Posted in Culture, Gender, queer, Race, tagged chikan, Ghost in the Shell, rape, sexual assault, The Handmaid's Tale, trans* on 2017/05/14| 1 Comment »
In this Gender Reader: reporting sexual assault in Japan; anti-chikan pins; capturing LGBTQI lives in photography; Japanese actresses discuss white-washing in Ghost in the Shell, and more:
“Matsunaga crowdsourced designs for badges intended to deter men from groping schoolgirls” [Shiori Ito/Al Jazeera]
Posted in Anime, Gender, queer, Race, Visual Culture, tagged Yayoi Kusama, Yuri!!! on Ice on 2017/03/10| 1 Comment »
After a long hiatus, Japan Gender Reader is back! We’ve got queer stats, queer ice skaters, Yayoi Kusama’s art coming to the US, and more:
The installation, “Infinity Mirrored Room — Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden . (Photo by Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)
Posted in Media, Race, tagged Allegiance the Musical, Japanese internment, Muslim ban, resistance on 2017/02/07| Leave a Comment »
The bimonthly Gender Reader will be back eventually, but for now, a slightly different reader focusing on the upcoming anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which gave the US military the authority to forcibly relocate more than 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII. In this reader: Allegiance the musical is having an encore; Japanese Americans speak out against the “Muslim registry”; fighting revisionist history; a new book about Fred Korematsu; and more.
My hero pic.twitter.com/YnEuIFmWIq
— John Early (@bejohnce) January 21, 2017
According to a comment on the Densho Facebook page, this is Kyoko Shima, who was incarcerated in the Rohwer Camp. Her sign reads “Locked up by U.S. Prez 1942-1946 / Never Again!”
Posted in Feminist Halloween, Gender, Race, tagged costumes, Halloween Costumes, Indigenous, racism, Spirit Halloween on 2016/10/24| Leave a Comment »
Content note: contains images of a racist and sexualized costumes.
Spirit Halloween always gets a mention on my Feminist Halloween series in the costume fail category because of their racist, sexist costumes. This year, when Spirit Halloween asked Zooey Roy, an Indigenous woman in Saskatoon, to leave after complaining about the Indigeneous-inspired (read: racist and appropriative) costumes the store stocks. Chris Kortright and the Saskatchewan Coalition Against Racism decided to take action by taping warning labels on the costumes:
Image: Spirit Halloween adult costume with a low-cut beaded leather dress with fringe and a headband with three feathers and beading: “Reservation Royalty.” The package has a warning label on it (see below for text). Image via Facebook
Posted in Culture, Gender, queer, Race on 2016/03/31| Leave a Comment »
In this edition: Abe mansplains imperial inheritance law TO THE FREAKIN UNITED NATIONS, translating Ancillary Justice into Japanese, the importance of queer friendship, bi+ health month, and more!
Access all areas: “People think I’m focused on LGBT issues, but I’m just treating them as people who want to get married,” says Takafumi Kawakami, the deputy abbot at Shunko-in. “I just want to celebrate them.” | J.J. O’DONOGHUE via Japan Times
Posted in Gender, Race, tagged Ariana Miyamoto, Asia, queer, wage gap on 2015/07/23| 2 Comments »
In this Gender Reader, the wage gap: international edition, masculinities in Chinese and Korean dramas, Ariana Miyamoto, and research on attitudes toward coming out in Japan.
[Image: Isetan ad featuring Italian Japanese model Saira Kunikida with text “This is Japan.”] Via Grits and Sushi.
Posted in Race, tagged blackface, Momoiro Clover Z, race, Rats and Star on 2015/02/15| 4 Comments »
Update: sign the bilingual petition to Fuji TV to stop the performance on Change.org.
I’ve spent all weekend ranting about the Fifty Shades of Grey, but in the meantime, the Japanese band Rats & Star is planning a joint performance with idol group Momoiro Clover Z for Music Fair on March 7. Rats and Star plays Motown-inspired music–and performs in blackface; Momoiro Clover Z will be joining them, also in blackface. There are some images of this in the tweets embedded below.
Of course, there’s all the usual excuses used regarding cultural appropriation devoid of any sense of the history of minstrel shows in the US or race in Japan. I want to signal-boost some important links and tweets here. Content warning: links may contain images of blackface; racism, ignorance.
Major hat tip to Hiroko Tabuchi for re/tweeting many of these and calling out the performance.
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