Murakami on Women (and their Breasts).

My main take away from reviewing the books I've read by Haruki Murakami is that he has never had a genuine and/or meaningful conversation with a woman. He consistently displays an astounding misunderstanding of women.

On social media, users make videos and posts titled "If you like Murakami's writing but hate how he writes women read these books instead" or something to that effect. Below is a screenshot of a TikTok doing just that. With 10.8k likes when this blog is posted, it seems a lot of readers share these feelings. As shown in his writing, Murakami writes women as simply a walking pairs of boobs. It's a

Screenshot of TikTok by @sisiliareads

rarity for a woman's breasts not to be described in a Murakami novel. In Hear the Wind, a"thirtyish" woman's breasts are likened to "grapefruits" (Murakami pg. 39). In South of the Border, West of the Sun the male protagonists says of his girl that her breasts were "small and fitted comfortably in the palm of my hand, as if solely designed for that purpose" (Murakami, pg. 24). This sentence in particular highlights the attitude towards women's bodies. Not only are female characters defined by their breasts but the purpose of their breasts seems to be for them to be ogled, judged and groped by men. Breasts are there to discern a womans gender and to satisfy men's desires.

No woman is safe from Murakami and his characters. Rarely is a woman's chest exempt from the male gaze and accompanying commentary. Even children are not off limits to these downright creepy descriptions. In Norwegian Wood there is an interaction where a thirteen-year-old girl "seduces" her female piano teacher who is 31. The scene is framed as a sexual assault carried out by the 13-year-old. She's supposed to be the perpetrator, however, she is a child. To rationalise this framing, she is said to be an extremely cunning and manipulative child; "She was a keen observer,

Image from NPR

a precise user of language...she would manipulate people's emotions for no other reason than to test her own powers" (Murakami, pg. 200). The whole scene is disturbing but especially the descriptions of this child's body. Reiko, the 31-year-old piano teach, remarks that her student "had big breasts for a 13-year-old. Twice as big as mine. And she wasn't wearing any starter bra but a real adult model, an expensive one" (Murakami, pg.202). Later in the novel, Toru comments that Reiko "had the breasts of a little girl" (Murakami, pg. 383). Not only do we have consistent objectification of women and their bodies but there is also this added element of paedophilia to contend with. It baffles me how this book was not only edited by someone, but also translated from Japanese to English and these portions of the text remained.

Also Murakami displays a fundamental misunderstanding of biology in Norwegian Wood. The protagonist Toru and his potential love interest Midori are watching a porn movie. The plot follows a secretary and her schoolgirl sister who have been kidnapped are being subjected to sadistic sexual torture. As a result, the older woman is "transformed into a raging masochist" while the schoolgirl gets "really turned on" from watching what happens. Again, disturbing content. This schoolgirl motif also ties in with this element of pedophilia. (Murakami, pg.295). Midori comments "don't you think her nipples are too dark for a schoolgirl- a virgin?" and Toru agrees with an "absolutely" (Murakami, pg. 292). There are of course causes for the natural darkening of nipples but these are typically associated with pregnancy or breastfeeding if I am remembering my secondary school biology correctly. However, Murakami and his writing seem to push this idea that nipples darken according to the number of sexual partners you've had? Murakami's logic seems to be that dark nipples are an obvious indicator of lasciviousness in women.

As a female reader, Murakami's novels are tough to get through. You will have instances where you are admiring the prose and enjoying the descriptive narrative, then all of a sudden, you are assaulted by some degrading, misogynistic or almost criminal comment. It's sickening. On the right is often how I feel trekking through one of his novels.

In interviews, Murakami has expressed no desire to remedy his portrayals of women. The question as to why Haruki Murakami consistently portrays female characters in this way may never truly and honestly be answered however, readers can assume it's simply because he's a man.

TikTok by user @bigbooklady.

Works Cited

Murakami, Haruki. Wind/Pinball. Translated by Ted Goosen, Vintage, 2015.

Murakami, Haruki. South of the Border, West of the Sun. Translated by Philip Gabriel, Vintage, 1998.

Murakami, Haruki. Norwegian Wood. Translated by Jay Rubin, Vintage, 2003.