#a trans headcanon is not (and should not be) inherently an AU

[izzyspussy]

controversial take but like. i don't like trans eddie headcanons because i feel like.

1: his entire character arc and storyline are so intrinsically wrapped up in the outside expectations of his assigned gender and sexuality as a straight man and how having the specific pressures associated with that hinder him as a developing person. i don't think him being afab makes sense in the context of his story and the character interactions, especially with his mother (and therefore also It, and therefore the entire plot, because that's how that works in this case). i simply don't think you can make him afab and still have even remotely the same fundamental storyline, and if you don't have that then you don't have that character anymore.

characters where their gender is not so inherent to their arc and/or is not quite so dependent on the specific experience of one particular gender and the socially attached sexuality don't have this problem. say izzy hands, whose gender is not that important beyond that the generalized thesis of his canon is "this is what it means to be a man". he could be any type of man and still be the same guy playing the same role in the narrative and having - generally speaking - the same dynamic with the other characters. or dean winchester, whose character does have some dependency on the gender and sexuality expectations others have for him (and that he has for himself), but in a way that is a little more nebulous and not concretely connected to the actual plot. the villains would be the same, the plot points would be the same, and even the primary on-screen character dynamics would be - again generally speaking - basically the same if he were afab. i really do not think this is true for eddie.

i think you could still have eddie if you made him a trans woman. and i even think you could make a close enough mirror of him as a cis woman (if you did it right re: the themes and why his gender is so important in the original and how that would translate, which in the cis-swaps i've seen in this fandom has not been the case - but then again cis-swaps as a general rule are not very good or well thought out lol). but i really think that in order to make him ftm you'd have to change so much about how the story goes, and if you try to keep everything the same it doesn't work narratively/mechanically speaking. things just plain would not have happened that way, and no one seems to even try to make them happen the way they would have in those different circumstances.

and because of this, most trans eddie headcanons really come off as shallow and even though i know in most cases they probably aren't they do feel transphobic to me. like... why him? because he's small? because he's prissy? because he doesn't perform and arguably does not enjoy the specific kind of masculinity expected of him, one of the fundamental conflicts of his character as-is like i mentioned above? why not, say, mike or ben? hell, why not bev?

and 2: i think it's important to acknowledge and be comfortable with and celebrate when cis men and trans men have experiences that can strongly relate to each other. as a trans man, i really identify with eddie and some of the experiences he's had or that i imagine he would have if his story continued.

this is obviously more personal and not so much connected with narrative coherence, but a cis man who knows how i felt the first time i wore gender affirming underwear, or finally had sex with the right gender dynamic, or shed the gender roles assigned to me one by one until i was just left with who i genuinely am, or made the choice to recover from childhood gender-motivated abuse, etc etc etc is really validating and nice. and tbh i think that is its own kind of representation.

it's not just true that trans women and cis women both have Women's ExperiencesTM and that trans men and cis men both have Men's ExperiencesTM, but also that many experiences we might associate with transness are not exclusive to transness and nor are they things that only happen to or are felt by people of the same assigned gender. like. it's not only that trans women have experiences of womanhood that cis women have, it's also that cis women have experiences of womanhood that trans women have (and the same goes for men), you know what i mean?

and it's just really disappointing to me that ftm trans eddie specifically is the most popular trans headcanon in the IT fandom, to the point of any other trans headcanon being fringe. and that it does generally seem to be because of transandrophobia-typical reasons like his size and "feminine" qualities (and frequently he is made to be more "nonthreatening" as well, even when not trans smdh). and that no one seems to want to engage with the particular gendered experiences involved in his character unless they make him trans first (in which case tbh they just erase them Differently, not less).

you don't have to be trans to have a complicated or interesting gender! you don't have to only identify with people who are just like you! sometimes trans men and cis men is the same! i just wish we could do something different one time!!

[sparrowlovesskittles]

In the past, trans Mothwing has been a controversial headcanon/AU. There's nothing inherently wrong with it of course, but every time I've seen it it's been used primarily as an excuse for Leafpool to have kittens while in a lesbian relationship, but most people who use this AU don't bother to consider how being trans would actually affect Mothwing.

I've always felt this AU has a lot of potential. Being trans actually fits quite well into Mothwing's story, and I haven't seen anyone explore that yet... So I decided to explore it further. I created a video about trans Mothwing which doesn't even mention Leafpool's kits.

Under the cut I have copy/pasted the video description. It includes a document which explains some of the meanings behind the symbolism and such. If anything in the video confuses you, I suggest taking a look <3

--

Video cw// Transphobia, animal death (not graphic)

2022 edit: I had this unlisted for a couple years. I wasn't proud of it and was still sort of unsure I properly represented the struggles many trans people face. I think part of the reason I worried about that was simply because the video is a bit fast-paced and relies heavily on symbols, so it's a bit confusing and the message is kind of hard to get across.

The drama behind the trans Mothwing headcanon is something I feel strongly about, though. So I've decided to make the video public again, and I have written up a doc describing the video bit by bit, to hopefully help clear things up. Here it is, take a look if there's anything you didn't understand, or if you'd just like to learn a bit more about the symbolism and stuff:

Now, on with the rambles-

2021:

OOOH BOY IT'S HERE and oh boy do I have a lot to say-

So first of all- I'd like to thank Unofficially-Ace, who made the 'Rainbow' trans Mothwing PMV here:

https://youtu.be/vzhqNvE1Hkc

This PMV was what planted the idea in my head in the first place. They talked in the description about how the Trans Mothwing headcanon/au has been really problematic, since the only reason people ever make Mothwing trans is so she can have biological children with Leafpool, and it never really changes anything about her character. And yeah- that's a gross thing to do.

