Whiter than White? Part III : Interrogating Images in a Critical Study of the Cultural Practice in Japan of Casting White People in Local Print Media Ads, and its Educational Implications

• Jones, D.

• Honda, A.

抄録

Whereas prior approaches to learning about cultures focused on identifying putatively‘essential’ differences and/or trite representations, current approaches adopt critical multiculturalism/ interculturalism to debunk stereotypes and expose the insidious workings of hegemonic hierarchies. This study draws on the British tradition of Culture Studies (CS) to problematize the cultural practice in Japan of using White models to represent and advertise products. Advertising functions as a powerful force of ‘informal’ education, setting cultural ‘norms,’ so CS posits as paramount the unpacking of the processes and (meta-)messages of such mass media. Thus, this study semiotically interrogates images of foreign (especially White) models in Japanese ads. It aims to unveil the processes/practices of representation: how ads are intended to be ‘read’ and how consumers are unconsciously complicit in duly making those meanings. Collectively, the images indicate a pattern of positive representation of Whiteness, especially as connoting pulchritude, power, privilege, and prestige. In contrast, Black people are hugely under-represented (especially women) and often only appear in stereotypical roles. Other intersectionally oppressive representations/non-representations include women being sexualised, and everyone being heterosexual and middle-class (or above), with consumers likely to assume models are American. Where is the cultural diversity? Part I of the study interrogated images of White women in ads, noticing a shift in representations (less removed/ revered?). Part II interrogated images of White and Black men, noting a similar shift in representation and a change to less macho masculinity. Analysing such changes is a way to challenge the fixity of stereotypes, leading to more equitable intercultural interaction. The present paper (Part III) extends the study by switching the focus from national TV ads to local print media ads to interrogate and compare representations of Whiteness, finding them again to be positive (with Black people hard to find). A forthcoming study will analyse images of foreigners in English textbooks in Japan to assess how much they replicate or repudiate the ad images’ (meta-)messages, bringing ‘informal’and ‘formal’ learning into productive contact in a way CS advocates but which has not featured in traditional curricula. This could be a model for people in Japan (and elsewhere) to undertake such interrogations of images in their own local contexts to reflect on what (meta-)messages they convey, and to compare such ‘informally’ educative media influences with the images/attitudes conveyed by‘formal’ education (textbooks, curricula etc.) to consider, holistically, what it really is that people are learning/having reinforced about cultures (especially a hierarchy of cultures) and how they might resist/re-envision it in more equitable and transformative ways.

収録刊行物

• 福井大学教育・人文社会系部門紀要 = Memoirs of the Faculty of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences University of Fukui

  福井大学教育・人文社会系部門紀要 = Memoirs of the Faculty of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences University of Fukui 5 1-28, 2021-01-19

  福井大学教育・人文社会系部門

キーワード

• Culture Studies
• Interculturalism
• Whiteness Studies
• Japanese Advertising
• Intersectionality

詳細情報

• CRID: 1050850247191545472
• NII論文ID: 120006980589
• ISSN: 24341827
• Web Site: http://hdl.handle.net/10098/00028606
• 本文言語コード: en
• 資料種別: departmental bulletin paper
• データソース種別:
  • IRDB
  • CiNii Articles