Can we please stop propagating this shit, it's been shown canonically that Felix isn't trans. If you want to headcanon them that way go for it, but realize that it is a headcanon and not some deeper truth, that means don't force it on people or say they're misgendering or being "transphobic" for not following or believing in a headcanon. I see way too many comments on Reddit devolve into toxicity because people end up trying to push a headcanon onto others and start a fight because someone isn't willing to accept what is ultimately a headcanon.

[+] itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

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[–] FirstMajesticComet@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

How is this not enough? This is straight from the light novel spinoff about her. She gave herself HRT by sheer force of will, and you still argue that is cis behavior?

Yes, yes I do. Because when one calls themselves a boy that needs to be respected, because the key part about identities being valid is how people say what they are, not that they "don't act entirely cis". Again like I said before head-canon away but don't force it on others or attack people for following canon, or even god forbid enjoying and identifying with felix as a Femboy.

Also that idea of people "not acting cis" does indeed violate the Egg prime directive, I sincerely hope you don't do that with real people because it can end up being very hurtful and disrespectful to them. It's important to look at other people's gender as something personal and specific to them, and not something that can be semantically categorized and resolved without taking their feelings and how they identify into consideration.

[–] itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 9 months ago

I was very confrontational earlier, so first off, let me apologize for that. I've had a stressful week, but that's no excuse.

Of course I would never dare to have this sort of discussion about any real person. Only they get to label who they are, and aren't.

What complicates this, is that we're talking about fictional characters. For those, everything gets filtered through the lens of the author, reflecting all of their biases and prejudices. We're going off second-hand information, basically. In such a situation, coding becomes much more vital when analyzing characters, I think. A character being referred to and referring to themselves as masculine might be because they are, or it might reflect the author's perception of trans people. It'd be easier in a work that already includes queer characters, because then the author would've already demonstrated understanding for their identities, and it would be easier to take them at their word.

In the case of Ferris, we have a character that presents feminine, displays emotions and struggles trans people are all too familiar with, and in the narrative it's stated that she should've been a woman. But she's consistently refered to by masculine pronouns.

There's nothing wrong with simply reading her character as cis (even though most people that are adamant on that point have very icky opinions on real trans people). As a work of art, that interpretation is up to the reader. But, imo, doing so glosses over many queer themes, in a medium that is already starved for representation.

Another example that often gets brought up in discussions like this is Lukako from Steins;Gate. She also gets referred to by masculine pronouns throughout most of it. But then there is an arc where she begs the MC to use time travel shenanigans to turn her into a girl. This works, and she is noticeably happier in that world line. Then plot happens, and they have to revert the worldline, undoing that change. After that, the MC goes right back to calling her by masculine pronouns.

Once again, I would argue that her character is obviously written as trans, but in a medium and for an audience that are, for a large part, either ignorant of or hostile towards trans people.

This got way longer than I intended, sorry for the wall of text ^-^ One could probably make a two hour video essay on the topic and still miss nuances, and there's more I want to say, but this is long enough already. I hope I made my position a bit more clear, though c: