Schoolgirls, Money and Rebellion in Japan

Exploring the history and politics underlying the cult of girls in contemporary Japanese media and culture, this book presents a striking picture of contemporary Japanese society from the 1990s to today. At its core is an in-depth case study of the social panic and media delight surrounding delinquent schoolgirls, and Sharon Kinsella traces this reaction back to male anxieties relating to gender equality and female emancipation in Japan. In turn, the book reveals the conflicted, nostalgic, pornographic, and at times racialized manner, in which largely male sentiments about this transformation have been expressed, and the flamboyant and stylistic manner in which young women have reacted to the weight of an obsessive and accusatory male media gaze.