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THE SILENCE AROUND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN

HARUKI MURAKAMI’S 1Q84

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

AGHNIYA RUHYA MUHIBBATY

Student Number: 134214127

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2019

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

THE SILENCE AROUND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN

HARUKI MURAKAMI’S 1Q84

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

AGHNIYA RUHYA MUHIBBATY

Student Number: 134214127

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2019

ii


“And sometimes ignorance is even harder to deal with than deliberate evil.”

― Ryū Murakami

vii


For all the kindest strangers,

all the gods and goddesses,

and my long-lost existence.

viii


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My greatest gratitude to my thesis advisor Dra. A.B. Sri Mulyani, M.A.,

Ph.D, without whom I would be completely lost and alone. Her guidance and

encouragement were such significant parts in my finishing this research. My

gratitude also presented to my co-advisor, Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, M. Hum., and

my academic advisor Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum., as their help, guidance,

and support are more than imperative to me finishing my study.

I would also like to thank my family, Inayah and Imam, and my siblings

(Bita and Giyas). Also to my friends, Tatiana, Marc, Yoshi, and Nevi for sticking

with me despite my undeserving self.

Aghniya R. Muhibbaty

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ........................................................................................................ ii

APPROVAL PAGE ............................................................................................. iii

ACCEPTANCE PAGE ........................................................................................ iv

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY .....................................................................v LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH .. vi

MOTTO PAGE ................................................................................................... vii

DEDICATION PAGE ........................................................................................ viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................. ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................x

ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... xii

ABSTRAK ............................................................................................................ xiii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study ........................................................................1

B. Problem Formulation .............................................................................2

C. Objectives of the Study ..........................................................................2

D. Definition of Terms ................................................................................3

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. Review of Related Studies .....................................................................6

B. Review of Related Theories ...................................................................9

1. Violence Against Women ..............................................................10

2. Patriarchy .......................................................................................13

3. Hiding Male Violence ....................................................................15

a. Tactics ........................................................................................15 i. Euphemizing. ........................................................15 ii. Dehumanizing ........................................................16

iii. Blaming the Victims ..............................................16

iv. Psychologizing .......................................................17

v. Naturalizing ............................................................18

vi. Distinguishing ........................................................18

b. Strategies ...................................................................................19 i. Legimitizing ...........................................................19

ii. Denying ..................................................................20

4. Violence Against Women in Japan ................................................20

C. Theoretical Framework ........................................................................23

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study...............................................................................24

B. Approach of the Study .........................................................................26

C. Method of the Study .............................................................................27

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS

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A. Violence Against Women in 1Q84 ......................................................29

1. Violence Experienced by Tamaki ..................................................30

2. Violence Experienced by the Dowager’s daughter ....................33 3. Violence Experienced by Ayumi ...................................................36

4. Violence Experienced by Tsubasa .................................................38

5. Violence Experienced by An Unnamed Battered Woman .............40 B. The Ways The Violence Against Women in 1Q84 is Silenced ..........41

1. How Tamaki’s Experience is Silenced .........................................41 2. How the Dowager’s Daughter’s Experience is Silenced ...............44

3. How Ayumi’s Experience is Silenced............................................45

4. How Tsubasa’s Experience is Silenced..........................................48

5. How the Unnamed Battered Woman’s Experienced is Silenced ...50

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ...........................................................................53

BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................56

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ABSTRACT

MUHIBBATY, AGHNIYA RUHYA. THE SILENCE AROUND VIOLENCE

AGAINST WOMEN IN HARUKI MURAKAMI’S 1Q84. Yogyakarta:

Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2019.

This thesis analyzes the novel titled IQ84 by Haruki Murakami. 1Q84 is

chosen for this study because it shows violence against women happening in

Japanese society, as well as how those violence is silenced. The researcher is

interested in identifying the kinds of violence experienced by the characters in the

book.

The author of this thesis has two objectives to be analyzed. The first one is

to identify the violence experienced by the characters. The second is to identify how

those violence are silenced by the society.

This thesis uses theories of feminism and gender study, more particularly

theories of violence against women. Patrizia Romito’s theory about violence

against women and the silencing tactics of violence against women is used, and also

several other sources, including Mackay’s book titled Radical feminism: feminist

activism in movement, that talks about the kinds of violence against women.

The study has two results: first is the kinds of violence against women that

happen in the book. The five characters (Tamaki, the dowager’s daughter, Ayumi,

Tsubasa, and an unnamed battered woman) experience different kinds of violence.

Tamaki, the dowager’s daughter, and the unnamed battered woman experience

domestic violence. Ayumi, the police woman, was sexually molested by her own

relatives. Tsubasa is a victim of rape. The second part of the result is how those

violence are dismissed or silenced in their society. Tamaki’s experience regarding

the violence inflicted upon her is not regarded serious by people around her, the

parents or police do not care despite the scars on her body. In that way, her violence

is silenced. The dowager’s daughter is the same; even the husband is never under

suspicion. In Ayumi’s case, what happened to her is not regarded as ‘real’ rape

because it is by family. Tsubasa’s case is also dismissed because it is done by a man

who has many supporters, including her own parents. The unnamed battered

woman is the same as the two previously mentioned domestic violence cases, in

that it is not taken seriously even by the police. From those five cases, it is clear

that in the society, violence experienced by women is easily dismissed, silenced,

and sometimes even encouraged or justified. No matter how or why those cases are

silenced, the one thing that is the same is that they are all not taken seriously.

The researcher suggests to future researchers to do more study about

violence against women in order to bring awareness and concern. It is hoped that

we do not sit in silence while victims of violence against women suffer. The fact

that they are silenced must encourage us to try to tackle it, even in small ways.

xii


ABSTRAK

MUHIBBATY, AGHNIYA RUHYA. THE SILENCE AROUND VIOLENCE

AGAINST WOMEN IN HARUKI MURAKAMI’S 1Q84. Yogyakarta:

Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2019.

Penelitian in menganalisis novel karya Haruki Murakami yang berjudul

1Q84, yang dipilih karena menggambarkan kekerasan terhadap wanita yang terjadi

di masyarakat. Penelitian ini juga membahas bagaimana masyarakat membungkam

kekerasan terhadap wanita yang terjadi. Penulis tertarik akan meneliti jenis

kekerasan terhadap wanita yang terjadi pada karakter wanita di buku 1Q84.

Penulis telah membuat dua pertanyaan tentang topik studi ini. Yang

pertama adalah apakah kekerasan terhadap wanita yang terjadi di buku, dan yang

kedua adalah bagaimana kekerasan-kekerasan tersebut dibungkam atau tidak

dipedulikan.

Penelitian ini menggunakan teori feminisme dan studi gender, atau

lebih detailnya teori tentang kekerasan terhadap wanita. Teori oleh Patrizia Romito

tentang kekerasan terhadap wanita dan taktik membungkam kekerasan wanita

dipakai di studi ini. Buku Mackay yang berjudul Radical feminism: feminist

activism in movement juga dipakai di studi ini.

Penelitian ini mewujudkan dua hasil. Yang pertama adalah, di 1Q84

ada lima karakter yang menjadi korban kekerasan. Karakter Tamaki, anak

perempuan the dowager, dan wanita tidak bernama mengalami kekerasan rumah

tangga. Karakter Ayumi mengalami aniaya seksual oleh keluarganya sendiri.

