Gimme A Queer Eye If You Have Two
a queer & feminist critic / writer / vlogger / speaker / barowner
I was interviewed by a student in the UK and here are excerpts from my answers. On recent changes in Japan regarding LGBTQ politics First and foremost, the acronym LGBT has gotten currency in mainstream media. Many people now know what it means or at least have heard of it and have a vague idea of
Continue Reading “LGBTQ politics in Japan, gay marriage, and sex education”
An unofficial feminist sequel to Doraemon: Part 1 Well, it doesn’t bother me much any longer now, but when the series began, I felt a massive amount of fury deep inside and it rose from the bottom of my stomach up my heart and throat. I had never expected my name to be used that
Amelia said she wanted to interview me for the AniFem website, and I agreed, part of the reason being it’s a new website and yet they promise to pay all writers starting 2017. That should not be a big deal, but it kinda is when so many writers around the world are underpaid or not paid at all. That, and I just liked the idea of creating a sort of like an online hub where you can find lots of queer and feminist information, resources, critiques etc. about otaku cultures.
The Tokyo Rainbow Pride, which I talked about last year on this blog, marked its 3rd anniversary on April 27, 2014. Its commercialization and increasingly neoliberal, militarist, and conservative crystallization of LGBT politics have become almost intolerably, grotesquely obvious. I could go on and on about sponsorships and participation of embassies and corporations at the Pride, but today I am so devastated by the participation of Prime Minister Abe’s wife, Ms. Akie Abe at the Pride, that I am almost in a shock state.
I found this animated GIF by glaad for the ENDA campaign. I added a few more slides to show the larger picture of the way that labor laws operate in the U.S. To read more about this issue, click here to read Yasmin Nair’s “ENDA, We Hardly Know Ya.”
As I was going through the daily routine of browsing Facebook & Twitter, I found a NYT article, Gay Couples, Choosing to Say ‘I Don’t’, the title of which caught my eye, as I oppose the institution of marriage, and the like-minded people who shared the link in FB/TW seemed content with anti-marriage opinions circulating at last in the mainstream media. Excited, I read on, only to be disappointed, but in a way that was quite unexpected, by the elitist tone of the article.
Although this isn’t intended to be an exhaustive summary of history of LGBT politics in Japan, which I cannot possibly provide given my limited knowledge, I just couldn’t take anymore the shittiness of the news articles written about LGBT politics in Japan.
The most typical, all-too-common article written in English never fails to make the followings clear:
And I say, THIS IS BULLSHIT.
(This post was originally written as a response to a friend of mine’s Facebook post. Minor modifications have been made.) Japan tsunami and earthquake: 30 children sit silent in classroom after parents vanish | Mail Online. Ok. I almost cried. I almost cried not because of the devastation that those people in those stories and
Continue Reading “I don’t have the right to consume the misfortune of people in Japan”
This article appeared in CGS Newsletter, Issue 12, Center for Gender Studies, International Christian University. HTML / PDF Pornography Chico Masak (CGS staff, CM) What would you say your stand on pornography is? Prof. Chalidaporn (SC) I think we should look at pornography as a form of sexual fantasy, which each individual should have the
Continue Reading “A Talk with Prof. Chalidaporn Songsamphan”
Yesterday I was invited to Prof. Miho Matsugu’s class at DePaul University entitled “Queer Japan” to discuss with the class as well as Prof. Yuki Miyamoto “Honey Pie”, a Haruki Murakami short story. The class was composed of students with various backgrounds and motivations for study of Japan, and the discussion turned out to be