The Discovery Of X Rays By Wilhelm Roentgen Essay

While the discovery of x-rays by Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895 was a major breakthrough in medical diagnosis and treatment, it was not without its own problems. The cancer-related deaths of earlier scientists like Pierre and Marie Curie, and Thomas Alva Edison who were directly exposed to radiation from their discoveries on radium and calcium tungstate respectively, were the proof of how dangerous the new breakthrough could be when handled without the necessary precautions. The work of Martha S. Linet, Kwang Pyo Kim, Donald L. Miller, Ruth A. Klienerman, Steven L. Simon, and Amy Berrington de Gonzalez traces the history of cancer risk in medical workers through the years from the early discovery of radiation. According to the findings done by Linet et al, recent research has found that cancer risk per dose of medical workers when measure is the same as that from the survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bombs. Apart from the research done mostly on the survivors of Japan’s Hiroshima a tomic bomb, very little research has been done specifically to fully comprehend the scope of the devastation that comes along with a life time career as a medical radiation worker. Given this limitation, the research studies done by Linet et al focuses primarily on the impact on radiologist and radiologic technologists. Nevertheless, the limited research findings report a substantial decline in the number of cancers related deaths amongst medical radiation workers over the years. Linet et al’s researchShow MoreRelated The Discovery of X-Rays Essay1005 Words   |  5 PagesThe Discovery of X-Rays X-rays were discovered by accident in 1895 by the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen. Roentgen was already an accomplished scientist with forty-eight published papers. He had a reputation among the scientific community as a dedicated scientist with precise experimental methods. Roentgen had been conducting experiments at the University of Wurzburg on the effect of cathode-rays on the luminescence of certain chemicals. Roentgen had placed a cathode-ray tube, whichRead MoreWilhelm Rontgen and the Nobel Prize Essay567 Words   |  3 PagesWilhelm Conrad Rontgen was born on March 27, 1845 in Lennep, Prussia; which is now Remscheid, Germany. His family moved to Apeldoorn in the Netherlands, where we went to Institute of Martinus Herman van Doorn, a boarding school. He did not show any special aptitude, but he had a fascination with nature and loved roaming the countryside and walking through forests. Later he attended a technical school in Utrecht, but unfortunately was unfairly ex pelled for allegedly drawing a rude caricature of oneRead MoreTaking a Look at X-Rays822 Words   |  3 PagesThe first human x-ray was taken and discovered by German scientist Wilhelm Roentgen’s first experiment with cathode tube rays. The photo taken was the hand of his wife, Bertha. On the photo you can see a clear view of her hand through the flesh and bone. The first human X-ray was an amazing discovery. Numerous people including scientists, and inventors were so fascinated by the discovery that they started to experiment with cathode tube rays. But even so, x-rays have made many contributions to theRead More Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen Essay2023 Words   |  9 Pages Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen was born on March 27, 1845 in Lennep, Germany to Friedrich and Charlotte Constance Roentgen. When he was three Wilhelm and his family moved to Apeldoorn, Nederland. His father owned a thriving cloth business so he was pretty well off. He lived right next to the Kostschool of Martinus Hermanus van Doorn, a boarding school with around eighty students, which he attended. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;He was expected after he graduated to go into his fathers business and eventuallyRead MoreThe History of the X-Rays Essay748 Words   |  3 Pagesof 1895, a German scientist by the name of Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen was working with a cathode-ray tube when he noticed nearby crystals were glowing. When Roentgen reached for the crystals he was amazed when the shadow cast on the crystal was not of his whole hand, but just his bones. Roentgen covered the tube with heavy black paper and saw that the crystals still glowed and the shadow of his hand bones still shown through, he then determined that a new ray was being emitted that could penetrate throughRead MoreDevelopment of the Periodic Table, X Rays and the Telescope Essay example853 Words   |  4 Pagesyou know that fire was the first chemical reaction humans learned to use and control? (worldbook.com) Chemistry has helped our world come up with new, advanced technology to benefit us all. Chemistry played a ro le in developing the periodic table, x-rays, and the telescope. Primarily, the Periodic Table of Elements was primarily thought to be developed by Dmitri Mendeleev. However, â€Å"Antoine Lavoisier first established the modern concept of the element in the late 1700s† (worldbook). MendeleevRead MoreHow Has Nuclear Medicine Propagated Science And Society?922 Words   |  4 PagesHow has nuclear medicine innovated science and society? Within the last century, science faced several discoveries that caused the scientific community and society to change one another. When evaluating the scientific discoveries during the twentieth century, the decisive advancements took place in the study of nuclear physics. Affecting both science and society inquires formed around medical uses for nuclear materials. Advanced research in nuclear science with radioisotopes allowed doctors to treatRead MoreRadiation has always been in everyday life even before Roentgen discovered x-ray. The mountains1600 Words   |  7 Pageslife even before Roentgen discove red x-ray. The mountains give off natural radiation, other forms of radiation are coal burning power plants, x-rays from a TV, and an airplane ride. The average dose from background radiation is about 360 mrem every year. There are two types of radiation, nonionizing and ionizing radiation. Examples of nonionizing radiation are microwaves and radio waves broadcasting. Ionizing radiation refers to gamma and x-rays. Ionizing radiation means that the rays are able to removeRead MoreA Brief Note On X Ray Vision Goggles1861 Words   |  8 PagesAbstract MRI’s today are the solution to X-Rays by having radio waves go back and forth transmitting signals that allow Doctors to see inside the human body. There are not many downsides of MRI’s, however MRI’s do not fit in the average waiting room by being circular tube like machines that take about 1 hour to produce a clear image of a patient’s problem. MRI’s are great when it comes to mental disabilities but when it comes to broken bones, it is too time consuming to wait in the machine for anRead MoreEssay about The History of Chemistry833 Words   |  4 Pagesscience, we have complex devices like cars, X-ray machines, computers, and phones. But the technologies that science has motivated consist of more than just hi-tech machines. Technology extends our abilities to change the world. Anticipating the effects of technology is therefore as important as advancing its capabilities. But also enhance our way of living and understanding of science. One of medicines most wonderful accomplishments is the use of X-rays to see inside the body without having a surgeon

Growing up in central Ohio there are several things that...

Growing up in central Ohio there are several things that you will see on a regular basis. One of these items in a buckeye, it is the symbol of the university here in town. Around the holidays we make candies called buckeyes that are rolled balls of peanut butter dipped in chocolate. People refer to individuals from Ohio as buckeyes as well. What is a buckeye and where does it come from? The buckeye tree, which is also, known as Aesculus Glabra is the state tree of Ohio. Sometimes called a horse chestnut the buckeye tree is commonly found throughout the Midwest reaching from Michigan all the way down to isolated areas of Texas and Oklahoma. The area is classified as the temperate deciduous forest biome. A favorite of early Ohio settlers†¦show more content†¦The trees aren’t going to be the tallest in the forest. They are usually 30-40 foot tall and 3-4 foot tall. The trees reach maturity with in 60-80 years of age and most often living upwards of 100 years of age. Like I previously mention the buckeye tree blooms early in the spring. Flowers are a white to yellow-greenish color and form in small clusters. Each flower will produce 1-2 seeds that will produce up to 5 nuts each inside the capsule. The capsule is a pale yellow color that is spiny. The tree is one of the earliest to lose their leaves in the fall turning to a nice yellow and red color before falling off. The buckeye tree has learned to adapt pretty well for survival. Its short stature means that it usually has taller trees in the forest towering over it. While it can grow in the shade it prefers to be in open clusters or along streambeds in moisture rich soil. It has also shown great resistance to fungus and disease. There are only six known diseases that affect the tree. One of the most common and most serious problems that the buckeye tree will experience is leaf scorch. Most likely caused by drought conditions or pollution. The buckeye tree is polygamo-monoecious. The flower cluster s at the base of the branch are fertile and can reproduce while the flowers further up the branch are staminate. A few other interesting things that I learned when doing the research on the buckeye treeShow MoreRelatedStatement of Purpose23848 Words   |  96 PagesOhio Wesleyan Writing Center Founded University Promoting1955 as a hallmark of liberal arts education writing Writing Guidelines Statements of Purpose From the OWU Writing Center in the Sagan Academic Resource Center The OWU Writing Center Corns 316 ââ€" ª (740-368-3925) ââ€" ª http://writing.owu.edu ââ€" ª open Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Ohio Wesleyan University Writing Center  © 2011 Writing Guidelines for Statements of Purpose Contents Writing Your Statement of Purpose ..........Read MoreStefan Thomke9089 Words   |  37 Pageslocation new product and service concepts were being tested continuously. Experiments included â€Å"virtual tellers,† video monitors displaying financial and investment news, computer stations uploading images of personal checks, and â€Å"hosting stations.† (See Exhibit 1 for a selection of experiments carried out in a single branch.) Currently, the ID team had 25 bank branches in Atlanta in its experimentation portfolio. Senior management, however, had now offered them additional branches across the countryRead MoreMenards E-Business Plan3782 Words   |  16 Pagesbuilding materials, hardware, electrical, wall coverings, plumbing, housewares, floor coverings, cabinets, appliances and much more. Menards is a privately held franchise headquartered in Eau Claire, Wisconsin; the company has 252 stores in 12 states: Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa , Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming. While the company does not release sales figures, it is believed to be the third largest home center chain in the United States behindRead MoreDollar to Fall as World Currency12311 Words   |  50 PagesWARNING: What you are about to see is controversial, and may be offensive to some audiences. Viewer discretion is advised. Hello. My name is Porter Stansberry. A little over ten years ago I founded Stansberry Associates Investment Research. It has become one of the largest and most recognized investment research companies in the world, serving hundreds of thousands of subscribers in more than 120 countries. You may know of our firm because of the work we did over the last several years –Read MoreDesigning a Customer Driven Statergy23698 Words   |  95 Pagesof understanding consumers and the marketplace environment. With that as background, you’re now ready to delve deeper into marketing strategy and tactics. This chapter looks further into key customer-driven marketing strategy decisions—how to divide up markets into meaningful customer groups (segmentation), choose which customer groups to serve (targeting), create market offerings that best serve target customers (differentiation), and position the offerings in the minds of consumers (positioning)Read MoreAirborne Express 310731 Words   |  43 Pagesthe quarter were up by 29% over the previous year, and yearto-date net earnings had increased by more than 500%. Airborne’s management team knew that the great results were, in part, fleeting. As the third largest player in the express mail industry, Airbor ne had gotten a boost from the recent strike at rival UPS. But that seemed to account for only a small portion of the earnings gain, perhaps one-fifth. Roy Liljebeck, the company’s chief financial officer, commented: While the UPS strike was theRead MoreCyber Crime8138 Words   |  33 Pagesit. Cyber criminals take advantages of vulnerabilities by using viruses, bots, etc to cause damage and/or maybe steal information. There are ways that this can be minimized by being aware of what the problems are. There are many problems but common ones are discussed. Not can these problems be solved on an individual or organization level but also on a global level. This paper will look at what cyber crime is and three topics that discuss the problems with cyber crime and how to prevent it. TheRead MoreRetailing Characteristics of Fast Food Stores and Their Impact on Customer Sales and Satisfaction29639 Words   |  119 Pagesindividual items. Computer-operated depots and logistical systems integrated store replenishment with consumer demand in a single electronic system. The superstore was born. On the Global Retail Stage, little has remained the same over the last decade. One of the few similarities with today is that Wal-Mart was ranked the top retailer in the world then and it still holds that distinction. Other than Wal-Mart’s dominance, there’s little about today’s environment that looks like the mid-1990s. The globalRead MoreBoyer Dbq Teacher Guide10764 Words   |  44 Pagesprior to 1660, the documents refer to some things that happened later and a student could reasonably include information on events that happened after that date to assess the success of the colonizing efforts. Students should be somewhat skilled at writing standard essays before attempting to answer DBQs. If your students have not mastered the expository essay form, you may want to try a simpler activity that will require them to use these documents. You could pose a quiz question requiring them toRead MoreEssay on Framing the User: Social Constructions of Marijuana Users9798 Words   |  40 PagesFraming the User: Social Constructions of Marijuana Users and the Medical Marijuana Movement Nelson A. Pichardo Almanzar Dept. of Sociology Central Washington University Ellensburg, WA 98926 Pichardn@cwu.edu Thanks to Laura Appleton and Ericka Stange for comments on an earlier draft. Thanks also to Kirk Johnson for his assistance in locating criminal data sets. Framing the User: Social Constructions of Marijuana Users and the Medical Marijuana Movement ABSTRACT Social movements are continuously