Karakter Tsubasa mengalami perkosaan oleh pria berumur. Hasil kedua dari studi

ini adalah bagaimana kekerasan tersebut dibungkam di masyarakat. Yang pertama,

Tamaki tidak dianggap serius oleh orang-orang sekitarnya, walaupun bukti tanda

kekerasan sangat jelas di tubuhnya. Anak dari the dowager atau sang janda pun

mengalami hal yang sama. Ketiga, kasus Ayumi tidak dianggap serius karena

aniaya seksual tersebut dilakukan oleh keluarga Ayumi sendiri. Lalu, pemerkosaan

yang terjadi pada Tsubasa tidak dipedulikan atau dianggap salah karena si

pemerkosa mempunyai banyak pendukung, termasuk orang tua Tsubasa sendiri.

Terakhir, si wanita tak bernama tidak dianggap serius oleh banyak pihak, seperti

kasus Tamaki. Dari kasus-kasus tersebut, bisa disimpulkan bahwa wanita yang

menjadi korban kekerasan tidak dipedulikan oleh atau dianggap serius oleh

masyarakat. Cara dan alasan itu dibungkam bisa jadi beda, namun hal yang pasti

adalah kasus-kasus tersebut punya satu persamaan yaitu mereka didiamkan atau

bahkan dianggap normal oleh masyarakat.

Penulis penelitian ini menyarankan pada peneliti lain untuk melakukan

banyak studi tentang kekerasan terhadap wanita, untuk membawa kesadaran dan

kepedulian. Diharapkan agar kita sebagai manusia, peduli untuk memberi suara

pada mereka yang telah dibungkam.

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1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of The Study

Violence against women is one of the main issues that women all over

the world, for a very long time, try to tackle. According to the journal article

titled “Some Thoughts on Domestic Violence in Japan” by Mioko Fujieda and

Julianne Dvorak, both research data and the actual reality of violence against

women in Japan are still unknown. The awareness towards gender equality,

especially violence against women, is very little. There is a great discrepancy

between the number of research regarding violence against women in Japan and

the US (Fujieda and Dvorak, 1989: 60). The latter has a vast amount of research

and studies conducted about violence against women, thus the awareness is also

higher than that of Japan. Nonetheless, the fact that Japan has little to no studies

about violence against women does not erase the fact that several statistics prove

that violence against women in Japan is alive and well, and it is a phenomenon

that is continuously ignored and silenced by the society.

In this thesis, the researcher attempts to highlight the existence of

violence against women in Japan, through the novel 1Q84. Written by Japan’s

worldwide famous contemporary author, Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 exhibits

many forms of violence against women, whether it is psychological or physical,

and those are all normalized and silenced. IQ84 illustrates the reality


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of violence against women in Japan, and especially, how the system and the

society continues to uphold the values that believe women are inferior and thus,

deserve to receive the abuse.

By showing the many kinds of violence against women in this book,

the author of this thesis aspires to erase the belief that the number of research

regarding violence against women somehow correlates to the actualities of cases

of violence against women in Japan. The phenomenon in 1Q84 perfectly mirrors

the actual condition of violence against women in Japan. Thus, it is hoped that

this thesis is able to raise awareness, as well as questions, about the violence

against women in Japan and the silence surrounding it.

B. Problem Formulation

In order to fulfill the purpose of this study, there are two questions that

need to be answered:

1. What are the violence that happen in Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84?

2. How is the violence against women silenced?

C. Objectives of The Study

The purpose of conducting this study is to solve the questions in

problem formulation. The first objective of this study is to reveal the violence

against women depicted throughout the book. Second, this study attempts to

show how the violence is silenced by the society.


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D. Definition of Terms

In this chapter, the definition of several key terms are provided. The

terms are violence against women, patriarchy, and tactics and strategies for

hiding violence.

1. Violence Against Women

Mackay writes about violence against women:

The term applies to rape, domestic abuse, forced marriage, sexual

assault, child sexual abuse, stalking, sexual exploitation in prostitution

and trafficking for prostitution, female genital mutilation and so-called

‘honour crimes’ (Mackay, 2015: 15).

Another explanation about violence against women is provided from

Mackay’s quotation of “UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against

Women” and the “1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)” that defines violence against

women as “physical, sexual or psychological violence against women because

of their sex alone or where such violence affects women disproportionaly.”

It is also important to note that in Japan, the term ‘domestic violence’

can refer to violence done by the child to the mother. Fujieda states so in her

journal article titled “Some Thoughts on Domestic Violence in Japan”:

In Japan, the term "domestic violence" is commonly understood to refer

to violence by children (sex unspecified) against their parents (likewise,

sex unspecified). This idea established itself at one point in the 1980s

during which there was widespread discussion of domestic violence in

the media, accompanied by a number of books on the same subject. All

of these discussions took the approach that domestic


4

violence was violence propagated by children rebel-ling against their

parents (Fujieda, 1989: 60).

In this research, however, the use of domestic violence will refer to

violence done by husbands to their wives, or a man to his girlfriend or partner.

As written by Fujieda:

Internationally, it is usual to construe domestic violence as violence

propagated by the husband upon the wife (regardless of her marital

status). In a broader sense, it is understood to refer to violence by men

(husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, etc.) against women (wives, mothers,

daughters, sisters, etc.) in the home (1989: 61).

In the journal Fujieda also states that it is not clear why Japan alone

defines domestic violence as violence by children to their parents. For the

purpose of this thesis, however it is important for us to map domestic violence

as violence against women, done by men.

2. Patriarchy

The second term is patriarchy. Originally comes from the Greek

language, the term means ‘the rule of the father’. In a more narrow definition, it

refers to the male head of a family or household. However there is a more

relevant explanation said by Mackay, who states that “patriarchy is used when

feminists refer to male supremacy, to societies where men as a group dominate

mainstream positions of power in culture, politics, business, law, military and

policing” (2015: 12).


5

3. Tactics and Strategies for Hiding Male Violence

Tactics and strategies here refer to Romito’s theory about tactics and

strategies in hiding violence against women done by men. Romito defines it as

follows:

“I define ‘strategies’ as complex, articulated maneuvers, general

methods for hiding male violence and allowing the status quo,

privileges and male domination to be maintained; by the term ‘tactics’

I mean tools that may be used across the board in various strategies,

without being specific to violence against women” (Romito, 2008: 43).

In the context of this thesis, tactics and strategies for hiding male

violence will be used to explain the ways that violence against women is silenced

and normalized.


6

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. Review of Related Studies

Little to no study, especially from feminist prespective, is done about

1Q84. However, the author of this thesis found three studies that are related and

suitable for this paper. In this chapter the author discusses previous works that

are relevant and related to this thesis. First is Kevin Nguyen from

Grantland.com. Nguyen writes mainly about the main characters’ journey, and

only in few sentences does he mention Aomame’s roles in struggling and

resisting towards the violence against women in the book.

Aomame exists as a feminist avenger, and yet Tengo spends the other

half of the novel putting his slightly above-average member in every

woman he meets. One would think that the two would be incompatible,

but events connected to Sakigake conspire to bring them together: it

turns out they’re destined to fall in love (grantland.com, 2011).

Nguyen also briefly mentions the strong qualities of Aomame, stating

that “she is delicate, but certainly not weak” (grantland.com, 2011).

Nevertheless, Nguyen review does not revolve around the violence and

oppression against women, or Aomame’s resistance against it. In that matter,

there is certainly a difference between Nguyen’s review and this research.

Nguyen focuses on the story’s romantic aspect, and the characterization of the

two main characters, Tengo and Aomame. Meanwhile, this paper focuses


7

solely on the violence against women that happen to the female characters

besides Aomame and how those violence are silenced.

Another article that is related to this thesis is from an article from The

New Yorker, written by Janet Maslin. In this article, Maslin focuses on analyzing

the book’s overarching plot (‘“1Q84” vacillates between two characters,

Aomame and Tengo, who have a mysterious connection.‘) and Murakami’s

distinctive way of writing:

They have more to do with Mr. Murakami’s determination to describe,

inventory and echo just about everything that he chooses to mention.

