Here are a bunch of random thoughts I wrote as I was reading.
The beginning of chapter 2 is giving me [コンビニ人間 reference] Shiraha vibes. Except it’s more ‘David Attenborough’ than ‘Jomon era’. [This week’s reading] At first I thought ‘huh, I guess this book is set in a dystopian society huh?’, then I realised this was just a typically Murataesque way of describing our ‘ordinary’ society 
It is cynical, yes, but to someone who has been repeatedly told she is ‘useless’ and ‘a burden’, I guess it makes sense to look at the world from the position of ‘how to be a useful member of society’.
Another [コンビニ人間] parallel is the fact that society is so merciless to atypical people. Just like Keiko was mocked behind her back, so too Miss Shinozuka is rejected by the people around her. In Murata’s works, no one is allowed to be different with impunity.
[Other Murata works in general] Again, we see a teacher being a sexual predators. Predatory teachers are such a recurring theme in Murata’s works, I wonder if it’s autobiographical…? I thought the sanitary napkin scene was the most fucked up instance yet 
This bit made me feel sad reading it:
家の中にゴミ箱があると便利だ。私はたぶん、この家のゴミ箱なのだと思う。父も母も姉も、嫌な気持ちが膨らむと私に向かってそれを捨てる。
And later on, the resignation with which she says ゴミ箱の時間だ。It is sad to see that she has had to learn coping mechanisms at such a young age.
Something I thought was really significant is that we saw the neighbour’s reaction to the mother’s criticisms of her daughter. The fact that she responded in a taken aback manner is like a prism for our own reaction, I think. If, while reading it, we had any doubt that the criticism was excessive, the neighbour’s reaction confirms that “we’re not the only ones who think that.” In chapter 1 it was a slow crescendo of red flags where it may not have been instantly apparent whether this was abuse or ‘mum on a bad day’. Now we know.
I see that @omk3 has been thinking along the same lines and raises an interesting point. From the first week, I have had a strong reaction whenever I read about the mother, because I felt like it was very transgressive behaviour. But your remark about in-group-deprecation in Asian cultures makes me realise that response was partially informed by my own Western biases. It happened to be a correct hunch with hindsight, but a biased one nonetheless!
Overall, I have been getting more and more [Matilda] vibes from this. The hostile parent, the golden child sibling, the ‘magical powers’, the idea that you don’t fit in with your family… even the supportive teacher!
Grammatically, I found this interesting: 自分でご飯を自分に買ってあげられるようになったら. The fact that when you give something to yourself, apparently あげる is used. Or is that because it is partially from Shinozuka’s perspective? 
I am not sure she even has any desire to report him at this point. It seems like she isn’t convinced anything is actually wrong: すこしだけおかしいことは、言葉にするのが難しい。She knows that it feels off, but can’t quite ‘prove’ it. Later on she says ‘why would such a handsome guy have any interest in me anyway? I must be imagining things’. In her mind, there is too much plausible deniability from his side for her to even be able to believe he’s crossing boundaries, let alone for her to feel like she would be able to make that case to a third party.
But you raise interesting questions; if she did reach the point where she was sure she was being wronged, would she have any recourse? Personally, I think she’d have a difficult time with it. In the West, victims of sexual abuse have a notoriously uphill struggle with getting justice, especially if there is no direct evidence but just their word against the abuser’s, and if the abuser is in a position of authority (and thus, credibility). I don’t imagine the situation is much better in Japan.
@omk3 Thanks for your sleuthing with regards to the toilet bins! I did wonder about the logistics of sanitary napkin disposal in Japan 
So the whole point of it is believing that it is there.
Thanks for the clarification!
(Is that my favourite word this week?) I think that that right there is one reason why the mother acts like that (Natsuki is simply the next one in the pecking order), although I’m also expecting that we’ll learn more about クラッシュボンバー’s past later. And I think there is also a bit of the old pick-on-the-second-child thrown in.
).
)