Paper 3: Cultural Study on Sexual Assault

Anjie Zhao

Paper 3

April 20 2015

Cultural Study on Sexual Asssault：Comparison between US and other countries

The issue of rape is more serious in the United States comparing to non-Western or developing countries. Through comparing the US with different culture, researchers can find unique social traits that only exist in the United States. There are several cultural differences that explain why rape is rather serious in the US and not in Japan, including socialization (partying), media, and gender equality.

According to statistics, Japan has far less rape rate in comparison with the US; though both are developed country, US rape rate is 27 times more than Japan’s (Nationmaster, 2015). Research shows country like Japan remains unmotivated towards sex and intimate relationship. This is quite the opposite to the US, because sexuality is such a hot topic in the United States. Japanese people’s disinterest in sex may lead to the ultimate low number of rape, while US’s interest in sexuality can explain its high rape rate.

Rape in the US contains unique traits such as drug using, drinking and partying. These cultural do not exist in Japan because Japanese people do not party or use drugs. And it could be this lack of socialization lead to the Japanese "celibacy syndrome," which is a syndrome happened to Japanese young people; Japanese men and women stopped having sex because they are disinterested; they find there is no point in having sex, being in a relationship or starting a family (Haworth, 2013). A survey in 2011 found that over half of Japanese men and half of women at age of 18 to 34 aren’t in any kind of romantic relationship (Haworth, 2013). Another survey found out that one third the Japanese under 30 haven’t had any dating experience (Haworth, 2013). The “celibacy syndrome” has made Japanese men less masculine and less ambitious in career, instead it made women more independent and career-driven. A women interviewed said she found many Japanese men flinch when a woman is trying to touch them; this phenomenon also increases in women too (Haworth, 2013). Many Japanese women referred that they would not marry or have children because they don’t want to be the caretaker for both the baby and the husband (Haworth, 2013). Lack of socialization could be one factor that directs the “celibacy syndrome” and driven the unmotivated attitude towards sex, which lead to less sexual assault incidents as a result.

Party provides ground for American people to interact with each other. This motivates sex. Elizabeth Armstrong said, “sexual assault is a predictable outcome of a synergistic intersection of processes operating at individual, organizational, and interactional levels” (Armstrong, 2006). In other words, if there aren’t any organizational or interactional groups like party that brings in people to interact, there wouldn’t be any chances for sexual intercourse or party rape. It is socialization that brings people closer to each other and makes them want to have intimate act. Girls meet boys in a party and gets drunk and things happen. Japanese don’t have this kind of interaction between their kids. Their youth are raised in isolation; they shut themselves indoors and never thought about moving out from their family home until they reached 30 (Haworth, 2013). This is how Japanese boys and girls don’t know how to interact with each other, and they don’t feel necessary to interact because interaction is never part of their lives. In contrast, American youth are taught to hang out or hook around since they were little, so they feel the urge to create interaction and attend socializing events. And interaction requires drinking, dancing, drug using that could lead to potential sexual assault.

It is possible that Japanese unmotivated attitude in sex is tied with exposure to non-sexualized portrayals in the media. America and Japan uses different media contents (America with greater depiction on sexuality and Japan with less) to motivate society, this way creates greater distinction on sexuality between these two countries. People in US are motivated in sex because they are exposed to more sex-related contents in media, while Japanese people are de-activated in sex because Japanese media do not show a lot of sex-related contents; man and women were portrayed rather old-fashioned and less open and with more clothes on.

