Conceptual Parameters of Women’s Manga Research

After beginning her research into the visual expression of “Women” as an autonomous entity at the Stony Brook Campus of New York State University in 1996, chief research representative Fusami Ogi submitted her doctoral thesis in 2001. Since the outset of Shôjo Manga in the 1970s, writers and readers have been part of the developing expressive diversity of “Women”.

Within the context of the second wave of the Feminist movement, the French feminist writer, Hélène Cixous, coined the term "écriture féminine" or the unique feminine mode of writing as the embodiment of the expression of “Women” distinct from that of “Men”. After detailed inspection, Dr. Ogi discovered a parallel turning point concerning the nature of women in American comics in the 1970s, too. Since then, she has continued to increase awareness of this formative trait of the representation of “Women” in the domain of comics under the themes of self-expression and identity.

In recent years, the tendency in other countries has turned against the previously male-oriented dominance in the reception of manga as the number of female readers and writers has increased. Together with manga’s globalization, a previously non-existent trend has arisen. If the result is to trigger the representation of women as a phenomenon that can transcend borders and cultures, it demands concerted examination into this new and important form of female expression.