The Influence of Patriarchy on Otoko and Keiko's

THE INFLUENCE OF PATRIARCHY ON OTOKO AND KEIKO’S LESBIANISM IN KAWABATA’S BEAUTY AND SADNESS

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

ANGELA ASTRID S. C. A.

044214024

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2008 A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

THE INFLUENCE OF PATRIARCHY IN 20TH CENTURY JAPAN ON OTOKO AND KEIKO’S LESBIANISM IN KAWABATA’S BEAUTY AND SADNESS

ANGELA ASTRID S. C. A.

Student Number: 044214024

Approved by

Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani., S.S., M.Hum Date: Advisor

Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M.Hum Date: Co-Advisor

ii A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

THE INFLUENCE OF PATRIARCHY IN 20TH CENTURY JAPAN ON OTOKO AND KEIKO’S LESBIANISM IN KAWABATA’S BEAUTY AND SADNESS

ANGELA ASTRID S. C. A.

Student Number: 044214024

Defended before the Board of Examiners on September 27, 2008 and Declared Acceptable

BOARD OF EXAMINERS

Name Signature

Chairman : Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A. ______

Secretary : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M. Hum. ______

Member : Adventina Putranti S.S., M. Hum ______

Member : Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani., S.S., M.Hum ______

Member : Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M.Hum ______

Yogyakarta, September 27, 2008 Faculty of Letters Sanata Dharma University Dean

Dr. I. Praptomo Baryadi, M.Hum.

iii

Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long.....

We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious....

And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths

iv This thesis I dedicate to

my lovely parents

my brother and sister

and all of my friends

love you all

v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I give my deepest thanks to My Lord Jesus Christ for His guidance so that I could finish my thesis. Who always listen to my prayers, who bless me all the time, who never leave me alone. I believe He always give us the best for me in my entire life.

My deepest gratitude is for Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani.,S.S.,M.Hum, my Advisor, and also Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M.Hum as my Co-Advisor, who have guided me in writing this thesis. Thanks for the time and the chance that she has given to me. I also thank all lecturers of English Department for assisting me in going through the years of my study in Sanata Dharma University. Thanks to the Secretariat staff for giving me all the information that I need.

My deepest gratitude is also dedicated the most patient parents that I have ever known in the whole world F.X Yoseph Sumardi and Emerentiana Cicik G. who always guide me to be a better person and teach me precious values needed in my life. Thanks to my brother and sister with whom I share laughter and everything I need to face. To my best friends that I ever had, Dita, Intan, Nelly, Elin, Amel, Caca, Martha, Candra,

Wisnu, Rizka and the Selvita’s gangs and all of my friends in Sanata Dharma University for the wonderful friendship that we shared almost 4 years. I miss all of the nice moments that had happened.

God Bless you all.

ANGELA ASTRID STELLADIBA CINDY AYU

vi vii TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ……………………………………………………………….. i APPROVAL PAGE ………………………………………………………… ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE …………………………………………………….. iii MOTTO PAGE ……………………………………………………………... iv DEDICATION PAGE ………………………………………………………. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………… vi TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………… vii ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………… ix ABSTRAK ………………………………………………………………….. x

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ………………………………………….. 1 A. Background of the Study ……………………………………….. 1 B. Problem Formulation …………………………………………… 4 C. Objectives of the Study …………………………………………. 4 D. Definition of Terms ……………………………………………... 5

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW ………………………………… 8 A. Review on Related Studies ……………………………………… 8 B. Review on Related Theories ……………………………………. 12 C. Theoretical Framework …………………………………………. 19

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ………………………………………... 20 A. Object of the Study ……………………………………………… 20 B. Approach of the Study …………………………………………... 21 C. Method of the Study …………………………………………….. 23

CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS ………………………………………………… 25 A. The aspects of patriarchy in the novel ..…………………………… 25 1. Patriarchal Mode of Production ………………………………… 25 2. Male Violence …………………………………………………… 28 3. Relations in Sexuality …………………………………………… 29 4. Patriarchal State ………………………………………………… 33 5. Patriarchal Culture ……………………………………………… 35 B. The forms of oppression experienced by Otoko and Keiko ..……… 37 1. Oppression through Education ..………………………………… 38 2. Oppression through Love ..……………………………………… 40 3. Oppression through Physical Dependence ……………………… 42 4. Oppression through Stereotype of Women ……………………… 43 5. Oppression through Sexual or Physical Violence ..……………… 45

viii C. The influence of patriarchal oppression on Otoko and Keiko’s lesbianism …………………………………………………………… 47

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ………………………………………………. 58

BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………. 64

ix ABSTRACT

ANGELA ASTRID S.C.A. (2008). The Influence of Patriarchy in 20th Century Japan on Otoko and Keiko’s Lesbianism in Kawabata’s Beauty and Sadness. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.

A society shapes the life of each individual who is a member of that society in different ways. There are many factors that determine how a society influences an individual. One of them is gender; men’s experience in a society is naturally different from women’s experience in the same society. The work under discussion is a novel entitled Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata, which is set in early twentieth century Japan. The novel features Otoko and Keiko, a lesbian couple, as the major female characters. This undergraduate thesis aims to examine how patriarchy in the society around them influences their lives and their sexual orientation as lesbians. Three problems are formulated in this thesis. The first problem examines the aspects of patriarchy portrayed in the novel. The second problem examines the forms of oppression experienced by the characters Otoko and Keiko under patriarchal society. The third problem examines how patriarchal oppression on Otoko and Keiko as women influences their sexual orientation as lesbians. Library research method is applied to conduct this study. The primary data is obtained from Kawabata’s Beauty and Sadness. The secondary data are collected from books, theses and articles on the Internet. Theories used in this study are Walby’s theory on patriarchy, Firestone’s theory on manifestation of patriarchy in society, Dworkin’s theory on patriarchal strategies to perpetuate their oppression, Giddens’ theory on sexual orientation and Rich’s theory on lesbian existence. Feminism is used as the approach because this study discusses Otoko and Keiko’s position and experience in the society due to their sex as women, as well as the result of their position and experience. As a result of the analysis, the writer found several aspects of patriarchy in the society as portrayed in the novel, which can be classified as patriarchal mode of production, male violence, unequal relations in sexuality, patriarchal state and patriarchal culture. Otoko and Keiko experience some forms of oppression in the patriarchal society, namely oppression through education, oppression through love, oppression through physical dependence toward men, oppression through stereotype of women as a beautiful physical object or a mother figure, and oppression through sexual or physical violence. Starting out as heterosexuals, Otoko and Keiko only developed their lesbian relationship after they started living together, initially as teacher and pupil. However, as lesbians, they can get opportunities and experience that they cannot otherwise get under patriarchal oppression, namely an equal life partner, lover, co- worker and community. Thus, patriarchal oppression functions as one of the psychological, social and cultural factors which triggers Otoko and Keiko’s transition into lesbianism.

x ABSTRAK

ANGELA ASTRID S.C.A. (2008). The Influence of Patriarchy in 20th Century Japan on Otoko and Keiko’s Lesbianism in Kawabata’s Beauty and Sadness. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Suatu masyarakat membentuk kehidupan masing-masing anggotanya dengan cara yang berbeda-beda. Ada banyak faktor yang menentukan bagaimana suatu masyarakat mepengaruhi setiap individu. Salah satunya ialah jenis kelamin; pria tentu memiliki pengalaman yang bereda dari wanita, walaupun mereka hidup di masyarakat yang sama. Karya sastra yang diulas dalam skripsi ini ialah novel berjudul Beauty and Sadness karya Yasunari Kawabata, yang bertempat di Jepang pada awal abad duapuluh. Novel ini menampilkan Otoko dan Keiko, sepasang lesbian, sebagai tokoh utama wanita. Skripsi ini membahas bagaimana patriarki dalam masyarakat di sekitar kedua tokoh tersebut mempengaruhi kehidupan dan orientasi seksual mereka sebagai lesbian. Tiga pertanyaan dirumuskan dalam skripsi ini. Pertanyaan pertama membahas aspek-aspek patriarki yang ditampilkan dalam novel ini. Pertanyaan kedua membahas bentuk-bentuk penindasan yang dialami Otoko dan Keiko dalam masyarakat berpaham patriarki. Pertanyaan ketiga membahas pengaruh penindasan patriarki terhadap orientasi seksual Otoko dan Keiko sebagai lesbian. Penulis menggunakan metode studi pustaka untuk menyelesaikan Studi ini. Data utama berasal dari novel Beauty and Sadness karya Kawabata sedangkan data tambahan diambil dari berbagai buku, skripsi, serta artikel di Internet.Teori-teori yang digunakan ialah teori tentang patriarki oleh Walby, teori tentang perwujudan patriarki di masyarakat oleh Firestone, teori tentang strategi patriarki dalam melangsungkan penindasan oleh Dworkin, teori tentang orientasi seksual oleh Giddens, dan teori tentang lesbian oleh Rich. Pendekatan feminisme digunakan karena isi skripsi ini berkaitan dengan posisi dan pengalaman tokoh-tokoh novel ini dalam masyarakat yang bersumber dari jenis kelamin mereka. Sebagai hasil analisis, penulis menemukan beberapa aspek patriarki dalam masyarakat yang ditampilkan di novel ini, yang secara garis besar dapat digolongkan sebagai mode produksi berpaham patriarki, kekerasan oleh pria, hubungan yang tak setara dalam seksualitas, negara berpaham patriarki, dan budaya berpaham patriarki. Otoko dan Keiko mengalami beberapa bentuk penindasan dalam masyarakat berpaham patriarki, yakni penindasan melalui penindakan, penindasan melalui cinta, penindasan melalui stereotip wanita sebagai benda yang indah maupun sebagai tokoh ibu, serta penindasan melalui kekerasan seksual atau fisik. Otoko dan Keiko awalnya adalah heteroseksual. Mereka baru mulai menjalin hubungan sebagai lesbian setelah tinggal bersama sebagai guru dan murid. Namun, sebagai lesbian mereka memperoleh kesempatan dan pengalaman yang tak dapat mereka peroleh di bawah penindasan patriarki, yaitu adanya partner hidup, kekasih, rekan kerja dan komunitas yang setara. Penindasan patriarki berfungsi sebagai salah satu faktor psikologis, sosial dan budaya yang mendorong perubahan orientasi seksual Otoko dan Keiko menjadi lesbian.

xi CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Scholars as far back as Plato had conceived the nature of literature as an imitation of life (http://www.rowan.edu/philosop/cloenwy/Aesthetics/philos_ artists_onart/plato.htm). To put it more specifically, Wellek dan Warren see literature as a social institution representing social reality:

Literature is a social institution using the medium language which represents ‘life’ and ‘life’ is a social reality even though the natural world and the inner or subjective world of the individual have also been objects of literary imitation (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 94).

According to Langland, the society in a literary work is “not only a concept and a construct in fiction, but also in life”, which can be revealed “through human relationships, through the characters’ patterned interactions and their common expectations of one another” (1984: 6). Based on those ideas, all events in a literary work are a representation of phenomenon in real life (whether as a social reality or an individual’s subjectivity), and thus cannot be separated from various factors, causes and effects.

The novel Beauty and Sadness (Utsukushisa-to Kanashimi-to) was written by Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata and was first published in 1965. It is one of Kawabata’s last novels before his suicide death in 1972

(http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kawabata.htm). In his article for Virginia Quarterly

Review, Daniel Weiss describes it as having “that curiously haunting quality

1 2

which is almost a Kawabata signature”. Christopher Fulton calls the novel a

“timeless prose,” in which everything “is either sad or beautiful” (1985).

The novel contains many challenging issues, such as sex with underage child, exploitation, psychological problems, adultery, lesbianism, suicide attempt, and possibly homicide attempt. However, its portrayal of lesbianism through the couple Otoko and Keiko is particularly interesting, especially seen in the context of the novel’s time and place setting, namely Japan in the 1960’s.

