Ms. Horikoshi divorced her husband who had asked her to be stay-at-home mom; she wanted to pursue her career. "I don't want a family, I want to continue to work hard. I don't need help, I don't need a husband. I can do everything by myself," she says. "But sometimes I feel lonely, and now when I come back to my apartment, I can see two dogs." Dogs, not kids, okay?

Of course, there are downsides to the pet craze: The Japanese love everything tiny and kawaii (cute), so there are puppies born with horrible deformities due to overbreeding. Also, there are some all night pet stores in Tokyo's sleazy Roppongi district that are used for schemes: a "hostess" will ask a drunk businessdude to buy her a little dog; the next day, she will bring the dog back to the shop in exchange for cash. The shop keeps a cut.

But back to the cute: Since people are integrating pets fully into their lives, the market responds. Kimonos, yukatas, cookies, omu-rice dishes… for dogs. Pricey stuff, and pet owners are snapping it yup.

Let's be honest. A dog doesn't talk back. A cat never grows up to get hooked on heroin and resent you. A dog doesn't need college tuition or bat mitzvah money. I suspect that some people might see Toshiko Horikoshi pushing her puppies in a pram and snicker and think she's insane. Think she wishes she had babies. But she's a doctor who knows what she's doing. She doesn't want kids. She wants dogs. And that's okay. We're living in an overcrowded world where women are finally allowed to make choices. And if your choice is to baby a puppy or kitten instead of a human, who cares? There's a stigma of "crazy cat ladies" — maybe dating waaaay back to when women who were "too close" to animals were thought to be "communicating" with "familiars" in the animal world and therefore deemed witches?

Unlike spoiling a child — where the rest of the world has to deal with the bratty maladjusted results, isn't lavishing attention, affection, and yeah, cash on a dog or cat a victimless crime? So why do people feel the need to make pet-crazy women feel guilty?

(Related: I want that freaking pomeranian pictured up top. Kawaii!)

Preposterously Pampered Pooches [Tokyo Times]
In Dog We Trust [ABC News]

[Image via AP.]

A polar bear reacts after being presented an ice block planted with apples at a zoo in Osaka, western Japan. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

• Heidi Krieger is a former East German athlete who was fed steroids without her knowledge which, she claims, forced her to have a sex-change operation to become a man. • Meanwhile, a new study suggests that estrogen patches may help men suffering from prostate cancer. • One Iranian blogger writes that having a female flag-bearer for the Iranian team at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies was a "defeating and decisive answer" to those who speak out against Iran's treatment of women and a "historical failure" for Zionist and American lobbies. • Many impoverished Vietnamese women in Tan Loc are selling themselves off as brides to wealthy(-ish) foreigners to help out their families back home. • There has been an increase of women being arrested and reprimanded by the police for committing violent acts and joining violent all-girl gangs in the UK. • A new study suggests that urban-living minority teen girls do not have a great deal of knowledge about the morning-after pill and think the users should feel embarrassed. • Being a stay-at-home mother can be incredibly stressful as the economy goes down the dumps. • A new study shows that most women stop breast-feeding after six months and those who continued to breast-feed past six months had greater education and income levels. • Jujhar Bus Service in India has recently appointed female bus conductors, a first in the Punjab region.

[Image via Shopping Times.]

• Poor Posh. After the embarrassingly poor sales of her denim line and ensuing abandonment by retailers, we hear that her men's dVb line has been pushed back "until next year" by L.A. boutique Kitson. Plucky Posh is undaunted, having spoken of her desire to launch a couture line and show at New York's fashion week. dVb denies the line is floundering, claiming that "it is currently being manufactured but is likely to reach stores later than anticipated." [This Is London]
• A man has confessed to the murder of Canadian model Diana O'Brien, whose body was found last week in Shanghai, where the 20-year-old was on a 3-month modeling contract. 18-year-old Chen Jun was arrested Friday morning in Anhui province; he apparently killed the model during an armed robbery of her apartment. [CNN]
• Gwyneth Paltrow is really slacking in her obligations to Estee Lauder's new "Sensous" perfume, refusing to show for any of the hundred ridiculous promos the company's set up (opening the stock market, anyone?) and leaving the burden on the slender shoulders of co-pitchwomen Hilary Rhoda, Carolyn Murphy, and Elizabeth Hurley. Recriminations all around. [New York Magazine]

