Joshiryoku
Joshiryoku (女子力, "women power") is a newly coined word in Japan that appeared in 2000. It became a popular in the Japanese language in 2009, and it is still in vogue.[1]
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Basically, it means "to be attractive to men", mainly an expression that discusses how consistent the "pure, domestic, and elegant idealistic womanhood" is. In a word, it is a very sexist expression, but it is used in Japanese society both publicly and privately. Indeed, joshiryoku is viewed by Japanese women as pride in being a woman. In this way, Japanese society is very traditional and conservative. Feminists and some leftists think that joshiryoku is fucking sexist, but their voices are not mainstream in Japanese society.
The problem is that unlike women in South Korea and the West, women in Japan don't feel much of a problem with this gender discrimination. For this reason, the far right in the West often like Japan.
In Japan, unlike in the West, the media and elite promote this sexism more than the public.
Cases
When joshiryoku is judged to be high
- Women who prefer skirts over pants
- Women who are good at cooking
- Women who do not use coarse language but uses polite language
- Women who do not make her point too strong
- Cute women
When joshiryoku is judged to be low
- Women have too much sex appeal
- Japanese society regards innocent and domestic women as ideal women rather than sexy and open women.
- Women dressed in rags (To be fair, joshiryoku does not really matter much in reference to [generally heterosexual] men dressing in rags as they are traditionally supposed to be unattractive to women.)
- Women who do not wear makeup
- mask-wearing women are generally exempt.
- Women of high spirits
- Rough-spoken woman