Homosexuality (gay and lesbianism) has been existing for centuries in

Japan, but until the late 20th century, it was not accepted in Japanese culture. Any homosexual practice or feeling had to be disguised, for example through cross- dressing in entertainment field. According to James Welker, in the 1960s lesbianism was confined to the bar scene, which was “occupied by and tailored to the heterosexual majority”; during the 1970s to the 1990s, lesbianism began to emerge in the general Japanese society through activist organizations (2002: 122-

125). According to Erin Subramian, in the field of literature, apart from Yoshiya

Nobuko’s romance Yaneura no Nishojo in 1920, there was no considerable

Japanese literary work about lesbians until the 1990s. Until now, many people in

Japan still regard lesbianism as perverted, abnormal, or oversexed (Hattori in http://www.yuricon.org/essays/women_loving_women.html).

Therefore, with such literary tradition and society’s mindset of his time, it is remarkable that Kawabata wrote about lesbians exactly as ordinary human beings. The description of Otoko and Keiko as lesbians is not explicitly pornographic or only concerned with sexual intercourse, either. They have 3

conversations, disagreements, even discussion about their work as painters. In brief, the lesbian characters in this novel are portrayed as people, who are capable of feeling and are influenced by their past life, just like any other people.

On the other hand, this novel is also a portrayal of women in men’s world: the main character of the story is a man, Oki Toshio. The story begins with Oki’s observation, musings, and memories in the train. Although the story is told from omniscient third-person point of view, the story is centered on Oki’s life. Not only his old lover and affairs, his family (wife and children) is also featured prominently. A lot is mentioned about Otoko’s past, but mostly it is related to her affair with Oki (and its aftermath). Kawabata, the author of the novel, is a man himself. The society in which the story is set is a society that favours men; a society where a married man can make a young girl pregnant and get away with it, even gain personal benefit from it with the society’s approval (Kawabata, 1975:

30-31).

To take the notion further, such society is a reflection of the real-life society, in which women all over the world are “relegated to a secondary position” (Guerin, et al., 1999: 196). Suganuma argues that “not only lesbians but

Japanese women in general are denied the subjectivity necessary to own their bodies and desires,” and one of the causes of women’s lack of sexual subjectivity arises from society’s patriarchal structure. Indeed, in Japan as well as many other places, the society as well as families are governed by men, which matches

Hawthorn’s definition of patriarchy as “government by men –either within the 4

family or in the society at large– with authority descending through the father”

(1992: 127).

Therefore, considering the aesthetic quality of the novel, the intriguing aspect of the story, in relation with the society and setting depicted there and the relevance to real life issues, the writer finds it interesting to conduct a study to examine the relation between the two female characters’ lesbianism and the patriarchal society around them. To be precise, the writer wants to discuss how patriarchy in the time, place, and society in which the story is set affects the lives of those characters, and eventually their sexual orientation as lesbians, either directly or indirectly, partially or completely.

B. Problem Formulation

In order to guide and limit the subjects under discussion, the research questions are formulated as follows:

1. What aspects of patriarchy are portrayed in Kawabata’s Beauty and

Sadness?

2. What are the forms of oppression experienced by the characters Otoko and

Keiko under patriarchal society?

3. What is the influence of the patriarchal oppression on Otoko and Keiko’s

lesbianism?

C. Objectives of the Study

This study aims to answer the research questions formulated above. The first objective of the study is to identify the aspects of patriarchy as portrayed in 5

the novel; the second objective is to identify the influence of patriarchy experienced by Otoko and Keiko, and the third objective is to discover the influence of the patriarchal oppression on Otoko and Keiko’s lesbianism.

D. Definition of Terms

To avoid misunderstanding regarding the terms used in this thesis, in this part the writer provides definition of some key terms based on relevant printed and online references.

1. Patriarchy

According to Humm, patriarchy is “a system of male authority which oppresses women through its social, political, and economic institutions” (1992:

408), while Andersen views patriarchy as “institutionalized power relationships that give men power over women” (1997: 384). Thus, a patriarchal culture is a culture that is “organized in favor of the interests of men” (Guerin, et al, 1999:

196).

As proposed in Humm’s definition, the practices of patriarchy occur in various spheres of life, such as social, politics, economy, and sexual relation; according to Andersen, as a sexual system, patriarchy is “a system of power in which the male possesses superior power and economic privilege” (1997: 356).

Such condition can continue because men have greater access to and privilege over “the resources and rewards of authority structures inside and outside the home” (Humm, 1992: 408), therefore perpetuating women’s disadvantaged position. 6

2. Lesbianism

Encyclopædia Britannica Online defines lesbianism as “the quality or state of intense emotional and usually erotic attraction of a woman to another woman”

(http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9384264). However, lesbianism does not always refer to erotic or sexual activity. According to Bonnie Zimmerman (in

Guerin, et al., 1999: 211) lesbianism is “a kind of relationship in which two women's strongest feelings and affections are directed toward each other”, which may or may not include sexual contact. Therefore, lesbianism refers to the most intimate bond between two women, whether sexual, emotional, or both.

3. Feminism

In her book Feminisms: A Reader, Humm defines feminism as “a doctrine of equal rights for women (the organized movement to attain women's right) and an ideology of social transformation aiming to create a world for women beyond simple social equality” (1992: 406). Likewise, Goodman defines feminism as “a recognition of the historical and cultural subordination of women … and a resolve to do something about it” (1996: x). Despite its diversity, feminism is “concerned with the marginalization of all women” into secondary position (Guerin, et al.,

1999: 196). Therefore, basically feminism refers to a way of thinking that women are treated unfairly because of their sex, and a movement to overcome and act against such unfair treatment.

4. Lesbian-feminism

Lesbian feminism is one of the various strains which developed from feminism; it emerged in the 1980s as “a kind of annexe of feminist criticism”

(Barry, 2002: 141). It is a belief in which women identify with fellow women, commit themselves together for political, sexual and economic support, as opposed to the male-female relations which oppress the females (Humm, 1992:

407). According to Barry, based on lesbian feminist position, lesbianism shows resistance to existing forms of social relations and radically reorganizes those relations, since it turns away from involvement with patriarchal exploitation and consists of relationships among women (2002: 141).

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review on Related Studies

Several studies have been made about the work, the author, and the topic discussed in this thesis. Here are some of the studies related to the work (the novel

Beauty and Sadness), the author (Yasunari Kawabata), and the topic (lesbianism in Japan).

The first study is an undergraduate thesis by Linangkung Sri Indarsih, entitled “Revealing Messages through the Characters in Yasunari Kawabata’s

Beauty and Sadness”. This study examines the major characters, their view about love, and the messages revealed through them. The characters have different views about love. Otoko views love as “a sacrifice” (Indarsih, 2007: 50), so she did not complain when Oki took away her virginity, made her pregnant, and left her without marrying her. As a possessive person, Keiko views love as an obsession. Oki views love as “passion and money” (Indarsih, 2007: 51); the passion comes from Otoko’s youth and beauty, and the money comes from writing about his experience with Otoko.

Also, the author conveys his message indirectly through the characters.

According to Indarsih, this story has three messages. First, mothers have an important role in their children’s life, as demonstrated by Otoko’s mother.

[…] only mother who can understand her child feeling. A mother always wants to be the only place for her child to share when there is no one she want to talk to. A mother always gives the best for her child, because her happiness is when her child feels happy in her life. There is no one can be better as a mother (Indarsih, 2007: 54).

8 9

Oki lives happily (gets money and fame) after writing about his experience with

Otoko, while Otoko suffers from that experience. Keiko, Otoko’s pupil, decides to do revenge out of hatred, and Oki loses his son as the result. Thus, the other messages are: hatred always brings sadness, and never feel happy on other’s suffering.

The second study is an article published in the Hudson Review in Autumn

2006, entitled “The Tyranny of Beauty: Kawabata”. Here, Brian Phillips discusses

Kawabata’s works in general, using examples from several novels: The Lake,

Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, The Sound of the Mountain, Beauty and

Sadness. Phillips discovers some common aspects in the protagonists in some of

Kawabata’s works. They are men whose minds are full of memories and dreams.

They travel somewhere and often have relationship with a young woman. They share some qualities: “moral weakness, extreme perception of beauty, the sense that other people have only a phantom existence” (Phillips, 2006).

“Beauty” and “sadness” are constant elements which go together in

Kawabata’s works. Despite the “deep, strange, penetrating beauty” of Kawabata’s works, they do not merely present beauty, but also the darker side as its consequence:

And yet Kawabata is an important writer—important not only in Japanese literature, but in literature. His brief, sad, fragile and unbalanced books, far from presenting mere fumes of prettiness, are continuously surprising, often intensely unsettling; at their best they are unequaled in portraying the psychic cost of aesthetic pleasure, the deadening of sympathy and sense in minds highly susceptible to beauty (Phillips, 2006).

According to Phillips, the characters in Kawabata’s works are affected and lured by beauty until they lose their ability to act, perceive the world, and love or understand the people in their lives. They withdraw to an “unreal aesthetic world”, which “comes at a large human cost” when faced with reality. In conclusion, the beauty that moves the reader is “the same power that has made the characters cold or cruel or desperate”.

The third study is an article entitled “Women-loving Women in Modern

Japan” by Erin Subramian. This article discusses the development of lesbianism

(defined as female-female sexual and romantic relations) in Japanese society.

Historically, until the first half of the 20th century, “homosexual desire was seen as a mental illness”. It was therefore disguised, for example through Takarazuka

Revue, a musical play with all-female performers, half of whom dressed as men and played male roles, while the other half dressed as women. There were also clubs and bars with onabe (women dressed as men) bartenders. An extreme solution was “lesbian double suicide,” which occurred several times at that period.

It even accounted for “around thirty percent of all suicides between 1932 and

1935”. In the 1980s, homosexual-related activism and movements began. The first

Japanese homosexual organization JILGA (Japan International Lesbian and Gay

Association) was founded, followed by other similar organizations, including lesbian-only organizations. Now there are also parades and weekend gatherings which accommodate lesbian community.

However, outside the field of political and social movements, lesbians still have negative image among the general Japanese society until now. It is mostly 11

caused by stereotypes of lesbians in the mass media and pornography as sex- obsessed women. According to Ayako Hattori’s “Lesbian Feminism in Japan” as quoted in Subramian’s article, many people see lesbianism as something alien, identical with abnormality:

Homosexuality is often linked either to pornography or to the West; Japanese are hesitant to believe that homosexuals can be “normal” Japanese people. (in Subramian, http://www.yuricon.org/essays/women_loving_women.html)

Another obstacle faced by lesbians in Japan comes from financial problems.

Women’s incomes are often lower than men’s, so many lesbians have difficulties to live together.

This thesis uses some of the ideas from the studies above, for example the role of mother, Oki’s happiness and Otoko’s sacrifice and suffering as described in Indarsih’s thesis, the concept of beauty which makes people cold or cruel from

Phillips’ article, and lesbians’ problems and position in society from Subramian’s article. However, this thesis develops those ideas from a new point of view, with the focus on patriarchal society and the characters’ lesbianism. This thesis also discovers something new, namely the relation between the characters’ experience, feelings, even sexual orientation, with the condition in their patriarchal society.

Basically, this thesis differs from the other studies in its point of view and focus; this thesis closely examines lesbianism and patriarchy and tries to discover the relation between those things.

B. Review on Related Theories

1. Theory on Patriarchy

There are many theories on patriarchy, which cover a wide range of subjects. One of them is Walby’s theory from her book Theorizing Patriarchy.

Walby defines patriarchy as “a system of social structures, and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women” (1990: 20). Walby defines a model of six aspects, or structures, of patriarchy, which consist of:

a patriarchal mode of production in which women’s labour is expropriated by their husbands; patriarchal relations within waged labour; the patriarchal state; male violence; patriarchal relations in sexuality; and patriarchal culture (Walby in Acker, 2005: 43).

