#their relationships to their own genders

[vveakfish]

do you have any thoughts about the core four whose gender(s) are basically just a trans fruit cocktail that you would like to talk about? because I would love to listen

oh boy DO I !!!

I have So Many thoughts about them Anon, so thank you for giving me an excuse to try and put it into words beyond “Damn, these bitches trans! Good for them.”

Honestly, there are so many different ways to explore these characters genders based on how you choose to interpret their life experiences, and their aesthetic changes, and their relationships with each other. I am of the belief that any of them could be trans in any direction

But, that said, I Do have particular gender headcanons for YJ that i am very fond of, so thats what I’ll be talking about today.

(Small disclaimer. I have not finished all of the comics referenced in this. I am using the information i have to inform these, but you know, i might come back to this post at some point in the future and look at it like “wow, i don’t agree with any of this anymore.” And i think thats okay.

I’m just here to have fun, and i thoroughly enjoy these little guys, and think abt them alot, so enjoy

(also if you dont want to read 4.1k words of blorbo gender analysis, or would like to avoid spoilers for Superboy (1993), Young Justice (1998) & (2019), and Red Robin (2009) in varying degrees of detail, or you just want to see what lables i assigned them, scroll down to the bottom <3))

lets get started.

Bart:

Bart's gender is the most complex, but his thought process about it is also the most simple. I think his view of gender would be very much influenced by the fact that he grew up in VR in the future like…

A body is just an avatar, do what ever the fuck you want with it.

That said, the lil guy has always given me transmasc vibes. These vibes, however, are by no means binary.

He understands that in the 21st century a lot of people do not have his sort of “throw things at the wall and see what sticks” approach to gender, so he’s okay with being put in the box of Boy™. But his gender is a lot more * hand waves vaguely *

Clothes don’t have gender in his eyes, they’re fabric you put on your body. Wear what ever you want forever!

Bart in skirts is something i have seen many people draw/talk about before, and its something i agree with wholeheartedly. He likes hair clips, and like, those loud (actually loud and visually loud) beaded bracelet type things that ravers wear. He like nail polish. He doesn’t grow facial hair, but he wouldn’t care if he did. He’s not on hormones, but he definitely considered it for the bit. “Gotta drink my boy juice” Kind of vibes.

For him gender has Nothing to do with performance, its all about comfort. About wearing what feels right, regardless of whether or not he’s adhering to expectations of masculinity.

Yes, he Will wear that god awful outfit out of the house, haters can die mad

Cassie:

Anon, I need you to understand how much i love early yj98 cass. She is everything to me — her process of coming to terms with herself, and being able to watch her start to feel at home in her own skin. It makes me absolutely feral.

lets see if i can explain why… succinctly

When we first meet her in yj98, her identity as “Wonder Girl” is this sort of amalgamation of What it Means To Be A Hero in her eyes. She has her party city blunt bob wig (Because Diana is who she looks up to), the gloves, leather jacket, goggles combo (that so clearly take inspiration from Kon).

At this point in her life Wonder Girl is not really her. Its very clearly a mask she’s putting on. which is what makes it the perfect avenue for her to explore gender expression without it having to actually be about her gender.

I think the part that specifically makes me feral though is her… we’ll call it admiration of Kon.

The girl is a self proclaimed Superboy stan + theres all the weird not-drama between Cassie and Cissie over wanting attention from Kon. (And i say Not Drama bc its like… Kon flirting with cissie (which like… have you met 90’s Kon?? he flirts with everything that moves) and Cassie being upset that he’s Not flirting with her. and cissie is just along for the ride. She’s not quite as much of a flirt as kon is, but she has her moments)

All of this to say i feel like its impossible to have a conversation about Cassie’s gender without also talking about her experiences with comphet and lesbianism.

At the beginning, Cassie sees Kon — this cocksure, conventionally attractive boy with powers that (at first glance) seem very similar to hers, and felt something about it. And, in the way of teen girls who have been told since grade school that they’re supposed to like boys, Cassie comes to the conclusion that what she feels for Kon must be romantic in nature, right?.

All of this, the jealousy over Kon and Cissie flirting, basing her costume off Superboy’s (intentionally or otherwise), the fact that she wont let her team see her without the wig and goggles at all for so much of yj98. To me it all reads as the tangled mix of undiscovered lesbianism and gender dysphoria that the poor girl simply doesn’t have the words to define yet.

So, then what IS cassie’s deal with gender???

i am so very glad you asked.

