Sweden Hills (Japanese:スウェーデンヒルズ) is a Swedish-style village in Hokkaido in Japan. The style of the houses are Swedish red wooden style & the people there celebrate Swedish traditions.

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Swedtakus

SWEEABOOS

Where’s the ikea

Time to move

There has to be a story behind this and I want to know it.

It’s probably because people from Northern Europe (like Holland and Russia), near Sweden were actually pretty important during the Edo and Meiji Periods. I wouldn’t be surprised if a handful of Swedes started a small town and fathered a japanese-swedish mixed race town and culture.

James Tissot (1836 - 1902)

Why the tiger has become a transgender symbol in Japan

Gay Breakfast Pin Club writes:

Toransu is clearly a loan word from English ("trans") that has been adapted to Japanese pronunciation (adding vowels/vowel epenthesis helps you avoid unpronounceable consonant clusters).

See also: MishimaKitan

The pin is available here.

Japanese Trans Folk born on the year of the tiger get an immediate 200% boost in every single one of their stats when starting life.

can i get at least a 120% boost for being a weeb born in 1998

Ehhh, I'll allow it

Felt that it’s important to share videos like this too.

Drag queen and LGBTQ activist Brigitte Bandit received a wonderful gift from Dolly Parton: a bejeweled guitar signed by the country music star. Bandit has been working against anti-drag and anti-trans legislation in Texas.

More here.

Photo from Instagram.

Camille Monet Reading painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841 - 1919)

So apparently I need to repeat this. Please do not use the term “spirit animal”. The flippant use with which it’s been thrown around is a mockery and degradation of the sacredness that connection is suppose to represent, and has a lot of cultural significance to those of us who have it within our cultures. Please do not use spirit animal. Please do not use spirit animal. I feel like the importance and sacredness of that aspect of my life has been made into a giant f’ing joke by people and that feels really shitty. It was one of my ways in which I could connect with my heritage, and like everything else it seems like people are so willing to just mock it by taking it and using it however they want. You want to mean “no disrespect”? Then stop using it and call other people out on it, because the use of it by non-indigenous people who don’t belong to those cultures is disrespectful. Full stop.

Nah but, I don’t agree with this for a lot of reasons. That’s like if a Christian told you you couldn’t say “bless you” if you were atheist. It doesn’t work. While I could sit here and argue about the sheer ability to use the phrase, I should also state how false the term “mockery” is used in this. Just like when someone says, “Oh my god” as a term for shock, even if you don’t believe in God, it doesn’t mean it’s mockery. It’s used socially. The public use of the word isn’t intended for harm, or purposefully degrading your culture. Whether or not you take it that way is by your choice, but I’m just showering in some logic to this situation, too.

Similarly, as a Catholic, it doesn’t offend me when a living person is referred to as a saint, whether it be sarcastically or in earnest. I have relatives, though, who think it’s outrageous and offensive to those who have been canonized (I found this out after asking a cousin if they’d seen St. Vincent).

I’ve read enough replies to this post, and others, from people whose culture includes spirit animals to feel that it could be seen the same way. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like for every person who finds the use of the term offensive, there’s another who could care less.

Catholicism was used as a tool and continues to be used as a tool to eradicate my culture and assimilate my people. It was used as a tool to enact genocide, so no it’s not the same at all especially when catholicism seeks to assimilate as many people as possible into it, whereas my culture is a closed culture - meaning that people are not just welcome to appropriate our signifiers, ideaologies and beliefs.

And if course it’s easy for you to not care because society panders to your religion. :)

Or ya know, on a flip note, Japanese cultures and religions encourage people to use words and phrases and even dress similarly to them, because they believe that putting the knowledge out there will keep them alive and bring more followers and peace to the world. The same with middle eastern cultures.  I used to tell people not to wear other pieces of peoples religions until I had talks with people from that religion. If they are doing it because they believe in it, or even if they just want to know more, or something resonates with them, then that’s okay. When it becomes mockery and hate is when everything becomes wrong. 

