| From: |
Akira Kamishiro [ profile ] |
| Subject: |
How to overcome prejudice against LGBT people
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| Sent: |
Nov 28th, 2008 - 11:32:34 |
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Despite prejudice against transgender, now you can change your gender in census register in Japan if you undergo sex reassignment surgery. This is because activists stood up for it.
However, they couldn't have succeeded in their movement if it had not been for a TV drama, Sannen-B-Gumi-Kinpachi-Sensei, or The Teacher Kinpachi in the 9th Grade B Class. After the drama, transgender issues became well-known and activists succeeded in the movement.
The drama was broadcast several years ago and it was a story about a junior high school. In the drama, a Female to Male transgender student suffered from his female body and had friendship and conflicts between his classmates. The actress who acted as him was Aya Ueto, a very cute girl and is a TV star now. The drama was popular because she was cute. In the drama, the appearance of the character was depicted as unisex rather than masculine. Moreover, she said "I want a penis" again and again in the drama. In general, a teenage girl do not say the sexual word, so male viewers may have felt sexual fantasies about it. If the drama had been depicted realistically and with no content that viewers feel sexual fantasies, it wouldn't have become so popular. In other word, if the character had been ugly, how many people would have been interested in the drama? The drama and transgender issue in this drama got attention thanks to the cute actress.
What we can learn from the case is that we sometimes need commercialization of sex, including just seeing cute girls and having sexual desire, to get attention to what we want to say. When we try to have people understand LGBT issues, LGBT people should be seen as cool or cute by using entertainment such as dramas, movies, cartoons, and videogames. By enjoying them, people become feeling familiar with LGBT people even if they are not interested in social movements.
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