• Seems the Nuclear Wintour has thawed for Obama: the fashionista was on the newly-published list of "major donors" to the Dem's campaign, indicating that she's raised fifty grand or more. [Neew York Times]
• Wait, fashion, and bloggers...petty? Hard to believe, but it would seem that style sites Fashion Indie and Coutorture are engaged in the most ridiculous war of words (and pictures) ever. Says The Pipeline, "in our years of reading and writing for fashion blogs, this is as mad a skirmish as we've ever seen." [Pipeline]
• The CEO of Overstock.com, that online retailer with all the insinuating "Big O" commercials, has decided not to sell fur through his sites. “You don’t have to think about it very much before you realize … you’re completely objectifying an animal when you say I’m going to wear it as a decorative object. That’s over the line for anyone who gives it any thought, I would think,' said Patrick Byrne, who's made waves in the past for his "battles against hedge funds." [Reuters]
• Are low necklines responsible for Marks and Spencer's market slump? Some suggest that the chain's base of older folks has been alienated by attempts to appeal to a more youthful demographic. "The clothes are not suitable for our age group,' says one older lady. "The dresses are too low on top and they don't have sleeves. They just show too much cleavage and at our age we can't wear that sort of style."' [Independent]
• Charity "Clothes Off Our Backs" latest fundraiser is selling off Rodo shoes. The twist/catch? Celebs like Kate Beckinsale, Cate Blanchett, Sheryl Crow, Kirsten Dunst, Zooey Deschanel and America Ferrera have each decorated a pair "as they chose." Apparently not everyone finds these words ominous: Pink's pair has already racked up $400 in bids; the heels Kristin Davis decorated have scored a more modest $170. [EOnline]
• Next up for Target GO!: Purses by Monica Botkier, coming up next week, and a jewelry line by Dean Harris on 8/17. We've not had great luck with the designer accessories lines in the past, but hope springs eternal in the breast of Recessionistas. [The Budget Fashionista]
• "Black is best when you're in court/The judge will be impressed!" That's Singin' In The Rain. This isThe Daily News on Christie Brinkley's courtroom choices :"The media-savvy former model - who's tried hard on the stand to argue she has been a perfect wife and mother - has picked crisp button-down shirts smoothed into sharp pencil skirts for her divorce trial against estranged husband Cook. Call it the Serious Woman's Uniform - and a smart wardrobe choice when you're up for a fight. "It's not threatening, that's the bottom line," says fashion commentator Mary Alice Stephenson. "The pencil skirt is a piece of clothing that all women respond to."" [Daily News]
• New York consumer confidence at all-time low. [Crain's]
• Super-scrawny menswear designer Hedi Slimane will be the cover model for the debut of Vogue Homme Japan. Said Kazuhiro Saito, editor in chief of Vogue Nippon and the new men's spin-off of Slimane's aesthetic, '"There were those very skinny, boyish male models. That works for Japanese guys."' [WWD]
• The public asks Tim Gunn ten really asinine questions like, "What movie or TV cast has had the biggest impact on fashion?" He makes it work. [Time]

Although films featuring women in their teens and 20s are the mainstay of the industry, a trend toward "mature women" has become evident over the past five years. Currently, about 300 of the 1,000 adult videos on offer at Tsutaya, and 400 out of the 2,000 at DMM, are "mature women" films.

Sadly, this brave new artform has not translated into old people actually getting more sex, but, you know, it's Japan. Someone will make a viral sex tape and touch off a thousand imitations soon enough. And no I will not be watching them.

Japan's Booming Sex Niche: Elder Porn [TIME]

Here in the US, a 12-year-old Brooklyn girl tied a belt around her neck and hung herself in her closet last week. Maria Herrera's mother claims that kids at school would "harass her, curse at her, call her 'train tracks' because she had braces" and "cut her hair." At Maria Hererra's memorial, classmates left notes that read "I am sorry" and "We won't bother you." Maria's mother says she went to the school to complain about the bullying and nothing was done.

In the UK, teachers have been instructed to crack down on bullying, manipulation and vicious behavior. But here in New York state, anti-bullying legislation has been proposed, but not passed.

Bullying is not new, but suddenly, we're living in a world where everyone's a critic. Cutting other people down is commonplace, a sport — from TV shows like America's Next Top Model and American Idol to blogs, MySpace and Facebook. Vicious words have always been present in school settings, but when we're in a society that seems to thrive on schadenfreude, how can kids feel like anyone gives a damn?

Cyber Bullying Common In Japan School Web Sites: Study [Reuters]
Bullies Blamed For Pre-Teen's Suicide [Gothamist]

Earlier: The Meanest Girls At School Are Often The Most Popular
Girl-On-Girl Crime: Schools Step In
If You Can Handle A Really Depressing Teen Suicide Story Right Now...

But people being discriminated against because of their weight is not just specific to Japan. According to a new survey from Yale, 5% of men and twice as many women say they've faced weight discrimination, whether at the office or just generalized rude treatment. Reuters reports that "Women were particularly likely to perceive weight bias, with twice as many women as men reporting such discrimination."

