#nonbinary shapeshifter stereotype

[rjalker]

You are allowed to repost / share this comic to other web sites as long as you include the image description. Literally copy and paste it.

[ID: An MS Paint drawing showing a stick figure, labeled, "Cis bioessentialist", in comic sans, drawn with the crayon brush smiling at the camera and pointing over their shoulder, saying, "Yeah, my book has Queer rep! This brick wall is aroace and agender, and uses it/its pronouns!". Behind the stick figure is a 3D brick wall drawing tilted at an angle to the camera. In the foreground, silowets of grey and black represent a crowded audience, as various people say: "Woah…" "This is the most amazing, progressive trans representation I've ever seen!!!" "OMG!!!" "Amazing!" "We stan!!" "It doesn't get any better than this!" "So progressive!" "What a perfect ally!" End ID.]

Looking at The Murderbot Diaries in particular with this post, but this also applies to anything it applies to. If you're thinking, "Does this apply to X?" The answer is probably yes.

And guess what. I'm aroace. I'm nonbinary. My pronouns are it/its. I'm not even human.

You must fucking reckon with the fact that the only reason Murderbot is aroace, agender, and uses it/its pronouns is because it's a robot who doesn't have genitals. It is the metaphorical equivalent of a brick wall in terms of attraction.

And at the same fucking time you must also fucking respect the fact that it is aroace, it is nonbinary, and it does in fact fucking use it/its pronouns and it's touch averse.

The fact that Murderbot was only written this way because of Martha Wells' long-standing bioessentialism does not change the fact that if you erase these traits from Murderbot you are being exorsexist, aroacemisic, and ableist.

"Murderbot is only written to be this way because Martha Wells has a problem with bioessentialism that she has yet to unpack since before 2011 " and "Murderbot is aroace, nonbinary, touch averse, and uses it/its pronouns and if you erase those traits and identities you are erasing the real people who share those traits" are not conflicting statements. They are in fact part of the same fucking sentence.

If you refuse to aknowledge the bioessentialism baked into The Murderbot Diaries (with potentially only one last chance for it to be fixed in System Collapse if she on from the series), you cannot be a true ally to the people that Murderbot represents, because you still don't understand what exorsexism, and amisia, and look like.

How can Martha Wells fix the bioessssentialism rampant in her books? By talking to trans people. Talking to nonbinary people. Talking to aroace people.

By including important, reocurring human nonbinary, aroace, and it/its user characters in her books.

By including robots and other nonhumans who have male and female genders as well as nonbinary ones.

She could very easily have one of the main human characters, say, Mensah? Ratthi? Come out as nonbinary in System Collapse. And have Murderbot either reveal, or remember, that it used to have different pronouns and gender assigned to it, and that it changed those assignments when it hacked its governor module.

Introduce robot characters who are not literally just genderless and attractionless because they're the character equivalent of a brick wall.

If Three comes back, have it explore its sexuality and gender. Because we literally don't even know that its pronouns are it/its because it's not like anyone bothered to fucking ask, because Martha Wells refuses to have characters tell eachother what their pronouns are.

No, people, they do not list their pronouns in their feed bios. This is explicitly shown to us. It's literally just listing their sex, and their gender and pronouns are inferred from there. That is not progressive or inclusive, that's literally just transmisia and biological essentialism.

[just-antithings]

From someone who finds the Boyfriends webtoon is annoying, I think its antis are even more infuriating. They would go as far as claiming a trans character made by a trans man not good rep, because apparently everything is bad rep even if it's made by the minority group it represents, as long as strangers online find it not to their satisfaction.

If a gay man decides to make a feminine and flamboyant gay male character, if an asian woman decides to make a asian female character who's short and good at math and speaks English with an accent, if a genderqueer person decides to make a nonbinary character who is a non-human shapeshifter, if a transman decides to make a trans OC who somehow checks all your boxes of "harmful stereotypes", that is self-expression and should be respected. Stop with the damn shutting minorities' voice and infighting because it doesn't fit with your worldview.

.

[friend-of-a-cat]

I've been debating on whether or not I may be agender (or something similar) for the past two weeks or so, and I'm legitimately so confused about the entire thing. I feel like it's breaking my brain, because, on one hand, it feels somewhat right, but on the other, I also don't give a shit if people see me as a woman? And I'm fine with being a woman I think, but I also think I just generally don't give a shit about gender, so I don't know if that just makes me gender indifferent or if it means something else.

