Ash Hardell’s “The ABC’s of LGBT+” in Japanese!
…..annnd look what i randomly* stumbled across at the bookstore tonight. Ash Hardell’s “The ABC’s of LGBT+” in Japanese! even Amazon Japan doesn’t seem to have it yet, but somehow Kinokuniya has it? which makes absolutely no sense, but hey! not complaining. it’s a complete translation of Ash Hardell’s book, including a lot of ace and non-binary terminology such as aceflex, quoiromantic, genderfluid and maverique transliterated phonetically into Japanese approximates.** even the [English] pronouns section is translated into Japanese, which i kinda have feelings about as to how helpful that and / or phonetic translations will be for Japanese people who will be approaching this book from a cultural and linguistic context that is not the same as that of a native English / germanic or romance language speaker. that said, at a glance, there does seem to be added explaination of English grammar to help non-English speakers better understand gender…
Q&A: “I just saw how to say you’re non-binary in Japanese and it was super exciting for me…”
anonymous said: Hi. I just saw the ask you answered about how to say you’re non-binary in Japanese and it was super exciting for me to see. I’m a non-binary teen living in Japan, and it’s amazing to see that because it’s a sign that there is an active community of non-binary people that is large enough for these words to exist. It’s wonderful. ( re: this post ) hello, anon. thanks for stopping by to drop me this ask because it’s exciting for me to hear that my post was able to reach someone like you. awesome! while awareness of Xジェンダー people still has a long way to go in Japan (as it does for non-binary people around the world), there definitely are active Xジェンダー people in Japan. in Japanese, many describe themself as MtX, FtX, Xジェンダー or any of the other terms i mentioned in the post that you…
Japanese gender / queer theory, anyone?
…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.
Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2017: TOKYO
random glimpses of rainbows around Shibuya & Shinjuku. should’ve gone to Odaiba too, チェッ… see also: FESTA | PARADE | ACES & ENBIES
TFW Train Queering™
tfw reading queer theory late at night on the train ride back home after a non-binary / trans end-of-the-year party in Tokyo.
Q&A not Q&A: “So there’s a book called Ashlesha by Jer Keene that has an aro/ace character…”
libentianimo said: So there’s a book called Ashlesha by Jer Keene that has an aro/ace character. As in, they EXPLICITLY say the word aromantic and asexual to describe him, and explain what aromantic and asexual mean. Nearly all of the characters are queer-some are bi, some are gay, some are undefined, there’s a nonbinary trans character, and the majority(including the main character) are people of colour. The plot is amazing, too-scifi meets political conspiracies meets action thriller. It’s absolutely AMAZING. this is the book, i believe? it does sound interesting and has a lot of positive reviews on Amazon. thank you for the recommendation. 🙂
本の紹介:「Xジェンダーって何？」
screaming! rushing out the door on my way to work i found a totally unexpected package in my mail box which turned out to be this book! the first ever (in so far as i know) book in Japan written by, about and for non-binary people in Japan! the book is the product of crowdfunding by the non-binary group Label X well over a year ago and i totally forgot that the book was said to be released around now. the book isn’t available on Amazon (not at the moment anyway), but it can be found online here and the book will be sold in bookstores! how amazing is that?! really is exciting times right now. 🙂 i’m at work right now so can’t look over the book at all and will be working overtime all week, but i look forward to checking out the book more thoroughly this weekend.…
Snapchat rant #457
…..in which i Snapchat rant about how uncomfortable / exasperating it is as a black person reading books etc with black characters in it to my young Japanese students. Tumblr forced me to upload the video externally because of the file size, so i put it on the QAC YouTube channel unlisted, but i don’t care if anyone shares it elsewhere. also, i swear me posting random, annoying Snapchat rants on here or on YouTube isn’t going to become a thing. i just have to share this last one. ;(
Q&A: “have you read any books with non-binary characters in them?”
anonymous said: Hey, Vesper, have you read any books with non-binary characters in them? I found several on amazon Kindle, which is super exciting, but I’m also kinda wary of them. i’m afraid i haven’t had the time or energy to read much of anything for a long while now, so i haven’t read anything with non-binary characters in it apart from webcomics… i can’t personally vouch for the content of any of these lists, but perhaps these book lists from GoodReads.com and the reviews on them will help you find quality books to read? Non-Binary and Genderqueer Characters in YA Fiction Non-Binary (Genderqueer, Genderfluid, Gender-Unspecified, etc) Fiction and Memoirs Gender Non-Binary Fantasy & Science Fiction oh, and: 17 Pathbreaking Non-Binary and Gender-Fluid Novels (not from GoodReads) i totally understand being wary or apprehensive of reading anything with a supposed non-binary character in it. :/ i’d be inclined to research the…
QAC 45 – Forced Out of the Closet: 2 Years Later | Coming Out Again (Non-Binary Bi / Pan Asexual)
it’s been 2 years since i was forced out of the closet by my mom; it’s been 5 months since my last video about how things are going with my family. this video is long, but it’s also long overdue. the past 5 months have been an emotional roller coaster. from breaking off communication with my mom, to coming out to my sister as bi / panromantic, to being met with further attempts at invalidation, to being “home” for the holidays, to coming out as non-binary to my sister, to FINALLY being referred to by my real name…. 2 years later, things are finally looking up. kind of. only time will tell what 2016 will bring. TRIGGER WARNING for sexual abuse & child abuse with a time jump point in the video itself so you can safely watch and skip the trigger. […] long video is long, but that’s what…
