Forum - View topicINTEREST: Japanese High School Students Mix It Up for 'Sex Change Day'
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GATSU
Posts: 15310 |
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Man, this would never happen in an American classroom, even in the more LBGT-tolerant ones.
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Waraich
Posts: 38 |
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Good guy japanese school actually educating people.
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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With that pattern, the guys just look like they're wearing kilts.
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Ryujin99
 Posts: 186 |
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It'd be interesting if some school in the US would try this, but I don't see that happening any time soon, sadly.
Definitely an interesting experiment, though. Let's hope it's attempted in other places as well. |
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RestLessone
 Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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It's interesting, but I sort of wonder what affect it had. Did people treat it as a joke, easy to play along with because others were doing it? Are they any more accepting of people who cross dress? Guys at my school would wear feminine outfits during pep week or around Halloween, but not to make a statement about gender.
Well, if it impacted one person, I guess it was successful. Though the girls-wearing-boys'-uniforms don't seem too out of the ordinary. Women and girls wear similar outfits here, minus the school uniform aspect. Are skirts for girls and pants for boys compulsory in Japanese high schools? |
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mdo7
 Posts: 6258 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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I have no comment on this event.
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Pretty much-- Think the idea was more for Japanese schools, where the boys and girls usually grow up knowing absolutely nothing about each other, PERIOD. To them, separations of boys and girls pretty much is down to uniforms and social styles, and still not even within a half mile of all the "Oh, it's so tolerant!" that some wishful Westerners would have. |
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meruru
Posts: 471 |
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In Japan, the culture is very focused on roles. They even have a different idea of self identity. In the west, people see themselves as always fundamentally the same person, and acting otherwise is "fake." A Japanese person may see themselves as having many different aspects, and depending on the context of their current situation, act quite differently, and this is natural to them. So it is possible it may seem like they are more accepting of cross dressing in certain situations, as long as you fit into a role, and you only act the role in a temporary sort of way, and in a context that is viewed as "acceptable". If you try to go outside the pre-defined roles, or if you try to do it as a general lifestyle, or in an "unacceptable" context, and they're much less tolerant. Not all schools have uniforms in Japan, but I think generally those that do have skirts for girls and slacks for boys. |
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gloverrandal
Posts: 406 Location: Oita |
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[quote="RestLessone]It's interesting, but I sort of wonder what affect it had. Did people treat it as a joke, easy to play along with because others were doing it? Are they any more accepting of people who cross dress? Guys at my school would wear feminine outfits during pep week or around Halloween, but not to make a statement about gender. [/quote]
Crossdressing is far more "accepted" in Japanese mainstream than it is here in America. I will preface accepted in quotes due to I'm sure someone will challenge the statement due to their definition of the word, but by accepted I mean you see it a lot more in mainstream media without the controversy popping up surrounding it. Certain genres of music like visual kei have crossdressing heavily rooted in their style. Likewise for certain Japanese comedy routines, one famous example is the style Team Rocket from Pokemon is based upon, which is why they crossdress so much. In fact, crossdressing is extremely common in a lot of childrens media in Japan and is met with no outraged at their children being exposed to it. Here in America it tends to attracts the whole transgender aspect of it, which just adds more controversy to the issue where crossdressing a lot of the time is made into a gender issue, and very rarely can one simply crossdress casually as a hobby or interest, such as in crossplay. |
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DJStarstryker
 Posts: 140 |
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Mostly, yes. It's extremely rare to have no uniform for Japanese middle and high schools. Most do. Elementary schools are much more likely to have no uniform and the kids can wear whatever. The elementary school in my neighborhood of Japan has no uniforms. The middle and high schools do though. Most Japanese middle and high schools wear what you see in the article's picture nowadays - just the exact style and color scheme and skirt length varies on the school. Sailor style outfits for girls and gakuran for boys (think of Umino in Sailor Moon or the guys in Persona 4) still exists in some schools, but it's not as common as what the article shows. |
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RestLessone
Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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Thanks everyone for the responses!
So, this day was more about understanding the other side by changing (for a day) as a group. I sort of figured this would be the case. The subject of crossdressing brings up an interesting point, depending on the definition of "accepted." Is it that it's okay as long as you "revert"? We'll use crossdressing for humorous purposes (think Jack and Jill), but it's often intertwined with trans issues now. I'm guessing trans topics are not oft debated in Japan. Here, there's social pressure to conform, but slowly changing values emphasizing freedom to dress as you please. Makes for a hotbed of controversy. My mind automatically sprung to trans issues because of the culture difference, I guess. I've been wondering this for awhile, but are skirts usually preferred by women/girls in Japan? I don't wear them often and prefer jeans and dress pants. Is there more of a mix? It must be uncomfortable to like pants but have to wear a skirt as part of a uniform. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Yeah, there's really nothing about cross dressing as a joke that challenges gender roles. Quite the opposite. It's actually a way to reinforce them. On an individual level it is a way for guys to affirm their masculinity by implicitly saying "Hey, isn't the idea of me being feminine laughable? Because I'm clearly not!" Or worse, on a general level, it is a way of reducing the very idea of breaking gender roles to absurdity. "Isn't the idea of a MAN acting like a GIRL ridiculous?" That's essentially what treating it as a joke is saying. So yeah, I hope this event in execution was actually about genuinely dissolving gender roles and not just making fun of the idea. |
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Juno016
 Posts: 2387 |
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It IS okay as long as you revert, however, according to the Japanese article, it seems very likely that the school (unless it's just the article's interpretation of the school's actions) was also emphasizing the importance of critical thinking in regards to social norms. It's important to recognize that no one in Japan is really going to flip their lid over a crossdressing day, no matter the reason, but it's also good to recognize that this sort of day is still unusual and it will likely have a more profound effect on the young generations. As it is, younger generations have been more exposed to Western concepts of identity alongside their own. While previous generations' social systems are still in place, the younger generations are getting more and more critical of the establishment and are looking outward to understand what is inward. Case in point, there was another high school a year and a half ago that I remember reading about that encouraged gay/lesbian/bi people to come out of the closet and intended for everyone to realize how "normal" it was. And we're talking actual "LGB" identities in a "honne" sense (inner secret feelings), not the usual misconstrued "okama" type that is so prominent in Japanese media, especially anime. Really, these are still special cases, but it's the fact that they even exist that makes this cool. As for your skirt question, preferences are preferences. It's more "proper" for a girl to wear a skirt, but in later years, a lot of working women have gone with pants, as have young girls and generally older women. And there's still a lot a girl can do with skirts, so many also stick with skirts and try to make fashion statements out of them. There's also a really mini-niche demographic of guys in Japan who like to wear skirts because they're more comfortable to them. |
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Snomaster1
 SubscriberPosts: 2798 |
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I'm just glad that nobody did this when I was going to high school. I would have been so embarrassed,that I would've made up an excuse not to have been there that day. Me and probably most of the male student body would've felt humiliated if they tried. Thankfully,I don't see any American high schools doing anything like this in the near future. I wonder if any of the boys felt really weird in those school girl uniforms? It's possible that they did.
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5322 |
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The girls seemed more keen than the guys to do it.
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