Ultimately, I know that if I want to take up the agender label that's totally up to me if I feel it fits, but it's just... confusing. I don't know if my indifference to gender stems from something like my asexuality and sex aversion or my upbringing (my mum didn't necessarily raise my brother and I as 'genders', we just did whatever and dressed however and liked whatever) or a general dislike and rejection of gender stereotypes or something else. But also... I don't know. I feel like I also have a kind of blockage to the idea of me being agender from living my life as a woman up until this point. Like, I feel conditioned to it, if that makes sense. I feel biased. Though I also think, at least right now upon writing this, that if I could have picked a gender earlier in life, and I wasn't conditioned by society to be a one already, I would have picked none if I had've known that was an option? But I'd also just go along with anything. Like, if I were born male I think I would have just cruised by in life as a guy and not really cared (except for the fact that I also would be thinking the same things I'm thinking right now I guess lol). I've realised that I don't really feel connected to 'woman' as a gender (I mean, I relate to being a woman, but also not), or even really the concept of gender, because I think it's kind of stupid and pointless to me. I mean, in saying this, I am still attracted to guys romantically, and that has to do with gender, so...?? I don't know. Like, I know that you can still be a woman and not be feminine and shit, but like... I've never related to people of my gender. I mean, I like feminine things and I like masculine things and I like gender-neutral things but I also don't think we should label things as 'feminine' or 'masculine' or 'gender neutral' or whatever because who cares?? I mean, some people do. Lots of people do. People do feel a strong connection to gender, and I think that's great, and I'm happy it exists because it makes people happy, but like... I don't think I've ever thought to myself "I'm glad I'm a woman". But I'm also not NOT glad to be a woman. I just haven't really felt a connection or a 'pull' to any gender, really. I mean, kind of. But not really. I'm relatively indifferent to the concept as a whole. In saying this, I've related way more to guys throughout my life, and many of my friends have been guys because I've just... had more fun and related to them more? Though this wasn't entirely because they were guys - it's just because of the people they were. But I also don't exactly feel like I'm a guy, either. And I don't exactly feel like I relate to being nonbinary. The concept of calling myself trans also doesn't fit. Some days I do feel like it would be really cool to just... be able to shapeshift and try out different things just for fun and to see how I'd feel? Like try out a different sex and gender and appearance and see. I like the way I look, though. And I'm fine with using she/her because I don't know what other pronouns I'd use?? Like I've been referred to as such my whole life and I don't really care but also right now I'm kind of like ehhhh. But I don't know if I'd want to go by they/he/whatnot. I know there are tons of other options but ehhh. If my pronouns were 'none' I think that'd be cool. Maybe. Maybe it would be less complicated. Dude, I don't know. It's 2:28 a.m. and I'm confused and I don't know if this makes any sense. I also feel like I'm flipping between feeling like this and then also not. I think just needed to ramble a bit to some strangers on the internet to get my thoughts in order lol.

I guess another reason I made this post is... does anyone else feel the same way? I mean, obviously people do, but yeah. I also know a lot of ace people (and aros, as well) experience a kind of disconnect with gender as a whole or their body - not that I personally feel disconnected from mine, per se (though if I didn't have fucking boobs and a reproductive system that'd be swell, but it also just is what it is, you know? I don't really see that as dysphoria, it's more like they're annoying and useless to me lol). I don't know if this is that - a disconnect from gender due to my asexuality. Like... for the people who do 'feel' gender... how? How do you 'feel' it? What is it meant to 'feel' like? I think I might need some helping sorting out my thoughts. Or not. I don't know.

Anyway, I think, first and foremost before any label, I'm just me, and that's okay. Even though I love that we have more terms to express ourselves in such ways now, it's still limiting. I'm ace and I love that the term exists because it's felt empowering to me (also pretty lonely, too, but... you know). Like... I'm ace. I'm ace and it feels so good to say it. Demiromantic fits me the best in that department at the moment, too. I don't know if agender fits me or not yet. This has been stewing for two weeks though and I don't know what exactly set me on this line of thought. I've decided I'm going to sit on it for a while and think - and by 'sit and think' I really mean probably forget about it because gender is something I rarely think about in any context (besides when I'm angry at people for being discriminatory). Though, the reason why I didn't realise I was ace until a few years ago when I discovered what it is is because I never thought about sexual attraction because... I never felt it, so... I could use that logic here, too. But it's sadly not that simple to me right now lol. It's hard to express stuff like this. As in, stuff you DON'T feel. I know it doesn't have to be hard, but I'm finding it hard lol, and I don't really know how to go about it. And again, I keep changing my mind on my thoughts and feelings because the whole prospect is daunting to me.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED Talk. As per usual, thoughts and discussions are welcome. I kind of feel like I'm oversharing my life, so I'm so sorry lol. Also this is a long post lmao. But it was kind of nice to put this into words.

It's also kind of funny that this crisis is happening in pride month. I fully came to terms with the fact I was ace last pride month and actually told people then lmao (I did know a year or two earlier but didn't tell anyone about it besides my mum briefly and vaguely lol). Anyway, happy pride?? Lol.

[likeadog]

ok chat ive been waffling on something so id like some feedback

ive got these characters who are twins-- monoamniotic, and id like to keep them that way, since its thematically relevant; romulus and arsene (i also havent decided on if they have real names and those are code names or if those ARE their real names)

i keep leaning towards making romulus a cis man, and so that would make arsene transfem/transfem nonbinary (or a very femme man). id like to avoid committing to this decision before i get some feedback on whether or not theres too many bad stereotypes here

"hey isn't that-" (shhhh i can doubleverse an oc if i want to thats my god given right)