In a patriarchal mode of production, the wives’ domestic labour is exploited by their husbands without any payment. Patriarchal relations within waged labour refers to the different treatment experienced by male and female workers in the workforce. For example, female workers are often paid lower than male workers at the same position, or female workers cannot reach higher positions in the office. The patriarchal state refers to either the government or the laws produced by the government, which often give more advantage to men or put women in a disadvantaged position. Violence acts done by men to women, due to men’s superior physical strength compared to women, can serve to keep women under control. Indirectly, the threat of male violence also intimidates women not to fight against the laws or conventions in the society. Patriarchal relations in sexuality refers to the different ways men and women regard sexuality and the different positions occupied by men and women in a sexual relation, namely men in a superior position and women in an inferior position. Patriarchal culture refers 13

to any idea or practice instilled in the society, which regards women differently from men and disadvantages women. For example, the idealization of women as

“the fair sex”, which also limits their capacity to their physical appearance

(Walby, 1990: 20-24).

Each of those aspects is comprised of its own system or subsystem, with its own means of reproduction of domination and exploitation. As discussed by

Ferguson in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

(http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-class), Walby divides the aspects of patriarchy into two spheres: public and private. The private (household) sphere consists of three aspects: mode of production, sexuality, and violence by male.

The public sphere consists of three other aspects: relation within waged labour, the state, and culture. Different strategies are used in each structure and each sphere. In the private sphere, for example, exclusionary strategy is used.

Exclusionary means the women are “oppressed on a personal and individual basis”, done by individual male patriarch, namely the breadwinner of the household. In the public sphere, segregationist strategy is used. Public structures like those cannot “oppress individual women or exclude them directly”, so the main focus is to control women's access to public arenas, and maintain gender differences. In practice, all six structures of patriarchy have different forms and relationship, but they are related one another, and work together towards the same goal, namely the subordination of women as well as “supporting, reflecting and maintaining patriarchy itself” in general

(http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-class). 14

2. Radical Feminist Perspective on Patriarchy’s Manifestation in Society

According to radical feminist perspective, gender is a fundamental system which is constructed in the patriarchal society. In this gender system, humans are classed based on their biological sexual difference; men are the oppressor class, while women are the oppressed class (Madsen, 2000: 152). Gender oppression is

“the most fundamental form of oppression” and becomes the foundation for further oppressions, such as economic and cultural opporession. Thus, all meanings within society are determined in terms of men’s sexuality as the dominant group (2000: 153-154).

As discussed in Madsen’s book Feminist Theory and Literary Practice,

Shulamith Firestone argues about the manifestation of patriarchy in society: first is the “education” of women and children

to accept their place in a lower class, a ridigly segregated class modelled upon the sexual class that is ‘woman’, through the twin mythologies of femininity and childhood (2000: 158).

Due to such process of education, the women regard their subordination to a lower level as a normal thing, as part of the nature. Second is love as a “political force for unequal power relations”. According to Firestone, men and women comprehend and practice love and romance very differently:

men idealise, mystify and glorify the individual women with whom they fall in love in order to obscure her inferior class status; women, in contrast, pursue the male love and approval that will raise her up from her subordinate class position and validate her existence (2000: 159).

As we can see in the quotation above, men view love as a recreational, idealistic action to people in lower position, while women view love as a way to make her position higher (by associating with men). Finally, the separation of women as the 15

oppressed class results in “physical and economic dependence” (2000: 158) and

“gendered divisions of culture as well” (2000: 159).

Another writer, Andrea Dworkin, discusses about strategies taken by patriarchal society to perpetuate their oppression: firstly, by promoting the

“stereotype of women as conservative, home-bound, and nurturing” (Madsen,

2000: 160). Thus, women are, in a way, forced to “conform in their social behaviour to this paradigm” (2000: 161). Madsen calls it “the objectification of women” or “the creation of cultural artefacts from women’s bodies” (2000: 155).

Secondly, through male violence, either sexual or physical. Women who oppose or do not conform to patriarchal values face the threat of violence from men. It can range from rough physical violence like “rape, wife beating, forced childbearing, medical butchering, sex-motivated murder”, to indirect violence like

“destitution, ostracism, confinement in a mental institution or gaol” (2000: 161).

For example, women are confined in when and where they can go, or what clothes they can wear. If they do not conform to that confinement, they might be abused by men, and it will be seen as their responsibility. In addition, the women’s rights to contraception and abortion are also restricted.

3. Giddens’ Theory on Sexual Orientation

According to Anthony Giddens in his book Sociology, The American

Psychological Association defines sexual orientation is “an enduring emotional, romantic, sexual or affectional attraction to another person” (in Giddens, 2006:

652). In general, human beings have one of three sexual orientations: attraction to individuals of the opposite sex is described as heterosexual; attraction to 16

individuals of the same sex is described as homosexual; attraction to either sex is described as bisexual. According to Giddens, human beings’ sexual orientation is formed by the combination of several factors:

Sexual orientation derives from a complex interplay of biological, psychological, social and cultural factors (2006: 655).

Biological factor refers to the inherent physical traits, such as genes, the brain, and hormones that help determine an individual’s sexual orientation. For example, there have been researches that show “neurochemical and neurophysiological differences between individuals of different sexual orientations” (2006: 655). Meanwhile, according to Bailey and Pillard in 1991’s

Archives of General Psychiatry (in Giddens, 2006: 655-656), studies conducted at

Northwestern University and Boston University suggest a strong genetic component for sexual orientation. If an individual is homosexual, his or her twin sibling has a bigger chance of being homosexual as well, especially for monozygotic twins. Thus, considering this biological factor, an individual might be homosexual since birth.

Psychological factor refers to “the self-esteem and psychological well- being” (2006: 655) of the individuals related to their sexual orientation. If an individual can successfully integrates his or her sexual orientation into other aspects of his or her life, it will be good for his or her mental health (2006: 656).

Homosexuality is also often related to psychoanalytic theories, which usually focus on the role of parents and family, but not the society as a whole.

The social and cultural factors refer to various elements outside an individual, which help determine his or her sexual orientation. From the viewpoint 17

of social and cultural factors, sexual orientation “emerges from a conscious or unconscious training regimen” which is imposed by “parents, teachers, peers, and society in general” (Giddens, 2006: 657). For example, the way a child is raised at home may affect his or her sexual orientation when he or she reaches adolescence, sexual crimes may alter the victims’ sexual orientation, and so on. Thus, these factors may influence human beings’ sexual orientation at any age.

Besides, Giddens discusses lesbianism specifically. According to Giddens, lesbianism often gets less attention than male homosexuality, for example in studies and researches. On the other hand, lesbianism “may be simply a sexual preference”, but it also functions as a political choice more than male homosexuality. Lesbianism is associated with feminist movement and feminist groups, with the aim “to establish female solidarity and a woman-centred culture and life-style” (2006: 673).

4. Rich’s Theory on Lesbian Existence

According to Adrienne Rich in her essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence”, one of the strategies to control feminine sexuality is through what she calls “compulsory heterosexuality”:

the most fundamental form of oppression experienced by women is heterosexually and specifically this enforced, compulsory heterosexuality (Madsen, 2000: 170).

It is the assumption that women are naturally attracted to men (2000: 171); that

“sexuality” refers to male sexuality, with feminine sexuality as the “variant (or deviant)”; masculine heterosexuality is the norm, and feminine heterosexuality is the complement (2000: 154). Male dominance or authority is represented as 18

“sexually arousing”, and “the ‘erotic’ is defined in terms of masculine power”

(2000: 155). On the other hand, women are trained culturally to romanticise their submission to men. The example is the pornographic images which present women as “natural sexual prey to men” who love being victimized; which implies that “sexuality and violence are congruent” (2000: 171). Thus, the reform of discriminatory laws is not enough to end the oppression, because women’s sexuality is still controlled by men. The power imbalance between men and women will keep occurring.

Meanwhile, Rich argues that “all women are originally female-identified”, since the original love object for children, both male and female, is the mother.

During the process of “becoming a woman” in patriarchal society, a woman also undergoes the process of becoming heterosexual, or male-identified. Actually, according to Rich, women have their own experience, values and culture, which are very different from patriarchal heterosexual culture. Women’s unique experience, values and culture are often rendered invisible and marginal, even taboo (Madsen, 2000: 171).

According to Rich, lesbianism is “a kind of feminist separatism” which comprise elements such as: the participation of all women in the woman- identified experience called ‘lesbian continuum’, which can be found in every woman’s emotional being; the erotic as the sharing of joy among women; women’s choice of women as “passionate comrades, life partners, co-workers, lovers, community” (in Madsen, 2000: 170-171). Physical sexual lesbianism is regarded only as an additional experience, which Rich terms “lesbian experience”, 19

as an addition to the cultural and historical lesbian continuum. Through those ways, lesbian existence challenges male power’s strategies.

C. Theoretical Framework

This part will discuss the contribution of the above theories and reviews in solving the problems. Walby’s theory on structures of patriarchy is used to answer the first question, namely to identify the aspects of patriarchy portrayed in the novel. The writer will identify aspects of patriarchy in the novel based on Walby’s model of six structures of patriarchy. Then, Madsen, Firestone, and Dworkin’s radical feminist perspective on the manifestation of patriarchy in society is used to answer the second question, namely to identify the forms of oppression experienced by Otoko and Keiko under patriarchal society. By applying the theory about the manifestation of patriarchy and patriarchal society’s strategies to maintain its dominance, the writer can discover Otoko and Keiko’s experience under a patriarchal culture. For the last question, Giddens’ theory on sexual orientation is used to identify the influence of patriarchal oppression on Otoko and

Keiko’s lesbianism, along with Rich’s theory on lesbian existence, which functions to support the discussion on Otoko and Keiko’s lesbianism. Meanwhile, the related studies are used to provide more insight and information about the topic and the work. CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

The object of this study is a literary work entitled Beauty and Sadness, written by Yasunari Kawabata. The novel was written in Japanese, entitled

Utsukushisa-to Kanashimi-to, and was translated to English by Howard Scott

Hibbett. It was first published in 1965 by Chuo Koronsha, Tokyo. For this study, the writer uses the edition published by Tuttle Publishing, which was printed in

2000. The novel consists of 206 pages, which are divided into nine chapters.

According to Pegasos website (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kawabata.htm), the novel has been adapted into films twice: first in 1965, directed by Masahiro

Shinoda, and then in 1985, directed by Joy Fleury. Additionally, the author,

Yasunari Kawabata, was the first Japanese novelist to win the Nobel Prize for

Literature in 1968 “for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind,” according to the Nobel Foundation official website (http://nobelprize.org/nobelfoundation/publications/lectures/WSC

/lit-68-80.html).

The type of work is a novel, which Van de Laar and Schoonderwoerd define as a relatively long invented narrative in prose or “a work of art in so far as it introduces us into a living world, in some respects resembling the world we live in, but with an individuality of its own” (1963: 162-163). The story is presented from omniscient third-person point of view.

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The novel is about Oki Toshio’s reunion with his ex-lover, Ueno Otoko.

Twenty years ago, Oki, a writer who was already married, had a love affair with a schoolgirl named Otoko. Oki was thirty years old and Otoko was fifteen years old then. Otoko got pregnant but the baby died after birth. The baby’s death gave

Otoko a serious psychological trauma; she became suicidal and had to be hospitalized. Oki stopped meeting Otoko and went on with his life and family.

Otoko’s mother brought Otoko to move to another city, Kyoto. Soon, Oki wrote a novel about their affair, complete with all details. The novel became Oki’s best work, both from the financial profit and the critical acclaim. Presently, Oki wants to see Otoko again, and uses New Year’s Eve event as a reason to meet her. Now

Otoko works as a painter and lives with her young pupil, Keiko. They have a sort of lesbian relationship, but Otoko can never completely forget Oki and her dead baby. Keiko wants to do revenge on Oki for causing Otoko endless misery, by seducing both Oki and his son, Taichiro.

B. Approach of the Study

This study uses feminist approach, which essentially is a literary criticism approach based on the ideas of feminism movement (Barry, 2002: 121). Feminism emerged as a reaction to the condition in society, where women are considered inferior to men. As a category, women are considered as a deviant category as opposed to men as the standard category; the existence of women is defined and interpreted by the male-centered society. It was in response to such condition that feminism emerged, as discussed in Bressler’s Literary Criticism (1999: 188). In

other words, the feminism movement includes “a recognition of the historical and cultural subordination of women … and a resolve to do something about it”

(Goodman, 1996: x).

