tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3770413683246757309.post2449525474219672357..comments2024-03-10T01:22:37.630-05:00Comments on Penetrating Insights: Chikan!Piushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06047740337101443195noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3770413683246757309.post-46015462018952555662015-01-06T23:17:49.991-05:002015-01-06T23:17:49.991-05:00Thank you, Pius, for your interesting article on c...Thank you, Pius, for your interesting article on chikan. I would like to make three brief comments:(1) the reason chikan appears to be more common in Japan may be because Japanese women tend not to speak up, either because:(a)Japanese women are more socially repressed than Western women and therefore less assertive, less likely to make a fuss. This is the explanation I have encountered on the Internet; (b)they are more sexually liberated and therefore don't mind all that much; or (c) in the minds of most Japanese men and women, chikan is not such an explosive issue as it would be in Western minds; to their mind it is no worse (and no better) than to be stuck in a traffic jam, be ticked off by their boss, or having to deal with a tired and obstinate child. To them chikan can be frustrating, humiliating or irritating, but it is not such a big deal - it is, they might say, part of life. - As against argument(c), one could argue that if chikan were no big deal to Japanese women, chikan males would not practice their 'trade' because the thrill of transgression would simply not be there. - <br />Where does this argument lead? I wonder whether it is possible to argue that male chikans in Japan derive their thrill - not because the practice of chikan is 'normal' or 'common' but because it is neither and that despite the relative lack of overt/vocal signs of outrage by Japanese women when molested, they know their behaviour has a covert effect and in a few cases two covert effects: it offends and yet - in 'some' cases - it excites; and that it is this duality in a few women's response that the chikan finds 'addictive': the woman's ambivalence - an ambivalence which is 'shaped' or facilitated culturally. Western women are less likely to respond with ambivalence and they are therefore much more likely to ensure that the offender gets into trouble for his act. <br /><br />One could even speculate that to the extent that some Japanese women indicate ambivalence reflect the culture in which they, and the perpetrators, live: a cultural ambivalence to this particular kind of behaviour. <br /><br /><br />I was thinking of the cultural meaning of ambivalence in the context of rope binding in Japan where. If it is a woman who is being bound, apparently she is expected (by the audience) to show subtle signs of ambivalence - a tension between the physical pain, the humiliation she may feel, and (possible) sexual arousal. The 'synthesis' derived from these contradictory elements is supposed to lead to a state of mind called 'shuuchinawa'.The audience looks for this - in fact, it could be argued that this is what makes rope work interesting to Japanese audiences. Anyway, the point is that the woman is supposed to show signs of ambivalence. Maybe this is an important - albeit unstated - part of Japan's culture, an aspect that is, in a sense, replicated in Japan's crowded public transport system.<br /><br />Just a thought. Sorry about the length of that thought...<br /><br />Gunnargunnarsivertsen@hotmail.com.uknoreply@blogger.com