It gets worse. Women who are only slightly overweight perceive comparable levels of discrimination as severely overweight men and are "particularly likely to perceive weight bias, with twice as many women as men reporting such discrimination." Says Yale researcher Dr. Rebecca M. Puhl, this is probably due to "the stringent and unrealistic ideals of thinness that are placed on women in North America."

Japan's Bulging Waistlines Trigger Flab Tests in Land of Sumo [Bloomberg, via Al Dente Blog via Andrew Sullivan]
Weight Discrimination Common, U.S. Survey Finds [Reuters]

As for the epic seductions Genji pulls off, Setouchi says: "Some silly people say they don't want their children to read it because of the content, but there's no actual sex in Genji. Even primary school students can read it." Naughty nun! And Setouchi admits she might have taken her vows (at the age of 50) too soon: "I'm glad I did it, but it was a little bit early," she says. "It was a bit of a waste. I had no idea I was going to live so long. I thought it would be 25 years at most."

The craziest part is that Setouchi, who's won many literary prizes and often travels for speaking engagements — writes in long hand. With a fountain pen! "I'd like to learn to use a computer, but I just don't have the time," she claims. But then, she's always lived an interesting life: In her mid-twenties, she left her husband and child after starting an affair with a younger man. Later she had an affair with a married man. "Usually people who do bad things make good writers," she said in a February lecture at a Kyoto hotel. "I did a lot of bad things, which is why my novels are interesting."

Japan's Romance-Writing Nun "Took Vows Too Young", Japan's "Perfect" Lover Celebrates 1000th Birthday [Reuters]

This little "Lolita" is terrifying, yet sweet. Blue contacts? Check. Orangey-yellow hair? Check. Childlike innocence? Sure.

This is the "gothic" look, obviously. The point is to resemble the doll — right down to the contact lenses!

Here are some contact lens options. The bat design seems perfect for making your parents sigh, "I just don't understand."

The kids hit the street dressed to kill play.

Don't you applaud their ability to commit? Aren't you amazed by the time and effort they put in to getting dressed? I feel really really lazy in comparison. I am wearing elastic-waist track pants.

What, what??????

Imagine a conversation that goes like this: "Honey, I bought you some pants with a ruffled loin cloth attached." "Aw, sweetie, you're the best."

LOL at his pant cuffs.

At least he has the decency to look embarrassed about those shoes.

I could maybe get behind the dresses, and possibly consider the tights, but honestly? They lost me at the bonnets.

Related: Gothic Lolita ]]> Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:40:00 EDT Dodai http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=367519&view=rss&microfeed=true

• Agyness Deyn's mom Lorraine Collins is as amazed as we are that someone as FAT as Agyness could ever make it in fashion: "She has wonderful curves and a bit of meat on her. When she's home, she eats everything." [Mirror]
  
• Poor chivalrous BF-of-Marc-Jacobs Jason Preston! When he tried to stand up for a girl who got a drink thrown at her at a club, Preston got something worse thrown at him: a punch in the face. $10 says Marc incorporates a black eye makeup look into the Spring 2009 collection. [Page Six]
  
• Richard Chai is the latest designer to do a Target collection! [Who is Richard Chai? I asked Jennie. He's "very respected." And Asian. Okay. -Moe] [Nylon]
  
• But even more exciting: Alice McCall is designing for Topshop. [Who is...meh, forget it. I'm not the one reading the fashion news roundup.] [Sassybella]
  
• While we buy that Barack would smell like bergamot and musk, no way in hell is Hillary Clinton a "delicate floral." [BellaSugar]

• L'Oreal is honoring women for scientific achievements. No really! And not even, like, achievements related to wrinkle "therapy", but real achievements like discovering a new class of RNA molecules, although we're sure there is an anti-aging angle in there somewhere. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Louis Vuitton and Murakami are once again collaborating with a new print, "monoflage," which will make its debut when the Murakami retrospective opens at the Brooklyn Museum of Art on April 3rd. Because what the world really needs is another Vuitton-Murakami bag showing up everywhere. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Dries Van Noten's response when Diane von Furstenberg called him to tell him he would be receiving this year's CFDA International Award? "I don't know what to say! We're in a bad storm in Antwerp and I don't know whether or not we're going to have a house!'" Oy. [Chic Report]
• DKNY Jeans has recruited comic book artist Paul Pope to collaborate with the brand on a new line. Which should be really exciting for skater geeks who worship Tim Gunn? [Nylon]
• For the first time since Stella McCartney and Adidas joined forces together, they are not introducing a new fitness category for the collaborative brand for the Spring 2008 season. We guess that once you've differentiated "running" from "trail running" there really aren't any sports left. [WWD, 1st item]
• After 2010, New York Fashion Week is out of Bryant Park and moves over to...the 10th Avenue Rail Yards? Delightful! [Gatecrasher]
• Japan Fashion Week was, well, big in Japan. [Reuters]
• Will Coach buy Burberry? And if so, can Coach get a firm grasp on the devastatingly complex details of selling logo-ed accessories at accessibly outrageous prices? We bet they can! [Independent]
• Meanwhile, Coach is going to replace its own president with the COO of Victoria's Secret. Um, there's a track record we wouldn't be so quick to acquire, but okay. [WSJ]
• Anna Sui president Michael Pellegrino has announced his retirement. With a 65th birthday coming up, he wants to travel and volunteer with Meals on Wheels. And they say fashion has no heart. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Claudia Schiffer: The latest fashion star to judge London's Graduate Fashion Week. [Vogue UK]
• Coldwater Creek: In the throes of existential crisis. [MediaPost]
• American Eagle: Also not doing so well. [Reuters]

