IAMCR 2007, Panel 6: Television in a Global Context:

1. IAMCR 2007, Panel 6:Television in a Global Context: Gender, Religion, Family and Sex

2. Todd Joseph Miles Holden Professor, Mediated Sociology Department of Multi-Cultural Societies Graduate School of International Cultural Studies Tohoku University Sendai, Japan

3. Gendered Discourses in Japan�s Teleuchi: Sexualized Means Toward Intimized Ends

4. About This Talk This talk focuses on the links between: Media Emotion Audience Connectivity strategies Gender Sexuality In Japan today

5. About This Talk� In original form it is 30 minutes long So in thinking about how to reduce it to 8 or 10 let me just show you the data as it has been organized then tell you what I think it means In general, just keep in mind that I am looking at sexual performance in TV in ways that define and/or re/produce certain (pre)conceptions of gender

6. In the Paper. . . Missing from this Talk (Ubiquitous) Sexuality in Japanese media: Ukiyo-e (painting) Manga (comics) Anime Television

7. In the Paper . . . Missing from this Talk Television by the numbers: Saturation Viewership Advertising figures

8. A Theory about TV in Japanese Society: Teleuchi Recent work has shown that Japanese television employs specifiable discursive strategies (Holden and Ergul 2006) that �intimize� (Holden and Ito 2007): by creating affective bonds between hosts, in-studio guests and audience (cf. Painter 1996). This is also known as Teleuchi One such strategic theme is sex/sexuality

9. Hypersexuality in Japanese Media There is no shortage of sexual imagery in Japanese mediations: from painting to comics to ads to TV

10. Categories of Sexual Discourse Thinking inductively from manga, anime TV, and advertising, I would suggest categories in which gender performance and sexuality are coupled.

11. Categories of Sexual Discourse Body Presentation Body Talk Discussions of Love and Intimacy Dating Simulations and Dating Talk Extra-marital Affairs / Cheating on a Partner

12. Categories of Sexual Discourse 6. Sexualized Performance 7. Hidden Cameras and �Reality TV Bites� capturing sexual participation 8. Public Display / The �Public� Performance of Sexualities 9. The Commercialization and Commodification of Sexuality. 10. Compliance and Deviance

13. Key Findings 2 Kinds of Performance: 1) Gendered: Where performances work to underscore (and more rarely, challenge) normative gender stereotypes 2) Sexualized: Where performance of gender is conflated with sexual talk and/or acts

14. Key Findings 2 Forms of Performance: 1) Inadvertent: Those performances which, though, sexualized, may not have the model�s (full) complicity 2) Intended: those which have complicity, thereby leading to intended, gratuitous display

15. Key Findings Sexual Co-Production:: Talk Witness and Validation Active Participation Generally in the case of female-female sexual interaction Such cases are very common Male homosexuality is less common, though present

16. Exploring the Categories Time will not permit me to go into every category today. I leave that for the longer paper Here I will focus on some examples with overlap: Body Presentation Body Talk Sexualized Performance Public Performance of Sexualities

17. 1. Body Presentation

18. Sexu-ad-ity: (Female) Bodies on Display

19. Sexu-ad-ity: (Female) Bodies on Display

20. Sexu-ad-ity: (Female) Bodies on Display

21. Sexu-ad-ity: Deconstructing Bodies

22. 2. Performance Performing Normative Gender Performing Sexualized Gender Intentional Inadvertent

23. Gender Performance in the Kitchen As I have explored in published work, food shows are a major TV genre So, too, a theme that runs through and unites various genres It is a content area that enables national identity to be formed and through which cultural nationalism is re/produced As such, it serves as an emotional unifier and provides a �binding function�

24. Gender Performance in the Kitchen Food is often coupled with sexuality -- usually in the form of women who prepare food Generally for a male in-studio audience Who critique, comment, sample and often render verdicts on culinary winners and losers (who are often women)

25. Gender Performance in the Kitchen One of the best examples in this regard is �Ai no Apron� (Aprons of Love) This show has been running in various incarnations for over 4 years. In this clip we see the key themes of gendered performance that is �sexualized� 3_aprons.webarchive

26. Gendered Performance in and around the Kitchen The thrust of the show is that women talent (idols, singers, or actresses) generally are kitchen-challenged

27. Gendered Performance in and around the Kitchen The show reinforced normative stereotypes as women perform for men, who estimate their worth based on their ability to cook.

28. Gendered Performance in and around the Kitchen The clip emphasizes that: The woman who is most �feminized� wears pink She dresses and acts �cute� She is depicted as frail (afraid to catch and kill the fish) In these regards she is unabashed, unapologetic, gender performative

29. Gendered Performance in and around the Kitchen Furthermore: She is unable to think and plan out her meal She lacks basic cooking skills To the amusement, but also ridicule of the male panel of judges

30. Sexual Performance in the Kitchen Another late night offering features Tsuyoshi Kusanagi of the longest-running, most successful boys band in Japan (SMAP). Here, women are asked to prepare food However, they often �perform� this act in various forms of undress.

