navigating trans misogyny in the Japanese lesbian community…
translation: Accepting participants for the Ibaraki Lesbian Outdoor Meetup ★ [ …… ] Women loving women, FtMs, non-binary people & those questioning, let’s relax and chat together! However, this time only those who are registered as single and female on their family register are allowed, sorry. (Trying to gradually be a little more lax, but… ?) ….and THIS is why i almost always end up having to go all the way to Tokyo to participate in stuff, because the most (seemingly) active part of the LGBT community here (the lesbian community) is so goddamn transphobic. for the last two meetups, the OP was like “no trans women, sorry!” and that was the end of it. this time it doesn’t even mention trans women at all, only providing enough wiggle room for trans men and non-binary people provided they have “F” on their family register… am i or people like me supposed to…
Q&A: “Is there a word for non-binary in Japanese that you know of?”
anonymous said: I’m going to be moving to Japan in a couple of months for work, and I am non-binary. Is there a word for non-binary in Japanese that you know of? Also, I usually use 私 in school/professional settings but I tend to use 僕 and more masculine language around my friends that know Japanese. Is it advisable to use pronouns like this or should I just use female pronouns even though I barely identify with female? I will probably be in a fairly rural area. (would you mind tagging as w so i can find?) hi and welcome to Japan in advance. 🙂 Xジェンダー / x-gender is the Japanese equivalent of non-binary. just as with the word non-binary in English speaking countries, the majority of people in Japan will have never heard of the word Xジェンダー unless you’re in trans friendly / aware spaces. the word exists and…
gender non-conformity sure does make for good entertainment for cis people, huh Japan?
i was going to do my usual live-tweet thing where i vent my frustrations with various things i see on Japanese TV on Twitter, but i took too many photo receipts and have too much to say for Twitter, so i’ll just blurb about it here. warning: long post ahead full of many hastily taken cellphone photos of my tv. mobile users, i am so soooo sorry. trigger warning: offensive ignorance, transphobia
transphobia & non-binary erasure in Japanese media
on Twitter i live-tweet my frustrations with various things i see on Japanese TV, including how trans and non-binary celebs are treated. the downside to this is that tweets quickly get lost in my timeline and then it’s a pain in the ass to dig them back up if/when i want to reference them. this post is me digging up some of those tweets and putting them here for my own ease of reference and so others can see examples of transphobia & non-binary erasure in Japanese media.
…the things i do to not be a ひきこもり (その①)
ahhh, okay so i just need to vent. feel free to ignore this. someone in an Xジェンダー (Japanese non-binary) group that i’m in posted a link to a party being held in Tokyo on the 26th. there’s often some kinda of gay (literally always with fine print saying ‘men only’) or lesbian (literally always with fine print saying ‘women only’) event going on in Tokyo. more recently there are events aimed at trans men– but anyway, the point is i’m none of those things. and i haven’t really cared that much because i’m the definition of introversion. i have zero interest in night life and all of these events always happen at night. why is it that LGBTQ events more often than not involve late nights, loud music and copious amounts of alcohol??? moving on.
just got back from a local LGBT meetup…
25 or so people where there, 2 of which were gaijin/foreigners to my surprise! w00t! we went to a national park nearby, saw the sights and had a picnic. i had a great time, much more so than the last meetup i went to. that said, every single time i meet up with a group of cis LGB+ people i’m reminded how much they really don’t understand / know. even if they’re really awesome people who are really kind and with whom you can discuss other stuff with, when it comes to stuff that’s trans and/or non-binary related… yeah. no. now that i’ve successfully gotten my foot in the door with the local LGB community, i really hope to connect more with the T and non-binary/gender variant part of the community… 茨城県ではXジェンダーの人が意外に多いらしい。今から頑張って地本のXジェンダーやトランスの人と繋ぎたいと思う。(*￣ー￣)
