Inequality of Women in Kendo.
I have to ask: how do you do it?
In so much of the modern western world, it has been forced that women are treated equally to men...At least, that is what is SUPPOSED to happen, and though we know it doesn't always happen and there is sometimes still the glass ceiling thing to deal with, for the most part it is there. Apparently, however, in Japanese martial arts even if they take place here in the west (I am in Canada) they are still treated as being beneath the men.
I have had a hard time of things as it is; I have been practicing Kendo for about 15 months now. Men who come into the club are into bogu after about 2 months of classes...Sometimes less. They are not being graded by in-club requirements or anything, but I am. I am the ONLY female in my club.
Sounds like it could be that 'hey, Khel is just not ready for bogu', right? I could be seeing sexism where there is none...Except this past Sunday it was flat out said; in Japan, women have no position in Kendo. When we line up now, it goes Bogu men (meaning males), Men with Hakama/Gi but no men, and then everyone else according to age...And then, at the very end, right after the little nine year old boy who has taken three classes---the women. In this case, me. As of Sunday it is official and -stated-, not implied or concluded by me but actually stated, that any male in the class regardless of their position, rage, rank, how long they have been in Kendo or the club, hereby has seniority over me. They are even having people who have taken a grand total of 4 classes 'teach' the new people who have been coming in lately, whereas before I was the one introducing them to basic footwork and how to hold chudan. Now I do not have the seniority needed to do that, answer questions, etc.
This has been a major blow to my already aching self-confidence when it comes to Kendo. My classes are and have been what they were the first day---for 15 months I have heard 'and this is how you hold your feet' and so on and so forth. They talk down to me and then wonder why my confidence goes down. They take people who JUST join the club and elevate them above me. Hell, when positions opened in the club leadership? I volunteered, but rather than even CONSIDER me (I actually have experience running the things they needed run), they instead chose to approach a guy who had, at that point, been to maybe 10 classes. And they put him in bogu and elevated him above the rest of us.
Ladies, how do you DO it? How can you succeed when we are treated this way? How have women managed to succeed in the art at all when we're viewed as inferior to them? Why is the Canadian Kendo Federation -supporting- this kind of thing? What am I supposed to do. I have had a hard time believing I can succeed, and lately I feel as if the art itself is intentionally trying to keep me away. I can't approach the teachers about my concerns; first of all, we are not allowed to ask questions without having negative consequences if they are not in SUPPORT of everything going on and second, it is my teachers who are RULING that women have no seniority in Kendo.
Worst of all is that we have a seminar coming up...Two senseis, Johnsons Sensei and Hogi Sensei - I think from Toronto, are coming and now I feel like instead of it being something to look forward to that it's just going to be an event at which I am debased and humiliated. I don't know what to do. I don't want to LEAVE Kendo, and I know this sounds stupid but the 'feeling' I get the more I think about this, the more I think that this is just plain WRONG and not the way it's supposed to be. I'm not supposed to feel like this nor be treated like it. Yes, in ancient Japan maybe women weren't Samurai at all..But that was then, this is now, and this is Canada and not Japan.
Please help, I need advice and most of all, women to talk to.
Originally Posted by Khelkhet
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