Feminism chat thread II

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Since it looks like the first chat thread is about to fill up, here's the next one all ready and waiting.

Think of it as the gated commune with babysitting on demand and gorgeous poolboys serving the drinks :o

LadyBiscuit, you're right in a way. Camping here is Japanese-style. Everything in its place, lots of gadgets required, specific "camping food"
me: FFS CHILL OUT WILL YOU THE POINT OF CAMPING IS TO ESCAPE THE CONFORMITY

NO Tokyo Unruly, in south with the monkeys and wild horses

COckroaches are evil. EVilevilevil.
Did you know that they're not affected by nuclear energy. They're, lIke, God's ultimate creature. There's loads of them here.

Ha ha Sakura yes can imagine camping in Japan being wholly unlike camping. I lived in Niigata for a year many moons ago. Very beautiful but I really couldn't deal with the institutionalised sexism :( I think I had more of a problem with the attitude of the Westerners (I have a big issue with cultural relativeism)

my granny used to say of cockroaches that you kill one and 'two hundred come to it's bloody funeral'

haha, your granny was right!
Yes there is institutionalized sexism, although interesting you mention cultural realtivism because it's true that Westerners viewing Japan with a foreign eye miss lots of its positive points.
One I would say is the absolute lax attitude to abortion compared to the west [for a long long time abortion has always been a valid way for women to control their family size]
There are other examples, such as a man taking his wife's name and entering her family as an adopted son [matrilineal style] if his wife has no brothers
I LMAO at the Western men who come here thinking Japanese women are little lotus blossoms.
The word "man" does not represent "humans" as it does in English. It would be absurd to use the word "otoko" to describe "people" - as absurd as using "onna" [woman] to describe "people"

They're called "Kokeshi"

I just googled Kokeshi, and wiki says that a WEstern author named Alan Booth believes they were to represent the babies killed after birth.
I'm not sure if this is true, though it certainly could be. You have to be careful with reading the accounts of western males of other cultures.
DH believed they represented abortion, and what is definitely true is that abortion goes unquestioned in Japan by both men and women.

Bit and now about the infanticide!

It is interesting that abortion goes unquestioned. Is this to do with a difference in religious outlook to the West? What are their religious views on the sanctity of life etc. and of God creating humans etc.?

NO political debate at all.
It's perfectly acceptable to the Shintou and Buddhists for a woman to go the shrine to pray for the aborted foetus.

"Equally puzzling to many Westerners is the Japanese practice of mizuko rites, in which the parents of aborted fetuses pray for the well-being of these rejected "lives" Liquid Life ABortion and Buddhism in Japan

Fascinating. there must be a fundamentally different understanding of religion. I don't think Buddhism believes in an afterlife, but in reincarnation. I don't know what Shintoism believes in. I guess they have a reduced belief in the agency of God in the world, or of a planning God.

surrogate pregnancies, sperm donation and egg donation are all illegal though. IVF is only allowed between partners

Do they have the death penalty?

Yes.

The man down the road from us who killed his wife, 5 month old baby and MIL last summer has been sentenced to death.

Is there much opposition to it, or is it widely accepted?

I've just asked DH.
THe majority believe there is no other alternative

Interesting. They seem to have quite a pragmatic view. I think they revere their elderly. Is that right? How are the elderly looked after? What are their pensions like? Are they looked after in the family or are there care homes like we have?

INcreasingly they're being put in care homes. It's the duty of the eldest son [and his wife] to take care of the parents (as opposed to the daughter in our culture)

Although there are lots of "generation" houses here, built purposely for an extra room for grandma for when she can no longer live alone. Or as in DH's case, the eldest son lives with the elderly parents. DH is not the eldest.