#At least Flat-Earthers do not hurt real people and deny real people's legitimacy

[chibimyumi]

Asks and Grell’s Gender

Dear everyone,

The past few days had been very turbulent for my blog because the topic about Grell’s gender was brought up.

I am aware that this topic is very sensitive. It is treated as a topic for debate despite there being indisputable proof and me having explained why this evidence is indisputable. However, some asks and PMs have still come in, and it almost makes me feel like I am explaining why the earth is round to Flat-Earthers. The logic is the same: “if I don’t (want to) understand it, it must not be real.”

I know most people so far have sent me really nice asks, and I thank you for that! Honestly. However, I have shut down my Anon for now, because honestly I am pretty tired of defending the legitimacy of not just Toboso’s canon statements, but also the legitimacy of real people’s identities.

The asks regarding this topic I have left in my inbox I shall answer here, but please let this be the end of this topic, because I have ran out of patience.

Yes, it had only been three days, but I have ran out of patience. And for the first time in my life, I have come to realise how tiresome it must be for real transgender people who have to defend their legitimacy on a daily basis, and that this might be the outlook of their future as well.

Dear Asker 1,

I know you probably mean well, but the issue at hand is not ‘accepting each other’s point of views’ and ‘remaining friendly’. The issue at hand is that someone’s identity is not a ‘point of view’. If I were to start saying that Undertaker is in fact a woman and debating the lack of evidence for him being a man, and that people should accept my point of view, I would most definitely become a target for ridicule. As I should be in that case. (Pff, canon Female Undertaker indeed)

If there are any ambiguities left, I would like to invite you to (re)read the posts containing hard evidence here, here, here and here. There is really not much more left I can say that have not already been said in these posts.

Dear Anon 1,

Thank you for this interesting information! I have always been interested in languages and how language influences and shapes thought. When I speak in English, Japanese or other languages, I am still me, but the pattern of thought process becomes very different. It is not like I become an altogether different person, but I do have ‘one side of me’ that comes forward in one language, and ‘another side’ that shows itself in another.

Your example here again attests for just how much influence language - and therefore - translators have in shaping thoughts and understandings.

On another note, I wish to point out that in Japanese, Grell never said: “my body is male”. In case anybody wishes to turn this into evidence for Grell’s maleness; In the original canon, Grell is merely stating a fact that happened to her.

“アタシも赤ちゃんが欲しいのに男ってだけでダメだもの”

“Atashi mo akachan ga hoshii no ni otoko tte dake de dame da mono.”

“I too wanted a baby, but they said that I am a man so I can’t.”

Dear Anon 2,

First of all, as demonstrated in 1.here, 2.here, 3.here, 4.here, 5.here and 6.here again, Yana never used male pronouns for Grell, and there is no ground to stand on that Grell is male.

Secondly, if you are referring to “Yes, Grell is a man, but has the heart of a maiden,” (Toboso, 2010), that was simply the lack of accurate terminology in Japanese for a transgender woman from almost a decade ago. Transgender studies have developed entirely differently than within Euro-American discourse. As such, holding Yana’s words from 9 years ago accountable as accurate NOW in the English speaking community would be Euro-Americentrist at best.

Thirdly, I am not saying that all people who think Grell is a man do it for yaoi; but one cannot deny that among many of such people, they either do it to ship Grell in a context as ‘the male lover’ regardless of the gender of the other shipped subject, or for any other reason for which they “wish” she were male.

Finally, it is not about ‘wanting’ Grell to be transgender, but identifying Grell as a transgender character. Madam Red for one is also a ‘misogynistic anti choice serial killer’, and although in a different way, also a trope character. I however have never seen anybody ‘NOT wanting her to be a female representation’, because her gender is not treated as debatable.

Though from a different series, Sister Krone from ‘Promised Neverland’ is also a ‘problematic serial killer and a trope character’. And for obvious reasons people would also ‘not want her to be black representation’. I have seen nobody disputing the fact that she is a black character, nevertheless.

I wish to stress that a representation is not always a good one. A representation - however problematic - is still representation. Even if Grell were a man, Man!Grell would still be ‘a misogynistic anti choice serial killer’. In this case however, Man!Grell would be a heavily queer-coded or actually queer man who decides who cannot have hysterectomy, and makes a final judgement for his victims.

In short, if Grell had been a man, then instead of a problematic transgender female character, we would have had a problematic queer-coded male character.

Simple maths brings us to: We will always be left with an offensive queer representation, regardless of what Grell’s gender is. So who wins?

In the very least, if we will be stuck with an offensive queer representation, then at least the legitimacy of transgender identity should not be questioned; that is the least we can do to minimise the offence.

[chibimyumi]

Dear @grelleswife and @thotleviathan
Thank you for your encouraging words, I shall not be disheartened.
I have been a coward regarding this topic because I hate confrontations. This topic however, is one that will guarantee confrontations. 
On the one hand I am sad to see how many people are unseeing canon evidence at the expense of identity legitimacy. But on the other, I am - in a very weird way - relieved to see that all the arguments for Grell’s maleness only solely range between simple misconceptions, and otherwise pseudo-arguments based on pseudo-evidence. 
As such, I consider this a fortune out of misfortune that in the very least, the arguments for Grell’s maleness are very easy to debunk. Very. It is just tiring as hell…
 

Additionally, I guess in the very least Grell can be considered somewhat lucky that she has her own creator’s canon-statements backing her up… Having that ““luxury””” sadly, cannot be said for real transgender people…