Japanese Women and Homophobia - Essay Example

Japanese Women Homophobia is a result of negative attitudes towards people who are not heterosexual in behavior, identity, community and relationships. This in turn causes discrimination towards transgender, lesbians, bisexuals and gay people. Homophobia takes on different manifestations as seen in media representation, homophobic jokes, and discrimination and physical attacks in places of work. In the book, my year of meats, social hypocrisy is unearthed and discrimination against lesbians portrayed as not only immoral, but a possible future crime. I have been a victim of discrimination given my lesbian sexual orientation and I want to juxtapose my experiences with various scenarios depicted in the novel my year of meats. I hope the society will reevaluate their moral values to accord justice to those they oppress with their personal views that are not related in any way to universal moral justice. A look at www.melsweb.com gives an insight into matters related to lesbianism regarding Japanese women. Homophobia is depicted as irrational fear for members who are not heterosexual. In Japan, people fear professing their sexual orientation openly. www.desaction.org gives deeper insight regarding growth accelerating hormones that affect human health as discussed in the book my year of meats. The mood in my year of meats can best be described as strong, hilarious, wonderful, funny, absurd, disturbing, heart wrenching and at times shocking. In the novel, Jane the Japanese-American filmmaker has been hired to produce for the Japanese television audience a series of documentaries. The documentary is funded by an American meat export industry which aims to open a meat market in Japan. The documentary goes by the name “My American Wife.” A “normal, wholesome” American family is depicted in each show. There is the preparation of meat recipe, mainly beef as the center piece of the show. Jane is reminded by the producer that other than beef, pork and other meats is second class meats and is challenged to keep that in mind by reciting the motto: “Beef is best, though pork is possible!” At first Jane is obedient and she complies. There is the production of recipes showing various delicacies including a “Coca-Cola Roast”. Elsewhere across the globe, there is the wife of the Japanese producer. She goes by the name Akiko and she is compelled by her abusive husband to watch the shows and prepare for him similar recipes. The abusive husband compels her to eat lots of meat to help her add wait. This is hypocritical in that his abusive behavior is probably the reason she has lost appetite due to depression making her loose weight. He also pre supposes that if she eats a lot of meat, she could improve on her fertility which is also hypocritical in that she has lost fertility due to the effects of growth altering hormones D.E.S found in beef products (Leupp, 1997, 77). In her travel across the United States, scrutinizing families for the program, Jane discovers a whole different lot of family set-ups that deviate from what the producer considers “wholesome and normal” families and wives. At first, she attempts without success to film an African American family, nonetheless she manages to shoot a show depicting a big interracial family which has a lot of adopted children. Consequentially, her subversive impulses breaks loose and she goes ahead to make shows featuring a vegetarian, lesbian and inter-racial couple. The producer is awestruck and is very unhappy. This is a classic representation of people who are closed minded and they tend to define the world through cultural glasses nurtured within the limits of their physical and intellectual environments. Needless to say, this is a cause of social friction because what the producer fails to acknowledge that what he considers normal and abnormal might be the exact opposite in a different part of the world. My Asian parents fail to realize that, the problem of lesbianism lies not in me but in them. This is because of their failure to understand the diversity of human race, intellect, languages, emotional disposition, nationalities, sexual orientation, religion etc and by failing to acknowledge that I am perfectly normal, the message they are sending across is that of intellectual deficiency. They should understand that denying me from becoming what I am won’t change anything unless there was restriction of movement on my side. They actually have failed in their duties as parents due to a simple lack of understanding (Leupp, 1997, 77). Back in Japan, the radical shows inspire Akiko prompting her to plot escape from her abusive husband. The series of the American wife bring out the brilliance and irony in illustrating the bond that exists between Jane and Akiko. The abusive husband has the dark side of domineering and is rife with human rights violation while at the same time assuming the role of telling the society what is normal and what is not. At no point does he consider his behavior as being not normal. Jane exercises her intellectual endowments by doing what is right. This has had the impact of liberating Akiko who now knows her rights and plans to escape and go where the human beings are accorded physical, emotional and intellectual liberty and dignity that all human beings deserve. Jane’s curiosity exposes another dark side of the producer. Through research, she learns that the American beef and chickens are bred using growth accelerating hormones. Jane has previously been coping with gynecological problems and she has eventually discovered her root cause of the problem. She was exposed to the effects of the hormones during her prenatal stage through consumption of contaminated meat. The descriptions of the slaughter house and the livestock feed are truly mesmerizing. The author of the book has done some profound research and she manages to bring to light the subject of hormone exposure. The producer, the “moral agent” has had his other cruel side exposed. It is clear he does not understand the diversity of communities and the family setup and his resentment of the shootings do not mean he is a bad person discriminating against the “abnormal families” on purpose, but rather, he is a victim of intellectual deficiency and his judgments’ reflect a certain level of ignorance. His ignorance does not make issues like lesbianism wrong but rather points to acute shortage of information regarding the issue from his background. My Asian parents, like the producer run the risk of incarcerating justice by placing on its path barriers of judgment made emanating from ignorance, but I have faith in the eventual triumph of truth because darkness has never triumphed over light. Nature has its own way of compensating for justice denied. Homophobia, like children who are afraid of the dark, will eventually fade away, when the society becomes truly enlightened, truly open minded.yho Nature Poem The sluggish tornado snaps lopsidedly shaking in tossed love and braying determinedly in ecstasy. Winters sun dances happily into chilly air, and nature grows with pride. The summer’s sun now pastes opulent blue screens, and buds open for summer rays and nature takes a back seat in life.stvnkuria@yahoo.com Works cited Leupp, Gary P. Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan. University of California Press., 1997. http://library.deanza.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/l3dbvBX7Qn/0/241900014/2/100 www.melswebs.com http://www.desaction.org/ Read More