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<\/p>\n#1\u3000You can Live Without \u201cSelf-Affirmation\u201d<\/h3>\n
Q. When you were students, were you troubled by feelings regarding your sexuality?<\/strong><\/p>\n Moriyama Bourbonne Moriyama Bourbonne But once I entered high school, I found out about gay magazines and learned there were many others like me. This put me at ease.<\/p>\n Q.\u3000So, in a way, learning through magazines that there are others with the same sexuality as you saved you. <\/strong><\/p>\n Bourbonne Q.\u3000Even today there are many students who feel that something is wrong with them, worry they\u2019re alone, and worry how society perceives them. Some of these students come to Waseda\u2019s GS Center \uff08https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/gscenter\/<\/a>\uff09 to request assistance in addressing these anxieties. How do you think people should overcome these negative feelings? <\/strong><\/p>\n Bourbonne *Organized by the Shinjuku Ni-Chome Promotion Association, this city parade consists of various performances in a restaurant and drinking district. Taking place every summer, the event held its 20th iteration in August 2019.<\/p>\n Caption: \u201cMix bar\u201d Campy! bar, produced by Bourbonne and open to all people regardless of their sexuality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Reading up on material is important, but it\u2019s also important to get out there and experience things for yourself. Perhaps the best way to change how you feel is to get out there and participate.<\/p>\n Moriyama Bourbonne Moriyama Bourbonne Moriyama Bourbonne
\nFor whatever reason, I wasn\u2019t troubled by my sexual identity when I was younger. For this reason, I never had an experience in which I felt I \u201covercame\u201d some obstacle regarding sexuality.<\/p>\n
\nSo you didn\u2019t view your identity as a gay man negatively?<\/p>\n
\nThat\u2019s correct.<\/p>\n
\nI didn\u2019t view myself negatively, but because I was living in the Gifu countryside, where I didn\u2019t know of any older gay people, I had a vague feeling of anxiety that made life difficult.<\/p>\n
\nThere was no internet back then and it was impossible to know how many people out there were like you. There are many in my generation who felt there was something wrong with them.<\/p>\n
\nFor me, the number one thing that changed me was my own personal experience. I moved from the countryside to Waseda and saw around a thousand gay people joyously dancing at a gay event. Then, the gay people who used to sneak into bars in Ni-chome started walking around more openly. 20 years ago, Aki-san, a legend of Ni-chome, launched the Tokyo Rainbow Festival*, of which he was the first moderator. A sexually diverse crowd flooded the streets and surprise fireworks filled the skies above Ni-chome. At that moment, I broke down in tears, feeling we had entered a momentous turning point.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/assets\/uploads\/2020\/03\/xxx5613-610x407.jpg\")
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\nMy job at university is to impart knowledge and logic. Knowledge is important because it protects you from attackers. In other words, it is important to arm yourself with knowledge.<\/p>\n
\nThose without power, or who lack knowledge, can\u2019t protect themselves when someone tries to trip them up.<\/p>\n
\nHowever, I don\u2019t think this necessarily leads to self-affirmation, nor do I think it has to. I don\u2019t think the purpose of sharing knowledge and imparting logic is to coerce students to affirm themselves. As shown in Bourbonne\u2019s recollection, people may attain self-affirmation in a gradual way, while others may attain it suddenly. I don\u2019t think one can attain self-affirmation just by arming themselves with knowledge.<\/p>\n
\nThat\u2019s right. People don\u2019t learn to love themselves by reading a dense book, but by being embraced and told they\u2019re beautiful by someone they love. This applies to everyone, not just sexual minorities.<\/p>\n
\nThere are people like me who can attain self-affirmation on their own by reading a \u201cdense book,\u201d and I feel close to students that can do that, but I wonder if self-affirmation is necessary in the first place. There are a lot of students who, when they hear about \u201csuccess stories,\u201d assume they can\u2019t be happy unless they learn to accept and convince themselves there\u2019s nothing wrong with them. As a result, many of them ask how they can achieve self-affirmation. But whether its heterosexuals or cisgender people (people whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex), people from all walks of life live while thinking their deficient in some way.
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I think it\u2019s okay because people can live without self-affirmation. It\u2019s a burden to obsess yourself with the idea that you need to learn to accept yourself. I want to tell students who feel they can\u2019t accept themselves that \u201cI don\u2019t think you need to become an amazing person, nor do I think you need to be in order to be happy. You don\u2019t have to be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s a weird paradox, because self-affirmation includes the acceptance of one\u2019s deficient attributes.<\/p>\n