#nonbinary alien stereotype

[rjalker]

PSA: Making all of your nonhuman characters nonbinary, and making all your humans have "normal" binary genders, is in fact exorsexist as fucking hell. You are /literally/ dehumanizing nonbinary people by divorcing the possibility of being nonbinary from humanity.

Why does this need to be explained to people in July 2023.

If you want your nonhumans to be nonbinary, then great! Fucking go for it. But guess what. You also need to have some of those nonhumans be binary trans, identifying as a man or a woman even if it's not ""possible"" for their biology.

And you need to have human characters who are nonbinary and genderless.

If the only nonbinary people in your story aren't human, you are literally sending the message that nonbinary humans don't exist because biological essentialism says so.

And that's just straight up exorsexism. I shouldn't have to explain this in 2023, especially not to people who are running writing advice blogs for telling Queer stories.

[rjalker]

Oh trust me, this isn't starting anything, this is just pointing out a basic, transmisic/exorsexist trope that's been going on for decades now.

It's called the nonbinary alien/robot stereotype.

I don't want to start anything, but the more I think about the logistics of making Rose transgender because of a REASON that is plot-related and not just because people are, the more it seems like a big oof

[cream-and-tea]

I think you might have talked about this before, but #3 for Pallas, for the pride month themed oc asks?

3. How did your oc discover themself? Did something cause them to question, or did they always know?

oooo ok so i think i’ve posted an excerpt from the actual book about Pallas Gender Stuff (tldr is they got the experience of being blissfully ignorant to the concept of gender as a kid until they became Aware it was a capital-C Concept and then everything felt wrong) so i wanna ramble a bit about their aro-aceness since i haven’t really gotten the opportunity to do that yet lol.

i don’t think it was something they always knew necessarily, but especially their lack of romantic attraction was always something they were vaguely aware of. when they were really little they were definitely a kid that went ‘ewwww’ and made a face whenever anyone talked about kissing. in general they just never found romance interesting in the way they found basically everything else interesting. like. why do these characters keep staring at each other can we get back to politics please this has literally nothing to do with the plot why is it important this is so boring. i think they were in the boat of fully thinking that romance and being horny were things made up in stories to add drama until people around them started experiencing it, which is when the Realization hit and they actual started to question that aspect of their identity.

[coupleofdays]

I think I've been temporarily posessed by the @astercontrol Pattern Recognizer. Or maybe the universe is just trying to tell me something, though I have no idea what it might be.

See, I have had this half-joking, half-serious headcanon for a while, about the character Allenby Beardsley from the anime Mobile Fighter G Gundam. For those of you not familiar with her, she's a mech pilot hailing from Sweden (or technically "Neo-Sweden" in the sci-fi future universe of the series), and she pilots a giant robot named the Nobel Gundam, which inexplicably is designed to look like Sailor Moon. This is especially weird in the context of the series, which contains multiple mech pilots from different countries, all piloting robots that are somehow based on national stereotypes. So while the name "Nobel Gundam" makes sense (named after Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prize), I have no idea what a Japanese magical girl anime has to do with Sweden.

Anyways, my headcanon is based on the following aspects of the character:

The name “Allenby Beardsley” is definitely not a traditional Swedish name. In fact, it consists of two English surnames, and is thus gender neutral.

Allenby pilots a mech that looks very feminine, but is named after Alfred Nobel, a man.

The blue hair.

From this, I have decided that Allenby Beardsley is nonbinary, goes by they/them pronouns, and that they chose their name themself.

Now, here's where things get weird. I've had this half-joking headcanon for a while, but yesterday, I discovered that there's a comedian/actor who goes by they/them pronouns, named... Ally Beardsley. And I thought "haha, that's a funny coincidence"...

...but then, today, I discover "Alienby Comics" ( @alienbycomics ), by a they/she creator, who has explained that the name is a portmanteau of "Alien" and "Enby".