Feminist literary approach is very diverse. Feminist approach recognizes many divisions, in geography (American, English, and French feminist approach) as well as in affiliation with other fields of study (psychoanalysis, Marxist, cultural studies, eco-feminism). Thus, there are many kinds of feminist approach, each with its own ideas and focus. However, all kinds of feminist approach share some common characteristics: they have a collective identity as women who try to achieve their rights and discover themselves, with the aim to understand and define themselves as women (Bressler, 1999: 188), they are concerned with the marginalization of all women and examines women’s experience “from all races and classes and cultures” (Guerin, et al., 1999: 196-197).

In his book Beginning Theory, Barry (2002: 134) lists some practices of the feminist approach, such as: analyzing images of the female body as presented in the text, analyzing cultural forces (for example the value of women's roles in a society) and how the society shapes a woman's understanding of herself and her world, and discovering a specific female language. This study focuses on the second practice, namely the cultural forces and the society’s impact on women.

This approach is used because it is the most relevant approach to the work and topic under discussion: the characters are women, and this study is discussing the characters’ position, and consequently their way of life, in the society due to their gender. Thus, this approach is suitable to answer the problem formulation.

C. Method of the Study

Library research is applied as the method of this study, since the data is obtained from books and texts which are related to the topic and work under discussion. The primary data is the novel Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari

Kawabata, while the secondary data is collected from relevant books, academic writings, and articles from the Internet.

The review of related studies are taken from Indarsih’s undergraduate thesis entitled “Revealing Messages through the Characters in Yasunari

Kawabata’s Beauty and Sadness”, Phillips’ article in the Hudson Review entitled

“The Tyranny of Beauty: Kawabata”, and Subramian’s article entitled “Women- loving Women in Modern Japan”. The theories used in this study are Walby’s theory on patriarchy, radical feminist perspective on patriarchy, to be precise

Firestone’s theory on the manifestation of patriarchy in society and Dworkin’s theory on patriarchal society’s strategies to perpetuate their oppression, Giddens’ theory on the factors which sexual orientation derives from, and Rich’s theory on lesbian existence. Besides, this study also uses several additional resources as the reference, such as Wellek and Warren’s view on literature, Humm’s definitions on patriarchy, feminism, and lesbian feminism, Barry and Bressler’s view on literary approach, especially feminist approach.

Several steps are taken to conduct this study. Firstly, the writer reads and understands the work under discussion, namely Kawabata’ Beauty and Sadness.

Secondly, the writer tries to find the topic, and then formulate the problems in the form of questions. Three questions are raised in the problem formulation, concerning the structures of patriarchy found in the novel, the forms of oppression experienced by the characters under patriarchal culture, and the influence of the patriarchal oppression on the characters’ lesbianism. Then, the writer finds the references, such as theories, related studies, approach, and definitions, which can help the writer to answer the questions. Lastly, the writer writes down the study and answers the questions systematically.

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

In this chapter, the writer will answer the research questions formulated in the first chapter. The discussion is divided into three parts. The first part will identify the aspects of patriarchy portrayed in Kawabata’s Beauty and Sadness, the second part will identify the forms of oppression experienced by Otoko and

Keiko under patriarchal society, and the third part will discover the form of their lesbianism, as influenced by their experience under patriarchal society.

A. The aspects of patriarchy in the novel

This part analyzes the aspects of patriarchy in the novel, which are classified based on Walby’s model of structures of patriarchy. This thesis only discusses five out of six structures of patriarchy outlined by Walby because the sixth structure, namely patriarchal relations within waged labour, cannot be found in the novel. The significance of this question is to determine whether patriarchy exists in the society described in this novel, and if it does, what kind of patriarchy exists in the novel.

1. Patriarchal Mode of Production

Production refers to “the action of manufacturing, growing, extracting, etc things” (Hornby, 1995: 923), or any action that produces something. Thus, in a wider sense, any work that people do can be regarded as production, whether they do it as their occupation or for other reasons. Patriarchal mode of production is a

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mode of production which is based on patriarchy. In a patriarchal mode of production, the work of the wives within the household, such as cooking, cleaning, and preparing food, is exploited by their husbands without any payment

(Walby, 1990: 20-21). The wives produce some work, which is enjoyed by the husbands and children, but the work is not appreciated or given any compensation. As discussed by Ferguson in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

all women, since trained into the gender roles of patriarchal wife and motherhood, are potentially those whose unpaid housework can be so exploited (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-class).

In this novel, the husband’s exploitation of his wife’s labour is represented by Oki Toshio and his wife Fumiko as the only heterosexual married couple in the novel. Firstly, a wife must do domestic chores, such as cleaning and cooking for all members of the household. She does it without any payment.

At midnight his wife and daughter might still be bustling about, preparing holiday delicacies in the kitchen, straightening up the house, or perhaps getting their kimonos ready or arranging flowers. Oki would sit in the dining room and listen to the radio. As the bells rang he would look back at the departing year (Kawabata, 1975: 4)

In New Year’s Eve, the women in Oki’s household were busy with domestic works, while Oki himself was free to sit, think, and listen to the radio. Oki also had a son, but the son did not work in New Year’s Eve, either.

As a wife, Fumiko had to sacrifice her career and income. She actually did the same kind of work before and after her marriage. Before her marriage, she had been a typist for an agency. She typed other people’s documents and earned some money. After her marriage, she typed her husband’s writings and earned nothing.

Before their marriage Fumiko was a typist at a news agency, and so Oki had had his young bride type up all his writings. It was something of a

lovers' game, the sweet togetherness of newlyweds, but there was more to it than that (1975: 33-34).

Oki even asked Fumiko to type the manuscript of his novel about his love affair with Otoko.

The love affair itself had made Fumiko depressed. At twenty-two, she was still relatively young. She “would go out at night, carrying the baby on her back, and wander along the railroad tracks,” and sobbed for hours in the garden (1975:

35). Naturally, typing the detailed description about it depressed her even more.

Oki realized that having Fumiko type it “would be to cause her pain and humiliation”, “would be cruel”, and “would reopen the wounds of her jealousy and pain” (1975: 35-36), but he still did it. As a wife, Fumiko consented without complaining, saying that she “will be part of the machine”, although sometimes she would pause and weep quietly (1975: 37). She did not get anything for her hard work and the stress she endured.

Nevertheless, Fumiko said not a word about A Girl of Sixteen. She seemed to think a “machine” ought not to talk. The manuscript ran to some three hundred and fifty pages, and for all her experience would obviously take many days to complete. Soon she had become quite sallow and hollow- cheeked. She would sit staring nowhere, clinging to her typewriter as if possessed, her brows knitted grimly. Then one day before dinner she threw up yellowish substance and slumped over (1975: 37-38).

The work even endangered her own health and caused her to have a miscarriage.

Within a week after finishing it she had a miscarriage. Apparently the cause was the emotional shock of the manuscript, rather than the typing itself. She was in bed for days, and her thick, soft hair, which she let hang in braids, thinned out a little (1975: 40).

Another unpaid responsibility of a wife is to care for her husband and children. When Fumiko’s baby was hospitalized for pneumonia, she “stayed at the

hospital to look after it” while Oki “took advantage of his wife’s absence to go to meet Otoko” (1975: 35). When Fumiko got angry at Oki after discovering

Otoko’s pregnancy, she injured herself and her husband. She prioritized taking care of her husband over herself, although her injury was more serious (1975: 36).

Even after Oki and Fumiko’s son had already grown up, it was still

Fumiko’s duty to wake him up. Oki kept telling her to wake their son up, instead of doing it himself (1975: 135-136). All of those works will last for a lifetime,

“[b]ecause there's no retirement age in the housewife business” (1975: 134).

2. Male Violence

Male violence is another structure of patriarchy according to Walby. Male violence covers violence acts done by men to women. Male violence functions to keep women submissive and under control, as well as to show the superiority of men to the society, in order to prevent any possible resistance in the future.

In the novel, violence takes the form of sexual abuse done by Oki to

Otoko. It is classified as statutory rape, defined in the bulletin issued by U.S.

Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention as:

Statutory rape is a general term used to describe an offense that takes place when an individual (regardless of age) has consensual sexual relations with an individual not old enough to legally consent to the behavior (Flores, 2005: 2).

Such act is considered as rape because under-aged individuals are still unable to think clearly, unstable and easily intimidated when engaging in sex-related activities. They are not yet ready, both mentally and physically.

Otoko was fifteen and Oki was thirty when they had their affair.

Sometimes Otoko refused Oki’s advances.

Years ago, at fifteen, when she felt Oki’s hand on her breasts Otoko had said: “Don’t do that. Please!” (1975: 117)

Oki did not listen to her and continued his advances. She “accepted whatever he did, gave whatever he asked” (1975: 122). Once, she hurt Oki by biting him and asked Oki to “hurt her too” (1975: 32). Otoko’s inconsistent reactions show that she was still too young and not ready for sex. Therefore, if Oki, as a married adult, took advantage of such a young girl and even “plan in advance his lovemaking techniques, their sequence, and the like”, with his heart “throbbing with joy as he walked along thinking about it” (1975: 121-122), it was clearly an act of sexual violence. Oki himself admitted to having “destroyed her girlhood” (1975: 27).

Male violence is also an inseparable part in sexual relationships. Men often treat their partner roughly in sex-related activities, from holding hands to sexual intercourse. When a male character called Taichiro was alone with a girl he likes,

Keiko, he fantasized about biting off Keiko's fingers (1975: 178). When Oki had sexual intercourse with Keiko, he treated her violently upon finding out that she was not a virgin.

Meanwhile it became obvious that she was not a virgin. He began to handle her more roughly (1975: 85).

When Keiko told Oki not to touch her left nipple and covered it with her hand, he

“forcibly pulled Keiko’s hand away and looked at the left nipple” (1975: 143). In fact, “her resistance made him all the more eager” (1975: 144). Thus, he did not respect her wish and insisted on his own wish by force.

3. Relations in Sexuality

There is an unequal relation between men and women in sexuality. Men are placed in the advantaged or superior position, while women are placed in the disadvantaged or inferior position. Such division is based on mere biological difference, namely because women are the ones who get pregnant and give birth.

However, in a patriarchal society, the unequality extends to social and cultural aspects. As a consequence, men do not have any obligation or responsibility resulting from a sex act, while women do.

Oki took Otoko's virginity when she was only fifteen (1975: 9) and continued their affair until Otoko got pregnant. Oki could easily left her anytime he wanted to. Even Otoko’s mother, the person who is the most concerned about

Otoko, did not dare revile Oki in fear that he would suddenly just abandon them.

For the time being Otoko's mother had suppressed her anger and resentment toward him. Her daughter was all she had, and once her daughter was pregnant, even by a man with a wife and child of his own, she no longer dared revile him. Her spirit failed, though it had seemed even stronger than Otoko's. She had to rely on Oki to see that the child was born in secret, and to arrange for its care afterward (1975: 13).

The baby died at birth; Otoko was sixteen years old then (1975: 12). Oki brought

Otoko to a low quality clinic, which endangered Otoko’s life and might have contributed to the baby's death.

Otoko had given birth in a dingy little clinic on the outskirts of Tokyo. Oki felt a sharp pang at the thought that the baby's life might have been saved if it had been cared for in a good hospital (1975: 14).

Traumatized by her baby’s death, Otoko attempted suicide (1975: 21). Two months later, Otoko was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. Granted, Oki accompanied Otoko, but in the end it was Otoko that suffered the most.

She writhed and moaned in pain, pawing frantically at herself. Then her glaring eyes seemed to fix on him. "No, no! Go away!" (1975: 22)

Because men could walk away freely from a sexual relationship, it is the woman that must beg for marriage. Otoko’s mother begged Oki to marry Otoko.

“I know you have a wife and child, and Otoko must have known that too from the very beginning. So maybe you'll think I'm crazy, at my age, asking it of you...” She was trembling, with tears in her downcast eyes. “Won't you please marry her? You can just ignore me, as if I'm a little deranged too. I'll never ask again. But I'm not saying right away. She can wait a few years, even five or six--she's the kind of girl who'll go on waiting whether I want her to or not. And she's only sixteen” (1975: 28- 29).

