Thursday, February 28, 2019

Real Vampires

Vampires Stories Started Thousands of years Ago in Myths Today They Are truly Real and Among Us ? Abstr effect Vampires gather in been a part of homo innerkind destination for thousands of years. There pick up been stories of lamia bid creatures in Mesopotamia, Greece, China, and Europe. These stories flummox spanned the globe and time. The lamia has evolved overtime based on the current trends and beliefs and culture of the time. Today when the word vampire is said many an(prenominal) visualize genus Dracula from the stories by Bram Stoker or spendsome all(prenominal)uring creatures that be build to drain you of your personal line of credit.For most vampires only live in stories, the truth is that vampires ar very squ be. There is a subculture of real vampires uphill by of the duskiness all over the humanness they argon very real and among us. Vampires Stories Started Thousands of Years Ago in Myths Today They Are Very Real and Among Us When the word vampire is said it evokes Hollywood mountain ranges of handsome men and pleasing women, seductive creatures with fangs that lure in their prey with their hyp nonic st be on with their cheeseparing looks, wit and charm.Once the prey is seduced the vampire goes straight for the throat, biting voltaic pile and draining their line and ultimately their animation. More recently the images may be of the sexy Vampire who is act to pass as human in some high school setting that is amazingly fast, and strong, yet trying to be sensitive. Some sparkle in the sun and opposites must evacuate it altogether, while still others wear some enchanted ring or jewelry in order to walk in sunlight.Oh yes, and lets non forget their ability to go on life-time endlessly because one(a) of the most incredible qualities is a vampires immortality, unless they take a shit a wood or silver s scoop up driven by their heart, or end up decapitated and burned, which would swiftly end in that location immortal re ign. Which of all time version of vampire you envision leave behinding depend on the most recent book, movie, or television series you argon intrigued by. These images ar the glorified Hollywood images that be spoon fed to us unremarkable, hardly these are not the true comments or characteristics of a real vampire.As more than as most people believe that the image of the vampire was spawned from the bilgewater of Dracula written by Bram Stoker that is certainly not the case, the fable of the vampire started thousands of years ago and span the globe, and continue to engross alliance straightaway. Every culture has their own allegory and origination point and these stories have spawned a growing fascination with vampires. It is important to look back and lift up where it all began in order to uncover the truth of real vampires at once.One of the start- glowering stories strikes from Mesopotamia it goes back at least 4,000 years. It starts with Lamastu, the daughter o f the sky God Anu. She was a demon goddess who preyed on earthly concern. At night she would creep into peoples homes and steel their babys or worse, she would kill them while they were in their crib or even while in their mothers womb. It is also said she would suck the blood from young men this would transport sickness, disease, and sterility to the people. When you see images of Lamastu she is seen to have talons or claw like hands, as well as go.This is very similar to another vampire like goddess from history, Lilith. (Harris, 2001 Lamastu, 2011) Lilith is a vampire like demon goddess as well, along with the wings and talons she is sometimes shown to be in the form of an owl or a mix of woman owl type creature. There are a florilegium of stories that surround Lilith. The most prominent one seems to be the one coming from Jewish origins where it is said that Lilith was the first wife of tenner. In this story the trouble started when Lilith did not want to be in a compliant position to Adam during sexual intercourse.She believed since God fashioned them of the same diddley and was said to be an equal to Adam, she wished to be his partner and equal, not to be beneath him. She was banished from Adam and the Garden of Eden into darkness where she was then perceive as a Demon and in the darkness she began giving endure to her own children. These children were said to be demons like their Mother. God sent tierce Angels after her and they asked her to return to the garden but not as Adams equal. Lilith refused and for her punishment God killed a hundred of her children daily.In retaliation Lilith began to take her vengeance out on Gods children by cleaning human babies. Along with killing human children Lilith had seductive qualitys and would seduce men and come to them at night as a succubus. (Harris, 2001 Lilith, 2001) There are many other stories of similar creatures like Lamastu and Lilith all over the world, much(prenominal) as, the Empisai she c ame from Greek stories, she was the beautiful daughter of Hecate and would rise out of the ground at night and seduce the Sheppards in the field and then devour them.In Chinese folk lore at that place were creatures that had shine red eyes, they were covered in fur and they would bite their prey with cunning fangs, these creatures were called Kuang-shi. (Harris, 2001) As time went on people traveled from congeal to place and with them the stories of the vampire like creatures were spread. The stories morphed and changed with the current beliefs and knowledge of the time. There is a overplus of stories out there that blanket cultures and over time have unquestionable a variety of versions and interpretations and created are current knowledge base of what a vampire is.As much as most people believe that the image of the vampire was spawned from the story of Dracula written by Bram Stoker you hatful see this is not the case and the story of the vampire started thousands of years ago, many of the beliefs, traditions and rituals real vampires have today are based on these ancient stories. So what is a real vampire? At first glisten it can be hard to define, but when you delve in you will start to see categories. The first, most broad category falls nether the term, vampire participation of interests, and this term is the broadest wording used to describe the vampire culture.Vampires bushel to the vampire community in a similar manner as gay people speak about the gay community and African the Statesns speak about the black community. (TheoFantastique, 2009) The vampire community is not an organized structure according to Joseph Laycock, Author of Vampires Today The fair play about Modern Vampirism and graduate of the Harvard Divinity School, he refers to it as an personal individuation group. (Laycock, 2009) Within that identity group you can find the terms spirit style vampire and real vampire. Real and life-style vampire are phrases used deep dow n the vampire culture to spot between the two groups.Life style vampires or modus vivendirs, as some would say, are the ones that are fans of vampire fiction such as Bram Stoker, Anne Rice, and Stephanie Meyer. They enjoy bandaging up as the undead and participating in role playing games such as Vampire the Masquerade. Some have prosthetic fangs and sleep in c wrap upins. They love life everything vampire and embrace all the stereo types. Ms Saige who is a lifestyle vampire has this to say about it, I live the lifestyle but I am not a real vampire, naught can live forever. She goes on to say there is about 1,000 lifestyle vampires in mod York and thousands more worldwide. Theres a company in Europe, one in California and a huge tribe in Texas. We all know each other. (Mittelbach & Crewdson, 2000) To be more determinate on the differences Joseph Laycock says the main(prenominal) difference between the two is lifestyle vampires contract their vampiric identity and real vamp ires see their vampire identity as changeless and something that is a part of them. (Laycock, 2009) Real vampires are, individuals who whole tone a need to carry rancid blood or junket on the subtle brawn of other people in order to sustain their physical, mental, and spiritual health, according to Joseph Laycock. Laycock, 2010) This is not to say that the murderers you here of in the news that consume blood and are labeled as vampire are the real vampires that are being spoken of here. Those people have been labeled vampire by the media. Real vampire is an identity group and is taken on freely by people. The Atlanta Vampire partnership expands on the definition of a real vampire and goes on to say that if vampires do not sustenance off the blood or energy of other universe they will become tired, sickly, depressed, and can go through physical roometic or discomfort.A vampire can also have a variety of psychic abilities and be very psychically aware such as, brain people s emotions, see peoples auras and be super empathetic. The term real vampire can be broken deal into three more groups from there, based on their granting techniques. (AVA, 2005-2011) The first are the Sanguine or Sang for short, vampires who actually consume blood from adult male or animals. The amount of blood and the frequency of consumption can take off from vampire to vampire. It can be as little as a drop and can be as frequently as daily and in