Characters repeat one another frequently, in a manner that can be seen

as either incantatory or numbing, depending on your patience level

(Maslin, 2011).

Maslin especially notes Murakami’s tendency to over-explain erotic

things in his passages “Her nicely shaped breasts are talked about too” (Maslin,

2011). It can be seen that Maslin’s article about 1Q84 is far different from the

topic of this research. While Maslin’s review focuses on Murakami’s writing,

this study is focused on the events in the book, that happen not to the two main

characters, but to the friends and relatives of one of the main characters.

The third study that is related to this thesis is from a different book and

a different author. However, this study covers a very similar topic: violence

against women. Titled ‘The Major Characters’ Response Towards Repressive

and Ideological Structures That Sanction Violence Against Women in Khaled

Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns’, this study is written by Dibson

Williansyah in 2010. In his thesis, Williansyah has three objectives, the first is

state the violence that is experienced by the characters in the book, the


8

second is explain the structure that sanction violence against women, and the last

is reveal how the characters respond to the violence that is sanctioned upon them.

Williansyah answers the first objective by stating all of the violence experienced

by the characters in the book, which are verbal, sexual, and physical violence.

The second problem, which is the structure that sanction violence, is repressive

structure and ideological structure. William states that the repressive structure

include the government, law court, and the police. Williansyah explains that the

government and the law court in the book sanction physical, sexual, and

psychological violence against women. The police, writes Williansyah,

sanctions physical and psychological violence against women. Meanwhile the

ideological structure includes the structure of religion and family. Williansyah

writes that religion sanctions physical, sexual, psychological, and economic

violence agains women while family sanctions physical, sexual psychological,

and economic violence against women. The third problem of Williamsyah’s

thesis is how the characters’ respond to the structure that sanction violence

against women. The characters all respond differently to the structure. One of

them is a character named Mariam, who responds by complying and staying

passive under their influence. Williansyah writes that this character responds that

way because she has been strongly influenced by the ideological structure that

sanction violence against women since her birth. The thesis is concluded in

Williansyah stating that “ideological structures have more influence in

sanctioning violence against women because those structures can instill the

values in both men and women about the


9

superiority of men to women and the acceptability of violence against women”

(Williansyah, 2010: 85).

The study done by Williansyah has different data and analysis, yet the

objectives are similar to this study. The first problem formulation is similar: this

study’s objective is to reveal the kinds of violence that are experienced by the

women in 1Q84, while Williansyah’s is to describe violence against women that

is experienced by major characters’ in Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Stars.

The difference between Williansyah’s paper and this lies in the second and third

questions. While Williansyah identifies the structure that sanctions violence in

the book, this study only wishes to identify the kinds of violence that is

experience by the women in 1Q84. The second difference is the last question;

Williansyah successfully idenfities the women’s response to the violence done

to them, while this study does not try to highlight the women’s reactions, rather

this study attempts to show the society around them stay in silence, ignoring the

violence against women that happen around them.

B. Review of Related Theories

This part of the thesis discussed the theories that are related to the

thesis’ theme. This part is essential to answering the thesis’ questions and to

finish this study.


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1. Violence Against Women

The 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) defines violence against women as

‘physical, sexual or psychological violence against women because of their sex

alone or where such violence affects women disproportionaly.’ It can be

understood from above that the term ‘violence against women’ refers to many

different acts that is inflicted upon women.

In order to know the context that is relevant to the subject of this thesis,

a journal titled Some Thoughts on Domestic Violence in Japan by Mioko Fujieda

is used. In the journal article, Fujieda makes it clear that in Japan the issue of

violence against women is largely ignored, though the statistics of the occurrence

proved differently.

Even so it is apparent from various statistics and reports that, even

though we limit the discussion to domestic violence, the level of occur-

rence is not so low as to be negligible. The reason that Japan is behind

in this area of research is not that the problem is absent, but rather that

our conception of the problem is unformed and confused (Fujieda,

1989: 64).

Fujieda also states that violence against women take a variety of forms:

rape, sexual harrasment (including molestation), prostitution, trafficking in

women, incest, abuse of young girls, pornography, domestic violence, et cetera.

“Violence against women, as the most flagrant expression of discriminiation

against women, necessitates a wide range of practical research; at the same time

it must be stresses as an extremely grave social issue” (Fujieda, 1989: 61).


11

Another description is given by Mackay, who states ‘the term [male

violence against women] applies to rape, domestic abuse, stalking, sexual

exploitation in prostitution and trafficking for prostitution, female genital

mutilation and so-called ‘honour crimes’ (2015: 15).

Another information about violence against women is from Patrizia

Romito who attached a table provided by the World Health Organization (WHO,

1997), that shows the continuity of violence that women in various cultures

experience in their life cycle. The table divides a woman’s life in five different

stages: before birth, early childhood, late childhood, adolescence and adulthood,

and old age. In each life stage, there are approximately three different forms of

violence that the women experienced. The highest amount of violence happens

in adolescence and adulthood stage: “incest, ‘courtship’ violence (date rape, acid

attacks), sex due to economic necessity, violence by partner (until death), ‘dowry

death’, rape, femicide, rape and forced pregnancy in war, sexual harassment at

work, forced prostitution, pornography” (WHO, 1997).

Article 3 of The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and

combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul

Convention), adopted in 2011, defines violence against women as such:

(a) ‘violence against women’ is understood as a violation of human

rights and a form of discrimination against women and shall mean all

acts of gender-based violence that result in, or are likely to result in,

physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to

women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation

of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life; (2011)


12

From various definitions above, it can be understood that violence against

women refers to the violation of human rights against women that are done

because a woman’s gender, and the violation results in harm, both physical and

mental, of women.

In A Deafening Silence: Hidden violence against women and children,

Patricia Romito lists three categories of violence against women, they are: sexual

violence, violence against children, and domestic violence (p 13-17). Among the

three categories, there two catagories that are related to the objectives of this

study: sexual violence and domestic violence.

a. Sexual Violence

Mostly refers to rape, or coercion in having sexual relations. “World

report on violence and health” defines rape as “physically forced or otherwise

coerced penetration- even if slight- of the vulva or anus, using a penis, other

body parts or an object” (2002: 149).

Romito states that rape is not always a man hiding in the bushes or

attacking in a dark street; in fact all the research state that 70%-80% of rapists

are men who have relations with the victims, such as relative, partner, friend,

and family. Romito finds that the frequency of rape is very high, and it is

frightening that it can almost be called ‘part of life’ for women (2008: 14).


13

b. Domestic Violence

Romito defines domestic violence as follows: “A continuous series of

action which diverse but characterised by a common purpose: control, though

psychological, economic, physical and sexual violence, of one partner over the

other” (2008: 17). Romito also writes that the number of violence perpretated by

men against women is higher than the opposite.

Another definition of domestic violence is by of The Council of Europe

Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic

violence (Istanbul Convention), which is:

(b) ‘domestic violence’ shall mean all acts of physical, sexual,

psychological or economic violence that occur within the family or

domestic unit or between former or current spouses or partners, whether

or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the

victim.

From information above it can be understood that domestic violence refers to

violence against women that is done in the family, perpetrated by a spouse or

partner.

2. Patriarchy

Patriarchy, comes from the Greek language, it means ‘the rule of the

father’. In the context of feminism, it is used to mean male rule or male

dominance (Mackay, 12). Mackay added that feminists use the word to refer to

‘male supremacy, to societies where men as a group dominate mainstream

positions of power in culture, politics, business, law, military and policing’

(Mackay, 2015: 12).


