Progress

Pushy, demanding middle-aged women like this stereotypical character above used to be referred to by the derogatory term obatallion. That term is rarely heard these days and has been superseded by the far more positive term arafo (meaning around forty) to describe active women from 35-44. Kimiko Date was referred to as arafo when she made her comeback in tennis while in her late thirties.

Perhaps the Japanese language is becoming less discriminatory towards women.

Addendum: it has been pointed out to me that obatallion and arafo are not really the same thing as obatallion refers to women in their sixties and arafo, of course, are much younger. My comments above do not really stand, except that the term obatallion is not much heard these days.

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