What is it about?
In this chapter I explore the historical shift in women’s clothing in Japan, from kimono to dress, and from skirts to pants, paying particular attention to an item called “monpe” which played a crucial role in the changes in the social perception of femininity. The 1964 film I discuss supports my critical view on the construction of the ideal woman through a nostalgic male gaze.
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Why is it important?
My focus is to re-establish that women’s clothing is not simply a randomly chosen fashion but it reflects the ways women are situated in the society.
Perspectives
I am specially interested in the danger of a nostalgic gaze, which reconstructs what was not there but would have been there. It affects both women and men equally.
Rio Otomo
Japan Institute for the Moving Image
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Monpe Eroticism in Echigo Tsutsuishi Oyashirazu: Revisiting 1964 in Film, February 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004715462_003.
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