14

It can be inferred that patriarchy is a system in which men hold all the

power whereas women are the more inferior class. Relating it to violence against

women, Romito quotes Francine Pickup:

The violence to which women are subject is not random, or abnormal,

or defined by specific circumstances alone. It is used as a weapon to

punish women for stepping beyond the gendered boundaries set for

them, and to instil in them the fear of even considering doing so. It is a

systematic strategy to maintain women’s subordination to men

(Romito, 2008: 22).

From the quote above it can be seen that violence against women is not

only a result of patriarchy or male being superior, it is actually necessary and is

needed to occur in order to put women in their ‘place’, which is the inferior class.

Patriarchy benefits men and hurts women in a way that even though a man is not

violent, he still receives the benefits of the patriarchy system. Mackay writes in

his book that ‘[male] violence against women as a both cause and a consequence

of male supremacy and female inferiority; and as a symptom of patriarchy’.

Violence against women is the very thing that props up the patriarchy. In

patriarchy, it is essential to maintain the status quo, which is: men being superior

and women inferior. In doing so, violence against women is not only done but

also silenced.


15

3. Hiding Male Violence

In this chapter, related to the theory of patriarchy, Romito’s theory

about tactics and strategies for hiding violence is discussed. Romito defines

strategies as “complex, articulated maneuvers, general methods for hiding male

violence and allowing the status quo, privileges and male domination to be

maintained”, and the term tactics as “tools that may be used across the board in

various strategies, without being specific to violence against women” (Romito ,

2008: 43).

Romito also states that the tactics are the basis of strategies and the

tactics are needed in order for the strategies to work. Strategies have the specific

purpose of hiding male violence and maintaining the status quo, privileges and

male domination, while tactics are tools used in society but without the specific

purpose to enforce violence against women.

1. Tactics

Romito lists six different tactics to hide male violence against women:

euphemizing, dehumanizing, blaming the victims, psychologizing, naturalizing,

and separating.

i. Euphemizing

Euphemizing is a tactic that makes men ‘disappear’; from discourses

and documents about male violence against women. Romito states, euphemizing

is a parallel technique that allows a phenomenon to be labeled in an imprecise


16

and misleading way such as to obscure the seriousness or responsibility.

“Mechanisms for euphemizing are sometimes subtle and shrewd, at other time

curse, but always systematic” (Romito, 2008: 45).

The example of euphemizing is the terms ‘marital disputes or conflicts’

or ‘domestic violence’ instead of violence by husbands against wives.

Euphemizing makes the people who are complicit in abuse disappear and

protected from the truth.

ii. Dehumanizing

Dehumanizing happens when a person is treated as an object instead of

a human being. Romito writes that an aspect of dehumanizing is the removal of

individuality, and social psychology research has shown that when the victim is

depersonalized, it is easier to commit acts of cruelty towards them (Bandura et

al, 1975). Romito states:

Like oppressed people, who are to be dominated or exterminated,

women are often called by the names of animals in everyday language:

cats, kittens, bunnies, fawns, gazelles, geese, hens, snakes, monkeys,

cows, bitches, pigs, sows and piglets; or they are defined by their

anatomical parts: legs, arse, tits (2008: 48).

iii. Blaming the victims

In the study titled Theories of Victim Blame, Crippen states that victim

blame occurs when the victim, rather than the perpetrator of a crime, is held at

least partially responsible for the crime (Crippen, 2015: 2). Victim blaming is

very common in cases of male violence. Romito states “ There could be no better

definition of blaming women and children who are victims


17

of male violence. It is the abused woman who provokes the beating: she argues,

disobeys, cooks badly, is untidy and refuses sex (Romito, 2008: 51). ” Romito

says more about victim blaming:

Even women killed by their partners are responsible for their own death

because, if they had agreed to go back to him, that is if they had not

stubbornly wanted to separate at all costs, if they had been better wives

and had done more to understand him, to save their marriage, if they had

not provoked him by saying they did not love him any more or that they

loved someone else ... And the girl who is raped did she, also, not

provoke it, dressing like that, going out in the evening, going to a dance,

accepting a coffee? (2008: 52)

iv. Psychologizing

Psychologizing consists of interpreting a problem in individualistic and

psychological rather than political, economic or social terms and consequently

responding in these terms (Romito: 2008: 69). By psychologizing, it distances

the perpetrator from the violence committed. Romito also states: “if domestics

violence or incest are connected with psychological problems, society will offer

violence husbands and incestuous fathers therapy rather than punishment”

(Romito, 2008: 70). Psychologizing distances the abuser from criminal actions,

as it handles the problem in a psychological way rather than putting in a political

or economic context. Thus, it is therefore maintaining the status quo. The abuser

will not face criminal charges; rather, they will get psychiatric treatment.


18

v. Naturalizing

Naturalizing is when violence happens, it is thought only natural and

inevitable for that is just ‘how men are’. In naturalizing, Romito states, “Men

commit rape because their sexual instincts are raging, uncontrollable and easily

unleashed by seeing a beautiful girl or provocative clothing. They commit rape

because they are hot blooded, because a man is a man and hormones are

hormones” (Romito, 2008: 79).

vi. Distinguishing

Distinguishing or separating is distancing various forms of violence

from each other. For example, “although the statistics say that about 70% of

murders of wives or ex-wives are by their partners (Campbell, 2003), these cases

of murder are presented as separate, as something different from abuse. These

cases are even attributable to ‘too much love’, ‘passion’ by the man (Campbell,

2003 cited in Romito, 2008: 85). In cases like this, Romito continues, not seeing

the continuity between these phenomena is dangerous for the women involved.


19

b. Strategies

Romito writes that two principal strategies emerge from analyzing male

violence in recent history: legimitizing and denying. This chapter has two sub-

categories which are legitimizing and denying.

i. Legimitizing

In legitimizing, male violence is not hidden in any way: it is visible, but

as it is not legitimate, it is not defined as violence. When men commit it in the

context of the family against those people (women and children) that they

consider their property, these actions and toleration of them are often codified in

laws. Outside the family some male behavior, such as using people in

prostitution, is accepted by society, even when it takes the most hateful forms.

(Romito, 2008: 95)

Romito also divides this chapter again to two other sub-chapters:

legitimizing in the family and outside the family. The one that is suited for this

research is legitimizing male violence in the family.

Family is supposed to be a safe place, but the reality is different for

women and children. As the family and the home are dangerous places, where

there is a great risk of suffering violence, even resulting in death (Romito, 2008:

96). An example for violence in the family is rape committed by one’s relative.

Romito states that because it occurs in the family, thus it is not considered as

‘legitimate’ violence. The truth is even more tragic knowing that in many

countries, rape that is done by the husband to their wives is not


20

considered a crime. For example, it was legal for a man to ‘rape’ his wife until

1980 in France, until 1991 in the Netherlands, until 1994 in England, and until

1997 in Germany (Romito, 2008: 96). This strategy to hide male violence is

dangerous for women as it makes the violence meaningless and invalidates the

experience of the victims.

ii. Denying

Romito states that denial is the main social strategy to hide male

violence. Denial involves many people and works in many ways. In denial

strategy, the perpetrators of the violence deny it; their friends, relatives and

accomplices deny it; the witnesses deny it, because they are fundamental values,

because they are ignorant and because they are cowardly; sometimes even the

victims deny it (Romito, 2008: 122).

Denying may take even more complex and sophisticated forms,

particularly in socio-historical contexts like the present, where it becomes

difficult to avoid seeing the violence or consider it legitimate or distort its

meaning systematically with impunity (Romito, 2008: 95).

