Keiko
Aiba, Ph.D.
In
Japanese society, many people, including men, are now expected to construct
their appearance in a way society determines desirable. Using the words of a
researcher named Widdows, this can be described as the beauty ideal becoming an
ethical ideal. The beautiful is seen as good, and the ugly is seen as evil.
Since
about 2016, I have been researching what it means for women themselves to
construct an ideal female body in Japanese society. Transforming one's body
closer to the ideal female body can be a source of personal pleasure and
enjoyment. On the other hand, it also has negative aspects, such as the
continued investment of time and effort and the damage it can cause to the body
and mind. I believe that because many women try to transform their bodies
closer to the ideal female body, such practices have become the norm for women,
and the freedom not to engage in them has been lost. I would like to consider
the possibility of changing this situation in various ways.
Professor
Department of Global and Transcultural Studies
Faculty of International Studies
Meiji Gakuin University
1518 Kamikurata, Tostuka-ku
Yokohama 244-8539
Japan
Phone:81-45-863-2225
E-mail: aiba@k.meijigakuin.ac.jp
Academic Interests
Gender and Body, Appearance and Identity, Physicality of Women
Current
Project:
Beauty
Work of Female High School Students in Japan
Publications
(Books on Gender and Body)
2017
Transformed Bodies and Gender:
Experiences of Women Pro Wrestlers in Japan. Osaka, Japan: Union Press. (open access)
http://www.union-services.com/upen/book_list.html
2013
Joshi puroresura
no shintai to jenda: kihanteki
onnarashisa wo koete
(Bodies of women professional wrestlers and gender: Beyond normative
femininity) Akashi shoten.
（Awards）
2013
Japan Society for Sport and Gender Studies Academic Award for a book entitled Joshi puroresura
no shintai to jenda: kihanteki
onnarashisa wo koete
(Bodies of women professional wrestlers and gender: Beyond normative
femininity)
(Articles on Gender and Body)
2023
“Keshou ni yoru jyoshikousei no shintai kouchiku” (Makeup usage in Japanese female high school
students as a tactic for appearance alternation)
Kokusai
Gaku Kenkyu 63: 1-19.
https://meigaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2000095
2022 “Mumou ka suru
jyoshikousei no shintai” (Hairless Bodies Made by
Female High School Students) Josei gaku
30:52-72
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/wsj/30/0/30_52/_article/-char/ja/
2020
“Taikusai no dansu ni okeru iseiai
no kochiku” (Dance performances of cheering squads
and the construction of heterosexuality) Supotsu to jienda kenkyu
18:6-19.
2018 “Transformed bodies
and gender norms: Gender identity of Japanese women pro
Wrestlers,” In A. Horton (Ed.), Identity in professional wrestling: Essays
on nationality, race and gender (pp.120-136). Jefferson, NC: McFarland
& Company
2017 Aiba, K. (M. Hara Trans.), “The impact of women’s pro wrestling
performances on the transformation of gender,” In B. Chow, C. Warden & E.
Laine (Eds.), Performance and
Professional Wrestling (pp.85-94). Oxon, UK: Routledge.
2011“Chapter
19 Japanese Women Professional Wrestlers and Body Image”in Transforming Japan: How
Feminism and Diversity Are Making A Difference,
edited by Kumiko Fujimura- Fanselow. The Feminist
Press.
2010. "Shintai katudo kara jyosei
kyogisha ga ukeru eikyo: jyosi puroresura
no keiken" (The influence of Physical Activities
on Women Athletes: Experiences of Women Professional Wrestlers) Kokusai gaku kenkyu 38:27-44.
2008. “Engi to shiteno jyosi
puroresu to jenda no choetsu” (Women’s Professional Wrestling as Performance and
Transgression of Gender) Kokusai gaku kenkyu 34:1-20.
2008. “Tatanaku gino to jiko boei: jyosi
puroresura no shintai to jenda”
(Combat Skills and Self-Defense: Gender and the Bodies of Pro-Women Wrestlers) Jienda & sekushuaritu
3:3-22.