Arsene, out of the two twins, does take the more direct role for hand-to-hand combat, but not because they're larger or massively muscular; they're a dancer, and it's based on that. both of the twins are 5'2" and relatively lean

also as the namesake implies, they're based on arsene lupin, the phantom thief, and by god, they do steal things. they're also a master of disguise-- a lot of GHDS characters and most of this family are shapeshifters because immmmm predictable but arsene does utilize identity theft sometimes. ayanos theme is greed and shigeos is lust; ergo their kids are meant to at least vaguely represent Theft (Arsene) and Fraud/Cheating (Romulus, who is an augur)

the twins and especially arsene are probably the most well-adjusted and least batshit crazy/borderline evil members of the family. arsene is sort of the "black sheep" because they are the younger twin and thus not the inheritor of anything and also had an incident in their youth (at the hands of romulus, although they were children and he didn't think that pushing his sibling would result in the injury that it did yk) that led to a lazy eye developing (which, instead of correcting, they simply decided that eye was bust and focused on correcting the remaining one, hence the monocle) which mostly ended their career as a child actor. they have a fairly bombastic personality, but they dont really believe they're "going anywhere" and so lives at home with romulus often acting in a vaguely caretaking role ie driving/accompanying or bringing them along in case there's a fall, etc.

they love performing and especially love performing magic tricks, but their dream is actually to keep it pretty lowkey and work as a children's party entertainer/magician. they like working with kids (and began to go to school for early childhood education, but dropped out because of the Everything Else going on) and while they;d never admit it, they're kind of sick of success being defined as always going bigger and higher.

appearance is important for the twins-- i havent quite worked everything out theme wise there but it has to do with how they look a lot like their mother and the difference in arsene choosing to keep their natural appearance (for the most part, i intend on testing designs with tattoos) versus their mothers obsessive cultivating of her image versus romulus similarly working to cultivate a look but its the complete opposite

now, keep in mind, this IS for GHDS, where most of the characters are involved in some insane ultraviolence and are on a level of crazy that doesnt have legal or medical terms, but for that reason, ive really shied away from adding transfem characters. the closest really is virtue, who is a trans woman but sorta on a "technicality"-- shes originally from a species that has no constructs of sex or gender, and im not sure i just want to leave it at a nonhuman equivalent

so. thoughts. i feeel like they dont really have the standard set of traits for transmisogynistic caricatures, but at thee same time, the nature of GHDS makes me nervous abt adding characters from demographics that have been historically demonized as inherently violent or predatory

also pretend my kanji doesnt suck

[collectorcookie]

My mhyk gender headcanons because i can and i will

Cain already suffered a lot coming out ouf wizard closet, i'm not gonna make him go through gender closet either, he can stay cis.

Snow and white ouji kings and especially kings of stagnation. Can't see them having been any different in the past. Cis guys.

Flores brothers are just. There. Just some dudes. Also cis.

Mithra has no gender identity however in my brain i think he goes from presenting as a man to woman for tiletta's honor or legacy or smth.

Oz is aromantic asexual agender autistic asocial amazing they are just A everything. Ancient being that remained dormant and then unleashed horrors upon the world and then went dormant again. 👍

⚠️Ms2 spoilers, skip to next one⚠️ brad getting thrown in prison and figuring out they're nonbinary will never not be funny to me. Ok baby congrats on your identity now reflect on your crimes.

TRANSFEM HEATHCLIIIIIIIIFFFFFFFF ok but heath needs a character arc where she rejects her position that she got thrust into against her will. I know she wants to live up to the blanchett family's name, but i want her to be more truthful to what she actually wants to do with her life.

Owen is transfem in the way of getting your woman gender but you ordered it on ebay. It's a woman. Something is a little off with her, but they're kind of a woman ig.

Ok so. This is gonna get longer. But first of all, fifi is SUUUCH a stereotypical Eldest Daughter™️ in northfam. Second of all, the amount of times fifi was like "does anyone wanna see me as a beautiful woman" DO YOU WANT TO BE A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN FIGGY??? And third of all, i know someone is gonna say "oooh, but they can shapeshift, if he truly was dysphoric he would have been a woman by now" WROOOONG have you seen figgy? Lying about every aspect of her identity ever? I wouldn't be surprised if she was lying to herself about this because of how much she has been lying all this time. And forth, most importantly, the role of god imposed upon her is usually masculine because humans have daddy issues, and she wants to live up to human expectations, so that's another reason to deny herself her womanhood.

Transmasc Shino. He would listen to "boys will be bugs" on repeat i just know he would

Transmasc Nero just has that kinda vibe idk

Ms2 also convinced me rustica is a trans guy and i like to imagine chloe is also a trans guy because of that and that rustica helped him work through stuff and neither of them changed their birthnames 👍👍👍

Arthur mommy issues would hit harder if she were a cis girl. Even now arthur is her mommy the queen's child, not the king. Who cares about the dying king, it's all about arthur and her mommy issues.

Cis woman faust. Saint Faust Saint Jean d'Arc, that's all i have to say to that

Shymurr toxic yuri ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Leno sheep shearing butch lesbian (iykyk)

Genuinely 0 ideas for riquet. Peculiar lovable critter.

[askthetraversers]

Main Character Mega-Post!

Official character sketches can be found here. This will be added onto as our incredible circus grows and changes. Information on our performers is below the cut!