4. Violence Against Women in Japan

Although domestic violence is already discussed above, it is important to

dig deeper about cases of violence in Japan, where the object of this study takes

place. The reason to cover this topic more deeply is that so we can take


21

into account the real data and circumstances about women in Japan, with the

hope that the analysis becomes more definitive and precise.

a. Domestic Violence in Japan

It is already covered in the previous chapter that in Japan, the term

“domestic violence” is commonly understood to refer to violence by children

against their parents (Fujieda, 1989: 60). Internationally, however it is usual to

use the term to refer to violence done by husband or partner upon the wife or

spouse. In Japan, most women are “aware” that domestic violence exists as a

real problem, yet cases of violence are seen as private troubles (Fujieda, 1989:

61). Fujieda also mentions the proverb that goes: “Not even a dog would eat a

marital quarrel” which means that marital troubles are considered trivial and not

worth bothering about. The reason of that is in Japanese society, patriarchy is

alive and well, as stated by Fujieda:

(..) unequal relations between the sexes are not recognized as being

unequal, but rather are perceived as "natural." To state this differently,

gender differences (femininity vs. masculinity) are seen as innate and

unchangeable. There is strong societal support for biological deter-

minism, a concept which theoretically grounds the le- gitimacy of male

superiority. The feminist insistence that gender, even if it is rooted in

biological difference, is overwhelmingly constructed by society and

culture, has had no impact on Japanese society in general (1989: 61).

It can be referred that in Japanese society, male superiority and female

inferiority are still the norm and thus leads to disadvantages that women

experience: abuse. Women’s suffering is not considered important and even seen

as “normal”.


22

b. Statistics and Report

According to the journal article titled “Breaking the Web of Abuse and

Silence: Voices of Battered Women in Japan” by Mieko Yoshihama, earlier

studies found that domestic violence in Japan had lower rate than in the United

States. However, more recent statistics show the serious nature of domestic

violence in Japan. For example, one-third of female murder victims in Japan are

killed by their male intimate partners (Keisatsucho, 1995). Husbands and

boyfriends are the most common perpetrators of assault and battery against

family members in both Japan and the United States (Craven, 1997;

Keisatsucho).

In the same journal article, Yoshihama also states that until passage in

Japan of the Law Relating to the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the

Protection of Victims (Domestic Violence Prevention Act, hereinafter) in 2001,

no social policies or services existed that specifically addressed the problem of

domestic violence (Yoshihama, 1998, 2002).

The rise of international movements against gender-bases violence also

has an impact in Japanese society; there has been steady increase in research,

community forums, workshops, symposia, exhibits, and popular and academic

publications regarding domestic violence in Japan. The first private battered

women’s shelter was opened in 1993 in Tokyo, and currently there are more than

30 shelters nationwide (Yoshihama, 2002: 391).


23

C. Theoretical Framework

This thesis hopes to bring awareness about the phenomena that is

violence against women, particularly in Japanese society. Two research

questions are being asked in this research: what kinds of violence against women

happen in 1Q84 and how those cases of violence are being silenced in the

society.

To answer the problems above, the author of this thesis uses theories of

feminism; more particularly, the theories of violence against women. This

section discusses the contribution of the theories and related studies in order to

conduct this research. First, to answer the first question, the step is to identify

the violence that happens in the book. Theories by Finn Mackay and Patrizia

Romito are used. Another source is from “World Report On Violence And

Health”. In the first part of analysis, the forms and types of violence against

women are identified by having read the mentioned sources.

Secondly, to solve the second problem, Romito’s theory is also used.

Romito lists many types of tactics and strategies in which violence against

women can be silenced and even erased, and it helps revealing the ways that

violence against women in 1Q84 is being silenced.


24

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

The object of this study is 1Q84, a novel written by Haruki Murakami.

The novel was first published in Japan as three-part books, with the first and

second published in 2009 and the third or final novel published in 2010. In 2011,

the international version, one that has all three parts in it, was published. The

version that is used in this thesis is the international version. The story follows

its two main characters: Aomame and Tengo. Aomame is a gym trainer who also

doubles as an assassin, killing men who abused their wives. Tengo is a teacher

and writer, whose life revolves around many women. Aomame encounters many

women who are victims of violence. Aomame, who works for a certain rich, old

woman (in this book addressed as ‘the dowager’), is shown pictures of women

who are victims of domestic violence. The old woman, or the dowager, who is

her employee, also tells Aomame a story about how her late daughter was a

victim of domestic violence, up to the point the daughter killed herself. Aomame

also shares her story, which involves her best friend at school, Tamaki, who was

raped when she was young. Tamaki also ended up with a man who physically

and mentally abused her and made her life miserable up to the point Tamaki

killed herself. Aomame and the dowager are both surrounded by the realities of

women who are victims of violence by their own husbands. Aomame also

befriends a cheerful police officer, who also


25

happens to be sexually violated by her own relatives. As the story progress, the

dowager introduces Aomame to Tsubasa, a ten-year-old girl who was raped by

a cult leader, who also systematically rapes little girls in the name of ‘religion’.

The dowager then gives Aomame a task to murder the cult leader in hopes that

he will not be able to hurt little girls anymore. Meanwhile, Aomame and Tengo’s

stories just might collide, and along the journey the two end up together.

It is important to state that this study is not focused on the book’s main

plot, or the two main characters’ (Aomame and Tengo’s) romantic journey, but

rather on the side characters’ experience with violence against women, that

happens to be around Aomame’s life.

This novel was released in three parts in its original Japanese edition,

while the international edition is stacked into one book, a rather long one.

Though many critics state the dullness and the weakness of this book, one of

them saying that it is an “unconvincing love story”

(https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/books/review/1q84-by-haruki-

murakami-translated-by-jay-rubin-and-philip-gabriel-book-review.html), it

cannot be denied that this book is a massive success in Japan. Grantland reports

that 1Q84 sold its entire first print run of a million copies in a month

(http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/book-review-haruki-murakamis-

highly-satisfying-semi-mesmerizing-1q84). 1Q84 has become a cult favorite; it

even caused a spike in sales of Janacek CDs, since the composer appears in the

story.


26

B. Approach of the Study

In order to do this study, gender studies is used as the approach of this

study. First, the definition or meaning of gender must be addressed. According

to Handbook of Gender and Women's Studies by Kathy Davis, Mary Evans,

Judith Lorber in 2006, gender is a system of power in that it privileges some men

and disadvantages most women. Gender is constructed and maintained by both

the dominants and the oppressed because both ascribe to its values in personality

and identify formation and in appropriate masculine and feminine behavior

(2006: 2).

Gender studies did not rise until the 1960s, as stated in Fifty Key

Concepts in Gender Studies by Jane Pilcher and Imelda Whelehan, and its

development is triggered by second-wave feminism. It is also known from Fifty

Key Concepts in Gender Studies that prior to the 1970s, the social sciences,

especially sociology, largerly ignored gender. The aspects that were studied are

mostly men’s. It goes without saying that women’s problems were ignored, the

issues were not recognized. However, in the late 1970s women’s stiudies started

to developed. Attention to women’s problems increased, and it includes

housework, motherhood, and male violence (2004: xiii).

One of the aspects of gender studies is male violence. Fifty Key

Concepts in Gender Studies states that whether a narrow or a broader concept of

violence prevails, however, it remains the case that violence is gendered. It

means, violence exhibits patterns of difference between men and women.


27

(2004: 172). In fact, Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies adds, men’s violence

against women has especially been the concern of feminist researchers.

Mackay states: “Male violence against women is both a cause and a

consequence of male supremacy and female inferiority; and as a symptom of

patriarchy” (2015: 17).

This approach is used in this thesis because it aims to recognize

violence against women that happen in 1Q84. Knowing the definition and forms

of violence help reach the goal of this study, and learning how the violence is

ignored helps answer the second goal of this study.