2007. "Henyo sita sintai heno jiko
ninshiki: joshi puroresura no sintai to genda" (Self Perceptions Toward Transformed Bodies:
Bodies of Professional Women Wrestlers and Gender) Supotsuto jienda kenkyu
5:4-17.
(Others Articles)
1996 "America shakai gaku
ni okeru seibetu shokuiki bunri kenkyu no rirontekiwakugumi to kongo no hoko" (Occupational Gender Segregation Studies in
American Sociology: A Review of Theoretical Frameworks and Future Directions) U.S.-Japan Women's Journal 20:100-115
1997 Aiba, Keiko and Raymond A. Jussaume, Jr. "Refreshing Beers and Caring
Skin: The Construction of Gender in Japanese Television Commercials" Journal of National Women's Education Center
1:23-31
1998 "Unrecognized Inequality: Structure and Effects of Job-Level Sex
Segregation in the Japanese Workplace" Pp.333-350 in Gendai nihon no puburikku
firosofi (Public Philosophy in Modern Japan)
edited by Yamawaki, Naoshi, Mari Osawa, Wataru Omori
and Ryuichiro Matsubara. Shinseisha.
1998 "Shigoto no naiteki
hoshu no jenda sa to sono kozo"(Gender
Gap in Internal Rewards and Reward Structure: Analyses in the Japanese
Workplace) Annual Review of The Japanese
Association of Labor Sociology 9:127-147
2001. Aiba, Keiko and Amy Wharton. "Job-Level Sex Composition and the Sex
Pay Gap in a Large Japanese Firm." Sociological
Perspectives 44:67-87.
2001. "Sexual Harassment in the University: Factors Influencing
Perception." Joseigaku
9:66-83.
(Book Reviews)
Yuko Ogasawara. 1998. Office Ladies and
Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Work and Occupations, vol. 27, no.1,
February 2000
Minako Konno. 2000. OL no sozo-im sekai to shiteno jenda (Creation of
OL: Gender as the world of meaning) Tokyo: Keiso shobo.
Nihon rodo shakai gakkai nenpo.
(Annual review of the Japanese Association of Labor Sociology) vol.12, 2002
Mary C. Brinton. (ed.) 2001. Women's
Working Lives in East Asia. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Contemporary Sociology, Vol.32, No. 2,
March 2003
Murao, Yumiko 2003. Rodo shijo to genda--koyo rodo ni
okeru danjyo fukohei kaisho ni mukete (Labor Market and
Gender: The Aim for Solving Gener Unfairness in Employment) Toyokan
shuppann sha. The
Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Working Women 45, 2004.
Laura Miller and Jan Bardsley (ed.) Bad
Girls of Japan. Palgrave MacMillan, 2005
Social Science Japan Journal, Vol. 9,
Issue 2, October 2006
Noriko, Asaumi. 2006. Jyosei jimushoku no kyaria
kakudai to shokuba soshiki (Career Development of Women's Clerical Work
and Work Organization) Nihon keizai hyoronsha. Shakaigaku hyoron (Japanese Sociological Review) 58, (2), 2007.