Dilation Essay Example For Students

Dilation Essay DilationDilation has been used for millions of years. Even in the ancient times and still we use it until this day. An example of dilation used in ancient times is when ancient Egyptians built the pyramids. The pyramids were built in different sizes, but proportional. Now in this day and time we use dilation in many aspects. Dilation is used in both science and math. In science the microscope shows dilation, without microscopes many of the scientific discoveries wouldnt be possible! In math dilationmainly is used in Geometry to draw figure of different sizes in proportional sizes. Inart dilation is used widely for, example architecture, paintings, and statues. In oureveryday life we have many examples of dilation like, binoculars, toy cars, little ornaments that represent larger ones in a smaller version. This involves the use of dilations, that is, transformations of the plane that are either contractions or expansions about a point (the center of the dilation), by a constant (positive) ratio. A dilation can either be an expansion (if the ratio is larger than one) or a contraction (if it is smaller than one). Look at the figure below.Construct a point C in the plane, and mark it as the center of dilation. Now draw any polygonal figure, and dilate it about the center C by a fixed ratio (1/2, or 3, or whatever). Drag around this polygon, and observe how the image changes. In particular look at the vertices, their images and the center. Can you see any relation among them? To find the scale factor we have to add one side of both corresponding sides and divide them by the corresponding side of the preimage. For example, side A for the preimage is equal to 5 and side A for the image is equal to 10. Thus, 5+10/5 so the scale factor will equal 3!!!!Preimage ImageWhen I first learned about d ilation, I thought that is wasnt important and that there was no use for it at all, but doin this project made my perspective of dilation and Geomety change. Dilation is important. I have learned that dilation isnt used in just Geometry, it is used in science, math, art, and our everyday life. Dilation is used everywhere, without you even realizing it, but hopefully after reading this you have realized that we need dilation.

The production as a whole Essay Example For Students

The production as a whole Essay The length of Dr MacFarlanes part has been shortened substantially, although I cant understand why, as Dr MacFarlane is one of the best characters (in my opinion). As well as a few additions and subtractions some things have been altered slightly. For example, on Willie and Maggies wedding night the performance shows Willie marching boldly into the bedroom, but in the play Maggie has to drag him in by the ear. Although they are a pretty important feature, a production doesnt just consist of a bunch of actors, and if one did it wouldnt be very successful, no matter how good the actors. We will write a custom essay on The production as a whole specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now A variety of other things are needed: music, sets, costumes, special effects, that sort of thing. All of these things are used in Leans production. The music, although sounding slightly dated, matches the feel of the film perfectly. On Willies wedding night, for example, the music turns into an important piece of the comedy. Just as Willie is about to march into the bedroom music swells up ominously, then suddenly changes into a sort of military piece as Willie strides valiantly into the unknown. The sets represent Victorian Salford: not a particularly lavish place, more adequately described as sombre (bordering on depressing), and are quite realistic. The costumes are realistically Victorian, and those who cannot determine this by eye will be able to guess when Hobson starts complaining about the bustles that Alice and Vicky wear. The special effects in the performance are few, and are nowhere near as impressive as modern SFX, but, considering this performance was filmed in 1954, the effects compliment the rest of the performance perfectly. The part where Hobson is delusional due to his many years of heavy drinking is a perfect example of the effects in Hobsons Choice, because in that scene Hobson imagines he sees a swarm of mosquitoes attacking him, and then imagines a man-sized rabbit at the foot of his bed. Overall I think that David Leans adaptation of Harold Brighouses Hobsons Choice is a marvel of its time. It sticks to the play almost word for word, and with the small changes that have been made the conversion from book to screen worked perfectly (although I think that Dr MacFarlanes role in this performance ends much too abruptly). The conflicting personalities of Hobson and Maggie are brought to life marvellously by Laughton and de Banzie, while John Mills timid Willie Mossop is stuck hopelessly in the middle. The grim streets of Victorian Salford make for the perfect background of this macabre slice of urban drama, while the comical antics of its residents lighten the atmosphere, making the genre of this performance somewhat enigmatic: comedy or drama? Whatever it is, it is certainly an intelligent piece of work (Hobsons entrapment by eldest daughter Maggie so that he is forced to award her and her sisters financial settlements is exceptionally clever), and Lean should be congratulated. Matthew Gibson, B10. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Harold Brighouse section.

Terrorism Essays - Terrorism, Definitions Of Terrorism, Free Essays

Terrorism Essays - Terrorism, Definitions Of Terrorism, Free Essays Terrorism As we are approaching the 21st century, it seems that terrorism is becoming another one of society's constant problems. It has reached to an extent that most of us have now become immune to it. We hear about the hijacking of different airplanes, kidnapping of diplomatic officers, slaughter of innocent civilians by other civilians and what do we do about it? Nothing. Due to some dirty fish, most of us do not protest anymore about passing our luggage through metal detectors and submitting to searches at airports. Some of us believe that terrorism is something that can not be controlled, just like poverty, discrimination and crime, which is just there. On the other hand, some experts believe that terrorism may be abolished if nations begin to follow a firm, non-tolerant approach taken by countries like ________. What do most terrorists really want? Well, terrorists in most instances first strike by doing something vicious like bombing an area, so that the government and the citizens of the country can be terrified of them. Then, they make their demands: _________, safe passage or release of their fellow terrorists. The media and the citizens then want the government to negotiate with their demands and give them whatever they want so that they can go away. The situation stated above is quite common and will only encourage further acts of terrorism. What can the government do to stop terrorism? *It can eliminate terrorism by showing the terrorists some action and retaliation as act of self-defense. *It can exert political pressure on nations that practice or support terrorism and refuse to trade with them. *It can refuse to sell these nations any kind of _________ and/or military devices. It can terminate ________ relations and close down their __________ in these nations. *Another response would be using military action, which should not be ruled out in the case of hijacking of ships or planes. These steps may have some good affects on other nations and soon the rest shall follow them.

Term Papers for Sale

Term Papers for Sale Term Papers for Sale Term Papers for Sale There are two types of term papers for sale. First, there are pre-written term papers for sale. These papers can be bought by any student and nobody will give you a refund if the paper does not fit your topic. Second, there are term papers for sale written by professional writers from scratch but at lower price. offers the second type of term papers for sale. Custom term papers are original and written to meet the specifics of your topic and requirements.In addition, our writers have prepared an excellent and absolutely free blog with tips on term paper writing. Term Papers Example A good part of the explanation of the decline of fertility since 1960 can be viewed as a kind of demographic backlash to the baby boom. Those women who had their children early in marriage during the preceding decade or so achieved their family-size goals sooner than they would have otherwise and consequently contributed fewer births to the sixties than they might have. The process is not unlike an accordion which was compressed at the beginning and stretched out subsequently. In addition, their younger sisters who have been marrying during this past decade are simply having fewer births at least during their early years of marriage. Women aged 20-24 in 1969 had 40 percent fewer children than women in that age group in 1960. Perhaps these births are being postponed and will occur later. Whether later will mean fewer will have to be seen. As of 1965 there was little hard evidence that the young women of the sixties wanted and intended to have fewer children than their older sisters who married after the war and during the fifties. The average number of children expected by married women has not varied much between 1955 and 1965. But our guess is that having fewer births in the early years of childbearing will mean a total of fewer later and that today's younger married couples will end up with smaller families. It should be emphasized however that there is yet no firm basis for predicting a return to the low of 2.3 children recorded by the women now in their late fifties and early sixties. Women 25 to 29 years old in January of 1969 had an average of 1.9 children compared with an average of 2.1 children for women this age in 1965 and 2.0 in 1960. As the professional staff of the Census Bureau indicates, the decline since 1965 in the cumulative fertility of women 25 to 29 is of special interest because women of that age are far enough along in their childbearing to conclude that women currently of this age most likely will reach age 45 or the end of childbearing with fewer children than the women who were 35-39 years old in 1969. They go on to forecast a probable completed fertility of 2.8 for this cohort. There is some evidence that families smaller than this might be preferred if we can trust the extent of reported unwanted fertility. That a group of women did achieve a family size close to replacement (an average of about 2.1 children is required to insure the same population in the next generation) several decades ago when contraceptive techniques were less sophisticated than even today's unsatisfactory variety is compelling testimony to the fact that lower fertility is attainable even without a revolution in contraceptive technology. The experience of many western European countries also testifies to this capability. Term Papers Custom Writing Service Term papers for sale are much cheaper than custom paper writing service. Nevertheless, we decided to make custom term paper writing affordable.& Thus, today you can take full advantage of professional custom paper writing service at the lowest possible price! No plagiarism!