C. Method of the Study

In order to do and finish this study, library research is used; various

studies and sources are used. According to the website of Elmer E. Rasmuson

Library at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) which is the largest library

in Alaska, library research involves the step-by-step process used to gather

information in order to write a paper, create a presentation, or complete a project

(2018).

The main data of this thesis is Haruki Murakami’s novel entitled 1Q84,

and the secondary data are taken from several sources. The theories in this book

were taken mostly from Patrizia Romito’s A Deafening Silence: Hidden violence

against women and children, and Mackay’s Radical Feminism: Feminist

Activism in Movement. Several sources were also used,


28

such as Mioko Fujieda’s “Some Thoughts on Domestic Violence in Japan” and

“World Report on Violence and Health” by World Health Organization.

Several steps are done in order to conduct this study. The first step is

reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. The next step is to formulate questions

regarding the book, which are the violence against women and how the violence

is being silenced. The third step is to find the relevant studies and theories in

order to finish the last step, which is providing answers and explanations to the

questions.


29

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

A. Violence Against Women in 1Q84

This section explains the answers of the problem formulation; the first

is how the violence against women shown in the book and the second is the

details of the hiding of said violence. In order to recognize a form of violence

against women and how it is hidden, the author of this thesis use several sources.

Mackay states that violence against women is a term that applies to

rape, domestic abuse, forced marriage, sexual assault, child sexual abuse,

stalking, sexual exploitation in prostitution and trafficking for prostitution,

female genital mutilation and so-called ‘honour crimes’ (Mackay, 2015).

It can be understood that violence against women can manifest in many

different forms. Furthermore, Romito lists three categories of violence against

women: sexual violence, violence against children, and domestic violence. In

1Q84 the relevant categories of violence against women are sexual violence and

domestic violence. There are five (non-main) characters in the book that

experience violence against women. They are Tamaki, the Dowager’s daughter,

Ayumi, Tsubasa, and an unnamed battered woman. In this chapter, the characters

and the violence are discussed in detail in the following paragraphs.


30

1. Violence Experienced by Tamaki

Tamaki is the main character’s, Aomame’s best friend when they were

in school. She is an intelligent woman who also plays sports with Aomame. They

were the same age, and they were teammates in the softball club of their public

high school. Tamaki is described to be small, but had great reflexes and knew

how to use her brain. Because of the great qualities of Tamaki, Aomame and

Tamaki became friends. After high school, Tamaki got enrolled in the law

program in a first-rank private university. After graduating, she also stopped

playing sports, which she was good at.

Despite the positive traits that Aomame saw in Tamaki, Aomame finds

a weakness in her, that is ‘good-looking men’.

Tamaki could meet men of marvelous character or with superior talents

who were eager to woo her, but if their looks did not meet her standards,

she was utterly unmoved (2011: 207).

In her university year, she was in a relationship with a man one year

older than her. This boyfriend of Tamaki ended up forcing her to have sex with

him, which left her traumatized and depressed.

Tamaki had liked this man, which was why she had accepted the

invitation to his room, but the violence with which he forced her into

having sex and his narcissistic, self-centered manner came as a terrible

shock. She quit the tennis club and went into a period of depression

(2011: 205).

She quits her activities in campus such as tennis club that she was

previously active in. The experience with him “left her with a profound feeling

of powerlessness.” It is even stated that her appetite disappeared, and she lost


31

fifteen pounds. Tamaki is a victim of rape, and that violation affected her not

only physically but also mentally, and it is described as follows:

Tamaki had liked this man, which was why she had accepted the

invitation to his room, but the violence with which he forces into having

sex and his narcissistic, self-centered manner came as a terrible shock

(2011: 205).

Romito’s statement regarding rape suits this occurrence. Most people

define or think of rape as something done by a stranger, in the dark and done

anonymously, but the reality is different from that. Contrary to the myth of the

unknown man attacking in a dark street, all the research agrees on the fact that

70%-80% of rapists are men who are well known to the woman or child: their

partner, a relative, a companion or a friend of the family. (Romito, 2008: 14)

Tamaki’s experience with abuse, unfortunately, does not end with this incident.

After her abusive boyfriend, when she is twenty-four years old, she meets a man,

a good-looking one.

Aomame met Tamaki’s fiancé only once. He came from a wealthy

family, and, just as she had suspected, his features were handsome but

utterly lacking in depth. His hobby was sailing. He was a smooth talker

and clever in his own way, but there was no substance to his personality,

and his words carried no weight. He was, in other words, a typical

Tamaki-type boyfriend. But there was more about him, something

ominous, that Aomame sensed (2011: 208).

Aomame says to Tamaki that the marriage will never work, which leads

to Aomame and Tamaki’s fight that put a strain in their friendship. However,

despite not attending the wedding, the two girls make up and they write letters

to each other. After that, they become more distant from each other. Aomame

can sense that there is something off with Tamaki, from the


32

way she speaks to the words she says. ““Being a full-time housewife is hard

work,” she would say, but there was something in her tone of voice suggesting

that her husband did not want her meeting people outside the house” (2011: 208).

Tamaki keeps assuring Aomame that her married life is going well, even stating

that she could be a mother soon. Until one day, Aomame finds out that Tamaki

has committed suicide, just days before her twenty-sixth birthday. The husband

tells the police that they had no problems at home, and that he has no idea the

reason why she ended her own life. The reality is the opposite, as the following

paragraph says:

But they were lying. The husband’s constant sadistic violence had left

Tamaki covered with scars both physical and mental. His actions

toward her had verged on the monomaniacal, and his parents generally

knew the truth. The police could also tell what had happened from the

autopsy, but their suspicions never became public. They called the

husband in and questioned him, but the case was clearly a suicide, and

at the time of death the husband was hundreds of miles away in

Hokkaido. He was never charged with a crime (2011: 209-210).

The husband abused Tamaki to the point that Tamaki could not take it

anymore and killed herself. Even after she died, her abuser and even the justice

system, the police officers, stayed silent about it. The husband is not charged

with crime, or even being a suspect.

It is also learned that the violence that the husband has done to Tamaki

has been there from the early days of their marriage. It just became more and

more intense each day. Tamaki could not say anything either because she was

afraid, and because the violence had taken a toll to her mental health. Tamaki

wrote a suicide letter to Aomame in which she blamed no one but


33

herself, for all the suffering that she had endured. She did not blame her husband

at all.

I feel utterly powerless, and that feeling is my prison. I entered of my

own free will, I locked the door, and I threw away the key. This

marriage was of course a mistake, just as you said. But the deepest

problem is not in my husband or in my married life. It is inside me. I

deserve all the pain I am feeling. I can’t blame anyone else (2011: 210).

The violence that is done to Tamaki falls under what is called domestic

violence. There is a explanation about violence against women by The Council

of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and

domestic violence (Istanbul Convention):

(...) ‘domestic violence’ shall mean all acts of physical, sexual,

psychological or economic violence that occur within the family or

domestic unit or between former or current spouses or partners, whether

or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the

victim (Article 3).

It is clear to see that the husband was an abusive one, and making

Tamaki went through such ordeal made him an abuser. Tamaki, who is a victim

of abuse, until her last breath, even blamed herself for her own suffering.

2. Violence Experienced by the Dowager’s Daughter

The dowager, who stays unnamed in the whole story, is a close friend

of the main character, Aomame. The dowager is a wealthy, elegant woman of


34

the elder age, who was in Aomame’s self-defense class in the gym that Aomame

works in. She asks Aomame to be her personal trainer. Aomame happily takes

the dowager’s request and she comes to the dowager’s house a few times a week.

