Groomed For Business: Constructing the White-Collar Man’s Body in Contemporary Japan

Over the past few decades in Japan, the male body has been subject to increasing scrutiny and pressures to groom, trends that have been analysed as a counter to the orthodox ‘salaryman’ figure, thus largely excluding him from debates about the male body. Yet, the white-collar man, who remains an ideological reference for masculinity, has in fact also been incorporating various social changes into his identity. This thesis places the focus back on white-collar men by investigating their everyday grooming behaviours at work and in private in contemporary Japan. I ask how bodies reproduce masculinities and give rise to the ongoing rearrangement of gendered hierarchies within. My data consist primarily of interviews with white-collar men across various industries and generations, and cultural representations of men’s grooming in how-to books and fashion magazines. My fundamental contention is that while white-collar men’s bodies have been subject to increased scrutiny, ‘new’ standards are incorporated into ‘old’ emphases based on the gendered imperative to be productive. Good grooming such as by exuding a sense of cleanliness or being physically fit is a key component of doing a good job. I thus put the body back in the white-collar man by elucidating the central role that the body plays in reproducing white-collar masculinities, underscoring that masculinities – like all genders – are fundamentally embodied identities. The primacy of productivity also means that hierarchies of bodies come into focus. Some bodies are necessarily subordinated, such as unfit bodies, overweight bodies, balding bodies, aged bodies and women’s bodies. Thus, while ‘white-collar’ – or any gender identity – may on the surface appear unified, we must problematise such understandings. Getting at these men’s lived, embodied experiences brings into relief the on-going tensions within white-collar Japan.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Tso, Christopher

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Steger, Brigitte

• masculinity
• embodiment
• Japanese society
• genders and sexualities

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/134c564b-2221-44bc-81f7-c05420e01c0b/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.63924

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/316809