frequently as monthly.Blood that is consumed from a human source is ever consensual and there is a written or verbal arranging between the donor, the person giving blood, and the vampire. These Sanguine Vampires need to drink human or animal blood to oppose their health and well being. (AVA, 2005-2011)It is not simply done because it arouses them sexually or they like the way it makes them feel or the taste of it. There is a genuine need for it to maintain their health. Though the act of feeding can evoke sexual desires and be a very enjoyable experience that is fair(a) an out come on the purpose of drinking blood.The second type is the Psychic or Psi Vampire they feed on the life event energy of other humans. This life force has been described in other cultures as chi in china, prana in India, or the soul in westward religions. Vampires have the ability to draw the subtle energy or life force from other people by using a enumerate of techniques. (AVA, 2005-2011) A vampire by the name of Linda Rabinowitz says, she is a psychic vampire and if you maintain eye contact with her for too long she may be tempted to start taking in your subtle energy.She goes on to say that she would neer actually do that without a persons permission, as good vampires operate under what is called The Black Veil. This is a code or ethic that states vampires must have the permission of their donors before they will feed off of them. (Monica, 2008 Laycock, 2010) According to sanguinarius. org, a website dedicated to providin g information and resources to real vampires, psi vampires can be broken down into further categories based on the type of energy they feed off of.Some of the examples are empathic vampires who feed on the emotions of people, sexual vampires who feed on the energies generated during sexual intercourse, elemental vampires who feed off the energies of the elements of earth, wind, fire, and water. Astral feeding is another term and this refers to vampires that travel in the astral plane a feed off the life force of creatures living within the astral plane, dream scape vampires can discharge into peoples dreams and feed of the life force within the dream, and run short on the list is magical vampires they are able to feed on and manipulate magical energies.This list is not all inclusive or set in stone one thing that is apparent within the vampire culture is that views on feeding techniques and their logicality are ever changing and all the techniques are not accepted as valid by all . The third type is a hybrid vampire which is the crew of a sanguine vampire and a psychic vampire. These hybrid vampires both drink blood as well as feed off the life force energy. They have the ability to choose which source to feed from as they wish. (AVA 2005-2011) Hybrids have the ability to choose their technique or liquefy a couple.For instance a vampire may drink the blood of their donor while in the midst of a sexual act thus creating a situation where they are simultaneously feeding off the sexual energy. You can see an example of this in the story given to Katherine Ramsland in her book Piercing the Darkness Undercover with Vampires in America Today. The vampire described an account with a young man that spanned a short period of time. They had an initial encounter and the vampire continued to fore the individual eventually it led up to an evening of exchanging blood and sexual contact.The vampire describes his desire by saying, The mingling of blood and semen represe nts my thirstiness at the core of my being. Its about me, who I am as a male with a great need for anothers life force, blood cell to blood cell. The very sight of blood stirs my loins. (Ramsland, 1998, p. 16) Vampires also can be broken down into categories by their beliefs. Vampirism in and of itself is not a religion but within the vampire community there is an array of belief systems. Just like with in main stream society you have Christians, Jews, Buddhist, and Atheist you too have this in the vampire community.There is also within the community groups of vampires that see their vampirism as a spiritual practice. There are different groups that have different beliefs just like any other religion. Father Sebastian, who is a fang smith, author, and founder of the kindred Saber Tooth and the order of Strigoii said, during an interview in the documentary Vampyres, his group follows the path of the Strigoii which means living vampire in Romanian. It is an older tradition that they have resurrected. It follows what he refers to as a left hand path, vampires are an emerging culture and that humanity is entering the fifth eon of man.Anton Lavey described it as the age of satin. He goes on to say that within the left hand path tradition people stand out as individuals because within the tradition the majority of people do not believe in such a thing as a god, there is no god except yourself, and that we are a projection of our higher self. (Courau, 2007) The vampire community is vast and full of many verities of beliefs and ways of thinking. Though there is great difference in what they believe to be true of a real vampire there are some things they all allot that are not true.Along with the things that are true of real vampires there are many things that have been skewed and morphed from the current pop-culture trends, many of the Real Vampires of today would love to put an end to the many common beliefs about themselves, their activities, and culture. For st arters real vampires do not need to sleep in coffins or the nastiness from their hometown, they do not have aversions to the sun, although some claim a sensitiveness to it but it borders more on an annoyance than the fire burning personal effects that the media shows just before they are turned to ash.They also know that they are on the world for a finite amount of time and do not live forever. They die just like you and me from anything that we as humans can die from. They do not go around shuck people and draining them of all their blood leaving them dead. Many of them love garlic and prefer to wear silver jewelry over gold. set apart water and crosses will not repel them, because many of them are Christian, or catholic or any of the many religions that are in the world. termination but not least they can come into your house uninvited but like most people they have manners and would not just invite themselves in.Vampires are living all over the world and are very much among us. Though it may be disappointing, the vampires of today are very much human and have no uncivilized and fantastical abilitys to pass onto their victims through their bite or blood. Just because they are not the vampires we read about or seen on the big screen does not make them any less real. As with anything, Hollywood, and pop culture have become very good at taking the ordinary and making it bigger than it really is or more fantastical which can be with how witches, robots, and housewives are portrayed.Hopefully one day we will be able to separate the fantasy from the reality and see them for what they really are people like you and me, going to work each day, living life a day at a time. They could be your doctor, friend, teacher or even your neighbor. People fear what they dont understand, whence if you look for the truth you will understand that the Real Vampires of today are not to be feared, they just have different energetic needfully than the rest of us. References At lanta Vampire Alliance AVA (2005-2011). Atlanta Vampire Alliance AVA.Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http//www. atlantavampirealliance. com/educational. html Courau, L. (Director). (2007). Vampyres Documentary. Harris, T. HowStuffWorks How Vampires Work. HowStuffWorks Science. Retrieved October 3, 2011, from http//science. howstuffworks. com/science-vs-myth/strange-creatures/vampire. htm Lamashtu (Mesopotamian demon) Britannica Online cyclopaedia. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http//www. britannica. com/EBchecked/topic/328457/Lamashtu Laycock, J. (2010).Real vampires as an identity group analyzing causes and effects of an introspective survey by the vampire community. Nova religio, 14(1), 4-23. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Lilith. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. 2001. Retrieved October 09, 2011 from Encyclopedia. com http//www. encyclopedia. com/doc/1G2-3403802788. html Mittlebach, M. , & Crewdson, M. (2000, November 24) . To Die For Painting the Town Red, and the Capes and Nails Black newfound York Times. NY Times Advertisement. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http//www. nytimes. com/2000/11/24/movies/to-die-for-painting-the-town-red-and-the-capes-and-nails-black. tml? scp=1&sq=ms. %20saige&st=cse Monica, H. (2008). A Vampires Life? Its in reality Draining. The Washington Post. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Ramsland, K. M. (1998). Piercing the darkness undercover with vampires in America today. New York Harperprism. TheoFantastique A meeting place for myth, imagination, and mystery in pop culture. (2009, shocking 25). TheoFantastique A meeting place for myth, imagination, and mystery in pop culture. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http//www. theofantastique. com/2009/08/25/joseph-laycock-vampires-today/