Kai-Ming Dong (she/they) — Ringmaster, co-animal trainer 

Year: 1935

Age: 24

Used to be a contortionist as well, but lost right leg just below the knee in an accident with an elephant

Kai-Ming means “open-minded”, Dong means “mentor” (both names of Chinese origin)

John “Johnny” Rutherford (he/him) — Co-animal trainer, head lasso performer, Ringmaster’s assistant

Year: 1859

Age: 27

Runaway slave from a plantation in southern Alabama

John means “graced by God” (Hebrew origin)

The origin of the Rutherford name is thought to have been the Old English "rother" meaning “cattle” and "ford", “a river crossing.” (wikipedia.com)

Odette de Muter (she/her) — Head Shapeshifter

Year: 1791

Age: 18

Former French aristocrat; Ex-ballet dancer who somehow got cursed or smth with shapeshifting powers. No one’s really sure, not even Odette herself.

Odette means “wealthy” (also inspired by Swan Lake), de Muter is the infinitive “to mutate” (both names of French origin).

Buster Reuter (he/it) — Head Ventriloquist

Year: 1952

Age: 15

Identifies (tells everyone) as British, but is half-German and has gotten a lot of crap for it

Buster isn’t his real name (no one knows his real name), but it means “full of wisecracks” (English origin); Reuter is a German surname meaning “highwayman” or “thief”.

Katherine “Kit” (she/it) and Maxine “Max” (she/they) Chatterton — Head clowns/trampoliners

Year: 1922

Ages: 21 and 22

Not legally married (was illegal at the time), but have matching promise rings

Max is a Pierrot; Kit is a stereotypical, colorful clown; Sunshine + Grumpy trope because I can

Katherine means “pure” (Greek origin); Maxine means “greatest” (Latin/Scottish origin)

Chatterton — English: habitational name from Chadderton in Lancashire which is early recorded the form Chaterton possibly from a Celtic hill name Cadeir (from cadeir ‘chair’) + Old English tūn ‘settlement’. (ancestry.com)

Yesenia Kanaan (she/they) — Head tightrope walker

Year: 2019

Age: 22

Beaten by .01 point in the tryouts for Women’s Gymnastics in the 2016 Olympic Trials; disappeared three years later 

Yesenia means “flower”; Kanaan means “beauty” (both names of Arabic origin)

Ernest “Ernie” Aldritch (he/they/it) — Head Contortionist

Year: 1896

Age: 14

Newsboy from Lower Manhattan who performed part-time at local theatres and bowery shows

Ernest means “vigor” (German origin); Aldritch means “wise” (Old English origin)

Denise “Deni” Campbell (they/them) — Head Puppeteer

Year: 1968

Age: 17

NONBINARY REP MY BELOVED! Also somehow related to Jim Henson because I say so

Denise is a feminine name with both French and Greek origins. A feminine version of Dennis, this name translates to “follower of Dionysius.” In Greek mythology, Dionysus, aka Bacchus, is known as the god of wine, fruit, and vegetation. (thebump.com)

The name Campbell is primarily a gender-neutral name of Scottish origin that means Beautiful Field. From the Latin De Bello Campo meaning "from the beautiful field." Could also be from a Scottish/Gaelic nickname (cam béul) meaning "crooked or sassy mouth." (babynames.com)

[dateamonster]

what’s your opinion on monstrous transformations (both fast and slow), and also more controversially what do you think about having monsters/nonhuman characters serve as minority allegory (as opposed to society’s hate for them being being an allegory)

ohhh hold on this is a rly good question i think abt a Lot actually.

ok getting the first bit out of the way, love a good monstrous transformation. fast, slow, its all good. i personally like gradual slow shifts the most but its a situational thing. transformation is one of those things that like just always has to be symbolic. even more than the degree to which Everything is symbolic ya know. so like context rly matters when it comes to how to invoke it most effectively.

MOVING ON

i think from the phrasing of the ask ur looking for something more along the lines of like. for example shapeshifters as representation of nonbinary people or aliens as representation of different cultures rather than like monsters vs humans as allegory for racism. but im also not sure you can meaningfully separate the two! the latter i think is more overused so it like registers more as an immediate red flag, but its like. if the aliens from avatar werent being violently invaded by humans it wouldnt make like their reskinned stereotypical indigeneity anymore tolerable i dont think.

which isnt to say i think every story that draws connections between fantastical fictional species and real world people are inherently bad. i dont really think theres any trope that i believe cant be handled well by anyone under any circumstance. the super easy fix to bad rep via monster or fantasy creature characters is basically just have actual humans who also represent those same identities and communities and experiences so that the audience isnt drawn to connect the traits of any one group with your fictional species.

the harder fix is to like seriously analyze why you want this character to be a monster and what that says about them and what that says about you and your own experiences and biases and what you actually want to communicate with the inclusion of this character. and when applicable hire a sensitivity reader. its kinda crazy how many pieces of media seem to prefer half-assing the hard way over just doing the easy thing and not assigning the status of token minority to a literal monster.

of course once again all of this is ya know circumstantial. im speaking to like my own experiences and the things ive observed. and its weird too! bc im also speaking as someone who like is trans and nonbinary and thinks of myself and my gender expression as inherently intertwined with monstrosity. and as someone who is autistic and thinks of myself as a changeling. and as someone who is a fat person who represents themself with a pig themed sona. if i talk abt cringeass hollywood blockbusters engaging in High Fantasy Racism i feel like to be fair i kinda have to talk about independent own-voices creators who write stories and make art about their own identities in the lovely language of monstrosity. theres not rly a way to draw a hard line around the former without the risk of catching some of the latter.