31. Sexual Performance in the Kitchen Kusanagi and his team comment as they view the kitchen activity. So, too, does a female talent in inset. Comments are of the order of: �she�s falling out of that outfit.� Or: �look she even knows how to beat an egg.�

32. Sexual Performance in the Kitchen In this segment a woman�s job was to make an omelet�

33. Sexualized Competition in the Kitchen Another night, featured a competition -- characterized not by food type, but by what the cooks were wearing.

34. Sexualized Competition in the Kitchen Note the excited reaction by the male panel of viewer/judges And the attempt by the female judge to terminate the exercise Also the troubled (even pained) reaction of the female commentator in the inset.

35. Sexualized Competition in the Kitchen Important is the way that the camera works as voyeur, for surveillance. It serves the function of intrusive male gaze, often visually assaulting women in ways that would be offensive and violative (were this out in �the real world�).

36. Making Meaning out of Sexualized Cuisine The angles and postures suggest as much They are exaggerated, abnormal, beyond the ken of the everyday. It is almost as if we are transported into the realm of private male fantasy.

37. Making Meaning out of Sexualized Cuisine The off-camera chuckles from the staff are audible And (since we cannot see them) these sounds underscore the sense of spying. The models, themselves are oblivious to the commentary, continuing in their chores without acknowledging the banter among guests and reaction by staff.

38. Sexual Theatre At the same time, the models seem fully aware of what this is all about. Certainly not an innocent turn with the pots and pans.

39. 2 Kinds of Performance: Intended Versus Inadvertent Inadvertent: Those performances which, though, sexualized, may not have the model�s (full) complicity Intended: those which have complicity, thereby leading to intended, gratuitous display

40. Inadvertent Performance In this program, aimed at testing endurance in front of a voting audience, this contestant is dumped into a tub of scalding water to see how long she can last.

41. Inadvertent Performance The camera (host and audience) thrill in the exposure wrought by her physical pain

42. Inadvertent Performance And the camera�s role is to catch any inadvertent sexual display that may result

43. Intended Performance By contrast, consider this Saturday evening Osaka-based show concerning brain type. This January, 2007 segment is nothing if not soft porn. A woman in a black, tight-fitting skirt, black panties, a pink bra with her breasts bursting out of the top is depicted on her hands and knees. She straddles dominoes (for no apparent reason), pulls her skirt up over her hips, then pulls her panties tight into her bottom

44. Intended Performance The camera roves behind her and she pulls her skirt over her hips The camera then shoots up at her vagina. As she pulls her panties aside, her anus is actually exposed and must be blotted out Throughout she rocks forward as if in sexual ecstasy. She actually rubs her vagina as 2 male hosts comment in an off-site inset.

45. Pornographic Performance

46. Sexual Performance or Public Assault?

47. Sexual Performance or Public Assault?

48. Sexual Performance or Public Assault? The tasks are set up to titillate -- if not demean Here a contestant gets caught straddling a barrier And a host laughs at the position she ends up in.

49. Publicly-Sanctioned Sexual Assault The camera�s role is to spy -- and expose

50. Publicly-Sanctioned Sexual Assault The results are observed not only by the hosts and the viewers at home � They are witnessed by an in-studio, all-male audience

51. Pornographic Performance In many ways it doesn�t much matter if this is actual hypnosis or simply play-acted. It all amounts to public sexual performance.

52. Pornographic Performance Although, if it is hypnosis, then we ought to criticize exploitation on the verge of publicly sanctioned video-rape.

53. Pornographic Performance And, if mere acting, then we should be asking about a system of broad-access communication that encourages women to pose and perform in such ways.

54. Discussion: TV and Emotions The final thread that must be woven into this discussion is one of emotions. It is about the creation of a �Teleuchi� Which is really how TV does its work.

55. Discussion: TV and Emotions TV in Japan does this both through form and content.

56. Discussion: TV and Emotions TV employs forms that bind via emotional connection: Yume-jin (famous folk) who cycle through the endless procession of shows (day after day, hour by hour, channel to channel) in ways that create immediate comfort, awareness, and connection with the viewing audience. Group/collective experience Talent-audience collaboration in the processing of information in the same moment Emphasis on tasks (such as eating, buying, traveling) Spying/surveilling eye (often with celebrities viewing the lives and acts of �everyday people�)

57. Content Aside from food shows and athletics (see Holden 2006 -- sportsports) this binding occurs via sexualized discourse. communicators and consumers are brought into a linked community.