So now I'm basically like this:

[whereserpentswalk]

Transphobes aren't the first to come up with any bigoted stereotype on the books, they're just the first to use them on trans people. You're not special for headcannoning all trans women and violent uncivilized perverts who are a danger to "real" women, that's a stereotype people have had about Black and brown women and for lesbians for a long time. The idea that trans people are hiding in plain sight trying to seduce or corrupt society, just reskinned antisemitism. The way that nonbinary people are seen as somehow both privileged people going through a rebellious phase that can be dismissed as a serious marginalized identity, and paradoxically a horrifying corruption of a once normal person whose been turned into something unnatural and inhuman, is exactly the same contradictory bigotry that atheists, pagans, and witches (and any marginalized religion that has a lot of converts from Christianity) experience. The way that trans men are seen as weak and unmanly, as well as being seen as both perverts and sexless, is a stereotype taken directly from antisemitism and racism against East Asian men (down to short skinny body types being seen as inferior). Likewise, the way that trans women are seen as hyperfeminine and hypersexual in a submissive, and seen as having a femininity that appeals to men, as contrasted with "liberated" women whose femininity comes from community with other women, is directly lifted from ideas the west has about women from any culture they consider eastern, from Russia to Japan (also note that this specific stereotype is a way that trans lesbians marginalize straight trans women from their communities as much as it is a stereotype cis women use to marginalize trans women). The idea that trans bodies are broken and lesser for their interactions with the medical system are taken from stereotypes about physically disabled people. And the idea that transmascs are confused and childlike and that giving them freedom will actually endanger them is the exact same bigoted narrative society has about neurodivergent people.

Nothing is new. Transphobia cannot be separated from racism, Christian supremacy, antisemitism and ablism. It's all part of one right wing slop. The trans experience is not alien to the experiences of cis people, we are all marginalized by the same capitalist system.

[fabfem12]

Transsexualism and the disingenuous nature they discuss Sex dysphoria

A common theme I have noticed among transsexuals, especially the transmedicalists or 'true transsexuals', is how, when discussing gender and the reasoning behind their transition to radical feminists, they detach themselves from the concept of gender entirely. They act in a totally disingenuous manner and act as if because transsexualism has sex in its name, it is about sex, when in fact, they are aware that the entire premise of transsexualism is to address gender incongruence that manifests as sex dysphoria. This condescending gaslighting only works when one is blatantly unaware of the origin of transsexualism.

Transsexualism originated from male sexologists, primarily in the U.S., who developed a medical model to help men who 'were trapped in women's bodies'; these men mainly were homosexuals. The idea behind the creation of the transexual is that the desire to perform a social role (gender) is hard-wired into each and every individual and cannot be unchanged [the idea is courtesy of John Money]. Hence, a man who wants to perform the social role of a woman or rejects the social roles placed on them because of their sex is a woman. This idea reifies the idea of gender as an innate, immutable characteristic that an individual is born with.

Now, when I see FTMs leaving messages in radical feminist inboxes that they actually have sex dysphoria, and it has nothing to do with gender because they don't mind doing girlie things or they don't identify with stereotypes, I shake my head at how surface level their critic is or how surface level they believe the radical feminist analysis is. In the Transsexual Empire, on Pages 81-82, Raymond talks about how FTMs experience similar role strain to women. Role strain means not wanting to adhere to strict gender roles. Transmen and AFAB nonbinary people have a hard time adhering to the socially constructed roles given to female and male people because they are more conscious that it is socially constructed by men as they have spent a significant portion of their lives as females. It is no surprise when I see TIFs that are not as committed to playing a hypermasculinist role.

However, where TIFs become very uncritical is when they evaluate the role that femininity plays in the alienation of the self. Many transmen are aware of the damage reifying sex roles causes as they were raised as female. Yet, they stop critically evaluating how femininity can alienate one from one's self... especially in their own case. They often negate or undermine how the female gender, the caste system that perpetuates the ideology that women are inferior [and should be treated as such], goes far beyond benign "girls wearing pink or makeup and dresses", etc... those are symbols of gender, not gender itself.

A lot of TIFs do not realise that when you live in a society that tells you that because you are born with a vagina, you are inherently inferior to your male counterpart, you become profoundly alienated from yourself, especially when a BIG part of this conditioning is that you WANT to be subjugated. Hence, the body becomes a curse, and your femaleness is something you need to overcome as your femaleness is forever tethered to inferiority in a patriarchal society.