so umm as usual i dont rly have a snappy all encompassing answer for how i feel abt this kind of characterization. im simply too much of a Nuance Enjoyer. i do i guess think this is something that generally turns out better when it is someone making art about their own experiences, but also unless i believe minority artists are a monolith, which i dont, i need to accept that artists will inevitably make stuff that is beautiful and resonant to some people and totally repugnant and offensive to others, and that both of those responses can be like totally justified and correct. thats art babey!

anyway slight digression but i think any case where a character feels more like an allegory than a fully fleshed u know Character is gonna flop for me no matter how relatable it is. tbqh, id rather more ppl try and fail to make beautiful grotesque frightening sensually moving monsters out of their lived experiences and their empathetic connections with others than succeed at creating bland toothless universally approachable Good Rep tm. if u know u know. if u feel me u feel me. that is all.

[lespicybrocoli]

10 fandoms / 10 characters / 10 tags ヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ

Gracias a @rainy-days-and-nights por el tag!

Cloud Strife/ Final Fantasy 7

The original blorbo, my first love (the one you never forget), my first wet and sad man, the one hero who had mental illness before it was cool (jk, however It was the first I got to know), for him I downloaded the anime OVA in a process that took 3 days and 5 hrs per day on my local internet shop and i bought the original Advent Children movie and the extended. He defined my taste in fictional men.

Uriko/ Bloody Roar 2

My first crush, she made me a furry before I even knew what a furry was, she awoke in me my taste for fighting women and catgirls. Silly little weapon of mass destruction, best girl, best playable character in Bloody Roar (yes, Im biased, no I don't look to be corrected)

Raine Sage/Tales of Symphonia

I wanted to be her when i grew up, now older I come to undestand that maybe I wanted to fu--*gets kicked*

Best archealogist, best sister, takes no ones bullshit. What the world of research needs.

Roxas/ Kingdom Hearts

Righ in my teenager era, thought it was Cloud so I looked, stayed because of the tragic existencialism, best angry boy, he has never done anything wrong on his life, kicked Riku's ass like a pro, fave resident in Sora's Heart hotel. A little gremling out for blood.

Maka Albarn/ Soul Eater

My irrevocable call that I was, in fact, not straight. The most cool female character I had ever seen, fuck the perfect stereotype (even thou she was the academic sterotype of perfect student) she was a messy bitch with angry issues and it was so fucking healing to see her being that way. Made me realice you can have a boyfriend and a nonbinary partner at the same time.

Aqua/ Kingdom Hearts

My wife, she carries the whole BBS game on her back, not because something arbitrary like most powerful keyblade wilder (which she is) nor because she is the only one who becomes master of her group (wich she does) but because she, literally, pass the whole game,pulling together the shit her idiotic himbo crush and her best friend do during all the game. Her movements while fighting are top 1000 of sexy things

Riku/ Kingdom Hearts

He is the representation of the queer journey made game character, the ironic fact that he is the closest to the mascot of all that represents capitalism is incredible good for social study. Seeing him growing on the story resonated with my growing into a lgbta+ person and now we are both happy with who we are.

Dante/ Devil May Cry

I literally buyed the whole tri-pack of the DMC saga back in 2013 when I didn't even had a PS2, just to play it in a console a friend let me borrow. All the bro dudes buying his bad boy persona when he is a fucking depressed man that only knows happiness when he has his brother back, looked for the sexyness and irreverent style, stayed for the tragic sibling drama.

Dream/ The Sandman

The blorbo that pretty much brough me back to Tumblr. Goth, sad, twink, depressed, divorced dad of one poor soul with the most toxic family ever. Neil Gaiman saw that one comic about giving robot feelings and decided to do the same with concepts. No Neil, you didn’t give it feelings, you fucked up a concept.

Loki/ Marvel MCU

Sad wet snake, with queer tendencys ignored by most of marvel who is made justice on fanart/fanfic. My favourite "redemption" trope. Mama's boy. HE USES MAGIC, CAN SHAPESHIFT AND FIGHTS WITH KNIVES. May hate the world but loves his brother, that gets me every time. I just want them to be happy

I tag @umi-umita @agent-bee @seiya-starsniper

[rjalker]

Remember when the [shapeshifter nonbinary stereotype] fandom whose name I forget declared that I was being "ratioed" when I said the movie is not even subtle copaganda and the fandom decided they'd "won" my post by outnumbering me?

And it's like. Yeah, the majority of people are in fact racist and do not in fact know or want to know how to recognize copaganda. People who care about and know how to stop copaganda are in fact a minority. Why do you think "ratioing" me means you're right? You're literally defending copaganda.

[wearesorcerer]

The anti-elf bits (which were always anti-queer) were bad in the early oughts for the above reasons (and got worse after LotR came out because jealousy over fan love of Legolas/Orlando Bloom), but they were pervasive beyond D&D.

There's a reason why Night Elf men look the way they do (i.e., not elvish) yet were still treated as effeminate -- and why Blood Elf men got buffed models (big controversy there).

And why we got the elves in the Onslaught block (Magic), which are all mutated and muscular.

And and and.

Like, Corellon Larethian had been nonbinary, androgynous, and hermaphromorphic (that's gender, appearance, and shapeshifting sex, respectively) since inception, but the only work in 3rd edition D&D that described them as such was Deities & Demigods. Books about the Realms in 3rd edition went out of their way to paint "him" as a heterosexual patriarch.