The ultimate control, namely the power to accept or refuse, is held by the man.

Oki ignored the plea, stopped seeing Otoko and continued his life as if nothing ever happened, while Otoko had to suffer the physical and mental anguish of losing a baby and a lover at the age of sixteen. Oki had “gone on to other women”

(1975: 27), while Otoko was “robbed of the possibility of marriage and motherhood”, as Oki admitted himself (1975: 8). It proves that the man, Oki, suffered less negative impact from the sexual relationship than the woman, Otoko.

As another example, men have more freedom to be sexually unfaithful. It is easier for men to have extramarital affairs. Oki had affair with Otoko when his own wife “was twenty-two and had just given birth to their son” (1975: 35). After leaving Otoko, he had affair with other women (1975: 27). Even as a middle-aged man, he easily had sex with Keiko, with the first move coming from him:

He grasped her hand. “Keiko, don’t put any makeup on.” “You’re hurting me!” She turned toward him. “Naughty, aren’t you?” “I like you just as you are. Such beautiful teeth, and eyebrows.” He pressed his lips to her glowing cheek. She gave a little cry as her chair tilted over, and she fell with it. Now Oki’s lips were on hers (1975: 84).

Not only Oki, but also Otoko’s late father used to have a sexual affair. He had a daughter from his mistress (1975: 67). This special freedom for men is related to the patriarchal mode of production, where men function as the breadwinner and women are dependent on men. Otoko’s father, for instance, had been “in the export-import trade in silk and wool” (1975: 67), so he could justifiably leave home for some time with the reason of earning money. Otoko’s mother, who worked at home without any pay, did not have such opportunity.

Such freedom is also related to the view where men’s sexuality becomes the norm, whereas women’s sexuality becomes the deviation. Accordingly, men are considered superior to women in their sexuality. Thus, as Keiko said, even young women might love elderly men, but not the opposite.

“Otoko, women are pitiful creatures, aren't they? A young man would never love a sixty-year-old woman, but sometimes even teen-age girls fall in love with a man in his fifties or sixties. Not just because they want to get something out of it... Isn't that right?” (1975: 95)

With men’s sexuality as the norm, sex is viewed as a symbol of power and pride for men, and as a symbol of defeat and embarassment for women. Oki wrote a novel which told the public about his affair with Otoko, down to the details of how they had sex. The novel was succesful and gave him “a fortunate debut as an author” (1975: 31). Oki was proud of his sexual experience and felt positively about its publication. Conversely, the novel “caused Otoko further injury” (1975:

30) and embarassment. Unlike Oki, she was ashamed of her sexual experience.

Thanks to her, he wrote, he had experienced all the ways of making love. When she read that, Otoko burned with humiliation (1975: 122).

The unequal patriarchal relation in sexuality between men and women was also reflected in the public’s response to Oki’s novel about their affair:

In those days people thought it shocking that a teen-age schoolgirl should take a lover, have a premature baby, suffer a lapse of sanity (1975: 31).

People thought Otoko’s actions shocking, yet they did not think it shocking that an adult man took a teen-aged lover half his age, impregnated her, indirectly traumatized her and left her. As a proof, even when the public knew that the novel was based on real story, Oki did not receive any negative reaction or disapproval from the public for his deeds. On the contrary, the novel “had the longest life and was still widely read” (1975: 30), which means that people still buy it until now.

Another unequality can be seen in men’s judgment based on women’s virginity. When a man finds out that a woman is not a virgin, which means that she has been having sex with other men, he considers her as a cheap woman. He feels he has the right to treat her as a cheap woman. When Oki saw that Keiko was not a virgin, he treated her roughly.

Meanwhile it became obvious that she was not a virgin. He began to handle her more roughly (1975: 85).

Oki’s treatment is not fair because Oki himself had been having sex with many other women, but there was no way for Keiko to find out about it. Even if she knew that Oki had been having sex with other women, she could not treat Oki more condescendingly because of that.

The examples above show there are two different set of rules concerning sexuality; one applies to men, and another one to women. Men's rules give less obligation, more control and domination, while women's rules are the contrary.

4. Patriarchal State

In a patriarchal society, the state functions as one of the structures of patriarchy, through laws and regulations that enable and maintain exploitation or oppression on women, and also through the lack of laws and regulations that protect women. Without any laws to protect women, women are prone to become victimized due to the mode of production, violence, and relations in sexuality. In this novel, no laws are implemented to protect women’s well-being, as shown in the events in the story.

In some countries, an adult who has sexual intercourse with an underaged person, even with mutual consent, is charged with a criminal offence called

“statutory rape” (Flores, 2005: 3). However, in this novel, there is no law to protect underaged citizens, especially women, against sexual advances from adults. Oki, a married man, could have a sexual intercourse with and impregnated an underaged girl, Otoko. There was no legal bond that obliged Oki to support her, although Otoko was technically dependent on him. Otoko’s mother had to rely on Oki to arrange the baby’s birth (1975: 13) and beg Oki to marry Otoko

(1975: 28-29). Nor was there any law to protect the mother and the baby’s health.

Oki brought Otoko to a low quality clinic, which endangered both Otoko’s and the baby’s life. Otoko lived, but the baby died. Oki himself thought that “the baby's life might have been saved if it had been cared for in a good hospital” (1975: 14).

Otoko’s experience caused her a great deal of physical and mental suffering, including suicide attempts and psychiatric treatment (1975: 28). She had to move to a new city and lost her old life, with a lifelong trauma which

prevented her from loving other men (1975: 118-121). On the contrary, Oki suffered no ill effects from the experience. After leaving Otoko, he continued his life as usual. His family was still intact. He even benefit financially as well as professionally from his experience with Otoko by writing a novel about it.

Otoko was living in Kyoto. Her mother must have left Tokyo because of his failure to respond to her appeal; probably she could no longer endure the sorrow that she shared with her daughter. What had they thought of his novel, of his winning success with a work that touched their lives so deeply? (1975: 33)

Of all his novels, the one that had had the longest life and was still widely read, was the one that told the story of his love affair with her. The publication of that novel had caused her further injury, eventually turning the eyes of the curious on her (1975: 30-31).

Magazines displayed Otoko’s photograph as “the heroine of A Girl of Sixteen”

(1975: 33), which showed that the public knew the novel was based on real story.

However, Oki did not face any charge or legal consequences of his act. The novel even gave him fame as a writer and royalties to support his family. His son said,

It's ironic, but the royalties have helped support our family for years. They paid for my education and my sister's marriage (1975: 181).

The fact that Oki got away without any punishment shows that the state system favors the men’s side instead of justice.

Yet another example is Otoko’s father’s affair. When he was still alive, he had an extramarital affair with another woman and had a daughter. They had never married officially, so Otoko’s father had no obligation to support the child.

After he died, the child did not have any right to his inheritance, his name, or any form of support, although she really was his own daughter. Otoko’s mother found out about the mistress and the child after her husband’s death.

She felt sure that the little girl was her husband's child. There were ways to verify it, but she thought the young woman herself might come to see her. Over half a year later Otoko’s mother was told by the secretary that she had married, taking the child along to her new home. He also intimated that the Eurasian woman had been her husband’s mistress (1975: 68).

The woman had to marry another man in order to get necessary support, such as financial support and proper identity for the child in the society. It shows that the way the state is organized, including its regulations, is beneficial to men only.

5. Patriarchal Culture

Every product of human thought is regarded as culture. Consequently, in a patriarchal society, all products of human thought have a patriarchal bias and result in a patriarchal culture.

A dominant cultural practice in patriarchal society is the idealization of women as “the fair sex”. Women are regarded identical to beauty. At a glance, this practice seems appreciative, but it reduces women's capacity into mere physical objects rather than human beings. Such practice can be seen in the way the characters are described in the novel. Female characters are frequently described based on their physical appearance. Oki’s first recollection of Otoko when reading about her in a magazine was that “Her figure was as slender as ever” (1975: 8). Oki’s foremost interest was not Otoko’s life or her works as an artist, but her figure. Physical appearance was also the first thing he noticed when he met Keiko:

The moment she spoke to him at the hotel he had been aware of her beauty and now he noticed how lovely she was in profile. She had a longish slender neck, and charmingly shaped ears. Altogether, she was disturbingly beautiful (1975: 19).

Taichiro, Oki’s son, describes Keiko in a similar way:

Her unpainted, beautifully even eyebrows seemed a shade lighter than her lashes, and gave a look of innocence to her jet-black eyes. She had used only a touch of pale lipstik but her lips were exquisitely shaped (1975: 152).

And here before his very eyes was her lovely profile, the exquisite ears and long, slim neck (1975: 178).

The novel contains countless physical descriptions of the female characters, such as “her slender neck” (1975: 77), “her rich eyelashes” (1975: 78),

“her beautiful ears” (1975: 81), “slender fingers” (1975: 178), “her glowing cheek”, and “such beautiful teeth and eyebrows” (1975: 84). This way of viewing the female characters symbolically reduced them into dismembered body parts.

There is also much more pressure for women to care for their appearance until it becomes a source of depression, like Keiko said: “But how long will beauty last?

A woman feels sad to think of that” (1975: 77). On the other hand, there was not even one description of Oki or Taichiro’s neck, eyes, ears, lips, or fingers; the male characters’ descriptions mainly refer to their thoughts and actions.

Furthermore, patriarchal culture contains an idea that regards female beauty as dangerous. Women are seen as the temptress of men. If a woman is very beautiful, she is considered dangerous because she might arouse men’s desire on her. Keiko is very beautiful and her beauty is repeatedly described by the male characters as something dangerous, using terms such as “disturbingly beautiful”

(1975: 19), “disturbing beauty” (1975: 27), “the strange, seductive charm of her eyes” (1975: 75), and “a kind of eerie beauty” (1975: 77).

Since culture involves the whole society, such practice is not limited to men. Oki’s wife also views beauty as something negative, as can be seen in her

account of Keiko as “almost frighteningly pretty” (1975: 44) and “a girl that pretty with an evil fascination” (1975: 48). Thus, not only are women measured by their beauty, but they are also to blame if men get aroused as a result of their beauty.

B. The forms of oppression experienced by Otoko and Keiko

This part discusses the forms of oppression experienced by Otoko and

Keiko under patriarchal society, based on Firestone’s manifestation of patriarchy in the society and Dworkin’s oppression strategies of the patriarchal society. The significance of this question is to focus on Otoko and Keiko’s experience of patriarchal oppression specifically, which will be important in the next part, namely when discussing the influence of the patriarchal oppression on their lesbianism.

1. Oppression through Education

Women are oppressed through education to accept their place in a lower class, as the sexual class of ‘women’. Education does not only comprise formal education at school, but also education through values passed in the family and the society throughout one’s life. The oppression through education displayed in this novel mainly uses the latter form, namely education in family and society.

Firstly, since she was sixteen years old, Otoko has learned from the example of people close to her to accept women’s position as the passive and inferior side when facing men’s treatment. When Otoko got pregnant as a result of

her affair with Oki, it was actually his responsibility to accompany and care for her. However, Otoko’s mother had to be especially nice to Oki and beg him so that he would accompany and take care of Otoko in her childbirth, as if she had been asking for a special favour.

Eventually, Oki ignored Otoko’s mother’s request. Otoko’s mother accepted without confronting Oki or even trying to appeal to Oki for the second time. She took Otoko to move to Kyoto. Otoko’s mother’s actions demonstrated her acceptance of defeat.

Within a year Otoko's mother sold their house in Tokyo and took her daughter to live in Kyoto. Otoko transferred to a girls' high school there, dropping one grade behind (1975: 29).

Indirectly, Otoko learned that men could easily treat women almost any way they liked, and women could only accept passively instead of fighting back. She learned that women did not have strong position in their relationship with men.

Secondly, all through her life, Otoko has been educated that women are incomplete if they do not get married to men, and thus women’s main objective in life is to marry and have children. That education began from her mother at home.

