Harajuku Baddies and Sugamo Grannies

        Tokyo is home to countless lifestyles, cultures, and generations.  While Harajuku is known worldwide for being a youth culture and fashion hot spot, Sugamo is a smaller city known as the “Harajuku for seniors”.  At first glance, it’s hard to see why these two cities would even be remotely similar.  I mean, how could the birth place of the Gyaru style be remotely similar to a small city covered in temples?  Surprisingly, this is the exact reason why these cities are compared to each other.  Although they are popular in different age groups, both cities function as cultural hubs in two distinct ways.

        First is the material effect that each city had on its audience.  Harajuku’s Takeshita

Street is known at the heart of Japanese teen culture.  Young people gather there to buy the trendiest things, experiment with fashion, and express individuality.  The shops and cafes that constantly evolve to match new styles reflect this sentiment.  In a similar fashion, Sugamo’s Jizo-Dori Street also acts as a shopping district for seniors to express themselves and feel at home.  Instead of trendy outfits and Labubus, the shops focus on comfortable clothes, traditional items, health products, and nostalgic snacks.  Both streets sell specific merchandise to attract their target audience and create a sense of belonging.

        This is the social effect that each city had.  Both cities also function as social spaces rather than “just a shopping district”.  Harajuku is the perfect place for teenagers to find inspiration for their fashion, catch up with their friends, and bond over shared interests.  It is busy, chaotic, and energetic.  Sugamo is more laid back in its function as a social space.  The spread out layout of the city makes it suitable for long walks, the less populated stores make it so that visitors can form a connection with the shopkeepers, and the small coffee shops act as social hubs to catch up with friends.  While the energy level differs, both cities provide a sense of belonging and companionship for their visitors, making them vital social spaces.

Both cities are designed around the values of their target audience.  Harajuku is fast-paced, visually bold, and constantly evolving, reflecting the creativity, energy, and self-expression that is valued by the youth.  However, Sugamo is slower, more accessible, and nostalgic, reflecting the tradition and comfort that is valued by the older generation.  Harajuku and Sugamo also represent the changes in life stages.  Harajuku represents the present and future, with innovation, change and trends, while Sugamo represents memory, stability, and continuity.  The differing values but same functions show how connected Sugamo is to Harajuku, cementing itself as the “Harajuku for seniors”.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin: Themes

Identity/Freedom

Edna's entire story revolves around discovering herself as an individual rather than as her contribution to society.

    At the beginning of the book, she feels out of place among the other women at Grand Isle, who practically worship their husbands and devote their lives to their children.  Edna doesn't feel fulfilled by motherhood nor marriage like they do, and hence feels like her current domestic role doesn't feel like her "home", but that it just feels like a "house" (do you get what i mean).  When she forms a relationship with Robert through genuine human connection, it awakens an emotional desire within her, because she is finally seen as a person rather than as someone's wife or mother.  It makes her realize how empty and trapped her life feels and makes her begin her journey of self fulfillment.  Later on, she learns how to swim on her own.  This gives her a powerful feeling of independence and autonomy.  This is the first time that she feels actual freedom.  When she returns to New Orleans, she returns to painting, a passion that she ignored to focus on her duty as wife and mother.  It becomes a way for her to express herself and reclaim her identity from before her marriage.  She also begins selling her paintings, giving her a sense of independence and financial freedom since she can now earn her own money.  

I forgot to mention this in the summary, but she calls her new house that she lives in without her family, the "pigeon house" since its so small that its like a birdhouse.  She moves into this new house, which she finally feels like is her "home".  This action represents her rejection of being defined by her husband and the society that expects her to be dependent on him, and also shows her attempt to live completely independently.

However, after Robert leaves her because he feels like she cannot have complete freedom with him there, it highlights Mademoiselle Reisz' warning to Edna.  Mademoiselle Reisz gave up on a traditional life to be an independent woman with complete freedom.  Robert leaving makes her realize that she cannot have both because of the constraints of society.  She returns to Grand Isle, takes off all of her clothes, symbolically stripping herself of society (dresses reminding her of her womanhood, her wedding ring reminding her that she is bound to a man, etc.), and jumps into the ocean, plunging herself into freedom for the last time.  She reflects on her life and realizes that she can't live as her own person in society.  Her final moments show her conflict between her desire for freedom and the limitations placed on her.