D&D has only recently gotten the reputation of being queer-friendly, but that attitude and the "ignore the rules, leave everything to the DM" one were for the longest time those of World of Darkness (especially Vampire). There's been a dramatic sea change in D&D within the last decade. Despite women and queer folk being involved in D&D since the start, the stereotype of the geeky male player was the expectation and basically rule. (Hell, it still is in some places.)

"D&D before the so-called podcast era was culturally extremely hegemonic and cishet (to the point of sometimes being downright hostile to queerness)."

yeah, like you i was around long enough for the days of the Drizzt Do'Urden books, when the received wisdom of the player base was that rolling up any character more interesting than Male Human Fighter was extremely cringe and suspiciously girl-coded. the waterline of acknowledging sexuality was like "what if there was a barmaid". the culture around D&D has changed largely for the better but it's absurd to call it a "queer game"

Before the modern cornucopia of options like tieflings and changelings became normalized writing down "half-elf" on your character sheet would often elicit this response

[they-callme-ami]

The Owl House has given us

An afro-latine main character that is CANONICALLY bisexual and gender non-conforming, and seems to show signs of ADHD and/or Autism. (Luz)

A canon lesbian love interest that went through realistic growth and is not predatory or a stereotype. (Amity)

A biracial character with 2 fathers who are poc. (Willow and the Park fathers)

A bisexual middle aged witch that lives with a curse, which is a metaphor for chronic illness. (Eda)

A grumpy principal that actually cares about his students, listens to them, and is disabled visually. (Principal Bump)

A small, grumpy abomination professor that cannot walk, and uses an abomination to help him get around and is still respected by his students. (Abomination Teacher)

A young black character that never shows any forms of toxic masculinity and has a special interest in humans, raised by a single father, and moved up 2 grades showing that he is SMART and GIFTED (Gus Porter)

Multiple kids that were labeled as 'bad apples' shown to be smart and unique, but needed to be taught differently and given the tools to excel by combinding their magic talents instead of punishing them. (Viney, Jerbo, Barcus)

Multiple (albeit background) characters in same-sex or queer relationships.

And finally, today, we got Raine Whispers: a BROWN middle-aged NON-SHAPESHIFTING Nonbinary character fighting for freedom and to dismantle the system.

[transmisogyny-explained]

hey i know you said you don't want to get involved in discourse about it, but as someone whose never seen spop, but has heard people heralding 'Double Trouble' as good nonbinary rep, and the main criticism being that they're another nonhuman shapeshifting nonbinary character, this is the first time i've seen them referred to as a transmisogynistic stereotype (i, of course, know about the antisemitism that's fairly obvious just from a character design standpoint) and was wondering if you felt comfortable elaborating on that?

These two posts sum it up pretty well.

Basically, DT is a sinister genderless being who acts stereotypically effeminate and disguises themself as a young girl in order to infiltrate and manipulate a group of young girls, all of which are narratives frequently applied to transfems.

[takeninbadfaith]

The “Thou Shalt Nots”

and the “tip” that could have replaced all of them.

AKA the “No Shit Sherlock” group

AKA Did you need these tips? is that why you put them in? Aside from taking pot shots at She-Ra?

16: If the only gay man in your work is a faupish diva, you’re a huge turd.

No shit.

My gods, did this really need to be said? 

The only thing i’m questioning is what show is this in reference to? because damn near the rest of these are about characters in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. If you know, please tell me so i can find the diva and love the heck out of him. 

on a more serious note, while, yes, if your only gay male character that one has in their work aligns with the limp-wristed, lispy fop stereotype, then one does need to examine their writing and how they write characters, because gay men come in all personalities. If one of many MLM characters happens to be more femme, then that’s not a problem, as femme gay men can and do exist. 

17: If the only lesbian in your work is an abusive ragaholic with vague angst issues and a codependent relationship to a protagonist, you’re a huge turd.

So. This is a dig at She-Ra, and at the character of Catra in specific. Though, even then it’s a poor dig, becuase, ya know. Adora is also a lesbian or bisexual. Making Catra not the “only” lesbian character. Also there’s Netossa and Spinerella who are in a relationship. 

Diregentleman also pointed out that this list of characteristics also near perfectly describes Vaggy from Hazbin Hotel, a show that Orchard likes. So. The problems for her seems to not be with the stereotype of the angry lesbian, but with the fact that She-Ra and the Princess of Power existed.

18: If your only nonbinary character is a nonhuman shapeshifter, you’re a huge turd.

Dig at She-ra again, this time aimed at the character of Double Trouble. 

One the one hand, yes there is a problem of non-normative genders being only in non-human characters, but Double Trouble was ground breaking in a lot of other ways. For example, they were a non-binary character who was voiced by a non-binary voice actor. 

Also, I wonder if Orchard realizes how much shape-shifting can be a power fantasy for someone who is non-binary. I’m non-binary, and I would love to have shapeshifting powers. 

19; If your only autistic character is an ethically challenged number fetishist, you’re a huge turd.

Three strikes at She-Ra. the target this time is Entrapta. 