After several meetings, Aomame and the dowager become close and they start

to tell each other’s life stories, including secrets. Aomame, knowing that it will

be known to her eventually, tells the dowager about her high school best friend,

Tamaki, and how Tamaki was a victim of abuse who eventually killed herself.

This was the room in which Aomame first confessed her secret to the

dowager. Aomame remembered the day clearly. She had known that

someday she would have to share the burden she carried in her heart

with someone. She could keep it locked up inside herself only so long,

and already she was reaching her limit. And so, when the dowager said

something to draw her out, Aomame had flung open the door (2011:

270).

Aomame reveals the incident with Tamaki and tells the dowager her

deep secret: that she killed the man that is responsible for Tamaki’s suffering

and eventual death. “There, following an elaborate plan of her own devising, she

killed him with a single needle thrust to the back of the neck. (2011: 270)”

Much to Aomame’s surprise, the dowager begins telling her story, one

that is of her own daughter, who experienced the same thing as Aomame’s best

friend.

Circumstances similar to those of Tamaki Otsuka had led her daughter

to end her own life, the dowager said. Her daughter had married the

wrong man. The dowager had known from the beginning that the

marriage would not go well. She could clearly see that the man had a

twisted personality. He had already been involved in several bad

situations, their cause almost certainly deeply rooted. But no one


35

could stop the daughter from marrying him. As the dowager had

expected, there were repeated instances of domestic violence. The

daughter gradually lost whatever self-respect and self-confidence she

had and sank into a deep depression. Robbed of the strength to stand on

her own, she felt increasingly like an ant trapped in a bowl of sand.

Finally, she washed down a large number of sleeping pills with whiskey

(2011: 270).

The dowager’s daughter suffered because of her husband, who tortured

her both physically and mentally. Just like Tamaki, her mental health

unsurprisingly deteriorated following the physical abuse that she’d endured. The

dowager continues by saying that her daughter’s autopsy revealed many signs of

violence on her body, including bruises, broken bones, and burn scars.

The violence that had been enacted to the dowager’s daughter, without

a doubt, is domestic violence. A journal article titled “Domestic Violence and

the Rights of Women in Japan and the United States” that is published in 2002

by Juley A. Fulcher states:

Domestic violence is a pattern of behavior that takes place within an

intimate relationship. The pattern often includes repeated physical

violence, intimidation, threats (spoken and unspoken), economic abuse,

emotional abuse, controlling behavior (limiting the victim's ability to

work or move freely in society), irrational jealousy, stalking,

harassment at work or at school, and threats to harm the vic tims'

children, family members, friends, or pets” (Fulcher, 2002: 17).

The domestic violence in the dowager’s daughter’s situation is

manifested in the physical abuse: the bruises, her broken bones, and the burn

scars.


36

3. Violence Experienced by Ayumi, the Police Woman

Ayumi is a friend of Aomame, whom she first met in a bar when she

was trying to pick up men. Ayumi has a cheerful personality, despite being a

police woman. Ayumi works in Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, which

startled Aomame at first. Ayumi first approached Aomame by asking the name

of Aomame’s drink, and then she proposed the idea to pick up men together,

since according to her, she and Aomame made a ‘good match’. “We look so

different, too—I’m more the womanly type, and you have that trim, boyish

style—I’m sure we’re a good match” (2011: 171).

Ayumi and Aomame are good friends who frequently go out together

for drinks or dinner. Aomame feels a kind of affection towards Ayumi, who

reminds her how it feels to have a best friend, since Tamaki is not around

anymore.

I’m fond of this girl Ayumi, no doubt about it. I want to be as good to

her as I can. After Tamaki died, I made up my mind to live without deep

ties to anyone. I never once felt that I wanted a new friend. But for some

reason I feel my heart opening to Ayumi (2011: 145).

Ayumi and Aomame are two sexually active women. They frequently

go out to find men that they would like to have sex with. The two of them found

a pattern that benefit them both.

Aomame and Ayumi were the perfect pair to host intimate but fully

erotic all-night sex feasts. Ayumi was petite and cheerful, comfortable

with strangers, and talkative. She brought a positive attitude to just

about any situation once she had made up her mind to do so. She also

had a healthy sense of humor. By contrast, Aomame, slim and

muscular, tended to be rather expressionless and reserved, and she

found it hard to be witty with a man she was meeting for the first time

(2011: 258).


37

They talk about many topics, including Aomame telling Ayumi about

her curiosity and suspicion towards a cult named Sakigake, a cult that Aomame

knows is systematically raping little girls. Aomame, being a police woman, tells

Aomame some information she could get ahold of. Beside their sex adventures

and cult-conspiracy, Ayumi tells Aomame about her being molested by her own

relatives. She tells Aomame how her brother and uncle used to sexually assault

her, they touched her genitals and made her perform oral sex on them.

“What did they do to you?” “Touched me down there, made me give

them blow jobs.” The wrinkles of Aomame’s grimace deepened. “Your

brother and uncle?” “Separately, of course. I think I was ten and my

brother maybe fifteen.My uncle did it before that—two or three times,

when he stayed over with us” (2011: 366).

As covered previously, both Aomame and Ayumi enjoyed fun nights

having one night stands with strangers. They would go to bars and spend the

night with men they were interested in. One day Aomame finds out from a

newspaper article that Ayumi has been violently murdered by a male partner she

had consensual sex that night. As seen in the excerpt below:

The article reported that Ayumi had been found dead in a Shibuya hotel

room. She had been strangled with a bathrobe sash. Stark naked, she

was handcuffed to the bed, a piece of clothing stuffed in her mouth

(2011: 348).

The abuse that had been done to Ayumi before her murder is sexual

violence, which includes rape. According to “World Report On Violence And

Health”, sexual violence includes rape, defined as physically forced or otherwise

coerced penetration – even if slight – of the vulva or anus, using a


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penis, other body parts or an object. On a more relevant note, in A deafening

silence: Hidden violence against women and children, Romito states that rape is

not always a man hiding in the bushes or attacking in a dark street; in fact all the

research state that 70%-80% of rapists are men who have relations with the

victims, such as relative, partner, friend, and family. The information provided

by Romito is very close to Ayumi’s truth, in that she was violated by her uncle

and brother, her own blood relatives.

4. Violence Experienced by Tsubasa

Tsubasa is a little girl who lives in the dowager’s safe house. She comes

from a cult that abuses her; even her parents encourage the abuse that is done to

her. The dowager tells Aomame how Tsubasa’s uterus is destroyed, and how the

cult’s leader has been raping little girls in the cult, including Tsubasa, until she

ran away from the cult. Tsubasa now lives in the dowager’s safe house. It is

revealed in the book that in the year after her daughter had killed herself, the

dowager built a private safe house for women who are victims of domestic

violence. “The year after her daughter killed herself, the dowager set up a private

safe house for women who were suffering from the same kind of domestic

violence (2011: 373).” It is stated that the house is a small, two-story apartment

building on a plot of land adjoining her Willow house property in Azabu. She

renovated the building and use it for a safe house for women who had no place

to go. The daughter even opened a ‘consultation office’ for women who seek

advice from lawyers.


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It was staffed by volunteers who took turns doing interviews and giving

telephone counseling. The office kept in touch with the dowager at

home. Women who needed an emergency shelter would be sent to the

safe house, often with children in tow (some of whom were teenage

girls who had been sexually abused by their fathers). They would stay

there until more permanent arrangements could be made for them. They

would be provided with basic necessities—food, clothing—and they

would help each other in a kind of communal living arrangement. The

dowager personally took care of all their expenses (2011: 373).

The dowager tells Aomame that Tsubasa was raped by an adult man.

