Ashi o dokashite kuremasenka (“Take your feet off our necks!” - Does the media communicate the voices of women?)

Everyone needs to use language that is acceptable to everyone!
 
Media “norms” often deviate from the current realities of society. A television commercial which asserts that it is the wife and mother who does the housework; variety TV shows in which gender minorities are the target of jokes—such examples are ominipresent in Japanese mass media.
 
While the media can occasionally cause a stir, men are predominantly in charge in media organizations, with scarce women in key decision-making positions. Diversity is also lacking at media production and editing sites, and little effort has been made to foster organizational cultures in which minority voices are heard.
 
Images of “the ideal woman” permeates Japanese media. The true voices of women are erased, while fixed “masculine” and “feminine” stereotypes populate our visual culture. Meanwhile, the media plays a critical role in cultural creation, along with serving as a “mirror” of society. Yet, does it depict the realities of women today, does it incorporate and broadcast their voices? This book was created with the desire to contribute to societal transformation, large or small, so that the voices of women and minorities can be more accurately reflected throughout society. In the book, authors from diverse professional backgrounds express themselves, including journalists, researchers, essayists, and more.
 
Regarding the title, “Please remove your feet!”
 
The title of this book comes from the 2018 documentary on late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg entitled RBG (the Japanese title of the film can be translated as “RBG: The Most Powerful 85-Year-Old”). What Justice Ginsburg actually said was, “All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” The Japanese subtitles for this part read: “All of you men, please remove your feet that continue to tread on us!” RBG fought as a lawyer for the rights of women and minorities. Here, RBG was paraphrasing the words of the American abolitionist Sarah Moore Grimké, an activist who had an influence on the first wave feminism.

 

(Written by HAYASHI Kaori, Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies / 2021)