The Rising Sun of male chauvinism

Press, 2 October 1979, Page 19

The Rising Sun of male chauvinism

By

MARK MURRAY,

“Observer.” London

In the worldwide battle against the ravages of women’s lib, score one point for male chauvinism in Japan, where male domination is being celebrated in a best-selling pop record.

It is entitled “The Declaration of an Overbearing Husband,” and in it a man tells his bride-to-be that he will be the boss. “I have something to tell you before I take you as my wife. I’m going to talk tough, so listen carefully. You should always retire after I do. Always get up before I do. Cook well and be neat at all times . . . just put up with me, if I have an affair with another woman.” The record went on sale on July 10 and was top of the pops within four weeks. It provoked the wrath of Japan’s minuscule lib groups, who called it “an insult to all women,” but. they did not appear to be speaking for the majority. One Tokyo daily newspaper received hundreds of letters from women about the controversy. Overwhelmingly they were in favour of the singer, Masashi Sada’s, sentiments. Ranging from housewives to high school girls, almost all agreed that it was a wife’s first duty to serve her husband.

Despite the song's title, few felt Sada was portraying himself as an overbearing husband. They felt he was merely showing his true love for his future wife. With Buddhist fatalism, most women in Japan ex-

pect their husbands to turn up drunk at midnight and demand instant attention. Many are horrified at the thought of a man donning an apron and helping with the washing-up. Education reinforces this. The women’s lib groups are angered by glaring examples of prejudice in school textbooks, particularly in perpetuating traditional sexual roles. Children’s stories and textbooks emphasise stereotyped sexual roles. Pictures show father relaxing in his favourite armchair, while his harassed wife rushes around

preparing the evening meal. Working women are always shown in jobs like schoolteaching or nursing. The few Japanese women who have managed to build successful business careers are objects of national curiosity! Univer-sity-educated girls find themselves being hired merely to serve tea and be decorative around the office. They are expected to leave after a few years to fulfill their god-given roles as wives and mothers.

Girls in the public eye, like airline stewardesses and radio and television announcers, are eased out when their looks fade. Japanese Airlines, for instance, have an age limit

for women of between 35 and 40.

Nakako Kase, a 41-year-old Tokyo radio announcer, is battling against this sytem. After 18 years as an announcer, she was abruptly moved to a new job as a key puncher. Although no-one would admit it directly, the implied reason was age.

She has gone to court to get her old job back. Her employer says her contract did not stipulate what job she was being hired for, but she insists that this was implicit in the audition she was required to take to become an announcer.

Companies cannot fire unwanted staff but they try — as in Nakako Kase’s case — to get rid of them by transfers to low-prestige jobs or remote, unpleasant job locations.

The Government has no department equipped to study the problem of sexual prejudice at any level — whether in education in employment practices — and an official candidly admitted: “It has never occurred to us to create one.”

Butl in a token nod to job equality, the Maritime Safety Agency training school was recently opened to girls able to pass a stiff entrance examination. The nature

of the examination, however, favours boys.

Newspaper advice columns reflect the prevailing prejudice. One recent example is a. classic. A 35-year-oid housewife with two children had sought advice about her philandering husband, who several years before had taken up with a middleaged widow. When he began staying out all night, the wife began her counter-attack. Appeals to the two parties failed, so she began broadcasting details of the couple’s behaviour to both the widow’s and her own neighbours, followed by the widow’s employers and the teachers of her children. Eventually the widow was forced to move away, but her lover went with her. deserting his family, demanding a divorce, and refusing to pay for his children’s upkeep. The wife received a jolting reply. “You wretched woman,” the writer of the advice column (a man) thundered. “Your letter reveals you for what you are. You drove your husband away when his love affair might have been kept within bounds without your meddling. You yourself destroyed your marriage by such foolish acts as nuisance telephone calls and crying about their affair. So it is you who must take responsibility.”

A woman columnist would almost certainly have replied in the same way. — OFNS Copyright.