Wynn Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Wynn - Research Paper Example With their resorts in Las Vegas and Macau (People’s Republic of China), Wynn Resorts aim to reach a global customer base. This will enable them to reach and conquer a wide market share, which will tremendously improve their revenues. Wynn Resorts also continually strives to provide and research new and innovative gaming and lodging amenities to its customers. Wynn Resort constantly seeks new ventures and opportunities for expansion in order to advance its brand, and in turn maximize the shareholders wealth. Also, Wynn Resorts seeks to continue to provide the highest quality and unique gaming resort experience to its customers to retain them and attract new customers. It also has a mission of investing in both social and environmental wellbeing of the communities in which it operates (Schwartz p.55) such as Las Vegas and Macau which are its top priority. The resort also encourages employee growth, training, and development in order for them to provide the most luxurious and hospitable conditions possible for its customers. The vision statement is inadequate in its description as it fails to inform the consumers/ customers of how it will offer the most luxurious and elite casino and resort experiences worldwide. The inclusion of the means of offering the best of these services would provide more information to the interested consumers and investors who would want to have a stake in the ownership of the firm by buying shares of the company. The mission statement is quite conclusive and all rounded by focusing on all elements that affect and directly contribute to the profitability of the company. The most effective elements of the vision statement is positioning itself as the leading provider of casino experience and mentioning its target customers (elite). The effective element in the mission statement is its effort towards innovative opportunities to expand its brand and its focus on social and environmental (Schwartz 68)

Empirical Evidence-Financial Systems and Economic Activity Essay

Empirical Evidence-Financial Systems and Economic Activity - Essay Example er, it was found that the expenditures over research and development, and not fixed capital formation, serve are the medium through which this impact takes place. It was also observed that the interaction amongst the structures and the industrial activity of the country greatly depends upon the levels of its economic growth. The concluding chapter of this paper explains the implications for the economic policy of the consideration that the institutional structure might be inter-related with the type of activity. 2. Review of Economic Performance and Financial Systems Joseph Schumpeter explained in 1912 that how the provision of loan was essential for the development and for the entrepreneurship. According to him, despite giving loan is not central to the normal circular flow, it is true that there exists a gap to overcome in the execution of new combinations. He further affirmed that the obligation of the lender is to bridge this gap, which he very well does by placing the power-to-p urchase developed ad hoc at the disposal of the businessman. Thorstein Veblen observed that the mechanism of assessing firms subject to â€Å"standardized bureaucratic routine† adopted by the entrepreneurs whom he referred to as the â€Å"lieutenants of finance† where as he dubbed the â€Å"syndicated bankers† as the â€Å"captain of finance† (Veblen, 1919). Nevertheless, Robert Lucas, among various others, debates that the economists poorly exaggerated the importance of financial attributes in economic performance (Lucas, 1988). While the significance of financial systems is doubtful, the efficacy of various sorts of financial systems has been found to be even more controversial. Clapham (1936) in his work agreed with the views of a principal officer of one of the Great Banks of Germany that... The paper includes the theoretical literature on the interaction among the financial and corporate mechanisms and the types of economic activities. Link of high risk R & D type activities has been established with the dispersed ownership financial systems and the market based financial systems, in case of the significant imposition of strict budget constraints. On the other hand, the financial systems with concentrated ownership and the bank oriented financial systems should be linked to long term investment with stimulated nature, in case of financial structures that require commitments to other stakeholders. This paper makes a conclusion that the empirical analyses of the relationship between the types of economic activity and financial and corporate systems are currently at its initial stage, they have significant policy implications if they are promoted through the provision of further evidence in this regard. Specifically, they indicate that there is not essentially a commanding financial system that is suitable for all economies or for all industries inside an economy. The financial systems or considerations that are deemed appropriate for a developed economy might turn inappropriate for a developing economy. Similarly what is appropriate for a highly innovative R & D economy might be inappropriate for a more imitative economy. There might be essential adjustments in making financial systems to comply with the countries’ stages of economic development, industrial bases, regulatory and legal policies.

Gender differences in the effects of divorce Essay Example for Free

Gender differences in the effects of divorce Essay Besides behaviour differences among children of divorced and intact families, there are also gender differences to consider. Hyatt suggests that boys and girls react differently to parental divorce. Boys tend to create more behavioural problems in school than girls do. Boys’ self-esteem tends to decline as a result of divorce and they seek constant attention from the teacher and disturb class with irrelevant talks. Their effort in school work also decline. Hyatt mentions that boys are more prone to difficulty of losing contact to their father hence regular communication with the father can help these adjustment problems. Girls’ behaviour in school after parental divorce is not as noticeable as boys because they do not manifest their difficulties by acting out in class. Rather, they tend to become more anxious or unhappy or showing over controlled good behaviour. Another findings concerning gender difference in the effects of divorce is that girls do accept help from their teachers unlike boys. This is because girls see their school as a place where they can be supported during divorce while boys conduct socially unacceptable behaviour. School Behaviour of Children of Divorced Families Human beings grow by constantly adapting to new environment therefore adapting to an environment is part of life cycle. Children’s educational place can be divided into home, school and the society. The child and environment continuously interact and the school takes over large part of a child’s life. Therefore as well as having a settled family life, school period is also important in determining how children might turn out in the future. School is a place where children enjoy, and gain sense of satisfaction by experiencing various activities and maintain harmonized relationships with the teachers and other students. Similarly, school adjustment is defines as taking interest in school environment and feel comfortable being in school with other children. This adjustment reflects on their school achievement and development. For instance, children who enjoy being in school and participate in school activities are likely to gain more educational experiences than those who have adjustment disorder. Liebman defines school adjustment disorder as excessive reaction where individuals are unable to harmonize with the school environment and other students which will prohibit individual development. Children of divorced families are likely to have more difficulties in school adjustment than those of children from intact families. Berbe suggests that children with adjustment disorder tend to attract teacher’s attention by inappropriate questions in class, distract other children and find it hard to pay attention in class. They also refuse teacher’s request and are often disobedient. And if they continue to show irresponsible academic behaviour, it leads to serious adjustment disorder. Heck’s idea is also similar to Berbe’s suggestion that children with adjustment disorder problems are frequently absent and tend to be oppositional in class. However, it is difficult to judge the cause of maladjustment solely on divorce. How children respond to above stress can vary from a child to child. It can differ according to their age, gender or disposition and the environment includes economic stature of parents, social approval rating of parents and family conflict. Variables are categorized as they may affect children’s school adjustment into demographic differences and family variables. Demographic differences include race, gender, and parental socioeconomic status and family variables include relationships, organisation, control, social support, mother rejection and father rejection. Behaviour of children of divorced in school As mentioned earlier, children from divorced families appear to have difficulty in academic achievement and relationship with other children at school than children from intact families. The cause of this should not be looked at solely on the primary factor which is divorce. Secondary factors are to be considered as well, such as the change in socioeconomic structure and resources after divorce. For example, as mentioned earlier, economic loss, poor parental adjustment, lack of parental competence and parental loss can cause behavioural problems. As mentioned in the section of ‘Comparison between children of divorce and intact families’, women’s standard of living is reduced by 29 % after divorce and absence of father can have negative influence on children more on boys than girls. Regarding studies on children’s maladjustment behaviour, Liner categorizes disorder behaviour as: ? action-out behaviour like hitting someone and being aggressive ? withdrawing behaviour: very quiet, sucking fingers, restricted behaviour ? defensive behaviour: lying, ignoring ? disorganised behaviour: escaping from reality Similarly, Wickman describes behaviour of children with adjustment disorder as: ? immoral, dishonest, in resistance to authority, stealer, cheater, disobedient, rude and rebellious ? often violates regulation of class, careless, loses interest in study, negligent and trustless ? exaggerated and offensive personality ? unsociable, overly sensitive, and liar Based on experience, as a teacher of young children, those from divorced families have lower academic achievement, are socially isolated, overly sensitive, either humiliate themselves or boast and show negative behaviour in class. Specifically, their academic grade is poorer than it used to be and they do not try to socialize with others in class. Further, they often seem absent-minded and tend to change their mood easily. If they are scolded for not doing their homework or asked to answer something they do not know, they use violent language in response. They also suffer from headache and easily get tired. This behaviour of children can also be explained by Rotter’s theory of locus of control. Locus of control refers to how individuals attribute the cause of their behaviour to internal or external forces. In applying to children of divorced families, children who have internal locus of control believe that if their parents are divorced, it is their fate. Therefore these children are able to handle any difficulties and feel less psychological distress. In contrast, children who have external locus of control believe that if they do not perform well in school, they tend to blame external factors such as parental divorce rather than blame themselves. Hence, these children are likely to suffer from severe distress than those who have internal locus of control. When elementary school children experience parents’ divorce, they can become aggressive and develop sense fear and sorrow. Some children also imagine reunion of their parents. And they also explain that children’s school behaviour depend on how they are treated at home. As per experience, the relationship between custodial parent and the child seem to have a large impact. Prior research says that the relationship between the behaviour of custodial parents and children’s school adjustment illustrate that the attitude of custodial parents has large influence on children’s school achievement. Mothers’ affection can influence enormously on developing children’s social skills. From mother-child relationship, children learn responsibility, self-control and social skills, hence, hostile attitude towards children can act as hindrance in developing social skills. Therefore one can learn that the attitude of custodial parent becomes important factor which influence children’s school adjustment.

