Japan: school holds ' sex change day ' for students

[stephaniec]

https://pinknews.co.uk/2014/11/14/japan-school-holds-sex-change-day-for-students/

Pink News/by Nick Duffy    11/14 2014

" a high school in Japan held a ' sex change day ' this week- where boys dressed in skirts and girls wore suits and ties "

[suzifrommd]

Great education opportunity. If the students and parents are on board, I have no problem with it.

Anyone else?

[Elis]

I get what they're are trying to do which I think is good  idea, but I think they're confused about the difference between sex and gender, which will make the students carry the same misunderstanding. They should have just called it gender day or something.

[Madison Bennett]

I get what they're are trying to do which I think is good  idea, but I think they're confused about the difference between sex and gender, which will make the students carry the same misunderstanding. They should have just called it gender day or something.

Agreed.

[Rina]

I get what they're are trying to do which I think is good  idea, but I think they're confused about the difference between sex and gender, which will make the students carry the same misunderstanding. They should have just called it gender day or something.

Remember that they probably didn't name the day in English . The Japanese language does to my knowledge not have a distinction between sex and gender; they use 性 (sei) for both. I could be wrong, my knowledge of Japanese isn't even conversational at this point, but I've never encountered a word pair making the distinction.

The same goes for my native language, by the way - we use the same word for gender and sex. We even use the same word for grammatical gender (which is something I like to point out to English speakers who bring up the "gender is a grammatical category" argument)!

Edit: After browsing the Tweets related to it, I see some students referenced the day in English, using the word 'sex' - but my point still stands, since if you lack the distinction in your own language, you probably won't translate correctly. I knew English for more than fifteen years before realizing the two words had different meanings, since after all they're translated to the same word in my primary language!

[Elis]

Remember that they probably didn't name the day in English . The Japanese language does to my knowledge not have a distinction between sex and gender; they use 性 (sei) for both. I could be wrong, my knowledge of Japanese isn't even conversational at this point, but I've never encountered a word pair making the distinction.

The same goes for my native language, by the way - we use the same word for gender and sex. We even use the same word for grammatical gender (which is something I like to point out to English speakers who bring up the "gender is a grammatical category" argument)!

Edit: After browsing the Tweets related to it, I see some students referenced the day in English, using the word 'sex' - but my point still stands, since if you lack the distinction in your own language, you probably won't translate correctly. I knew English for more than fifteen years before realizing the two words had different meanings, since after all they're translated to the same word in my primary language!

I was thinking this when I posted it, good point. But I think they should come up with a new word meaning just gender or use our English word, just because the students need to know sex and gender are two different things.

[Dee Marshall]

I was thinking this when I posted it, good point. But I think they should come up with a new word meaning just gender or use our English word, just because the students need to know sex and gender are two different things.

Cultural imperialism? Good or bad, it's their way. WE can say they are two different things, we can even tell them we see them as too different things, but they have to decide that they're two different things for them. Language is a straightjacket on thinking and nobody likes being told that their culture is wrong. This was one of the lessons of "1984".

I'm sensitive about this because I'm American and we're always told we do this, and we do, but so does everyone else.

[Clhoe G]

Damn I wish they did that at my school, life would have been so much better

[Elis]

Cultural imperialism? Good or bad, it's their way. We say they are two different things, we can even tell them we see them as too different things, but they have to decide that they're two different things for them. Language is a straightjacket on thinking and nobody likes being told that their culture is wrong. This was one of the lessons of "1984".

I'm sensitive about this because I'm American and we're always told we do this, and we do, but so does everyone else.

I didn't mean to cause any offense, sorry, I also read 1984. This is just my opinion based on growing up not knowing the difference because of lack of education and how difficult this has made it for me on realising I'm trans.