It’s the long-awaited day today.
We are looking forward to seeing you, Plum!
It was surprising for me that you went to a meeting at the next day you came back,
and I was concerned about your condition. It is too hot at Nagoya, isn’t it?
Thanks to our blog, as Cosmos mentioned, I really enjoyed active discussions with all of you every day, even beyond big sea. In spite of my poor, childish English, I just kept writing. And I will keep writing with you from now on. Thank you very much!
Sunflower, thank you for your information about CCEA. Actually, I have known your group a little bit, because I once happened to see you at Will- Aichi while working. It’s fantastic that many people can exchange their culture beyond a human race. You have many energetic activities, don’t you!
From tomorrow, it will start three consecutive holidays.
I hope you will enjoy autumn recess.
Good night, and see you!
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Hi, my dear friends.
How are you spending your time today?
I am very happy to hear that you had a great time with Jonathan for discussion about Christianity. I assume that you now individually talk a lot at a study meeting with him. It appeared that he always waited for you to start talking at each session held at my house. (In a Western style discussion, nobody asks you to talk. You always have to voluntarily begin to talk. Very different from our style, isn’t it?)
Thank you so much for your kind and warm words for my return to Nagoya. I think I am coming alive, just a little bit though. It was another hard day for me today. But I am happy that I am back in Nagoya and share the same weather with you, my precious friends.
I really enjoyed reading Magnolia’s manifesto about her decision to make a, sort of, brand new start in her life, probably a few days ago, or more than that, I don’t remember. I just hope everything is going well with you after that, Magnolia.
Have you read 'The Yellow Wallpaper' (1892) by CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN (1860-1935). Even if you haven’t, it is OK. Just bear in mind that she argued that being a wife was miserable.
Seventy-one years later, The Feminine Mystique (1963) written by Betty Friedan (1921-2006) was published and she claimed that not only being a wife but also being a mother was of no value and no meaning. It was a revolutionary theory, because motherhood was something they could not touch upon. It was a sanctuary and too sacred to say something about. It was not an object for people to criticize openly.
Probably, BF was the first woman to try to prove, in public, that mothering was not something that women should strive for. Of course, there were numberless women who complained about their being a mother in private.
Please read this excerpt from Wikipedia. It is very interesting and informative.
The Feminine Mystique is a 1963 book written by Betty Friedan which attacked the popular notion that women during this time could only find fulfillment through childbearing and homemaking. According to The New York Times obituary of Friedan in 2006, it “ignited the contemporary women's movement in 1963 and as a result permanently transformed the social fabric of the United States and countries around the world” and “is widely regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.” [1]
The Feminine Mystique came about after Friedan sent a questionnaire to other women in her 1942 Smith College graduating class. Most women in her class indicated a general unease with their lives. Through her findings, Friedan hypothesized that women are victims of a false belief system that requires them to find identity and meaning in their lives through their husbands and children. Such a system causes women to completely lose their identity in that of their family.
Friedan specifically locates this system among post-World War II middle-class suburban communities. She suggests that men returning from war turned to their wives for mothering. At the same time, America's post-war economic boom had led to the development of new technologies that were supposed to make household work less difficult, but that often had the result of making women's work less meaningful and valuable. It also served to critique Freud's theory of penis envy among women and freed women from being strictly confined to the role of a housewife during the Post-War economic expansion.
If you have time, please try to read The Feminine Mystique (1963). It is intriguing and inspiring. But you don’t have to read everything written in her book, if you are too busy. But just try to read the first chapter (maybe, only 15 pages or something like that): The Problem That Has No Name, which ended with the following:
We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: “I want something more than my husband and my children and my home.”
Interesting, isn’t it?
Today, I would like to have a good sleep, and so I will go to bed now. Bye, bye, my lovely friends. Thank you for reading this message…
Hi, everyone.
The Yellow Wallpaper was conundrum.
Even I read comment, I alwasys thought where the center of my brain was? Do I dream of a butterfly? Does a butterfly dream of me?
Hello, everyone,
I had some trouble with PC. When I pluged off Warp Star, the screen returned. My PC is Windows Me and takes hours (?) to open. How about yours?
Plum, I am also very happy to hear you returned! Urarasan is so happy to have a great helpful mother like you!
Cherry, keeping the blog everyday is really hard! I really appreciate your efforts.
Azelea, you know many interesting words. Everytime I look them into the dictionary, I can feel your humor and wit. How do you built your vocaburary?