She, too, is a transmasc of the nonbinary variety.

I think her relationship to femininity is complex, and ever changing. She doesn’t feel comfortable performing femininity the way the world expects her to, but she is also part Amazon. And i think having a relationship with both Diana and Donna would greatly influence how she felt about femininity as a whole.

The Amazons are strong, their femininity isn’t about beauty, or being soft spoken — it isn’t about Men at all. On Themyscira, to be a Woman is about bravery, honor, skill, and in some ways, divinity. Getting closer with her Amazonian sisters would change her relationship to womanhood immensely.

But it still wouldn’t feel Right. She would be able to see that womanhood can be defined differently, but that wouldn’t change the connotations that womanhood had as she was growing up. She’d never be able to lean into it the way Diana or Donna do — they both grew up only having woman defined as strong and brave and confident. Their experiences are not analogous.

The baggage of growing up a girl under the patriarchy wouldn’t just… vanish because she sees that it Doesn’t have to be that way. In some ways, the knowledge that it didn’t have to be that way could make her dysphoria all that stronger (especially if she hasn’t quite deciphered that dysphoria is what she’s feeling).

but i think there would be a point where two things sharpen into focus for her.

fiirstly she has a big fat crush on cissie king-jones.

and second (which would only come AFTER realizing her feelings for cissie) is that what she feels for Kon is Not the same as what she feels for Ciss.

She didn’t want to be with Kon romantically, she just wanted his gender.

I could see her experimenting with wearing a binder, liking that she can get rid of her boobs if she isn’t feeling them that day.

She already has her short hair, and her leather jacket and jeans, and shes big and buff and strong (because she deserves to be butch!!! okay???).

I still think she would use she/her pronouns, but she wouldn’t be picky ab it (if she gets called sir while at the pizza place, she’s not going to correct them.)

But here’s the kicker — I think leaning hard into her masculinity would be EXACTLY what she needs in order to actually ENJOY expressing femininity again.

When putting on the mask that is ‘womanhood’ becomes something that she can Choose to do, rather than something that is being forced on her, it can be pleasant. Like playing dress up.

She has a new appreciation for it, especially since her friends respect her gender, and she knows at the end of the day, when she takes the makeup, the clothes, and the wig off, underneath it all she’s just her.

(Small addendum re: TT’03 Cassie’s fem phase. I have Many thoughts about this as well, and while they end up in roughly the same place, i exploring her experience with comphet and her decision to dress in a more traditionally feminine in that run is something id like to explore in another post (once i’ve actually read the run too.)

Cissie (bonus):

This one should be shorter than Cassies, mainly because my reasoning for it is much simpler.

YJ'98 (#11)

She lists all these names, all of them feminine except for Fucking Ralph. “One weird phase” she calls it.

To me, Cissie is a transgirl through and through. She has this huge list of femme names she tried on while she tried to find the one that fit best. She mentions ralph in this off handed way, as if its not important, and i think thats just her way of dismissing her deadname as something of little consequence.

(that said, i think there’s lots of fun to be had with transmasc cissie, or tried transing-her-gender and realized it wasn’t for her Cissie. But as a transfemme, tgirl cissie is So important to me <3)

Kon:

other people on here have made posts about Kon’s gender that are much more coherent than this will be, but i’m putting the words down anyway. bear with me.

Kon’s experience with identity (especially in his earlier years) is almost entirely about the external rather than the internal.

Kon has his whole life planned out for him from the moment he opens his eyes. It’s simple really — become Superman.

So you have this freshly hatched teenage boy, saving the world as Superman (not the Only one, but definitely the coolest one (Kon would argue)). All eyes on him, all the time. In some ways, performance is inseparable from who he is. From the very beginning, everything he does is on display.

He starts his life with a Name (Superman), a life path (…again, Superman), and all the confidence of a sixteen year old jock with nothing but wins under his belt. then it all gets taken away.

Turns out Clark ISNT dead, and the world doesn’t need its pint sized superman anymore now that its got the real thing.

enter Superboy

Kon’s entire identity, his whole purpose for being alive, was to step into the shoes of a dead man who is no longer dead. So where does that leave our genetically engineered test tube baby?

lost, and extremely confused.

But he’s good at using his charisma as a shield, and even better at keeping himself busy. His problems aren’t there if he doesn’t have the time to think about them, right?

and i think that’s true about his gender as well.