Research shows media has a big impact in shaping people’s perception towards rape in both countries. US media has the tradition of portraying human sexuality on screen; if you compare Japanese and American TV shows, American TV shows depict more fully naked women and men. Think about shows like Sex and the City (1998-2004), Veronica Mars (2004-2007), Vampire Diaries (2009), Game of Thrones (2011-15), and Masters of Sex (2013-15). These shows all have female characters showing their naked bodies more than one times. Think about shows that contains sex-oriented jokes, such as How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014) and Gossip Girl (2007-2012). Japanese never show naked women having sex in a day-time drama; fully naked is rare for a night-time Japanese drama. Japanese wouldn’t joke about sex in TV shows because sex is not part of their media culture; they often talked about ordinary subjects such as school, workforce, parenthood, and romantic relationship. Romantic depiction doesn’t contain much sexuality or sex-related portrayals; TV couples are shown barely kissing, or instead of showing sex, sex is either metaphorically said or hidden on the screen (Akita, 2005). For instance, Japanese romantic dramas like First Kiss (2007), Love Shuffle (2009), Nagareboshi (2010), Moon lovers (2010), and Love Neet (2012) barely shows characters kissing in the episodes and there are no signs for them taking off cloths or having sex. TV shows like Mou Ichido Kimi ni Propose (2012), Perfect Divorce (2013), MEOTOZENZAI (2013), Dososei (2014), though is about romantic relationship, is more focused on companionship and marriage relationship rather than sex. Similarly, shows like Mei-chan no Shitsuji (2009), kimi nitodoke (2010), Q10 (2010), Asuko March!(2011), and Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou (2012) are focused on relationship but doesn’t show signs of blatant sex, rather male and female characters are shown hiding their feelings for each other. Characters are depicted shy for expressing their feelings; these shows also are more focused on schooling and friendship rather than relationship or sexuality.

Social cognitive theory suggests that is young people are frequently exposed to behaviors on TV, they are more likely to imitate that behavior in real life (Fisher, 2009). This suggests that both American and Japanese teens could develop similar behavioral traits as their TV programs depicted. If so, American youth are likely to imitate sex-related behaviors because sex on American TV programs is more frequently shown. Differently, Japanese teenagers are not likely to adopt sex-related behaviors because they are not frequently exposed to sex and sexuality on TV, because their TV programs do not contain sex-related contents. Rather, Japanese teens (both girls and boys) would behave in a timid or less expressive way when it comes to commitment in a relationship, because this trait of youth holding back their feelings for others has been broadcast on TV over past decades. They would not have open sex in order to show their feelings for their spouses because they have never been taught by social media to do so. If Japanese people are become less expressive when it comes to relationship and interaction, they have less probability to engage in an intimate act and less likely to commit rape and sexual assault, until they get old. Oppositely, American youth are motivated by US media to interact and experience sufficient sex life, thus they are more likely to commit sex crimes at early age.

According to Fisher’s article, a national survey tested about media’s impact on teenage viewers shows 70% of teens (age from 15 to 17) said they have learned “a lot” or “some” knowledge about sexuality and romantic relationship (Fisher, 2009). This survey shows many teenage TV viewers tend to learn about sexuality from media characters. US media portray man and woman as sexually attractive. Again, this portrayal shapes American people’s perception towards reality. Both boy and girl would like to become more sexually attractive in real life. This explains why American adolescent girls would want to put on make ups, and dress provocatively and being thin, because through heavy exposure to TV they have learned that look appealing could attract a man’s attention. Similarly, boys would want to look more masculine and charming in order to get a girl’s attention. TV provides cultural construction that guarantees the Kairos for rape. In other words, if American man and women don’t look so sexually attractive, they wouldn’t fit into each other’s standards, because TV has taught them that to look attractive is to ask for sex. This socially constructed idea may result in high probability of rape among young people in the US.

