Transfem Stan Thoughtdump
Okay so @/abyssalzones made a pretty good post that sums up a lot of my thoughts as well, but I have a few extra ones I'd like to add to this discussion, as well as elaborating on one of the post's points. I've been thinking about transfem Stan for a couple of weeks now and at this point I'm like "fuck it we ball" and throwing it out there.
For one, it warms my heart whenever there's an older character who was raised in the mid-1900s/older times who realizes they're queer, or comes to terms with their identity in old age. You're never too old to realize you're part of the community, and never too late. Adding this on top of the many, MANY identities that Stan has had to take to survive in her life, it'd be like really turning over a new leaf for her. She'd get to really step into an identity that she aligns with completely, and not something else given to her or that she took to protect herself.
Not to mention, everything regarding Ford. The fact that she had to pretend to be Ford for so long, she more than likely never had the chance to even think about taking on any other identities. She had to keep this one as intact as she could. Otherwise, she could risk loosing the Shack, and with it, the portal- her brother. No way that was happening.
It was briefly touched in the post, but when Stan was watching that one movie and she was like "JUST LIKE ME FR", obviously the writers intended that to just be a joke since this was as far and away from Stan's identity as they could get. But we're gonna ignore that and take it at face value for a second.
The channel introduces itself (jokingly) as the boring old lady black-and-white channel, clearly something that a manly-man like Stan wouldn't be into, and he reacts like how you'd expect. But once it gets going, he gets fully sucked into it, leading eventually to the scene where the main character, seemingly about to complete a Character Arc™, tells her mother "I'm not just a dutchess, I'm also a woman!" and Stan cheers for her, saying the "just like me fr" line.
Without any transfem headcanons, again, this is a joke. Or you could interpret this in hindsight as Stan feeling a similar way about his father, since lines like "I'm a woman!" declared like that usually means "I'm free to make my own choices," which is a message resident make-my-father-proud-issues Stanley Pines would relate to pretty hard. Even though this isn't a conclusion Stan comes to in the show, we could easily see him coming to a conclusion like that in the future.
Now let's add the transfem headcanon back in. With that new layer to it, Stan (whose egg hasn't cracked yet) would be confused as to why she relates so hard. After all, she's a man who was raised to shove feelings down and be a manly-man man by Filbrick. She's more than likely gone her entire life trying to conform to that idea of toxic masculinity that her dad pushed on both her and Ford. Stan was always the one who resorted to punching, after all. That's a manly-man trait, so surely this goes no further right
There's a part of Gravity Falls that I feel doesn't get discussed enough, and that's the underlying misogyny of it. There's not a ton of it, but there are quite a few jokes about how men are stronger than women and the like. Stan has quite a few lines like that herself. So she would be subscribing to a similar mental state, the idea that if you like punching, CLEARLY you're a guy. Cuz that's how it works. Obviously.
Introducing Mabel Pines, someone who is VERY much a girly-girl. She likes pink and unicorns and rainbows and makeup and sleepovers, stuff of the like. Now I could make a whole other post about my headcanons for Mabel and her queer journey, but one thing she can definitely do that "girly-girls" DON'T? Punching.
Mabel can punch. And she punches a lot.
It's a small thing, and something I think Stan has just kinda accepted without question over the course of the series, but if she were to stop and think about it, she'd be like ".....wait a minute." and it could very well be the first piece that cracks the idea of manly-man masculinity vs just. existing as a person and what that actually means.
Once Stan finally starts to break away from toxic masculinity and all those lessons she got thrown into her head, then her egg would finally be able to start cracking.
As for why it even matters, first off, it just makes for an interesting interpretation of the character I haven't really seen before until VERY recently. Like, within the past 2 days recently (and maybe once like a month ago?? idk).
But secondly, for her character, it would be a good, healthy step into really taking back her identity. Who IS Stan Pines? She's spent so long being other people, either as a form of self-defense or pretending to be her brother so she can help save him from the sideburn hell dimension, that I don't think she's really allowed herself to connect to who Stan is.
