“Can Respectable People Also Be Infected with Gonorrhea?”:

Abstract

This article explores female readers’ letters to a health advice column in the popular women’s magazine Shufu no tomo 主婦の友 (Housewife’s Companion) in the interwar period, with a focus on sexual health. While syphilis was regarded as the most dangerous sexually transmitted disease from a national standpoint, these letters suggest that gonorrhea, which was frequently transmitted by husbands to their wives, had a greater impact on women’s bodies, leading to gynecological diseases and infertility. Health consultant Yoshioka Yayoi 吉岡弥生 (1871–1959) played a role not only in assisting readers with their health concerns but also advising them on how to negotiate with their husbands’ infidelity. As a conservative female doctor, Yoshioka’s advice was instrumental in shaping her readers’ health awareness, but it was also ambiguous when it came to questioning men’s sexual morality. This article argues that although women during this period increasingly sought love in marriage and questioned the sexual double standard that neglected male chastity, the solutions offered in Shufu no tomo tended to reproduce, rather than challenge, existing social norms.