Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!CALA-MUZIK!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!news-out.readnews.com!news-xxxfer.readnews.com!postnews.google.com!news3.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local01.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.islandhosting.com!news.islandhosting.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 10:05:00 -0500 Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 08:01:38 -0700 From: Dan Rempel User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.7 (Macintosh/20060909) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan,sci.lang.japan Subject: Re: Western women should try to become OL's. References: <453eb559$0$14299$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au> <4sz%g.52545$rP1.46528@news-server.bigpond.net.au> <453ee51a$0$2917$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au> <2006102517031743658-paul@hiddenfortressten> <200610252306218930-paul@hiddenfortressten> In-Reply-To: <200610252306218930-paul@hiddenfortressten> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Organization: Organization is overrated Message-ID: <6034ad168fc3d56a217cad6eeb6aade7@grapevine.islandnet.com> X-Tracking: 453F7C51350E5A2821195305604E086B61520F6B605C0977604C09 X-Report-Abuse-To: news@islandnet.com X-NNRP-Cache: Grapevine 2.0 -- http://grapevine.islandnet.com/ Lines: 48 NNTP-Posting-Host: 199.175.106.126 X-Trace: sv3-IowahJJXhID940wXClTKEy5l6iQwokAuDlphm/S9hH7OiG6WvLRdnhZ6xVyDMz/Zt3/LpTnyIAUoAzK!as+6JjK/lJh2nSOdqmTgIr3R0kNoa2xSlDp431fmmbmihfUK48XalsjvzHLPdDyGrBsJO9fl+0ZD!7lpAPcC3ulz2EXS63CalNB+mQHFiRyxTDnofJs8= X-Complaints-To: abuse@islandnet.com X-DMCA-Complaints-To: abuse@islandhosting.com X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.32 Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.life.in-japan:164584 Paul D wrote: > On 2006-10-25 22:12:30 +0900, Dan Rempel said: > >> Paul D wrote: >>>> >>>> It's always strange when foreign people try to do a hatchet job on the >>>> Japanese like the above article. Many of the statements in it are >>>> untrue or plain silly. Anyone who knows a cross-section of Japanese >>>> people would easily be able to come up with counter-examples for very >>>> many of the statements in the article. In fact a good exercise would >>>> be to hand this article out to a bunch of Japanese and see how many >>>> surprised reactions you can get. >>>> >>>> Many of the other statements would be true in any other country. I >>>> remember once reading an article by a Japanese woman who lived in >>>> America about how, in Japan, Japanese women were all required to dress >>>> nicely for the sake of conformity. She then went on to describe how >>>> free life was in America, where "everyone wears jeans". It immediately >>>> struck me as being ridiculous. Nobody in America would think of having >>>> to conform! Everyone is so free and so wildly individualistic in the >>>> USA, because they *all* *wear* *jeans*! There's obviously nothing >>>> conformist about everyone wearing the same type of clothes. >>> >>> Heh, the first thing that struck me (well one of them) when I came to >>> Japan was that the Japanese actually expressed more individualism in >>> their dress and hairstyles (when off-duty) than Canadians did — contrary >>> to the dearth of individualism I'd been warned about. In much of Canada, >>> and I suspect the US as well, putting too much care into your appearance >>> is seen as effiminate, but the Japanese have no such prohibition. >>> >>> Maybe Japanese women do all dress nicely — because they want to look >>> nice! And a very nice change it makes too from back home, where sweat >>> pants were considered everyday clothing. >> >> In Tokyo a couple of weeks ago I was struck by the variety of women's >> clothing styles, work as well as casual. I especially liked some of the >> fashion disasters: spectacular rather than simply idiotic. > > I heard someone call this the "closet explosion" category of Japanese > fashion. I'll refrain from making the obvious comeback. Dan -- Before Xerox, five carbons were the maximum extension of anybody's ego.