Professional
Presentation
Presentation Before
2000
June 2024
“Constructing
the Ideal Face: The Japanese High School Girls’ Makeup”
Appearance
Matters 10
July
2023
“Hairless
Bodies and Female High School Students”
Asian
Studies Conference Japan (ASCJ)
April
2023
“Hairless
Bodies and Female High School Students in Japan”
3rd
Canadian International Conference on Gender & Women’s Studies 2023
(on-line
presentation)
July
2021
“Transformed
bodies and gender: Women's Pro Wrestling in Japan and the UK”
(with
Dr. Tom Phillips)
Online
Summer Programme in Japanese Cultural Studies 2021
Science, Sport, and Sustainability: Towards an Interdisciplinary Future in
Japanese Studies (on-line presentation)
June
2021
“White
skin and colored chapstick: Examination of makeup
practices of female high school students in Japan”
Annual
meeting of the Women's Studies Association of Japan (on-line presentation)
September
2020
“Dance
performances of cheering squads and the construction of heterosexuality”
The
2020 Yokohama Sport Conference (on-line presentation)
July
2014
“Japanese
women professional wrestlers' embodied experiences and their identities”
XVIII
ISA World Congress of Sociology
June
2013
“Performances
of Japanese Women Professional Wrestlers and Gender Transformation”
Asian
Studies Conference Japan (Machida campus of J.F. Oberlin University)
November
2012
“Empowered
and Challenged Bodies: Japanese Women Professional Wrestlers' Embodied
Experiences”
American
Anthropological Association 111th Annual Meeting (San Francisco, U.S.)
May
2012
“Self-Perceptions
Toward Transformed Bodies: Bodies of Professional Women Wrestlers and Gender”
8th
European Feminist Research Conference (Budapest, Hungary)
July
2009
“Jyoshi puroresura no kega to itami” (Injuries and
Pains of Japanese Women Professional Wrestlers)
at the meeting of Japan Society for Sport and Gender Studies
November
2008
“Combat Skills and Self-Defense: Gender and the bodies of Japanese Women Pro
Wrestlers”
at NASSS (North American Sociology of Sports and Society), (Curtis Hotel,
Denver, CO., USA)
July
2008
“Combat Skills and Self-Defense: Gender and the bodies of Japanese Women Pro
Wrestlers”
at Women’s Worlds 2008, (Complutense University of
Madrid, Spain)
November
2007
"Transformed Bodies and Gender: Self-Perceptions of Japanese Women
Pro-Wrestlers"
at the meeting of Anthropology of Japan in Japan
June
2007
"Self-Perceptions Toward Transformed Bodies: Professional Japanese Women
Wrestlers and Gender "
at the meeting of Asian Studies Conference Japan
November
2006
"Japanese Professional Women Wrestlers’ Perceptions Toward Their
Bodies"
at the meeting of North American Society for the Sociology of Sport
October
2006
"Puroresu wo suru
shintai heno manazashi: nihon no jyoshi puroresura no shintai to genda"
(Perceptions
toward wrestling bodies: Japanese professional women wrestlers and gender) at
the meeting of The Japan Sociological Society
July
2006
"Puroresu wo suru
shintai heno manazashi: nihon no jyoshi puroresura no shintai to genda"
(Perceptions
toward wrestling bodies: Japanese professional women wrestlers and gender) at the
meeting of Japan Society for Sport and Gender Studies
June
2006
"Henyo shiteyuku jyoshi resura no shintai to genda"
(Transforming
bodies of women wrestlers and gender)
at
the meeting of Women's Studies Association of Japan
June
2005
"Transformed Bodies and Gender: a New Perspective
Based on a Study of Professional Japanese Women Wrestlers"
at
Women's World 2005, 9th international interdisciplinary Congress on Women
November
2004
"Transformed Bodies and Gender: a New Perspective
based on a Study of Professional Japanese Women Wrestlers"
at
the meeting of Anthropology of Japan in Japan
May
2004
"Genda ron no genzai"
(The Frontier of Gender Studies) at Lectures of "Genda de kangaeru onna to otoko no sekai" (Women's and
Men's World Considered by Gender)
in
Meiji Gakuin daigaku kokai koza (Extension Lecture Course of Meiji Gakuin University
2004)
June 2000
"Daigaku ni okeru sekushuaru harasumento: nishiki ni eikyo wo ataeru
yoso" (Sexual harassment in the university:
factors influencing perception)
at
the meeting of the Women's Studies Association of Japan
Short Description of Main Courses
* Introduction to Sociology at GTS
* Introductory Seminar at GTS
* Gender and Society at GTS (see the details at GTS HP)
*
Women and Body at GTS
*
Gender Studies at IS (department of International Studies)