HARU NEMURI mentioned the following on her INSAINT release special website – The friend with whom I had a conversation that inspired me to write “I Refuse” is a person named Rin Takashima, an anarcha-feminist and a writer. On her social media, Rin raises the slogan “Surviving is Resistance” and states “I perceive myself as embodying the concept of ‘Surviving is Resistance,’ and believes that the very act of surviving with the will to resist is a revolutionary action. I don’t have concrete grounds to believe in revolution; I begin my narrative from the point of believing in revolution”. Feeling as if you’re unable to do anything more, immobilized, lying there with tears streaming down, it’s in such bodies and spirits that Rin Takashima strongly affirms the potential for revolution. Her first solo publication is titled “Futon no naka kara hoki seyo” (English direct translation: Rise up from within the futon).

I’ve never been able to help but wonder, how many times have I been crushed by my own powerlessness and even perceived the emotion of being “crushed” as narcissistic? How much easier would it be to simply surrender to resignation and find solace? However, on the other hand, I strongly want to believe that someday it will change, someday this place will become where everyone can live as themselves. Right now, my act of surviving as myself is a resistance that leads to that “someday.” I strongly want to live while holding onto that belief. That is my very prayer itself.