Sex, Lies, and Cultural Beliefs
"Guns, race, meat, and Manifest Destiny all collide in a single explosion of violent, dehumanized activity" that resulted in Yoshihiro Hattori’s murder. Other phenomena that clash in My Year of Meats are that of Jane and Akiko’s individual fertility struggles and cultural beliefs that contributes to the results of each woman’s intimate relationships.
In the early part of the novel, we learn that Akiko’s menstruation cycles had ceased, perhaps because of her eating and purging habits, thus preventing her from having "John’s" children. In the Japanese culture, one would consider it unusual if a couple did not have children soon after marriage. This fuels John’s anger and frustration with Akiko, who beats her because she is, in his eyes, stupid, disrespectful, and dishonest, which in turn, does not help her struggle with conceiving. Akiko, being the stereotypical obedient, submissive Japanese wife, defies these cultural beliefs when she does not notify her husband of the return of her menstruation, with her secret promiscuous behavior, and the betrayal of John as she contacts Jane with the intentions of sabotaging his career.
Like Akiko, Jane Takagi-Little had also had great difficulty in attempting to conceive with her husband. The failure of having a child may have contributed to the failure of her first marriage. But in stark contrast to the Japanese culture and their beliefs, Jane is having causal sexual relations with a man named Sloan while on location in her shoots of My American Wife!. Although this type of activity does not classify as the practical relationship between a man and a woman in the American cultural, it has become more prevalent and more accepted, especially amongst those in the later generations. The two engage in unprotected sex for the first time when they come to the conclusion that it is safe to do so since Jane is sterile. To everyone’s shock, she gets pregnant. Not only is it complete taboo (in the Japanese culture) that a woman is having casual sex with a man she is not married to, it is of even greater outrage that she has a child out of wedlock. The unexpected pregnancy initially appeared to have dampened the pair’s informal relationship that they have become accustom to, but eventually, the existence their baby helped to create a meaningful, caring, respectful relationship. While Akiko and John’s marriage faltered under the struggles of having children in a marriage that lacks love and respect through a web of Japanese cultural beliefs, Jane and Sloan had built a near ideal relationship from a fling with the foundation of an unplanned pregnancy in a woman who was believed to be infertile.
In the early part of the novel, we learn that Akiko’s menstruation cycles had ceased, perhaps because of her eating and purging habits, thus preventing her from having "John’s" children. In the Japanese culture, one would consider it unusual if a couple did not have children soon after marriage. This fuels John’s anger and frustration with Akiko, who beats her because she is, in his eyes, stupid, disrespectful, and dishonest, which in turn, does not help her struggle with conceiving. Akiko, being the stereotypical obedient, submissive Japanese wife, defies these cultural beliefs when she does not notify her husband of the return of her menstruation, with her secret promiscuous behavior, and the betrayal of John as she contacts Jane with the intentions of sabotaging his career.
Like Akiko, Jane Takagi-Little had also had great difficulty in attempting to conceive with her husband. The failure of having a child may have contributed to the failure of her first marriage. But in stark contrast to the Japanese culture and their beliefs, Jane is having causal sexual relations with a man named Sloan while on location in her shoots of My American Wife!. Although this type of activity does not classify as the practical relationship between a man and a woman in the American cultural, it has become more prevalent and more accepted, especially amongst those in the later generations. The two engage in unprotected sex for the first time when they come to the conclusion that it is safe to do so since Jane is sterile. To everyone’s shock, she gets pregnant. Not only is it complete taboo (in the Japanese culture) that a woman is having casual sex with a man she is not married to, it is of even greater outrage that she has a child out of wedlock. The unexpected pregnancy initially appeared to have dampened the pair’s informal relationship that they have become accustom to, but eventually, the existence their baby helped to create a meaningful, caring, respectful relationship. While Akiko and John’s marriage faltered under the struggles of having children in a marriage that lacks love and respect through a web of Japanese cultural beliefs, Jane and Sloan had built a near ideal relationship from a fling with the foundation of an unplanned pregnancy in a woman who was believed to be infertile.
posted by JessHo at 9/10/2006 04:42:00 PM
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