Department of Child Welfare Services, School of Social Welfare, Kyushu University of Health and Welfare
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to examine the subversion and maintenance of gender order as portrayed in Japanese baseball comics through content analysis of the images of female managers. The content analysis in this study was based on the idea of "social constructionalism," in which researchers read and interpret the texts subjectively, rather than analyze the texts objectively. For this analysis, four baseball comics describing female managers of senior high school baseball teams were chosen, three of which were popular. The content analysis was conducted with interpretive reading of each comic, interpreting the representation of the female baseball manager from feminist\u27s and queer sociologist\u27s perspectives. The findings were as follows: Firstly, female managers were represented as exceptions, especially in earlier published comics. Secondly, they were resistant to opposition from their players and other persons through demonstration of their power and skills. Thirdly, their femininity was a point of focus and some male characters looked upon them as sexual objects. These items are discussed in terms of Sedgwick\u27s`homosocial desire\u27 and Butler\u27s`subversion\u27 and maintenance of the gender order
