ABSTRACT
On Valentine’s Day in Japan, only women gift to men (typically chocolates). A month later, on White Day, men reciprocate with more lavish gifts to women. This study investigates the practices of masculinities and reciprocation in gendered gift-giving rituals. We use White Day in Japan as the context of study. By employing Foucauldian discourse analysis, we educed the hidden presumptions of discourses encompassed in editorials and advertisements in print media dating from 1980 to 2009. Our analysis produced four major findings. One is that White Day functions as an event for gender performance. Second, White Day is a rite of institutionalization that consecrates the boundary between men and women, and shapes collective masculinity through gendered practice. Third, White Day is used as an opportunity for male consumers to negotiate power relations with women through the material objects. Lastly, White Day is an opportunity to examine the vulnerable self. The intertexual and interdiscursive interplays show that the “reality” of masculinity is socially constructed through gendered consumer rituals with socially effective language in discursive practices.