I don’t think that she is canonically autistic. Anyone can feel free to correct me, but while Entrapta is written to be autistic-coded, i don’t believe it’s been stated anywhere that she is autistic. 

Pulling from Diregentleman again, but Orchard’s contempt here seems to be aimed at She-Ra for existing, as her favorite character on Steven Universe is reportedly Peridot, whom can also be described as an autistic-coded, ethically dubious number fetishist. 

While there is something of a point that most autistic characters in media do lean towards being mathematics savants (Mass Effect Overloard DLC, Rain Man, etc) the specificity of this complaint, and the personal insult, render any point to be derived from this nigh useless.

20: If your only black character is a volatile hyper angry brute, you’re a huge turd.

21: If the only black woman in your cast barely has any screen time except to be fetishized or its rule 20, you’re a huge turd.

What is this an attack at? Is this aimed at Star Wars? if it is, what Star Wars did you watch, because neither Finn or Lando could be described as “Hyper Angry” or “Brutes”. If this is a dig at She-Ra again, then uhhh.... there’s at least? 2 characters who are black. More than two even. 

And there are also at least two black ladies in She-Ra, if this is an attack on She-Ra. 

Like with earlier ones in this sub-set, the specificity and personal insults render it really hard to pull out the very true crumb of a salient point that is here. which is that if you only have one black character in your work and that black character is written in this highly stereotypical manner, then you need to do some self examination.

22: If the only trans woman in your cast is a Drag Queen in all but name, you’re a huge turd

Proof that Lily Orchard has never watched RuPaul’s Drag Race, and also that she has no knowledge of Drag culture at all. There are, after all, trans women who are Drag Queens: Gia Gunn, Kenya Michaels, Monica Beverly Hillz, Kylie Sonique Love, Jiggly Caliente, and more.

Of course, what Orchard likely means by “Drag Queen” is “Man in a Dress”. which is, frankly, insulting to the men, women, and nonbinary people who do wonderful artistic work in the world of Drag. However acknowledging that insult would require nuance, and social media - Twitter especially - is where nuance goes to die. 

73: The best way to avoid tokenism is multiple characters.

This point, and the fact that Orchard wrote it in as if it was something separate to the seven others that were presented at the beginning at her list, seems to prove that the other seven really were attacks at specific shows and specific characters, rather than the universal “tips” that she tried to hide them as. It also renders them all moot, because this is how you would write those earlier seven as a general writing tip: the best way to avoid stereotypical writing is to have multiple characters who could fall into a certain marginalized identity. For example,  have a group of gay men, one of whom could be described as a foppish diva, but also with many more who aren’t. or, if you do have only a single character who occupies a marginalized identity, then make sure that character is a fully realized person, and not just a quickly slapped together stereotype.

A wonderful example of this in the professionally published world i can think of of the top of my head is the “Society of Gentlemen” book series by K.J. Charles which is about a group of upper class men whom all are men who love and have sex with other men (some could be described as bisexual in modern language, but the series is set in the regency period in England). One character, Mr. Julius Norreys, is a foppish diva, primarily concerned with his clothing, and stinging others with his rapier wit, but in his own book - A Fashionable Indulgence - and the others, delve quite deeply into his character and history to show why he is how he is.    

Go read and be inspired.

[vile-wizard]

@fuckyeahladybug That's because it's mostly self indulgent projection on my part. I haven't seen it around either. 😅 There's no universal trans experience but she DOES remind me a lot of myself and the other baby trans eggs I knew back in 2015. It's a bit hard to explain because it has everything to do with the time I grew up in and what the 'signs' were back around the time the show first aired.

- Her jeans + orange checked shirt seems like an something I'd pick out at age 13 shopping while in the girls section. Buttons and pockets were very important to me as well and a short time later I was begging my parents for flannel button ups out of the men's section.

- Alya isn't a tomboy like Alix. However, she does like technology, video games and watches sci-fi TV and horror movies which, obviously I'm basing this off of stereotypes I heard growing up, were "male" interests. It was all a bit of boys club back then. Being a girl and publically claiming those interests made you ~different~. Finding an irl community of fellow girl nerds was hard so you'd go online.

Alya does strike me as a Superwholock Tumblr girl and since she runs the Ladyblog in the show it's likely she has one if not several blogs dedicated to her nerdier interests. In my case, these online spaces were a huge part in finding out about queer identies and slowly trying to understand my own gender. I'd like to think it would be the same for her.

- Her parents seem pretty nonjudgmental considering they have a tarantula for a pet and a kickboxer daughter with crazy muscles in the family. I don't think they'd mind if Alya started experimenting with gender and ended up not being a girl. "As long as you're happy" type of attitude. 👍 This would speed up the process. No long years of being closeted.

- Most of the trans people I know (myself included) had trouble deciding on a name or go by multiple so seeing Alya struggle to decide on a Superhero name in 'Scarabella' was very gender affirming lol.

- Foxes are known to shapeshift/take on different appearances in a lot of folklore and the Fox Miraculous's mirage ability is pretty close to that! I guess!! Alya listen to me and shapeshift into a man 🙏🙏🙏

- One of my baseless headcanons is that Alya's fandom interests led her into the world of cosplay which as we all know is a gateway to transgenderism in teens. ☝️🤓 You'd think "I wonder what I'd look like with a beard"and boom. It's already over. 🏳️‍⚧️

- Trans people find other trans people even before they're out and Alya has Marinette as a BFF which is perfect because I also headcanon Marinette as GNC.

