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Running header: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS: Beyond the 'feminization of masculinity': transforming

patriarchy with the 'feminine' in contemporary Japanese youth culture


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Rhetorical Analysis: "Beyond the 'feminization of masculinity': transforming patriarchy with the 'feminine' in contemporary Japanese youth culture" Martha Elizabeth Ochoa English 1301 Professor Falcon University of Texas at El Paso 10/24/13

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

Beyond the 'feminization of masculinity': transforming patriarchy with the 'feminine' in contemporary Japanese youth culture by Yumiko Iida about feminizing masculinity in Japanese men. It shows how older generation and the government of Japan feel about this interesting change and how they feel it should be neutralized because it is affecting Japanese society in the diversion between masculinity and femininity. Men and women are crossing theses lines of masculinity and femininity because they are trying to find ways to discover who they are and its a form of expressing themselves. Men are including themselves into the feminine world in Japan. "Many men have started to pay attention to the way that they look, they are putting times, effort, and money into this just as much as women" (Iida ,Yumiko , 2005). The author is trying to get readers to understand who is being targeted by using ethos, pathos, and logos in the article. The title of this article is "Beyond the 'feminization of masculinity': transforming patriarchy with the 'feminine' in contemporary Japanese youth culture". The audience that the author is trying to attract is young adults because this generation is changing and it is presenting to the youth that Japanese youth is also changing their own society. It is also targeting women and men because it is saying that Japanese society is ruled by men. Japanese men and women are changing the rules of their strict culture and transforming it into something the old government would consider feminine. This is how Yumiko Iida uses ethos in the title to get the audience's attention. Japan is known for their rich and strict culture. Japan's credibility is used in the title to catch the reader's attention. In the first paragraph the author sets a vivid environment of her experience to Japan for her research. She gives the reader a picture by including what was around her when she went to Japan. The one subjective change that she focuses on is the men. The men were the ones to

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

surprise her every time because she notices how they have improved in their appearance. " I was kept mesmerized by the fast pace of change, the degree of 'improvements,' and the extent to which more and more young Japanese males involved themselves in great effort and money to improve their visual appearance" (Iida, Yumiko, 2005). In this sentence she is presenting her perspective of her astonishment from how the Japanese men have changed their behavior toward their physical appearance. If you notice she characterizes the way the men have changed their look which is quite similar to the way women maintain their appearance. The author is trying to show what the society sees what these young men are changing and that it is crossing into femininity. " describing the appearance of the Japanese men which will target the attraction of young women. " These pop idols typically displayed delicate and beautiful 'feminine' faces with smooth skin, often accompanied by flimsy eyebrows, eye make-up and colored lips, as well as an androgynous body shape and somewhat 'foreign' images as if they came straight out of a girls' fantasy comic book." (Iida,Yumiko,2005). In this sentence the author uses pathos to capture young women's attention by comparing how similar the Japanese men's appearance are to girls fantasy comic books which makes them feel attraction to the Japanese men. In other words, they are pioneers of new identities for young adult males who no longer comfort themselves by simply following hegemonic masculine ideals, but actively seek and employ aesthetic styles and characteristics conventionally associated with women for their own purposes." (Iida,Yumiko,2005).This is also pathos because it is appealing to men that don't like the way society judges them and tells them what kind of man they have to be or there will be consequences. It gives these men a feeling of relief and courage because it shows that men can

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

do things that are considered feminine to see what their likings are or self discovery without caring what society thinks about them. The ethos in this article is credible because the author is a researcher at the Asian institute at the university of Toronto, Canada. This research paper was published by Taylor & Francis located in the United Kingdom. In this research paper is when the author wants the reader to see if women men are seen differently " Moreover, the patriarchal discourse of the 1980s not surprisingly produced a non-threatening ideal female type of its own fantastic making, based on the images of young girls who are pure, cute, innocent, dependent and vulnerable, but sexually awakened." (Iida, Yumiko, 2005). This quote shows how specific the society saw Japanese women but a man isn't seen like this description and this is exactly what the new generation is trying to change the definition of women and men is and turning it into their own definitions of just being themselves. This displays logos because it supports the authors point of you. In Japan the new generation of men are changing the definition of masculinity in Japanese culture by using beauty ideals with is considered feminine to the older generation. The author tries to inform young generations including women and men by using ethos, pathos, and logos . She uses her knowledge and experience by getting an education to prove that her information is trustworthy to the audience for example Yumiko is a researcher and her education at the Asian institute at the university of Toronto, Canada . She uses pathos to reach out to the audience by touching their emotions by describing experiences that any of the audience might have gone through before for example when the author talks about how the Japanese men attract the women by making themselves look like the fantasies of women. Last but not least she uses logos to support the history that involves the Japanese people and how they separated genders

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

and how it gradually changed because the young no longer wanted to conform to old cultural norms, by using her research about how women have to be portrayed Japanese beauty ideals.

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS Iida, Y. (2005). Beyond the 'feminization of masculinit'y: transforming patriarchy with the 'feminine' in contemporary japanese youth culture. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies., 6(1), p56-74. 19p. doi: DOI: 10.1080

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