Forum - View topicINTEREST: Japanese High School Students Mix It Up for 'Sex Change Day'
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Juno016
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Why would you feel humiliated? What exactly is humiliating about guys wearing girl clothes in order to further understand what girls who wear skirts and such go through? The whole point is to step outside of the norms of society so we can better understand each other and learn to accept things we aren't aware of or comfortable with. If you reject it because it's humiliating, then you kinda miss the point. You wouldn't even be forced to do it. Only a portion of the school would do it anyway. |
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Niyari
 Posts: 341 |
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giggity giggity
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zensunni
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But a t-shirt and jeans is pretty much the same for both guys and girls, isn't it? The vast majority of American schools don't have uniforms and none of them would mandate skirts for the girls. Yes, girls in US schools frequently wear more fashionable or "girly" clothes, but many of them wear exactly what the guys are wearing, just in clothes that are cut to fit the female form instead of the male form. But I get what you're saying. I don't see this level of tolerance training happening in the vast majority of US schools. |
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EricJ2
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That's because, as noted, we don't need it. In Japan, boys and girls' activities are responsibly separated outside of class, pants-vs.-skirts uniforms are enforced in pretty much the entire school system, and it's even well into high school that the two are still afraid to approach each other. As another poster pointed out, swapping uniforms is seen as more of a "novelty" of roles, without the sense that it's any longterm corruption of lifestyle. |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 2964 Location: Email for assistance only |
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All the students, male and female, volunteered to participate. It was not required. Personally, I can't imagine skipping an event I'm not even required to participate in because I don't think I can handle looking at people wearing clothing I find "embarrassing." But my town is home to one of the largest organized naked bike rides, where hundreds turn out every year to ride around town in the buff. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I grew up in a religious community in which men and boys wear pants, women and girls wear skirts, and many families send their kids to sexually segregated schools. I still don't wear pants. I've often wondered if Japanese kids feel the same sexually segregated pressures from their culture without the religious aspects. The differences between more and less sexually segregated societies interest me. It's great that this school is trying something different.
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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The "responsible" segregation of the boys and girls in the whole years of the school system would, for starters, explain a lot about school comedy tropes: The hip boy who's bored, unprepared or uninterested in girls when sports are cooler, the shy girl living in terror of confessing her crush putting notes in shoe lockers instead, the "girls' crushes" between the simpy immature girls toward the sporty role-model alpha-girls... And you thought they were just making it up. The cram schools, not falling under state regulations for school policy, have more open ideas about loose dress code and co-ed classes, and are probably closer to our Western ideas of schools-- Unless you're talking about the Catholic schools over here, of course, and then you see the whole problems popping up again for the exact same reasons. 
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I'm saying that those tropes make a lot of sense to me personally since I grew up going to all girls schools. Not everyone who attended same sex schools has the same reactions, of course, but it resonates with me.
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9880 Location: Virginia |
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Octopodpie wrote:
I can, I would have passed on the event. This is not be cause it was "girls clothing" but because it wasn't what I would wear. My subconscious would tell me I wasn't carrying it off and looked ridiculous. The fact that every one else was doing the same thing wouldn't matter. I also do not attempt to wear costumes of any kind. I don't act or role play either. |
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Lili-Hime
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Using crossdressing for humor is usually in bad taste and not funny (just like Adam Sandler!) I think in general the gender lines are more blurry in Japan than in Murica. It's more socially acceptable girls to be into femme guys... here guys make fun of the male celebrities who are more femme looking and women are expected to be 'attracted to real men' with muscles, facial hair etc. 
A quick glance at Wikipedia and it seems like there are a few openly transwomen who are idols. So perhaps Japan is more tolerant than Murica, idk.
This- a thousand times over. Guys would feel embarrassed because they worry about how they'd look, right? Um... for us, that's everyday of our lives. All guys have to do in the morning is put on pants & a shirt (and shower once in a while). We worry about makeup, hair, etc... If a school makes us wear skirts everyday well that means shaving our legs regularly. All things that never have to enter a guy's head. Also pretty sure guys wouldn't want to wear something like a skirt if they had to bleed out of their bottoms but that's another thing
God, I can just see the Fox News outrage piece now. 'School indoctrinates children in homosexual lifestyle, Obama's gay agenda, netxt', etc... It really does suck that American culture is held back by an aging minority of homophobic racists who scream and cry when anything they don't like comes on TV
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EyeOfPain
Posts: 312 |
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Not even for Halloween? What a fun childhood you must have had. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9880 Location: Virginia |
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@Eye of Pain
It had very little to do with my childhood. I grew up in a rural area. There were about 3 houses with children within a mile. Trick or Treating was not an option. You don't miss what you never had. The only time I tried wearing a costume for Halloween was in 6th grade. The whole school was doing it and I doubt anyone noticed me much less recognized me. I was miserable and changed back half way through. My point is that there are reasons for being unwilling to "dress up" other than that the clothing is for the wrong gender. |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
Posts: 2964 Location: Email for assistance only |
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My point was if there was an event going on at my school or work, where people could do something like wear a costume or dress as the opposite sex, but were not required to, I wouldn't skip going to work that day just because I find looking at people doing something I'm not doing embarrassing. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9880 Location: Virginia |
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Ah, I misunderstood you. Possibly because Snomaster1 had not raised the question of not attending.
I don't think I would have been embarrassed to see others cross dress. But, depending on how much social pressure there was to participate I might have stayed home. From what I have read and seen I gather there is a lot of pressure in Japanese schools to conform to the majority regardless of what is required. I doubt I could have handled going to such a school. I was pretty asocial in school. |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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That's because not a lot of American schools have uniforms. That, and women dressed in clothes for men won't look out of place.
One word: Bullying. Bullies seek to humiliate, and there's hardly a better opportunity to humiliate than a crossdressing day. They'd threaten everyone they see who are scared of them, and the result would be a VERY low turnout (or a turnout of mostly girls, though girls do get bullied too, just in a different way than guys). Even if there's little threatening going on, every student knows the presence of bullies, and they'd be too scared to crossdress because they'd get swarmed and possibly (or probably, depending on the school) physically injured, then be known as a "[expletive]" for the rest of the time at that school. That is socially crushing, and definitely a worthwhile reason to choose not to participate. The idea is that bullies are unsure of themselves socially, which is why they pick on other people--to ensure they feel they are superior to someone else. Among male bullies, uncertainty over their level of masculinity is a very common mentality, and so they would go medieval on anyone associated with homosexuality in any way as they see them as threats. In other words, I don't think the guys would be concerned with self-image, at least not directly. They'd be concerned about fellow classmates who would wish them harm. |
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