Autoethnography: Investigating Godzilla (1954)

I’m coming into terms with the challenging nature yet importance of conducting a Autoethnographic study. Its difficult in the sense that since high school we’ve been taught to remove as much subjectivity as possible, to avoid bias and to always avoid using first person. Yet, text can never be free from the author’s views and contextual background.  Its important to consider how as researchers, we developed this  hypothesis, methodology, initial interest and whether there is any possible conflicting interests. There’s a whole other side that we emit and only through auto-ethnography can we generate this expansion of reflection and clarification.

Revisiting my initial thoughts on Godzilla(1954). I want to focus on two key self-observations: 1. Interest in its production 2. Annoyance at female character portrayal

I grew up at a time when special effects generated by computers were normal. Almost anything imaginable could/would be able to be rendered through digital drawings and image manipulation. I can’t even imagine a life without the use of personal computers and software. To create Godzilla and the efforts of its destruction without such use of technology is almost mind-blowing. After searching I found an article looking back at the production of the film. I could particularly relate to the following line made by Nakajima, Godzilla’s suit bearer:“They can create any monster…by using computers, but inevitably, it lacks the human touch, it lacks the emotion.” I particularly sympathized with Godzilla upon his death -at that moment he felt alive and real yet misunderstood. The article emphasises the absolute need for perfection – with one chance of shooting each scene, a remake would be too costly and time consuming. This is a massive contrast to content creation in the current age where editing is generally possible and it is even encouraged as well as utilising multiple takes/rewrites.

My dissatisfaction on female character portrayal is largely based on the current global issue of gender inequality as well as previous readings and conversations on Japans perceptions of women: from comfort women in World War 2 to current views of the expectations of wives and mothers-not only in Japan. As a child I had always been frustrated when class teachers would always ask the assistance of  “Strong young gentleman” to assist in anything that required any lifting. Gender stereotyping bothers me. It bothers me when woman and girls are displayed as the “weaker sex” because its a sad reality of many peoples attitudes of the past and present. I did follow up on researching women in 1950s Japan. Where the 1947 labour standards law enabled women to have the same capabilities of men at that time. Yet the attitudes of Japan seemed to be frozen in a more traditional time. According to Ronald dore’s surveys of Japanese women in the 1950s, femininity was represented through such terms as: “quiet, reserved, obedient, submissive, loyal, modest and gentle.Beginning in 1955, articles in Fujin kôron declared that onnarashisa, or femininity, was the goal of most women.

“Only now do we realize that what the established political party demands from women representatives is that they add a bit of color to their public relations. They do not expect women’s social and political growth, nor do they hope for women’s substantial participation in politics.” Miyamoto, 1998 in the Newsletter of the Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo – Japan in the 1950s

Source: Godzilla (1954)