58. Effects For females who perform sexuality and men who view and validate the sexuality Each, in their own way, are defining and shaping dominant conceptions of gender, while neutralizing marginalized forms (of thought and practice)

59. Problematic Cases:Queer Discourse This is not to say that discrepant data doesn�t appear The case of �Hard Gay� -- a celebrity cashing in on his image as a 1970 �Village People�retread

60. Problematic Cases:Female - Female Discourse So too, cases of female to female contact Such cases are quite extensive, actually Consider this example of a former AV star, Miki Sawaguchi, introduced on a wide show and the female host decides to explore her breasts Miki_Sawaguchi.webarchive

61. Problematic Cases:Female - Female Discourse Note that aside from the host(ess), the audience is mainly female

62. Problematic Cases:Female - Female Discourse

63. Close calls In such a case we have to recognize that traditional lines of sexual discourse are not actually being crossed In Japanese mediations (as in society at large) female-female contact is often tolerated As I have shown in my work on Japanese Gender ads (Holden 1998, 2004) They are less problematic if one sees them as pandering to �male gaze� or male conceptions of hyper-feminized sexuality

64. The Expansive Roles of Women While the sexualized discourse that I have pointed to in this discussion today is heavily female-centered . . . It cannot really be said to be completely �heterosexual�. As: It is not always the case that men are implicated in the consumption of female bodies and sexuality And females often serve as voyeurs or co-experiencers/co-consumers of female sexualized activity and display

65. Distinguishing Types of Female-Female Performance We should recognize that there are differing kinds of performance at work in which women perform with women �inadvertent� as in the case of the cooking competition (where their bodies are juxtaposed in separate spaces) or the hypnotized race (where they often bump into or crawl over one another) �intentional� as in the case of females performing sexualized tasks together (as in touching another woman�s breasts) And in fact this activity can be found in numerous TV mediations

66. Example of Co-Production of Sexualized Performance One example of this can be found in the video by AV idol, Reon Kadena Reon_Kadena_Breast_Test.webarchive In this particular video, another female is asked (by the male hosts) to adjust Kadena�s breasts (which are bursting from her bikini)

67. Example of Co-Production of Sexualized Performance

68. Example of Co-Production of Sexualized Performance Another example of intentional sexualized co-production by women can be seen in this show: sumi.webarchive

69. Example of Co-Production of Sexualized Performance young bikinied women perform traditional sumi-e on one another�s bodies, with the stipulation (by a male producer off-screen) that the brush be held in the mouth�

70. Example of Co-Production of Sexualized Performance To perform this task, the women have to climb atop the other and engage in close physical contact. The other women call the painter �sensei� offer words of encouragement and congratulation They vamp for the camera

71. Example of Sexualized Co-Production The camera angles give it a sense of voyeurism But also a sense of a �happening� -- something out of the ordinary; of �girls gone wild�

72. Other Forms of Sexualized Discourse Although much of my presentation has taken up examples (and cases) of sexualized performance, other kinds of sexual discourse exist An example is sex talk, which can be indirect or direct It can come in the form of men asking women what other women�s breasts feel like In traditional entertainment shows like those hosted by Sanma, celebrities will discuss stories of their escapades, affairs, and sexual activities -- generally played for laughs.

73. Direct Sex Talk For instance, direct talk can be found in shows where people discuss sexuality or sexual practices

74. Direct Sex Talk A generally female audience and two male hosts receive instruction on bondage using a live model.

75. Direct Sex Talk The audience role seems to serve as co-conspirators or validators of the act of female control One almost hears Foucault and the idea of the publicly disciplined (female) body

76. Indirect Sex Talk Indirect sex discourse often involves men Since women are the primary targets of direct sexual discourse An example can be found from a recent sports digest show It followed new Yankee baseball import Kei Igawa, to a nightclub and he met a stylish blond-haired American woman. They threw darts together and were shown conversing. On the show it was mentioned that Igawa was single; it was implied that he would be able to enjoy an active dating life in America this coming year. Igawa, on the show�s set appeared to blush and denied that this would be his future course

77. Conclusions That sexualized discourse is ubiquitous in contemporary TV programming cannot be denied It should be observed that this is not necessarily a new development The �publicity� or �publicness� of sexuality has existed in Japan for centuries

78. Conclusions However, in the past this publicness about sexual discourse may have been confined to a particular district, class of people, certain private enclaves in society What is different about today is that through TV (and increasingly the Internet) this private sphere has become increasingly opened to the public

79. Conclusions In identifying the extensive amount of sexualized phenomena being mediated in contemporary Japan, we note that much of it in the dominant media centers on women Most mediations involve an appropriation and commanding use of the female image These re/produce particular kinds of female performance Not necessarily in ways that are supportive of female autonomy or nurturing of female power

80. Conclusions Women and men are both complicit in the consumption of these performance. Not all validate the performance -- as the insets of females reacting to these performances indicate. However, many do (as we have just seen) In short, the audience experience is gendered to process both male and female reaction to female sexualized performance

81. Conclusions In concluding I readily acknowledge that there is a large amount of same-sex discourse going on in other media One point of this talk, though, has been to make clear that TV is not a medium for such discourse At least not involving men And when it does it tends to validate long-held, dominant conceptions of feminized sexuality ubiquitous in the society.

82. Conclusions And, to the degree that TV is the most-consumed medium in Japan today, these observations are significant For TV serves as the most extensive means of distributing messages of gender performativity and specifically the association of women with sexualized performance

83. Final Conclusions TV tropes (form) engages the participants and audience, alike, by inviting them to engage as; Co-producer, Witness Co-conspirator Validator This BINDS emotionally

84. Final Conclusions Then TV works thru its content, almost invisibly, to naturalize the presentation of gender This sexualized presentation, thus, provides a sexualized means toward intimized ends.