The Advancement of the Internet Technology

In diversenessation engine room is give tongue to to be playing an important role in various sectors in a limited society these sectors may include the financial institutes, re await institutes, learning institutions and other development sectors globally.The invention of the network as a mode of communion has made every development successful since nigh of the developments require skills of development the mesh and computers at large.It is in that locationfore by dint of the internet services provided that enhance the success of the peoples opening on the present public service, library services and flat marketing through the internet which globally referred to as the e-commerce.Research indicates that currently entropy is treated using computers and disseminated to the recipients through the internet, this internet engineering is found to have improved the peoples spirit of information in many sectors of development.This idea brings in the advantage of using the in ternet technology to many people who atomic number 18 provided with material information on the electronic formats that have proved to be easy to lose, revise, direct and understand.Also this information is stored in large quantities which make it cheap and simple for the interested party in getting the specified to get it at once, comp atomic number 18d to the process of going to libraries and reading a lot of books in order to get the required information (Connor, 1999)Therefore, for one to approaching the information provided on the internet the subprogramr is expected to enter an inquiry on the web form that is provided, after which it is sent to the web server, the web server then sends the app atomic number 18nt motion to the index server cluster which is meant to jib the inquiry with the available documents.The match is then sent to the document server cluster that plays the role of retrieving the documents so that it can generate the abstracts and the copies of the i nformation that is cached. Then finally the document is displayed by the web server to the make use ofr where he is enabled to get the information required.This attainment of using the internet has basically enabled individuals to have a better vex to good resources of the needed information. Research shows that by the use of computer technologies, preferable learning materials such as journals, newspapers, books and many academic articles can be obtained through the internet.This access to information through the internet is found to be the most important factor in many organisations, whereby individuals have the sanction to store the retrieved materials using devices of storage.Such as flash disks and diskettes which enable them to retrieve and use the data easily comp atomic number 18d to the early years where people used to conserve so many books in their bookshelves and when the individual requires a particular information he was forced to through the whole lot of books s that he gets the information needed, this method really proved to be time cachexia and tiring . (Parries and Jeffay, Dec.2002)Under this technological advancement, we find that there are many essential web sites that are meant to allow many people to get access to many expanded sites that have new approaches of information regarding their area of interest.An font of these sites is the Google website, which is recognised globally and it is also said to be among the best search websites providing search services for the customers who are interested in getting particular websites research indicates that google is the leading service provider to both the individuals and its customers applying the internet technology in their daily activities. (Knupfer and Muffoletto, 1993)This google websites is specialised in the use of hyper schoolbooks, which is used where there have been an interest of putting the written literature into a computerised text that usually involve hypertext editing through this we find that the text is forever organised in a manner that particular initials are charge to particular literature matching with the users requirements for the resources According to research we find that.There are almost over two hundred thousand computer networks of the google partnership which are spread all over the world, allowing many people to access it. Besides accessing files on other computers within the organization, an individual can hang in software located on all the computers that are enabled with the software.This therefore makes communication among the people easy and efficient, for this case we find that the hypertext matching analysis is everlastingly put in mind when the fillings of a particular information is world stored.The characteristics of a particular page such as the title, the font direction and its content are proved to be very crucial in the matching of the hypertext. The other method used by google is the scalable onus technolog y which was created with an objective of performing calculations for over ten thousand servers globally. (Knupfer and Muffoletto, 1993)Google has enabled its technology in finding the complex files through which the use files which do not occur by the use internet formats an example of such formats are the Microsoft word, the post script formats, rich texts among others.The services also offer a number of solutions to particular problems like the misspelling of words in the questions provided this is actually used to enable the searching easier. (Parries and Jeffay, Dec.2002)The internet technology has brought in the use of electronic mail technique, which has brought an extreme change in the modes of communication.Here, we find that the be that are always incurred when an individual conducting a particular research are reduced since moving round, calling through telephony technology and even writing letters to reach a person who may be having information on a particular topic of i nterest are avoided. The internet allows an individual to communicate to a number of people at the same time. (Connor, 1999)

Eco friendly theme parks Essay

Inquiring and analyzing subject field super acids contri bute to a offspring of environmental problems, one being air pollution. Theme putting greens await large amounts of energy they need energy to power the rides, to keep the ac running, to light the jet etc. Providing all this energy contributes to CO2 emissions. non only does the parking lot need huge amounts of energy, the transport to the theme park (e. g. cars, trains, buses etc. ) also emit CO2. Also theres rafts of excess waste produced due to the large crowds attracted to the theme park creating trash.Also, weewee parks use an excessive amount of irrigate to run their water slides, this creates water wastage. Theme parks may also destroy animate being and plant habitat in order for them to be built on the right location but this varies from different theme parks. Why do we need a solution? Global warming is one of the biggest issues that our genesis faces, by contributing in this battle against global warming every(prenominal) bit helps.Creating a more ecofriendly form of entertainment can possibly help save our planet. By providing an eco friendly theme park were not only making teenagers more aware of our environment but were also saving our earth from large emissions of carbon dioxide. Theme parks are mainly here for peoples sport and entertainment where people can relax and have fun. Theyre socially beneficial to escape from ones daily life and flummox with others. Existing theme parks Theme Park Locatio n compositors case of Theme park Target Audienc e Are they eco friendl y? suit of polluti on caused Water/ener gy conservati on? Wastage minimizati on? Greenh ouse Gas emissio n? Ferrari earth Yas.Island Amusem ent Park Families No charge Energy Yes Yes Wild Wadi Jumeir ah Water park Families No Water Water No No Disney World Americ a Amusem ent Park Families Yes Air Energy Yes Minimiz ed Six Flags Americ a Amusem ent park Teenage rs Adults No Air Energy No yes Moviepa rk Ger ma ny Amusem ent Families No Air Energy No Yes Identify and prioritize the primary and secondary question needed to develop a solution to the problem Conducting an online Survey victimization survey monkey targeting teenagers.1) Conducting how often teenagers punish theme parks and what types to make up ones mind a suitable solution (ages 14-19) of 20 students. How often do you visit a theme park? Never Once a class Once every couple of months Every months Every week What irritates you the almost? Crowded areas Trash Diluted Air What type of Theme park do you prefer Water Park Amusement Park What would you sound off is a suitable solution against global warming? Solar panels drift mills Recycling Hydroelectricity http//www. ehow. com/info_8483212_environmental-come-making-theme-p ark. html http//science. howstuffworks. com/environmental/energy/solar-power-help- environment. htm.

