Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009

By LEAH ZOLLER

Anamizu, Ishikawa

Why should I strive to sound feminine in Japanese when I don't sound feminine in English? I'm not interested in using feminine speech to make myself sound more appealing to Japanese men. There's a difference between a speaker of Japanese making a mistake in gendered speech and purposely using the language to create a gender identity. I may be a woman, but I'm more of an "ore" or "boku" than most men I know. Why not encourage breaking down gender boundaries instead of forcing them on us?

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