Similar to Cassie, his discovery and exploration of his gender feels incredibly tied to his sexuality (to me). If you’ve read sb93, you know Kon’s deal with women. He is cute & conventionally attractive & he's like superman with a fashion sense, so of course there are people fawning over him.

And he loves the attention. He likes that people want him, or that they are looking at him. The issue is he doesn’t have the life experience to realize that their reasons for paying attention to him are often very shallow, manipulative, or selfish.

He isn’t treated as a person very often. He’s a brand, a product, a tool, a weapon. He’s arm candy, he’s a photo op, he’s a headline, he’s a paycheck. And it takes him a long time to be able to tell the difference between someone Liking Him & someone Using Him.

For the longest Time, Superboy is all he is. He doesn’t have a name outside of that identity (except for the various pet names the women in his life give him (kid & pup, mainly)).

And even when Clark does give him his real name, Kon-El, its still Attatched to his identity as Superboy.

I dont think that he would really even be able to start dissecting how HE feels about his identity until he’s much older.

Part of this would come from the space to be someone else that gaining a civilian identity would give him. As Superboy, the goal has always been to stand out, to be seen, to shine like the sun.

As Conner Kent, he has to blend in. He doesnt want to draw attention to himself, or the Kents, or Clark. He has to fit in, which was never something he had to do as Kon. And i think it would kind of chafe at him — but he wouldn’t really know why.

I think he’d chalk it up to how different of an experience it is. Not being loud, having to be normal™. And so i think he’d just… continue to play the part. For a while anyway.

And like, part of being Normalest Boy Conner Kent would also involve actively un-queer coding himself for the sake of fitting into the ecosystem of Smallville High. and its like…

Young Justice, as a friend group, is SOOO queerplatonic. The lines between romantic and platonic intimacy are so blurred, and Prior to Kon’s YJ days he he was also like… living with these woman who he had complicated relationships with that also blurred the lines between platonic, romantic, and sexual (…looking at you, Knockout).

So learning where the line is when it comes to how he can acceptably interact with his civilian friends (particularly the boys) would Really open his eyes to just how close he is with Bart and Tim, and how similar his feelings for them are to his feelings for… lets say, Simon Valentine.

But i dont think That is what would actually tip the scale. I think realizing that these feelings for his friends aren’t considered ‘normal’ would make him shove them down deeper. As ‘Conner’ anyway.

from here it could go two ways, right?

Either we get Teen Titans ‘03 t-shirt Kon, who sheds his GNC 90s swag in exchange for adhering closer to traditional (read; boring) masculine gender roles.

or we get a Kon who leans Harder into his punk roots, but its a conscious choice now.

(this isn’t even digging into how he would feel once Jon comes into the picture, because while Kon cares for that boy Deeply, his feelings abt the new kiddo in the family could also be very complicated. But that’s a post for another time.)

Personally i prefer the second one.

Kon has always been a curious kid, i love the way he makes pop culture references, and how he bases his behavior off of 90’s teen tropes that he Most Definitely learned from TV. In his early days this wasn’t done in a research way necessarily, but he Did want to learn what it was like to Be a Teen™, and TV was the easiest way to figure that out.

(and, playing in the space of Kon adaptations, his love of media/pop culture, and just over all thirst for knowledge, are present both in the Reign of the Supermen Movie, and in his iteration during the n52 (which is one of the few things i personally have internalized from reading n52 Superboy/Teen Titans)).

But post gay awakening, i feel liked he’d be interested not just in behaviors, but also the context of them. Digging into punk as a subculture rather than as an aesthetic. Learning about its connections to queerness, and community, and self expression. And i think this would be extremely freeing for him. (especially if this were around the time of Jon becoming Superboy v.3, but again, not the point of this post.)

this all culminates in Kon being like yk? gender just… isnt for me. Like, it takes im a long time to get to this point, but realizing that the path that was set out for him is just one of the potential paths he can take, and while he might not know where this new path will take him, its his, that that matters.

And also like, Because his friends are who they are, he’s seen different versions of queerness, and transness, but i think it would take him a bit to see himself as someone who Isn’t Cis bc like… he doesnt have dysphoria in the traditional sense.