Being LGBTQ changes us, in ways we don't even realise- that's simply the truth. It changes the way we think and interact with people, like for example, weighing in whether or not it's worth mentioning your partner's pronouns in a conversation. Or as my sibling mentioned the other day - trying to decide whether you'd rather make yourself look cis and feel uncomfy, or go out as you are and risk getting hatecrimed. It feels weird to stick the label 'trans' on a character simply to support your own storyline, especially without giving them character motivations, development, or story to make them actually feel trans.

Unofficially-Ace mostly explored how it would affect Mothwing's relationship with Hawkfrost, but I wanted to take a different approach. I wanted to showcase how it would affect Mothwing's entire life up to AVOS, and completely exclude any mention of kittens with Leafpool.

Anyway, I read up on how badly the trans Mothwing idea has been represented so far, and the more I looked into it, the more I thought about it, the more I realised holy crap, this idea has SO MUCH potential, how has anyone not done anything with all this yet?? And so, with pride month coming up (though it's basically over now, but that's okay, because pride goes all year)… I did! I whipped this up in about one month. I did however honestly struggle back and forth a lot about whether I should even make this. I am not trans and so I have no real voice to talk about trans issues - but in the end I thought it would probably be okay as long as I handled it carefully, which I tried my best to do. I tried to show that acceptance was the most important thing, drew inspiration from real-life scenarios, and consulted with my trans friends before making this video public. I am not making any money from this video. If anyone is still uncomfortable with anything I will try my best to fix it!

A few extra notes:

The art is rushed and messy but I kind of like the style of the finished product. It was quick, easy, and isn't hideous. Nice.

The blue in Mothwing's eye is just a design choice, it doesn't mean anything :)

I also have to credit this CRIMINALLY underrated Mothwing PMV for inspiring a few of the shots, and also being part of the reason for my love of Mothwing, and ALSO for being my favourite PMV ever:

https://youtu.be/1PUIY7EFI0o

[kelbrid]

we should really put to rest the idea that genderbends are inherently transphobic because it's flat out not true.

genderbends deal with changing a character's canon gender in general, whether they be cis or trans in that process. could be a binary switch, but there's no rules saying it has to be. it's more like an AU rather than a headcanon. trans headcanons tend to focus specifically on being transgender and often on transitioning too.

genderbends don't even necessarily have to focus on changing the sex of a character, and you wouldn't even know unless they're naked. it is simply saying "this character is a different gender/gender presentation now," so there is room for interpretation.

I don't believe that genderbends even negate the existence of trans headcanons, you can have both. trans headcanons for a canon cis male character often involves making that character a trans man/masc to keep their gender the same, while genderbending + trans headcanoning a canon cis male character can involve making that character a trans woman/fem. it's genderbending them into a woman when they were not beforehand, and then also making them trans on top of that.

and it's not even just a thing that only cis people enjoy, lots of trans people love genderbends too. I'm sure every trans person that enjoys genderbends has their own reasons for it too, or they don't have any reason besides them just liking it, and they shouldn't be interrogated or judged for that. I think a lot of people that have the belief that genderbends are inherently transphobic just took what one person said once, who likely personally didn't like genderbends or misunderstood them to be transphobic, as some kind of indisputable fact and simply never questioned it since. it's fine if you still don't like them anyway, but just say that instead of saying it's because you think they're transphobic.

[kaleidoscopic-quiddity]

Okay I probably should've articulated myself better but tbh I was not expecting my original post to get as much attention as it did.

Anyways: yes the epilogues and hs^2 are dubiously canon and ignored by a vast majority of the fandom, including myself. This is why I don't think that every single depiction ever of Roxy should be transmasc, because that version of Roxy is only 'canon' to the meat timeline and even then, the 'canon-ness' of the epilogues and hs^s vs the original homestuck is negligible at best.

However: as for June, the only degree of 'canon-ness' is the Toblerone arg, regardless of whether June was stated to be canon vs just-epilogues-and-hs^2-canon we all know that that's a fast and lose term in regards to homestuck and the fandom are actively encouraged to not take the comments of Hussie or anyone else who's worked on official homestuck content as word of god. To clarify, I am NOT saying I dislike the June headcanon/au/interpretation, it has a solid basis and even if it didn't it'd still be a fun and interesting take on Egbert's character. I also don't think that depicting Egbert as John is bad, provided the people who do so aren't being transmisogynistic about it. Again, if we're going by 'canon-ness' here as reasons for portraying characters as trans vs just personal enjoyment and headcanons, then June's transfemme-ness is just as equally debatable/non-canon as Roxy's transmasc-ness.

Also: I am aware that there is a complicated history in regards to Roxy and transness in the fandom. Many, many people headcanon(ed) Roxy as transfeminine, including myself, and it was upsetting for many people, especially transfemme people who really saw themselves in Roxy, to have that headcanon/fanon utterly disregarded. Additionally, as a transmasc person, I feel the execution of Roxy's 'gender arc' was stereotypical, distasteful, and poorly executed at best, especially the inclusion of Dirk, who much of the fandom headcanoned as transmasc and who a lot of transmasc homestucks, myself included, really saw themselves in, as horribly transphobic to Roxy (and Calliope) for no good reason.

