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gingermarie
Mav, you wrote:
"It amazes me how SGI-USA members who zealously preach equality and feminism here in the US never look at the obvious inequality depicted on those monthly Ikeda videos they watch from Japan: how the men sit on one side of the auditorium and the women on the other. That's where I would reform first if SGI has any guts. Make it so that both sexes could sit anywhere in the SGI Japanese auditoriums. My guess is they don't dare to criticize Ikeda for not changing the culture of inequality between men and women in Japan."
I remember one video I saw where Ikeda asks all the men to make the guests of honor feel comfortable by taking their jackets off. Immediately, every single man, on the one side, of course, took their jacket off. It was so bizzarre.
Not one young man left his jacket on. There was a sea of white shirts. I wonder, if one young man had left his jacket on, what would happen?
)
I lived in Japan in the 1980's and there is just such a conformist mentality there. I'd ride the Tokyo or Yokohama subways, and they'd be jam-packed with men, ranging in age from early twenties to early sixties -- all in the uniform. Gray suit, white shirt, dark, conservative tie, black, slip-on shoes. If it were raining, they had a tan raincoat and a black umbrella. Never even a dark gray umbrella. Never a cream-colored or light blue shirt, or a bright tie. The kids, whether in public or private schools, had their uniforms. The young ladies who worked in a store, car dealership office or whatever, had their uniform for their place of work -- and went out and did their calisthenics all together first thing in the morning. That's the culture, "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down." One young man would never, never leave his jacket on if everyone else was taking off his.
Men and women in Japan live very separate lives. I had an interesting discussion with a group of Japanese housewives once. They felt that their HUSBANDS were more oppressed than they were! These wives felt that they had more freedom to set their own schedule and pursue their interests, especially after the children were in school all day. The men had to work long hours at often boring jobs and put up with a lot from bosses. The women in this group also said, "You poor American women, you're killing yourselves, going out to a job all day and then having to come home and do all the housework!"
These women were both amused and irritated by some westerners' belief that Japanese women are submissive and downtrodden. A Japanese husband turns his paycheck over to his wife -- and she gives him an allowance -- yes, even executives who handle multi-million dollar deals. Wives make the decisions on finances, investing, purchases, the children's education and discipline. One woman said, with a smile, "Why do you American women accept your husbands' interference in handling money? The wife should handle the money. Why are American women so submissive to their men?"
So, should we assume that the Japanese women object to sitting on their side of the auditorium? That it makes them feel demeaned or oppressed? I don't think we can. Perhaps they'd be very uncomfortable at a meeting where anybody can sit anywhere. It might seem so disorderly, so western.
On the other hand, maybe the women I talked to are not typical, and the Japanese women's division members are just dying to go over and sit on the men's side. Sit next to the men and poke them so if they doze during Sensei's long speeches. I'm remembering something funny, one of our big conventions. A Japanese couple, big leaders in Japan, came over for this convention and they had seats onstage. It was hot and stuffy in the auditorium, lots of long speeches, and they probably had jet lag too. The husband fell asleep on stage and began snoring as his wife glared at him. You could tell she just wanted to smack him upside the head -- and she couldn't because she was on stage, in front of everyone. You just knew that the poor guy was going to catch hell when they got back to the hotel room. Does anyone else remember that meeting?
Maybe the Japanese men's division feel safer sitting away from their wives. Whatever. I cannot say how the Japanese should conduct their meetings, and I think that SGI really erred in trying to force their Japanese culture -- segregation of the sexes, conformity, no questioning, deference to elders and men, on its western members. Again, it was baggage piled on top of Buddhism that was not really Buddhism.