He’s still the beefcake he’s always been, but i think he’d start playing with makeup when he realizes it makes him feel good (he shows up the the cave one day with smudgy eye liner and Cissie is immediately like a) you look so good and b) can i Please do your makeup? (and then she does it, and he looks so pretty, and he gets these weird giddy feelings that he doesn’t realize is gender euphoria until his friends start talking abt gender euphoria)

His uniform starts to get more personalized too, like the designs where he has knee patches, and all his little belts, and stuff. maybe he starts experimenting with showing skin. bc he deserves it

(’its for maximum sun exposure!!!’ is the what he tells clark… he’s not sure if clark bought it or not)

And hey, exploring gender presentation more as Superboy might help him do the same as Conner. Cassie will take him thrifting, he’ll try of a flowy skirt or a sun dress or something and then its Over. Gender euphoria part two, electric boogagloo.

In the end, its about realizing that adhering gender roles (and truthfully, any socially imposed ‘rule’ about self expression) is something he can simply Choose not to do. And i think this freedom would be something that benefits him in his civilian life as well.

His gender is: literally what ever, man.

Tim:

Ok, here’s the thing about Tim and gender, right? I think he’s kind of just comfortable as he is. He’s good at playing the roles he needs to in what ever situation hes thrown into. ‘Robin’ and ‘Tim Drake’ (and even ‘Tim Drake-Wayne’ if you want to split hairs) might be masks he wears, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less him. if that makes sense. like…

Lets look at the differences between Bruce (or Brucie) and Batman for a second. They really are different people. Batman is who bruce is at his core, ‘bruce’ is this sort of liminal space between the cowl and his public persona, and then theres Brucie™, and well, you know how he is. These are personas that Bruce puts on.

With Tim its like he just highlights different aspects of himself when a situation requires it. (oh no, the autistic!Tim head canons are being loud today.) But like, he’s Always been masking. And i think this is something he would look at as like… getting a good grade in adapting. or something. He’s comfortable, all the roles he plays are ones he’s familiar with, and he doesn’t really question who he is outside of who he needs to be.

That is, until Caroline Hill makes an appearance.

I feel that the decision to go undercover as a woman was a wholly practical decision in the moment. It’s what the mission required, and therefore tim stepped up. Its just another mask, right? Surely this wont awaken anything in him…right?

But this is an entirely new mask. And i think it might like… shift the way he looks at/thinks about the other masks he puts on. He was able to step into a role that was very foreign to him, and it Worked. (and he felt pretty, which like… woah, thats a new feeling. and he kinda liked it? file that under ‘thoughts he doesn’t have the bandwidth to process right now.’ Bruce needs him back at the cave! its time to debreif! and he has a biology test tmrw! no time for gender scaries!!!).

I think it would take a while for him to be able to admit it to himself though. Because like… hes Not uncomfortable with his body, but he also keeps thinking about how good he felt dressed up femininely, and how he felt powerful, in a way. That putting on that mask felt just as good as putting on his domino.

Personally, i think itd be funny if instead of coming out right away, Tim doing undercover missions essentially in drag becomes a recurring thing. And i imagine some people give him a hard time. (not in a transphobic way or anything, i just mean like, teasing him fondly or what ever.) (Also, i like to imagine that when cissie Did kons makeup, bart and Tim jumped in there too bc like hey why not, and hoooooo boy, if Tims egg hadn’t cracked before then, it sure would have cracked after.)

The thing about him is, i’m not sure if he’d come to the realization himself. You know, that he would like to present femme sometimes, in a situation that has Nothing to do with a mission.

I could see Tim convincing himself that its a pointless or frivolous desire, which is Why he relegates his time presenting femme to when he can prove that it’s useful.

but i have this image in my mind, right? Of him, taking his makeup and wig off, and hes chatting with whoever is in the room with him (literally anyone else mentioned above… or Dick). And Tim’s just talking about how he wishes he could present this way in situations other than missions.

and the other person in the room is just like… i mean, you literally can.

and hes just like…. shit you’re right. i Can :0

I could probably go further into depth abt this, but i think this just frees him to start playing with gender more as Tim. and start to recognize when he’s feeling more masculine, more feminine, or somewhere in between.

His gender isn’t consistent, its this thing he’s constantly listening to, and trying to understand. but in the mean time, he can paint his face, and wear pretty clothes, or dress like just Some Guy, or be a hedgehog dressed in traffic light colors, or what ever his heart desires.

As far as like… how He describes his gender, i think he’d say something corny like bi^2 (bi of both the sexual and the gendered varieties). Or shrug, handwave, generally give a non-helpful vague description. Or tell who evers asking to buzz off.

