Introduction to Gendered Soft Power

As a collective, we are researching within a Western framework, the research we are conducting is informed by our ideologies and experiences being socialized in the US. The work we reference informing our projects was conducted in English from a multitude of sources. After thinking about all our essays in relation to each other, we’ve come to realize that they all connect to gendered soft power. All our keyword’s center around interactions between the West and Asia through the commodification of culture. A running theme is the way that the West and Japan (as imperial entities), primarily in our discussion–America, co-opt Asian culture such as the commodification of Buddhism, kawaii, “traditional” Chinese healing, and Pacific Islander practices. Consequently, this commodification has led to the feminization of the consumers and practices of the aforementioned. By reading our texts in conversation with each other, we’ve come to collectively explore the ways the imperial powers have commodified and co-opted colonized practices, and we make visible how this mask and furthers transnational political agendas.