Remembering the Oriental Witches: Sports, Gender and Showa Nostalgia in the NHK Narratives of the Tokyo Olympics

Merklejn, Iwona

doi:10.1093/ssjj/jyt015

Cited by 8 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…A content analysis of media coverage of Asian athletes during Olympic games indicates that reporters focused on the sportswomen’s athletic achievements (rather than relationships) and tended to “stress nationalism and the special meaning of medals for the countries” (Yu, 2009: 301) Although gender stereotypes might be absent, the athletes’ function in serving the state results in representations that maintain patriarchal power structures. Studying representations of the Japanese women’s volleyball team, Merklejn found that female athletes are positioned as national heroines, appearing in “remarkably non-gendered” ways in media coverage (Merklejn, 2013: 247). Yet, when situated within the social and cultural contexts, these representations actually uphold gender hierarchies.…”

Section: Global Representations Of Sportswomenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Turned into the Women’s Journal”: Representation of sportswomen in Hungary’s sports magazine

Antunovic

2017

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

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Over the last few decades, scholars have dedicated much attention to the coverage of sportswomen in the media. However, few of these studies are situated within the Central Eastern European context. In this study, I analyze the textual and visual coverage of sportswomen in the Hungarian monthly sports magazine Presztízs Sport and examine the ways in which Hungarian national identity is articulated through discourses of sport, athletic competence, and womanhood. This sports magazine reflects some of the global patterns in the representation of sportswomen, but also distinguishes athletes based on the sport's historical success in Hungary. Further, it positions the családanya, the "family-mother" as a gender ideal that transcends other representation categories. The maternal athletic body affirms conservative values and contributes to the aspirations of nation-building through both reproduction and elite sporting success.

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Section: Global Representations Of Sportswomenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Turned into the Women’s Journal”: Representation of sportswomen in Hungary’s sports magazine

Antunovic

2017

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

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“…It provides evidence that the happiness of migrants in urban areas is related to events in their homes. This can be interpreted as meaning that nostalgia for home has 22 Apart from broadcasting the Kōshien tournament, NHK has attempted more broadly to promote Japanese nostalgia by broadcasting sports programs (Merklejn, 2013). 23 The migrant's home country network plays a critical role in the labour and marriage markets (see e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identity, nostalgia and happiness among migrants: The case of the Kōshien High School Baseball Tournament in Japan

Yamamura

2017

Pacific Economic Review

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Public broadcasting of all games of high school baseball tournaments attests to their popularity in Japan. The present study uses individual-level data to test the hypothesis that nostalgia influences the level of happiness of Japanese people. Its key findings were: (i) the number of wins by a prefecture team increased the happiness level of its residents; (ii) this effect applied only to residents of large cities; and (iii) for urban migrants, originally from rural areas, the effect of their home team wins exceeded that of the wins of their host area team. This effect was significant in cases where the host area cultural climate differed from that of the migrant home area. These findings suggest that a scarcity of 'identity' goods related to the residential community increases high school baseball influence on happiness. Furthermore, the influence of nostalgia for home on migrants' happiness is greater than their attachment to their current residential community.Pac Econ Rev. bs_bs_banner bs_bs_banne r YAMAMURA bs_bs_banne r 794 bs_bs_banner YAMAMURA 5 bs_bs_banne r YAMAMURA bs_bs_banne r

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“…I also add to the burgeoning conversation on Japanese women athletes. Several scholars have tracked the gender and nationalistic discourses of the women’s volleyball team, Tōyō no Majo (Oriental Witches), during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics (Macnaughtan, 2014; Merklejn, 2013; Tagsold, 2011). Except for Kietlinski’s (2011) analysis of Olympic gold medalist Arakawa in her historical monograph on Japanese sportswomen, few scholars have examined Japanese figure skaters and figure skating culture.…”

Section: Contextualizing (Japanese) Women’s Sportsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing tears and triple axels: Media representations of Japan’s women figure skaters

2015

International Journal of Cultural Studies

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Anticipating the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, this article uses the triple axel jump, one of the most challenging moves in women's figure skating, as a heuristic device to track representations of Japanese skaters Ito Midori and Asada Mao in the New York Times and Asahi Shimbun. Ito and Asada are two of only six women to have landed triple axels at international figure skating competitions. Employing affect and feminist theories, I argue that constructions of the skaters' bodies are not just gendered and heteronormative, but also sexed, raced, and affective. Using discourse analysis, I trace how media representations of Ito and Asada redraw global color lines and national boundaries in sport and negotiate different femininities, underscoring excessive feelings and physical appearance. Contributing to feminist sport studies and transnational feminist cultural studies, this comparative analysis offers new perspectives on women's sports in Japan and athleticism's relation to race, femininities, and national identity.

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Remembering the Oriental Witches: Sports, Gender and Showa Nostalgia in the NHK Narratives of the Tokyo Olympics

Cited by 8 publications

References 4 publications

“Turned into the Women’s Journal”: Representation of sportswomen in Hungary’s sports magazine

“Turned into the Women’s Journal”: Representation of sportswomen in Hungary’s sports magazine

Identity, nostalgia and happiness among migrants: The case of the Kōshien High School Baseball Tournament in Japan

Tracing tears and triple axels: Media representations of Japan’s women figure skaters

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