You may not agree, and that’s fine, but I follow some of the Pagan religions, not all of one, and I’ve never met a Viking descendant or a Wiccan who told me I was wrong, and those religions sometimes take from the Native American religions and cultures. Show love to the Naive. Educate them as to where they came from. Also Spirit Animals exist in Wiccan Cultures. My best friend is a hardcore Wiccan, everything to the letter, and educates me with every visit. My spirit animal is a sacred thing I found via the religion and her. Her’s is also sacred. We use them to perform ceremonies, cast spells, and in general to create or calm. They are parts of us too.  

If the majority of humans were actually engaging in direct material harm to each other on a daily basis there probably wouldn't be 8 billion of us

But let’s not ruin the affirmation of this with bullshit that attempts to blame selfishness or tribalism on modern inventions like colonialism or capitalism or even the goddam agricultural revolution. The fact that prejudice and cruelty have existed in every society is proof of that. And if we can see dickishness and bullying in apes, we know it’s not just an us problem. After all, tribalism is wanting to help people—but only people like us. The inspirational thing is that we all inherently carry the potential for rejecting the selfish instincts and cultivating the generous ones.

This comment should not have been hidden in the tags:

The majority of the rich teach their offspring to perpetuate a system that keeps the wealthy firmly in power, while the rest of us struggle. People with less are always more generous to others.

london invented money

not so fast

See, this where your wrong, Amy may have been in pop culture sooner, but in a chronological order concerning story, London is around nearly 1000 years before Amy, making London the true OG Rich Asian

Lizzo defies drag ban  by inviting drag queens on stage in Tennessee

Pink News writes:

“In an act of defiance against Tennessee’s anti-drag law, Lizzo has performed in the state with a whole bunch of Drag Race faves and local queens, and yes, it was iconic.”

Lizzo said:

Together we can beat the Fascists.

(Video from SBS News embedded above).

it's kind of nuts how many people on here say they are critical of America, but retain these impossibly strong American puritanical values.

I've talked to so many liberals who were horrified by the idea of communal baths and freak out when I talk about going to Korean bath houses or a nudist hot springs where gasp, children can see naked bodies of all genders. Like, you are the weirdos if you think grandma's tits are an issue, that's you problem my American friends.

Nudity is not inherently sexual and sexual things are not inherently bad. In fact, seeing a bunch of naked old people growing up probably helped me resist the ubiquitous problem of body issues as a teenage girl. If you see enough saggy ass you realize we're all headed to the same place and also secondarily, if you watch them playing naked volley ball you also no longer afraid to die.

I've brought this up in other reblogs, but I did some research on this a ways back due to two things:

The first was the fourth Lost Years of Merlin book, where Merlin and his love interest for the series take turns taking a bath and not looking at each other. Since the story ostensibly takes place in the first or second century CE, I already knew that it was fairly common for people in Europe to go about nude on really hot days, but it was YA book from the 90s, so...

The second was an MCU fic centred around Bucky, where the author did their research on pool swimming in the 1930s/40s, where the wool swimsuits would clog up the filters, so men who did competitive swimming would have to practice naked.

My research showed that a lot of the anti-nudity views became widespread due to the Era of Colonization, when Western Europeans saw other cultures they saw as beneath them doing the same things they did and decided they should alter their habits to look superior, which had a bit of a ripple effect over time.

I saw on YouTube that the Disney Channel page was showing classic Disney shows like: Lizzie Maguire, Even Stephens, That’s So Raven, and the Proud Family! They are old Holiday shows from when I was younger. It feels amazing to know back then my family was represented. They showed Even Stephens Hanukkah! The Proud Family’s Kwanzaa! They don’t show as much diversity as they did and it’s sad because religion and color is beautiful. I’m Jewish and I loved seeing that episode and hearing the Hanukkah song. I wish Disney would show those awesome episodes on the TV so kids and parents would see diversity is beautiful. That’s what makes America great!

Title: Young Woman with a Japanese Umbrella

Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Date: 1876

Style: Impressionism

Genre: Genre Painting

Jewish Wedding Ring. First half 14th century

German

Día los Muertos is NOT “Mexican Halloween” and is a deeply spiritual holiday for Mexicans and Mexican Americans! Remember to practice cultural appreciation and not appropriation, and respect closed practices!

Hanoi, Vietnam.