#nonbinary in japan

[crossdreamers]

Why the tiger has become a transgender symbol in Japan

Gay Breakfast Pin Club writes:

Recently we learned about how some trans folks in Japan like to use tigers as a symbol for the trans community. It's a pun: Tora [虎] is the Japanese word for tiger, and when you sound out "trans" in katakana it basically starts with "tora." To-ra-n-su [トランス].

Toransu is clearly a loan word from English ("trans") that has been adapted to Japanese pronunciation (adding vowels/vowel epenthesis helps you avoid unpronounceable consonant clusters).

See also: MishimaKitan

The pin is available here.

[queerism1969]

[bi-trans-alliance]

Tokyo Trans March, November 2022

[crazywolfsthings]

I feel like people who say that Mizu wants to be a man and enjoys being one are forgetting the fact that Mizu did not choose to dress or act the way they do and was forced to do so as a child because people were looking for a girl, so their maid mom had her behave like a boy for her own safety. This was not his own choice.

And the reason why she gets upset when others insinuate that he's a woman is because women aren't allowed to do pretty much anything in their day and age, as we see when a woman is denied entrance into a town to sell goods to feed herself and her child because a man was not accompanying them.

Being a man provides them with so much more freedom and power to accomplish her goals, and if others discover he's a woman, she'll lose that freedom.

If you view him as trans, then that's fine, but you don't have the authority to say that's canon, and shouldn't get mad when others think about her as a woman or use she/her and they/them pronouns for them. If your argument is that everyone in the show uses he/him pronouns, then know that the creators of the show use she/her. All pronouns and headcanons are valid for Mizu.

[ether-blooms]

Chiyoda/Akihabara

(& Pokemon Cafe 😝)

[pulim-v]

OKAY I'M POSTING THIS NOW BEFORE I CAN STOP MYSELF

Pride month art I made last year, featuring my TOH OC Pulinno, my Terraria OC Diamond, and my KnY OC Natsuko :]

Tagging: @larz-barz @shycroissanti

[reeddraws]

This is a drawing of a friend of mine, who coincidentally happens to share the name Reed lol. They've been posting some amazing photos in their stories and I just had to try drawing one of them. I'm so happy with how this drawing turned out. But I do still really dislike drawing hard surfaces and anything architectural. Working with rigid vanishing points takes such a long time for me and is a large part of the reason why this took 3.5 hours to finish. Anyways, give my friend a follow reedispainting over on ig. . . . Daily drawing 1729

[plushinfernalii]

Chiitan Magazine ?!

[laeastra]

Photos of Tokyo that I took on my phone, in the course of daily life. These are the colors and lights of the city I’ve called home for the past 14 years.

[saotome-michi]

X Gender (性別X) by Miyazaki Asuka (みやざき 明日香)

Miyazaki Asuka identifies as X-Gender, the Japanese equivalent of nonbinary, but that label is not nearly enough to encompass the nuances of their gender identity, sexual orientation, and overall being. In a series of autobiographical essays, Miyazaki covers a range of topics from their body dysphoria regarding their reproductive organs, to their OCD and mysophobia stemming from their childhood trauma of seeing their father suffer in the hospital. Meanwhile, they continue to learn more about the LGBTQ community and struggle to find a partner they can perhaps live their life with, or at least some friends they can talk to, realizing some things about themself and Japan's LGBTQ scene.

I found this manga to be very interesting and finished it feeling empathetic towards Miyazaki as I felt there were quite a few similarities between us, and wishing the best for them moving forward. I should note that while the style of the art is cute and chibi-like, the actual content of the essays can be mature and pessimistic. Miyazaki is very honest and blunt about what they felt and did throughout their life and some might be put off by their thoughts and actions (tw: implied biphobia, fatphobia, among other things), but honestly given that this is an autobiography of someone who is still learning about themselves and about the LGBT community, while continuing to struggle with their mental health, I'm more impressed with Miyazaki's willingness to strip themself bare for the readers' critical eyes. This story is not meant to be the be-all and end-all of the X-Gender experience; instead, it's one individual X-Gender person's account of their life. It's not neat, it's not palatable, and it's not perfect. It just is.

[skillbattle]

yknow what fuck it . throws my kirby headcannons at you

[j-exclamationmark-l]

I love Chiitan

[japanese-korean-lit-lover]

There are books that describe really important topics but at the same time they are so uncomfortable for me to read. But not because of the topic itself (which would be actually better because that would mean that I have to face something new and grow) but because of the side things like vulgarity, eroticism and sexuality.

I have two particular books in mind: „Walking practice“ by Dolki Min and „Norwegian Wood“ by Haruki Murakami.

The first one talks about what it means to be human and nonbinary in the binary world and how the binary world works in the mind of a nonbinary spectator.

The second one is an amazing struggle with mental illness and how it is to function in a relationship with a person who struggles. It shows many feelings and problems but also what it means to live in a reality if it actually exists.

But both of them were explicitly (and sometimes extremly) sexual. Needlessly sexual for me.

There was too much intercourse in the „Norwegian Wood“ but while reading „Walking practice“ I felt actually repulsed by the erotic descriptions. Moreover I really felt like it didn’t bring anything to the narrative.

Vulgarity has to play a role to be used but for me it looked like really tasteless sprinkles on top of an important story (here I’m talking speciafically about „Walking practice“). Yes, I’m speaking from the perspective of the aroace person. That’s why even though the sex scenes bugged me a bit, I can accept that it’s a way of displaying deep affections in the „Norwegian Wood”.

Meanwhile the vulgar sexuality of „Walking practice“ made me really uncomfortable not in a I-m-growing-as-a-person uncomfortable but in a I-want-to-stop-reading-immidiately way. Which is sad because as I stated before I consider the story extremly important in the discussion about binary vs nonbinary culture.

[sacredpit]

have y’all seen that tweet that’s like “i’m probably nonbinary but i have a job so idrc about that rn.” that is so heavily kakyoin coded

[ether-blooms]

Japan day one with @ponyos-gay-hambone! Shibuya, babey! 🇯🇵🗾👾🤖🐜💚💖🐶🌸

[elfiwill]