[Special Feature: Looking Toward CGS's 10th Anniversary]
Miho OKADA
director, RC-NET
[The article below is the same as the article that appears in the sixteenth issue of the CGS Newsletter.]
Miho Okada, the director of RC-NET (Rape Crisis Network), was one of the speakers at the CGS symposium "Overcoming Hardships with Bonds between 'Women'" in March 2013. She shares her ideas and hopes for collaboration between CGS and NPOs like RC-NET.
As a guest speaker at the symposium "Overcoming Hardships with Bonds between 'Women,'" sharing ideas and stories with activists of all ages, I was struck by the amazing continuity reflected in our activism today, which builds on the work of the early grassroots campaigners for lesbian rights. I think this awareness of our ties and continuity is extremely important, as we tend to become caught up in the pressures of our own activities and lose touch with other organizations and activists. I sincerely hope we can continue to have such opportunities to meet other people face-to-face and hear their experiences.
At RC-NET, we often hear the words, "I wasn't able to tell anybody," from many survivors of sexual abuse. LGBTQ survivors of sexual abuse often find it even more difficult to ask for help, which is not fully understood even by those providing support. In reality, there is no such thing as a universal image or concept of the "survivor." We in the field would like to call on academia to help us convey this message to as many survivors as possible. For example, I think Japanese universities could do more research on abuse, and we would be happy to assist by providing support in difficult cases. Furthermore, research may be able to give voice to those unspoken voices heard in the field̶Japanese NPOs are notoriously bad at providing quantitative data and communicating problems to the public, and they also lack both human and financial resources. In order to create a society in which we can all feel safe and secure, we need the help of those who can listen to the voices from the field and speak for the survivors.
Therefore, I hope that CGS will continue to be here for us, helping to forge bonds with our fellow activists who are striving to create a more livable society, without the constraints of gender norms, for each and every survivor.