Abnormal Family - Essay Example

PREFACE ‘My year of meats’ is a novel written by Ruth Ozeki, which explores various issues faced by two women: a Japanese-American documentary film maker, Jane Takagi-Little, and a Japanese dedicated housewife called Akiko. According to Nobello (2009) the novel examines a variety of serious issues such as the role of women in Japan and America, racism, stereotypes, artistic freedom, relationships, and the meat industry. As the famous saying states ‘you are what you eat’, Ruth Ozeki uses meat to show how it can impact the physical body of women. Therefore, this easy examines the various problems that women face all over the world such as relationship issues in marriage, their happiness, fertility issues, self identity, and freedom. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank my dear mother who took care of me and encouraged me to follow my dream of being a writer, despite being a woman. Notwithstanding all the problems she went through for educating her girl child, she was able to educate me to university level, and study the course of my dream. Thanks to all mothers out there who have done the same for their children in order to create a better world. Furthermore, I thank all female organizations that have purposed to educate women on the importance of fighting for their rights in relationships and independence. Abnormal family In the novel, the two women Jane and Akiko live in different parts of the world, but are connected by a cooking TV show known as ‘The American Wife’, which shows American housewives making wholesome American meat dishes (Ozeki 8). The show is produced by Jane the filmmaker, while Akiko watches it and prepares the meat dishes to her husband, but she runs to the bathroom to throw up. However, according to (Ozeki 12), the meat is used as a metaphor, in which the cows refers to women, chattel to wives, the meat or flesh refers to the bodies of women, as well as the sexual and the irreducible element of human identity. The television is used metaphorically to refer to the meat market, and Jane represents the physical image of the American housewives that satisfy the needs of the Japanese TV consumers. The year of meats is makes a deductive argument by highlighting lesbianism issues in the society. People in the society usually have negative attitudes towards people who are not heterosexual mainly in terms of relationships, identity and community. This is called homophobia and mainly leads to discrimination of such people. It occurs in terms of workplace discrimination, physical attacks, and homophobic jokes among others. Heterosexuality is an irrelevant appeal to tradition in which people belief that it is justifiable because it has a long established history. On the other hand, through syllogism, homosexuality is said to be an evil practice in the society; therefore, all lesbians and gay people are said to be evil. There are various parts in the year of meats that depict how lesbians are discriminated against due to their sexual orientation and behavior in the society. For instance, one of Jane’s TV shows featured a vegetarian, lesbian couple that angered her producer. This is because the producer expected her to film only the families that were considered ‘normal’ by the society, mostly the heterosexual families. Homosexual families were considered abnormal; therefore, not fit for filming. Ozeki (34) argues that people like Jane’s producer is a perfect example of closed minded people in the society who only define the world through their own point of view in the intellectual and physical environment. This can also be seen through Jane’s attempt to film without success other families that contradict the producer’s definition of normal family. She tried to film an African-American family but the producer did not allow her. However, she went against her bosses rules and filmed an interracial family that had a large number of adopted children, as well as the vegetarian, lesbian couple, unfortunately, she got fired. According Ozeki (88), meat is used to portray cultural significance between japan and America i.e. how the American culture influences that of Japan because meat is so all-American, and as a comic ring, as well as for metaphorical significance. The differences between the two female characters portray the different cultural backgrounds that they live in, and the point of view of the readers. For instance, through the first person point of view, the character of Jane portrays to the reader about herself, in which she is described as a tall, single woman born of a Japanese mother and American father, and produces TV shows. On the other hand, the character of Akiko through the third person point of view is portrayed as a thin, obedient housewife who is submissive to her husband and does everything he wants done (Archive for the Tag ‘My Year of Meats’ 2011). Thus, it is possible to conclude that Akiko is an inactive, quiet and isolated woman compared to Jane who is an outspoken, active woman. A false analogy as stated by Ozeki (56) argues that women from the western countries are assumed to be stronger and more independent than women from the eastern cultures. For this reason, Jane is said to be more independent and stronger than Akiko because she lives in America while Akiko is seen as a dependent vulnerable woman because she lives in Japan. Also, the different cultural backgrounds show that Jane lives in much larger world than Akiko. However, despite being in different parts of the world, both Jane and Akiko went through similar tragic experiences such as relationship issues, lack of freedom, racism and self identity among others. Jane faced racial discrimination during her childhood because her mother was the only Asian in the place where she was born. According to Nobello (2009), Jane also suffered culture shock and described herself as poly-sexual and poly-racial perverse, due to her confusing identity. Additionally, she experienced problems in her marriage such as infertility, which eventually led to divorce due to the feeling of failure between her and her husband. Also, in America, she remained unemployed for quite a long time, which affected her financially. Akiko also went through similar experiences. She lost her