is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

term meaning "

delinquent Delinquent or delinquents may refer to: * A person who commits a felony * A juvenile delinquent, often shortened as delinquent is a young person (under 18) who fails to do that which is required by law; see juvenile delinquency * A person who fai ...

girl", and the female equivalent to the male in Japanese culture. The usage of the word refers to either the leader of a girl gang or the entire gang itself, and is not used to refer to any one member of a girl gang.Yonekawa, Akihiko. ''Beyond Polite Japanese: A Dictionary of Japanese Slang and Colloquialisms'', 2001, pages 26–27. . The word was originally used by delinquents, but has been used by the general population to describe the

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

since 1972. were formed as a direct result of male gangs' refusal to accept female members, consequently the term has come to refer to the massive movement that brought feminism to public attention at a time when men of the ya‌ku‌za were thriving. reportedly first appeared in Japan during the 1960s, presenting themselves as the female equivalent to the gangs, which were composed mostly of men. During the 1970s, as gangs began to die out, girl gangs began to rise in number. Gangs were initially small groups of girls sneaking cigarettes in school bathrooms, but eventually grew in numbers, as did their level of criminality. These gangs were commonly associated by violence and shop-lifting. Gangs ranged in size from Tokyo's United Shoplifters group, comprising roughly 80 girls, to the Kanto Women Delinquent Alliance, rumored to have had around 20,000 members. Criminal activities and violence of the girl gangs in Japan reached such a high that sketches used to identify them in Japanese police pamphlets in the 1980s described aspects of their fashion as "omens of downfall".

Characteristics

Appearance and other signifiers

The common signifiers of include brightly dyed or permed hair, in colours of either

blond Blond (male) or blonde (female), also referred to as fair hair, is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color can ...

e or light brown, Members of also modify their

school uniform A school uniform is a uniform worn by students primarily for a school or otherwise an educational institution.They are common in primary and secondary schools in various countries. An example of a uniform would be requiring button-down shir ...

by wearing coloured socks, rolling up their sleeves and lengthening their skirt, which are sometimes decorated with gang-affiliated symbols,

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

and/or slogans. The long skirts were a rejection of the popularity of the

miniskirt A miniskirt (sometimes hyphenated as mini-skirt, separated as mini skirt, or sometimes shortened to simply mini) is a skirt with its hemline well above the knees, generally at mid-thigh level, normally no longer than below the buttocks; and a ...

, which had become popular in the 1960s during the sexual revolution. Though their skirts were long, often cut their shirts to expose their midriffs. Converse sneakers were also another addition, and their clothes often had handmade modifications, including badges and buttons. They wore very little make-up and sported thin eyebrows. Adding to these features, usually wore surgical masks, and often carried with them razor blades, bamboo swords and chains, which could be concealed under their skirts.

Codes of Conduct and similar attitudes

girls followed strict rules and codes of conduct within their gangs. Each gang possessed a hierarchy as well as their own means of punishment; cigarette burns were considered a minor punishment for stealing a boyfriend or disrespecting a senior member. were reported to engage in activities such as stimulant use, shoplifting, theft, and violence, but if arrested, could be charged with the lesser offence of "pre-delinquency". Stimulants use often included sniffing paint thinner or glue.

Media and cultural influence

In the 1970s and 1980s, became popular characters in manga. characters could also be seen in manga publications. , '' Tales of Yajikita College'' and were three popular series that had a mostly cast.

Pink film in its broadest sense includes almost any Japanese theatrical film that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content. This encompasses everything from dramas to action thrillers and exploitation film features. The Western equiv ...

director

Norifumi Suzuki , was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He is best known for the ''Torakku Yarō'' series. Biography Suzuki was born in 1933 in Shizuoka, Shizuoka, Shizuoka. He dropped out of Ritsumeikan University's Department of Economics, and subse ...

made the first films in the seven-film ''Girl Boss'' () series. He also started the four-film ''

Terrifying Girls' High School is a 4-film series of ''Pinky violence'' '' pink films'' made by Toei during 1972 and 1973. Reiko Ike was the star of all four films, and Miki Sugimoto co-starred in the first two. The films # (29 September 1972) Director: Norifumi Suzuki) ...

'' series (1971–1972) featuring characters. Both series featured prominent ''Pinky violent'' actresses

Reiko Ike is a Japanese actress, singer, and entertainer. She is best known for her roles in the genre of action/erotic movies known as ''pink films''. Ike also released an album of songs in 1971, ''Kōkotsu No Sekai''. After a drug-related arrest, and an ...

and

Miki Sugimoto is a Japanese people, Japanese actress best known for her roles in the ''sukeban'' (delinquent girl) subgenre of Toei Company, Toei's action/erotic form of "pink film" known as ''Pinky Violence' '. Life and career Sugimoto began her career as a ...

, as well as former beauty queen Reiko Oshida. On December 6, 2005, Panik House company released a four-disc region-1

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

collection surveying films entitled ''The Pinky Violence Collection''. These films challenged traditional constructions of gender and female sexuality in postwar Japan. Japanese crime writer Jake Adelstein said with regards to :

What is unusual is that in the yakuza, women have no authority and there are almost no female members. That the female gangs even existed is an oddity in Japan's generally sexist male-dominated deviant culture... the world was about feminism and liberation, and perhaps they felt like women have the right to be just as stupid, promiscuous, risk-seeking, adrenaline junkies and violent as their male counterparts.

References

Bibliography