01. From CGS: March 2006 Archives

On January 14, Professor Claire Maree (School of English and American Literature, Tsuda College) gave a lecture at ICU entitled “Language Negotiation -Onee kotoba and Japanese Gender Discourse”. She discussed the theatrical characteristics of onee kotoba (“Drag queen talk” used by gays) as a kind of performance which transports listeners to another world. This explains why, in bar talk, the customers are drawn to the “mama” who uses onee kotoba to free them from the mundane everyday world. Onee kotoba also serves as a means of bonding for sexual minorities.

Prof. Marie then discussed entertainers who use onee kotoba in the media today. The popularity of stars like Osugi and Piiko is not due simply to their individual abilities but also to the increasing acceptance of sexual minorities in society. A clear break can be perceived between what the present and past generation of stars represent and Prof. Marie proposed the study of this generation gap as a topic for future research.

The many questions from the audience afterwards indicates the growing social awareness of onee kotoba. Perhaps because it is a conversational language it is a topic which is close to our daily lives.

ICU Undergraduate : Yohei TANAKA

On October 21, CGS and The Job Counselling Centre jointly hosted a talk program: ‘Women Who Refused to Give in to Public Order and Morality’. The speakers were Ms Katsumi Nishimura, one of the plaintiffs in the gender pay discrimination case against Sumitomo Denkō (Sumitomo Electric Industries), and Ms Mitsuko Miyachi who headed the counsel for the plaintiff. It was literally about the women who stood up to, and won against, the so-called ‘public consensus’.

On October 26, 2005, Keiko Kawashima(Nagoya Institute of Technology), a science historian, gave a lecture entitled “Madame Lavoisier: The Woman Who Participated in the Chemical Revolution.” Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier is often called “The Father of Modern Chemistry” for his part in advancing chemistry in the 18th century. Although his wife, Marie, helped him by doing translation and writing footnotes, she has been overlooked in traditional histories of science. Marie Lavoisier achieved great success in the male-dominated world of chemistry, but her achievements were made as a mere assistant to her famous scientist husband. Ms. Kawashima suggested that Marie0it has become much easier for women to participate in the world of science today, their numbers are still scarce. In order to change the deep-rooted view that science is a man's domain, we must reconsider scientific history from the perspective of gender.

ICU Undergraduate : Sho KAWAMURA

In spring, the Center of Gender Studies at ICU will commemorate its second year and the first students of the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies (PGSS) will graduate in March, with many more interested students in line to take their place. All this is due not only to the passion and energy of the many lecturers and professors but also to the high quality and motivation of about thirty dedicated student staff members who have voluntarily organized reading groups and enthusiastically communicated with people from other countries.There cannot be many other university research centers which depends so much on the energy of students.