Actually, Japan IS a little screwed up on the subject of sex

(Photo by JFA-japan)

In my post yesterday, I discussed some of the weird things you see on Japanese TV and in magazines, and defended (some of) them by quoting this passage from page 118 of this edition of the 1992 Michael Crichton novel Rising Sun:

“Remember, Japan has never accepted Freud or Christianity. They’ve never been guilty of embarrassed about sex. No problem with homosexuality, no problem with kinky sex. Just matter-of-fact. Some people like it a certain way, so some people do it that way, what the hell. The Japanese can’t understand why we get so worked up about a straight-forward bodily function. They think we’re a little screwed up on the subject of sex. And they have a point.”

I still agree with that…but then I’d completely forgotten Japanese game shows. As this post (edit: NSFW, sorry!) from the blog Sand & Cotton has just reminded me, freedom of expression is just fine and dandy, but surely it can’t be good for empowerment of Japanese women when they turn on the TV to games like Guess the Fake Orgasm, the Hot Tub Game, and Whose Boobies are the Bounciest?, the latter complete with attached stepcounters.

Now, I am against sexism in all its forms, but if it does have to have a form then I can think of much worse than women in bikinis making idiots of themselves on TV. Seriously though, I have been wondering for years about what things like that say about the relative positions of women in Japanese and Korean society, although really it’s a no-brainer: after all, Korean feminists can rightly complain about things like TvNgels, the unwritten rule that female comedians have to dress as schoolgirls, and movies like 200 Pounds Beauty/미녀는 괴로워 below teaching women that plastic surgery is the solution to all of their problems, but surely none of that compares to games like The Last to Orgasm is the Winner?

(Photo by hichetu)

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::