Survival and Love in Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain Essay examples --

Survival and Love in Charles Frazier’s "Cold Mountain" I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. (ll. 19-24) Wordsworth’s famous and simple poem, â€Å"I wandered lonely as a cloud,† expresses the Romantic Age’s appreciation for the beauty and truth that can be found in a setting as ordinary as a field of daffodils. With this final stanza, Wordsworth writes of the mind’s ability to carry those memories of nature’s beauty into any setting, whether city or country. His belief in the power of the imagination and the effect it can have on nature, and vice a versa, is evident in most of his work. This small portion of his writing helps to illuminate a major theme of the Romantic poets, and can even be seen in contemporary writings of today. One such work is Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. This story follows two characters, Inman and Ada, who barely know each other and are forced apart by the Civil War. As Ada waits in North Carolina Appalachia for Inman to return home from three years of battle, Inman decides to abandon the war effort and journey across the Southern states to reach his beloved. Although this may seem like a simple love story, the changes each lover goes through in their journey of survival and love shows the romantic ideals of the beauty of nature and appreciation for the present time and reality. Frazier uses several themes prominent in the Romantic Age, significantly by the poets Wordsworth, Keats, and Coleridge, in order to show the power of the human imagination in extraordinary situations and everyday living as well. Inman and Ada each learn through their diffe... ...cal Tradition. 11 (2004): 232-243. Edgecombe, Rodney Stenning. â€Å"Wordsworth’s ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud.† ANQ. 16 (2003): 23-27. Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain. New York: Vintage, 1998. Gifford, Terry. â€Å"Terrain, Character and Text: Is Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier a Post- Pastoral Novel?† Mississippi Quarterly. 25 (2001):87-96). Heddendorf, David. â€Å"Closing the Distance to Cold Mountain.† Southern Review. 36 (2000): 188-9. Inscoe, John C. â€Å"Cold Mountain: Appalachian Odysseus.† Appalachian Journal. 25 (1998): 330-337. Schoemaker, Jacqueline. â€Å"Travel, Homecoming and Wavering Minds in Lyrical Ballads and other Poems.† 'A Natural Delineation of Human Passions': The Historic Moment of Lyrical Ballads. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004. Wordsworth, William. â€Å"The Prelude: Book Fifth.† Abrams 341-2. - - - â€Å"I wandered lonely as a cloud.† Abrams 254-5.

Waste Management Practices Of Mcdonalds Environmental Sciences Essay

McDonalds is one of the largest and most good known planetary fast nutrient eating houses. Ray Kroc is the laminitis of the company in the twelvemonth 1955. The company has been runing for 55 old ages and has 32000 eating houses concatenation in more than 117 states. More than 75 % of McDonald ‘s world-wide mercantile establishments are operated by franchisees or affiliates ( Our Company 2010 ) . There are 1.5 million employees worldwide working to function 50 million worldwide clients each twenty-four hours ( McDonald ‘s Restaurants Ltd, 2006 ) . Over the many old ages, 1000000s of people have patronage McDonald ‘s because it is a sure name with proved service. In returning that trueness, McDonalds have an duty to give back to the community ( SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, 2010 ) . McDonalds supports Ronald McDonald House Charities ( RMHC ) , carnal public assistance, nutrient safety and environment ( SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, 2010 ) . This essay shall analyze how McDonalds has performed in the relation to the environment peculiarly waste direction patterns. The populace of the current age are concerned about the sum of packaging and nutrient waste produced by McDonald ‘s eating houses ( Better Packaging with McDonald ‘s, 2009 ) . A study conducted by Keep Britain Tidy that approximately 29 % of the litter waste on the Britain Street was come from the McDonalds eating house ( Gray, L 2009 ) . Therefore, one of the best solutions taken by McDonalds is pull off the waste through waste direction patterns, which is affecting in decrease, reuse, recycling and disposal ( Better Packaging with McDonald ‘s, 2009 ) . As one of the largest fast nutrient eating houses worldwide, McDonalds has become an environment leader. Hence, McDonalds is determined to analyse every facet of their concern on their impact on the environment and harmonizing to the analysis and seek effectual ways to heighten the environment . McDonalds is trusting to last and remain in a clean environment where the air, H2O and the Earth are clean and every bit good construct an environment sound universe to the hereafter coevals ( ) . McDonalds has done a assortment of different as compared to the past and current public presentation. In the yesteryear, McDonalds used the polystyrene froth as packaging nutrient. Many conservationists dislike polystyrene froth because the production of froth will let go of out the CFC, which can damage the ambiance. The froth besides to take long clip to interrupt down, if at all, in landfills, which is where most of it winds up because there are comparatively few recycling centres ( ) . Besides, McDonalds was required 46 gms of packaging in â€Å" mean repast † – a Big Mac, french friess and a shingle in twelvemonth 1970 ( Case A: McDonald ‘s Environmental Strategy, 1995 ) . In add-on, there was no industrial graduated table recycling before ( Rose, 2009 ) . Furthermore, McDonalds did non pattern the exercising of change overing the waste into energy. Presents, McDonalds has found many alternate ways to heighten the environment public presentation in term of the waste direction patterns. First, McDonalds has replaced the polystyrene froth by the utilizing paper based-wraps in order to cut down the waste volume in the waste direction procedure ( Better Packaging with McDonald ‘s, 2009 ) . The replacing is because of consumers demand and heeding advocate of environmental groups ( Liddle, A 1990 ) . McDonalds major markets, approximately 83 % of the packaging used for nutrient, drinks and other consumer intents is made of some signifier of paper ( McDonald ‘s Worldwide Corporate Responsibility Report, 2006 ) . Another is the decreased sum of stuff used in each point of packaging ( our environment, 2008 ) . Third, McDonalds recycles boxing waste and recycles used cooking oil in waste direction patterns ( Recycling in the eating house – Concentrating on operational chances, 2010 ) . Fourthly, proper disposal waste pl ans are been carried out to pull off the nutrient waste once the McDonalds can non cut down, reuse and recycle the waste ( our environment, 2008 ) . Recent twelvemonth, McDonald in UK has a test tested out an alternate method of disposal, which by change overing the nutrient waste to energy ( Pull offing the impacts of the leftovers, 2010 ) . DavidA Fairhurst, senior frailty president for McDonald ‘s UK & A ; Northern Europe said that the change overing waste to energy is promoting that has already reduced the environmental impact in the country by 48 % and important measure on accomplishing zero waste to landfill ( Thomas, D 2009 ) Presently, McDonalds brings a batch impact upon the society and stakeholder. McDonalds replaces the froth to paper wraps, which make up 70 % to 90 % decrease in sandwich packaging volume ( Better Packaging with McDonald ‘s, 2009 ) . Besides, McDonalds besides cut down the sum of stuff used in the packaging, which indicate less natural stuff usage and therefore less solid waste green goods ( our environment, 2008 ) . For illustration, in 2005, McDonalds redesigned the interior of North American Fry boxes, which make up more than 1,100 dozenss boxing waste saved per twelvemonth ( McDonald ‘s Worldwide Corporate Responsibility Report, 2006 ) . Furthermore, McDonalds in Unite State has recycled over 17 dozenss of corrugate composition board per twelvemonth ( Recycling in the eating house – Concentrating on operational chances 2010 ) . Corrugate unlifelike represent about 30 % of the entire eating house waste and as consequence of recycling, divert the sum of waste from landfills. McDonalds has an purpose of accomplishing to recycle 100 % of their corrugated composition board ( our environment, 2008 ) . By the manner, approximately 10 % of the entire eating house wastes come from the used cookery oil and McDonalds has converted into biodiesel ( our environment, 2008 ) . McDonalds in United State has recycled about 13,000 lbs of used cookery oil per twelvemonth. Currently, more than 80 % of the used oil in Europe has transformed into biodiesel ( Recycling in the eating house – Concentrating on operational chances 2010 ) . As a consequence, it is stopped the used cookery oil from send to landfills. ( Please conso lidate and present it in a more systematic manner. ) In add-on, the test of change overing the waste to energy has been successfully decrease 54 % per centum of C emanation as audited by the Carbon Trust ( Brass, E 2009 ) . The sum of waste save from landfill could be 65 tones if the eating houses continue implement this disposal. For the energy generate from the waste provide plenty heat and electricity to the edifice ( Pull offing the impacts of the leftovers, 2010 ) . For case, in UK the energy generate from the nutrient waste, which able to power the 22 million visible radiation bulbs to community ( Brass, E 2009 ) . Now let concentrate on the advantages and disadvantages of McDonald patterns in the waste direction. The major advantage through the waste direction patterns is reduced the nursery gas emanation. Methane particularly one of the nursery gases which largely generate by the landfills operation and convey harmful effects to the environment and human wellness. Therefore, the cardinal factor success of lower down the gases emanation is driven by the greater recycle wastes, increased sum of waste recovery and incineration combined with energy production ( Improved waste direction presenting clime benefits, 2008 ) . Another advantage of the waste direction patterns is generated a liveable environment to society ( Waste Disposal Methods Advantages and Disadvantages n.d. ) . It is because people can be and populate in a comfort environment with free of waste. . ( are at that place any scholarly cogent evidence to back up this statement? ) is to assist to cut down the sum of waste. Through the waste direction patterns, McDonalds has send less waste to landfill and finally less waste occupy the landfill However, there are some disadvantages of the waste direction patterns. The major disadvantage is contaminated the environment ( Waste Disposal Methods Advantages and Disadvantages n.d. ) . The public-service corporations of documents as packaging particularly are unfriendly to the environment in the waste direction pattern. It is because there will increase the environment impact in production of paper packaging point. An analysis conducted by the Franklin Associates, an independent environmental research house that the production between polystyrene froth and paper toward the environment impact. The consequence show that the fabrication of paper containers particularly make up 46 per centum more air pollution, 42 per centum more H2O pollution and 75 per centum more industrial waste than that of plastic. Made preponderantly of air, paper requires 30 per centum more energy to bring forth than froth ( Eckhardt, A 1998 ) . Therefore, the utilizing of paper really leads the pollution occur. Consequently, planetary heating particularly occurs one time the pollution acquiring terrible and serious. Besides, the disadvantage of the waste direction patterns is influence the people wellness. The procedure of convert the waste to energy demand go through the incineration, which may breathe the harmful gases into the environment that risky to occupants ‘ wellness, as the emanation fume is unseeable and s melly. Undoubtedly, it brings the negative impact to society ( Krishna, G 2006 ) . As decision, the waste direction patterns should be adopted to pull off the waste in order to supply the healthy and clean environment to the society. The societal public presentation of McDonalds in relation to the environment has enormously contributed. Even though the riddance of waste from the fast nutrient eating houses is impossible, some effectual and efficiency of alternate methods should besides seek in order to cut down and forestall the waste from being engulfed the Earth. If the big fast nutrient company like McDonalds does non command the waste produce from the eating house and salvage the planet, people will certainly die themselves one twenty-four hours.

