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Womansword: What Japanese Words Say About Women
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"A very graceful, erudite job . . . extraordinarily revealing."—The New York Times
Thirty years after its first publication, Womansword remains a timely, provocative work on how words reflect female stereotypes in modern Japan. Short, lively essays offer linguistic, sociological, and historical insight into issues central to the lives of women everywhere: identity, girlhoo ...more
Thirty years after its first publication, Womansword remains a timely, provocative work on how words reflect female stereotypes in modern Japan. Short, lively essays offer linguistic, sociological, and historical insight into issues central to the lives of women everywhere: identity, girlhoo ...more
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Paperback, 176 pages
Published
December 13th 2016
by Stone Bridge Press
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Start your review of Womansword: What Japanese Words Say About Women
Jun 08, 2008
Melina
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
students of Japanese and people who like language
This was pretty cool. I read this in college. The book dissects the way Japanese words are written and gives you a short essay on each one. One of the more obvious examples is the Japanese word for "gossip" is the character for "woman" repeated three times. Get three chicks together and you know what's going to happen. Or, you might refer to your mother as "Honorable Bag."
Good stuff. ...more
Good stuff. ...more
If there is one thing that can be derived from this book, it is that Japanese is highly "interpretable" and therefore, at the mercy of linguists.
This is definitely one of those books that shouldn't have been re-printed without some sort of caveat: "This book was first printed 15 (now 20) years ago. As you might imagine, things have changed a bit."
The "packaging" of the book (colorful cover, small format, easy to read layout, modern look) is a bit of a deception. This is a book meant to be read f ...more
This is definitely one of those books that shouldn't have been re-printed without some sort of caveat: "This book was first printed 15 (now 20) years ago. As you might imagine, things have changed a bit."
The "packaging" of the book (colorful cover, small format, easy to read layout, modern look) is a bit of a deception. This is a book meant to be read f ...more
Apr 21, 2008
Rae
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
reading-language-poetry-essays
Although it is quite dated, this book is still a really intriguing look at Japanese words and culture that revolves solely around women and their lives. I quite enjoyed it.
I found this book to be interesting in part because I spent three years in Japan while serving in the US Air Force, studied Japanese language, met and married a Japanese woman. From that background, I was already aware that Japanese language has many different words for men and women to use that generally put the female in a lower position. This author provides a lot of these words including historical context that gives perspective of how words can culturally establish and reinforce class and s
...more
Clever and fascinating research on gender representation in the Japanese language. Personally, I should say, the situation is getting better with the young generation in Japanese society. My husband asked me not to call him "shujin" 主人 but just "otto" 夫. Hopefully, he will not call me "kanai" 家内, too :D
...more
No muchas novedades
Aunque se anuncia como nueva edición, las novedades son pocas y no se han actualizado los datos: las encuestas referidas a. Ada pasó son de los años 80. Lástima, porque el libro sigue siendo muy bueno.
Aunque se anuncia como nueva edición, las novedades son pocas y no se han actualizado los datos: las encuestas referidas a. Ada pasó son de los años 80. Lástima, porque el libro sigue siendo muy bueno.
Exploring a specific facet of society by exploring the language surrounding it is a fascinating approach, but like other anthropological research, it also has its drawbacks. One quibble I have is that the majority of the author's sources are 20-30 years old and although these remain valuable resources, and although in the updated introduction the author claims to not have found many recent valid sources, I find that somewhat hard to believe. This is the era of the internet where new terms are co
...more
A decent look at linguistic, cultural and traditional ties in words used to describe women and their lives. Unfortunately, much of it is outdated now, but for someone looking for insight into the modern evolution of female language in Japan it does its job.
Very interesting! Perhaps a bit dated. However, it makes you question the use of your own written and spoken language, and what it might say about gender equality in your nation.
An extremely interesting look at culturally-ingrained attitudes towards women through the lens of Japanese linguistics. It's essentially a time capsule of language with a brief "update" introduction. I was a little disappointed in the lack of rigor in the editing process though; I ran into numerous grammatical errors and missing or incorrect punctuation. It was so extensive that for me, it detracted from the actual content of the book. I would still recommend it as a fascinating, unique, and in-
...more
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“Psychologically, Japanese women depend largely on each other. In their sex-segregated society, they could be criticized for living in a female ghetto, and yet they have what some American feminists are trying to build, a ”women’s culture” with its own customs, values and even language.”
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“When [Japanese] women encouraged men to bask in public glory, it reminded me of the way you would indulge a child with a sweet-bean treat.”
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