Gender Roles

First of all, Adéle Ratignolle is portrayed as the "ideal" woman.  She is beautiful and youthful, devoted to her husband and kids, openly affectionate, and feels fulfilled by motherhood.  She is the epitome of what women were expected to be.  Although Edna is friends with her, they're only surface level friends because deep down, Edna is just curious about her in a "why do you think like that?" way.  Her discomfort highlights her rejection of this traditional role.

Second of all, when Léonce starts to get worried about Edna's weird behavior, not because he's genuinely worried about her unhappiness, but because he's worried about how her behavior will damage his reputation.  Also, at the beginning of the book, when he finds out that she got sunburnt from hanging out at the beach too much, it's stated that he looks at her like a prized possession that was damaged.  Léonce, like countless men during the Victorian era, views his wife as an ego-boosting cleaning robot instead of as an actual person.  To him, Edna is just a Roomba molded into the shape of a person.  He also treats her her strange behavior as a problem to be cured rather than an identity crisis.  The doctor further views her change in behavior through a gendered lens.  He believes that she's just being hysterical and that she's just emotionally unstable because women ☕️ instead of acknowledging her desire for independence and freedom.  The doctor reflects the unfortunately common problem back then of women's issues being treated as diseases to be cured rather than being understood on a human level.

    When Edna later starts an affair with Alcée Arobin, a man well known in New Orleans for being a play boy, it creates a double standard that further deepens the theme of gender roles.  While Edna's involvement with Robert or Alcée would cause scandals and moral condemnations because she is a married woman who must therefore remain chaste (a.k.a. no boombayah), Robert and Alcée are socially tolerated.  Sure, they have sort of bad reputations, but EDNA's involvement is what would get them in trouble.  This contrasts exposes the unequal expectations set for men and women, and adds fuel to Edna's dissatisfaction with her life.

    Also, when Edna witnesses Adéle's childbirth, she is disturbed by how self-sacrificial it is.  Childbirth destroyed Adéle mentally and physically, and makes Enda realize that she can't sacrifice that much of her livelihood for motherhood.  However, Adèle later urges Edna to consider her children above all else, reinforcing the belief that motherhood should override a woman’s identity.

    Finally, the ending.  Robert ultimately leaves her because although he loves her, he realizes that he doesn't have the balls to challenge the heavily gendered society that values masculine honor and feminine purity.  His departure shows that ALL men end up benefitting from and (unfortunately) uphold the system that limits women.  Robert leaves and chooses social respectability, while Edna is forced to deal with the consequences of desire.  Edna realizes that there is no path in life for her.  In a society where being socially acceptable means giving herself up completely for motherhood or existing quietly in marriage, there was no socially acceptable place for woman who wants complete emotional, sexual, and personal freedom.  Motherhood would mean sacrificing her entire identity.  Being a wife would mean being a useless accessory to an individual while dissolving herself completely.  With nowhere left to go, Edna decides to  remain an individual and heads to the sea.

    The sea is the only place where Edna can experience full freedom.  The fact that she has to completely leave the social world in order to experience autonomy shows how deeply rooted gender roles and the patriarchy are in the world.  Freedom for women could only exist outside of society.  

One really important thing to note is that Edna's suicide isn't the result of personal failure.  It instead reveals the cruelty of a system that offers women hope without survival.  Edna spends the whole book growing, discovering herself, acting with courage, hoping to become her own person, only to be shown that society doesn't provide a sustainable way for her to live as an individual.  She kills herself not because she is weak and can't handle the love of her life ghosting her, but because the gender roles surrounding her are so unforgiving.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin: Summary

