When No Means Yes: BDSM, Body Modification, and Japanese Womanhood as Monstrosity in Snakes and Earrings and Hotel Iris
When No Means Yes: BDSM, Body Modification, and Japanese Womanhood as Monstrosity in Snakes and Earrings and Hotel Iris

Summary/Abstract: This paper explores the representation of female monstrosity which are relied upon by two female Japanese writers to illustrate modern Japanese women’s process of reclaiming power. Hitomi Kanehara in Snakes and Earrings and Yōko Ogawa in Hotel Iris depict women involved in BDSM relationships which shape how their characters are seen, how they view themselves, and how they develop their consciousness of the world. Although the female protagonists of each novel are presented in a submissive role to their male counterparts, they nonetheless embrace their passivity in order to reclaim their own unique sense of empowerment. BDSM is represented as warping the body in both novels. Through this warping, the women are able to negotiate spaces for themselves where they can derive their own pleasure from the supposed passive positions. Snakes and Earrings overlays BDSM with practices of body modifications in order to portray the changing attitudes toward female subjectivity in modern Japan. In Hotel Iris, traditional values involving familial authority clash with the sexual awakening of it’s female protagonist as she navigates the socio-cultural stigma attached with acting outside what is considered normal. Through the analyses of both novels this paper highlights the changing conception of female sexuality and sexual practices in modern Japan. These changing conceptions speak to the evolution of female subjectivity and the gendered wrrestling of power through sexual activity.

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