(small addendum wrt Kon and Cassie in TT’03. I haven’t read this run yet, so i didn’t really include it in this post. But i Do have thoughts about what might cause the two of them (my gnc besties from my comics books) to lean sooooo hard into traditional gender roles after being So Queercoded in their other appearences. Before i talk abt that though, i want to read the comic. So, that will have to be a post for another time)

ANYWAY, heres that TL;DR i promised.

Bart: NB Transmasc Cassie: NB Lesbian (of the transmasc variety) Kon: Agender Tim: Fluid (bi-gender) + Cissie: Transgirl

Thank you soooooo much for giving me the opporrtunity to ramble abt the silles and how Not Cis i think they are. Love you forever.

#𓆟 #𓆟 | 📨 #anon #disclaimer: this all for fun! i love these kiddos & am working on reading more of their comics #And my thoughts here are based on things that i have extrapolated from what they have gone through in canon & how that might influence #their relationships to their own genders #Core Four #Young Just Us #Bart Allen #Cassie Sandsmark #Cissie King Jones #Kon-El #Tim Drake #LOL will Tumblr let me post this now? #(i spent like... 15 minutes futzing with the formatting just for it to go 'srry cant post this hehe'

[bat-kidsarebi-kids]

I love you transfems I love you tall transfems I love you short transfems I love you fat transfems I love you thin transfems I love you hairy transfems I love you transfems who shave I love you butch transfems I love you femme transfems I love you it/its transfems I love you transfems who don’t use she/her I love you transfems who exclusively use she/her I love you transfems who pass I love you transfems who don’t pass I love you transfems who don’t want to pass I love you transfems who are on HRT I love you transfems who aren’t on HRT I love you transfems who don’t want to transition I love you transfems who are still closeted I love you if you have a penis I love you if you have a vagina i love you if you are intersex you are not a sex object you do not exist for other people to use you up you are worthy of love regardless of your relationship to sex & you deserve to be backed by your community 100% of the time. transfems you are always safe on my blogs. i see you transfems I love you transfems you are more than enough exactly as you are transfems

#also i wish we’d talk more about transfem/aspec solidarity #marginalized by our own communities? #constantly denied our existence? #shoved into tiny boxes according to what others think we should be #constantly assessed for our relationship to sex and nothing else #transfems i can’t speak for all aces but i have your back #your fight is my fight sister ❤️ #trans #transgender #gender #trans positivity #trans safe #transfem safe #transfem #transfemme #t4t #t4t solidarity #terfs dni #mine #bkabk says words

[littletissueghosts]

Transmasc Person: "I am a straight guy, since I am a guy who loves women."

Toxic Queer People™: "Ew, straight guys are all predators, since only non-queer people are straight! Anyways, discrimination against straight men isn't real, even when they're a minority."

Transmasc Person: "Okay, I am a lesbian, since even if I'm not a woman, I still have a connection to womanhood."

Toxic Queer People™: "Lesbian is woman-only! If you are in any way a man or not a woman, you are not a lesbian! Transmascs can never be lesbians or have a connection to womanhood/a lack of manhood! Stop invading the lesbian community!"

I dare you to make it make sense.

#transhet #transmasc lesbian #transmasc #trans mlw #trans man #anti radical feminism #anti exclusionist #radinclus #critinclus #transandrophobia #let trans people define their own relation with gendered terms ffs #trans people need to be allowed to define their own relationship with gendered terms #even if it means that they may be using the “incorrect” word for their orientation #no I do not advocate for calling trans MLW overall lesbians #but if that is the term a trans man uses to describe himself he should not be forbidden from using it #it's 2023 #we need to stop with the “men sneaking into the LGBTQ+ community” radfem rhetoric #q word #tw discourse

[marihem]

All I know is I just want to spend the majority of my life with you

The actual very first doodle where I finally put my QPR Frans idea on canvas. Man I really love thinking about queer relationships

Please feel free to ask me anything about their relationship too

#seriously i've spent many nights thinking about them #i'm very insane about them #dw the insanity is under control tho (i might be lying) #remember how i saw someone said- #'qpr is to relationships how non-binary is to gender' #'queer' also means strange/outside of the established standards so we can go nuts with our own meaning #man this is so damn cool #i could go on and on about this topic #frans #frisk #sans #sansfrisk #qpr frans #sans x frisk #frisk x sans #i would gnaw on my fingers hard if i'm not too tired rn #if you read all these tags i appreciate you <33 #my art

[pocketramblr]

you know im thinking. im thinking maybe Yoichi wasn't even that into captain hero as an adult, but AfO kept bringing LITERALLY every conversation back to that because he decided to Be The Demon Lord and so Yoichi like, can't get an argument in unless he uses the same material so he's like 'oh my god i haven't even thought about that comic in ten years but even i know the bad guy didn't win. you should not be basing you whole identity, business model, and world destruction plan on your five-second impression of a comic book bad guy who didn't even win! also you shouldn't kill people!'