So ultimately: I don't have an issue if people want to portray Roxy as transfemme or even just as a cis girl, either because they don't feel that the epilogues and hs^2 are canon (I certainly don't feel that they are), or purely because of personal preference. Where I do have an issue is that some people, especially on twitter from what I've noticed, will argue that June is indisputably 100% canon across all of homestuck because of the Toblerone ARG and comments from Hussie + other homestuck writers and that any depiction of Egbert as anything but transfemme is inherently transmisogynistic (which it can be, don't get me wrong! But it isn't always) but then turn around and depict Roxy as transfemme or cis female in their fancontent as well and make the argument of 'the epilogues and hs^2 aren't canon' when you point out this double standard.

Again: I don't think there is inherently an issue with people having both June and female Roxy coexist in their fancontent, my issue is that people will act like June is an indisputable truth of Egbert's character, but then act as if Roxy's transmasc-ness can be ignored when when it is arguably, if not more canon than June, if we're deciding to acknowledge the epilogues, hs^2, and other non-original comic official content.

And the worst thing is I'm still going to get labelled a transmisogynist for pointing all this out even though I'm just as upset as anyone else over both the completely insensitive decision to make Roxy transmasc (which hurt both transfemme and transmasc fans) and the complete lack of progress on including June as June in hs^2 or any other official content. I honestly just wish homestuck had left every character's gender as open to interpretation, which I know isn't great representation wise, but at least would've avoided all this discourse and hurt and anger.

[just-another-hhazbin]

Unpopular Opinion 048

I’ve said the opposite of this in the past, but actually, Angel Dust being headcanoned mtf trans doesn’t have to be considered an inherently bad take. It definitely shouldn’t be cause for attack. Education in some cases, but not attack.

A really interesting story on American queer history and trauma and carrying that trauma to Hell and self exploration could be created, but the issue comes with how that would relate to gay erasure and how the writer handles it. (And it is definitely an issue that should be acknowledged). People who talk about Angel Dust being trans only ever talk about it as ftm direction and are attacked for veering from the “norm” if they mention mtf and that’s... not okay? People change their labels and grow into themselves all the time.

An involved and interesting narrative about how Angel found more acceptance in himself and his Family by being gay instead of trans could be developed and how he embraces that side of himself more later on or whatever. Canon shows how he plays with gender rep so that would likely be an AU take, but that’s not the point. The point is that mtf Angel Dust can contextually be an interesting headcanon/AU.

Yes, some of the struggles of ftm and mtf people are different and so are the struggles of trans vs gay people but also many are the same and the 40s wouldn’t have been chill with any of the above. And yes gay erasure bad I agree but we’re talking fanfiction and headcanons here, and there are quite a few gay or bi/pan characters in Hazbin and Helluva besides Angel. Straight-up genderbends have similar results with far less backlash and yet completely remove the topic of LGBTQ rights and the complexity of dysphoria and going against social structures.

I still prefer ftm or genderqueer Angel Dust, but maybe stop attacking anyone who breathes about it? (With the caveat that they’re handling a complex situation well, and if not, they should be educated, not attacked.) This fandom has enough drama with claiming that Charlie dating a guy is erasure when she is bi and has a canon ex-boyfriend. Not to touch the aroace discourse that emerges on the daily.

[mystxmomo]

wait what are u referring to

Mm.

Okay. At the risk of starting, playing with, and feeding a fire, here's what I'll say.

This person, as mentioned, has a very black and white sense of morality, and a tendency to jump to conclusions and shift things to fit their beliefs and narrative. They firmly seem to believe that if something makes them personally feel uncomfortable, it is bad and wrong and a personal affront to them, despite being very vulgar, dismissive, and judgemental about other people's writing or what they explore.

I'll be upfront. That kind of mindset pisses me off. Let me give you an example, and a lead in to the next part of this tale.

What this instance specifically was about, was that were talking about Komahina family aus in a mutual server we share. As I've mentioned before on this blog, Im not a fan of them because for a variety of reasons, but one of the reasons I said was

"Komahina though.. Komaeda has dementa. even if you think Hinata heals the brainrotting part of it, I think there are still symptoms that would linger.

And I don't think any child should like. Mm"

What I meant by this, and most of the server seemed to pick up on, was the fact that you should conceptualize mental illness into the framework of what you're working on, instead of romantising it and leaving out all the Bad Parts because you like the character. Even I'm guilty of doing that, but I at least try to be aware of it.

As someone that has a history of Alzheimer's and dementia in my family, and grew up with a grandmother suffering from it, I first hand understand how scary and confusing it can be to a child. I think both Komaeda and Hinata as characters would be smart enough to realize this as well.

To quote my friend who I love dearly, "See like: Matsuda's entire character is there to illustrate how traumatising a parent with dementia can be"

What they TOOK this as, is, and I'm direct quoting THEM

"Some person in a server I'm in notorious for shit takes: Komaeda is mentally ill so he should never have children"

They also said that, again, a direct quote from them ABOUT me "they also compared telling people not to write yandere aus to pronoun policing" which is entirely wrong. What I said was, probably roughly because it was a while ago, while there are things wrong with it, calling it inherently homophobic to write yandere aus is a horrible straw man that disregards how many LGBT people, and specifically gay and trans people in the fandom write it. As well as inherently disregarding how young a lot of the people writing for them tend to be.

You're kind of beginning to see how this person's mindset works though.

This has commingled into them venting about and name dropping me in their public server, telling people to block me because they don't like my Takes. Which is like. Fine. Again, I cannot control the opinions of other people, and it's their server. They can say what they want about me, as I generally hold the opinion that people ARE going to gossip about me behind my back. It's just how people work.

That said, everytime they've vagued or gossiped about me it has come back around to me. So the fact that they continue to do it is honestly incredible.

