Recent Israeli legislation around “nationalistically motivated” sex crimes must be seen in the context of Israel’s militarized regime of homonationalism, racialized and sexualized settler colonialism, and pinkwashing.
Defining the Most Beautiful: Women in the Films of Akira Kurosawa, 1940-1970
Akira Kurosawa walked a fine line in his treatment and portrayal of women in his films, and he didn’t always walk it without stumbling.
Akira Kurosawa is not known for his female characters, but for strong male characters torn between country and the individual, a particularly important theme in postwar Japan. On the first impression, his female characters are at best meek, subservient, and unable to escape their weak, feminine nature; at worst, they are torn apart, used, and raped without pity or are irredeemably evil instruments of torture for their male protagonists. As Kurosawa himself admitted: “all my women are a little strange.” Occasionally, though, Kurosawa’s treatment of women goes deeper, revealing a more nuanced view of women throughout Japanese history.