#AfO has a very flat picture of Yoichi in his head #His Possession. Weak and small. and taught him language reading and socialization with Captain Hero #he's THORS POPTARTS-ing his own brother in his memories #what sort of art styles did yoichi like? how did he interact with gender? did he like his eyes or did he wish they were different? was he a #morning person or a night person? were there clothing textures he loved or couldn't stand? did he like to collect feathers or leaves? did h #ever pick up any sense of religious knowledge from his assorted readings? cultural identity? did he learn how to cook in theory but never #had the materials to practice? or did he cook once they were older as AfO sort of internalized that as yoichi's subservient role? #or did he make absolute monstrosities when he attempted to bake anything? #We dont know because all we see of Yoichi is: #his brother's memories of him. could be flanderization for all we know #and an imprint of Yoichi in ofa #who by necessity has to be focused on his brother #we'll never get to see the whole picture of the dead holders. they're dead. and we can't change that. can't know their vibrant lives #so yeah lets see. a five+one fic about yoichi's changing relationship with media property captain hero over time in his life and death #compared to afo's static impression of yoichi's relationship / afo's own unchanging relationship with it #hmmmm

[dekuinthelake]

Hope I threaten some fragile cis masculinity today with my majestic transgender beard.

#me #beard #transgender #boyz need to work on not having such a toxic relationship to their own gender

[alexkablob]

not to wade into discourse about shows online which I swore to stop doing but I think some of you need to recognize that not every piece of media is about you, and that focusing only on the themes that you personally identify with while erasing the ones you don't is Not Great

#some of you only know how to analyze things through a VERY specific queer lens that matches your own personal experiences and it shows #and I just think there is a lot more to enjoying narratives about having a complex relationship to gender in a very specific historical era #than arguing about what specific pronouns and labels they would use in 2023 #and that white queer people reducing stories that are about a character's struggle with being multiracial #to *only* the queer elements that we identify with is. not great??? #you can't separate these things you can't just ignore them #I'm obviously not equipped to do in-depth *commentary* on that aspect of mizu's character because I am in fact a white queer #that is for other people to speak about and I'm enjoying reading their takes on it #but like. you need to engage with media that is not about you. you need to assign artistic merit beyond what you personally identify with. #you can find things that resonate with you in them but you should not make the whole thing about you

[abyssalzones]

I'm probably nonbinary but I have college so idrc about that rn

#man but weird. guy but kind of off with it. #okay my real genuine thoughts are that I consider 'nonbinary' to be just as descriptive as 'trans' #so to me it probably describes my gender experience. but in the sense that if you asked me what I am I'd tell you I'm a man #but idk.... my own relationship with the term “man” feels distinct from others.... I think everyone has their own unique relationship with #gender obviously BUT. I do not think I have the same thing going on as cis men. nor would I ever want that #...kind of a gender + bisexuality situation where any attraction I feel is gay attraction. I'll be honest #in an ideal world I could transition from female to Creature actually <- HE'S SANE #lab notes

[rathologic]

I've always found Alexander Saburov interesting, especially P1 Rubin's take on him where he tells how Alexander in incognito saved people from burning house and went unrecognized for the deed (nor flaunted it). Wonderful and easy to miss characterization.

YES saburov's fucked up sense of performing duty by putting himself at risk... my favorite... have had thoughts brewing in response to this that aren't quite cooked enough yet but it's very much a gendered standard that he holds himself to IMO, of idealized masculinity as a responsibility. as an active role and as the way things must be done. making the choices that he thinks need to be made regardless of how bad they are for him. pairing beautifully with katerina's self-destructive attempts to conform to the extremely feminine-gendered role of mistress, pairing wonderfully with the two of them's catastrophic attempt to conform to the heteropatriarchal nuclear family archetype by adopting the changeling :^) and especially how this is a function of how saburov relates to his Job, a role that's been passed down in his family and Actually Is critical to the function of the Town, inescapably so as long as the system of rulers exists