Thank you, my dear seniors(senpai). Your comments are really stimulating! I am so happy I can share this precious blog, though I cannnot write everyday.
Dear Cherry and my friends.
Today after talking a little bit about Sinzo Abe who stepped down so abruptly several days ago and astonished us, we started to discuss three main issues Jonathan gave us as our homework.
Five of us tried to keep up with his conversation and expressed our ideas and opinions instantly after they occurred to us. In the end he summarized our thoughts and viewpoints.
I paid attention to the following points.
Christianity was used as a means of imperialism, changing society, gender equality, social welfare and for racial and political reasons.
This figure made me surprised.
Within an estimated population of 127.4 million, about one to two million Japanese are Christians. Only one percent of Japan’s population believe in Christianity.
The next topic is “What do you believe real Christianity is?”
Plum, we would be very happy if you could join our discussion next Friday from 10:00 o'clock if you are not otherwise occupied and you feel much better.
Cherry, thank you for writing every day on this blog. Your message keeps me going on writing something about myself.
I'm going to Osaka and Kobe from Saturday to Monday.
We have a nice plan to invite my parents to dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Kobe on the respect of the aged day.
So good-bye and good-night, my sweet friends.
September 14, 2007 9:06 AM
Hello, friends.
Thank you for encouraging me for my new start, Plum. So far, so good.
Yesterday before we started our discussion about Christianity, we talked about the difference of the political system between Japan and America.
Jonathan said in the U.S. individual rights are more respected than here. It's because state's has its own law and independant from the federal government. He asked, "Why is the government much stronger than municipality here?"
And I answered that the finance of municipality is supported by the government and that subsidy is as much as two thirds of the municipal finance, so the government can control municipal government easily."
I learned about 'SANWARI-jichi' from the study of the Guide test, which means each municipality's own finance resorce is averagely 30%of its revenue, so I answered like that. But I wonder if the rest of the finance comes from the government only as the subsidy?
Can it gives us so much amount of money? I'm less confident if I'm right or not.
Anyway we, five members,Toki,Keiko,Michiyo, Yasuko and I tried to speak more than Jpnathan for 2 hours. We enjoyed a lot. So other members, please join us next time!
Hi, my lovely friends, how are you?
I’m getting back to my normal life, but I’m still busy doing this and that, which tired me a lot.
My work will start next week and I’ll go to Osaka to see my sister on Thursday, which I had planned before I went to Sydney. I’ll be back in Nagoya on Friday night, and so I am very sorry I could not join you in discussion on Friday morning. After the second long weekend, I suppose I will have some free time. But until then, I will be totally occupied, though I really hate this madly busy schedule, but it cannot be helped.
Last night I told you about BF, and I just want to mention Kate Millet and her book as well as her strong hypothesis.
As I mentioned yesterday, in 1963 The Feminine Mystique was published in the USA and ignited the contemporary women's movement. It was a sensational nonfiction publication.
Then, seven years later, Sexual Politics (1970) by Kate Millet (1934- ) came out, and “the book offered a comprehensive critique of patriarchy in Western society and literature” (Wikipedia).
Do you remember that I mentioned that Engels explained patriarchy in his book Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State? But it cannot be said that he was successful in linking patriarchy with the oppression of women. His presentation of the theory “patriarchy” was not so clear and thus unsatisfactory and to be revised.
Therefore, Kate Millet made every effort to prove that patriarchy was the cause of male suppression of women, employing literal analysis of novels from a feminist point of view, which was thereafter called feminist readings. According to her interpretation, patriarchy is a social system that excludes women from various major and important social fields predominated by men.
I don’t know whether you agree with her or not, but it was another sensational philosophy, and the then women’s liberation movement got more and more exciting. She had a Japanese husband, and I think I read somewhere an article about her reason why she married a Japanese man: she simply wanted to know what a third, segregated citizen, by which she meant a Japanese man, was like in the US. In US society, of course, the first was white men, and the second white women, and then after them other races, definately in the order men and women, came. This sexist or social class ranking has not changed even now, I believe.
Sexual Politics is an extremely interesting book, but perhaps is a little hard to read and understand, but not as hard as JSM’s The Subjection of Women (1869) or MW’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). If you are interested in KM’s interpretation of patriarchy, please read the section: Theory of Sexual Politics. It is not a long essay. You may identify what you are thinking about with her hypothesis. Actually I did…
I hope you had a lot of good time today. It was another hectic day for me today, it was not as bad as yesterday, though.
I will work a little longer tonight. Goodnight, my precious friends. Sweet dreams.
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