KAWAKAMI'S 'MS ICE SANDWICH': BELATED DECEMBER 2023 BOOKWORM

Bookworm | Education

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2024

December was actually a VERY slow reading month for me (much to my disappointment, as I failed to reach my GoodReads 2023 book challenge), however I did manage to fit in a short story by Mieko Kawakami.

Ms Ice Sandwich by MIEKO KAWAKAMI

I always love Mieko Kawakami's style of writing, because it feels so intimate, as though you are intruding into someone else's thoughts and mind. This gives her stories a unique feel, and engrosses the reader, as they feel party to a very secret and personal story of someone's mundane life. This is another key element of her writing style - the documenting of life's mundane-ness. Interestingly, this is a key factor for my love of her works. They capture everyday lives and feelings and thoughts in such a way that they make me reflect on my own life. Not only does it transpire that I start to focus on the beauty of the mundane, but I pay more attention to the "boring" parts of life. Kawakami essentially puts a spotlight on the parts of our lives that we so often overlook.

Additionally, Kawakami tends to focus on a child narrator, with the main characters of many of her stories still being in school. Ms Ice Sandwich is no different, and this gives Kawakami an interesting vantage point, when it comes to discussing current issues in society. And this brings us to the key element of Kawakami's stories - the wider message for society.

Ms Ice Sandwich makes comment on the system of beauty within society, as the young boy in the story finds himself entranced with a women working in a local supermarket. This women appears to be the victim of a poorly conducted plastic surgery, which has left her features striking to the society she lives within. However, the naivety of the young boy narrating the story has him perceiving her as fascinating, and he does not understand when others speak of her as being unattractive. In many ways, this young narrator represents an un-tarnished view of the world, which is not swayed by pre-determined ideals of beauty or goodness, and instead views everyone as equal, even if they have many differences.

An early example of this naivety is apparent, through the young boy's fascination with Ms Ice Sandwich's "big eyes" and "electric blue" eyeshadow, which leads his mother to promptly tell him that it is rude to speak of other people's appearances. Whilst his mother is showing a refreshing and mature awareness of the cruelness of gossiping about others, her concern that the cashier may hear her son's remarks, shows that, even subconsciously, she thinks it would be a bad thing for the woman to hear him talking about her eyes. This automatic assumption that her son's fascination was because there was something unusual or wrong about this woman's appearance, subtly highlights, early in the book, the beauty standard that very much runs through the heart of the story.

Ms Ice Sandwich not only makes comment on the judgements made by our society, deeming this woman as unattractive, but also makes comment on the pressure of this beauty standard. 'Ms Ice Sandwich' herself has never been able to escape the beauty standard, and Kawakami highlights how people rarely 'win' against the beauty standards in our society. There will always be something that you can change and improve, in the eyes of society.

Initially, this woman is described as falling victim to a "failed plastic surgery", implying that she wanted to try and change her facial features to fit the beauty standard, and did not end up with her desired results. Kawakami's world highlights this toxic culture of societal pressures throughout her books, with the same beauty standard being focused on in both Ms Ice Sandwich and Breasts and Eggs. Additionally, we can see that even after undergoing surgery, the illusive Ms Ice Sandwich still falls victim to the beauty standard, however this time she is a much more direct target. She receives abuse from a store customer, as well as being the subject of cruel rumours among the town, frequently referring to her as a "monster".

There is also a part of me that left the story with a sadness for the young generation's views towards the cashier. During school time, our anonymous child narrator overheard a conversation between girls his age, with them cruelly mocking Ms Ice Sandwich's appearance. However, this is a key indicator of the far-reaching impact of the beauty standard. Not only is it striking that young boys in this school appear to be left untouched by the beauty standard, whilst young girls are already so neck-deep in it, but these girls are specifically talking about how being unattractive will affect someone's life and chances of success. This highlights the perpetuated belief, particularly among women, that beauty is a key indicator for success and happiness.

Two key quotes from this page of the book stuck out to me, namely being "there's no way she's ever going to get married [looking as she does]" and "'What would you do? ... I'd die of course.'" These girls view unattractiveness in the eyes of the beauty standard, as a state of doom. Without beauty in the eyes of society, they will not get married or have success, leaving them to a life of solitary sadness, believing at their young age that they would not be able to live like that. All of this over something as trivial as someone's appearance. The ultimate sadness from this book, for me, is therefore this cycle of destruction that we have been put on, believing that without beauty, life is not worth living. These girls have their whole lives ahead of them, and whilst this likely was high-school gossip and dramatics, the sad reality is that this mindset characters both Kawakami's world, and ours.

The end of the story (spoilers!) sees Ms Ice Sandwich moving away to get married, and I take this as a positive message, particularly to those young girls. Her marriage flies in the face of the lonely existence that these girls thought someone who does not fit the impossible beauty standard will live. And the prospect of ultimate joy and acceptance is both exciting to the reader, and should come as a hopeful possibility for us all.

However, this leads me to my main takeaway from the story. How do we fall into these damaging beauty standards, and are we any better than the society that damned the cashier?

This woman was isolated purely for the way she looked, and in this story we see this as a horrible and cruel act from others. However, we are often falling for the same crooked beauty standards as the society in Kawakami's story. Whether we are judging others or ourselves, we perpetuate the beauty standard continually, giving it power over us.

Women (and men) in the media are constantly torn apart for their appearance, and for how they fail to fit our standard of beauty. However, the most striking aspect to me, is how many of us, including myself, can play the part of both the society in Kawakami's story, as well as Ms Ice Sandwich. When we look in the mirror and pick our bodies and appearance apart, we are being both the society that Kawakami describes in her story, but also making ourselves Ms Ice Sandwich. We are actively giving the beauty standard power, whilst pulling ourselves apart in the process.

In many ways, we are victims of the beauty standard perpetuated in our society, however, the beauty standard only has power because of us. When it comes to the unnamed young narrator of the story, the beauty standard does not have power yet, and so it presents us all as clean-slates in that aspect, only warped by the pressures of beauty as we get older. This could be through the media, idle gossip, those around us, and likely a combination of all of the above. As shown through the book, these beauty standards do not stop at a theoretical impact, but manifest as cruel abuse and the fear of not conforming to these standards. However, Kawakami also presents a message of potential, that we have the power to reject these toxic standards, at least somewhat, to stop the damage that they cause.

~ As always, I would love your book suggestions, so please leave any below!