Social drinking is an accepted aspect of working life in Japan, and women are left to manage their drunken husbands when the men return home, restoring them to sobriety for the next day of work. In attempting to cope with their husbands' alcoholism, the women face a profound cultural dilemma: when does the nurturing behavior expected of a good wife and mother become part of a pattern of behavior that is actually destructive? How does the celebration of nurturance and dependency mask the exploitative aspects not just of family life but also of public life in Japan? The Too-Good Wife follows the experiences of a group of middle-class women in Tokyo who participated in a weekly support meeting for families of substance abusers at a public mental-health clinic. Amy Borovoy deftly analyzes the dilemmas of being female in modern Japan and the grace with which women struggle within a system that supports wives and mothers but thwarts their attempts to find fulfillment outside the family. The central concerns of the book reach beyond the problem of alcoholism to examine the women's own processes of self-reflection and criticism and the deeper fissures and asymmetries that undergird Japanese productivity and social order.
Author(s): Amy Borovoy
Edition: 1
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 251
CONTENTS......Page 8
Preface......Page 10
Acknowledgments......Page 18
Introduction: “Dirty Lukewarm Water”......Page 22
1. Alcoholism and Codependency: New Vocabularies for Unspeakable Problems......Page 63
2. Motherhood, Nurturance, and “Total Care” in Postwar National Ideology......Page 88
3. Good Wives: Negotiating Marital Relationships......Page 107
4. A Success Story......Page 136
5. The Inescapable Discourse of Motherhood......Page 158
Conclusion: The Home as a Feminist Dilemma......Page 182
Notes......Page 198
References......Page 222
Index......Page 240