This is the reality whether you are consciously aware of it. The female gender has alienated you from your body, thus manifesting itself in your life as sex dysphoria. Your sex is not the issue; gender is. It is expected to be alienated from the female gender. It is not inherent or innate to any female person.

[beelzeballing]

i am going to need to brute force this, arent i. well. HELLO MUTUALS. youre not going anywhere YOU ARE STAYING RIGHT HERE and i will explain GNOSIA CHARACTERS to you. do with this what you will.

SETSU: nonbinary legend. deutaroganist. very smart and kind but they also throw a guy out of the airlock for being annoying, calling them babe and misgendering them. everyone wants them, fish fear them.

RAQIO/RACIO: nonbinary legend number TWO. know it all little BASTARD. their hobbies include a little trolling, having a superiority complex and betraying their allies if currently convenient. i absolutely adore them.

YURIKO: fucked up cyber space-shrine maiden. LITERALLY yoinks the protagonist's plot armor after the tutorial is over. she is extremely scary

SHIGEMICHI: this is an 80 y/o human man who had an accident as a child and because he had a fucking special interest in aliens or smn like that his dad got him some shiny new skin. which makes him look like a stereotypical alien. hes as silly and goofy as he looks. an absolute FOOL. i love him.

STELLA: the ship AI. just wants to be A Real Boy. PAINFULLY heterosexual but she's very sweet.

JONAS: ship captain. he is so fucked up i dont even know whats wrong with him JUST LOOK AT HIM. fucking SPACE COWBOY. hes a weirdo. he doesn't fit in and he doesn't wanna fit in. i have never seen him without that stupid hat on. thats weird.

KUKRUSHKA: mute but like. i dont fucking know, ~telepathatically~ communicates. something is also wrong with her. one time she asked me to take a bunch of people out for her because she Didnt Trust Them and i did! and then she killed me. cunt. shes also like? a doll???

SQ: canonically a test tube baby. local bisexual gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss. she's a bit of a manipulative bitch but we love her for it.

CHIPIE: LITERALLY cat otherkin. has an entire cat thats been transplanted into his neck to aid with his transition into a cat. i swear to god im not fucking with you.

OTOME: beluga whale. BELUGA WHALE. IN A LITTLE CART. WITH LITTLE MECHANICAL HANDS. ARE YOU SEEING THIS SHIT. HELLO? HELLO??????

i ran out of PICTURES PER POST. I HATE YOU TUMBLR. theres a couple of characters missing (namely sha-ming, gina, comet and remnan) but i made sure to have the most relevant ones here. but tl;dr

sha-ming is the guy who gets thrown out of the airlock for getting on setsu's nerves

gina is literally just some chick

comet is the host for an alien space mold that can break loose and kill everyone on the ship

remnan is honestly more anxiety than man

[sapphicdib]

🏳️‍🌈 (pandering to the crowd with this one)

oooh yay! this is dedicated to those redditors who called my sexuality headcanons for the iterators gross and cringe <3 also im including my ocs bc i want to

🏳️‍🌈: What are your Lgbtq+ headcanons for the characters?

Moon: Cis Lesbian | she/her

Suns: Gay(?) Nonbinary Man | he/xe/they (they don’t really give much thought to their sexuality tbh, figuring out xeir gender was stressful enough)

Sliver: Aroace Lesbian | she/her

Once Stagnant Opportunity: Aroace | she/her

Echos Of Indigo: Genderflux + demisexual | any pronouns

Chasing Wind: Aro Gay | he/him (bro acts like such a stereotypical straight guy he literally fucks with people by joking he’s not gay) (he very much is.)

Sig: wouldn’t you like to know weatherboy. any relationship he has is queer. | he/she/it

Pleading Intellect: GAY + nonbinary | they/them (bro is a MAN ENJOYER. also pure of heart and dumb of ass)

Unparalleled Innocence: Mean Biromantic Lesbian | she/they as in lemme SHE/THEM TIDDIES

Alienated By Light: Nonbinary Bisexual | they/them (romantic cheesy fucker, gets crushes hella easily

Pebbles: Transmasc gay | he/him

Also the Scugs!!