You could maybe buy some music. Thanks to Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis and Kate Nash, female artists are on the rise in the UK. And Entertainment Weekly has compiled a list of female singer-songwriters, including that chick who sings "I'm a new soul/I came to this strange world..." on the Mac Air commercial.

Or you could just educate yourself: The Independent claims that maternal ill-health is one of the globe's biggest crises. Women around the world still die during pregnancy or childbirth; one million pregnant women die every year from largely avoidable causes. We may have come a long way since 1908, but Martha Nussbaum, the author of Sex and Social Justice, warns the paper: "In most nations of the world, women face unequal education and employment opportunities, and have unequal political power. Whether another century of striving for equality will finally hand victory to women remains to be seen."

What Girls Day Means To Me And My Girls [Time]
Treasure Hunt: Women's Day Presents [Moscow Times]
The rise of British Girl Power [News.com.au]
Female Singer-Songwriters: The New Wave [Entertainment Weekly]
100 Years Of Struggling To Win Justice For Women [Independent]

[Japan, February 17. Images via Getty.]

Japanese Macaque monkeys relax in the hot spring at the Jigokudani (Hell's Valley) Monkey Park in Jigokudani, Nagano, Japan. This Macaque troop regularly visits the Jigokudani-Onsen springs to escape the cold, behaviour originating from a female Macaque which ventured into the hot springs to retrieve soybeans in 1963.

Retro Dirtiness: Asics Sells Running Shoes With Crotch Shots [TV In Japan]

Meanwhile, here in the U.S., a weak economy means fewer cosmetic surgeries. The number of Lasik vision corrections is down, reports the International Herald Tribune. "There's a strong correlation between consumer confidence and U.S. Lasik procedures," says Joanne Wuensch, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets. "People don't spend money on Lasik if they feel like things are really bad." And yet! No economy is bad for getting your tits done.

Millennium Research Group is forecasting a 5.5% increase in breast implant sales this year. Explains Aviva Shedletzky, a senior analyst with Millennium: "Our society is so focused on youth, and people really want to look good. So as long as there's at least some discretionary income, people will keep getting them."

Frankly, it seems long hair would be better in a bad economy — haircuts can be expensive! But are finances and cosmetics linked on a personal level? Do you scrimp on lip gloss when the chips are down? Or do you consider beautification a necessity, right up there with food and rent?

Stocks & Blondes... Japanese Women Style Their Hair to Suit the Times [InventorSpot]
Japanese Women Hairstyles Track Economy Ups And Downs [Reuters]
Cosmetic Procedures Decline As U.S. Economy Weakens [IHT]

Okinawa was held by the U.S. after WWII until 1972, when it was returned to Japanese rule, so an undercurrent of resentment likely existed even without American servicemen assaulting locals. But there are precedents with regards to violence against women: In 1995, a U.S. soldier was accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in a similar incident outside Camp Courtney, and, in 2002, a Marine named Michael Brown was accused of attempted rape, and eventually convicted of the slightly lesser charge of attempted indecent assault.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is visiting Japan next week, and this will certainly be a topic of conversation. The AP describes Camp Courtney as " a linchpin in U.S. military posture in Asia," but the larger question is why the U.S. has such an enormous presence in Asia to begin with. After the the Soviet Union collapsed in '91, the threat of military action from Japan and surrounding countries was basically quelled. Is our military presence in the rest of the world in place to prevent the "Axis of Evil" from working against us, or is it just part of a gross imperialist mission to control the world?

US Marines Warned Of Japan's Anger [AP]
All U.S. Military Personnel In Okinawa, Iwakuni Under Curfew [Breitbart]
737 U.S. Military Bases = Global Empire [Alternet]