parents and brother through a car accident after which she went to live with her aunt. Her marriage was arranged by her boss whom she was working for at that time. However, her marriage had problems mainly due to the abusive nature of her husband. She could not eat much because she threw up after eating that resulted in weight loss. She became so thin that her menstruation stopped, and she could not get pregnant (Archive for the Tag ‘My Year of Meats’ 2011). As stated by Nobello (2009), Ozeki’s research revealed that Akiko’s inability to get pregnant was as a result of the abusive behavior of her husband. He forced her to eat meat so that she could gain weight, yet his abusive behavior is what made her lose her appetite leading to depression and consequently to weight loss because two wrongs do not make a right. Also, her husband made her belief that if she eats a lot of meat, her fertility would improve, which is also hypocritical because her fertility loss was as a result of the effect of D.E.S, a growth stimulant hormone administered to cattle; hence, present in meat (Nobello 2009). Moreover, Jane discovered that her infertility was due to her deformed uterus, which resulted from exposure to D.E.S. She got exposed to this drug through her mother who had taken the drug long before she was born, since it was also used as a pregnancy drug for women. D.E.S drug was believed to help pregnant women until a report was submitted that proved that it causes infertility in women. Ozeki (90) argues that Jane also noted that this synthetic hormone, D.E.S was not only being misused as a pregnancy drug for women, but also as a growth stimulant in cattle. Thus, Ozeki claims that her metaphor was now real as women were no longer like cows, but both were given a similar drug without regard to their health. This shows that both Jane and Akiko lacked family support when dealing with their problems especially from their husbands, who were their closest family members. As much as it is expected that women should obey and respect their husbands, Akiko’s marriage was more of a master-servant relationship due to the faulty use of authority by her husband John. Everything that Akiko did was as a result of a command from her husband. For instance, she watched the TV show because her husband commanded her to do so and make meat dishes for him because it was her duty. Moreover, Akiko could only write articles because it was the only thing her husband expected her to do. As time went by Akiko’s husband became severely aggressive and abusive towards her, but she did not complain about it and even endured all abuses. In addition, one of Jane’s shows, which featured a lesbian, vegetarian and interracial couple, inspired Akiko and gave her the courage to have a baby and separate from her husband (Nobello 2009). This is because she realized that marriage without love leads to problems in marriage, as well as lack of happiness, freedom and self-identity. Moreover, the freedom of both Jane and Akiko is affected by one man called John. John was Akiko’s husband, as well as Jane’s boss in the international industry. Libertarianism is highly revealed through how Jane and Akiko tried to achieve their freedom from John. They both tried to fight John in order to free themselves, but John forces them to do as he commands. Luckily Jane got a chance to go against her boss when the director got an allergic reaction to a certain meat in Oklahoma (Archive for the Tag ‘My Year of Meats’ 2011). However, by doing so she was fired, but she was able to put her message across and many housewives benefited from it. On the other hand, john controlled Akiko, but through Jane’s TV shows, she realized that she needed to start fighting for herself and free from her abusive husband. With time, she started being independent, gaining weight and menstruating. Later she realized she was pregnant and immediately left her husband without informing him of her condition, and she started a new life in America along with other single women. Most women in the world learn through their personal life experiences. They lack support from family and are expected to act strong for their children’s sake. Also, they learn through interacting with other women who are experiencing similar problems. According to Ozeki (361), it is not easy for a woman to get out of an abusive relationship mostly because they stay hoping that their husbands will change, or they are afraid of what their partners might do if they discover that they are trying to leave. For instance, Akiko stayed in her abusive marriage because it is expected that, in Japan, women should always respect their husbands. Thus, she endured all abuses without complaining until she was inspired by Jane’s show of the vegetarian lesbians TV show. Therefore, the best way to inspire women and help them open their eyes to reality would be through airing of more international TV shows just like Jane did. Inspiring women encourages them to desire independence and fight for themselves; thus, leave abusive relationships and live happily. In conclusion, ‘My Year of Meats’ is a novel that has strong, wonderful, absurd, hilarious, as well as disturbing and shocking themes, while describing the various issues that women face in the world. Although the use of the term ‘meats’, by Ozeki, sounds funny in a way, it is a gag that drives the story along without any ambiguity. It shows how the American culture has influence over that of Japan and exemplifies it. Post hoc, lesbians are said to be guilty by association because the society assumes that it is an evil act. However, I do not agree with the deductive argument made because lesbianism is a medical condition, which requires the help of a physician as well as counseling just like other diseases. For this reason, the best way for the society to deal with the oppression of lesbians would be to evaluate its moral and religious values and give justice to those oppressed without appeal to tradition. Works Cited Dawes, Sarah. "Archive for the Tag My Year of Meats ." 17 March 2011. Organic Thought. Web.8 December 2011 . Nobello, Lydia. "My Year of Meats, by Ruth Ozeki." 17 June 2009. Voices From the Gaps. Web. 8 Dec 2011 . Ozeki, Ruth. My Year of Meats. Viking, Michigan, 1998. Print. Read More