Japan is, in many ways, a highly gendered society; in schools, this shows strongly in their often gender-segregated uniforms. For students who are questioning their gender or are genderqueer**, being mandated to wear a heavily gendered uniform may be difficult emotionally and mentally. Now, add a gendered title on top of that, and you’ll have a very, very uncomfortable student.
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You may think, “My students are totally used to it; they don’t care about gendered uniforms! They don’t care about gendered titles! I don’t have any genderqueer/ trans students!” My question for you is: how do you know that? In my opinion, part of an educator’s role is to make students feel comfortable. If I call a student “Yamadakun,” and that student has been thinking recently that they don’t much like being male-bodied, am I making them feel comfortable? Or am I making an assumption about them and reminding them of the struggles they would face as a person with an uncommon and often poorly understood identity? From the standpoint of practicality, we’ve been hired to teach English. Japanese titles are not English. In the culture of my home country, students weren’t addressed by titles. I was called exclusively by my first name. Since I’ve also been hired to bring my culture into the classroom, I do the same with my students. Other JETs have raised valid arguments, such as, “Don’t you feel rude not using a title on your students?” I personally don’t feel that way, but, again, everyone should make these decisions for themselves. If we use gender neutral language in our classrooms, we can make them safer and more comfortable spaces for potentially queer or genderqueer students—as well as for ourselves. For some people, these may seem like trivial matters that are too ingrained to try to change.
However, something that seems small to you could have a tremendously positive impact on another person (to this day, I feel relieved when a person asks if I have a “partner” rather than a girlfriend or a boyfriend). If it can make our classes that much more accepting and enjoyable for all of our students, I think it’s worth the effort. Oh, and one last thing—feel free to bring your gender neutral language out of the classroom, too! *Queer can be used as a blanket term for people who are not straight, or as a personal identity label. For example, some people dislike using the “LGBTQ” acronym because it puts the identities in a (potentially hierarchical) order and because there are so many different identities that the acronym becomes either bulky or limited. Some people who identify as queer would say they do so because they are attracted to people of any gender, so other labels don’t fit them. It is a very versatile term. **Someone who is genderqueer does not identify with either of the binary genders of “female” or “male.” When used as a blanket term, genderqueer may also include transgender identities, for example a female-bodied person who identifies as male or a male-bodied person who identifies as female. Zachary is a second-year ALT in Kakogawa, Hyougo. He enjoys putting stickers on his students’ work and writing novels. He can be reached at beikastreet@gmail.com.