Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology

Shigeko Okamoto is Professor Linguistics and Japanese in the Department of Linguistics, California State University, Fresno. Janet S. Shibamoto Smith is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Davis.

• Note on Naming Contributors Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith: Introduction Part I: Historical and Theoretical Foundations 1: Sumiyuki Yukawa and Masami Saito: Cultural Ideologies in Japanese Linguistics and Gender Studies: A Theoretical Studies 2: Shigeko Okamoto: Ideology in Linguistic Practice and Analysis: Gender and Politeness in Japanese Revisited 3: Miyako Inoue: Gender, Language, and Modernity: Toward an Effective History of "Japanese Women's Language" 4: Rumi Washi: "Japanese Female Speech" and Language Policy in the World War II Era 5: Wim Lunsing and Claire Maree: Shifting Speakers: Negotiating Reference in Relation to Sexuality and Gender Part II: Linguistic Ideologies and Cultural Models 6: Janet S. Shibamoto Smith: Language and Gender in the (Hetero)Romance: "Reading" the Ideal Hero/ine through Lovers' Dialogue in Japanese Romance Fiction 7: Momoko Nakamura: "Let's Dress a Little Girlishly!" or "Conquer Short Pants!" Constructing Gendered Communities in Fashion Magazines for Young People 8: Laura Miller: You Are Doing Burikko! Censoring/Scrutinizing Artificers of Cute Femininity in Japanese 9: Orie Endo, Janet S. Shibamoto Smith, Translator: Women and Words: The Status of Sexist Language in Japan as Seen through Contemporary Dictionary Definitions and Media Discourse Part III: Real Language, Real People 10: Yukako Sunaoshi: Farm Women's Professional Discourse in Ibaraki 11: Hideko Abe: Lesbian Bar Talk in Shinjuku, Tokyo 12: Yumiko Ohara: Prosody and Gender in Workplace Interaction: Exploring Constraints and Resources in the Use of Japanese 13: Yoshiko Matsumoto: Alternative Femininity: Personae of Middle-aged Mothers 14: Ayumi Miyazaki: Japanese Junior High School Girls' and Boys' First-Person Pronoun Use and Their Social World 15: Cindi Sturtz-Streetharam: Japanese Men's Linguistic Stereotypes and Realities: Conversations from the Kansai and Kanto Regions Index

Exciting... This book is an important and refreshing addition to the existing work on Japanese language and gender. It not only scrutinizes the language and gender topic from a newer and broader perspective but it also aims at and succeeds in showing the reader that Japanese language and gender research is a continuous dynamic rather than a sequence of unrelated stages. In addition to these, the book also introduces the reader to the work of a number of key Japanese scholars who have influenced the research on language and gender in Japan and put it on a sounder, more innovative track but whose work has not been readily available in English. ...fresh, interesting, and groundbreaking.