Ouch weblog: individual blog entry
5 Apr 07, 3:50 PM - Disabled men are ladies
If you take a look at our public toilets in Britain, you'd be forgiven for thinking there are three sexes: male, female and disabled. If you look at trains in Japan, you'd be forgiven for thinking that all disabled people are 'ladies'.
before 2000, sleazy male train passengers known as 'chikans' were regularly groping their fellow female commuters in the tightly packed carriages of Japan. A solution was found: female only carriages.
These carriages, less packed than the non-specific female carriages, also allowed disabled passengers in.
This week, the Japan Federation of the Blind are to make it more widely known that disabled people are also allowed in these set-side areas.
Visually impaired men in particular, who don't necessarily know they're boarding a female designated carriage, are often challenged by women and told to get out ... though they are entitled to be there.
We think disabled people are allowed in the lady cars because of the extra space ... but it could be because Japanese men also like groping the disabled.
So, disabled men out there, how masculine do you feel right now? Public loos and trains are questioning your gender or even your sexuality? Can you deal with it? Are you still reaching for the Lynx in the mornings or Soft & Gentle?
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