Having said all of that. If you do know who this is, just leave it alone. You can tell them whatever you want, show them this post for all I care. But don't harrass them or anything. I take a firm moral stance against call-out culture and public targetted harrassment, especially over something as small as komahina headcanons. On top of that, they really don't seem emotionally equip to handle that and despite viewing them in an admittedly negative light I wouldn't want anything to happen to them, again, over pretty internet drama. They really cannot take the same punches that they throw, and don't seem to realize what a negative person they are because the morality they advertise is on its own very good looking and inherently puritan. However this leads to them being a very callous person, that does things like throw people out of their server for disagreeing with their opinion, because if you disagree with their opinion on fictional romance You're A Bad Person with Bad Morals.

Frustrating. Literally just petty internet drama. But ultimately, it's not hurting me. I'll get a little laugh out of the sheer pettiness of the situation, but it's not going to kill me because someone thinks I'm a eugenist because I said komahina family au bad.

[hattedhedgehog]

Do you think Krem would take T and/or get surgery if it was available to him? My headcanon is that he probably can't actually bind much because the risk of damaging his ribs or losing lung functionality is too high and such an injury would be devastating to his career.

This is a tricky question I think, because every trans guy has such differing experiences with his own body and would want different things for Krem. I feel like there isn’t…a right answer, because there are so few trans men characters and Krem means so much to so many people, and he can’t be definitively everything at once. I occasionally find myself projecting my own feelings onto him, and having to remember that even though I cosplay Krem I can’t speak as if my view of him should be EVERYONE’S view of him. Just because I personally want T and top surgery doesn’t mean that he inherently does.

I suppose his choice for medical transitioning depends which ‘verse he’s in. In the game he tells the Inquisitor that he wouldn’t change if he had the choice, because he doesn’t want that sort of magic near himself and he’s in a place of self-acceptance with his body. But that’s specifically about Tevinter magic, which he’d be understandably wary of. I’ve seen some fics where he uses special salve like a Thedas equivalent of TestoGel, which was cool. 

In modern AUs where, unlike game Thedas, medical transitioning DOES exist, maybe he WOULD want that. But there are more variables now too; it’s rarely as simple as “does this person WANT to transition medically”. Maybe he wants T and/or surgery in theory but accepts that it’s something he has to wait a long time for because he can’t afford it, or maybe he doesn’t trust doctors, or the wait list for consultations is years long. Maybe he’s terrified of the idea of recovery time and having to be taken care of by others, even if it leads to a positive outcome. 

If I’m honest, there is something comforting about having an example of a trans guy who is at peace with himself pre-T and pre-Op, and whose found family accepts him as he is. As much as it might feel weird to not be able to relate to him about changing, his is a valid trans experience. 

[laurelnose]

Hello! I'm your Witcher Secret Santa (and very excited about it) here to ask if you have any particular tropes/likes/genres you'd like to see for your Geraskel fic!

hello!! thrilled to have you here!! 💛

i’m just gonna...kinda follow the wishlist outline the secret santa blog laid out here. cutting for a lot of talking about my personal geralt/eskel likes & dislikes lmao. hopefully this helps give you some ideas & if you need clarification on anything just let me know!

my eskeralt tag is #like two drops of water (this link doesn’t work on mobile but i will put it in the tags of this ask). what appeals to me about eskeralt is…aside from vesemir, there’s nobody either of them has known as long as they’ve known each other, and like, there’s nothing really that could ever make them reject each other. whatever happens short of death, there will always be eskel for geralt and geralt for eskel. also i just love both of them individually & it makes me happy to see them in the same place :’D

that said, i have never shipped a fully emotionally functional relationship in my life and eskeralt is not an exception—some of the most interesting points of conflict between geralt and eskel for me include:

their relationship is difficult to maintain; enough contract work for two witchers together is difficult to come by & two witchers are seen as intimidating by townsfolk! also, they’re both men, but ymmv on how much homophobia you want to feature in your version of the Continent. one of the few times they can be freely together is back at Kaer Morhen, and three or four months out of the year is…not a lot.

there’s a significant asymmetry between them where geralt has a much wider social network (both platonically and romantically) than eskel does. while geralt can always go to dandelion or yennefer for what he needs, eskel doesn’t have the same freedom… and eskel is clearly unhappy about yennefer when he and geralt speak to each other in the forktail cave. is there some bitterness there about geralt chasing the attention of sorceresses and whoever else all over the continent when eskel, the ugly, unfamous one, has always been right there for him? methinks the answer may be yes.

geralt is…not a functional emotional support network. like, he barely qualifies as a single emotional support pillar. he’s definitely 100% there for his friends but he’s not fantastic at divining when they need support without them actually out-loud asking, and tbh eskel isn’t necessarily great at this either. both of these boys were seriously failed as children when it came to identifying and communicating their own emotional needs. i love geralt and eskel knowing each other without speaking, the familiarity of presence and body language, but that kind of wordless communication breaks down when it comes to more complicated things like “hey i feel like you don’t value me as much as your many other more attractive friends”!

re: yennefer—yenralt and eskeralt are both OTP and as far as I’m concerned, yen & geralt are in an open relationship that is sometimes on-and-off but never completely finished. you do not need to mention or include her but if you do she and geralt should not be permanently broken up.  

genres—as may be obvious already, i like the complicated messy horrible feelings people have about each other and themselves and the difficulties inherent to making space for another person! angst is my favorite. i...basically never read pure fluff. i crave conflict and feelings. it doesn’t have to be conflict between them but there’s gotta be something in there makin’ life complicated.

