MONTHLY NEWS Girls Choose Pants |
Girls play with dolls and boys play with cars. Girls wear red and boys wear blue. Girls wear skirts and boys wear pants. In the past, when women and men stuck to clearly separate roles in society, these patterns were considered normal. But as more and more women work outside the home, stereotypes like these have begun to fade. Today in Japan there are women working as aircraft pilots, power-shovel operators, government ministers, and company presidents. This change in the social status of their mothers' generation has made young Japanese girls more assertive. What is the latest target in their "invasion" of boys' territory? Pants. "I first noticed the change about four or five years ago," says Yoshiaki Shiozaki, a 20-year veteran teacher at Tomioka Elementary School in Urayasu City, Chiba. "There are 31 students in my sixth grade class, and 14 of them are girls. Of the 14, as many as 12 regularly wear pants, while only two wear skirts. And I've seen the same phenomenon in other schools I've visited," he says. "Until about third or fourth grade, I used to wear skirts and even wore my hair in braids! Now my hair is shoulder-length, and I wear pants because all my friends wear them," says 12-year old Yurika. "Skirts are cute too, but pants are the best, especially in cold weather. Besides, they're easier to move in. It doesn't mean you're masculine or anything just because you wear pants."
Some girls disagree. Yurika's classmate Reiko says, "I want to appeal to my feminine character. Many girls in my class are tomboys. They play sports, and they speak in loud voices, which is sometimes embarrassing. I think they should act more like girls and grow their hair long and wear skirts. They should think more about their appearance." But that's precisely why some girls wear pants. "It may be the influence of television, but many girls apparently find pants fashionable," observes Mr. Shiozaki. Female TV stars like singer Ayumi Hamasaki - a fashion icon for young women - often appear dressed in jeans or pants. Whether girls are making a social statement - that they want to be treated equally with boys - or a fashion statement, one thing is for sure: Pants have become an essential part of a girl's wardrobe. And in some cases, society is adapting to their tastes. At Yurinokidai Junior High School in Sanda City, Hyogo Prefecture, pants were added to the girls' school uniform in response to requests from students. Pants-loving girls were only a minority of students, but the school promptly created a girls' version of the school pants the very next year, according to Vice Principal Katsuhiro Nishida. "Now our students are free to choose, though so far we haven't seen any boys wearing skirts!" he laughs. Who knows? Girls have come pretty far in advancing into the boy's world, so maybe it's the boys' turn to make news! Photos: (Top) Many girls find pants easy to move around in; (above) Pants are very popular among girls these days. (E. Ono) |
|