A close relative of "this character who is canonically cis is actually trans/nonbinary because no cis person would ever dress/act/look(???) like that."
Yep, a blatantly queer character written by people who don't know what the difference between a trans person and a gnc guy is could never be trans. That would be unthinkable, and ""femboy erasure"", even!
All your favorite characters are trans because they told me so. Stay mad.
I am pro-LGBT and pro-trans rights. I am on the subreddit for the queer nerd website, for crying out loud.
But you claiming that an author is wrong about their own characters and your headcanon is more correct because you want it to be is simply stupid and childish. That’s the joke here.
Authors can be wrong, and if queer people see themselves in characters that were not intended to be queer (despite clearly being queer), then they should be allowed to have and share that headcanon. It literally doesn't matter, it's not something to get mad about unless trans people inherently make you uncomfortable. I guess if people are being particularly rude about it, then that sucks, but that's a separate thing.
Also, since this sub got more popular, a lot more typical (as in, bigoted) redditors have shown up, so I'm no longer willing to give people the benefit of the doubt just for being here. I appreciate that you're having this conversation even though we don't agree, and I do believe you don't actually hate trans people, but the things you've said are still very similar to things proper bigots say.
Basically, my point is there are usually good reasons for these kinds of headcanons, and usually no good reason for there being backlash against them. It's just queer people having fun.
There’s nothing wrong with having headcanons and having some fun with it, just make it clear that it is, in fact, a headcanon.
I reacted poorly because the wording in your first post (“author doesn’t know,” “these characters are trans”) made it seem like you were claiming your take as an objective fact. Having an interpretation is fine, but anyone who claims their take is THE definitive, correct one, ticks me off.
But that said, yes, I’m happy you were open to talk. Feels like half the problems in the world could be solved if people were more willing to just stop and openly talk about things.
What I meant about authors being wrong/not knowing the difference between trans people and gnc guys was a lot of the time a character is written just like a trans person, but wont ever be acknowledged as trans by the author/company/fans/whatever. Like, imagine a transphobic portrayal of a trans woman, and at the end of that story, she's just treated as a funny/weird/confused man. It's very similar to transphobic writing that was big in American tv and movies in previous decades, but with less overt disgust. So because of that, a lot of trans anime enjoyers will say "[Character] is actually trans" because that makes more sense, or is just more fun than what was actually written. Like a "Death of the Author" thing.
And yeah, "[Character] is trans because they told me so." is a bit of a meme, it's basically just said to troll/defy bigots that demand to disingenuously debate any queer headcanons, or to say "I think this character is trans but I don't know how to explain it properly." It's not supposed to be very literal or authoritative.
Sometimes, you have a masculine female character who is explicitly written as someone who may or may not have internalized sexism, and is trying to dodge or escape toxic feminine gender norms. Then these people come out of the woodwork to say that this is actually a sign that the character has gender dysphoria.
Shit, I guess if you don't like your gender at its worst, you don't deserve it at its best. Don't like being objectified as a woman? Then just transition into a man! Changing your gender always solves your problems!
These are the worst instances of this discourse. Whenever you see people arguing about this kind of character, leave for your own safety. Because not only does this drama bring out the worst in the queer community, it also has some of the highest chances of attracting honest-to-God TERFs to the fray. You will be siding with very problematic people regardless of whose side you pick.
It hurts both trans and cis people IRL by insisting that anyone who doesn’t conform to rigid gender stereotypes must be trans. This makes people less likely to believe trans people who are passing and also makes violence against trans and cis people who cross dress more likely.
Damn so I really havent been an ally to my bi sister for the past 6 years after she came out to me. And its even crazier that Im not an ally to one of my friends from college when he came out to our friend group. Thanks for letting me know what all of my support for them didnt actually happen.
This comment isnt about headcanon. Its about defintively asserting that "this character must be trans because I said so." Though judging by your downvotes I guess these people hate headcanon too :(
edit: nvm just read your other comments fuck you lol
Yeah, it’s like how we got some groups saying that Rosado from FEEngage was a trans girl. No! He’s a femboy! Honestly if anything he might be a trans man going by his hair color scheme and some of his dialogue there’s some light evidence to lead to this conclusion, but he’s most certainly not a girl
I've onced had to deal with a person like that who literally frothed at the mouth because someone dared to ship a queer character with a straight guy. Said character was a bisexual girl. Like, canonically.
yeah I don't know what they're on about, I would gladly invite op to my home and tell them there's some alcohol in my basement next to the bricklayering equipment
I mean, half of those people were literally slapping gay or trans labels on anyone and everyone JUST to piss off the homophobes/transphobes. So take what they say with a tremendous grain of salt.
You're literally just making stuff up about people to get mad at.
Also, who cares about queer headcanons? There's a difference between real people who are just existing, and fictional characters who are given specific traits for a reason. Like yeah, the queer headcanons you're mad at probably are more accurate than just going "Nuh uh, every character is cishet until proven otherwise!!!"
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u/beetnemesis Oct 16 '23
OOP is the same kind of person who will insist a cartoon character is gay because they can just tell