i’m also a fan of whump. i’m pretty hard to squick when it comes to gore and various traumatic possibilities. if you are not so inclined, you do not need to include a happy ending. of course, if you are so inclined happy endings are also excellent!

tropes—in no particular order: casefic, confessions/first times, hurt/comfort (or hurt no comfort), miscommunication, mutual pining, relationship negotiation.

canon/pairing-specific tropes, still in no particular order: baby witchers, geralt & eskel being kaer morhen’s partners-in-crime, monster nerds (especially eskel; you may find #kaer morhen biology of monsters 101 useful. in the tags of this ask for mobile), eskel’s self-esteem issues, self-loathing for both of them, eskel calling geralt “wolf” (canon!!!), geralt kissing that notch in eskel’s lip.

i like a lot of different versions of the eskeralt first time; usually people have them figure it out as kids/teenagers, which i like very much, but i also like ‘back at kaer morhen for the first time as an adult witcher and oh shit he grew up hot’ and ‘it’s been decades and we are just now working thru all the emotional garbage that kept us from admitting to each other that we are not just friends’

& if it happens to be relevant, i’m not married to a trans headcanon for either of them but if only one of them is trans, i strongly prefer it to be eskel.

AUs—i usually go for canon or mostly-canon settings, but i’ll give almost any AU a try & i’m a big fan of canon divergence! when it comes to mermaid AUs, college/modern AUs, soulmate AUs, & daemon AUs, i am so incredibly picky that it’s probably not worth it though. i like roleswap AUs like sorcerer!boys a lot, and royalty/royalty-adjacent AUs are definitely my jam but please no warlord!geralt. 

...very much here for warlord!eskel though. 👀

on NSFW—it’s cool! the things that really press my buttons are specific and niche, but i’m also almost impossible to squick, so feel free to include as much or as little sex as you want! i just want there to be emotions. my favorite is sub geralt and bottom eskel (yes at the same time) but i am not picky at all in that regard.

DNW—i immediately hit the back button at any mention of kaer morhen’s library. suicide-related angst not preferred. 

also, no worries about spoilers, i have read or played everything relevant to the above ships! 

[endlessapis]

HI I HEARD TRANS PUPPYCORN??? And I need to hear more pls do you have any more headcanons about everyone and stuff??

Funny you should ask! :} I happen to have quite a few headcanons for this particular AU—haven’t shared ‘em anywhere else yet so y’all get the first look!

+ Unikitty and Puppycorn are half-siblings—their father, the former king of the Unikingdom, notoriously cruel and callous, married twice… and both of his wives disappeared under mysterious circumstances. There’s a lot about him Unikitty has kept from her little brother, but it’s unlikely she’ll be able to keep him in the dark much longer.

+ This AU is definitely more serious in nature than the show tends to be, which brings about an important question: how does the whole removal-of-limbs/heads/other body parts work in this universe? All of the universe’s inhabitants are generally able to remove parts of themselves without causing physical harm thanks to the inherent magic their bodies have. It’s not without its risks, however, and there are certainly ways to use this particular ability to cause serious (and potentially fatal) damage if one so chose.

+ Unikitty’s been ruling the Unikingdom since she was 8. Following the disappearance of both queens and the strange circumstances surrounding the king’s abdication of the throne, Unikitty was forced to bear the crown on her own. The Unikingdom was a far different place then… not nearly as nice or as happy as it grew to be under her care.

+ Dr. Fox’s left arm is fully robotic, though it’s usually concealed by her lab coat and a glove that resembles the rest of her fur. She lost it following a devastating lab accident and has done her best to keep this knowledge under wraps ever since—her reputation as the royal scientist is at stake, after all.

+ Hawkodile grew up in a home that emphasized masculinity above all else. As such, he wasn’t ever allowed to explore the softer, more “feminine” (according to his parents) aspects of his personality and interests. Thanks to Unikitty and Dr. Fox, however, he’s been able to experience some of what he missed.

+ Brock and Master Frown did date at one point, although they aren’t currently together. Their split was an amicable one that took place right before Master Frown became a doom lord, born from Master Frown’s desire to keep Brock safe. It’s certain that they both still care very deeply for each other, however (they also refuse to refer to each other as exes because yikes, that’s just weird).

+ Richard was, essentially, Unikitty and Puppycorn’s sole caretaker despite the fact that he was barely out of childhood himself when the first queen vanished shortly before Puppycorn’s birth—he was 18, Unikitty was 6. His father was the king’s head vassal, a position Rick had been training to fill one day prior to him taking on the role of surrogate parent. When the second queen vanished, and the king not long after, Richard was left to pick up the pieces. He was 20, Unikitty was 8, and Puppycorn was 3.

[astarion-dekarios]

@everyonewasabird​

No, I don't mind talking about this...! I recognize however that it is a sensitive subject so I am going to activate my Insurance Policy and put it under a cut so, disclaimer this is all just My Personal Opinion and subject to taste and you can like what you like etc etc.

Warning: Trans Les Mis Opinions Under The Cut

So there are ... several different things that made me reluctant to try to engage with this element. Maybe things have changed since I last did so! Maybe they haven’t! But in any case these were Super common tropes and themes that I used to see around all the time and which bothered me personally (you can call it squick if you want), and actually made up a majority of the trans les mis content so I just disengaged entirely.

1. Trans [Enjolras] Pregnancy. This is perhaps the biggest one. Trans [male] pregnancy is kind of a sensitive topic at the best of times. In my Personal Opinion, the idea of Enjolras getting pregnant is so wildly incongruent with who he actually is as a character and the values that he has, and is a major squick for me. But this used to be so common that if I saw trans Enjolras mention, 90% of the time it was followed up with something about pregnancy.