This is true regardless of gender headcanon, but I think the transfem angle makes it so much more interesting. Who is Stan? Not even she knows. And she's starting to feel VERY confused about the whole thing.
As for Ford, I think he'd be more than willing to support an identity journey for Stan. After all, he's traveled across dimensions and more than likely had all his teachings questioned as well. I am willing to bet money he's encountered trans people before. And, knowing Ford, he'd be open and curious to the idea, not close-minded, no matter what their father tried to teach his kids. Honestly, I could see Ford pestering Stan with questions long into the night regarding the whole thing, and taking up the whole identity mystery for himself as something the two of them can "crack" (heh) together. Just another adventure for the crew of the Stan'o'War II!
There's SO much more but I don't wanna re-say things that the og post already said, these are just the big ones that stick out to me and what I wanted to elaborate on.
TL;DR Stan goes on a journey of realizing that toxic masculinity Is Bad Actually and honestly so was his father, and once he accepts that and starts actively challenging his own beliefs about gender, her egg cracks and she realizes that maybe she isn't a guy at all. The rest of the Pines- but Ford especially- are supportive, and although Stan has a LOT of self-reflection to do and I could see her getting frustrated, flustered, or even embarrassed of her newfound realization, ultimately it makes her happier like this. Cuz it's her identity. She's not pretending to be anyone else anymore and she can just wholly be herself.
Thank you and goodnight
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HMMMM Mothiva and Zasp with 4 and 5, please?
[ask game referenced] [link to ask box]
OEUFHEUOFUEOEUEUE
4. Receiving a present
oh this will vary so much for mothiva. heavily heavily depends on what the present is, who's giving the present, and her mood when she receives the present. it can range anywhere from being absolutely delighted and her preening herself because obviously she deserves the present, and also genuinely appreciating the thought, to screaming at whoever gave the present to her and then crying in the corner afterward. it's really a wild mix of all three things, so her exact actions will vary. in general (because she probably gets a lot of gifts from fans), she'll try to act surprised by the gift, coyly try to refuse, before eagerly accepting and opening it on the spot. it's very practiced for her. if the gift is from a friend or from zasp, it's a lot easier for her to react more genuinely, and it'll also hit her less hard if she doesn't like the gift. if it's from someone she doesn't like, depending on whether she thinks she's better than them or not it could range from disgust and contempt to a full blown rage. so it varies a lot. she can be genuine though! it's just a really vulnerable thing for her to express true enjoyment of something, so typically she hides it behind a few layers of acting surprised and whatnot.
zasp is comparatively very consistent. his reaction always goes 'oh, for me?' then he stares at it before hesitantly taking the gift, stares at it some more while trying to figure out if he should open it now or later, and then kind of awkwardly goes 'thanks!' before stiffly walking off with it. unless it's mothiva, in which case he opens it in front of her and then hugs her afterward.
5. Giving someone a present
this... also really really varies for mothiva, but she's generally really bad at gift giving. she's already bad at noticing what other people like, let alone want, and she also struggles to just flat out ask them (again, vulnerability), so if she even bothers trying it'll usually be something she guessed they might like that's usually also kind of hard to get/expensive. she also doesn't really do gift giving, imo? she shows care in other ways. for friends, her way of giving presents is usually in less material things, like going over to their place and helping them clean up or making them a meal, stuff like that. she does pamper zasp though, because she knows him well, and because she knows he would never get this stuff for himself.
zasp is also not good at giving presents KJDJKA but it's because he's awkward and anxious. he'd spend way too long trying to figure out if they'd actually want the thing he's getting them, and then stress out about the budget, then about how to wrap it, what to say when giving it to them, then he'd watch their reaction like a hawk, etc etc etc, so he normally just. doesn't. it's too stressful for him. the person he gives gifts to the most is mothiva, for obvious reasons.
waroarbajhrgrhjagshjahjrghjarggahjrghjara i love these two
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