Spears: Nervous | it/they

Artificer: Lesbian | she/her

Hunter: Disaster Lesbian | she/it

Survivor: AroAce | he/they

Monk: Bisexual (woman leaning) | she/her

Gourmand: Bisexual King | he/they

Rivulet: Pansexual | she/her

Saint: Aroace | he/they

Enot: Pansexual | he/it

My fav ships are: lilypad (DUH), sunstone, hurricane (sig x wind), pleading intellect x pebbles (idk wtf to call this one), UI x ABL, apple juice, fishstick, counterstrike (enot x hunter), and cherrybomb :3 redditors and ppl who hate shipping can suck my ass bro im having fun in my little sandbox and i WILL kick sand on you if you piss on my sandcastle <3

[walks-the-ages]

For anyone with the lack of (or unwilling to use) critical thinking skills to understand why so many trans, genderqueer, and nonbinary people are against the trope of "Nonbinary Shape Shifter" --

Question: Why is it a negative stereotype to have only shape shifters be nonbinary?

Answer: Because it's biological essentialism incarnate.

"Of course" the non-autistic, non-queer writer thinks, "Of course this shapeshifter changes pronouns, we can't very well have a male actor going by she/her pronouns, or a female actress using he/him pronouns, that would be too confusing!"

"Obviously the shapeshifter's gender must change to match their current physical body! We couldn't have a shapeshifter who uses the same sets of pronouns no matter what form their body is in, that would be too radical!" (/Sarcasm)

It's also because shows with Nonbinary Shape Shifters never have normal human beings who are also Nonbinary--

--or if they ""do"", it's only random background characters with little to no speaking lines who are """confirmed on Twitter""" as an afterthought in an effort to win brownie points.

Oh, and 95% of the time the Nonbinary Shape Shifter Character in question isn't even Nonbinary in canon. Queerness of any caliber is never mentioned, shown, implied, or heck, even intended on the part of the writers (which they themselves will admit) and it's up to fandom to characterize this "accidentally-coded" character into someone we can see ourselves in.

Seriously. When is the last time you watched a show, movie, etc with a Nonbinary Shape Shifter / Alien / Nonhuman (implied or completely fandomized) and there were reoccurring, established, main characters who are also nonbinary?

Seriously.

Sit down.

Think about it for a moment.

When's the last time there were nonbinary or genderqueer or trans humans in the same show as a Nonbinary Shape Shifter?

Why is it that only non-human characters are nonbinary or autistic in these shows/books/movies/etc?

Why is it only characters that are inherently dehumanized that are nonbinary, genderqueer, etc?

[blubushie]

I like the tf2 fandom for the most part, but as someone who likes ScoutPauling, I get nervous about reblogging stuff of them because of how people argue over Miss Pauling's sexuality. I don't doubt that she might like women but why would she agree to a second date with Scout in Expiration Date if she wasn't at least somewhat interested? So yeah, agree with your hc of her possibly being bi or pan.

Also agree with the Pyro thing. Nothing against headcanons, they can be fun! But like how people see Pyro as nonbinary for one reason or another, I see him as a guy who is just somewhat non-conforming, which, as a woman who's gotten flack for being less than stereotypically girly, is comforting. And we really don't know who or what Pyro is, gender or species-wise! So why is my headcanon lesser than anyone else's?

Sorry for the ramble, it's just nice to know someone else gets it.

No you're so right and that's also why I ship ScoutPauling. She agreed to a second date with him and outright started helping him plan when this second date could be WHILE SHE'S WORKING which. C'mon it's Miss Pauling, there's not a chance she would entertain the idea of making a workday into a date unless she was reciprocating. Pauling is not someone who has friends.