It basically gave me the impression people were making Enjolras trans solely and exclusively so they would have the “excuse” to write mpreg & thereby reducing trans people to their body parts but also... body parts that are even more upsetting to be reduced to if you’re trans, lol. This happened with other characters too but 90% of the time it was Enjolras. If you want to write mpreg please [seriously please] don’t feel like you have to make one of them trans for it to “make sense”.

2. Feminization Of Enjolras. Enjolras looks quite feminine physically! I don’t actually mind if people lean heavily into that, in fact I quite like it when it’s done in the sort of Romantic Androgyny Makes You Beautiful fashion. This one was [almost] exclusively seen in modern AU content, which I try to avoid anyway because it’s just not really my thing 99% of the time, but it did actually make up a significant portion of Enjolras Content and a large Percentage of Trans Enjolras content.

What I mean by this is: a) depicting Enjolras wearing short skirts, crop tops, and/or lipstick because Fuck Gender Roles. Trans people are not obligated to Fuck Gender Roles & once again this feels to me personally incongruent with Enjolras’s characterization ... It’s fine if you are a trans guy and want to wear these things. But the conspicuous Lack of characters headcanon-ed as cis men who were wearing these things bc Fuck Gender Roles was... well, conspicious. Presenting trans characters as if they Have To completely ignore “gender roles” & “trans men can be feminine too [in fact they should be] [but cis men can’t]” actually wraps all the way around from Fuck Gender to... just feeling extremely uncomfortably binary gender essentialism.

       b) depicting Enjolras as extremely weak, not knowing how to fight, etc. This one actually feels both transphobic And misogynistic ... the fact that he looks “like a 17 year old girl” doesn’t appear to make him weak or incompetent in battle in Victor Hugo’s original novel, so ... :/ Again, just uncomfortable.

3. Non-binary Jean Prouvaire. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this. It’s fine. But the fact that it became such Widely accepted fanon to the point where people have actually “corrected” me when I used he/him pronouns to refer to Prouvaire is A Lot. Why this character specifically? Again I can’t help but feel like it’s because of a belief that cis men cannot be “soft” or like poetry or flowers or whatever. (Never mind the debate about whether or not Prouvaire is in fact Soft; he is almost invariably depicted that way in this case).

The other element to this is flattening and reducing gender and gender expression (especially in the case of non-binary people) solely to the use of pronouns. However instead of actually engaging w/ things I personally find interesting, most of the Prouvaire Trans Content appeared to be centered around the use of non-binary pronouns (they/them) (to the point where I have been “corrected” on it in the past), despite the fact that this makes no actual sense given that he is actually French and they/them pronouns are not a thing in French (at least not France French) (yes there are some people experimenting w/ gender neutrality in French language but there are more people in France who are in fact non-binary but for whom that does not center around pronouns; the specific they/them pronoun focus feels extremely anglophone).

Again like, this is ok, I understand that some non-binary people for whom this IS important (and that’s fine!) project onto Prouvaire and like, that is part of fandom, a lot of it is inherently personal. But also it is in my opinion an extremely uninteresting way of depicting gender-- along with the comparison of Jehan vs. Jean as being the same as a trans person’s chosen name... like that’s not what it is. It is, as a dear friend once said, more equivalent to that guy in your foreign language class who insists on being referred to by their foreign language name even outside of class; or your renfest nerd friend called Gavin who insists on going by Gawain.

These are the three Main things. As I’m sure you can tell by this rant, a lot of this is obviously personal taste. It’s fine if people like these things. But I don’t and some of it makes me profoundly uncomfortable, and the fact that it made/makes(?) up the majority of trans les mis content just turned me off of engaging with it totally. I am sure there is good trans les mis content out there, I have even read some of it in the past, but I am not interested in wading through a bunch of things that make me uncomfortable in order to find it haha. Hope this satisfies! I am in fact willing to talk about these things so don’t worry about pressuring me by asking or w/e.

[trans-axian-archive]

Okay but like, tell me fem!motorcycle!au wwx as like a stereotypical lesbian look isn't *chef's kiss* or even just motorcycle!au wwx who hangs out too much with peak lesbian wen qing and now also dresses in that lesbian chic fashion with the flannels and casual tees and stuff. Oh god what if wwx ended up being wen qing's beard accidentally and vice versa

this has been sitting in my ask box for quite some time because I wasn't quite sure how to respond and wasn't in the right headspace to do so properly. first of all I'd like to say that I appreciate your enthusiasm in my au! it's nice to hear other people be excited about the things I create

second of all, and what has made answering this such a task, I have... a lot of issues with this. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume they're just uneducated, especially when they don't seem to harbor any malicious intent, so I'm going to take this as an opportunity to educate as well as make sure my opinion on this is very clear to any of my followers and any people who consider following me: genderbends 100% do not fly with me. it's not 2014. yall should have grown out of this and learned by now. they're incredibly transphobic and I don't want content like that anywhere near my blog

here are a just a few of the reasons why genderbends are transphobic/bad in general:

- genderbends, by default, change a characters physical appearance. saying that to be a woman you must have boobs or to be a man you must have a flat chest etc etc is just. inherently transphobic to begin with

- often times people will change the personality of a character when genderbending. changing the personality of a character to """fit""" their genderbent selves is just like outright sexist

