And in the journal you kept by the side of your bed. .
.
Confessing childhood secrets of dressing up in women's clothes
Compulsions you never knew the reasons to
“Searching for a Former Clarity”, Against
Me!, 2005
Although there are many manga and
anime that feature positive transgender characters, the reality of coming out
as transgender in Japan is pretty harsh.
The social pressure to fit into the expectations of the community is so
enormous, that most transgender people keep their struggle with their identity
a secret for years. Sex change
operations did not even become available in Japan until the late 1990s, and it was
only in 2004 that laws changed so that some transsexuals (unmarried, childless)
could change their officially registered gender (learn
more).
These small, but significant changes
are thanks to the hard work of activists fighting for recognition and
acceptance of transgender people in their communities. Kei Umezawa’s award-winning documentary Coming Out Story (2011) follows the
story of one such activist: Itsuki Dohi. Dohi is a middle-aged high school math
teacher born a boy in the 1960s who has been slowly making the transition to
living as a woman for more than a decade.
Dohi always knew that she wanted to be a woman, but as a child there was
no one to whom she could speak to about her feelings and so she kept them
hidden until well into adulthood. It wasn't until a co-worker came out to her as gay and lent her a book that mentioned transsexuality, that she even had a word for the deep truths that she felt about herself. Before that, she feared that she was "hentai" (a pervert). Now,
aged 49, she is finally ready to go through with gender reassignment surgery.
Umezawa’s documentary is remarkable
for its ordinariness. There are no
flashy camera movements or artsy shots.
The focus is simply on telling the story of Dohi, her friends, her community,
the other transgender people whose lives she has touched, and her efforts to
bring awareness to the human rights concerns of those of varying
sexualities/genders. Many films about
transgender people focus on outlandish transvestites or people who have been
the victims of hate crimes. The
transgendered in this film are shown to be just regular folks who are active members of their community. Dohi teaches math and runs a broadcasting club, one of the young people she is mentoring is
an out and proud young trans man working in a care home for the elderly, while others are students just
barely out of puberty who are just embarking on the path of coming to terms
with their true identities.
It is an understatement to say that the journey these transgender people
are on is a challenging one. One of the
more poignant moments in the film comes when a friend Dohi has tried to mentor
loses his/her grip on reality, dresses as a woman and tries to rob a
store. The resulting newspaper headlines lead Dohi
to feel that she could have done more to save her friend. Although many of Dohi’s friends – mostly women
and other transgender people – testify about their experience with her, it
struck me that there were no interviews with family members of the transgendered featured in this doc. Their absence spoke volumes as to
the difficulties transgender people face in coming out to their family and
friends. The greatest fear of all is
rejection by the people and communities they care so much about. Films like Coming Out Story are crucial to educating people to love and accept all members of their community without prejudice.
Another great little film about growing up transgender in Japan: the short fiction film Jellyfish Boy
Another great little film about growing up transgender in Japan: the short fiction film Jellyfish Boy
Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012
