Mujirer

[imomus]

My Post-Materialist column celebrates Muji this week.



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At the risk of annoying those who resisted the idea, yesterday, that an embassy building projects the values of the nation that built it, I find it interesting to compare the image of a Muji catalogue woman that appears in my Muji piece with the image that runs alongside it in the Bloomingdale's ad. In one way the women are quite similar -- pretty much the same body and face shape, same hairstyle. But in other ways -- how they're dressed, their body language -- they project very different conceptions of femininity, conceptions coming out of two very different cities, New York and Tokyo.

One is woman as slightly arrogant rock star, the other woman as domestic angel, nurse or mother. One is dressed mostly in black, the other mostly in white. One evokes the idea of conflict and sin, rebellion and guilty pleasures, the other the idea of harmony and empathy, serenity and nature. They're both sexual (or, if you prefer -- and I don't -- "sexualized") images, but the way they project their eroticism is very different. One gives me the feeling I'd have to fight before I could possess her sexually (there's a Bond / Avengers vibe of the female of the species being more deadly than the male), the other packs a floral, beseeching sexuality into lily-like virtue, the limp passivity of her arms, bare feet and a slightly raised ankle position.

A psychoanalytical reading of the images might point out that one is essentially saying "suck my cock" (located, obviously, in the form of her stiletto heel), the other "use my womb". I won't say that either image shows a more "advanced" conception of women's role. Rather, I think they both reflect male-dominated societies. One of these societies projects women -- because it's male-dominated -- as ultra-feminine. The other projects women -- because it's male-dominated -- as ultra-masculine. But it's interesting that the society which chooses to concentrate on the specifically feminine attributes is a society rumoured to have been, at one point in its history, a matriarchy. That may not be unrelated to the fact that power is connoted there in a way that allows female power to be about specifically female things.

To put that another way, instead of a missing phallus, the Tokyo image is organised around a non-missing womb.

Comments

[imomus.livejournal.com]

There's an interesting phrase at the end of Your cock is huge (http://westfearneon.com/2007/09/03/your-cock-is-huge/), a blog entry linked to from my discussion of Japanese matriarchy (http://imomus.livejournal.com/314171.html) last year. Japanese women, the writer says, have "the power to confer masculinity". In contrast, we could see the Western woman as doomed, always unsuccessfully, to copy it.

[(Anonymous)]

"Here in the West we're finally getting the chance to discover why
a brand built on the apparent absence of branding inspires such loyalty."

There have been Muji stores in London and elsewhere in the UK since the early
'90s Momus, as I'm sure you well know.

America is not 'The West' Momus, as I'm sure you well know.

No need to flatter your American readers thus!

should've paid attention in biology

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

lol thinks you can USE wombs.

What the crap were you planning on using them for? Storing loose change?

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

"one is essentially saying "suck my cock" (located, obviously, in the form of her stiletto heel), the other "use my womb"."

I read this blog for the Momusisms.


Back on topic; I don't know how I feel about Muji. Their products aren't bad at all -- Muji is the Japanese Ikea. I could happily furnish my home with Ikea and Muji goods.

Ikea = "We are Scandinavian - we are utilitarian meets quirky.
Muji = "We are Japanese - We are Shibui, we are beauty and affordability brought together in the understated."

...at least, thats what Muji would be if it didn't feel the need to keep telling us how free of "isms" it is with a whole page ironically dedicated to its philosophical viewpoint.

Muji is false-modesty, muji tries too hard and in trying too hard it gets being understated wrong and just slips back into being just another showy brand.

The problem with Muji is it doesn't let its products speak for themselves. Muji can't seem to stop itself gushing about how refined it is and how understated it is... at least, thats what I'm seeing on the American page. I decided to take a look at the Japanese page, I find this:

"わけあって、安い" is Muji's rather witty catchphrase - "For some reason, it's cheap".
Bear in mind that 安い also means peaceful so there's a double meaning.
It's as if someone is saying "All this quality and it's cheap. All this beauty and yet the design - it's so understated and calm."

I'm feeling a revulsion towards Muji's branding... and it doesn't even have any (supposedly).

[grzeg.livejournal.com]

Now there's a book on Muji's philosophy as well

where's the foetus gonna gestate, you gonna keep it in a box?

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

I read iCale for the virgin cowwisms.

I read icoww for the virgin Caleisms.

Good Breast/Bad Breast - Paranoia & Melanie Klein

[(Anonymous)]

“When things are going well, the mother is experienced as an all benign figure. However, when needs or desires of the young baby are not immediately met by the mother, because she is not there to fulfill them, the absence of the good object is experienced as the presence of a bad object.

The bad object is then hated and, in fantasy, it is attacked. The hated frustrating object quickly becomes persecutory as it is imagined to seek revenge in a similar way as to how it is being treated. This is why the baby feels persecuted, hence the 'paranoid' in paranoid schizoid.”

stfu, I'm killing time

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

So Momus, would I have to fight you before I could ~*~possess you sexually~*~, or are you a model of lily-like virtue?

[(Anonymous)]

The blank, white uniformity of the Muji products could also conjure up images of THX 1138 totalitarian brain-washed slavery.

scale

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

You'll get no argument out of me that culture is most explicitly expressed on an individual level--I always fall on your side on the 'sharky' issue. But like we saw yesterday, that isn't always true on a massive, clumsy, institutional level, especially in today's bureaucratic, technocratic world. There are just far too many other factors in play (money, politics, red tape, engineering, security, etc.). If the same forces were at work when we picked out our wardrobes, half of us would still be naked awaiting approval and the rest would be wearing gray cardboard boxes.

[(Anonymous)]

Made in China.

[jannavarro.livejournal.com]

muji is something i miss from berlin.

Mujirers?

[(Anonymous)]

I always thought it was "Mujira" — like Gojira (Godzilla) monsters made up of massive piles of Muji products. The more Muji you own, the bigger your monster self becomes.

If you're interested in Muji, you should have a look at Kenya Hara's book, Designing Design. There's a wonderful section about his involvement with the company.

Sean T.

please shut up about new york

[(Anonymous)]

you doth protest too much

[(Anonymous)]

>One gives me the feeling I'd have to fight before I could possess her >sexually

You mean she's totally out of your league.