The too-good wife
Subtitle: alcohol, codependency, and the politics of nurturance in postwar Japan
By: Amy Borovoy.
Series: Ethnographic studies in subjectivity ;; 6
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 251
Subjects: Alcoholics -- Japan -- Tokyo -- Family relationships.; Alcoholics' spouses -- Japan -- Tokyo.; Parents of drug addicts -- Japan -- Tokyo.; Codependency -- Japan -- Tokyo.; Social work with women -- Japan -- Tokyo.; Sex role -- Japan -- Tokyo.; Wives -- Japan -- Tokyo.
Description: Social drinking is an accepted aspect of working life in Japan, and women are left to manage their drunken husbands when the men return home, restoring them to sobriety for the next day of work. In attempting to cope with their husbands' alcoholism, the women face a profound cultural dilemma: when does the nurturing behavior expected of a good wife and mother become part of a pattern of behavior that is actually destructive? How does the celebration of nurturance and dependency mask the exploitative aspects not just of family life but also of public life in Japan?
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Alcoholism and co-dependency; title: Motherhood, nurturance, and "total care" in postwar national ideology; title: Good wives; title: A success story; title: The inescapable discourse of motherhood; title: Conclusion: Impasses of Japanese feminism.