There is observable evidence of rape. Repeated rape. Terrible

lacerations on the outer lips of her vagina, and injury to the uterus. An

engorged adult male sex organ penetrated her small uterus, which is still

not fully mature, largely destroying the area where a fertilized egg

would become implanted. The doctor thinks she will probably never be

able to become pregnant (2011: 300).

Aomame responds by asking where her parents are, and the dowager

tells her that Tsubasa’s parents allowed it to happen, they even encouraged it.

Tsubasa and her parents lived in a cult called Sakigake, and the leader of the cult

is known to rape little girls, in the name of ‘religion’. Tsubasa’s parents can be

said to have been brainwashed since they approved and even encouraged the

leader’s action towards Tsubasa, and surely many others.

The violence that is inflicted towards Tsubasa is sexual violence, and

rape falls under the category of it. As covered before, according to World Report

On Violence And Health, sexual violence includes rape , defined as physically

forced or otherwise coerced penetration – even if slight – of the vulva or anus,

using a penis, other body parts or an object. It can be seen that


40

the violence can and will affect Tsubasa not only physically (having her uterus

destroyed) but also psychologically.

5. Violence Experienced by an Unnamed Battered Woman

Earlier in the book, Aomame visits the dowager’s house. Upon arriving,

the dowager’s right-hand man gives Aomame an envelope filled with pictures.

Aomame takes the pictures out, and finds close-up shots of a woman’s body

parts that clearly have been hurt.

They were close-up shots of a young woman’s body: her back, breasts,

buttocks, thighs, even the soles of her feet. Only her face was missing.

Each body part bore marks of violence in the form of lurid welts, raised,

almost certainly, by a belt. Her pubic hair had been shaved, the skin

marked with what looked like cigarette burns (2011: 103).

The name of the abused woman is never revealed in the book, however,

from the description it can be concluded that she is a victim of domestic violence,

and a rather extreme at that. The dowager then proceeds to tell Aomame that the

woman’s fractures have been taken care of, but she may develop hearing loss in

one of her ears. Then, it is revealed that the husband who committed this violence

is the same man that was murdered by Aomame in the previous chapter. The

dowager keeps reassuring Aomame that she did the right thing by killing him.

She continued, “We can’t let anyone get away with doing something

like this. We simply can’t.” Aomame gathered the photos and returned

them to the envelope. “Don’t you agree?” the dowager asked. “I

certainly do,” said Aomame. “We did the right thing,” the dowager

declared (2011: 104).


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The violence that is done to this unnamed woman is nothing else

besides domestic violence. As Romito states, domestic violence is understood to

be a continuous series of actions, which are diverse but characterised by a

common purpose: control, through psychological, economic, physical and

sexual violence, of one partner over the other. It involves the other being

considered not as a person, but a thing which may be at your service, kept under

control, made use of when needed and on which to unleash rage and frustation

(2008: 17). It is not explained more what kind of violence the husband inflicted

aside from the ones that can be seen from the photographs, but we can conclude

that it is a case of physical or domestic violence.

B. The Ways the Violence Against Women in 1Q84 is Silenced

In this chapter, the author describes and discusses how the violence that

occur in the book are being silenced. The characters that will be discussed are

the same as he previous chapter: Tamaki, the Dowager’s daughter, Ayumi,

Tsubasa, and an unnamed battered woman.

1. How Tamaki’s Experience is Silenced

It is established in the first part of the analysis that Tamaki is a victim

of more than one form of violence against women, which are sexual violence

and domestic violence; which include psychological violence. Tamaki is a

victim of rape, as seen in “He invited her to his room after a club party, and there

he forced her to have sex with him” (p.205). Besides that, she also


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experienced domestic violence as in “The husband’s constant sadistic violence

had left Tamaki covered with scars both physical and mental” (p.209). She ends

up committing suicide: “Tamaki committed suicide on a windy late-autumn day

three days before her twenty-sixth birthday” (p.209).

In the case of domestic violence that is experienced by Tamaki, there

is a form of denying violence against women. It is stated in the book IQ84 that

there are clear signs of domestic violence done by the husband in Tamaki’s

autopsy, yet the authority, in this case the police, never makes the husband the

suspect. The police’s awareness and their idle action is presented in the following

paragraph:

The husband’s constant sadistic violence had left Tamaki covered with

scars both physical and mental. His actions toward her had verged on

the monomaniacal, and his parents generally knew the truth. The police

could also tell what had happened from the autopsy, but their suspicions

never became public (2011: 210).

The excerpt above also shows that the husband’s parents, just like the

police, are aware of the man’s behavior, but they hide and lie about it, thus

denying that the violence even existed. It shows the strategy denial or denying,

which Romito says is the ‘principal social strategy to hide male violence’ (p.

122). In addition, the denying of Tamaki’s suffering is also shown in the fact

that the authority believes the husband’s statement of innocence instead of

looking at the fact, which is the woman’s proof of violence. As Romito states:

Denial takes direct, glaring or more insidious forms. One glaring

method materialises in health and social services: even the most serious

signs of violence go unobserved. The stories women


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sometimes tell (‘I fell downstairs’) are believed, even when there are

signs of strangulation, burns and bruises in various stages of healing

(Romito, 2000: 122).

Tamaki’s autopsy result which serves as an indisputable proof of

domestic violence is of course not to be believed when there is a more ‘reliable’

force: the husband’s statement of innocence. The public, the authority, and the

people around are unquestionably siding with the innocence husband rather than

the dead woman. Denying happens in this case in the form of silence by the

police and Tamaki’s parents. The police do what people in Japanese society do

when faced with a case of domestic violence: say nothing and do nothing. By

being silent, they are denying that the abuse or violence even happen. In Japanese

society, it is the norm to be quiet about one’s marital problems. Also, in Japanese

society, unequal relations between the sexes are not recognized as being unequal

(as in odd, unfair, or unjust), but rather are perceived as “natural” (Fujieda, 1989:

61). Thus, the suffering that the woman experiences is also not seen as important.

Even the parents of Tamaki, despite the familial connection, do not talk about or

admit the abuse that Tamaki endured. They are, after all, people living in

Japanese society in the 1980s. Their perspective abut gender is: “men are

superior and women are inferior”.

Another relevant quote from Romito’s book is as such: “Denial

involves many people and works in many ways. The perpetrators of the violence

deny it; their friends, relatives and accomplices deny it; the witnesses deny it”

(p. 122). Romito’s quote seems fitting to the case of Tamaki; the husband, his

parents, and the police, all are witnesses of a violence against


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women, yet they are silent about it, thus contributing to the deafening silence

against violence against women.

2. How the Dowager’s Daughter’s Experience is Silenced

The dowager’s daughter, who remains nameless in the book, is also a

victim of domestic abuse, just like Tamaki. The dowager’s daughter was a victim

of violence that is similar to what Tamaki experienced, and they both had the

same end; committing suicide. “Circumstances similar to those of Tamaki

Otsuka had led her daughter to end her own life, the dowager said (2011: 272).”

The dowager’s daughter’s husband abused her physically and mentally. Much to

no surprise, the people around her do the same thing as the people around

Tamaki: deny the violence and lie about it. The autopsy reveals the marks of the

violence done to her: bruises, broken bones, burn scars from cigarettes, and many

more. The husband admitted that he did all those things, but he stated that it was

all part of their sexual practice, and done in his wife’s consent. Thus, the police

could not find the husband legally responsible. He was willing to admit to some

use of violence, but he maintained that it had been part of their sexual practice,

under mutual consent, to satisfy his wife’s preferences. (2008: 272)

Given the husband’s statement that the blemished body of his wife is a

result of nothing but their consensual sex life, he was able to escape being

convicted. In addition, the husband was a man of a high social standing; he has

money and power and was able to hire a first-rate criminal lawyer. In the eyes

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