Norwegian Wood and the Predatory Lesbian Stereotype

While reading Norwegian Wood, I was extremely shocked and turned off by Murakami's depiction of Reiko and her former piano student. In the past Murakami works I have read, I always felt he had a rather sympathetic depiction of LGBTQ characters (though no doubt without flaws), Oshima from Kafka on the Shore being the first person to come to mind. I had heard and considered the critiques of misogyny about his works and although I understood where many of these complaints came from, the novels and short stories I'd read didn't contain particularly egregious examples of sexism and often I could brush it off as simply being part of the character's personality or some theme or medium through which the story had a purposeful reason for including it.

That being said, the extremely pernicious predatory lesbian stereotype depicted in Norwegian Wood made me truly reconsider my stance on many of these issues. Lesbians in media are regularly shown to exploit, intimidate, or be otherwise aggressive towards their "love interests" and this stereotype has real impacts on the community. It is far from uncommon to hear lesbians echo concerns of "coming on too strong" and doubting themselves long after consent is given for whatever pursuit they're seeking. The example of Reiko and her student is especially appalling, given that the story flips the blame entirely onto the child in the situation. Not only does Murakami portray this lesbian relationship as pedophilic, but also places the predatory nature within the minor. It's interesting that many of the critiques about Murakami's depiction of women are related to the male protagonist's oversexualization of nearly every female character. It's hard to not consider that perhaps his portrayal of lesbians is so damaging because the male protagonist cannot reasonably sexualize them or have any feasible sort of physical connection with them.

As far as I can tell, this entire chapter dedicated to Reiko's story had little to no impact or guidance in the rest of the novel's plot and left more than a sour taste in my mouth.

- May