Coexisting with the Body: Dialogues on the Self and Body in the 21st Century
13th session "Reclaiming the Body: Beyond Objectification and Evaluation"

Starting in July 2025, we will launch a new series titled "Coexisting with the Body: Dialogues on the Self and Body in the 21st Century." This series is co-organized by a JSPS KAKENHI (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research) project (Grant Number 23K12596) and the University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy (UTCP).

For this series, we will welcome speakers who are engaged in diverse research and activities broadly related to the concept of the "body" across various specialized fields, including philosophy, anthropology, sociology, medicine, psychology, fashion, theater, and music.
Through their lectures and interviews, we aim to explore questions such as "How do we engage with the alterity of our own bodies?" and "What factors define the unique perspectives on the body in contemporary society?" We also hope to foster discussions that can lead to insights for addressing the various conflicts people face regarding their bodies in modern times.

13th session "Reclaiming the Body: Beyond Objectification and Evaluation"

Speakers:
Nao Yoshino (Japanese Plus-size Model / Essayist) and Mariana LYS (Japanese Plus-size Model / Body Positivity Activist)

Interviewer:
Rie Yamada (UTCP)

Date: 2:00-4:00 PM, Saturday, January 31st, 2026
Location: EAA Seminar Room. Bldg 101, University of Tokyo KomabaⅠCampus and Zoom
Register(In-person): Please register via Google Form
Register(online): Please register via Zoom

　　The body is both who I am and a site of self-expression. At the same time, it is something constantly exposed to the gaze of others—spoken about, interpreted, and defined in someone else’s words. It is seen, measured, displayed, and continually evaluated. Through concepts such as “beauty,” “normality,” “health,” and “attractiveness,” bodies are often captured within fixed frameworks and placed into hierarchies.
　　　Then, how can we distance ourselves from practices that objectify the body and reclaim the ability to live our own bodies as our own?
　　　In the thirteenth session of this series, we welcome Nao Yoshino and Mariana LYS, who have long engaged in expressive practices—both visual and linguistic—as plus-size models. Drawing on their lived experiences, this dialogue will explore how bodies can negotiate social gazes and standards of beauty, and how they might move beyond evaluation and objectification to reclaim their own meanings.

Nao Yoshino(Plus-size Model / Essayist)
Born in 1986. Yoshino made her modeling debut in 2013 in the inaugural issue of La Farfa, Japan’s first plus-size fashion magazine. Having experienced an eating disorder herself, she is also active as an essayist. She has contributed columns to numerous media outlets, and her publications include Turning Complexes Upside Down (Complex o Hikkurikaesu, Junposha).
https://www.naoyoshino.com/

Mariana LYS(Japanese Plus-Size Model / Body Positivity Activist)
Mariana LYS began her career as a plus-size model in the fall of 2018. Through encountering the body-positive movement, she experienced—for the first time—a sense of being able to live as her “true self.” Based on this experience, she now works under the theme of “body positivity that enables people to become their authentic selves.”
Her activities extend internationally, and she is the first Japanese plus-size model to have appeared in fashion shows held during fashion week in the United States.

Organized by:
JSPS KAKENHI "A Study on the Social Problematization of Tattoos and the Categorization of Tattoos as Fashion" (Principal Investigator: Rie Yamada, Grant Number 23K12596)

Co-organized by:
University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy (UTCP), Uehiro Research Division for Philosophy of Co-existence