Otoko’s mother said that “the best medicine for a woman is getting married”

(1975: 163), even if it harms the woman.

“A man is the kind of medicine that gives a woman life! All women have to take it.” “Even if it’s poison?” “Even then. You took poison once, and you still don’t realize it, do you? But I know you can find a good antidote. Sometimes you need a poison to counteract a poison. Maybe the medicine is bitter, but you have to shut your eyes and swallow it” (1975: 163).

Based on her view on marriage, Otoko’s mother keeps urging Otoko to get married, even though Otoko herself does not want to get married.

Otoko received several more proposals while her mother was alive. “It’s no good thinking about Mr. Oki,” her mother said, urging her to marry. It was more an appeal than a warning (1975: 121).

The advice was not based on Otoko’s mother’s experience; her own marriage was not happy as her husband had an extramarital affair (1975: 67). Possibly, she has learned that view from her own parents, the society around them, educational institution, the media, and so on. Otoko herself does not feel any need to get married, but she felt guilty to her mother because she does not get married.

“I feel guilty toward you because I can’t marry,” said Otoko. “There’s no such thing as a woman who can’t marry!” “But there is.” “If you don’t, we’ll both be among the unmourned dead.” “I don’t know what that means.” “They’re the ones who have no relatives left to mourn them.” “I know, but I can’t imagine what that would mean.” She paused. “You’re dead, after all” (1975: 120)

Similarly, Otoko blames herself that Keiko does not get married, although Keiko does not want to get married and chooses to live with Otoko on her own accord.

By talking like that, Otoko also automatically instills the value that women must get married in Keiko’s mind.

“Very well,” Keiko nodded gracefully. “As long as I can stay with you, I’ll do my best. Let’s change the subject.” “You do understand?”

Again Keiko nodded. “If you won’t abandon me.” “How could I?” said Otoko. “But still…” “But still what?” “A woman has marriage, and children.” “Oh, that!” Keiko laughed. “I don’t have them!” “That’s my fault. I’m sorry.” Otoko turned away, her head drooping, and plucked a leaf from a tree. She walked on in silence (1975: 95).

In both cases, Otoko does not do anything wrong, but the guilt resulting from the education becomes a form of oppression on her.

2. Oppression through Love

Love is defined as “a strong feeling of deep affection for somebody or something” or “sexual affection or passion” (Hornby, 1995: 699). In her relationship with Oki, Otoko experienced oppression through love. In this case, both definitions are fitting; Oki and Otoko’s relationship entails a strong feeling of deep affection as well as sexual passion for each other. However, in their relationship, such affection becomes a political force for unequal power relations between Oki as the man and Otoko as the woman. At first glance, Oki seemed to idealize their relationship. He repeatedly praised Otoko with nice words, such as

“You’re more than I deserve. It’s a love I never dreamed I’d find. Happiness like this is worth dying for…” (1975: 125). That idealization obscures the fact of Oki’s superior position compared to Otoko. Meanwhile, Otoko as the woman became the side that suffered as a result of their love.

After their affair ended, Oki was able to lead a normal life without Otoko.

He went back to his wife and children; his domestic life remained good until his son and daughter were grown up. He even achieved financial as well as critical success as an author by writing a novel about their affair.

A Girl of Sixteen was praised by the critics. Moreover, a great many readers liked it. … And it was this novel, reputedly the finest of his early writings, that continued to outset all his other works. For Fumiko it had meant new clothes, even jewelry, to say nothing of helping to pay for the education of her son and daughter. Had she by now very nearly forgotten that all this was because a young girl’s affair with her husband?” (1975: 40-41)

On the other hand, Otoko could never go back to her normal life.

Psychologically, she could not free herself from Oki. Although their affair had lasted twenty years before, although she had been hurt and left by Oki, and she realized that she could not unite with Oki anymore, she still felt her life incomplete without Oki. For instance, she could not fall in love with another man because he would remind her of Oki.

Still, Otoko had had many opportunities for love and marriage since coming to Kyoto with her mother. But she had avoided them. As soon as she realized that a man was in love with her, memories of Oki were revived. Rather than mere recollections, they were her reality. When she parted from Oki she thought she would never marry. Distraught by sorrow, she could hardly plan ahead to the next day, much less to the distant future. But the thought of never marrying had crept into her mind, and in time it became an inflexible resolution (1975: 118-119).

Even after Otoko finally had a relationship with Keiko, she was still bothered by the memory of Oki. Keiko pointed it out to Otoko:

“Because I’m not a fool like you, for twenty years loving someone who spoiled your life!” Otoko was silent. “Even though Mr. Oki deserted you, you’ve refused to recognize it” (1975: 113).

As Keiko said, although physically Oki had left Otoko, “even now he’s there within [Otoko]” (1975: 114). In other words, Oki became a part of her existence. Thus, love brings a negative effect on her. Since Otoko’s love to Oki

makes her psychologically dependent on him, love became a form of oppression on Otoko.

3. Oppression through Physical Dependence

Biologically, women are in a disadvantaged position compared to men.

Women are physically weaker. Also, as a result of unprotected sexual intercourse, it is the woman that gets pregnant. That condition leads to women’s physical dependence on men, which eventually becomes another form of oppression on women.

Otoko experienced such oppression when she was pregnant with Oki's child after their affair. As a pregnant woman, it was not possible for Otoko to go around and search for a good hospital to give birth. It would also be hard for

Otoko’s mother to accompany Otoko and search for a good hospital alone. As a result, they had to depend on Oki to bring Otoko to the health care facility.

Even when Oki brought Otoko to “a dingy little clinic on the outskirts of

Tokyo” with “a middle-aged man with the reddened face of an alcoholic” (1975:

14) as the doctor, Otoko and her mother could only accept Oki’s decision.

Otoko’s baby died after its birth, which was partly due to Oki’s fault. Even

Oki thought that “the baby’s life might have been saved if it had been cared for in a good hospital” (1975: 14). Meanwhile, Otoko had serious psychological trauma.

She “took an overdose of sleeping medicine” (1975: 21) and was “hospitalized in a psychiatric ward” (1975: 28).

Her mother gestured as if cradling a baby in her arms. "She often goes like this, wanting her baby. She's really pitiful" (1975: 28).

Due to her physical dependence as a woman, it was Otoko who suffered, while

Oki could easily walk away.

4. Oppression through Stereotype of Women

Stereotype is “a fixed idea or image that many people have of a particular type of person or thing, but which is often not true in reality” (Hornby, 1995:

1169). Some stereotypes of women include the image of women as mere physical objects and women as the nurturing, maternal mother figure. Those stereotypes work to oppress women. They gradually define what a woman is, and limit the scope of women’s life.

Otoko experiences oppression through stereotype of women as mother figure. According to the stereotype, a grown-up woman should get married with a man, give birth and raise the children, work in the house, and serve her husband.

Otoko does not adhere to that stereotype; she is not married, lives with another single woman, and works as an artist. The oppression works through the reaction of people around her, for example her mother, who kept urging her to marry

(1975: 121) and said that “the best medicine for a woman is getting married”

(1975: 163), or in Oki’s reaction upon hearing about her.

Only in recent years had Otoko made a name for herself as a painter. Until then he had heard nothing of her. He supposed she had married and was living an ordinary life, as indeed he hoped (1975: 42).

Oki’s hope that Otoko had married shows that the state of being married is more favourable than being alone, even though Otoko is actually doing a job she loves.

Also, it means Oki thinks that Otoko’s life as a painter is not an “ordinary life”.

As a result, the stereotype really becomes the norm. Otoko is forced to feel guilty for deviating from people’s expectation. She feels guilty toward her mother because she could not marry (1975: 120) and toward Keiko, her pupil and lover, since she believes that it is her fault that Keiko has not married (1975: 95).

Although Keiko has stated many times that she “hates men” (1975: 173) and that

Otoko is “all [she] wants” (1975: 90), and although they lead a happy, complete life together, Otoko has been indoctrinated to feel that a woman is incomplete without a man.

“As long as I can be with you I’ll be happy.” “I’m glad—but after all, I’m a woman” (1975: 90)

Meanwhile, Keiko experiences oppression through stereotype of women as physical object. According to the stereotype, women exist only so that men can enjoy their beauty or their body. The stereotype affects other people’s actions to

Keiko, as well as Keiko’s own actions to herself. A woman who is not virgin is often regarded as cheap and promiscuous. When Oki found out she is no longer a virgin, he treats her roughly (1975: 85), despite the fact that Oki himself is much more promiscuous than Keiko.

In another, but related, stereotype, men assume that sexual intercourse automatically means the woman surrenders herself to the man, instead of doing the intercourse together as two equal parties. Such view can be seen in Oki’s words when he spents the night with Keiko:

“No, it’s not that. The good smell of a woman.” It was the scent that comes naturally from a woman’s skin when she lies in the embrace of a lover. Any woman would have it, even a young girl. It not only arouses a man but reassures and gratifies him. The woman’s willingness to yield herself seems to emanate from her whole body (1975: 146).

Keiko herself tries hard to be physically attractive. For instance, she uses depilatory cream to remove hair from her legs and arms, not because she herself enjoys it, but because, as she says, “I’m a woman, after all” (1975: 123). She feels depressed because her beauty would not last forever. She said, “…but how long will beauty last? A woman feels sad to think of that” (1975: 77). Thus, the obligation to remain beautiful as a result of the stereotype becomes a form of oppression on her.

5. Oppression through Sexual or Physical Violence

Otoko experienced oppression through violence, especially sexual violence, from Oki when they had a sexual affair. At that time, Oki was thirty years old, a mature adult with his own wife and child, while Otoko was only fifteen years old. In a way, Oki has done a sexual violence, known as statutory rape to be precise, because Otoko was so young that she could easily be dominated and intimidated into doing sexual intercourse. Her naivety can be seen in the way she asks to put on Oki’s tie right after their first sexual intercourse, or the way she receives Oki’s kiss.

"I'll tie it for you. Let me ..." She was fifteen, and those had been her first words after he had taken her virginity (1975: 9).

Even when he had kissed her, earlier, Otoko had kept her eyes wide open until he pressed them shut with his lips (1975: 9).

Oki realized that “what she [Otoko] felt for him was a young girl's desperate love”

(1975: 27). Therefore, even if she did not really want to do sexual intercourse, she might have consented because she was afraid of losing her first love, did not know how to refuse, or she did not know exactly the effects of their sexual intercourse.

The relationship ended with Otoko’s pregnancy, the death of her baby, and serious psychological trauma on Otoko’s side. Two months after the death of her baby, Otoko took an overdose of sleeping medicine (1975: 21), and about two months after her suicide attempt Otoko had been hospitalized in a psychiatric ward (1975: 28). Otoko’s mother considers it as a form of cruelty.

You were only a child when he seduced you--an innocent child, if ever there was one--so maybe that's why it's left a scar. I used to hate him for being cruel to such a child! (1975: 121)

Until years afterwards, whenever Otoko’s mother talks about marriage, Otoko

“see[s] the iron bars on the windows of the psychiatric ward” (1975: 120). She can never forget Oki and as a result is never able to form another love relationship.

As soon as she realized that a man was in love with her, memories of Oki were revived. Rather than mere recollections, they were her reality. When she parted from Oki she thought she would never marry. Distraught by sorrow, she could hardly plan ahead to the next day, much less to the distant future. But the thought of never marrying had crept into her mind, and in time it became an inflexible resolution (1975: 118-119).

Such a lifelong dependence is also a form of oppression.

C. The influence of patriarchal oppression on Otoko and Keiko’s lesbianism

This part discusses the influence of the patriarchal oppression experienced by Otoko and Keiko on their lesbianism, based on Giddens’ theory on sexual

orientation and Rich’s theory on lesbian existence. The significance of this question is to discover whether patriarchy in the society described in this novel has any connection with Otoko and Keiko’s lesbianism, and if so, in what ways patriarchy influences their lesbianism.

