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Increasing rates of late marriage and decreasing rates of marriage in developed countries have been often explained by women's increasing education and labor participation. However, unmarried men's views of marriage have remained unexplored. I first examine how the state's pro-birth policy employs the slogan of "life-work balance" to maintain the traditional gender roles in families. Using in-depth interviews with fourteen unmarried Japanese men, this paper next offers an explanation of why some Japanese men postpone marriage, and third, discusses three discourses on marriage they engage in to maintain privileges of race, class, and gender. Ultimately, I argue that the postponement of marriage in Japan is caused by not only women's aversion to marriage but also men's aversion to the traditional gender roles and family responsibilities that accompany marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why is non-marriage increasing among highly educated women in Japan, one of the least gender-equal industrialized countries? According to the economic independence theorists improving economic standing among women leads to the decline of marriage primarily due to women's avoidance of unequal gender burdens in household. However, scholars have pointed out this theory's contradiction in its exclusive emphasis on women's economic independence in such highly gendered traditional society as Japan. Corresponding to the limited applicability of economic independence theory to Japan, a country with distinct gender inequality, this paper examines how gender barriers in the labor and marriage markets shape employed women's views of marriage in Japan. Based on in-depth interviews with 26 never-married Japanese women, the paper addresses how employed women's views of marriage are shaped by gender inequality in employment structure and the marriage market in Japan. Employing the notion of gender strategies, I analyze four strategies (deflection, repudiation, ambivalence, and compliance) through which employed women negotiate their positions within the discourses of marriage and rationalize their non-married status. I also discuss these women's non-married status as resistance to the gender inequalities in the current employment structure and marital relationships, which, I argue, possibly translate into the patterns of rising non-marriage in Japan. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using life-history interviews, this article examines Asian American men's cross-racial "homosocial competition" with white masculinities in the context of intimate relationships with white women. It maps the operation of white masculinities in Asian American men's views of themselves, analyzing Asian American men's subjective experiences of (1) rivalry, (2) desire for normativity, (3) powerlessness, and (4) deficiency. It also addresses how white women's participation in Asian American men's masculinity formation contributes to both challenges and reiterations of hegemonic ideologies of race and gender. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on a paper examining three Asian American men's construction of manhood, particularly, their relationship with white women. In all three cases, the themes frequently emerge, include a sense of unattainable white manhood, a sense of racial alienation and resistance to the desexualized images of Asian American men. Another pattern emerging in all three cases concerns white women as they desire and give recognition to Asian American men. Another one pattern is that two Asian American men in these stories, positively view white manhood and whiteness as cultural alternatives and useful resources for their self-making.

In this paper, by looking at the public receptions and the popular cultures? portrayal of interracial marriage between Asian Americans and white Americans, I argue various public anxieties behind the popular discourse of celebratory and liberal view of interracial marriage. First, I examine current social discourses of interracial marriage and problematize its? evasion of gender and racial inequalities. Furthermore, based on my 42 interviews with Asian Americans and white Americans who are in interracial relationships, I argue the significance of addressing racialized anxieties and fears in interracial relationships as a result of history of racial and national violence. Second, by looking at public and family receptions of Asian American ?white American intermarried couples, I examine why the Asian American men and white women (compare to the couple of Asian American women and white men) I interviewed were exposed to more negative public and familial sanctions from whites. I discuss how the narrative of citizenship and the global capitalism in which white men possess full authority has formed particular gender-skewed public perceptions of interracial marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although stereotypical portrayal of Asian women has been often discussed theoretically, empirical study has not fully explored the complexity of gender and racial inequality in Asian women?s intimate relationships with white men. This article examines Asian women?s desire and their strategic engagement in their sexual relationships with white men. By applying theoretical framework of masculinity and femininity to the analysis of in-depth interviews with Asian women and white men, I discuss how Asian women identify with, resist, and appropriate white men?s masculinities within their relationships. Asian women?s choice of interracial intimacy and exercise of sexual agency reveal Asian women?s marginal positions regulated by ethnic patriarchy, mainstream negative stereotypes, and global inequality. Empirical findings were presented through Asian women?s engagement in four types of white masculinities: masculinity as a middle class American; masculinity as material security; masculinity as physical strength; masculinity as male gaze. After discussing varying patterns of masculinity and femininity in the four narratives, I further elaborate the meaning of global and local prerogatives of white American men over Asian women within the context of colonialism, neo-colonialism, and patriarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]