The Too-Good Wife: Alcohol, Codependency, and the Politics of Nurturance in Postwar JapanSocial drinking is an accepted aspect of working life in Japan, and women are left to manage their drunken husbands when the men return home, restoring them to sobriety for the next day of work. In attempting to cope with their husbands' alcoholism, the women face a profound cultural dilemma: when does the nurturing behavior expected of a good wife and mother become part of a pattern of behavior that is actually destructive? How does the celebration of nurturance and dependency mask the exploitative aspects not just of family life but also of public life in Japan? The Too-Good Wife follows the experiences of a group of middle-class women in Tokyo who participated in a weekly support meeting for families of substance abusers at a public mental-health clinic. Amy Borovoy deftly analyzes the dilemmas of being female in modern Japan and the grace with which women struggle within a system that supports wives and mothers but thwarts their attempts to find fulfillment outside the family. The central concerns of the book reach beyond the problem of alcoholism to examine the women's own processes of self-reflection and criticism and the deeper fissures and asymmetries that undergird Japanese productivity and social order. |
Contents
Dirty Lukewarm Water | 1 |
Alcoholism and Codependency New Vocabularies for Unspeakable Problems | 42 |
Motherhood Nurturance and Total Care in Postwar National Ideology | 67 |
Good Wives Negotiating Marital Relationships | 86 |
A Success Story | 115 |
The Inescapable Discourse of Motherhood | 137 |
The Home as a Feminist Dilemma | 161 |
Notes | 177 |
201 | |
219 | |
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Common terms and phrases
addiction Al-Anon Alcoholics Anonymous alcoholism amae American Anatomy of Dependence antabuse argued asked Bachnik became began behavior caregiving Center central child child-rearing codependency context continue culture Danshukai daughter described desu discourse divorce Doi Takeo economic emerged emphasized Ezra Vogel father feel felt feminism feminist Fukuda-san gender historical Hoshi-san hospital household housewife housewives husband idea ideal ideology important increasingly intimacy Japa Japan Japanese society Japanese women katei Katsuko Koike-san labor language learned lives managing marriage married meetings Meiji Meiji era Meiji period middle-class mother motherhood motherly needs nese notion nurturance parasite singles parents participation political prewar problem relationships role Saitō sense sexual social workers stop drinking story substance abuse talk teenagers things thought tion Tokyo told took tough love train Ueno Chizuko wife wives woman Yoda young
References to this book
Primary School in Japan: Self, Individuality and Learning in Elementary ... Peter Cave No preview available - 2007 |