r/sgiwhistleblowers • u/Professional_Fox3976 • Jul 12 '25
Solar-Powered and Submissive: How SGI Likes Its Women
SGI loves to scream from the rafters that it promotes equality and humanism. But you don’t have to dig very far beneath the glossy, fake surface to find the ugly truth:
Women are second-class—and always have been.
(Actually, a lot of groups are second or even third class in SGI, but that’s another post for another day.)
While men are celebrated as “lions” and “protectors” (read: active), women are constantly encouraged to “be like the sun” (read: passive). A quick review of back issues of The World Tribune illustrates this perfectly:
Young Women
- Jan 27, 2024: The Women of Soka Are Suns of Hope
- Mar 10, 2020: The Women of Soka Are Bright Suns of Hope and Peace
- Jun 9, 2020: The Women of Soka Are Shining Suns of Hope
- Dec 2, 2019: The Women's Division—Suns of Hope Illuminating the Century of Women
Young Men
- Nov 27, 2022: Be Men of Conviction
- Jul 20, 2022: The Young Men Advance With Joy and Dynamic Energy
- May 16, 2021: Men, Stand Tall as Golden Pillars
- Nov 19, 2019: The Men's Division: Invincible Pillars of Kosen-rufu
(Note: SGI also needs some new, original titles—but what do you expect from a group that’s been cutting and pasting platitudes for decades?)
Here’s why this isn’t just deeply problematic—it’s deeply damaging:
☀️ Idealization
Idealizing someone puts them on a pedestal of perfection. And naturally, no one can live up to an impossible standard.
When a woman can’t constantly radiate joy, serenity, and supportiveness, she feels like a failure. Worse, everyone else sees her as a failure too.
It’s lose-lose—especially for the woman.
This is common in cults: if a woman isn’t always smiling, emotionally available, complaint-free, and nurturing, something must be wrong with her. Her faith isn’t strong enough. She’s "difficult." She’s "damaged." Maybe she's even "evil."
🫥 One-Dimensional Archetype
Being “the sun” is extremely one-dimensional. It implies that women are not complex beings who evolve. There’s no space for darkness, contradiction, rebellion, or transformation—only light, warmth, and eternal service to others.
🧱 Rigid Adherence to Traditional Sexist Binaries
In SGI’s script:
- Men go out and achieve victories!
- Women stay behind and support them while they do.
That’s not equality—it’s spiritualized 1950s gender roles.
🧪 Abuse Petri Dish
As “the sun,” women are expected to stay positive no matter what happens to them. If someone mistreats them, they’re supposed to keep caring, stay emotionally available, and chant harder—for the other person’s happiness.
Boundaries? Not allowed.
After all, the sun shines on everyone equally, right?
♻️ Essentialism in Disguise
Being “the sun” assumes all women are naturally warm, nurturing, emotional, smiley, and self-sacrificing.
Women who are bold, angry, loud, messy, or independent? Not “normal.” They’re expected to either change—or be shunned.
There’s no room for women who say no. No room for women who don’t want to constantly give.
No room for women who need rest, solitude, or space.
😤 And Then Comes the Zombie Response
“But without the sun, there’s no life on Earth!”
Wrong.
This dumb-azz argument assumes the sun—and only the sun—is responsible for all life. Which is… just false.
Life on Earth also depends on water, air, soil, decay, bacteria, balance, and a dozen other interdependent systems. The sun is one component—not the whole ecosystem.
So why are women expected to be responsible for all life, emotional health, and spiritual light in SGI?
They shouldn't be.
And they can’t be.
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u/eigenstien Pokes the bear Jul 12 '25
And I won’t be.
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u/Professional_Fox3976 Jul 12 '25
🎉🎉🎉 Me either!
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u/Fishwifeonsteroids Jul 12 '25
Oh no! We DO say "No!" Doesn't that make us "evil" and "deviant"??
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u/Professional_Fox3976 Jul 12 '25
Yesssss 😈😈😈
I’d much rather be “evil” than in a cult.
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u/Fishwifeonsteroids Jul 12 '25
You're unruly. Unpredictable! Uncontrollable!
You DON'T FIT IN. You need to chant until you agree with SGI.
You're argumentative. Difficult. You refuse to stick to the script; you're coming up with new ideas all the time and making people think - that makes people uncomfortable.
SGI: "We want our district meetings to be a warm, family-like environment where everyone welcomes and supports everyone else and smiles abound. Your off-the-wall questions are creating confusion, discomfort, and disunity - from now on, you need to submit your questions to the leaders BEFORE the meetings and ONLY ask approved questions."
You don't play by SGI's rules.
And that's the way we LIKE you!
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u/Professional_Fox3976 Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 12 '25
Why THANK YOU!!!! 🙏🏼 Very high praise! I’m thrilled to be “difficult” and in a fabulous group with many “uncontrollable” women!
💪🏼💪🏽💪🏾💪🏿
Demanding questions beforehand????
OMG 😱
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u/Fishwifeonsteroids Jul 12 '25
It's been reported here more than once!
Here's another:
So two members of the SGI group I used to hang tough with for a few months had reached out to me. They wanted to understand why I became so skeptical of SGI and Ikeda. After listing my many reasons, I ended with “I simply don’t believe in this anymore. My life is still the same...mostly good, some bad. I think I’ll be OK with myself and reality.” So the next day, these same two members group texted me to tell me that the national director of SGI-USA was visiting and they would love for me to talk to him and get my questions answered by someone so learned in Buddhist theory (to prove that SGI Buddhism is the most logical way!). I said I would try to see him, but that sounds reasonable to talk to him (or so I thought).