Female Subjectivity and Shoujo (Girls) Manga

Female Subjectivity and Shoujo (Girls) Manga (Japanese Comics): Shoujo in Ladies’ Comics and Young Ladies’ Comics Fusami Ogi I. Sexist Reality and Ladies’ Comics: Women’s Lives and Experiences Shoujo manga experienced a turning point in the 1970s when more women began to choose different lives from those the traditional gender role system expected them to take. Although the Japanese social system supports women as housewives, the number of women who work outside the house has been increasing. In this article, I am going to survey the situation of women in Japan when ladies’ comics was born in the 1980s and consider how ladies’ comics could convey those women’s voices. The ? rst publication of the genre ladies’ comics is Be Love published by Kodansha in 1980. Its target reader is an adult female approximately 25 to 30 years old. Generally, the target readers of ladies comics are adult women or shoujo who are almost adult. Ladies comics seem to have performed two roles as a new kind of writing for women: the ? st is to present women’s desires when they are no longer girls; and the second is to offer alternate role models to adult women. In these respects, ladies’ comics is a genre which ? rst requires identi? cation with the category ‘‘woman,’’ rather than a genre which gives readers an objective point of view de? ned by the category ‘‘woman. ’’ The number of ladies’ comics magazines increased as if re? ecting women’s increased concern with their own lives. There were only two ladies’ comics in 1980, but the number went up to 8 in 1984, 19 in 1985, and 48 in 1991 (Shuppan 1996: 201; 1999: 226). The 1980s, when ladies’ comics became quite popular, was a time in which working women disrupted sexist myths which presented working women as unattractive and sexually frustrated (Buckley 1989: 107). It is signi? cant that after 1985 the number of ladies’ comics increased dramatically, because in 780 Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 781 1985 Kikai kintou hou [The Equal Employment Opportunity Law] was passed in the Diet, which guarantees equal employment opportunities to both men and women. However, the law was not strict and there was no punishment stipulated if companies did not follow the law. Since the law just encouraged companies to arrange equal opportunities for both men and women, most women had to continue their ? ght against the discrimination triggered by being women (Shiota 2000; Ueno 1995; Ueno 1990: 303; Sougou 1993: 268; Bornoff 1991: 452). Although the law barred sexual discrimination in the workplace, jobs and career expectations were still gender coded. The law was passed on May 17 in 1985, and by April 1 in 1986 when the law became effective, companies managed to invent two new categories to classify full-time jobs: sougou shoku [managerial career track] and ippan shoku [regular service]. According to Ueno Chizuko,1 in 1986, 99 % of male employees of new graduates were employed as sougou shoku, which includes business trips and transfers to other sections or branches in the future, and 99% of female employees recruited from among new graduates were employed as ippan shoku, which does not include the possibility of such transfer (Ueno 1990: 303). A woman in an ippan shoku position is generally called an ‘‘O. L. ,’’ or ‘‘of? ce lady. ’’ This position never allows the possibility of promotion. It is a position that re? ects the traditional feminine role as a housewife in a household. To cite Yuko Ogasawara: Most of? ce ladies are not entrusted with work that fully exercises their abilities, but are instead assigned simple, routine clerical jobs. They have little prospect of promotion, and their individuality is seldom respected, as evidenced by the fact that they are often referred to as ‘‘gifts. ’’ (1998: 155) Of? ce work that included preparing and serving tea to male workers was mostly reserved for the of? ce ladies (Allison 1994: 93). Ogasawara claims that ‘‘[I]ndeed, men in Japanese companies are dependent on women for their loyal and reliable assistance’’ (1998: 156). According to the data in 1996, women workers occupy 8. 2% of all managerial posts in Japan, while in the US, 42. 7% of the managerial posts are held by women (Inoue 1999: 115). The position of of? ce ladies only creates a glass ceiling. 782 A Journal of Popular Culture The law was not a happy avenue to equality between men and women. It was based on gender segregation. It forced female workers to work as late hours and at as physical and demanding jobs as men, and raised the number of female parttime workers (Sougou 1993: 268; Ueno 1995: 702). According to Shiota Sakiko, in 1987, 48. 2% of wives of employees had a job, and more than 40% of the wives with a job were part-time workers (Shiota 2000: 152). In fact, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was not a law that encouraged women to pursue long-term careers. Rather, it was a law that aimed at protecting women who were also engaged in housework. Protecting the position of housewives, the Japanese government has maintained women as a low cost, secondary labor force (Shiota 2000: 175; Ueno 1995: 700). Shiota declares that in the 1990s the easiest lifestyle for a woman is still to choose the traditional female role, where a woman is economically supported by her husband (Shiota 2000: 165). Women who pursue careers have to choose either of two courses: to give up housework or to ? nd a substitute in the home for herself (Shiota 2000: 87). In fact, it seems dif? cult for most women to give up housework. Therefore, according to Shiota, if she cannot ? nd a substitute in the home for herself, she has to do with both housework and outside employment. However, the number of women who are pursuing careers has been increasing. The Equal Employment Opportunity Law opened opportunities for some women. The number of women whose work is not secondary is increasing (Konno 2000: 218-19). Moreover, the traditional form of marriage, in which men go out to work and women stay at home, is becoming obsolete. Anne E. Imamura remarks: [In the 1990s] The cost of living pushed women into the labor force, but the sluggish domestic economy cut into women’s gains in the job market. Women’s age at ? rst marriage rose to twenty-six, crossing the magic number of twenty-? ve, when womenFlike Christmas cakesF were supposed to become stale. Women were in no hurry to marry, and once married had fewer children. (1996: 4) Despite the reality of the current Japanese society, in which the birth rate (Inoue 1999: 5)2 is decreasing, according to Shiota, most women who work outside the house regard child raising as a part of their future happiness (2000: 84). According to Shiota, Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 783 n Japanese society, which values housework only in relation to housewives, women need different role models for their current lives from that of the conventional lifestyle for women, because more and more women do not conform to the conventional role models the society endorses. Ladies’ comics may provide women with such models and possible ideas for their futures. This genre may help women to generate a space where they can amuse themselves a s women and also consider their dif? culties in reality in the process of pursuing a more satisfying, ful? lling way of life. The increase in ladies’ comics magazines seems to re? ect ` women’s consciousness-raising vis a vis their position both within and outside the house. As we have seen, the Japanese social system has been more supportive of the position of housewife, which resulted in the increase in the number of housewives who also worked outside the home as part-time workers. The position as a part-time worker imposed a double bind on a woman: housework has continued being regarded as a woman’s duty and the woman’s labor force outside the house has been kept as secondary. However, the number of housewives who are engaged only in housework is decreasing and more women are participating in work outside the home. The Employment Equal Opportunity Law did not bring many bene? ts to working women, but as Ueno points out, the law permitted companies to require women to work outside the home as hard as men (Ueno 1995: 702). This meant that women had to be like men to work outside, but it also gave both men and women an opportunity to reconsider existing gender roles. That is to say, the law ironically exposed the fact that women were not the only ones that had suffered from traditional gender roles. Shoujo in Ladies’ Comics Ladies’ comics has become a genre which re? ects the contemporary dif? culties of women’s lives and their pleasures. In order to present ‘‘women,’’ the women writers each pursue the image in their own manner. As I pointed out before, the following two roles are crucial to examining ladies’ comics as writing for women: the ? st is to present women’s desires when they are no longer girls; and the second is to offer role models to adult women. In this section, I would like to explore 784 A Journal of Popular Culture these two points in turn, considering how ladies’ comics, as intended explicitly for a woman who is no longer a shoujo, is independent of shoujo manga, if they still share some aspects, I would like to examine how they rework the concept of gender and how the social background has been re? ected in those aspects. 1. A Woman as Sexual Subject The most crucial reason for the popularity of ladies’ comics in the 1980s, according to critics (Matsuzawa 1999: 29; Ishida 1992: 76), is the introduction of the theme of sexuality. Because shoujo is a common word in Japanese meaning a teen-aged female before marriage, it was very dif? cult to deal with the theme of sexuality in shoujo manga, in spite of its being a genre for women, by women, and about women. As a result, in the 1970s shoujo manga created a special way to use the male body in order to introduce the theme of sexuality. Ladies’ comics visualizes the theme of sexuality using adult women’s bodies. Ladies’ comics offered the theme of sexuality to both women writers and readers in a more suitable way for their age (Yonezawa 1988: 168) and the issues positively represent sexuality, showing women who frankly enjoy their sexual affairs (Fujimoto 1999b: 84). Employing women’s own bodies, ladies’ comics provided women, who were not allowed to be in a subject position for their sexuality and pleasure, with a space in which they can acknowledge and accept their sexuality. However at this point, we have a problem with ladies’ comics in that the texts represent women’s roles only from women’s points of view. For example, explicit sexual encounters from a female protagonist’s point of view are often depicted in ladies’ comics, which seem to challenge the pornographic discourse of maleoriented publishers. This may heighten woman’s consciousness, suggesting that women can also gain a subject position from which they can ‘‘look’’ at and objectify males. But we cannot say that the texts do not reinscribe the man/woman power relationship because they are written for female readers alone and thus do not affect male readers in any way. As long as these texts explore ‘‘women’’ only from the point of view of heterosexual women, the use of women by women is not much different from men’s use of women for purposes of sexual titillation (Pollock 1977: 142), which Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 785 retains the hierarchical power relationship; they remain mere image-promoters rather than image-makers. This limitation of ladies’ comics is re? ected in the fact that ladies’ comics