Geisha

Geisha

Outline

Claim: Unfold the secrets around Geishas who are considered prostitues for misguided opinions

I. Japanese family changes.

A. Japanese social changes.

B. Current Japanese social changes within the New Breed generation.

C. Women status in Japan today.

II. Japanese Marriages

A. Love Marriage.

B. Arranged Marriage.

C. Divorce.

III. Geisha! Who and What is She?

A. What are the talents of a geisha and what is her role in Japanese Society.

B. Geisha is more like an Escort rather than Hostess

C. Testimonies and evidences

I decided to write this term paper because I was curious about what a geisha actually was. I know most 'westerners' think them to be prostitutes, but to me that didn't seem to be the whole story. While they did strive to be 'kept women', they were also very skilled and cultured, who for the most part entertained men with dance, music, witty conversation and seduction of wealthy patrons. The word geisha does not mean 'prostitute' but 'artisan' or 'artist'. However, sexual intrigue is part of the job description, and available in some rituals. Studying and understanding the Japanese culture very carefully will help us in deciding whether the geisha ladies r prostitutes or not, since giving a positive answer wouldn't be easy to handle.

Every human society is based on the family. The family is the smallest and probably the most fundamental social institution in the human community. There are rules that define family membership, lineage and inheritance as well as codes of behavior among the members. In every society the principles and the norms exist, but the reality is reflected only partially. Historically, the family was the most encompassing agency of social welfare to individual members of the group. Health care, protection (from the hostile external environment), education and training for survival, amusement and entertainment, production and consumption had been the functions performed by the family before they were transferred to professional organizations such as government, school, hospital and medical service agencies and industry. In those days, individuals were literally born into the family and died in the family. Their lives were governed by rules that defined their position within the family that determined relationships among the family members and the non-family members of the society, which, as a result spelled out their proper behavior. The modern family still remains the most fundamental social institution in society. In fact, among the social and political institutions in society, the family is the institution which has been the most adaptive to change. It is here, so we can observe the strength and flexibility of the family. In order to understand the social life in Japan we should first know that there are a lot of changes within the family in Japan today. Wife and husband used to have very clear and specific roles within the family. Japanese men had the status of a moneymaker and the women had the position of "full-time" and " professional" housewife. Currently, those stereotypical roles are not as strict as before. The economy of Japan is considered to be one of those reasons. Today, in many cases, Japanese women have to work to financially support their family.

The "New Breed" generation was born in the early 1960s. The New Breed generation is the first generation in Japan to enjoy prosperity without being forced to work hard for it. Actually, they were the first to take advantage of the leisure class society that the Urban Seniors had built. Their Comfortable standards of living offered them more opportunities through consumption. In other words, they try to improve their image to the opposite sex by buying clothes, stereo equipment, and automobiles... also, the places to go and activities to do increased dramatically. They could meet in restaurants, department stores or have drinks in pubs. They have friends to play sports with, friends to go movies with, and friends they have more intimate conversations, with in other words their social life improved a lot, which was quite difficult to find before. New Breed Generation men and women began to feel that they could enjoy work more in mixed natural companies. They had many opportunities to follow their natural inclinations toward sex. Their world became very independent from the world of their parents. Eventually, their parents rarely interfered in their social life. And this lead to lifting the burden of the interventions of parents in their children's relationships and forcing them to accept arranged marriages. Now actually, New Breed men and women form sexual relationships without any intentions of getting married and that was impossible in the "earlier Japan" while now, they accepted relationships as a natural development and not arranged by their parents. (Fujwara, p.26)

Also, changes in women status had some major effects on the Japanese family and some major social changes. Today, women in Japan feel more and more free to express themselves and the relationship among the family members which increasingly became more democratic. She is now more equal to their partner than ever and that had a major effect on marriages because women became more liberated so they didn't fallow anymore the prestigious arranged marriages anymore. (Fujwara, p.36) Japanese children are being brought up with a close relationship with the mother and an absence of the father, women also expect their husbands to participate in household related tasks (e.g. going out with children during weekends, spending more free time with family). In this regard, Japanese women tend to be influenced by Western "equality for woman and man" within the family. (Wester, 1997, p.9)

As many may ignore, in Japan, there are two types of marriage: the so-called love marriage and the arranged marriage. The love marriage is the type we are familiar with, when the couple gets together without interventions of a third party or the parents. (Staff, 1988, p.38) As for the arranged marriage