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Makeup as Both Shackles & a Weapon: The Possibility of Empowerment Through Beauty (Nobuyoshi Kurita)
PROFILE
Nobuyoshi Kurita
Nobuyoshi Kurita is a professor in the Faculty of Letters at Konan University and an editor of the academic journal "Japan Sociologist." His main areas of research are cultural sociology and social theory. He holds a PhD in sociology and has received the Kazuo Shimada award from the Japanese Association of Social Psychology. After graduating from International Christian University, he entered Sophia University Graduate School. He has served as an assistant at International Christian University, a visiting researcher at the University of California, a professor, dean of the Department of Sociology, and trustee of Musashi Academy at Musashi University, and as Vice President and Trustee of Hamana Gakuen at Kansai International University before assuming his current position. He is the author of many books, including "メイクとファッション" (Koyo Shobo) and "マンガでわかる社会学" (Ohmsha). He has offered numerous interviews, posted serialized articles, and appeared on programs through magazines/newspapers/wire services/broadcasters such as "anan," "SPA!", "Nihon Keizai Shimbun," "Mainichi Shimbun," "Yomiuri Shimbun," "Japan Times," AP, AFP, NHK (General TV, Radio First, BS, World-Japan), Fuji TV, Nippon TV, Tokyo FM, and more.
"Ganguro" is the First & Largest "Girl's Movement"
Professor Kurita, could you briefly tell us about your research?
My research, up to my doctoral thesis, was mainly focused on the quantitative sociological study of social movements. The 60s and 70s were a time where protests were being made by the younger sector of society, and politics and subculture were closely connected. I was researching quantitatively why people protest in the zeitgeist of the time.Later, I shifted my main research area to media studies. Rather than dealing with the facts themselves, I became interested in how the environment created by the media determines our consciousness.
The research began around the end of the 90s and I focused on magazines. I discovered that there was accumulated data from Mainichi Shimbun that had conducted a reading survey on what kind of magazines the youth, from children to university students, were reading. For example, data shows that kids used to read school year magazines, but around the 90s, they started reading "CoroCoro Comic" and "Weekly Shonen Jump." So, I analyzed the content and influence of magazines.
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