some things that annoy me about japanese society as portrayed in BL novels

I just skimmed a book in which a theme that's lately been bugging me popped up again. In this book, a guy is denied a job as a pilot despite his qualifications because his father was a pilot who had caused a horrific accident killing half the people on the plane. So there's a pilot error gene that can be inherited or what? What is up with this idea that respectable Japanese companies won't hire people solely because of something their parents did (or didn't do)? Just last week there was a book about a guy whose father accidentally killed a man while drunk, who had worked to get the equivalent of a high school diploma and a college degree and was really smart, who finds that no company will hire him. The most annoying one was where the guy had no father listed on his family register who would have never gotten his job at a most respectable company unless he had his well-connected step-father's help. It's not like these people came from criminal families or anything, and yet they were rejected by respectable society because their background was soiled (and yet if they know the right people they can still be allowed access).

I was very happy to note that one particular series I like had many likable, interesting, strong-minded females. But then it hit me that they were either OLs, hostesses, or housewives. Though they were independent-minded, none of them were independent. Hostesses and housewives in particular are dependent on their patrons and husbands, respectively. They have their position and their stability solely through the men in their lives, even the wife of a rich and powerful company president. Though she is the one who wears the pants in the household, to the outside world she presents an image of the obedient and genteel company president's wife. The OLs are the only women who work in the traditional company, who only ever have support positions even if they are more capable than the men they support. Above all, what got to me is the attitude that everyone knew their place. There wasn't anything else for all these women besides supporting men and eventually becoming dependent on them (at least financially).

The insane obsession with brands as not only status symbols but symbols of culture, refinement, class really gets old. I hate the loving descriptions of the material possessions of the beautiful people--their expensive and flashy foreign cars (why it is always foreign cars??), even details such as watch brands and colognes. My eyes glaze over when I come across such passages detailing such minutia over and over. I get annoyed when the Cinderella transformation from ugly duckling into ravishing beauty is inevitably performed through a gold card at some high-end boutique, as if properly chosen yet inexpensive clothing can't do the same thing.

I could write some more, but I already feel better now (rants are so cathartic) and I'm tired of typing while lying on my stomach with my upper body propped up with my elbows (my back is killing me!) so I think I'll stop. :P