Quote:
Originally Posted by sarasi
You bring up some very interesting points. I'll just comment on a couple because I have to go out soon. Gym classes at my first high school in New Zealand were segregated, and do you know, I never gave it a thought at the time, it just seemed normal to me.
I will have to think about it, but I don't know how non-segregated gym classes would have worked- school boys in NZ spend a lot of time on rugby, and you really don't want boys and girls playing proper rugby together, people are going to get crushed!
We actually didn't have a trouser option with our uniform although some schools do these days (uniforms are the norm in NZ in public as well as private schools, right from primary school), but boys not being able to wear skirts isn't just a school uniform thing, is it- a salaryman wearing a skirt suit to work here would cause mayhem as well. That's just a societal thing, in no way limited to Japan, so I can't really say it's something I don't like about Japan.
|
Your post is interesting. Im also from New Zealand. I went to a co-ed primary school and intermediate school and the genders werent seperated for gym class. The only time it was seperated was for sex ed. We certainly didnt play rugby either... even at my all boys high school (though we had such a variety of different sized guys in our school that were there girls, and considering some of the girls I knew at the time, gender seperation wouldnt have been much of a protective measure). I mean you could join any number of the high school teams but thats about it. Gym class (or PE as we called it) was mostly focused on athletics and athleticism as well as developing skills for sports that require no contact like basketball (in theory its non contact at least), tennis, ultimate frisbee etc.
Anyway... the reason your post is interesting is because it has made me think that perhaps the seperation of gender in high schools in Japan can be better understood as a "conservative" thing rather than a cultural thing. Japan in many ways is a culturally conservative society so widespread views on gender might make it seem like a cultural thing however I can imagine certain members of New Zealand society holding similar views on gender to the widespread view in Japan which makes me think that there are better ways of understanding it.