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Tinker V. Des Moines

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community drill Dist. 393 U. S. 503, 89 S. Ct. 733, 21 L. Ed. 2d. 731 (1969). NATURE OF CASE Petitioners, three public develop pupils, in Des Moines, Iowa were suspended from instruct for violating a schooltime get on with (respondents) constitution of banning the article of clothing of armbands. The armbands represented the protest of Government policy in Vietnam. The District Court dismissed the complaint. On appeal, the octad perimeter Court was equally divided, therefore affirmed the decision of the District Court.Writ of certiorari was granted and reversed and remanded the decision of the Eight Circuit Court. CONSISE RULE OF impartiality Student name and address may be regulated when such speech would materially and substantially interfere with the discipline and operation of a school. FACTS The suitors intractable to wear black armbands to protest the Government policy in Vietnam. The petitioners decision to wear black armbands viol ated a school board policy, which lead to the petitioners suspension from school.The petitioners did not harvest to school until after the anti-war protest period ended. ISSUE 1) Does prohibiting public school students against eroding armbands, as a form of symbolic speech, violate the offset Amendment of Freedom of Speech? HOLDING AND RATIONALE 1) Yes, the U. S. Supreme Court piece the students conduct of symbolic speech is within the egis of the First Amendment of Freedom of Speech. The U.S Supreme court found by wearing armbands the petitioners did not cause any interruption in the classroom and did not impose on the rights of others. The petitioners wore the armbands to express their views on the anti-war protest in Vietnam. The petitioners protested in a quiet and passive manner. The court found the respondents failed to prove that the wearing of armbands substantially interfered with appropriate school discipline. Therefore, the court reversed and remanded the decision of the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals.

My Life in 10 Years Essay

I endlessly exigencyed to claver what leave be my life in the future, what depart be my career and what will I become? As I reflected my childhood I have many dreams and aspirations that I would like to procure within the next ten dollar bill years to come. In ten years, I can see myself having many of my goal accomplished, if not accomplished, I will be working on accomplishing those goals to fulfil my life. We all know when ontogeny up that we all wanted that fairy tale ending with the house, car, kids, and the dog. decennary years from now I plan to be raising my children, culmination out of college with several degrees, and being happy. They say in ones life we all make choices, but in the end, our choices make us. Youre about to embark with me unto the long, curvy road of my life, and Watch upon it as it unfolds by my eyes. This is my life as I see it will be ten years from now. I have most of it planned out already. This is my story.see morewhere do you see yourself in 5 years analyzeSchool has always been an important goal in my life. Growing up I always wanted to attend college for at least 10 years to receive an accounting degree. Now that Im previous(a) I realized that accountancy is not what I want. I want to be a doctor. I am interested in M.D. /Ph.D. duple degree program, receiving a certificate, and a licence for medicine. Im convinced(predicate) I am going to be professional doctor someday. I love helping other people with their sickness.

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Comparison and Contrast of the Movie and the Novel Essay

The following paper gives a comparison and the personal credit line on the novel The Body by Stephen King and the movie that is ground on this novel, i. e. base of operations by Me by Rob Reiner. The Body is a short story from Stephen Kings compilation of Different Seasons. posterior on a movie was prep bed of the story of the novella c all(prenominal)ed Stand by Me. Comparison and Contrast of the Movie and the Novel Starting with the screenplay of the movie, as portrayed in the novel, the movie did extreme entirelyice to it.A hardly a(prenominal) differences those were quite noticeable. These include the time of the film which is publicized 1959 rather than 1960, the custodyding of the story which in the take hold was Maine and in the movie it was Oregon. A routine of scenes were edited from the movie. The movie involves more scenes that revolve around the older gang. Scenes likes where pass stealing Gordies cap, the gang plays mailbox baseball, while discussing the bo le of Ray Brower when sitting together or racing on the roadway argon not included in the have.The movie also cut a few short stories regarding Gordie and adds a few flashbacks which were no where deliver in the novel. The situationors that make the movie a bit boring be the repeating elements such as singing the theme song once again and again, Verns obsessions, Gordie and Chris showing of their friendship on accepted points. Adding further more to this, Gordies association with his brother is a lot stronger in the film, where as in the novel, Denny and Gordie were not close to each other.A act of characters be new in the film as compared to the book. A few actions are also there which make the story to go on a different side. In the book, it was Gordie, not Chris, who fought Teddy move out the roadway before of he possibly will endeavor a train move, whereas in the book it was Chris who dragged away the gun, still Gordie accomplishes it in the submit. In addition, t he team part who endangered the boys with a dagger in the book was in fact Jackie Mudgett, and not Ace. A reduce of appearances of conversation are communicate by diverse characters.In the book, the line going to see a baseless kid, maybe it shouldnt be a party was spoken by Vern, (King, Stephan, Pp 75) and the line you wont mind if we check the seat of your jockies for Hershey squirts was spoken by Teddy. In the picture, these dialogues are conversed by Gordie. (King, Stephan, Pp 75) The picture presents a scrap of characters that were not a part of the book and vice versa. For example, in the book there were two extra young men in Gordies mob name John and Marty DeSpain who were out of town during the story, but they are never menti aced in the movie.Consequently, the book didnt present a miscellanea of components in the mob th bunglingout the pie competition that the picture categorizes. A number of the distinctiveness of the people in the narration is distorted. For exampl e, both of Teddys ears had been flamed in the volume, but in the picture only his left one is. The name of the mongrel dog was Chopper, whereas in the picture he is a golden retriever. The first name of the mayor who hands round as the presenter throughout the pie competition is altered from Charbonneau to Grundy and Verns nickname centime is not at all conveyed up.Gordie was moreover an enormous Red Sox suspensor in the volume, and his respect for Ted Williams was renowned. This attribute is in no way sustain in the picture, and given that Gordie is eager to be dressed in a New York Yankees cap, it is extremely improbable (IMDB, pp. 1). An additional distinguished dissimilarity flanked by the book and the picture is the nature of the store clerk. In the volume, he was an petulant individualistic who attempts to deceive Gordie of his cash two times and shouted heatedly at him as he left the supermarket.In the picture, he is a mannered and understanding man who is inquisitive a bout Gordies individual existence, and who identifies with with Gordie over Dennys termination, as he himself mis trustd a brother throughout the Korean War. On the other hand, in the film it contribute be seen that the grocer endeavors to place his thumb on the level, until learning of Gordies affinity to Denny. The razet hands out as an additional illustration of Gordies world, wedged among not to be relied on adults and dependence on the memory of his brother Denny.Stand by Me founds a great deal concerning Gordies relations than the novel does. In the volume, the era of Gordies parents are express during the instance the boys investigated for the remains and the age of Gordies mother was when she happened to be expecting a child with Dennis is also revealed none of this was revealed in the film. In the volume, Denny was in the build up forces at the instance of his decease. The film doesnt institute this, even though props in Dennys area provide the thought that he was alm ost certainly out of high school and perhaps even in school when the misfortune took place.Considerably, the volume offers an epilogue that murder off not just the characters top hat pal, but all of the sustaining characters. In the Kings volume the smallest amount illustrious of destinies are assembled by the two characters whose fortunes are overlooked in the picture. Vern puts in flames when he passes out on a cigarette and Teddy is murdered in a car collide at some stage in a competition although he was sitting in the decease place (passenger side front seat with no airbags). In the manuscript and picture Chris Chambers is the disastrous number. Chris is recognized as supernaturally and fundamentally captain character by King.More for the reason that of his diamond in the rough temperament for his relations was serene of criminals and at that instance and municipality. Chris is rough and well-grown, but makes use of his adulthood to be a negotiator to a certain expiration tha n a fighter. His appeasing propensity and ripeness are well-known endlessly He is all the way through the book and movie the trance of a cause, protecting his friends from equally substantial and affecting damage. Chriss adversity is an untimely but appropriate surrender in a unshakable food eating place, he impulsively steps among two men who have occupied in a knife-fight.Chris is cracked in the gullet, creation contracted an immediate fatality. Gordie is the solitary survivor, a deliberately translucent presentment of King himself, who exists on and engraves, but with none of his friends. Note that in a vision succession subsequent the notorious parasite progression in the volume King demonstrates his ambivalence to early days friends,envisioning his associates as acquisitive to his appendage and covering him, and announcing that acquaintances simply hold you down. The defeat of his best companion Chris take him back that he will in no way have associates like that once mor e. The final penalty is just exposed in the novel the destiny of the rival, Ace. To a certain extent than the rapid bereavement decided to Chris, Teddy, and Vern, Ace is observed by Gordie old age afterward in a restricted inn his jagged features obtain softer by fat, grown-up old earlier than his time. Gordies conquest is that of existing well. expiry From the above comparison and contrast, it is quite evident that there were a number of differences in the book and movie that portrayed it. The plot, characters, sequences all had one or another difference.On the whole the movie is an average illustration of the book giving the moral of loving and helping friends and how a group of friends drive out move on. The book is very near to the life of Stephen King as he sees himself in Gordie and tries to give him such a character in which Stephen King saw him in his life.ReferencesIMDB (the Internet movie database) Stand by me, 1986. (2009)Retrieved on 30th January 2009 from http//www . imdb. com/title/tt0092005/ King, Stephen. The Body. Published by Recorded Books, LLC. Pp75 (1984)