#it Is a little funny to me that p1 showed this family structure being flawed so extensively (with all three rulers!) and now p2 is a You #Must Get A Wife And Kids Then Everything Will Be Fine simulator (...more or less w/ all three rulers but mostly re: the player). #alexander saburov #asks #anonymous #also stream ee's song Big Climb. I have no idea how it wasn't previously on my ee exclusive saburovs playlist but it's very them #further: I do think gender is a factor in saburov's vitriol towards peter/the architects (in this view of masculinity as self-discipline #/moderation. They Don't Do It Like That) and I think that's a fun field to explore in several directions. and to contrast with rubin who ha #a similar outlook about his own gender ('perfect valor' etc.) but is an outcast and out of the spotlight in a gay coded way; whereas #alexander and his wife are under the utmost scrutiny wrt being held to Gendered Positions in the town AND are bound by duty and history to #uphold its traditions. like. saburov has no escape that could result in a healthier relationship with gender #and if you're a wise-minded saburovs t4t enjoyer... well... The Layers Only Deepen #pathologic

[coochiequeens]

Please let this be a troll. If not the women in his life, and that guy he wants to seduce away from his girlfriend, are in danger.

He probably doesn’t get invited because they can sense his hostility and envy towards them but they are too woke or just too nice because of female socialization to outright say no to him. I also bet he’s so focused on “girly” bonding activities like shopping that he doesn’t bond of the unglamorous “girly” stuff like cleaning up after social gatherings.

So glad reddit didn’t humor him and advised him to get therapy for his anger issues.

#Reddit #MtF #transwomen and male violence #This guy is so triggered by feminine hygiene products yet I bet he feels like he’s woman enough to use the women’s bathroom #He wants to seduce a man in a relationship just to validate his own gender identity #Men fetishizing violence against women

[keymintt]

bisexual, but not rly in an "i'm attracted to xyz" way so much as a "whatever the fuck happens, happens" way

#something something abt how sexuality and gender and queerness is 'defined' vs how it's experienced #maybe this is just how my own bisexuality is! idk im a nonbinary guy who's general outlook on life can be summed up as fuck it we ball #i ofc have my preferences and tendencies and attractions but those are broad at best nor am i like. super beholden to them #for instance i'd prefer to date someone who's not cis but if i hypothetically am into a cis person who's chill with my whole Situation- #-then it's like shit. alright! #and obviously anything that's a dealbreaker in a friendship to begin with is also going to be a dealbreaker in a relationship as well #also please don't be weird on this post! this is about my own sexuality and if you relate to it that's epic #but if you don't or otherwise feel the need to 'correct' me on smthin then pls just move on #no i won't shut up #< talking tag #also also its fine to rb this if you want idc

[uncanny-tranny]

On the topic of hormones, I love trans men, transmasculine people, abinary, multigender people, or whomever else who takes estrogen and trans women, transfeminine, abinary, multigender people, or whomever else who takes testosterone.

There is no "right" way to transition. You don't have to be a perfectly binary, gender conforming trans person in order to take hormones. We all have different levels of estrogen and testosterone, and that means women and nonbinary people don't have to have estrogen-dominant systems and men and nonbinary people don't have to have testosterone-dominant systems. Do what sparks joy and if it's shit, hit the bricks!

#trans #transgender #lgbt #lgbtq #ftm #mtf #nonbinary #i think people who take 'nonconforming' hormones for their gender are so cool 👍 #and it's made me so much more comfortable in my own relationship with hormones and my body and how my identity plays into it #because my sense of self is nuanced but i was always under pressure to think 'i'm a man so i can ONLY have testosterone in my system' #and that's shitty because at that point i couldn't transition medically and i felt like less of a man #but the people who are so commited to breaking gender apart with their teeth have made me so much more comfortable #i wish somebody could have been there to tell me my hormones didn't dictate my entire sense of if i'm a 'real man' though #also this isn't an attack on trans men/masc people taking testosterone and the inverse for estrogen #sometimes i see people reading way too into these posts and assuming that the OP is saying they hate 'conforming' trans people #(i'm a trans man* who is transitioning 'conformingly' if anybody is thinking the tags previously are true) #(also i am very content being a trans man who takes testosterone so my gender doesn't feel threatened when a trans man takes E y'know?) #(you don't have to understand it but you DO have to treat them like human beings who have bodily autonomy)

[performing-personhood]

Just friends though. Totally a normal and not at all smitten thing to say about your absolutely platonic buddy. Everyone says stuff like this about the person they absolutely do not ever think about at random times of the day.

