Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club
by Anne Allison
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Description
In Nightwork, Anne Allison opens a window onto Japanese corporate culture and gender identities. Allison performed the ritualized tasks of a hostess in one of Tokyo's many "hostess clubs": pouring drinks, lighting cigarettes, and making flattering or titillating conversation with the businessmen who came there on company expense accounts. Her book critically examines how such establishments create bonds among white-collar men and forge a masculine identity that suits the needs of their show more corporations. Allison describes in detail a typical company outing to such a club-what the men do, how they interact with the hostesses, the role the hostess is expected to play, and the extent to which all of this involves "play" rather than "work." Unlike previous books on Japanese nightlife, Allison's ethnography of one specific hostess club (here referred to as Bijo) views the general phenomenon from the eyes of a woman, hostess, and feminist anthropologist. Observing that clubs like Bijo further a kind of masculinity dependent on the gestures and labors of women, Allison seeks to uncover connections between such behavior and other social, economic, sexual, and gendered relations. She argues that Japanese corporate nightlife enables and institutionalizes a particular form of ritualized male dominance: in paying for this entertainment, Japanese corporations not only give their male workers a self-image as phallic man, but also develop relationships to work that are unconditional and unbreakable. This is a book that will appeal to anyone interested in gender roles or in contemporary Japanese society. show lessTags
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mercure Check for yourself how the same profession is experienced in a neighbouring country in a different decade.
Member Reviews
A little dense, but nevertheless very insightful look into gender in Japan. If you follow the building of the arguments through to the end, you will find that it's definitely worth it.
A female American anthropologists works at a hostess bar. The set-up sounds infinitely more interesting than the final product.
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Author Information
7 Works 350 Members
Anne Allison is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. She is coeditor of the journal Cultural Anthropology.
Common Knowledge
- Important places
- Tokyo, Japan
Classifications
- Genres
- Anthropology, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Sexuality and Gender Studies, History
- DDC/MDS
- 394.120952135 — Society, government, & culture Customs, etiquette & folklore General customs Eating, drinking, using drugs Eating and drinking standard subdivisions History, geographic treatment, biography
- LCC
- GT3415 .J3 .A45 — Geography, Anthropology and Recreation Manners and customs (General) Manners and customs (General) Customs relative to public and social life
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 138
- Popularity
- 237,947
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.77)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 1
