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Masculine women, feminine men | Kiyoka Yahaba | TEDxYouth@Tokyo

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    On April 17, 2015,
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    I, Kiyoka Yahaba, managed to miss
    two hours of maths class
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    and not be considered absent.
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    You're probably wondering how I did this.
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    I was sexually assaulted
    on the train that morning.
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    Now, by saying that out loud,
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    I may have made a few of you
    quite uncomfortable.
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    Hopefully, my overwhelming positivity
    can distract you a little bit.
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    I'm not here to tell you
    what happened that day,
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    or how it made me feel.
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    I'm not even here for your sympathy.
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    Rather, I'm here to address a bigger issue
    that we face in society - sexism:
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    behavior, conditions, or attitudes
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    that foster stereotypes of social roles
    based on a person's gender.
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    To talk about sexism,
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    I'm going to have to talk
    about what happened after my assault.
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    I go to a Japanese high school.
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    When the news of my assault
    was reported to my school,
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    the teachers separated the girls
    and the boys into separate classrooms.
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    The girls were told to line up
    at the back of the classroom,
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    while three female teachers
    assessed everyone's skirt lengths.
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    If your skirt was considered "too short,"
    they were going to call your parents.
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    This may seem like
    a military scene from a movie,
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    but this is quite a normal situation
    at a Japanese high school.
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    However, this routine check in particular
    was different from the others.
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    The teachers sat all the girls down.
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    And they told us that us girls should have
    more pride in how we portray ourselves.
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    "Short skirts were asking for it,"
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    "Long skirts showed a sense of integrity."
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    They didn't finish there, though.
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    They told us that us girls tempt boys.
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    Personally, my exposed knees tempting?
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    I was flattered; I mean, really?
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    I was getting attention?
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    But then they said that it was our fault
    that sexual assault happens
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    because we tempt boys.
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    Later that day, I talked
    to a guy friend of mine
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    who was in the other classroom.
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    When I asked him if he was given
    the same talk about sexual assault,
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    he looked at me
    really weird, and he was like,
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    "What are you talking about?
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    We weren't given that talk at all.
    We were told to pull up our pants."
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    I am no Rhodes scholar,
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    but pulling up pants is not a big issue
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    compared to sexual assault.
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    I was really confused that day.
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    How come the boys weren't given
    the same talk as the girls?
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    Why were the girls
    reprimanded for sexual assault?
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    I decided to turn to feminism as a way
    to combat the sexism in society.
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    By hearing "feminism,"
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    some of you might have
    like an allergic reaction to it.
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    You're probably like, "Oh my god,
    she's just another 'man-hating feminist.'"
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    Well, if you look
    at the foundations of feminism,
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    it's quite different than modern feminism.
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    An example of that is Mary Wollstonecraft.
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    Mary Wollstonecraft was a writer
    in the post-French Revolution.
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    Her writings on equal rights
    for men and women
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    are the foundations of modern feminism.
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    Mary Wollstonecraft had this idea.
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    That if the qualities in men
    are more regarded than those of women,
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    then why don't women adopt
    those qualities for themselves?
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    That meant being more assertive,
    more academic, and less emotional
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    was the results of masculine women.
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    The same goes for men.
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    Being more caring,
    less aggressive, and loving
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    was a result of feminine men.
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    I decided to incorporate these theories
    into my everyday life to combat sexism.
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    At the annual dodgeball competition
    at my high school,
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    I, Kiyoka Yahaba, managed to turn
    all my female classmates into gorillas.
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    I'm not even joking; here's a photo.
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    (Laughter)
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    Before each game, I gave
    a little pep talk to the girls;
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    I huddled them up, I said, "Now listen.
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    take your wimpy femininity
    and put it at the door.
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    Bring out your masculine side."
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    I was given the weirdest
    expressions of my life.
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    They were just like,
    "What are you talking about?"
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    I decided to restate myself.
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    I told them to become gorillas.
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    To my surprise,
    that seemed to have worked.
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    That day, we were amazing;
    we beat everybody.
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    The boys heard the rise
    of the apes, and they came over,
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    and you could just see, their facial
    expressions were just so funny.
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    They look like they were witnessing
    this new species.
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    We, girls, were strong, fearless,
    and definitely masculine.
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    Mary Wollstonecraft's idea
    on masculine women
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    was a far easier task
    than her idea on feminine men.
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    I had to take a different approach.
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    I started small, and I gave
    a presentation in my English class
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    about the day in the life of a woman,
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    highlighting the precautions
    women have to face every day
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    to make sure that they're not caught
    in a bad situation.
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    Now, keep in mind,
    during this presentation,
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    I brought scarves,
    cute accessories, hair bands,
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    and I dressed the guys up in my class.
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    I also brought a skirt
    for my English teacher to wear.
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    I had him stand in front of everybody
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    as I demonstrated the different labels
    a woman has to face
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    on the length of her skirt.
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    I turned all the guys into feminine men.
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    I kind of forced a little bit on it,
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    but I want everyone to know
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    that nobody was hurt
    during this experiment,
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    so I call that a success.
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    But after my presentation,
    my English teacher came up to me.
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    I thought he was going to say,
    "Kiyoka, that was a little bit too much,
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    you should have
    brought it down a little bit."
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    But to my surprise, he thanked me.
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    He said it made him think
    of how to treat his daughter and his son
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    so that they were both viewed as equals.
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    So, after hearing that
    from my English teacher,
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    I had this spark, this fire within me.
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    So I went around school,
    and I asked some guys
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    if they would participate
    in my next project,
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    which was dressing them up
    in cute little hair bands again
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    and posing for photos.
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    These are just a few of them,
    from guys from my class.
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    As you can see, they're really cooperative
    and really cute about it.
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    I realized that when we walk a mile
    in the opposite gender's shoes,
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    we're able to look at them
    with respect and understanding.
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    It is only then that we are able to strive
    and combat sexism in society.
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    If you're a woman,
    try being a masculine woman.
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    And if you're man,
    try being a feminine man.
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    Thank you.
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    (Applause)
Title:
Masculine women, feminine men | Kiyoka Yahaba | TEDxYouth@Tokyo
Description:

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Kiyoka Yahaba takes us through her journey as a feminist in today's society. With her personal experiences with sexism, she shows us how she uses post-French Revolution feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft's ideas on masculine women and feminine men to combat sexism at her high school.

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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDxTalks
Duration:
08:02

English subtitles

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