 Differently, Japanese media shows very few sexually attractive portrayals since 2005, rather they portray both men and women as fully dressed, women as strong and independent women more often in TV shows and movies. For instance, Japanese directors realize that many of their audience are women, in order to attract more women to watch the show, they started using female protagonists since 1920s (Iwamura, 1994). Qualities in these Japanese female heroes are toughness, strength and ability to handle problem (Iwamura, 1994). These empowered female characters are found in shows like the Discarnates (1988), Erai Tokoro ni Totsuide Shimatta (2007), Atsuhime (2008), Seigi no Mikata (2008), and Boss (2009). According to social cognition, female empowerment on TV could alter Japanese women’s perception of reality and make them more ambitious and less interested in sex and relationship. Because Japanese women are frequently exposed to powerful female figures on TV, they hold more endurance to this idea that women are strong and independent. This way media can aggravate the “celibacy syndrome” (disinterest in sex and relationship) because it encourage women to choose career and independence over marriage and sex. As Japanese women don’t get to interact with men, it decreases the possibility for sexual assault and victimization. Media explains why Americans are having issue of rape while Japanese are having celibacy syndrome.

Lastly, gender equality, and financial status could play a role that distinguishes rape that happened in the US and in Japan. Russell’s blacklash hypothesis (1975) suggests that when men’s authority is threatened by a women’s empowerment, they tend to regain their dominance by use of violence (Don, 2013). It is found that Latin America has greater sexual violence due to its male dominated society structure (Don, 2013). The United States also has a male dominated culture; this explains why American men dislike it when they see women were empowered and succeed them. Differently, Japan maybe less male dominated than the US. As mentioned earlier, due to celibacy syndrome, Japanese men have become less career-driven, less dominant and more in door; instead women become more independent, ambitious and outdoor. This trait results in women don’t want to be in a relationship and depend on men, and men don’t care about that either. This trait is the opposite to a male-dominated society. If Japanese society becomes more female dominant, people in the society become used to this trait. Japanese men will hold more endurance towards this social system so they wouldn’t break social taboo and go after a woman.

It is found that developed country has higher rate of sexual violence than developing country (Don, 2013). This is because developed countries have more gender equality between men and women, as said earlier men don’t want women to surpass them and become the dominator so they go after women who are middle class or higher class, more gender equality means more men are unhappy about women succeeding their supremacy.  Thus more men in developed countries try to sexually assault women with good financial status, this creates more sexual assault. Differently, developing country has less gender equality and men and women take separate roles (with women being the nurturer and men being the dominator), very few women would break their gender role and try to surpass men, thus it gives less motivation for men to suppress women by using force. Thus creates less sexual violence in the country. If the US is more developed than Japan by comparing their GDP per capita, it is possible US society has more gender equality than Japan, thus has more sexual violence than Japan. And this is consistent with the statistics; US rape rate is way higher than Japan’s.

In conclusion, different cultural traits could explain why rape is a big issue for the US but not as nearly serious in Japan.

Citation

Haworth, A. (2013). Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex? Theguardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex

Country vs country: Japan and United States compared: Crime stats. (2003-2015). Nationmaster. Retrieved from http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Japan/United-States/Crime

Don, S. C. (2013). Test of Impacts of Gender Equality and Economic Development on Sexual Violence. Journal of Family Violence, 28, 603-610. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8e24af04-42d9-48b0-999c-6b0459e33796%40sessionmgr112&vid=5&hid=128

Armstrong, E. A. (2006). Sexual Assault on Campus: A Multilevel, Integrative Approach to Party Rape. JSTOR, 53(4), 484-499. Retrieved from http://www-personal.umich.edu/~elarmstr/publications/Armstrong%20Hamilton%20and%20Sweeney%202006.pdf

Fisher, D. A. (2009). Televised Sexual Content and Parental Mediation: Influences on Adolescent Sexuality. Media Psychology, 12(2), 121-147. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=19&sid=de5c54c7-af16-49e3-8c95-3ad649cd2d77%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=39880476

Akita, K. (2005). Cuteness: The Sexual Commodification of Women in the Japanese Media. In Carilli, T., & Campbell, J. (Eds.), Women and the Media: Diverse Perspectives (pp. 44-46).University Press of America.

Iwamura, R. (1994).Letter from Japan: From girls who dress up like boys to trussed‐up porn stars ‐ Some of the contemporary heroines on the Japanese screen. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 7(2), 109-130.