By Juna Kondo (The Fountain staff)
January 28, 2021
Beating heart, getting sweaty, and feeling uncomfortable. She tried to talk as easily and softly as she could and made a slow movement in front of the cameras.
Yuka Yoshida, who is fourth-year APS student, was broadcasted about her circle called EQUAL APU by NHK on Dec 23, 2020. The exhibition of “Art × Gender Equality” from EQUAL APU became one of the hot potato.
EQUAL is a circle built by Yoshida in Dec 2019. EQUAL approaches gender issues especially in difference between men and women. For example, a man likes cars and robots while a woman likes make-up and idols.
“Instead of bringing up gender issues directly, we are devising ways to allow people to learn about each gender issue through familiar items such as social media, art, and fashionable goods” Yoshida explained.
According to her, she felt something uncomfortable when she heard the instruction from senior staff, “Listen up everyone, carry away all the tables, chairs, and items guys, well, for girls, go ahead and help make-up room,” when she joined an event as a staff. “I used to do everything on my own when I was in high school” Yoshida said thinking back to her girl’s high school life.
Through these experiences, she started to learn gender issues in APU and took part in the exchange program to get more knowledge about gender equality in the U.S when she was a third-year student.
“Toxic Masculinity which is cultural pressures for men to behave in a certain way, such as toughness, antifeminity, and power. Some people feel extreme pressure to act in a certain way that can actually harm. This was one of the interesting topic I learned there,” Yoshida, mentioned.
Marin Ogasawara, a fourth-year APS student, supports EQUAL by utilizing her creating skill. “I didn’t like the prejudice that was often modeled as a Japanese femininity, called Yamato Nadeshiko which is the image of a cute and a quiet girl,” Ogasawara said.
“I was even surprised when my boyfriend told me, ‘Are you a man?’ to my words when I said, I want a drone for my birthday,” she revealed.
Kim Hyuntai, who is good friend of mine for three years had graduated from APU in 2019, had some different points of view about gender equality. “Since men are born physically different than women, some jobs are already have been separated between men and women. It is not gender inequality, it is what we are born as,” Hyuntai said.
From his personal experience, he had felt gender inequality after he completed army service from Korea. Korean companies give bonus points to men who completed army service in Korea. Since solders sacrificed their life to protect the country for two years at the age of twenty to thirty. They have grown mentally and physically stronger from the army service.
Some Korean women do not agree with companies giving bonus points to only men. According to him, women argue “why don’t we get any bonus point? Is it because we are women? We graduated university two years faster than men, so we are more educated than men. It is right to give us bonus points”
“Every action should have choices, each should not be decided already,” Yoshida respectively mentioned.
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