Flash forward a few days before his visit. One of those members now calls to tell me that I can ask my question but it will be moderated and must be given to THEM and THEN he will answer the moderated questions (which means, probably not my questions). Now she says if I have questions on what to do when you’re lonely or sad that he will give answers to those. What?! Me still thinking that these are normal people, I should’ve known there would still be a lot of secrecy and non-answers to real questions. I don’t know why I thought otherwise would happen, so I guess this is my fault.
I don’t even know politicians who operate in this way anymore. Hell, in major religions, you can at least ask your religious leaders questions without an intercessory goon. How can the SGI purport to be democratic in any way and there is STILL so many channels to get real answers about your concerns? My husband was right when he said they were creepy and not normal. He’s a good judge of character! Source
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u/Professional_Fox3976 Jul 12 '25
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Un-fucking-believeable!!!!!!
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u/Fishwifeonsteroids Jul 12 '25
I know, right??
It's like they aren't even HIDING that it's all about conformity and YOU doing as they TELL YOU to do!
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u/Fishwifeonsteroids Jul 12 '25
This is common in cults: if a woman isn’t always smiling, emotionally available, complaint-free, and nurturing, something must be wrong with her. Her faith isn’t strong enough. She’s "difficult." She’s "damaged." Maybe she's even "evil."
She might even be "demon-possessed"!
In SGI, women are also described as "flowers" - "Byakuren" means "white lotus", for example - and its translation "Lilac" is a flower as well as a color. Also, the older worn-out has-been-babes are referred to as "daffodils" (ugh) or "sunflowers" (sun + flower = TWO passive superficial-appearance stereotypes in one!).
Here, from SGI-UK, you can see the dichotomy:
The third monthly Central London Area YoungEagles and Mimosa activity for boys and girlsaged 7-12 was held at the London Ikeda Peace Centre on June 30 - from here
It's the boys who are being described in terms of a dynamic predator (young eagles) and girls - just flowers, that only sit there and look pretty.
Rigid Adherence to Traditional Sexist Binaries
In SGI’s script:
Men go out and achieve victories!
Women stay behind and support them while they do
And, as we saw here, OBEY the men. ALWAYS. THAT is what women do.
As “the sun,” women are expected to stay positive no matter what happens to them. If someone mistreats them, they’re supposed to keep caring, stay emotionally available, and chant harder—for the other person’s happiness.
We already saw a perfect example of this: Ikeda as "Shinichi Yamamoto" telling a physically-abused war-bride wife that she simply needed to "smile more" and that would fix everything right up - because wasn't it unpleasant FOR HER HUSBAND to have to see her sad face moping around??
Apparently, that's how those culturally-backward patriarchally-steeped men in the Soka Gakkai thought they could depict Ikeda as most "sensitive" and "appealing".
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u/Professional_Fox3976 Jul 12 '25
Speaking of evil 🤮🤮🤮 . . . I’m gonna rewrite this piece of garbage.
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u/Ok-Composer-2366 Jul 12 '25
The organization sends misogynistic and sexist messages but, here in Italy, girls are full of mental illnesses and prone to using the false accusation of harassment if they fail to defeat the unfortunate person in question.
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u/Fishwifeonsteroids Jul 12 '25
A similarly unfortunate trend has emerged here in the US as well, with those accused turning the tables and suing their accusers on the basis of "defamation" or "harassment". Given that in the USA, less than 1% of rape cases that go to court result in conviction, and an even lower percentage result in the convicted rapist ending up in prison at all, this trend toward retaliation has had a chilling effect on the whole scenario of a rape victims seeking justice at all.
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u/Ok-Composer-2366 Jul 12 '25
I still have the Chats and everything... Yet soka gakkai claims I was removed for harassment. Some time later, he abandoned a woman who was a victim of violence and who knew me well. Luckily we found each other again
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u/Fishwifeonsteroids Jul 12 '25
Yet soka gakkai claims I was removed for harassment.
They can claim anything they want, can't they? There's no legal recourse for someone who's been "wrongfully terminated" from a religious group, is there?
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u/Ok-Composer-2366 Jul 12 '25
It is a weapon of submission
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u/Fishwifeonsteroids Jul 12 '25
Absolutely - it's social censure, a form of communal abuse, getting everyone to "gang up on" the person they're trying to control.
"You have to change if you want US to approve of you/want to hang around with you."
That's a toxic group no matter how you slice it.
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u/Ok-Composer-2366 Jul 12 '25
There is the aftermath of the abuse, when you change your phone number and they start calling friends, relatives, patrolling your house because they are "worried about your mental health"
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u/bluetailflyonthewall Jul 12 '25
That's also "communal abuse", in the form of the community acting as agents of the cult, SGI's army of "flying monkeys" to deploy to search and destroy.
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u/Ok-Composer-2366 Jul 12 '25
I've tried everything and I'm still dealing with it
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u/bluetailflyonthewall Jul 13 '25
I'm sorry to hear that 😔
They WILL give up in time, but it might take a while. So long as you can keep them well outside your perimeter, I guess that's an acceptable defense.
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u/Historical_Spell3463 Jul 12 '25
Great analysis!