Light the Furnace

This is Megumi Igarashi

She’s a Japanese artist

Japan, the country with some of the most fucked up pornography and the penis festival

Where the vagina is basically illegal to talk about 

So she did a bunch of art featuring 3D sculptures of her vagina, including this kayak, and was put in jail for it

She was indicted again in December on obscenity charges for selling vagina art to crowdfund for the kayak and could spend two years in prison

In Japan, women’s vaginas are treated as though they are men’s property. The trains here usually display pornographic advertisements. As a woman, I find that blatant objectification to be humiliating. I’m disgusted by it. My body belongs to me. So, with this project I wanted to release the vagina from the standard Japanese paradigm. Japan is lenient towards expressions of male sexuality and arousal, but not so for women. When a woman uses her body in artistic expression, her work gets ignored, and people treat her as if she’s some sex-crazed idiot. It all comes back to misogyny. And the vagina is at the heart of it. The vagina is ridiculed. It’s lusted after. Men don’t see women as equals—to them, women are just vaginas. Then they call my vagina-themed work “obscene,” and judge me according to laws written by and for men. [x]

She plans to turn her trial in to a manga comic. She seems pretty sure she’s not going to do any jail time but if you’d like to help her pay for her inevitable fine and court fees, you can check out her online store. There are little glow in the dark vagina characters.

Read PoC//Fantasy and Science Fiction

I only listed one book per author, usually their most popular or highest rated book/series, so make sure to check out their Goodreads page for more of their hardwork!!

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed

Tales of Moonlight and Rain by Ueda Akinari

Prince of Ayodhya by Ashok K Banker

Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Three Souls by Janie Chang

The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chiang

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due

Acacia: The War with the Mein by David Anthony Durham

The Antelope Wife by Louise Erdrich

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani

Salt Fish Girl by Larissa Lai

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

War Child by Karin Lowachee

The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

The Stars Change by Mary Anne Mohanraj

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Nexus by Ramez Naam

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyami

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara

A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar

Of Bees and Mist by Erick Seitawan

The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi

Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias

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The Ultimate 21st Century People of Color Sci-Fi List (ColorLines)