since some people said they’d be interested in hearing about my experience at a “lesbian night” event at a local gay bar this past weekend…. here’s a tl;dr word vomit post about the night that can pretty much be summarized as: i had a good time, but awkwardness was awkward and culture shock was shocking, as always in Japanese LGBT spaces.
[cross-posted in part to Ace Spec Japan] had a great time at the ace meetup today. there was a great turn out and it was nice to see some new faces. it’s amazing to see how much the group has grown in 3 years, especially since it’s mostly happened via word of mouth and Tumblr. personally, i always enjoy the stimulating conversations (and rant sessions) that are much harder to have with most Japanese people for various reasons…. looking forward to the next meetup! although at this point, i’m not sure when that’ll be. hoping that i’ll be able to visit the Kansai area sooner than later and organize a meetup down there as well because it feels rather… unfair? that all the meetups and such have thus far only be held in Kanto, which is out of reach for some. plus i just really want to visit Kansai, damnit. oh…
nextstepcake: queerascat: nextstepcake: queerascat: anonymous said: Hey Vesper! I have a question. I’ve noticed that within the nonbinary and larger trans and queer and so forth communities, some nonbinary genders seem to get more recognition than others. Some- especially maverique as I’ve noticed- are hardly known of by many other nonbinary and/or trans people, while others such are gaining recognition in trans, nb, and other circles much more quickly in comparison. Why do you think some nb genders are becoming more well known than other nb genders? hi anon, this is a really tough question. not just because of how subjective it is (i mean, what even counts as ‘recognition’, let alone what counts as ‘more’ or ‘more quickly’), but also because there are an infinite number of factors involved in why any non-binary gender gets any amount of recognition at all. imho, some non-binary genders are more commonly recognized…
anonymous said: Are there any (commonly used?) gender neutral pronouns in Japanese like there are in English? I love your blog btw, your posts about Japanese are fascinating 🙂 (see also: this post) ah, thank you! although at this point i feel the need to throw out a huge disclaimer. [image reads: i’m totally a non-fluent, non-native speaker of Japanese and as such, i might not even know wtf i’m talking about! :’D but thank you for asking anyway! – Vesper] anyway, i’m inclined to say no, there are no gender neutral pronouns in Japanese like there are in English. in English, “gender neutral pronouns” generally refers to third-person pronouns used by one person to refer to another person. in Japanese, third-person pronouns aren’t used anywhere near as frequently as in English and it’s relatively easy to avoid gendering a person without using actual third-person pronouns at all, making gender neutral third-person…
anonymous said: How do I tell someone I’m non-binary in Japanese?
…i’d normally limit this to a few whingey tweets on Twitter, but since dad is currently snooping around my social media accounts… might as well be thoroughly whingey on here.
content warning: pathologization / medicalization of being trans; non-binary erasure; death mention (below) while i don’t agree with everything in this article (from how things are presented or worded to more factual things), this article is still representative of the sad truth that i’m continually navigating as a non-binary person in Japan. from the way that trans people themselves here actively embrace and rally behind Gender Identity Disorder (GID) not only as a medical condition but as an identity to how pathologized & medicalized literally everything surrounding being trans is here and how that can make things especially difficult for non-binary / Xジェンダー people, even when interacting with people in the trans community which is full of transmedicalism. the blatant non-binary erasure (dare i say enbyphobia) demonstrated by the head of the largest trans / GID organization in this country illustrates that perfectly in this article. “I reject the notion of…
…sigh. you know, i really want to be happy about these LGBTQIA 4-koma comics that Chii is doing to try and help raise awareness for lesser known genders and sexualities, but gah. i just can’t. because i suck. the linked comic that went up a couple days ago about Xジェンダー / non-binary is the last one i’m going to whinge over, i swear. for now. but first, an English translation of the comic to give context to my whinging. What’s “X-gender”? Xジェンダー (X-gender) people who, without deciding between “male” or “female”, take the stance or identity of being neither gender. referred to as “MtX” if designated “male” at birth and “FtX” if designated “female” at birth, however also referred to simply as “X” when not wanting to refer to one’s designated gender at birth. there are many definitions, but it goes something like this. red and white*: i want to be between male and female.…
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…
anonymous said: so, i’m a non-binary (more specifically trans-masculine) person and sometimes i feel weird calling myself bi/pan? like, i have a hard time figuring out what to call my sexuality, since i feel that many of the labels for sexuality aren’t really designed with nb people in mind. i just… don’t know if you’ve ever had similar feelings? oh definitely, i have felt that way before. in fact, i was at a non-binary meeting yesterday and this was a subject that came up. some people took no issue with bi, while others did. there was talk of how pan was coined in response to (the assumption of) bi being binarist and erasing or exclusionary of non-binary people and how people felt about that. some felt it was a good thing that pan was coined, others had no opinion as they don’t identify as either and were sorely missing the…
