Japanese society in the 1990s and 2000s produced a range of complicated material about sexualized schoolgirls, and few topics have caught the imagination of western observers so powerfully. While ...young Japanese girls had previously been portrayed as demure and obedient, in training to become the obedient wife and prudent mother, in recent years less than demure young women have become central to urban mythology and the content of culture. The cultic fascination with the figure of a deviant school girl, which has some of its earliest roots in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, likewise re-emerged and proliferated in fascinating and timely ways in the 1990s and 2000s.
Through exploring the history and politics underlying the cult of girls in contemporary Japanese media and culture, this book presents a striking picture of contemporary Japanese society from the 1990s to the start of the 2010s. At its core is an in-depth case study of the media delight and panic surrounding delinquent prostitute schoolgirls. Sharon Kinsella traces this social panic back to male anxieties relating to gender equality and female emancipation in Japan. In each chapter in turn, the book reveals the conflicted, nostalgic, pornographic, and at times distinctly racialized manner, in which largely male sentiments about this transformation of gender relations have been expressed. The book simultaneously explores the stylistic and flamboyant manner in which young women have reacted to the weight of an obsessive and accusatory male media gaze.
Covering the often controversial subjects of compensated dating (enjo kôsai), the role of porn and lifestyle magazines, the historical sources and politicized social meanings of the schoolgirl, and the racialization of fashionable girls, Schoolgirls, Money, Rebellion in Japan will be invaluable to students and scholars of Japanese culture and society, sociology, anthropology, gender and women's studies.
This article explores the rise of specific new modes of gender ambivalence from within male subculture and mass media in the 2000s and examines the emergence of the cute cross-dressing 'otoko no ko'. ...The broader context of this emerging orientation towards girlishness and cuteness is the now widely-documented circumstances of the recessionary period, particularly in the decade from the steepening of the recession and labor market deregulation from around 2006-2008 forwards. Interestingly, this precise period also correlates with a moment of creative escalation and bifurcation in male subcultural positions and forms: witnessing the emergence of self-defined himote ('don't haves' partners/ sex) as well as otoko no ko in manga, animation and bedroom and upload subculture. Hints about the relatively weak position of fans and readers of otoko no ko in the labor market, and aspects of the language and ideas underlying the process of transformation through josō fashion, will be explored. Suggestions will be posed about the: undetermined qualities of male cross-dressed parodies of shōjo idols; the increased importance of self-discipline and self-transformation, and the personal effort to be 'cute' and 'appeal' and in order to fulfil the proscriptions for success in the late capitalist economy; and finally, the fuller significance of finding an 'orientation' for both financial and psychological survival.
The purpose of this study was to compare 2 methods of identifying an appropriate drop height for bounce depth jump (DJ) training, which aimed to improve reactive strength and countermovement jump ...(CMJ) performance. The maximum jump height (MJH) method was compared to the reactive strength index (RSI) method. The first part of the study identified each participant's drop height for both methods and determined the extent to which both methods differed. The subsequent part of the study used an 8-week bounce DJ training program to compare the effectiveness of the MJH and RSI methods. Twenty-two male participants volunteered. There was a significant difference between the MJH and the RSI methods in the optimal drop height they identified (median = 0.40 and 0.30 m, respectively), with 19 participants exhibiting a difference of 0.10 m or more. These 19 participants were assigned to 1 of 3 training groups: a control, an MJH method, and an RSI method group. The results demonstrated a significant increase in pre to posttraining in reactive strength (MJH: 27.3 +/- 18.7%, p = 0.025; RSI: 11.8 +/- 10.1%, p = 0.019) and CMJ performance (MJH: 9.9 +/- 5.2%, p = 0.009; RSI: 9.2 +/- 4.8%, p = 0.006) in both the MJH and RSI groups, respectively, with no change in the control group. The study concluded that either method can be used to identify the optimal drop height in bounce DJ training to increase CMJ performance, but the MJH method should be used to improve reactive strength.
Abstract Following stroke an equinus deformity of the foot may develop, which may affect the gait pattern of patients differently. Sub-categorization of gait patterns in these patients would be ...helpful in developing and delivering more targeted treatment. A hierarchical cluster analysis was used to classify the gait patterns of 23 chronic stroke patients with equinus deformity of the foot based on temporal distance parameters and joint kinematic and kinetic measures in the sagittal and coronal planes. Cluster analysis showed that gait patterns were not singularly homogenous and identified three subgroups that contained within group homogenous levels of function. Further analysis identified significant differences between the subgroups in some of the temporal distance and kinematic and kinetic measures examined. The results from this study can be used to categorise patients, facilitating appropriate development of targeted treatment.
Physical activity interventions have been shown to decrease anxiety in children with ASD. There is little known regarding the effects of an exercise program on anxiety in both home and school ...settings and the optimal dosage to reduce anxiety. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the effects of a 16-week exercise program on the anxiety levels of children with moderate to severe symptoms of ASD in home and school settings, and to compare the effects at 8 and 16 weeks. This study was a within-subject, non-controlled design, intervention study. Twenty-four children (5−18 years) with moderate to severe ASD were included. A school-based exercise program was implemented three days a week for 16 weeks. Parents and teachers completed the Anxiety Scale for Children for ASD (ASC-ASD) at baseline, week 8, and week 16. A one-way repeated-measure ANOVA with post hoc analysis using Bonferroni adjustment was used to test for a significant effect for time (p < 0.05), with Cohen’s d used to calculate the effect size. For teacher-reported anxiety, there were significant decreases from baseline to week 16 for total ASC-ASD (p < 0.001), performance anxiety (p < 0.001), anxious arousal (p < 0.001), and uncertainty (p < 0.001). There was no significant decrease in parent-reported anxiety. The findings demonstrate that a 16-week exercise program can reduce anxiety in children with ASD in school settings. Results demonstrate that 16 weeks, as opposed to 8, may be necessary to have a significant effect on in-school anxiety.
Previous research has proven that the balance of autistic children is poor. However, the reliability of assessing balance in this cohort has been inadequately researched. This study therefore aimed ...to examine if field-based static and dynamic balance tests can be reliably assessed in autistic children, to determine the number of familiarisation sessions required and whether autistic severity impacts on the reliability of these balance tests. The balance of eighteen primary school-aged autistic children was assessed three times a week over five weeks, using the flamingo balance test, a modified version of the balance error scoring system (BESS), the low beam walking test, and the heel to toe walking test. Reliability criteria included an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) level of ≥0.75 and a coefficient of variance (CV%) of ≤46% for the low beam walking test, the heel to toe walking test, and the BESS, and a CV% of ≤82% or the flamingo balance test. Inter-session reliability was achieved and required the least number of familiarisation sessions for the flamingo balance test, compared to the low beam walking test, which required a greater number of familiarisation sessions to achieve inter-session reliability. The heel to toe walking test and the BESS achieved inter-session reliability and familiarisation in an acceptable time frame. Due to the large CV% values reported in the current study, practitioners need to be aware that balance interventions need to achieve improvements greater than the CV% in this cohort.
The author examines the pre-occupation with the school uniform in Japan. She traces the conceptual history of the uniform in Japan: from its first inception as military apparel through its associated ...with the post-war avant-garde homoeroticism- biker gangs its reappearance in the oeuvre exploiting the Lolita complex till finally arriving at the media obsession with high-school girls in uniform in the 1990s. Revisiting the original values attached the Japanese military-style uniform in the Meiji period sheds necessary light on the deeper meaning of a reasons for contemporary uniform fetishism, she says.
PDF