- it assumes characters are cis by default

- I know you said 'fem!wei wuxian' and not 'genderbent!wei wuxian', so I guess I'll give you points for that, but I'd like to just say anyway that the term "genderbend" is transphobic in the sense that it implies that there are only two genders

genderbending wei wuxian specifically is suspicious and uncomfortable on its own. wei wuxian is a character in an mlm relationship and is so, so often fetishized and feminized. going as far as to genderbend him into a woman when he so often times is referred to as "mom" and "wife" is incredibly uncomfortable at best. I'm even suspicious of cis people who headcanon him as a trans man (outside of a trans persons own headcanon), because consciously or not, they are probably doing it with and for transphobic and homophobic reasons

I think there are ways to go about genderbends that can work, but there is a very thin line you must walk. saying "hey, what if I reimagined this story but the main protagonist is a woman (because there are so few woman protagonists)" can be successful if done very carefully and gone about the right way. a trans person saying "hey, I see a lot of myself in this character and recognize lots of trans or especially closeted trans traits in them" is okay. in this specific instance, in the context of this au especially and who I am as the person who created it, it is not one of the cases that a genderbend will fly. not to mention, this is my au and I'm uncomfortable with anyone within it being genderbent, so that should be the end of the story

theres a second piece to this and, while theres a pretty good chance you just weren't aware ofit, I have to point it out anyway: wei wuxian is trans in this au. he is a trans man. genderbending him into a woman or talking about him being a lesbian is especially inappropriate in the context of this specific au. suggesting he would date, or be assumed to be dating/pretending to date a lesbian, is uncomfortable as well. I am well aware that wei wuxian is not canonically trans, but in this au which I have created and we are specifically talking about, he is, and suggesting he is anything but that makes me particularly uncomfortable and feels especially inappropriate

I hope I worded this clearly and correctly in the way that I wanted to and that you can understand where I'm coming from/are able to see this as an educational experience

[cooltapes]

Can I ask your opinion as a bigender person (I’m cis)? What do you think of non-fetishy genderbends? I love seeing fanart that’s a different take on a character, whether simply  a different hairstyle or a redesign of their costume or a straight-up AU, and when it isn’t for fetishy purposes some of the genderbend stuff is pretty creative in that direction. But is it something I shouldn’t support?  

I’ve reposted this from your ask just in case you didn’t want to be published, but I wanted to ask other people and also talk about it because it’s a topic I’ve been thinking on a while.

I also personally love to look at genderbends from a design perspective, because character design is really interesting to me and I see it (when it's done well) as an analysis of the conscious choices people make when gendering their characters and how society perceives certain traits to me masculine/feminine, a tool to make yourself more aware of your own biases about gender and the concept of a gender binary. Like, these things shouldn’t impact on the way we perceive a character’s personality, but they do, and those are biases worth scrutinising. Our individual and collective understanding of gender plays a HUGE part when designing both a character's visuals and personality and to suggest otherwise is to just ignore the source of many gendered problems in fiction. Sailor Neptune is a good case study. As a cis woman, she performs hyper femininity within the lens of being a lesbian in an out relationship. If she were “genderbent” (I’ll get to that term in a second) to a cis man in a gay relationship, what would convey the closest impression to her original design? An effeminate cis gay man, with the same mannerisms and style as canon Michiru, or a cis gay man performing hyper masculinity? The former may be related to the original character more but I would argue that from a design perspective the latter is actually the closer equivalent after dissecting the societal expectations Michiru is both fulfilling and subverting, even though both “genderbent” Michirus would seem COMPLETELY different to canon Michiru. But why? What implications on personality and character agency does it have for a character to perform/subvert certain behaviours when the only thing you change is their assigned gender? Is a cis man who makes the same choices as canon Michiru in his presentation expressing fundamentally different personality traits than a cis woman? Why do/don’t we perceive it that way? In short, with what we know of Michiru’s canon personality, if she had been assigned male at birth instead, would she have made the same choices for herself? What is more fitting with her personality? And why and what do we project onto her when we consider this? This is the kind of analysis I run through when I think about “genderbending” characters... But.

I’d argue that most “genderbends” aren’t done well, or done with this analysis in mind, they’re very much just a surface-level embrace of the gender binary and gendered roles/designs. “Genderbends” are one of those things I enjoy playing with myself but probably wouldn’t trust coming from other people unless I already knew where they were working from. A lot of “genderbent” art I see is interesting for me to analyse not because it’s good but because it’s a window into how the artist - and anyone identifying with it - has internalised and expresses gender. I think the very subtle ones - the ones that just barely change a character’s silhouette or facial structure to the point where they “pass” now as a different gender - are both the most fascinating to observe but also the ones that leave the worst taste in my mouth if I don’t know where the artist is coming from and what they’re trying to demonstrate. It is interesting to see just how flimsy our definition of gender is but at the same time so rigid once you are seen to cross that line. And of course, as you said for some a “genderbend” is just an excuse to create more fanservice, which I would argue is incredibly interesting to dissect for how it fits the consensus of acceptable heterosexuality (I cannot stop thinking about the One Piece figures that turn cis male characters into big tiddy anime girls for straight male fans jack off to and how many layers of heteronormativity this is buried under) but again, not a GOOD thing. An anthropological thing. That doesn’t mean that I really want those “genderbends” to exist.

Alright, now to the term “genderbend”. I think the best thing you could do, and what I do on the rare occasions where I share what I make, is to tag them as “cisswaps” instead because it acknowledges that you are working within a cisnormative, binary structure, and if you’re aware of that framing then it at least implies you don’t agree with it. There’s a post roaming around out there that suggests all “genderbends” are trans adjacent and I don’t think that’s accurate or ... good, even. As I said I don’t think cisswaps or “genderbends” are necessarily good things and to suggest an artist adhering rigidly to a binary gender system and couching everything within cissexism is somehow creating a trans narrative is a bad take IMO even if I understand why some trans people would want to perceive it that way. I think gender headcanons are completely different from cisswaps and I love and support them. I don’t know if there’s a specific tag for those, though. If anyone knows of any I’d love to hear them, but I’m afraid they’d just get gunked up with bad content anyway.