      Sometime in the late 1800s, In Grand Isle, the wealthy Pontellier family are on a summer holiday at the cottages owned by Madame Lebrun.  Léonce Pontellier is a kind, famous, 40 year old businessman who loves his family but is preoccupied by his work.  His frequent business-related trips/absences forces a wedge between him and his wife Edna.  Edna is also tired of her children.  As a result, she spends most of her time with Adele Ratignolle, a married Creole (people of French or Spanish descent) who is the epitome of the ideal traditional wife.  Through this friendship, Edna learns a lot about self expression.  She learns from Adele, that since Creole women were already assumed to be innocent and chaste, they could get away with being brutally honest and saying nasty things, since they were downplayed anyway.  Seeing how open they are, Edna becomes more honest about her repressed emotions and desires.
    Edna's "awakening" is accelerated upon meeting Robert, the son of Madame Lebrun.  He is known in the Grand Isle for being a play boy who devotes himself to one woman each year (often a married woman).  This year, he spends his summer with Edna and the two spend their days together lounging and talking by the shore.  He takes her to a dinner party, introducing her to Mademoiselle Reisz, the unmarried, childless, recluse, pianist.  The music that she plays moves Edna to tears and awakens her to the idea of being an independent woman.
    Léonce proves to be a terrible partner when he yells at Edna for embarrassing him by being untraditional.  Unlike what she is expected to do, she does not worship her husband or give up her life to take care of her children, calling her a neglectful mother.  This argument causes Edna to cry at night and finally confront her dissatisfaction with her marriage.  Robert's words and attention also inspire her revelation that she feels actual desire and emotional fulfillment.  She also finds that she feels the same emotional fulfillment and freedom when she learns how to swim.  The ocean gives her a sense of freedom that no one could ever give her.  Robert and Edna never confront their forbidden love, and Robert abruptly leaves the Grand Isle for Mexico to avoid his love for her.  Edna later returns to New Orleans as a changed woman.

    

    Back in New Orleans, Edna grows distant from her family and begins pursuing her passion for painting.  She neglects all of her household duties and begins to assert her independence.  Worried about her sudden change in behavior, Léonce consults their family doctor/friend, Doctor Mandelet.  Although he suspects that the change is due to her having an affair, he tells him that he should let her do her own thing since trying to stop her will only fuel her rebellion.  Léonce listens to the advice and lets Edna stay home alone while he is away on business, with the kids staying at their grandparents' place.  With everyone away, Edna fully rejects her former, traditional lifestyle.  She moves into a home of her own and declares that she is an independent woman.

    Although she is still madly in love with Robert, she still begins a sexual affair with Alcée Arobin, a known play boy, who is able to satisfy her sexual desire.  Since she is never emotionally attached to him, she is able to satisfy her desire while remaining free from male domination.

    Mademoiselle Reisz takes Edna under her wing and acts as her sanctuary.  She is moved by her piano playing and visits her often.  Being a woman who dedicates her life solely to music, she serves as an inspiration and a role model for Edna.  Through the letters that she receives from Robert, Mademoiselle Reisz is also the only one who actually knows about the romance between him and Edna.  She encourages her to admit and act on her feelings for Robert.  However, she warns her of the sacrifices expected of an artist.

    Robert unexpectedly returns to New Orleans and expresses his love for Edna but reminds her that they can't actually get together since she's still technically married.  Edna tells him that she is willing to leave Léonce, and that she is now an independent woman, is an artist, that she has her own house, and that they can live happily together.  However, Robert is still iffy about it.

    Later on, Adéle undergoes a rocky childbirth, and Edna leaves Robert to go support her friend, pleading with him to stay until she returns.  When she gets to her home, Adéle reminds Edna to think of her children, and reminds her of the socially acceptable lifestyle that she abandoned.  She later leaves with Doctor Mandelet, who urges her to come by his office because he is worried about what her passionate and weird actions might cause.  These events cause Edna to slowly come to terms with the fact that she might've acted a little selfishly.

    When she comes home, she finds that Robert left a note saying that "I love you.  Goodby— because I love you."  Basically saying that he left because he realized that they can't be thing because they can't defy societal constraints.  Getting married would cause a scandal since Edna's still married.  Robert felt that being married to an untraditional wife would cause backlash, and it would also stop Edna from being the independent woman she desires to be.

    The haunting reminder of her children and realization that even the love of her life is unable to fulfill her dreams, she feels an overwhelming feeling of solitude.  She returns to the Grand Isle, strips free of all of her constraints (butt-ass naked), and begins swimming in the ocean.  She thinks of her children, husband, her lover's inability to understand her, and Mademoiselle Reisz' words of wisdom.  Realizing that she can't return to her traditional life or fully achieve independence within society, Edna continues to swim until she is overcome by the water.