An assistant professor in the Department of Cultural Anthropology
at Duke University, Allison worked as a hostess in a Tokyo club,
where she examined how the rituals of a hostess define gender
identities in Japan. Allison combines feminism with Asian studies
in her examination of night work. Japanese corporations bond their
white-collar workers to the company with after-hours drinking
sessions that employees are expected to attend - and their wives to
allow. Allison partially criticizes her subjects, who justify these
sessions as part of their culture. As she digs into their points of
view, she tells us, "My goal here is to lay out the cultural ideas
that support corporate entertainment by framing and legitimizing it
as cultural custom." As far as possible, she "lets the voices of
Japanese speak for themselves." Men often come to these bondings
"straight from work, tired, uptight, and insecure." As part of the
corporate life, bonding is work, even though it is made to seem
like nonwork. The hostess's job is to create a warm, pleasant
atmosphere and lively discussion. Even so, she can also "be
insulted, ignored, and walked away from [and] 'put in her place' by
the men for whom she's lighting cigarettes, pouring drinks, and
instigating conversation. She is lectured, her appearance is
evaluated and criticized, her body is ogled and pawed...." Allison
describes the Japanese take on the meaning and place of work; the
family and home; male play with money, women, and sex; male rituals
of masculinity; and the ways in which white-collar workers are
impotent. After retirement, deprived of the money for expensive
booze and hostesses, the poor male finds himself in a reverse role,
ruled by the absolute master of domestic space, his wife. Serious
anthropology but also much like a long night out, expenses paid.
(Kirkus Reviews)
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 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.
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