Modern girl
Encyclopedia
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
women who followed Westernized fashions and lifestyles in the 1920s. These moga were Japan's equivalent of America's flappers, India's kallege ladki, Germany's neue Frauen, France's garçonnes, or China's modeng xiaojie. By viewing her through a Japanese vs Western lens, the nationalist press could use the modern girl archetype to blame such failings as frivolity, sexual promiscuity, and selfishness on foreign influence. The period was characterized by the emergence of working class young women with access to money and consumer goods. Using aristocratic culture as their standard of Japaneseness, the critics of the modern girl condemned her working class traits as "unnatural" for Japanese. Modern girls were depicted as living in the cities, being financially and emotionally independent, choosing their own suitors, and apathetic towards politics. The woman's magazine was a novelty at this time and the modern girl was the model consumer, someone more often found in advertisements for cosmetics and fashion than in real life. The all-female Takarazuka Revue
Takarazuka Revue
The Takarazuka Revue is a Japanese all-female musical theater troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Women play all roles in lavish, Broadway-style productions of Western-style musicals, and sometimes stories adapted from shōjo manga and Japanese folktales. The troupe takes its name...
, established in 1914, and the novel Naomi
Naomi (novel)
is a Japanese novel by Japanese writer Jun'ichirō Tanizaki . Writing of the novel began in 1924, and from March to June, published the first several chapters of the serial. Four months later, the periodical started to publish the remaining chapters...
(1924) are outstanding examples of modern girl culture.
Origins and etymology
The Housewife's Friend , founded in 1917, and Woman , founded in 1922, both ran articles, fashion tips, and advice on the modern girl lifestyle. Josei was "the bible of the modern girl." Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's 1924 novel Naomi created the term 'modern girl'. The novel was such a hit that it caused considerable outrage among elders in Japan. However, younger women embraced the story and celebrated the values displayed by several of the main characters.Behavior
Modern Girls were completely independent, both financially and emotionally. They would work service industry styled jobs and live on their own, not dependent on family. They smoked, watched movies, and hung out at the cafes. They were sexually liberated; choosing their own suitors. Many of them participated in casual sexCasual sex
Casual sex or hooking up refers to certain types of human sexual activity outside the context of a romantic relationship. The term is not always used consistently: some use it to refer to any extramarital sex, some use it to refer to sex in a casual relationship, whereas others reserve its use for...
. In a 1928 short story by Kataoka Teppei, a young typist dates three "modern boys" at the same time. She is described as decadent, hedonistic, and superficial.
Modern girls were not political; and did not protest. Each woman sought change via herself. Consumerism drove everything they did. Women were constantly shopping at the new department stores and listening to jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
records
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
.
Appearance
A modern girl's appearance was completely Western. They wore pumps and short dresses. They discarded the kimonoKimono
The is a Japanese traditional garment worn by men, women and children. The word "kimono", which literally means a "thing to wear" , has come to denote these full-length robes...
for western styled 'garçonne' looks. Much of their dress and appearance resembled Western stars such as Olive Thomas
Olive Thomas
Olive Thomas was an American silent film actress and model. She is best remembered for her marriage to Jack Pickford and her death.-Early life:...
, Clara Bow
Clara Bow
Clara Gordon Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. It was her appearance as a spunky shopgirl in the film It that brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl." Bow came to personify the roaring twenties and is described as its leading sex...
, and even more unusually Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
. Pickford is used as a symbol modernism in Naomi. Much like the flappers, the modern girls aimed for a Western look. They also wore lipstick
Lipstick
Lipstick is a cosmetic product containing pigments, oils, waxes, and emollients that applies color, texture, and protection to the lips. Many varieties of lipstick are known. As with most other types of makeup, lipstick is typically, but not exclusively, worn by women...
. Like flappers, the Bob cut
Bob cut
A "bob cut" is a short haircut for women in which the hair is typically cut straight around the head at about jaw-level, often with a fringe at the front.-The beginning:...
was very popular.
End of modern girl era
The modern girl was a symbol of Westernization. They were also a symbol of extravagance and selfish choices. After a military coup in 1931, extreme Japanese nationalismJapanese nationalism
encompasses a broad range of ideas and sentiments harbored by the Japanese people over the last two centuries regarding their native country, its cultural nature, political form and historical destiny...
and the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
prompted a return to the 19th century ideal of good wife, wise mother
Good Wife, Wise Mother
Derived from an idealized traditional role for women, the ideology of Good Wife, Wise Mother or Wise Wife, Good Mother was coined by Nakamura Masanao in 1875.It represented the ideal for womanhood in the East Asian area like Japan, China and Korea in the late 1880s and early 1900s...
.
Further reading
- The Gender/Sexuality Reader: Culture, History, Political Economy, Vintage Books
- The New Japanese Woman: Modernity, Media, and Women in Interwar Japan
- Dunn, Michael, Taisho Chic: Modern girls and outrage, The Japan Times, May 10, 2007.
- The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization Edited by Alys Eve Weinbaum, Lynn M. Thomas, Priti Ramamurthy, Uta G. Poiger, Modeleine Yue Dong, and Tani E. Barlow
- Silverberg, Miriam (1991). "The Modern Girl as Militant." in Gail Bernstein, Recreating Japanese Women: 1600-1945. pp 239–66.