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"SOGI – What is Gender?" Library Exhibition

2017年1月12日更新

The exhibition at the Kiin Festival
on November 12-13

“Are you attracted to people?” “What is your gender?”
These questions were the theme of a panel exhibition titled “SOGI – What is Gender?” held by a group of interested students at the university library for roughly two weeks, from October 31 to November 10, 2016, and during the Kiin Festival (school festival) on November 12-13. “SOGI” is an acronym for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, and refers to a person’s sexual attraction and identity. The term “LGBT” is more widely known. LGBT refers to sexual minorities, while SOGI is a term that applies to all people.

An exhibition with the theme “Do you know what a sexual minority is?” was held in 2015. This year’s exhibition was intended to go beyond making people aware of the existence of sexual minorities, and make them think by themselves about the “diversity of sexual attraction and identity” with no regard to majority or minority.

The panels raised questions like, what kind of gender your sexual orientation goes to, and what do you think your own gender is. They introduced sexualities like “A-sexual” that was not based on emotional love or sexual desire, and “X gender” that did not have a bipolar gender identity of male or female.

The exhibition also conducted a survey in advance and collected 60 responses to convey the message that “Individuals have different sexual identities and attractions.” This also showed that a diverse range of identities exist within the same sexual identity. For example, even among people who replied that their “gender identity is female,” their behaviors and feelings differed. Likewise, people who replied “I am attracted to men” showed a variety of desires in terms of relationships.

The impressions of visitors who viewed the panels included “Intelligence makes me aware of my own sense of discrimination” and “I felt that opportunities to understand this even a little better would lead to a society in which it is easier to live."

In addition, a film screening was held as an offsite event on November 7 and 16. “The Danish Girl” (Japanese title “Lili no Subete”) tells the story of a Danish man with gender identity disorder who identifies as a woman, and “Carol” (Japanese title “Kyarol”) is a love story involving two women. Both are world-acclaimed films, and approximately 25 people watched them over the two days of screenings.

People who watched the films commented that “It is strange that, one’s appearance does not go with inside sexuality brings a sense of discomfort,” and “Does a person really need to have gender?” as well as “I’d never seen a film dealing with LGBT and it gave me a lot to think about.”

We hope that this project will encourage people to review the concept of gender. Thank you to everyone, and especially to the people who answered the questionnaire and the library staff who provided the venue.

(Student Volunteers, Faculty of Letters and Education)