Firstly, it is worth noting that both Otoko and Keiko are not lesbians since birth. As shown by evidences in the novel, Otoko and Keiko have previously felt heterosexual attraction to men. As discussed at length in the previous parts, Otoko was attracted to and had a relationship with Oki Toshio. Meanwhile, Keiko was attracted to a man at an even younger age than Otoko. She was attracted to her own uncle when she was only three years old, and managed to kiss him.

“I was three. I remember distinctly. He was an uncle on my mother’s side, about thirty, I supposed. But I liked him, and once when he was sitting alone in the parlor I toddled right up and kissed him. He was so startled he clapped his hand to his mouth” (1975: 109-110).

Therefore, to relate it with Giddens’ theory on the factors which form humans’ sexual orientation, biological factor is not the primary factor which forms Otoko and Keiko’s sexual orientation as lesbians.

As Otoko and Keiko grow up and live as a part of the society, they experience patriarchal oppression. Although the sexual violence experienced by

Otoko is indeed the most prominent form of patriarchal oppression with the most noticeable direct impact, the other forms of oppression, namely oppression through education, love, physical dependence, and stereotype, also function to force Otoko and Keiko to become male-identified, as shown in the previous part’s analysis. In other words, through the five forms of oppression, they are forced to follow the form of sexual relationship as desired by men, to be the object of men’s

fantasy, to submit under men’s values in all aspects of life, and to depend on men; thus, they are put in a vulnerable position.

The process of Otoko and Keiko’s transition from male-identified heterosexuality to female-identified lesbianism did not happen directly at once.

On the contrary, it was a long process. It began when Keiko saw Otoko’s pictures at an art exhibition and read about her in a magazine. She “fell in love with Miss

Ueno’s work and came chasing after her” (1975: 19). She went to Otoko’s house in Kyoto and asked to be taken in to study painting with her. At that time, they lived in different cities and did not each other at all.

Keiko had just graduated from high school when she first came to Otoko’s studio. She said she had seen her pictures at a show in Tokyo and photographs of her in a magazine, and had fallen in love with her. … That year one of Otoko’s paintings had won a prize at a Kyoto exhibition and, partly because of its subject, had become well known (1975: 106-107).

Otoko agreed to take Keiko in to live with her. At that time, their relationship could not yet be regarded as lesbianism, but the foundation already existed in the form of mutual sympathy and care from both sides: Keiko’s great admiration toward Otoko and Otoko’s willingness to teach Keiko and take her as a protégé.

Afterwards, their relationship developed gradually. They started doing and enjoying physical sexual activity. It began unintentionally from trivial activities like licking fingers and touching, but later they started doing it on purpose.

Later—where had it been?—Otoko somehow began toying with her at night, pressing her lips on Keiko’s eyelids, or nibbling at her sensitive ears until she squirmed and moaned. That led Otoko on (1975: 116).

Along with that, their intimacy and togetherness grew stronger and extended to all aspects of their life. When they were already in that condition, they found that

with fellow woman they could develop completely in all aspects, they could share their life completely, and they could find what they could not find in relationship with men.

While patriarchal oppression subjugates them to an inferior position and thus prevents them from developing freely in all aspects of their life, lesbianism provides them with a world that is free from subjugation and thus a chance to develop freely in all aspects of their life. In accordance with Rich’s theory on lesbian existence, Otoko and Keiko’s lesbianism means a woman’s choice of another woman as equal life partners, lovers, co-workers and community – the very things that are taken from them through patriarchal oppression.

As life partners, Otoko and Keiko live together, sharing all their experience and activities, both pleasant and unpleasant, both dull and interesting.

They share domestic chores between them: in the morning, Otoko slides back the shutters and Keiko “would jump up to help the moment she heard Otoko sliding back the shutters” (1975: 169), while in the evening, Keiko makes some tea

(1975: 53). Both of them cook sometimes. They have a maid to help them with domestic work. As a maid, she is paid for her labour, so there is no exploitation of labour in their household.

Omiyo had been a maid at the temple for the past six years, and she also took care of Otoko’s quarters. A hard worker, she did everything from housecleaning and laundry to washing dishes, even preparing occasional meals. Although Otoko liked to cook and was good at it, she would become too engrossed in painting. Keiko herself had a surpsiring knack for creating the subtle flavors of Kyoto cuisine, but she was inclined to be unreliable. Thus they often made do with simple dishes turned out by Omiyo (1975: 97).

Otoko and Keiko also spend their leisure time together. They go to various places together, from eating out at restaurants (1975: 101), going to mountains, lakes, and the temple to participate in a ritual called Festival of the Full Moon (1975:

70).

Otoko was planning to take Keiko to the temple on Mt. Kurama for the Festival of the Full Moon. … Finally Keiko spoke. “Shall we go for a drive along the Eastern Hills? Or out toward Otsu, to see the moon in Lake Biwa?” (1975: 52)

When they do not feel like going out, they might just sit together in the garden in the evening to look at the flowers (1975: 53).

On the contrary, in a heterosexual relationship, which is naturally more dominated by patriarchal oppression than Otoko and Keiko’s lesbian relationship, they will have completely different experience. The man will have more time for leisure and recreation, both at home and outside the house, while the woman must do domestic chores at home, such as cooking, cleaning, and keeping the house. As shown in the previous part, such practice has become the convention. Neither

Otoko nor Keiko was married, but as an established practice in their society, supposing they got married in a heterosexual relationship, as a woman they would be fully responsible for all domestic works. Thus, patriarchal oppression in the form of such practice has become a cultural factor which limits Otoko and

Keiko’s freedom and well-being, and eventually drives them toward lesbianism.

Otoko and Keiko are able to share the most personal aspects of their life, both physical and emotional, without hiding anything from each other. They share the same bedroom and go to bed together. Before going to sleep, they remove their makeup and hairdo while talking about their hair, and finally chat in bed

until they fall asleep (1975: 66). Removing makeup and hairdo means showing one’s appearance as it is. Otoko and Keiko do it in front of each other without any shame or fear of looking ugly. They also often bathe together without “any shame at being seen naked” (1975: 100). Keiko uses cream to remove hair from her legs and arms, which is often considered gross or embarassing so people usually do it hidden from everyone else, especially their lover. However, Keiko does not mind doing it in Otoko’s presence. She says, “I never want to hide anything from you again. I have no more secrets from you” (1975: 123). They talk about their past life down to the smallest details, from Keiko’s first kiss with her own uncle to

Otoko’s affair with Oki. Years ago, Oki told her about the tree with red and white petals in his house and later Otoko told Keiko about it (1975: 45). Only with such closeness and equality, Otoko dan Keiko could be so open to each other.

Their experience with in a lesbian relationship above contrasts with their experience in a heterosexual relationship under patriarchal oppression. When she was still in a relationship with Oki, Otoko never told him about her personal matters. Natural personal activities like removing make-up would be considered as a shameful thing that had to be hidden from their male partner. Both Otoko and

Keiko felt the burden to look beautiful all the time in front of men. Patriarchal oppression in the form of such practice has become a psychological factor which triggers Otoko and Keiko’s transition to lesbianism.

As co-workers and community, they work together and support each other.

Otoko and Keiko are both artists. As an artist, Otoko is willing to teach, or in other words to share her knowledge, to Keiko. Keiko felt she had no talent and at

first did not really expect Otoko to teach her painting, but Otoko taught her sincerely. When Keiko felt unconfident and said that her pictures were “not worth taking seriously” and that she had “no real talent” (1975: 94), Otoko encouraged her. Otoko told Keiko that she did have astonishing talent and that she was “much more creative” than herself (1975: 95), which finally convinced Keiko. As Keiko said herself, she “would have been happy” just to do the housework, but Otoko was willing to teach her to paint (1975: 95).

The two of them go to work together, to places such as tea plantation and stone garden (1975: 87). They often receive gifts from the places they work at, such as tea from the tea plantation they sketch (1975: 55). In those places, they discuss their work. They also have discussions and exchange their opinion on the subject of art.

When Keiko returned with the tea she mentioned reading somewhere that Rodin’s model for The Kiss was still alive, and around eighty years old. “It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?” “That’s because you’re young! Must you die early if an artist immortalized your youth? It’s wrong to hunt out models like that!” (1975: 53-54)

“All stone compositions are abstract, aren’t they?” Keiko remarked one day. “There’s something of that strength in Cezanne’s painting of the rocky coasts at L’Estaque.” “You’ve seen that? Of course it was an actual landscape—not huge cliffs, perhaps, but massive outcroppings along the shore.” “Otoko, if you paint this stone garden it’ll turn out to be abstract. I couldn’t even attempt it realistically” (1975: 87-88).

Otoko and Keiko have different painting style, but they are able to appreciate their difference. As Otoko said about Keiko:

“She does abstract paintings in a style all her own. They’re so passionate they often seem a little mad. But I’m quite taken with them; I envy her. You can see her tremble as she paints” (1975: 20-21).

Like Otoko, Keiko does not mind about their difference in style, either. Although

Otoko is her teacher, Keiko would not want to paint the same way as her.

“That won’t do,” said Otoko sadly. “If that’s true, the longer we’re together… Besides, our tastes in art are completely different.” “I’d hate to have a teacher who painted the same way I did” (1975: 90-91)

This kind of atmosphere stimulates both of them to produce more and better works. For instance, having been taught painting by Otoko, Keiko tries to do her best, both to show to Otoko and to other people.

“… Look closely, I’ve done something I thought I couldn’t.” As Otoko studied it, her expression changed. A rough ink sketch was hard to interpret, but it seemed to vibrate with a mysterious life. The sketch had a quality hitherto lacking in Keiko’s work (1975: 90-91).

When Keiko took her pictures to Oki, she took her best works. Keiko’s reason was that she was Otoko’s pupil, so she wanted Oki to see her best work (1975:

61). As another example, Keiko asked Otoko to paint her.

“Actually,” Keiko went on calmly, “it made me think of asking you to paint me once, while I’m young.” “Of course, if I could. But why not do a self-portrait?” “Me? I couldn’t get a good likeness, for one thing. Even if I did, all sorts of ugliness would come out, and I’d end up hating the picture. And still people would think I was flattering myself, unless I made it abstract.” “You mean you’d like a realistic one? But that’s out of character.” “I want you to paint me” (1975: 54).

Otoko explores various styles of painting to find the suitable style for Keiko’s portrait. Meanwhile, Keiko is also interested to paint her own self-portrait, featuring Otoko.

“When I paint my self-portrait I’ll include you in the picture,” said Keiko insinuatingly. “What kind of picture would that be?” Keiko giggled mysteriously. “Don’t worry. If you’re going to paint me, mine can be abstract. No one will know” (1975: 54-55).

Thus, they form a strong and supportive community as a couple, which enables them to develop together.

This condition is different with the condition in heterosexual relationship under patriarchal oppression. With the various structures and forms of oppression, for instance through physical dependence, stereotype, and mode of production, women do not get enough support and opportunity to develop creatively and professionally. As shown in the previous parts, women are not encouraged to have creative or professional work in the patriarchal society; instead, they are directed towards marriage and domestic work. Throughout Otoko’s relationship with Oki,

Oki never shows any sign of interest or support for her talent. Later he admits that he does not even know that Otoko has talent in painting. It shows that man as a relationship partner cannot be a co-worker or form a supportive community. With man as a relationship partner under patriarchal oppression, Otoko and Keiko would not be able to develop completely. Thus, patriarchal oppression serves as social factor which triggers their transition to lesbianism, where they can find the support to develop their potentials together.

As lovers, Otoko and Keiko’s love is manifested in physical sexual lesbianism, or according to Rich’s theory, in the erotic as the sharing of joy among them. Since the first time they met, they already felt the signs of desire.

According to Otoko, when Keiko first came to her house, she felt “as if a young sorceress had appeared” and that it “was like an unexpected throb of desire”

(1975: 108). Later on, Keiko repeated that statement back to Otoko.

Keiko took Otoko’s hand, lifted it to her mouth and, glancing up at her, nibbled on the little finger. Then she whispered: “It was a hazy spring

evening, and you seemed to float in the pale bluish haze that hung over the garden.” Those had been Otoko’s words. Otoko had told her that in the evening haze she looked all the more like a young sorceress. Keiko had not forgotten (1975: 105).

