TBH, I couldn't speak for all the people in groups I'm part of, let alone other groups.

Hate aimed at trans women is its own thing. But it doesn't neatly discriminate, and it has secondary targets and collateral damage.

I see what you mean, but that's not what I'm arguing. It's sex essentialism that lumps all those categories together as tm-exempt. But GNC women and men, nonpassing trans men, intersex and nonbinary people don't have that universal shield.

The Sustainable Darkroom The Sustainable Darkroom is an artist-led, research community that develops low-toxicity chemistries and practices in photography.

This seems very cool: sustainabledarkroom.com

Saying that, there's a danger in public safety too. Progressives add rules and regulations for the public good. But regulations are weaponized, rules are gamed, and for need of an Other, people are pushed out of public space.

It's a spasarchic and unsustainable way to live.

And businesses have to constantly seek alpha, contributing to the lack of third spaces. The trendy restaurant, fast fashion outlet, entertainment megaplex. Not the bookseller, the record store, the bowling alley.

To the American mind, if a good is available to everyone, it's automatically suspect. Cops and authoritarians see taking a shot as taking orders; that won't do, they're the order-givers.

And I've never seen fights break out on the subway there, or anyone launching into a tirade against the other passengers.

Different mores re: expressing emotions in public, yes. But also, less drive to establish a pecking order?

The default is that public amenities are for the public. And businesses that serve the public generally want to attract as many people as they can. More traffic is good for business; why wouldn't it be?

Obviously it's not all wonderful and discrimination-free. But I've never seen a number lock on a bathroom there, and I don't think that's just because people are better behaved.

There's an irony in racists who idealize Japan, thinking the good in it must be due to being extra-racist. That if we just did more of what divides us, we wouldn't be so divided.

Japan is sometimes called a high-trust society, with some people attributing this to its 'homogeneity'. I don't know about that. There's pressure to conform, but a lot of tolerance for difference that doesn't disturb anyone.

Maybe because of our history as a slave colony, apartheid is baked in to our culture.

From parks to shopping malls, our cities are designed to be used by certain strata, and fortified against others.

We allow overpolicing, overregulation, and MEV economic behavior to strangle public life. Our cities are toilet deserts, affordable lodging deserts, ect.

A lot of what we call individualism is really team sports. We're addicted to stratification, and our structures reflect that.

Taking a first stab at What The Americans Lack. Nothing decisive, but I need to rant a bit.

I lived the 80s future, the 90s future, the 00s future. Onward, ever, ever on.

So... where do I go from here?

I miss Leaf and Euphoria Loves Rawvolution, you don't even know.

Leaf's sprouted hummus wraps were a lunchtime staple. More than food, the raw cafes were a different way of being, beautiful and fiercely uncompromising in its identity and ethics.

Oh yeah, and a stint in Tae Kwon Do. Miami Connection was a documentary.

My life in scenes:

88-96: console gaming, video arcades
97-02: SoCal record stores, raves, psytrance parties
03-05: cyberculture, furry fandom, industrial music
06-12: raw food, college activism, anime fandom

Butches harassed in women's toilets are one example of transmisogyny spilling over its borders.

And a great deal of non-binary issues can't be reduced to an oppressed feminine/privileged masculine framework.

I'm not a fan of tme/tma terminology; like TIRF, it seems to be reasserting sex essentialism, just on a social plane.

It recreates the problem of treating male-coded people as inherently suspect, just with a carve-out for trans women.

Transfeminism isn't immune to this. Obviously not all transfems have the same experience of "male socialization". But by the same token, not every DFAB is "transmisogyny exempt".

Back in the 00s, a Livejournal moot expressed that the problem with TIRF was that it substituted social for biological sex essentialism; men weren't inherently oppressors because biology, but they were because patriarchy.

I've never used deodorants or antiperspirants, and never intend to. I am a soap and water maximalist.

Maybe a side effect of 30 years of veganism, but I don't really stink from sweating.

Even at my grossest -- 2.5 days without a shower, in the middle of a humid Kyushu August -- I didn't give off much odor.

Going back to Tokyo next year, for a few months of immersion and practice living on a budget; may solitude and privacy bear creative fruit.

With my dad being 89 and having a number of cognitive and mobility issues, my schedule largely revolves around my parents' needs. I have a good deal of free time, but the way that time is structured is necessarily restrictive.

Anyway, <3 the butterfly nursery in Hortus Botanicus after a bite of vegan space brownie. Highly recommended if you're ever in Mokum.