#just buds being pals #omg we are not even roommates okay shut up #crowley in denial #crowley is so deeply in denial in this scene its basically his gender #and by the time he realizes the ladies are right and how bad he's down #its too late because Aziraphale has just decided to Save Them All (especially Crowley and the Missing Smile) #and is too deep in his own denial problems to understand his role in all this #GUYS I AM FINE #i'm fine this is fine #neil gaiman #good omens #extremely complex and difficult relationships are what neil gaimain is really really good at #especially if you involve a male-presenting person-like-figure who absolutely cannot get out of their own way #lookin at you Dream #but anyway that's a different franchise #aziraphale #crowley #good omens screenshots #ineffable breakup #ineffable husbands #crowley x aziraphale

[dennisboobs]

.

#the reason cisswap lesbian macden does nothing for me is bc i get my dose of lesbianism from canon charden <3 #i say it (jokingly) all the time but i think if the sunny fandom was more open to charden y'all would have more fun #everything ppl do with macden to make it ~more fun~ is literally. already there with charden #macden is a lot of fun in its own way but if i want butch/femme lesbians i have charden already-- #this is literally why i ship both. if i want to fuck around with gender i can throw charden together #if i want to fuck around with weird codependent loser roommates i can throw macden together #they have different dynamics and both bring different shit to the table #also idk such a massive part of dennis is his (often unapologetic but still stifled) more 'feminine' gender expression #so making him a cis woman who likes being feminine is like. yea. that sure is. cis woman dennis. #as someone who has an extremely complicated history w expressing femininity or anything that is even seen as being remotely femme #it doesn't grab me #the genderfuckery is not there #but TRANSBIAN CHARDEN???? YEAAAAAH #i think mac being so focused on upholding traditional mascilinity IS a very interesting dynamic to have next to. you know. dennis. #wheras charlie could not give less of a fuck #i think gender exploration with macden would take a completely different form but still be extremely interesting for both of them #but there's a lot less initial acceptance and a lot more hiding on den's part #especially if the two are in a relationship #because mac coming to terms with being gay took so long so dennis being at all feminine or even transfem is like #mac needs to do. more introspection #which is an entirely different set of issues to charden gender exploration where like #charlie being nonconforming. not shaving. not caring abt using she/her pronouns. being nontraditional in every way and not giving a fuck #would be absolutely fucking absurd to dennis who is very conformist after she comes out #and would probably be content to conform to whats expected of her as a woman with mac IF she did manage to come out at all #bc dennis would have to actually manage to come out. instead of hiding the fact she's trans > looking at carmen and the way mac treated her #i think both paths have additional challenges and that's. you know. whats interesting. #is cisswap den butchy? does she hide her masculine interests? is denise transmasc...?? #cisswap mac being butch is like. you know. nonconforming so it doesn't quite do the same thing as canon mac either #mac being Traditional and catholic and having to push past homophobia (internalized and externalized) to be himself is. pretty huge #would cisswap mac be a tradwife. like. thats sort of the equivalent

[ask-sir-crocodile]

Soooo…people says you r trans.. r u?

#((official mod answer is.. he is if you want him to be)) #sir crocodile #opfanart #op ask blog #((my croc wasn't written w the intention of being trans #((but as someone w a changing relationship to my own gender #((he is exactly as trans as you need him to be

[grassbreads]

Man, genuinely there's little that excites me more than encountering queerness in fiction where I wasn't expecting it. I'm gonna be thinking about Kikuhiko/Yakumo from SGRS for so long.

Even setting aside the subtext of his feelings for Sukeroku, the narrative around his relationship to gender norms and his own expression is so fascinating. Guy who grows up steeped in rigid 40s gender roles and actively tries to enforce them, yet only truly feels like himself when he's acting on stage as a woman. Guy who says his life would have been better if he were born a woman and then refuses to elaborate.

#I don't know what kind of queer he is but MAN he's certainly something #gay or bi or trans or ace or whatever combination of the above #I was so ??? when he said the 'if only I were born a woman' line in chapter 3. and then we just kept going #Kiku ily so much #wish you had been born in a world where you were allowed to be bitchy in a girl way instead of just a misogynist way #and of course you can't really separate his feelings for Shin from his gender situation bc like #being a man attracted to other men (even if you never acknowledge it) can shape your own relationship to gender expression #man kiku is so good #this series was a treat #shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu #sgrs #descending stories #kikuhiko #yurakutei yakumo