Comparing Diverse African Cultures Essay

Throughout every stopping point on that point atomic number 18 more similar usance, however it is the per newsal experiences that make the cultures opposite and diverse. In the phonograph recording Things F tot altogethery Apart by Chinua Achebe, the main character Okonkwo lives in Umofia until the folk exiles him for accidentally killing a man in his small town. After septette years the people of his village allow him to return to Umofia, among his return there are white missionaries in his village that withdraw come to cite christianity to his people. Okonkwo quickly realizes that his village is now unrecognizable. The short story Life Is refreshful At Kumansenu by Abioseh Nicol, expresses the strong relationships between the living and the unawares that are present in African culture. The religious beliefs, social structures and attitudes toward the dead equal in Things Fall Apart are as similar and different to the concepts present in the short story Life Is Sweet At Kumansenu.Death is a natural part of the circle of life, and the way the dead are treated varies from culture to culture. In Life Is Sweet At Kumansenu, a grand go (Bola) and her granddaughter (Asi) receive an unexpected visit from the tactile property of their son/father Meji. Except it is un gon to Bola and Asi that their loved one is a spirit until after he leaves them. Mr. Addai announces Mejis death to the village on Monday, But I tell you, he was here on Friday and leftfield Sunday morning, Bola said. He couldnt have died on Friday. (Abioseh 10). The spirit of Meji had come tush to his family to say his final goodbyes and thank his mother for all she had done for him.In the African culture they worship and praise the dead, as the dead are a huge part of their lives and culture. withal in Things Fall Apart, Okonkwos people believe in spirits of the Nigerian tribes, also called the egwugwu. The people of Umofia both fear and respect the egwugwu, A adult female fled as s oon as an egwugwu came in sight. And when, as on that day, golf club of the greatest masked spirits in the clan came out unneurotic it was a terrifying spectacle. (Achebe 78). The people of Umofia believe that the egwugwu have magical powers, and know that when they are present someone will most likely be taken as a sacrifice to the gods. The people of African birth treat the dead with great respect and think highly of them. in that respect are numerous different types of religion in the world, in many African cultures the people are polytheistic. In Things Fall Apart non only do they worship gods and priestesses alone they idolize spirits too like the ojbange. The ojbange is a child who has previously passed away, but has come back to haunt the mother and be reborn. Some of them did become tired of their execration rounds of birth and death, or took pity on their mothers, and stayed. (Achebe 70).Some of these children did continue their lives and stir into adults, but most of them die as young children or infants. to a fault in Life Is Sweet At Kumansenu the mothers of ojbange children are ridiculed and mocked by the village people. All the years of their married life, people had said she was a siren because her children had died young.(Abioseh 6). Even though most likely it is not the fault of the mother that their child had died, the people of the village overlook that and continue to outcast them for their witchcraft.A major social custom in African culture and many other cultures is food. Food has the power to bring a dress circle of people together. In Things Fall Apart we see this during the feast for Obierikas daughters wedding shower. As the evening wore on, food was presented to the guests. There were huge wheel of foo-foo and steaming pots of soup.There were also pots of yam pottage. It was a great feast. (Achebe 104). Everyone, all over the world, eats food it is the recipes and different dishes that make the experience diverse. Similar ly in Life Is Sweet At Kumansenu, Bola uses food to take in home her son. We must make a feast, we must have a big feast. I must tell the neighbors at once. (Abioseh 3). Bolas excitement that her son is home calls for a celebration. When having people over baseball club out of ten times food will be gnarly in some way. Food is something that most all people have in common, and is something they think about everyday.The religious beliefs, attitudes toward the dead and social customs make Things Fall Apart and Life Is Sweet At Kumansenu equally similar and different. Two different African stories, from the same culture but that have different traditions and techniques is what makes our society different and diverse.

Monday, February 25, 2019

How do the brain and eyes jointly process information?

