overcome the well established rules and social norms if one wants to continue being a part of society, as they say.
Japan is also famous for its sophisticated and high aesthetic criteria, superb quality of services and overall dedication to perfectionism. Living in Japan is a luxury to the eyes and senses but also frees one from having to worry about belated trains, being tricked with bad services etc. But such a state of "perfection" in the way that everything works or looks, of course has its price. People have to work as much as possible, there is a word for death from overworking (karoshi or 過労死)  and it's not so easy to escape one's prescribed "route" or role in life, even if one feels under extreme pressure.

Living in Japan as a foreigner of course is easier, as the Japanese are forgiving of foreigners' various social faux pas and thus it's almost impossible to experience pressure the way the Japanese are experiencing it.

As a result of this pressure on the Japanese individual, sensationalist coverage of "glorified" death by the media and other reasons, Japan is known to have one of the world's highest suicide rates. These and other suicide facts on Japan explained in this excellent documentary that provokes a lot of thought:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo0SHLxc2d0



"Saving 10.000- 自殺者１万人を救う戦い" was nominated for 12 film festival awards and was also screened in the Japanese parliament as part of their 2013 suicide prevention campaign. The documentary's official site is http://www.Saving10000.com

Japanese Photography Exhibition "Girl with Parasol" at the National Museum of Denmark

It's really been quite some time since I published on this blog. I really don't have much free time right now, but since this exhibition is still up and running, I thought I'd write something in case someone in the Oresund region wants to visit. 

By the way, I visited this exhibition on the day of the last lecture of a very interesting PhD course I took at the University of Copenhagen. The course was titled "Food, Medicine and Philosophy in East and West" and it was a truly interdisciplinary look on food habits, philosophy and much much more between East and West. Well, the East/West division is really subjective in my opinion, but that's another topic. The course on its whole was fantastic, very interesting and I am so happy for being accepted to participate :)

Well, back to Japanese photography. How do I end the final lecture day of the course in Copenhagen then (after feeling a little sad that this exciting course was over)? Of course by visiting the Danish National Museum, where there is this very clever exhibition on Japanese photography. ------>

http://natmus.dk/en/the-national-museum-of-denmark/exhibitions/temporary-exhibitions/girl-with-parasol/


It's NOT what you imagine if you've never been to Japan! Half of it is about Purikura! In the installed Purikura booth visitors can take pictures, decorate them & print them (thus the name PuriKura= print club in Japanese). The pictures are automatically projected on the wall of the room as a slide show, so if you take pictures you become part of the installation as a guest. Brilliant!!

Purikura has always been one of the best contemporary Japanese "things", in my opinion. It characterises the young Tokyo lifestyle, friendships/nights out -in Shibuya- , memories created in the smartphone era (that began much earlier in Japan) and of course illustrates some of the Japanese aesthetics/gender norms of today.

I will come back one day to write more on the Purikura culture and subcultures around it.

In the exhibition, there is also a documentary playing & comments or explanations on Japanese beauty norms and the retouching that is usually done on the pictures. 
All these reminded me a lot of my MSc thesis (on beauty norms and the Japanese female body) which can be read here http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=24923&postid=3990921. 

A definite must- see if you are in Copenhagen (well this whole museum is a must-see anyway). I would like to meet the people that organised this brilliant exhibition, that really "transfers" someone to the feeling and young culture of contemporary Japan. And I was kind of sorry that I was not involved in it. Danish curators working with Japan, please call me!! :D

Well, here is just an idea of the installation! (Obviously I cannot/am not going to upload snapshots of the exhibition content). 

Well, I know I am cheating by posting this but it was so exciting! Kendo (see wiki or my previous posts) in Copenhagen in 1902!! I was happily surprised to read that there is a long history of cultural exchange between Denmark and Japan.

This is not in Japan but in Copenhagen! You can see the girls taking pictures in the booth, being projected on the wall! The photo booth is themed "Heroine Face" and it says on the booth top in Japanese that:

"with this cuteness, fate can (is possible to) be changed" ...

Thank you Danish National Museum for travelling us to Shibuya!