Afterwards, they began to look at each other’s bodies in the bath (1975: 118) and do physical sexual activities such as caressing each other, petting and kissing

(1975: 116), and groping each other’s breasts, as shown in the following quote.

Keiko clung to her more closely. “Isn’t it? Just the same as mine!” She waited a moment. “It really is, you know.” “We’re not the same,” Otoko murmured, as Keiko’s hand came groping for her breast. The hand moved without hesitation, but there seemed to be shyness in its touch (1975: 117).

The quote shows that even in their sexual activity, they do not hide anything from each other. They accept their differences and accept each other as they are.

Not only through sexual acts, but they also demonstrate their affection through small actions, such as putting their hand on their partner’s back (1975:

52), straightening their partner’s kimono (1975: 102) or smoothing up stray hairs.

“Even though Mr. Oki deserted you, you’ve refused to recognize it.” “Please don’t talk like that.” As Otoko turned away, Keiko reached out to smooth up a few stray hairs at the back of Otoko’s neck (1975: 113).

Beside those actions, Keiko shows her fondness of Otoko by saying that she

“admires her more than anyone she has ever known” (1975: 60). They even share their feeling of affection through kimono design. Otoko designed a kimono for

Keiko with the pattern that reflected her happiness for their togetherness.

Glancing down at the kimono, Keiko saw Otoko in the dyed pattern of its sleeves and skirt. Otoko had designed it for her. […] It seemed very cool and youthful. Probably Otoko had designed it about the time she and Keiko became inseparable (1975: 98-99).

As lovers, they have grown so close that they are inseparable. Despite their arguments, they never want to part with each other.

“I’m glad! I felt so wretched, wondering if you were through with me.” “But that was your idea.” “Mine? … You think I’d leave you?” Otoko said nothing. “Never in my life!” Keiko burst out, and again grasped Otoko’s little finger and bit it (1975: 115).

Otoko and Keiko’s intimacy does not mean that they never have any conflict. In fact, they sometimes have arguments related to Keiko’s jealousy toward Oki. She wants to get revenge on Oki for hurting and abandoning Otoko.

Evidently it was Keiko’s temperament to be dissatisfied with placid love, so she was always crossing Otoko, or quarelling with her, or sulking (1975: 114).

However, whenever they have conflicts, they are able to talk about their different perspectives. However shocked Otoko was when Keiko talked about wanting to get revenge for her, she managed to ask Keiko to sit together and “talk about it over some of [her] abstract tea” (1975: 57). Furthermore, they are willing to apologize to each other if they have made a mistake. Thus, despite their conflicts, their positions are equal.

After a pause, Keiko’s voice rang out clearly. “Otoko, I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” “Forgive me…” Otoko echoed. “I’m the one to blame. I apologize” (1975: 100).

Again, their experience together as lesbians is different with their experience as heterosexuals. As already discussed in the previous parts, in a heterosexual relationship, it is the woman that becomes victimized, both due to biological differences, such as the fact that women can get pregnant, as well as the

condition of patriarchal society. For instance, in Otoko and Keiko’s relationship, there is a mutual feeling that they do not want to part with each other, but in

Otoko and Oki’s relationship, Oki could easily leave Otoko, go back to his family and even have affairs with other women. Also, in a patriarchal sexual relation, man’s position is higher than woman’s position, so if there is any conflict, the woman will be victimized. The woman is very prone to sexual or physical violence from the man, as shown in the previous section. If there is any difference in opinion, it is the man’s opinion that will be enacted. Such manifestation of patriarchal oppression becomes the social and cultural factor which drives Otoko and Keiko to prefer lesbianism.

Regarding the reason of Otoko and Keiko’s transition of sexual orientation, Otoko and Keiko’s experience under patriarchal oppression does not have a direct cause-and-effect relationship on their lesbianism. Considering the society in which Otoko and Keiko lived still viewed heterosexuality as the first alternative or even the only option, at first Otoko and Keiko started out as heterosexuals and were then unconsciously conditioned into lesbianism by the circumstances they faced. Thus, their lesbianism was not a conscious political choice to make a revenge on patriarchal oppression.

However, after they already form a lesbian relationship, they feel from their own experience that women can lead a complete life together without men.

They can identify with each other and get fundamental things that they cannot get in heterosexual relationship with men, who will dominate them as a part of the patriarchal oppression. Naturally, they choose to remain as lesbians. Therefore,

patriarchal oppression serves as a psychological, social and cultural factor which triggers the transition of Otoko and Keiko’s sexual orientation from heterosexual to lesbian.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

A society naturally influences the life of individuals that become a part of it. In a patriarchal society, women experience domination and oppression, which bring a lot of influence on their lives. Yasunari Kawabata’s novel Beauty and

Sadness contains a portrayal of two lesbian characters, Otoko and Keiko, in the middle of a patriarchal society. This study aims to examine the relation between

Otoko and Keiko’s lesbianism and the patriarchal society around them by answering the three questions in the problem formulation. Based on the analysis, the conclusion of the study is presented below.

To answer the first problem, this study identifies the instances of patriarchy in the novel, based on Walby’s theory on structures of patriarchy. In the structure of patriarchal mode of production, men exploits women’s labour at home. In Oki Toshio’s household, Oki worked as an author. His wife Fumiko had to look after the house, Oki, and their children without any payment, vacation, or retirement. Before the marriage, she was capable of earning her own money by working as a typist, but after her marriage, she typed Oki’s manuscripts without any payment. It was considered her duty as Oki’s wife, even when it harmed her physically and psychologically.

In the structure of male violence, Oki did a form of sexual abuse to Otoko.

Although their relationship seemed consensual, it actually was not. When they engaged in sex acts, Oki was thirty years old, much older and more powerful than

Otoko. On the other hand, Otoko was only fifteen years old, still unstable, easily

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intimidated and manipulated, and not ready for sexual intercourse. Oki insisted despite Otoko’s hesitation and refusal. Also, Oki treated Keiko roughly when he found out that she was not a virgin.

In the structure of sexuality, there is an unequal relation between men and women, with the advantage to men and disadvantage to women. The basis was biological, because women get pregnant while men do not, but it extends to attitude and way of thinking. Thus, although any sexual intercourse involves two sides, it seems to be the woman’s responsibility only. As a result of Oki and

Otoko’s affair, Otoko got pregnant, while Oki could go scot-free. Oki had the ultimate control to determine Otoko's fate, namely whether or not to care for and marry her. He eventually left her and continued his life as usual. Otoko lost her baby, suffered physically and mentally for the rest of her life.

Men also have more freedom to be sexually unfaithful. Other than the biological reason, men also benefit from the patriarchal mode of production. Men work outside the house so they can travel more freely, while women are confined inside the domestic space. Since men earn the money for his family, women are financially dependent to their husbands. This novel described two men’s extramarital affairs. Oki had affairs with Otoko, Keiko, and many other women throughout his years of marriage. To men, sex is a symbol of power and pride. To women, it is a symbol of defeat and embarassment. Oki boasted about his sex affair experience to the public through his novel, while Otoko was humiliated about it. The public accepted Oki’s experience positively (seen in the novel’s good critical and financial achievement), but they were shocked by Otoko’s

experience. Men demand virginity from women, seeing women who are not virgin as cheap, but women cannot judge men’s virginity. Because Keiko was no longer a virgin, Oki felt she deserved to be treated roughly. Oki himself was promiscuous, but he did not get different treatment because of that.

In the structure of patriarchal state, there was no sufficient law to protect or guarantee women’s well-being, so they easily become victimized. Oki, a thirty- year-old married man, could easily start a relationship with an underaged girl,

Otoko, and impregnate her. He had no legal bond to her; he could leave her anytime he wanted. There was no law to protect mothers and babies in childbirth.

Otoko had to depend on Oki to bring her to a health care facility for childbirth.

Oki even took advantage of their affair for personal gain by writing a novel about it. He did not face any legal charge or consequences, either for having sexual intercourse with an underaged girl, impregnating and leaving her, or for violating

Otoko’s privacy by publishing a story about her without her permission. There was no sufficient law to protect the rights of illegitimate children or children from extramarital affairs. Otoko’s father and his mistress’ child was raised and supported by the mother. As in Oki and Otoko’s case, despite being the biological father, Otoko’s father left his mistress and their child without any obligation to support the child. When he died, the child had no right to his inheritance.

In the structure of patriarchal culture, women are often regarded as objects that are measured and appreciated based on their physical appearance. It is seen through the male characters' interest on the female characters' physical appearance only and the description of the female characters by their body parts. As a result,

women feel the pressure to stay beautiful. Furthermore, female beauty is regarded dangerous because of its attraction to men, as if it was the woman’s fault that men are attracted to her.

To answer the second problem, this study identifies five forms of oppression experienced by Otoko and Keiko under patriarchal society, based on

Firestone’s theory on manifestation of patriarchy in the society and Dworkin’s theory on oppression strategies of the patriarchal society.

The first form of oppression operates through education - not only formal education but also through institutions like family and society. Otoko learned from the behavior of people around her about women's position as the passive, helpless, and inferior side in receiving men's treatment. Both Otoko and Keiko have been educated during their whole life that women are not complete and could not live without men. Thus, marriage becomes the ultimate objective in women's life. Keiko also learned that women are demanded to be beautiful.

The second form of oppression operates through love. Otoko is oppressed by her love to Oki, which shows and maintains the unequal power relations between them. Oki glorifies and idealizes Otoko to obscure his treatment of Otoko as someone with inferior status. Oki could live normally without Otoko, but

Otoko felt that her life is not complete mentally without Oki despite Oki's bad treatment to her. From love, Oki obtains beauty, while Otoko obtains dependency, thus placing Oki in a higher class than Otoko.

The third form of oppression operates through dependence - in this case, it is physical instead of economic dependence. Otoko experienced such physical

dependence when she was pregnant with Oki's child after their affair. Otoko's gender and pregnancy, along with Otoko's mother's gender, prevented them from looking for a good hospital for Otoko to give birth. They had to depend on Oki to accompany Otoko and get her to the health care facility.

The fourth form of oppression operates through stereotype of women.

Both Otoko and Keiko have become the victims of stereotype of women as physical objects, who are viewed and measured based on their beauty, sex appeal, or other physical attributes. They, especially Otoko, also face stereotype of women as the conventional mother figure. When they do not fulfill such stereotype, they are considered a deviation and thus feel guilty or weird.

The fifth form of oppression operates through violence. Otoko experienced sexual violence from Oki in their relationship. When they started their relationship, Oki was thirty years old, a mature adult with his own wife and child, while Otoko was only fifteen years old. The relationship can be considered as sexual violence because at that age, Otoko was easily intimidated and dominated to do sexual intercourse. The relationship ended with physical and psychological impacts on Otoko. Until years afterwards, Otoko could not live normally because she could not forget Oki. Such dependence is a form of oppression, too.

To answer the third problem, this study discovers the influence of the patriarchal oppression experienced by Otoko and Keiko on their lesbianism using

Giddens’ theory on sexual orientation and Rich’s theory on lesbian existence.

Otoko and Keiko are not lesbians by birth, so is not the primary factor which forms their lesbianism. In the society, they experience patriarchal oppression and

are forced to be male-identified. Otoko and Keiko’s transition from male- identified heterosexuality to female-identified lesbianism was a long process. It started out as mutual feelings of sympathy. As they lived together, their relationship extended to sexual activities, as well as strong intimacy in all aspects of their life. Through lesbianism, they get things that are taken from them through patriarchal oppression and things they would otherwise never get from heterosexual relationship, such as an equal life partner, lover, co-worker and community who supports each other to develop further in all aspects of their life.

Otoko and Keiko’s lesbianism is not a conscious choice; they were conditioned into lesbianism by the circumstances they faced. Only after they already form a lesbian relationship, they experience that women can lead a complete life together without men and their relationship can provide them with what a heterosexual relationship under patriarchal oppression cannot provide, so they choose to remain as lesbians. Patriarchal oppression serves as one of the psychological, social and cultural factors which triggers Otoko and Keiko’s transition into lesbianism.

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