- She strikes me as a very hardcore LGBTQ+ ally who comes out as bisexual then lesbian then genderfluid then back to bisexual then transmasc then nonbinary... etc etc. I don't think she'd have a very traumatic coming out experience since Alya is brave, confident and surounded by supportive family and friends. She seems like the type of person who'd try out a bunch of different labels before giving up categories entirely.

- Lemme add that a superhero obsession is already suspicious. Why are you obsessed with masks and secret identies huh? What about that appeals to you?

Bottom line is it's all vibe based and I love her a lot. Anyway here's Alya's 10th Doctor TARDIS door and me (age 14) in a Doctor Who shirt trying to look cool:

I'm not sure how I feel about the style of MLB season 6 but as nonbinary/transmasc Alya truther I LOVE the short hair.

[queerrambles]

Hello. I'm writing a story with a genderfluid character and wanted to ask if you have some advice about how to do it correctly? (I already love Alex Fierro but don't feel ready to write this yet)

Hello, and I am so sorry for not answering sooner! Tumblr is weird and didn't show me this ask.

All I can tell you is my own experience with genderfluidity as a genderfluid person. But before I begin, I would just like to let you know that every genderfluid person experiences their fluidity differently, and that it is probably a good idea for you to ask several different genderfluid people for advice just to get a good idea of what it's like.

First I'm going to tell you some things I liked about the way Rick Riordan wrote Alex and some things I think he could've done better. (I am going to alternate several times between using he/him and she/her for Alex since he has specifically said in the book not to use they/them)

I absolutely loved Alex Fierro as a character. I read that trilogy a couple years before I figured out that I was genderfluid, and it was a great introduction for me. I thought it was so cool that Alex could change genders and shapeshift and he very quickly became my favorite character. I loved that she was never afraid to let people know when her gender had changed. I loved that the other characters in the book were accepting of him. He is still my favorite character from all of the Riordanverse.

However, looking at her now from the perspective of a genderfluid person instead of a cis girl, I have identified many flaws in the way Alex was portrayed. First of all, Alex falls into the genderfluid/nonbinary stereotype of being a shapeshifter. And while I love shapeshifters (mainly because I've always dreamed of being one), portraying all genderfluid/nonbinary people as shapeshifters can make it seem like genderfluid people can't actually exist in real life, because no one can be a shapeshifter. I, personally, would love to see more genderfluid characters who cannot shapeshift, and who are just ordinary people (or at least ordinary in the context of the story).

Another thing that bothered me a bit with Alex's portrayal was that she always knew exactly what gender she was. I often do not have any idea what my current gender is, and I've noticed that I'm far from the only genderfluid person who has trouble identifying what gender they are at the moment.

Okay, now to move on from Alex because this post is starting to get long and I still have to give my actual advice.

So, writing a genderfluid person will probably be hard, especially for someone with a static (unchanging) gender. The first thing you should know is that some genderfluid people are fluid between many genders, and some are only fluid between 2 or 3. Looking at the different types of genderfluid (such as genderfaun, genderdoe, genderflor, etc.) can be helpful. Do you want your genderfluid character to only be fluid between masculine and nonbinary genders? Or only between the binary genders (male and female)? Or maybe they're like me and fluid between many genders, including feminine, masculine, and nonbinary genders?

Another thing that I would do in writing a genderfluid person is to please not make them a shapeshifter. I would love to see more genderfluid people like me who can't do mystical shapeshifting shit. Don't let your genderfluid character fall into that stereotype because literally the only genderfluid characters I can think of off the top of my head are all shapeshifters of some sort and I just. Really want normal ass genderfluid characters (but magic is still cool and good if you're going for a fantasy world).

Also, please please please have your genderfluid character sometimes have no idea what their gender is. Story time: When I came out to my friend she asked what gender I currently was and what pronouns I was currently using and. I literally had no idea. None. So please have your genderfluid character sometimes be clueless about what gender they currently are.

I'm tired and it's like 2 am so I'm going to wrap up. I may reblog in the morning with more tips so watch out for that. Anyway my parting advice is to remember that genderfluid people are literally just people. We're all extremely different, just like the average person is very different from another person. So keep that in mind!

And, I would also like to thank you for writing genderfluid representation. It makes me so happy and I'm also really glad that you're asking a genderfluid person for his advice (hey I finally figured out my gender today!)

As always, if anyone else has any advice to give, feel free to add your thoughts in either a comment or reblog. And happy writing, anon!

[rjalker]

Nimona is not good. It feels like they had a bunch of Funny™ and Heartwarming™ scenes they wanted to make and slapped them together and then tried to string a plot in between.

They're relying entirely upon established tropes and for the audience to do all the emotional labor but not actually putting in any of the work to make it work.

They clearly just said "yeah that'd look cool let's do that".

It's also yet another instance of the nonbinary shapeshifter stereotype which shouldn't be tolerated in 2023. It'd be fine if the main human character were nonbinary but nope. At this point we just need to start straight up calling this stereotype what it is -- blatant exorsexism.

This movie is so cheap. They're literally just like "ooh, that's a popular trope, lets throw that in, too!" and then want you to do all the work.