This was a long post and the final message I want you to take away is that I cannot tell you if this is something you should support or not because I’m just one person with one very specific experience wrt gender. Some people will tell you cisswaps/“genderbends” are fine and lovely and that all this is overanalysis and there will be others who will tell you they have no merit whatsoever and you should never ever engage with them, even to dissect them.

Personally I think so long as you have a nuanced understanding and approach to gender, you don’t personally ascribe to a binary/cissexism, and, as a cis person, you find and listen to trans experiences, do whatever. That’s more important than whether you reblog someone navel-gazing about hypothetical gender roles in fictional AUs. Tagging stuff like this with “cisswap” is a good place to start, and most importantly it also provides trans people with a tag to block if they don’t want to see this content. And if a trans follower tries to approach you that something you do reblog was hurtful, be open to it.

TL;DR: For me personally cisswaps/”genderbends” are “interesting” but that doesn’t mean "good” and I am very hesitant to actually interact with other people’s because they can be and generally are binarist/cisnormative, but the concept is not inherently bad.

I would love to hear from any of my other trans followers here for their experiences and opinions.

[ariasune]

Are genderbends transphobic?

I am transgender, that is not a preface I am accustomed to using, it’s not one I feel I should use, or should have to use frequently, but when I talk about this, I know that I am talking about it partially from that place: of being trans. 

I am someone who is trans, but I am only one person. I am not all trans people, I am not all people, I cannot be, and my feelings on this subject are complicated. I don’t know where the line between what I know, and what I feel are separate, and I don’t know that they ever could be.

So are genderbends transphobic?

Well... Are they sexist?

Maybe not as much now, but if you know your history, genderbending began in a primarily cisgender, heterosexual male community as rule 63 (sfw). Objectively, many of the images associated with rule 63 were sexual, fetishizing, often violent examples of objectifying pornography. There certainly was a sexist streak when cisgender, heterosexual men were playing the game.

Genderswapping, as it was called, was then championed by cisgender, heterosexual women. How many of you remember it from fanfiction? It was hand in hand with homophobia much of the time. A tidy sanitization of male-on-male intimacy with the simple solution of heterosexuality, but yet, also a deep, and driving exploration of misogyny, and what gender meant to these women. It was important, to see women as main characters, to see them given agency, to see them powerful.

Nowadays, I see more and more genderbending from cisgendered people of other stripes; queer women. Often to explore their gender, and sometimes even to explore a shameless sapphicism, celebrated in everything from sweetness to sex. There is agency here too. There’s power here too.

And there is transphobia. Some of it I can explain, where it intersects with the sexualization of transgender bodies and lives, and even where this fetishization meets a desire to provide a voice to wlw, I can still trace the violence in these roots.

Some of it I cannot explain, a discomfort like I am disappearing, dysphoria brandished inside me like a weapon, a squeeze on me that hurts and yet I struggle to name, and even struggle to allow at this discussion. These are feelings, and as valid as my pain may be, is it truthful?

I do not want to take away a tool for cisgender queer women to celebrate their love of women.

I do not want to take away a tool for cisgender heterosexual women to celebrate their love of women.

I am conspicuously silent about where cisgender heterosexual men fit into this discussion.

However, the more I think on it, the more I firmly believe that all aspects of gender au - from trans headcanon to cisswapping along the binary - are all within the purview of trans experiences. 

Everything that takes a transformative stroke to gender begins to play with my life, from my experiences to how people will treat me. Gender au as a very wide trope has an impact on me, and influence from me as a trans person. 

Even if you are cisswapping a character, the role of social dysphoria, of designation, of assignment, of every part of the binary has a voice in my life, and when you cisswap, you tap into that very loud, often very painful experience. I promise you that you may think you understand what you are writing, because you are a woman, or you are a lesbian, but if you are not trans, then you do not fully know what you are accessing.

I beg of you to properly examine what you are accessing, and to do so responsibly.

I would not condemn or forbid a tool I know is used for good, and empowerment, but I believe gender au, which includes genderbending, is part of the trans community’s narrative.

It is often said that cis men are not very good at writing cis women. It is also said that heterosexual people can struggle to accurately, and humanely portray the homosexual, bisexual, and pansexual experience. White people frequently attempt, and fail to appropriately discuss black narratives.

It should also be said that cis people are typically very poor writers of trans experiences, and genderbending is always a trans experience. 

That is my answer. That is my conclusion. Genderbends are so frequently transphobic, and unpleasant to behold, because they are written by cisgender people who do not know that they are writing transgender narrative. They may know when they are writing cis women’s narratives, and cis sapphic’s narratives, in a way rule 63 did not account for, but they are writing transgender narrative too.

I choose to believe this is largely ignorance at play, rather than malice, but in truth it is probably both.

So often the discussion of whether genderbending is transphobic dissolves into a recap of this history, rightfully defending genderbending as giving a voice for women, but let it at least be a voice for all women. Your sisters, not just your cisters.

If gender au can be a tool of celebration for cisgender women, and cisgender queer women, then let it be a tool of celebration for trans women, for trans men, for non-binary people, and trans people of every stripe.

tl;dr genderbending is not inherently transphobic, but the average cis person portraying it is