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

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.

On April 17, 2015,

I, Kiyoka Yahaba, managed to miss
two hours of maths class

and not be considered absent.

You're probably wondering how I did this.

I was sexually assaulted
on the train that morning.

Now, by saying that out loud,

I may have made a few of you
quite uncomfortable.

Hopefully, my overwhelming positivity
can distract you a little bit.

I'm not here to tell you
what happened that day,

or how it made me feel.

I'm not even here for your sympathy.

Rather, I'm here to address a bigger issue
that we face in society - sexism:

behavior, conditions, or attitudes

that foster stereotypes of social roles
based on a person's gender.

To talk about sexism,

I'm going to have to talk
about what happened after my assault.

I go to a Japanese high school.

When the news of my assault
was reported to my school,

the teachers separated the girls
and the boys into separate classrooms.

The girls were told to line up
at the back of the classroom,

while three female teachers
assessed everyone's skirt lengths.

If your skirt was considered "too short,"
they were going to call your parents.

This may seem like
a military scene from a movie,

but this is quite a normal situation
at a Japanese high school.

However, this routine check in particular
was different from the others.

The teachers sat all the girls down.

And they told us that us girls should have
more pride in how we portray ourselves.

"Short skirts were asking for it,"

"Long skirts showed a sense of integrity."

They didn't finish there, though.

They told us that us girls tempt boys.

Personally, my exposed knees tempting?

I was flattered; I mean, really?

I was getting attention?

But then they said that it was our fault
that sexual assault happens

because we tempt boys.

Later that day, I talked
to a guy friend of mine

who was in the other classroom.

When I asked him if he was given
the same talk about sexual assault,

he looked at me
really weird, and he was like,

"What are you talking about?

We weren't given that talk at all.
We were told to pull up our pants."

I am no Rhodes scholar,

but pulling up pants is not a big issue

compared to sexual assault.

I was really confused that day.

How come the boys weren't given
the same talk as the girls?

Why were the girls
reprimanded for sexual assault?

I decided to turn to feminism as a way
to combat the sexism in society.

By hearing "feminism,"

some of you might have
like an allergic reaction to it.

You're probably like, "Oh my god,
she's just another 'man-hating feminist.'"

Well, if you look
at the foundations of feminism,

it's quite different than modern feminism.

An example of that is Mary Wollstonecraft.

Mary Wollstonecraft was a writer
in the post-French Revolution.

Her writings on equal rights
for men and women

are the foundations of modern feminism.

Mary Wollstonecraft had this idea.

That if the qualities in men
are more regarded than those of women,

then why don't women adopt
those qualities for themselves?

That meant being more assertive,
more academic, and less emotional

was the results of masculine women.

The same goes for men.

Being more caring,
less aggressive, and loving

was a result of feminine men.

I decided to incorporate these theories
into my everyday life to combat sexism.

At the annual dodgeball competition
at my high school,

I, Kiyoka Yahaba, managed to turn
all my female classmates into gorillas.

I'm not even joking; here's a photo.

(Laughter)

Before each game, I gave
a little pep talk to the girls;

I huddled them up, I said, "Now listen.

take your wimpy femininity
and put it at the door.

Bring out your masculine side."

I was given the weirdest
expressions of my life.

They were just like,
"What are you talking about?"

I decided to restate myself.

I told them to become gorillas.

To my surprise,
that seemed to have worked.

That day, we were amazing;
we beat everybody.

The boys heard the rise
of the apes, and they came over,

and you could just see, their facial
expressions were just so funny.

They look like they were witnessing
this new species.

We, girls, were strong, fearless,
and definitely masculine.

Mary Wollstonecraft's idea
on masculine women

was a far easier task
than her idea on feminine men.

I had to take a different approach.

I started small, and I gave
a presentation in my English class

about the day in the life of a woman,

highlighting the precautions
women have to face every day

to make sure that they're not caught
in a bad situation.

Now, keep in mind,
during this presentation,

I brought scarves,
cute accessories, hair bands,

and I dressed the guys up in my class.

I also brought a skirt
for my English teacher to wear.

I had him stand in front of everybody

as I demonstrated the different labels
a woman has to face

on the length of her skirt.

I turned all the guys into feminine men.

I kind of forced a little bit on it,

but I want everyone to know

that nobody was hurt
during this experiment,

so I call that a success.

But after my presentation,
my English teacher came up to me.

I thought he was going to say,
"Kiyoka, that was a little bit too much,

you should have
brought it down a little bit."

But to my surprise, he thanked me.

He said it made him think
of how to treat his daughter and his son

so that they were both viewed as equals.

So, after hearing that
from my English teacher,

I had this spark, this fire within me.

So I went around school,
and I asked some guys

if they would participate
in my next project,

which was dressing them up
in cute little hair bands again

and posing for photos.

These are just a few of them,
from guys from my class.

As you can see, they're really cooperative
and really cute about it.

I realized that when we walk a mile
in the opposite gender's shoes,

we're able to look at them
with respect and understanding.

It is only then that we are able to strive
and combat sexism in society.

If you're a woman,
try being a masculine woman.

And if you're man,
try being a feminine man.

Thank you.

(Applause)