nearly a year ago i sat down for an interview with the amazing Dandy of @dotellpodcast, a podcast that was created to make a safe space for queer people of color to tell their stories. each week a new episode featuring someone’s intensely personal story is released and this week’s episode is mine. while i certainly wouldn’t hesitate to recommend any one of the other episodes of the #DoTell Podcast, especially to fellow QPOC looking to hear the stories of other QPOC, i can’t help but feel obligated to forewarn you that my episode is fifty-some-odd minutes of me quite literally spilling my guts to the world… and i absolutely will not be offended if you find my guts to be uninteresting and would prefer to tippy-toe through it. as such, here are few jump points? 00:00 ~ introduction 03:34 ~ how i ended up in Japan 05:01 ~ dysfunctional…
…so i randomly went to Book Off (used bookstore) today after work and happened to find two used books on gender studies / gender theory that not only ① explicitly discuss binarism and how society ignores those who are neither of the binary genders (male / female) nor either of the binary sexualities (gay / straight)– there’s also ② explicit mention of asexuality and the alphabet soup where the acronym LGBTIAQ is used and I is defined as “Intersex”, A as “Asexual” and Q as “Queer”. notably, these books were published in ① 2013 & ② 2006 and are original works by Japanese authors rather than books imported into Japan and translated into Japanese. below are super rough (because i’m starving, exhausted and need to go to bed damnit) English translations for the above snippets.
fourth year and counting of Ace Spec Japan and friends meeting up at TRP. ? see also: TOKYO | FESTA | PARADE
when you turn and see someone’s face as they lose composure while looking your way as you approach them, you know it was all worth it. (featuring photos by: @7a6u3, @gonoi and @mom1615) see also: TOKYO | FESTA | ACES & ENBIES
if only ten photos or even four posts of photos were enough to capture the spirit of #TRP2017. see also: TOKYO | PARADE | ACES & ENBIES
random glimpses of rainbows around Shibuya & Shinjuku. should’ve gone to Odaiba too, チェッ… see also: FESTA | PARADE | ACES & ENBIES
if you’re unfamiliar with ace terminology in Japanese, it may come as some surprise to you to know that Aセクシャル / アセクシャル, the Japanese word that is phonetically equivalent to and derived from the English word “asexual”, does not mean what “asexual” means in English. while it is used at times as an umbrella term to refer to all aces, it’s often used both by aces and non-aces alike to refer specifically to what English speakers now commonly refer to as “aromantic asexuals”– or rather, people who experience neither sexual nor romantic attraction. Japanese speakers use a different word entirely to refer to people who do not experience sexual attraction but who do experience romantic attraction: ノンセクシャル, a word that is phonetically equivalent to and derived from the English word “nonsexual”… despite the fact that word means something entirely different in English. as this linguistic and cultural discrepancy is something that affects me personally not…
ie. that time when a women’s sex toy store promoted much needed awareness of diversity at Tokyo Rainbow Pride, but due to incredibly poor research on their part as well as a language barrier that is not their fault, inadvertently ended up spreading damaging misinformation about intersex people, polysexuality and ‘skoliosexuality’, among other things. and of course i kind of went off on Twitter about it because that’s what i do when i’m not going off about something on Tumblr instead. like every year, Love Piece Club, a very well known Tokyo-based shop and website for women, had a booth at Tokyo Rainbow Pride this year. at past Prides that i’ve been to (both in and outside of Tokyo) they have been one of (if not The) Only booth(s) selling miscellaneous small goods (badges, stickers, etc) in more than just rainbow flag colors. because of that, i know that they have…
a recap of Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2017 via my Twitter account(s). the tweet(s) about the pamphlet showcasing various flags by Love Piece Club will be the subject of the next post…