Haileigh Vasquez

For example, 1st person pronouns are gendered in Japanese (私 – watashi, used by women; 僕 – boku, used by men) whereas 3rd person pronouns are gendered in English Korean is a bit different in that 1st and 3rd person pronouns can be gender neutral, meaning that I don’t usually have to think about my own gender or reveal my friends But in Korean, 2nd person pronouns are gendered, and the writers of the booklet talk about how the gendering of 2nd person pronouns feels the worst because it simultaneously genders themselves as well as the listener. For the writers, people using the wrong 3rd person pronouns feels less bothersome because the language to acknowledge the existence of non-binary people simply doesn’t exist in the Korean language, but calling someone “unnie / older sister of a woman” or “oppa / older brother of a woman” with their own mouths causes internal conflict and feels like an active erasure of self every time they speak (side note:

And in the Morgan Marquis-Boire story, it’s hard to point the finger at any one community or one institution or even one country. If an institutional failure occurred, the institution was just people. It is hard to believe that my previous story could have achieved anything for the better when it could have only existed because of pervasive moral failure across multiple continents. If I have to offer one takeaway from all of this, it’s something close to apostasy in the era of #MeToo — namely, justice should not be defined by what victims want.

헤일러 talked about the role of romantic and sexual attraction in how non-binary people develop relationships with other queer communities. Another part of me tells me that she and I are different people, seeking different things from relationships. I wonder if it’s “wrong” to be interested in people that have red flags. I wonder if happy people do not have red flags, or we all just meet people who make us slowly lower our flags and surrender to the relationship… Searches related to relationships: how to feel secure in a relationship       emotional vulnerability

Some photos from my solo trip to Osaka & Kyoto. I wandered the alleyways, observing the ways that nature intermingled with human & city here. Seoul is probably more like Tokyo in that way; skyscrapers blocking out the skies and constant rumbling of nighttime construction, tearing down history to build cookie-cutter studio apartments. I miss seeing bits of green throughout my day — and the reminder that something lies behind and beneath this concrete city.