Critique of Fashion, Self, Postmodern Consumer Culture, Sex and the City

Phyu Sin Sin Thant

IBS Capstone

2-2-17

Prof. Swinton

Critique of Fashion, Self, Postmodern Consumer Culture, Sex and the City

Executive Summary

Aiko Yoshioka discusses fashion and self in the postmodern consumer culture in Japan. While Yoshioka’s main idea, that women enjoy fashion to boost self-esteem and build identity, is important for businesses to understand she makes several mistakes in her analysis. First, she does not discuss any cultural differences between Japan and the U.S. and treats female consumers in both countries the same, she also claims that the gender spheres are now and ambiguous. However, she touches on some helpful ideas such as female price sensitivity and the blending of public and private spaces, however her analysis does not go into much depth in these areas. Her paper would be more rounded and give greater insights if It focused on other areas.

Introduction

Chapter ten in Japanese Consumer Dynamics titled, Fashion, Self, Postmodern Consumer Culture, and Sex and the City, talks about the U.S. TV show Sex and the City (SATC) and argues that is an example of different aspects of both U.S. and Japanese female consumer in modern society. This chapter can be criticized in several ways, however, perhaps the most important criticism is that the chapter does not have a strong focus on female identity, fashion and consumer culture. The authors main point is that women use fashion as a tool to help their self-esteem and build their identity. This point can be helpful for those who want to understand what motivates women to shop and to help identify more with women. However, the author makes bases her argument on several points that are not completely accurate, but at the same time there are a few other points she mentions which can be helpful to understand Japanese women as consumers.

Differences between U.S. and Japanese consumers?

The first criticism of this chapter is that the author doesn’t discuss differences between the United States and Japan in women fashion, sex or consumption patterns. There are big differences between the two countries and using an internationally popular TV show to discuss women’s identities, fashion and culture makes it hard to see the differences between different countries. Although women all around the world enjoy SATC, women in different countries have different fashions, identities, and cultures. The author does not point out any differences between Japan and U.S. and this can make it seem that there are no differences between the two countries. The chapter would have been more helpful if she talked about some of those differences.

Disappearing Gender Spheres

The authors first arguments start by discussing second and third wave feminism. The author argues that second-wave feminism is out of date, and that third wave feminism can be used to explain the success of SATC internationally in Japan. One of the author’s important arguments is based on an idea from third-wave feminism- that the separation between the male sphere, made up of production, work and city, and the female sphere made up of consumption, home and suburbia, have become ambiguous. She says that this change has also created an increased focus on women for businesses since they have more earning power and influence. The author states that women in their thirties and forties became very important in Japan’s lost decade when they became most vigorous consumers. However, the author fails to give data to back up this claim. While women in this age range are important to various industries’ consumption, Japan’s consumption is dominated by the elderly. People aged 60 and older make up a total of 48% of the country’s consumption (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications). While women are an important demographic in Japan they are not currently the basis of the country’s consumption.

According to the author of this chapter, the main characters of SATC define current day women in Japan and the United States where she says that the male and female spheres have become ambiguous. While women have become more empowered in both Japan and the United States and have increasingly entered the “male sphere” of production, work and city, the SATC characters reflect only a small part of women in Japan and the U.S. and should not be taken as a representation of most women in either country. Even today there are still very many differences between the male and female sphere- even more so in Japan than in the West.

Various facts show that the authors claim that the female and male spheres have become ambiguous in Japan is false. Firstly, there are major differences in female and male lifestyles in occupational roles. Data published by in 2015, showed that men dominated several industries including construction and mining (98.3% male), transport and machine operation workers (97.2% male) and women were more heavily present as service workers (67.6% female) and clerical workers (89.75% female) (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication). Furthermore, women are very underrepresented in high paying careers, such as the careers that the women in SATC held. In 2014, only 7.4% of Japanese women held leadership positions at Japanese companies and 50.9% of those had been given the position from a family member while only 7.9% had been promoted internally (Kameda). Moreover, there is a large gap in income between both Japanese males and females. SATC focuses on the lives of four high-income single professional women who live in New York