The Gender Politics of Toei Porno : Japanese Cinema and Women in the 1970s

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Other Title
  • 東映ポルノのジェンダー・ポリティクス : 1970年代の日本映画と女性
  • トウエイ ポルノ ノ ジェンダー ・ ポリティクス : 1970ネンダイ ノ ニホン エイガ ト ジョセイ

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Abstract

Previous research in film history has verified that sex and violence are the two most crucial themes of Japanese film in the 1970s and that in Toei Porno these two themes have been blended brilliantly through the naked bodies of fighting women. Nevertheless, the study of Toei Porno from any kind of perspective is still lacking. This article explores the neglected historical value of Toei Porno from various layers. By analyzing related materials about Japanese film industry and their social context, this article interprets the argumentative logic of the “Freedom of Expression” controversy in 1970s, and test how Toei Porno has been “forgotten” by patriarchal history. Furthermore, in order to prove Toei Porno is different from the other pornography, this research will use spectatorship theory, focusing on the key term of “pleasure,” to investigate the possible relationship between Toei Porno and its potential female audiences. Reviewing the paraphrasing of the term “pleasure” from both psychoanalytic film theory and cognitive film theory perspectives, I will identify the kinds of cinematic representations within Toei Porno that may bring various pleasures to female audiences and further discuss the possibility of de-patriarchal discourses which would be inspired by these pleasures. The final aim of this study is to reassess the “Sexual Liberation” politics (discourse advocated by Tanaka Mitsu) in Women’s Liberation in 1970s by investigating their representations of several sexual issues found in Toei Porno. I will argue that the discourse of “Sexual Liberation” in 1970s restricts sexual liberation in a broad sense; however, the sexual liberation in a wide sense is represented and prompted by Toei Porno. With answers to the above questions, it is possible to rethink the historical value of Toei Porno and through this rethinking, investigate the gender politics of Japan in 1970s.

Journal

  • JunCture : 超域的日本文化研究

    JunCture : 超域的日本文化研究 8 150-166, 2017-03-17

    Japanese-in-Asia Cultural Research Center, Graduate School of Letters, Nagoya University

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