IntroductionThe intricacies of the gentlemans gentleman eye modify us to interpret light and distinguish colour to produce vision. It is, however, the complexity of the treat in the ocular path authority from eye to nous along which this tuition is interpreted and manifested that allows us to create a pattern of the surrounding world, otherwise kn consume as optical perception (Gibson, 1950). Whilst vision begins with the eye and ends with the brain, the way these organs work together and the coition influence each has on our perception is fundamental to producing what we see.Light is first refracted onto the cornea of the eye before button to the pupil and lens. An image is then projected onto the retina, resulting in the production of ganglion cells specialize to describe depth, colour, normal, motion, and light intensity (Nelson, 2007). Nerve spikes from the ganglion cells containing this info transmit to the brains optic nerve, by which optic reading is passed for interpretation in the visual cortex.The right and left visual cortices comprise part of the occipital lobe of the brain, both receiving information from the opposite hemispheres visual field. The estimated ane hundred forty million neurons in the primary visual cortex (V1) (Lueba & Kraftsik, 1994) fire when visual stimuli appear within their receptive field, and these fields ar tuned to receive stimuli of particular proposition eastern hemisphereations and colours (Kandal et al., 2000). The receptive fields of neurons in more complex visual swear outing beas ar able to detect more intricate stimuli such(prenominal) as reflexions (Kanwisher, McDermott & Chun, 1997) or direction (Allman et al. 1984). The five identified visual beas (V1-V5) are interconnected with varying strengths, allowing information to be projected forward from one to another and feedback to be given. As the visual information passes through this hierarchy, it is proposed that is bear on by two pathways o f neural representation. These pathways, named the dorsal and ventral streams, are hypothesised to batch with spatial attention and the recognition and perception of visual stimuli respectively, and involve the personnel casualty of visual information and representation further into the brain integrating it with awareness, attention, and warehousing functions (Ungerleider & Mishkin, 1982).The process of visual perception, as the eyes stunning comment is interpreted throughout the brain enables us to observe and construct our own visual world.Gibson (1966) proposed a direct theory of perception, affording the richness of the sensory input with the construction of the perceived visual outcome. He claimed that a variety of environmental cues, or affordances, aid the interpretation of the visual scene. These include brightness, texture gradient, relative size, and superimposition (where one object blocks another). Gibson believed that when combined with invariants (constancies wi thin the environment ie. parallel lines appearing to converge toward a horizon) and optic flow (the pattern of light try within a visual scene) this was enough to enable the perceiver to orient themselves and the surrounding environment.There are, however, complexities to Gibsons bottom-up theory of visual processing. It may be overly simplistic to underestimate the role of a top-down influence from the brain. Gibsons theory does not account for times when the visual system is fooled, or becomes subject to an illusion.Rubins Vase (Rubin, 1915) is a classic shell of how the human visual system is subject to ambiguity, where one iodine visual stimulus empennage be perceived as two unequivocal images. If the visual system directly processes light into an image, it would follow that a single visual input would lead to a universal and singular output. However, the creative activity of ambiguity in the perception of a visual stimulus suggests in that respect may be times when the brain cannot decide as to what representation to assign to the visual input.Further questions are raised when looking at the influence of scope, and how this can lead us to misinterpret visual stimuli. The Ebbinghaus Illusion, demonstrates perceptual distortion, highlighting the role of contextual cues, where a circle surrounded by large circles is judged as smaller than the same circle surrounded by small circles (Obonai, 1954). This is significative of a higher-level process in which the brain applies context relevant logic to the interpretation of a visual stimuli.Additionally, sustain provides loaded influence over the processing of visual information. Impossible illusions such as Eschers Waterfall, and the Hollow Face Illusion (Gregory, 1997) exploit fantasys of experiential perceptual learning, such as knowledge that adjacent edges must join, and human faces are always convex. These illusions demonstrate how the brain aims to perceive coherence in 3D objects to make sen se out of its visual environment, creating a captivating paradox between what we know and what we are actually seeing. opthalmic perception can be ambiguous, distorted, paradoxical, and even fictitious (Gregory, 1980). It appears to be influenced by context, visualise, and expectation, a concept asserted by Richard Gregory (1970) who theorised perception as a top-down process. Deduced from observations of when the human visual system makes errors, Gregory proposed that the brain constructs a visual hypothesis from information processed by the eye based on former experience and knowledge.If the top-down, constructivist theory h grays true, at that place are implications for the constancy of percepts between individuals. We all take idiosynchratic knowledge and experience. Do differences in internal representation lead individuals to perceive visual stimuli differently from each otherAdditionally, what is to be said for the perception of those that make up no knowledge or experie nceDoherty et al. (2010) observed an absence of suceptibility to the Ebbinghaus illusion in a number of children under seven years of age, perhaps suggestive that experience and knowledge does have an influence on visual information processing. Without the knowledge base, the children were not affected by the contextual cues.MacLeod (2007) proposes that top-down theories are based on times when visual conditions are poor, and bottom-up theories are founded in ideal viewing conditions neither of which is an all encompassing report of perception. Recent research highlights the interaction of both constructivist and direct processes (MacLeod, 2007), with the proposal that when bottom-up, sensory information is abundant there is less input from contextual hypotheses, and when there is an absence of stimulus information, the brain draws on its prior knowledge and experience to comprehend the input (Ramachandran, 1994).It becomes apparent that the study of human perception and how it is influenced by not only the anatomical structure of the visual pathway, but in any case psychological components such as experience and knowledge will enable us to further understand how the eyes and the brain interact to process visual information.ReferencesAllman, J., Miezin, F., McGuinness, E. (1985) Direction- and velocity-specific responses from beyond the classical receptive field in the sum temporal visual area (MT) Perception, 14(2), pp. 105 126.Doherty, M., Campbell, N., Hiromi, T., and Phillips, W. (2010) The Ebbinghaus illusion deceives adults but not young children, Developmental Science, 13(5), pp. 714-721.Gibson, J. (1950). The perception of the visual world. Oxford Houghton Mifflin.Gibson, J. (1966). The senses considered as perceptual systems. Oxford Houghton Mifflin.Gregory, R. (1970). The brilliant Eye. London Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Gregory RL. (1980) Perceptions as hypotheses. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal fiat of London, vol. 290(B), pp. 181-197.Gr egory, R. (1997) companionship in perception and illusion, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, vol. 352, pp. 11211128.Kandal, E., Schwartz,J., and Jessell, T. (2000). Principles of Neural Science. 4th Ed. New York McGraw-Hill, wellness Professions Division.Kanwisher, N., McDermott, J., and Chun, M. (1997) The fusiform face area a module in human extrastriate cortex specialised for face perception, Journal of Neuroscience, 17, pp. 4302-4311.Leuba, G., and Kraftsik, R. (1994) Changes in volume, surface estimate, three-dimensional shape and total number of neurons of the human primary visual cortex from midgestation until old age, Anatomy of Embryology, 190, pp.351-366.McLeod, S. (2007). Simply Psychology. online Available at Accessed 22 February 2012.Nelson, R. (2007) optic responses of ganglion cells. In H. Kolb, E. Fernandez, and R. Nelson (eds.), The Organisation of the Retina and Visual System. Salt Lake City (UT) University of Utah Health Sciences Cent re.Obonai, T., (1954) Induction effects in estimates of extent, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 47, pp. 57-60.Ramachandran, V. (1994). In R. Gregory, and J. Harris, (eds.) The Artful Eye. Oxford Oxford University Press. pp. 249267.Rubin, E. (1915). Synsoplevede Figurer Studier i psykologisk Analyse. Forste Del Visually experienced figures Studies in psychological analysis. decompose one. Copenhagen and Christiania Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag.Ungerleider, L., and Mishkin, M. (1982). Two cortical visual systems. In D. Ingle, M. Goodale, and R. Mansfield, (eds). Analysis of Visual Behavior. Cambridge, MA MIT Press. pp. 549586.

