Are you a slouching dog or a losing dog?

In 2006, the book Makeinu no toboe “Howl of an Abandoned Dog” became a bestseller in Japan.

The author, Junko Sakai, called single women over 30 “abandoned dogs” (負け犬, makeinu). But if you think this is an insult, then no — she herself belonged to this category and, on the contrary, finally found a “normal” definition for people like her.

Sakai described successful but unmarried women without children who have difficulty finding a life partner because they are too educated and generally smart. This scares off men who prefer to marry women with a lower level of education.

Makeinu became a female self-definition, which included a share of self-criticism, but also self-acceptance. Before that, society used (and still uses) terms invented by men and older generations. Choose what you like best:

O-tsubone-sama (お局様 / おつぼねさま) — used in the Edo period and later to denote an older unmarried woman at court or in a samurai’s house. Later it began to denote influential senior female employees in offices without a personal life (such an image of a stern woman from the accounting department or an elderly secretary who builds everyone).

Yomekazu goke (嫁かず後家 / よめかずごけ) — literally “unmarried widow”, meant a woman who never married.

Ikazu goke (行かず後家/いかずごけ) — a synonymous term for old maids, also hinted at a woman who “missed” marriage.

Orudo misu (オールドミス, “Old Miss”) — borrowed from English and used in the 20th century to refer to unmarried women over 30.

Dried fish woman (干物女/ひものおんな) — mostly seen in manga and doramas. Denotes a woman who does not take care of herself, leads a lazy lifestyle and does not try to get married (eats straight from the pot and kills her attractiveness in other ways).

Of course, there are more neutral terms for “bachelors” and “bachelorses”, but emotionally charged definitions are still in service.

Junko Sakai’s work itself was listed by the Worthsharing portal as a book recommended for translation into other languages. So far, it has only been translated into Chinese. Maybe someone will take on this task…