present marriage as a natural goal for a woman. As Arimitsu Mamiko remarks, ladies’ comics mainly functioned as a reinscription of patriarchal values and a female version of pornography (Arimitsu 1991: 154). As long as the characters in ladies’ comics question whether they can get married or continue their marriage safely, they never question the system itself. To envision a woman’s future position as a ‘‘happy’’ housewife and mother might even enhance the myth of motherhood as a natural result of marriage. Here women objectify themselves according to patriarchal codes, reinforcing heterosexual gender roles and preserving a ? xed ideology. Considering that the genre ladies’ comics does not abandon the traditional view of ‘‘women’’ but perpetuates it, we cannot help but see the genre reinscribing the existing value of gender. However, considering the turning point in shoujo manga in terms of sexuality in the 1970s, it is crucial to note that ladies’ comics provided women with a space in which they could confront and acknowledge their own bodies. Although most ladies’ comics might only represent the traditional power relationship between men and women, the space of women in manga for women has been changing, generating different forms. The history of shoujo manga as women’s space has existed for only a few decades and has offered various ways to challenge the existing gender roles. After the turning point in the 1970s, in which shoujo manga introduced the subversive theme of sexuality, shoujo as a female body has been secured by employing a boy’s body to explore the theme of sexuality. In terms of the theme of sexuality, ladies’ comics is one of the ‘‘failures’’ of shoujo manga. adies’ comics is a genre which can deal with explicit sexuality that shoujo manga could not handle. As a gendered category for women, ladies’ comics is a younger sister of shoujo manga. But ladies’ comics is not a genre which takes over the characteristics of shoujo manga regar ding sexuality. Instead, dealing with a taboo subject for shoujo’s sexuality, ladies’ comics is a genre for a woman who fails to be a shoujo. Shoujo manga has interpellated readers and writers in terms of gender, while portraying taboo subjects in the form of the absence of the shoujo. The category ladies’ comics as a women’s genre would also tell women how to perform as 786 A Journal of Popular Culture ‘‘women’’ and signal writers and readers that they are reading what has been written for adult ‘‘women,’’ while portraying what shoujo cannot be or do. Here, the existence of ladies’ comics, which promises women’s sexual pleasure, seemingly performs what adult women want, and reinscribes the existing power relationship between man and woman merely by replacing male gazes with female gazes. However, as a ‘‘failure’’ of the category shoujo manga, it also disturbs a woman when she sees her sexuality in a traditional way. As a supposedly sexual ‘‘subject’’ in pornographic representations for women in ladies’ comics, a female reader may enjoy her sexual desire, but may also see her sexual desire of an adult woman as a ‘‘failure’’ of a shoujo or what is not shoujo. The female sexual subject of ladies’ comics destabilizes the idea of shoujo, which does not contain female sexuality of women and does not present women’s bodies. Ladies’ comics, as a category for women, reinscribes the traditional values of women, but at the same time, as a ‘‘failure’’ of shoujo manga, promising to introduce what shoujo or a future woman should not have, stimulates the world of comics for ‘‘women. ’’ This characteristic of ladies’ comics, which presents what shoujo manga cannot contain, might emphasize and develop ladies’ comics as pornographic representations of women’s bodies, which could not directly be represented in shoujo manga and needed to be transformed into other bodies. In this sense, pornographic representations of ladies’ comics are part of the concept of shoujo and its absence, rather than a result of a mere reversal of a male and female power relationship which merely looks at a woman’s body as a sexual object. 2. Role Models to Women Another function of ladies’ comics has been to present various images of women’s lifestyles as role models for other women. Mainly dealing with themes which closely report women’s daily lives such as love, marriage, and work (Yonezawa 2000: 1009), the purpose of the genre has been to describe ‘‘real’’ women’s lives (cf. Fujimoto 1990: 193-94). A shoujo manga writer, Shouji Masako, who is currently writing ladies’ comics, comments that writing shoujo manga is easier than writing ladies’ comics, because in shoujo manga you can Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 787 pursue dreams and readers would not recognize them as lies (Shouji Masako 1983: 110). A realist perspective on women’s lives is one difference between shoujo manga and ladies’ comics. Since the 1970s, one of the crucial reasons for shoujo manga to be treated as serious ? ction has been its use of fantastic illusions in addition to realistic concepts. As Fujimoto Yukari remarks, in the world of shoujo manga, most of the working women’s occupations are special ones such as designers, pianists, actresses, or models, where talent and originality matter; ladies’ comics, however, even in the late 1980s, depict common women’s daily lives (Fujimoto 1994). Offering various familiar lifestyles and their problems, ladies’ comics becomes a sphere in which women can see their own lives as women. However, ladies’ comics, as well as shoujo manga, does not always encourage women to be independent (Matsuzawa 1999: 29) and to ? ht traditional, patriarchal values, which compel women to stay within a subsidiary position. For example, Waru [A Bad Girl], a long-run ladies’ comic from 1988 to 1997 in Be Love, presents the success story of a woman who continuously overcomes the dif? culties of her lower status as an of? ce lady and at the same time never gives up her love. Some readers regard Waru as an example of ladies’ comics with a feminist point of view which encourages women readers to be independent (Sakamoto 1999: 27). At the same time, this work has been criticized in that the heroine is totally passive and merely lucky (Erino 1991: 177). Erino Miya claims that the heroine does not do anything to further her career. The protagonist only accepts other people’s advice, and never doubts it, and she is asked to do things which seem to have no relation to her career, such as to remember a sweeper’s name. This work only regards a woman as a person who cannot do anything without help and never discovers her life by herself, but always thinks about love. Although some ladies’ comics depict the severe and unequal reality which women may face at the of? ce, most stories end with a happy marriage to a nice husband. Yet according to Murakami Tomohiko, since the 1990s, ladies’ comics began to be regarded as a genre which also deals with social issues. Until then, ladies’ comics had drawn attention only to its pornographic and radically sexual scenes (Murakami 2000: 1006). As a genre which deals with women’s 788 A Journal of Popular Culture eality, ladies’ comics began to focus on more social and political issues, such as domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment, and so on, presenting how the woman character tackles the problems, suffers, and sometimes makes mistakes, rather than clearly suggesting which solution she should take. Ladies’ comics draws both women’s reality and their fantasies in a more serious way than shoujo manga, in that shoujo are at an age when they can still enjoy illu sions of gender, while the reality faced by readers of ladies’ comics requires them to consider marriage as if it were a social obligation. The theme of marriage in ladies’ comics begins to appear as one social and political issue, while shoujo manga deals only with a process to marriage. Moreover, differently from shoujo manga, ladies’ comics can present issues after marriage, including divorce as a principal theme. For example, Amane Kazumi, one of the most productive ladies’ comics writers, deals with current women’s issues in a serious way. Shelter, one of her ladies’ comics, depicts a woman who is beaten by her husband (see Figure 1). They had two daughters. The younger daughter was very smart and her father’s favorite. After she died in an accident on her way home with her mother, the father’s violence toward his family erupts. His violence unveils his male-centered values and contempt toward his wife. The wife and their elder daughter escape from the husband and go to a shelter for battered women. Shelter depicts how the female protagonist overcomes her problem, recovers her con? dence, and regains an independent life, which she once had as a lawyer. Presenting other women who share the same problem, this work considers different cases of domestic violence. As we see in this manga, ladies’ comics as a genre about women living in reality as adults, seems to show more concern about the process of how the heroine and other women change their lives, rather than about a solution leading to a happy ending. This work not only reveals male dominance within society, but also portrays each woman’s ? aws and how she easily spoils her partner and their relationship without knowing it, for example, by only being concerned about her ? nancial status and being supported by her husband although she does not love her husband any more. In this work, each story ends when a woman decides to change her life in a positive way, which leaves an impression of a happy ending. Yet in fact, it is not simply a happy ending. It is a new beginning for her life, Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 789 Figure 1. Amane Kazumi. Shelter. Tokyo: Hakusensha, 2001. 26-27. r 2000 Kazumi Amane/Hakusenha. which is not guaranteed to be a better life than before. However, some reference to the actual law related to women’s status and reliable comments by the heroine as a lawyer may suggest to readers that this manga could help and encourage women who are in reality suffering from a problem. Thus, ladies’ comics develops as a genre for female readers and their issues, which shoujo manga could not take up. Nevertheless, ladies’ comics seems still to contain a conventional sense of femininity, which shoujo manga also displays as a genre. The following two points especially emphasize the traditional concept of femininity in ladies’ comics. First, as I suggested before, ladies’ comics presents many women who depend upon their husbands or partners and are waiting for someone who would lead them and love them. Second, ladies’ comics rarely present elderly or middle-aged female protagonists, although the genre was generated from women’s need to ‘‘grow up. ’’ 790 A Journal of Popular Culture The ? rst point supports a passive femininity like that of Cinderella which can be seen in shoujo manga. As we have examined, it also re? ects the current status of Japanese women, in which, as Shiota and other critics remark, the traditional woman’s life as a housewife totally supported by her husband has been the easiest, most traditional, and socially acceptable life for women to choose. This may explain why ladies’ comics are more concerned with marriage, than with women living independently of marriage. However, as we have seen in Shelter, the treatment of marriage has been changing and ladies’ comics is becoming a genre which shows the problems of current social issues about women who can be part of an unhappy marriage. The second point also re? ects traditional femininity. That is to say, in the world of ladies’ comics, the concept of youth seems still effective as a key concept of ideal femininity, just like in the world of shoujo. In comparison with men’s comics which presents many middle-aged male main characters, ladies’ comics, which rarely show older females as main characters, seem a part of shoujo manga, rather than an independent genre. One of the characteristics of the genre for adults might lie in its treatment of various types of characters in part de? ned by age. In this respect, ladies’ comics as a genre for women could have focused on widely aged female characters and have even expanded a sense of femininity regarding age. However, middle-aged women, as Susan Napier points out, have been excluded from the world of manga: ‘‘It is also interesting to note that there seem to be relatively few manga concerning middleaged women or mothers in contemporary Japan’’ (Napier 1998: 105). Nevertheless, in comparison to other genres, we ? nd more middle-aged and older women characters in ladies’ comics as subcharacters. Their problems are depicted from the younger heroines’ point of view, and in that sense, ladies’ comics at least do not ignore elder women, but include them. Thus, ladies’ comics still maintains the traditional sense of femininity, which shoujo manga also holds as part of its conventional sense of shoujo. In this respect, ladies’ comics has not made a genre of manga for women in a general sense yet. Rather, ladies’ comics is a genre which presents what shoujo manga cannot do. In other words, dealing with both tradition and subversion to the existing notion of shoujo and making a dissonance between them to destabilize the existing system must be a way which ladies’ comics takes over from shoujo manga. Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 791 Promising to show women who are not shoujo any more, ladies’ comics stimulates readers’ existing notion about women who still recognize imaginary shoujo in themselves. However these days, we see the term josei manga, which means manga for women, and which tries to replace the term ladies’ comics. Although it has not emerged yet, in a strict sense that there are no manga for women of different ages, this genre is gradually moving away from shoujo manga to a women’s genre. Performing what cannot be shoujo and promising the emergence of a genre of manga for women, the genre adies’ comics may also continuously urge women not to depend on the division anymore between shoujo manga for shoujo and ladies’ comics for women who are not shoujo, which divides women into only two types that supposedly never merge. Writing Women and Shoujo Manga The number of ladies comics magazines increased from two in 1980 to 48 in 1991, and to 57 in 1993, as I noted ea rlier. By 1998 the number had shrunk somewhat to 54. They still have a large readership, although their publication was reduced in the late 1990s. The total publication including special issues of ladies’ comics in 1998 was 103,820,000, which comprises 7% of all manga publication; the highest total publication of ladies’ comics was 133,520,000 in 1991 (Shuppan 1999: 226). However, the concept of ladies’ comics has gradually changed. As we have seen, the contents of ladies’ comics have experienced some change in that ladies’ comics also became a genre of political and social issues. Further, another genre of manga for women emerged from ladies’ comics and shoujo manga. In the late 1980s and 1990s, a different type of commercial magazine of manga for women came out: Young You in 1987, Young Rose in 1990, and Feel Young in 1991. While some data count these magazines as ladies’ comics, they have been regarded by critics and readers as another genre (Ishida 1992: 76; Fujimoto 1999a: 28). Since these early magazines share the word ‘‘young’’ in their titles, the new genre has been called ‘‘Young ladies’ comics. ’’3 Their target readers range from girls in their late teens to women under thirty. Yet the genre seems to cover a wider range of readers, since there are characters over thirty and readers’ pages often show letters from middle-aged 792 A Journal of Popular Culture women. Although we manage to distinguish these three genres, the actual boundaries regarding contents, readers, and writers among shoujo manga, young ladies’ comics, and ladies’ comics are somewhat vague, perhaps except for shoujo manga for lower teens and the special interest of ladies’ comics in pornography, horror comics, mothering, and so on (Yonezawa 2000: 1009). Besides, some young ladies’ comics magazines call themselves shoujo manga. For example, a phrase of the copy for Chorus, one of the popular young ladies’ comics magazines, signi? es the status of young ladies’ comics: shoujo manga mo otona ni naru [shoujo manga also grows up]. Young ladies’ comics is a contradictory genre which at once contains sexuality, shoujo, and adult women. How mi ght we explain the contradictory impulses at work in the new genre, which has both characteristics of shoujo manga and ladies’ comics, and at the same time, is different from the existing two genres in terms of women’s lives? I will explore what enables this alternative perspective, which can share and separate the two genres at the same time, considering how the genre young ladies’ comics can open a different perspective in the world of manga for women, and how the term shoujo, which these three genres share, functions upon this genre to create a new writing. Since the genre contains shoujo, young ladies’ comics can be regarded as a part of shoujo manga, but it also contains adult women and their issues and has characteristics of ladies’ comics. In this sense, young ladies’ comics is a genre between shoujo manga and ladies’ comics. As Fujimoto remarks, the concept of marriage seems to play an important role to distinguish these three genres. shoujo manga represents women before marriage and ladies’ comics deals with women after marriage, while young ladies’ comics represents both women’s lives before and after marriage. Fujimoto’s idea of the division between shoujo manga and ladies’ comics, i. e. , marriage, suggests that both shoujo manga and ladies’ comics are patriarchal products. Ishida Saeko also sees young ladies’ comics as a product between shoujo manga and ladies’ comics. Yet Ishida regards young ladies’ comics as manga closer to shoujo manga. According to Ishida, although it contains sexuality, the genre takes over the world of shoujo manga, which is more concerned with shoujo’s inner mind and cannot escape the narrow and personal world of ‘‘herself. ’’ In this respect, young ladies’ comics is not a totally new genre. That is because shoujo manga as the ? rst genre of Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 793 manga for women has heavily affected other genres of manga in terms of women, especially this genre which employs shoujo as main characters. Yet simultaneously, we may also ? nd some signi? cant characteristics in young ladies’ comics, in its treatment of the same term shoujo. These three genres share the concept of shoujo, but their modes of representation are different. Shoujo manga has shoujo, ladies’ comics has a taboo concept for shoujo in the form of sexuality, and young ladies’ comics has shoujo, although it deals with sexuality. They are all manga, for women, by women, of women, but make use of the concept of women in terms of shoujo differently . The characteristic of young ladies’ comics appears in its treatment of shoujo and reality, which distinguishes this new genre from shoujo manga and ladies’ comics. On the one hand, shoujo manga visualizes the concept of shoujo and, as I suggested, even if it introduces taboo concepts like displacement into male bodies to shoujo, readers would notice their existence in the form of the absence of shoujo. On the other hand, ladies’ comics deals with what is taboo to shoujo as a counter category to shoujo manga and tries to depict adult women’s real lives and issues which shoujo manga cannot imagine. Young ladies’ comics maintains a shoujo’s point of view, but it also inherits a characteristic from ladies’ comics, which surveys reality rather than fantasy and tries to present shoujo’s life and issues as part of the reality surrounding them, just like ladies’ comics tries to deal with women’s issues and lives from their own perspective as women. Reading works published as young ladies’ comics, we would never think at least at the ? rst glance that they are presenting ‘‘reality. ’ Many elements remind readers of shoujo manga: their cute characters with big eyes, their concern for love and inner feelings, and special situations or happenings which would rarely occur to ‘‘actual girls. ’’ Yet their concern for reality makes young ladies’ comics unique and different from shoujo manga. For example, let us examine Onna tachi no miyako [Women’s Utopia] (1992-1994) by Matsunae Akemi , one of the most productive and popular shoujo manga writers who also writes for young ladies’ comics. In the late 1980s, an early series of this manga was published as shoujo manga. From 1988 to 1990, Katorea na onna tachi [Women Like Cattleya], which employs the same characters, was published in LaLa, and from 1992 to 1994, Onna tachi no miyako was published in Bouquet. 794 A Journal of Popular Culture LaLa and Bouquet are both shoujo manga magazines. In 1993, the series was also published in a new magazine Chorus, which has been one of the popular young ladies’ magazines. This work experienced a transition from shoujo manga to young ladies’ comics. It is about three women characters running a nursing home for elderly people. At ? rst glance, this work may seem to present typical cute shoujo characters. Then immediately, we notice that this manga uses the term shoujo in a double sense. One is shoujo in their teens and the other is shoujo in an ideological sense, which signi? es women who have either shoujo’s mind and feelings or appearance despite their age, even if they are in their seventies. In Figure 2, an interviewer mistakenly asks them a question for girls. The interviewer immediately runs away after she notices that she made a mistake, but the ‘‘aged’’ girls complain why the interviewer does not de? ne a girl’s age up to 74, instead of 24. Using aged protagonists, this manga unveils how the term shoujo is ? ated on the notion of youth. Simultaneously, this manga portrays issues of old age and sometimes depicts aged characters’ pasts, Figure 2. Matsunae Akemi. Onna tachi no miyako. Vol. 1. Tokyo: Shueisha, 1994. 7-8. r 1994 Matsunae Akemi/SHUEISHA, Inc. Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 795 in which they were physically â₠¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬Ëœshoujo. ’’ Not seriously, but comically, this work depicts how they had to suffer as shoujo in a traditional world under the patriarchal society before the war, suggesting a contrast with the current meaning of shoujo, which appears totally liberal in the story. This disruption of the notion of age in the world of shoujo manga, which later moved into the category young ladies’ comics, might tell us how the term shoujo began to become a sign which can ? oat free from the body of shoujo. The characters insist that they are still shoujo. Yet their existence as shoujo might subvert our notion of the existing shoujo and the traditional shoujo image. In this work, shoujo is not a body anymore, but is an ideological concept that suggests that everyone can be shoujo if they want. Young ladies’ comics is a genre which visually uses shoujo manga’s technique and presents cute girls. Like ladies’ comics, the genre centers on female characters and their issues, but its representation offers ? exible images of shoujo, which does not always show the properly aged shoujo. The notion of shoujo can be applied to any body beyond its physical sense of being a teenaged female before marriage. A con? ict between the notion of shoujo and what is actually presented as shoujo subjects gives a twist to the world of shoujo. Young ladies’ comics is about shoujo, and does not always show a taboo concept to the category shoujo, as ladies’ comics tries to show. This aspect of young ladies’ comics, once again, refers to the fact that shoujo can be a signi? er which freely moves from the existing bodies of shoujo, emphasizing itself as an ideological notion, from which readers may take and get out whatever they want. Furthermore, such different treatments of reality among these three genres will appear in their different endings. A typical shoujo manga has been regarded as the story, of a prince and a princess with a happy ending to a love story such as Cinderella, in which a lower-status girl gains a higher-status husband through magic. Ladies’ comics present their works as part of real lives and expect the ending to provide readers with an actual solution which they would also have in their lives. Young ladies’ comics also concerns reality and many women writers for this genre claim that they want to write manga which does not end but continues in the same way as the real life that they are having now continues. In general, they regard shoujo manga as a limited genre which does not allow them to write what they are writing currently. The concept of the ‘‘real’’ 796 A Journal of Popular Culture ppears as if it were a common key word among them regarding their comments on the limit of shoujo manga. However, the concept of the ‘‘real,’’ which young ladies’ comics deals with, also seems to have a unique message, because young ladies comics does not abandon shoujo’s point of view, which also allows readers to see dreams. Despite its concern about real lives of women, the concept of shoujo still remains in young ladies’ comics. Yet, the difference between shoujo manga and young ladies comics can be found in their treatment of this shoujo. Basically, shoujo manga shows the world of a girl before the age of social duty. Young ladies’ comics seemingly present a similar world in which a character can appear as shoujo without any social obligations. However, young ladies’ comics also emphasize some aspects of the protagonist, which stress that she has also been living in a ‘‘real’’ life. In reality, ‘‘she’’ gets hurt, gets old, or gets changed in some way. She also witnesses somebody experiencing a change. A shoujo protagonist in young ladies’ comics appears not as a momentary existence which will ? nish once the story ends, but as an actual existence, just like the readers who are living and continue their lives after the story ends. This perspective, which sees shoujo’s life as one that will continue after the story ends, is common among popular authors in the ? eld of young ladies’ comics. For example, a wellreceived young ladies’ comics, Happy-Mania, by Anno Moyoko, which started in 1995 and ended in July 2001, presents a unique shoujo character, who easily makes love but cannot ? nd a boy whom she can trust. Unlike the existing type of shoujo, this heroine uses her body as her ? rst step to love. Anno says that she now writes a ‘‘real’’ love story with sexual scenes which Anno herself could have experienced but shoujo manga discourages (Anno 1999: 160). For example, in Figure 3, the protagonist is excited about her new love, while her friend, who is drawn as a smaller ? gure, asks her if they used a condom or not. Tracing this protagonist, who is easily blinded by her love, this story continues to show various cases of love affairs which young women might experience. Figure 4 shows a moment when she ? nds out that her boyfriend has another girlfriend. That does not end her love, and the story continues showing her pursuing her boyfriend until she becomes something like a stalker and ? nally notices what she is doing for a worthless male; she decides to ? d another lover. And then, another story Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 797 Figure 3. Anno Moyoko. Happy-Mania. Vol. 1. Tokyo: Shodensha, 1996. 97. r 1996 Anno Moyoko/Shodensha. 798 A Journal of Popular Culture Figure 4. Anno Moyoko. Happy-Mania. Vol 1. Tokyo: Shodensha, 1996. 112. r 1996 Anno Moyoko/Shodensha. Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 799 about this protagonis t begins. Although readers of shoujo manga may expect a happy ending, the readers here do not necessarily expect one (Anno 1999: 164). Moreover, Minami Qta, one of the popular young ladies’ comics writers, denies the concept of ending itself. Her work is quite different from typical shounen (boys) and shoujo manga which offer a clear ending. According to her (Minami 1997: 196), typical shounen and shoujo manga are stories about gaining something. Shounen manga deal with the pursuit of power, money, or a position, while shoujo manga aims at attracting a handsome boy. Yet, to her, ‘‘reality’’ does not cease the moment something has been attained. Makimura Satoru, a popular and renowned shoujo manga writer who has written for shoujo manga since the 1970s, refers to how she felt when she began writing for young ladies’ comics (Makimura 1999). She thought that she could not write any more dream-like works for manga. She wished to write ‘‘reality,’’ in which as long as she lived, she would face more uncomfortable facts. At the same time, she did not totally abandon shoujo manga. Yet she composed her works in a different way, using some aspects of shoujo manga. She began research outside the world of shoujo manga. Researching readers by herself, she found how deceitful and ? ctitious what she had written as shoujo manga was. Here, what she notes as the importance in the category genre of young ladies’ comics is to present ‘‘reality. ’ These young ladies’ comics writers ? nd shoujo manga full of deceits which tell only comforting myths to entertain shoujo with dreamlike ideas; young ladies’ comics allow them to write something other than fantasy. In fact, many popular young ladies’ comics writers share this wish for the ‘‘real. ’â€⠄¢ Onozuka Kahori, another popular young ladies’ comics writer, also makes similar comments that she is writing a life, not a story, with upheavals, which might even hurt you. They wish to show how shoujo will be if she continues her life. Even after the story ends, their characters’ lives would continue. Onozuka suggests that she would like to send a message to readers, which suggests that even if they can be hurt, they will be ? ne, and such experience will give them power to continue their lives (Onozuka 1999: 30). However, in speaking about the ‘‘real’’ that shoujo manga cannot present, we should note that these young ladies’ comics 800 A Journal of Popular Culture writers point out facts. On the one hand, they have shoujo, and on the other hand, they want the shoujo to grow up, move, and change. Can shoujo grow up? The term shoujo is a category for girls during a special period in which they are neither children nor adults. Yet some heroines in young ladies’ comics seem to already have grown up because they deal with the theme of sexuality. Considering the ideological function of the category shoujo, which has used even her absence as her substance, we note a similar function of the category shoujo in young ladies’ comics, which uses shoujo’s absence, rather than showing a heroine who is shoujo. By offering a heroine who grows up enough to deal with sexuality, but has not found a way to settle down herself in accordance with the social codes which her gender requires, such as marriage, young ladies’ comics make use of the concept of shoujo. This heroine, who already has a sexual body of a woman, offers shoujo’s absence, rather than her existence. The absence of shoujo functions here again as a key to perceiving the connection of the manga with a ‘‘real’’ life, which shoujo does not have; young ladies’ comics resists idealization which portrays only one piece of her life as if it were the best moment. The genre of ladies’ comics, which employs the theme of sexuality and women’s bodies and their issues, has been a practice of how to develop what shoujo manga has treated in the form of the absence of shoujo to describe women’s sexuality and their adult lives. Ladies’ comics enabled what shoujo manga could not contain. Then young ladies’ comics was born and dealt with what ladies’ comics could not contain. Showing both what ladies’ comics cannot contain and what shoujo manga cannot contain, the new genre, temporarily called young ladies’ comics, seems to occupy a place in between shoujo manga and ladies’ comics, but it is more than that, rooted in the term shoujo. Showing the body of shoujo, it alters the meaning of shoujo into that of a future adult woman, who is still in the process of changing and considering her life in reality. In 1999, the Kikai kintou hou [The Equal Employment Opportunity Law] of 1985 was amended. A clause concerning sexual harassment was added and the law became stricter. The older version of the law only encouraged companies not to discriminate against women, but the revised law bans discrimination in promotion, education, and so on. It becomes a company’s duty not to discriminate against employees in terms Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 801 of gender. However, there are still many points which need to be amended. For example, the new clause concerning sexual harassment does not ban sexual harassment. According to the new version of the law, it is a company’s duty to take sexual harassment into consideration. Under such circumstances, women’s struggle at work will continue. The category shoujo functions as an ideological apparatus for women to be free from social obligations such as marriage. Women’s world of manga began with the term of shoujo. Even a new genre for adult women has been formed out of shoujo manga and seems to be still part of shoujo, which could escape from the reality and social obligation. houjo still functions as an important aspect of comics for women. When will women in Japan escape the world of shoujo? The Japanese society imposes many problems on women although women are trying to get out of the category shoujo, which they claim ignores ‘‘reality. ’’ However, women continue to question the disconnection between the category shoujo and themselves as adult women, allowing them both to think of their actual lives from the point of view of a shoujo who has not been involved in social obligations yet, and to imagine themselves as shoujo. In that sense, the category shoujo still gives female readers a performative power by promising to show another perspective which is the reality in which they live, in a process of their search for their own way of living. Notes Japanese names appear in the same order as they appear in their articles or books. 2 Number of children to whom one woman shall give birth when she is between the ages of 15 and 49 years old. In 1997, the birth rate in Japan was 1. 39. 3 Mediaworks. /http://www. mediaworks. co. jp/alt/000/text/ya. htmlS. 4 Yonezawa remarks that ladies’ comics magazines have three kinds of target readers: ‘‘young Mrs. ’ for housewives, ‘‘ladies’’ for working women, and ‘‘young adult’’ for younger women around twenty. Ladies’ comics by major publishers employ many manga writers who were once engaged as shoujo manga writers. 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