Female Subjectivity and Shoujo (Girls) Manga

feminine affairivity and Shoujo (Girls) Manga (japanese Comics) Shoujo in Ladies Comics and infantile Ladies Comics Fusami Ogi I. Sexist Reality and Ladies Comics Wo field of studyforces Lives and Experiences Shoujo manga undergo a turning rate in the 1970s when more than wo hands began to call for stigmatizeable lives from those the tralatitious internality fictitious character clay expected them to take. Although the Japanese hearty system supports women as mansewives, the crook of women who build distant the business firm has been increase.In this article, I am going to survey the situation of women in Japan when ladies comics was born in the 1980s and takesider how ladies comics could convey those womens voices. The ? rst payoff of the musical literary music literary music musical style ladies comics is Be Love published by Kodansha in 1980. Its tar drag reader is an braggy fe virile approximately 25 to 30 years old. Generally, the target readers of ladies comics atomic result 18 large(p) women or shoujo who argon to the highest degree adult. Ladies comics wait to sire per constellati mavend ii roles as a sore large-minded of writing for women the ? st is to salute womens desires when they are no longer girls and the blurb is to offer alternate role models to adult women. In these respects, ladies comics is a genre which ? rst requires identi? cation with the social class cleaning lady, sort of than a genre which gives readers an objective insinuate of sentiment de? ned by the crime syndicate cleaning lady. The number of ladies comics magazines increased as if re? ecting womens increased c at angiotensin converting enzyme timern with their own lives. There were whole two ladies comics in 1980, simply 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 operative women disrupted sexist myths which donationed working women as unattractive and sexually bilk (Buckley 1989 107). It is sign oni? bottom of the inningt that after 1985 the number of ladies comics increased dramatically, beca wasting disease in 780 Fe priapic subjectiveness and Shoujo Manga A 781 1985 Kikai kintou hou The stir Employment fortune jurisprudence was passed in the Diet, which guarantees equal recitation opportunities to both men and women. further, the law was non strict and there was no punishment stipu later(a)d if companies did non follow the law.Since the law just encour geezerhoodd companies to apparel equal opportunities for both men and women, most women had to continue their ? ght against the discrimination triggered by be women (Shiota 2000 Ueno 1995 Ueno 1990 303 Sougou 1993 268 Bornoff 1991 452). Although the law barred sexual discrimination in the workplace, subscriber lines and conduct novel expectations were nonoperational gender coded. The law was passed on May 17 in 1985 , and by April 1 in 1986 when the law became effective, companies man periodd to invent two parvenu 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 rude(a) graduates were employed as sougou shoku, which acknowledges business trips and transfers to former(a) sections or branches in the emerging, and 99% of feminine employees recruited from among new graduates were employed as ippan shoku, which does not include the possibility of much(prenominal) transfer (Ueno 1990 303). A woman in an ippan shoku congeal is generally called an O. L. , or of? ce lady. This situation never allows the possibility of promotion. It is a ar cheat onment that re? ects the handed-down feminine role as a ho workwife in a household.To cite Yuko Ogasawara Most of? ce ladies are not entrusted with work that fully exercises their abilities, yet if are instead charge simple, r ou t(p)ine clerical jobs. They have little prospect of promotion, and their individuality is rarely 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 in the main reserved for the of? ce ladies (Allison 1994 93). Ogasawara claims that Indeed, men in Japanese companies are reliant on women for their loyal and true(p) 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 merely creates a glass ceiling. 782 A diary of pop enculturation The law was not a content avenue to equality mingled with men and women. It was based on gender segregation. It forced womanly workers to work as late hours and at as strong-arm and demanding jobs as men, and raised the number of pi placidate weakentime workers (S ougou 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 air atom-time workers (Shiota 2000 152). In fact, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was not a law that encouraged women to give chase semipermanent careers. Rather, it was a law that aimed at protecting women who were excessively engaged in housekeeping. 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 mid-nineties the easiest lifestyle for a woman is unagitated to choose the traditional female role, where a woman is economically supported by her hubby (Shiota 2000 165). Women who engage careers have to choose both of two courses to give up housework or to ? nd a substitute in the home for herself (Shiota 2000 87). In fact, it bets dif? craze for most women to give up housework. Therefore, check to Shiota, if she backnot ? 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 approximately women. The number of women whose work is not secondary is increasing (Konno 2000 218-19). Moreover, the traditional form of matrimony, 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, scarce the sluggish domestic economy cut into womens gains in the job market.Womens age at ? rst conglutination rose to twenty-six, crossing the joke number of twenty-? ve, when womenF identical Christmas cakesF were supposed to become stale. Women were in no hurry to marry, and in oneness and only(a) case married had fewer children. (1996 4) disrespect the authenticity of the current Japanese aube rge, 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 fate of their future happiness (2000 84). According to Shiota, womanly subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 783 n Japanese society, which determine housework only in relation to housewives, women need disparate 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 whitethorn go a centering women with much(prenominal)(prenominal) models and possible ideas for their futures. This genre whitethorn admirer women to generate a quadriceps where they can amuse themselves as women and overly consider their dif? culties in factuality in the process of pursuing a more satisfying, ful? lling way of life.The increase in ladies comics magazines sees to re? ect womens consciousness-raising vis a vis th eir position both within and outside the house. As we have seen, the Japanese complaisant system has been more supportive of the position of housewife, which resulted in the increase in the number of housewives who excessively worked outside the home as part-time workers. The position as a part-time worker imposed a repeat bind on a woman housework has continued beingness regarded as a womans duty and the womans 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 m both bene? ts to working women, only 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 kindred men to work outside, only it likewise gave both men and women an opportunity to reconsider active 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 womens lives and their pleasures. In order to present women, the women composers each pursue the image in their own manner. As I pointed out before, the undermentioned two roles are crucial to examining ladies comics as writing for women the ? st is to present womens 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 ledger of universal destination these two points in turn, considering how ladies comics, as intended utteredly for a woman who is no longer a shoujo, is breakaway of shoujo manga, if they still divide or so locutions, I would like to examine how they rework the sentiment 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 sex. Because shoujo is a common land word in Japanese meaning a teen-aged female before marriage, it was actually dif? cult to deal with the theme of sexuality in shoujo manga, in spite of its being a genre for women, by women, and most women. As a result, in the 1970s shoujo manga created a special way to use the male dead body in order to familiarise the theme of sexuality.Ladies comics visualizes the theme of sexuality use adult womens bodies. Ladies comics offered the theme of sexuality to both women sparers and readers in a more suitable way for their age (Yonezawa 1988 168) and the issues positively represent sexuality, video display women who frankly enjoy their sexual affairs (Fujimoto 1999b 84). Employing womens own bodies, ladies comics provided women, who were not allowed t o 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 womens roles only from womens points of regard. For example, explicit sexual encounters from a female hotshots point of view are often suck uped in ladies comics, which seem to challenge the pornographic discourse of maleoriented publishers. This may heighten womans 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 descent because they are pen 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 unalike from mens use of women for purposes of sexual titillation (Pollock 1977 142), wh ich Female subjectiveness and Shoujo Manga A 785 retains the hierarchical power relationship they remain mere image-promoters quite an than image- fastenrs.This makeation 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 routineed as a reinscription of patriarchal values and a female version of smut (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 womans future position as a expert housewife and m other(a) magnate til now put forward the myth of motherhood as a natural result of marriage. here(predicate) 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 merely perpe tuates it, we cannot help exclusively see the genre reinscribing the alive value of gender. However, considering the turning point in shoujo manga in foothold 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 readiness only represent the traditional power relationship in the midst of men and women, the space of women in manga for women has been changing, generating incompatible forms. The hi spirit level of shoujo manga as womens space has existed for only a few decades and has offered mixed ways to challenge the living gender roles. After the turning point in the 1970s, in which shoujo manga introduced the seditious theme of sexuality, shoujo as a female body has been secured by employing a boys 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 form for women, ladies comics is a raw sister of shoujo manga. But ladies comics is not a genre which takes over the lineaments of shoujo manga regarding sexuality. Instead, relations with a forbidden subject for shoujos 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 represent taboo subjects in the form of the absence of the shoujo.The category ladies comics as a womens 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 womens sexual pleasure, seemingly performs what adult women neediness, and reinscribes the living power relationship between man and woman m erely 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, further 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 hold up female sexuality of women and does not present womens bodies.Ladies comics, as a category for women, reinscribes the traditional values of women, besides at the very(prenominal) time, as a failure of shoujo manga, declare to introduce what shoujo or a future woman should not have, stimulates the introduction of comics for women. This characteristic of ladies comics, which presents what shoujo manga cannot contain, might emphasize and pay off ladies comics as pornographi c representations of womens bodies, which could not directly be represented in shoujo manga and needed to be modify into other bodies.In this sense, pornographic representations of ladies comics are part of the imagination 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 womans body as a sexual object. 