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A cure for woundless pain
Consumption of innocence in Japanese idol culture
- Source: Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, Volume 33, Issue 1, Mar 2023, p. 87 - 102
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- 31 Dec 2019
- 24 Jul 2021
- 08 Oct 2021
Abstract
Abstract
As a cultural construct, the idol is a consumer product created to “heal” in the age of exhaustion. Layering a “guardian” aspect onto Laura Mulvey’s “male gaze,” this paper contextualizes the commodification and consumption of innocence. This paper brings the documentary, Tokyo Idols (2017), and the animated film, Perfect Blue (1997), into a conversation to theorize how femininity is constructed and commodified in Japan’s pop idol industry. The idol culture consumes innocence only to create more trauma for women by stressing the arbitrary importance of innocence and sacrificing female agency in the process.
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