Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Host club as the site of female sexual fantasy
In and outside Japan, the Japanese women are still portrayed (in the Japanese pop culture i.e. mangas, tv variety shows etc,) to be passive, obedient and docile (not all the time, but women tend to have roles of assisting/supporting men and there is an expectation from Japanese men for women to fulfill this role). In the western pop culture, Japanese women (or Asian women in general) have been portrayed as the oriental exotics i.e. Geishas- who entertain men with their artistic skills i.e. music, poetry, traditional dance and has a patron (danna) who will support her financially.
Since the 90s, some Japanese women have sought to fulfill and control their own sexual fantasies and escape from gender roles ascribed by the phallocentric society by going to host clubs. Host clubs now exist in large numbers in Kabuki-cho district in Tokyo. Some host clubs have websites where they post profiles of the hosts i.e. height, weight, contact info. with the picture. (An example of a host club profile, Host Club Nude )Upon entering the host club, female customers choose their hosts and flirt with them while buying expensive drinks (Price of drinks can range from 5,000 yen to 3 million yen (15,000 USD) for a bottle of champagne).
The cost and the number of expensive drinks determine how long the male hosts will serve the female customer i.e. flirting, lighting a cigarette, giving advice and may develop into amorous relationship. Hosts earn a lot of money. The male hosts are often in late teens-in 20s where as the female customers tend to be older women (single or married) who have the money or can even be female hostesses who do the same job as the male hosts but for men. In addition, strip clubs (where males (mostly foreign men who are not Asian) striptease) also exist. This web article notes that sometimes women may fall into prostitution to pay off the tabs but I think host clubs and strip clubs in Japan is be an example of places where phallocentric sex can be rejected and where female sexual fantasies can be fulfilled if the female has the sufficient power of money to purchase the service of the host.
A good article about hosts:
http://www.pripix.com/features/hosts.htm
Other sites:
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_club
Chicago Scholarly Review http://csr.uchicago.edu/content/1-3-rupcic.html
International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) http://www.iias.nl/iias/show/id=56141/framenoid=42832
Since the 90s, some Japanese women have sought to fulfill and control their own sexual fantasies and escape from gender roles ascribed by the phallocentric society by going to host clubs. Host clubs now exist in large numbers in Kabuki-cho district in Tokyo. Some host clubs have websites where they post profiles of the hosts i.e. height, weight, contact info. with the picture. (An example of a host club profile, Host Club Nude )Upon entering the host club, female customers choose their hosts and flirt with them while buying expensive drinks (Price of drinks can range from 5,000 yen to 3 million yen (15,000 USD) for a bottle of champagne).
The cost and the number of expensive drinks determine how long the male hosts will serve the female customer i.e. flirting, lighting a cigarette, giving advice and may develop into amorous relationship. Hosts earn a lot of money. The male hosts are often in late teens-in 20s where as the female customers tend to be older women (single or married) who have the money or can even be female hostesses who do the same job as the male hosts but for men. In addition, strip clubs (where males (mostly foreign men who are not Asian) striptease) also exist. This web article notes that sometimes women may fall into prostitution to pay off the tabs but I think host clubs and strip clubs in Japan is be an example of places where phallocentric sex can be rejected and where female sexual fantasies can be fulfilled if the female has the sufficient power of money to purchase the service of the host.
A good article about hosts:
http://www.pripix.com/features/hosts.htm
Other sites:
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_club
Chicago Scholarly Review http://csr.uchicago.edu/content/1-3-rupcic.html
International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) http://www.iias.nl/iias/show/id=56141/framenoid=42832
# posted by Anonymous @ 1:59 AM 