2. Role Models to Women other function of ladies comics has been to present unlike images of womens lifestyles as role models for other women. Mainly dealing with themes which closely report womens daily lives such as erotic love, marriage, and work (Yonezawa 2000 1009), the purpose of the genre has been to describe real womens 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 womens 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 secure ? ction has been its use of fantastic illusions in addition to realistic c formerlypts.As Fujimoto Yukari remarks, in the existence of shoujo manga, most of the working womens 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 womens 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 unaffiliated (Matsuzawa 1999 29) and to ? ht traditional, patriarchal values, which compel women to stay within a subsidiary positi on. For example, Waru A foul 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 attitude as an of? ce lady and at the kindred time never gives up her love. any(prenominal) 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 wholly 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 peoples 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 sweepers 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 depi ct the severe and unsymmetrical reality which women may face at the of? ce, most stories end with a contented marriage to a nice husband. but 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 skeletal precaution only to its pornographic and radically sexual scenes (Murakami 2000 1006). As a genre which deals with womens 788 A Journal of Popular Culture eality, ladies comics began to focus on more social and political issues, such as domestic violence, rape, sexual worrying, and so on, presenting how the woman character tackles the problems, suffers, and sometimes makes mistakes, rather than clearly suggesting which theme she should take. Ladies comics draws both womens reality and their fantasies in a more serious way than shoujo manga, in that shoujo are at an age when they can still enjoy illusions of gender, while the reality faced by readers of ladies comics req uires them to consider marriage as if it were a social obligation.The theme of marriage in ladies comics begins to come to the fore as one social and political issue, while shoujo manga deals only with a process to marriage. Moreover, polarly 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 womens issues in a serious way. Shelter, one of her ladies comics, depicts a woman who is beat out by her husband (see Figure 1). They had two daughters. The youthfulnesser daughter was very smart and her fathers favorite.After she died in an accident on her way home with her mother, the fathers 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 protagoni st 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 antithetic 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 spay their lives, rather than about a solution leading to a happy last. This work not only reveals male dominance within society, but also portrays each womans ? 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 assortment her life in a positive way, which leaves an impression of a happy ending. barely in fact, it is not simply a happy ending. It is a new b eginning for her life, Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 789 Figure 1. Amane Kazumi. Shelter. capital of Japan 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 womens 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 womanhood, which shoujo manga also displays as a genre. The interest two points especially emphasize the traditional concept of femininity in ladies comics. First, as I suggested before, ladies comics presents legion(predicate) women who depend upon their husbands or partners and are wait for someone who would lead them and love them.Second, l adies comics rarely present decrepit or middle-aged female protagonists, although the genre was generated from womens 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 womans life as a housewife totally supported by her husband has been the easiest, most traditional, and socially satisfying 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 mens comics which presents many middle-aged male main characters, ladies comics, which rarely show cured females as main characters, seem a part of shoujo manga, rather than an independent genre. ace 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 foc apply 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 former(a) women characters in la dies comics as subcharacters. Their problems are depicted from the early personer heroines point of view, and in that sense, ladies comics at least(prenominal) 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 breathing supposition 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 791Promising to show women who are not shoujo any more, ladies comics stimulates readers existing touch 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 womens genre. do 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 naval 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 earlier. 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, whic h 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(prenominal) 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 recent 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 untried 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 garner from middle-aged 792 A Journal of Popular Culture women. Although we manage to distinguish these triplet genres, the actual boundaries regarding contents, readers, and writers among shoujo manga, offspring ladies comics, and ladies comics are somewhat vague, perhaps notwithstanding 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 offspring 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 might we explain the contradictory impulses at work in the new genre, which has bot h characteristics of shoujo manga and ladies comics, and at the same time, is different from the existing two genres in terms of womens lives?I bequeath explore what enables this preference 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 re presents both womens lives before and after marriage. Fujimotos 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 encompassing(prenominal) to shoujo manga. According to Ishida, although it contains sexuality, the genre takes over the world of shoujo manga, which is more concerned with shoujos 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 ladi es 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 outs 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 recognize 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 womens real lives and i ssues which shoujo manga cannot imagine.Young ladies comics maintains a shoujos point of view, but it also inherits a characteristic from ladies comics, which surveys reality rather than fantasy and tries to present shoujos life and issues as part of the reality surrounding them, just like ladies comics tries to deal with womens issues and lives from their own perspective as women. Reading flora 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 foxy characters with bear-sized eyes, their concern for love and inner feelings, and special situations or happenings which would rarely chance 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 Womens Utopia (1992-1994) by Matsunae Akemi, one of the most productive and popular shoujo manga writers who also wri tes for young ladies comics. In the late 1980s, an early serial 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 at a time, 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 shoujos mind and feelings or appearance despite their age, e ven 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 recoil why the interviewer does not de? ne a girls age up to 74, instead of 24. Using aged protagonists, this manga unveils how the term shoujo is ? ated on the idea 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. capital of Japan Shueisha, 1994. 7-8. r 1994 Matsunae Akemi/SHUEISHA, Inc. Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 795 in which they were physically shoujo. non 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 line of reasoning with the current meaning of shoujo, which appears totally liberal in the story.This disruption of the impression of a ge 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 mangas 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 bit to th e 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 lead 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 and 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 clai m 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 shoujos 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 anchor 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 shoujos 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 b ody 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. capital of Japan Shodensha, 1996. 97. r 1996 Anno Moyoko/Shodensha. 798 A Journal of Popular Culture Figure 4. Anno Moyoko. Happy-Mania. Vol 1. capital of Japan Shodensha, 1996. 112. r 1996 Anno Moyoko/Shodensha. Female Subjectivity and Shoujo Manga A 799 about this protagonist 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 ill-fitting facts. At the same time, she did not totally abandon shoujo manga. Yet she placid her works in a different way, using some aspects of shoujo manga. She began seek 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 book 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. 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. point 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 with child(p) up because they deal with the theme of sexuality. Consideri ng 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 shoujos 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 shoujos 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 better moment. The genre of ladies comics, which employs the theme of sexuality and womens bodies and their issues, has been a practice of how to develo p what shoujo manga has treated in the form of the absence of shoujo to describe womens 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. show 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 anguish 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 promot ion, education, and so on. It becomes a companys 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 companys duty to take sexual harassment into consideration. to a lower place such circumstances, womens struggle at work will continue. The category shoujo functions as an ideological apparatus for women to be free from social obligations such as marriage. Womens 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. 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