NJCU’s Visual Arts Gallery reopens its door to a new exhibit called “Tomorrow Girls Troop: We Can Do It!” from November 14th to December 18th. The Tomorrow Girls Troop (明日少女隊/ TGT) is an anonymous fourth-wave feminist group whose mission strives for equal rights for women and LGBTQ+ people in East Asia. The group members wear pink masks that mimic a combination of a rabbit and a silkworm. In Asia, rabbits are described as fragile, docile, and weak animals, which are characteristics that align with the Eastern standards of a “desirable woman.” In a DAZED interview with TGT, one member said how a lot of Japanese women see themselves as rabbits because “The rabbit is smart but powerless.” TGT’s silkworm inspirations come from homage to sericulture, a job labeled as “women’s work,” and the Japanese mythology of the goddess Oogetsuhime. Together, the two animals, along with adopting aliases of Asian female artists (dead or alive), create a persona that gives Asian women the privacy and autonomy to defy Eastern social norms and fight for their rights. TGT is predominantly based in Japan, South Korea, and China.
The group started in Japan in 2015, posting commentary videos and critiquing Japanese commercials and magazines that romanticize the idea of a “typical Japanese woman/mom/girlfriend” that fits the male gaze on their social media. From there, TGT covered multiple topics in East Asia regarding increasing sexual assault prison sentences, transgender rights, abortion rights, and the untold history of “comfort women” through performance art.
From 1932 to 1945, the Japanese Imperial Army subjected tens of thousands of women to military prostitution brothels. Many victims were from Korea, China, and Japanese territories at the time. While countries like South Korea and the USA acknowledged comfort women’s history, Japan has never acknowledged their existence. Because of this, TGT collaborated with Japanese artist Yoshiko Shimada to perform “Against Forgetting” in 2018 in Japan, Seoul, and Los Angeles. The demonstration showcased TGT members and volunteers marching towards Shimada, painted and dressed in gold to depict a statue commemorating the comfort woman, handing her sunflowers and hugging her as a sign of acknowledgment and support towards the victims. This performance can be seen in the NJCU Visual Arts Gallery.
If you’d like to learn more about comfort women, please click the links below:
https://www.history.com/news/comfort-women-japan-military-brothels-korea
The Tomorrow Girls Troop fights for equality for women and LGBTQIA+ people all over East Asia, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t ready to stand by the West in the battle for equality. In the NJCU gallery, you’ll see protest signs used by TGT members in Los Angeles’s 2017 Women’s March. Recently, one of the US-based TGT members protested in Washington D.C. for abortion rights days after Donald Trump was officially announced as the winner of the 2024 Presidential election. They also just finished their East Coast Tour, opening exhibits and holding lectures in colleges in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, informing the next generation on women’s rights in the East and how they relate to gender issues in the US. If you missed the TGT’s artist talk in NJCU, a video documenting the entire panel will be uploaded soon. But! Don’t wait till that video to learn more about Tomorrow Girls Troop’s achievements and progress. Come to NJCU’s Visual Arts Gallery and see it for yourself. Learn more about the Tomorrow Girls Troop on their Instagram and website. (Also! TGT has a special interactive art piece YOU can be a part of. Please ask the art assistant for more details 😊)
Learn more about the Tomorrow Girls Troop on their Instagram and website.