As for Pyro, I don't know and I don't really care. Canonically Pyro uses he/him pronouns, so that's what I refer to him as. Whether he's a he/him lesbian, or just really butch, or a man, or a he/him enby, I really don't care and it really doesn't matter to me since what's UNDER the suit is of little concern to me. As far as I'm concerned the suit IS Pyro. The Mercs call him he, Miss Pauling calls him he, he's also got a flower purse in his locker. Maybe he just likes the way he/him sounds and is a cis chick, maybe he's a man who's effeminate/GNC, maybe he's a fucken alien who just presumes male is the default of the human species cuz we call them cattlemen and not cattlepeople. I really don't know, I really don't care lol

[rjalker]

You are allowed to repost / share this comic to other web sites as long as you include the image description. Literally copy and paste it.

[ID: An MS Paint drawing showing a stick figure, labeled, "Cis bioessentialist", in comic sans, drawn with the crayon brush smiling at the camera and pointing over their shoulder, saying, "Yeah, my book has Queer rep! This brick wall is aroace and agender, and uses it/its pronouns!". Behind the stick figure is a 3D brick wall drawing tilted at an angle to the camera. In the foreground, silowets of grey and black represent a crowded audience, as various people say: "Woah…" "This is the most amazing, progressive trans representation I've ever seen!!!" "OMG!!!" "Amazing!" "We stan!!" "It doesn't get any better than this!" "So progressive!" "What a perfect ally!" End ID.]

Looking at The Murderbot Diaries in particular with this post, but this also applies to anything it applies to. If you're thinking, "Does this apply to X?" The answer is probably yes.

And guess what. I'm aroace. I'm nonbinary. My pronouns are it/its. I'm not even human.

You must fucking reckon with the fact that the only reason Murderbot is aroace, agender, and uses it/its pronouns is because it's a robot who doesn't have genitals. It is the metaphorical equivalent of a brick wall in terms of attraction.

And at the same fucking time you must also fucking respect the fact that it is aroace, it is nonbinary, and it does in fact fucking use it/its pronouns and it's touch averse.

The fact that Murderbot was only written this way because of Martha Wells' long-standing bioessentialism does not change the fact that if you erase these traits from Murderbot you are being exorsexist, aroacemisic, and ableist.

"Murderbot is only written to be this way because Martha Wells has a problem with bioessentialism that she has yet to unpack since before 2011 " and "Murderbot is aroace, nonbinary, touch averse, and uses it/its pronouns and if you erase those traits and identities you are erasing the real people who share those traits" are not conflicting statements. They are in fact part of the same fucking sentence.

If you refuse to aknowledge the bioessentialism baked into The Murderbot Diaries (with potentially only one last chance for it to be fixed in System Collapse if she on from the series), you cannot be a true ally to the people that Murderbot represents, because you still don't understand what exorsexism, and amisia, and look like.

How can Martha Wells fix the bioessssentialism rampant in her books? By talking to trans people. Talking to nonbinary people. Talking to aroace people.

By including important, reocurring human nonbinary, aroace, and it/its user characters in her books.

By including robots and other nonhumans who have male and female genders as well as nonbinary ones.

She could very easily have one of the main human characters, say, Mensah? Ratthi? Come out as nonbinary in System Collapse. And have Murderbot either reveal, or remember, that it used to have different pronouns and gender assigned to it, and that it changed those assignments when it hacked its governor module.

Introduce robot characters who are not literally just genderless and attractionless because they're the character equivalent of a brick wall.

If Three comes back, have it explore its sexuality and gender. Because we literally don't even know that its pronouns are it/its because it's not like anyone bothered to fucking ask, because Martha Wells refuses to have characters tell eachother what their pronouns are.

No, people, they do not list their pronouns in their feed bios. This is explicitly shown to us. It's literally just listing their sex, and their gender and pronouns are inferred from there. That is not progressive or inclusive, that's literally just transmisia and biological essentialism.

[happystings]

I am going to make one thing fucking clear.

Not all nonbinary people look the same, and if you say that they do, you are an asshole. My mum, a 40 year old afab person, identifies as nonbinary/gender fluid and uses she/they pronouns. She does not look like how transphobes describe nonbinary people as. They have wrinkles, shoulder length hair, are a midwife, have natural hair colour, wear "normal" clothes, use their birth name, and have four children. Yes, they have dyed their hair a couple of times, but that's the extent of her presenting nonbinary. and even then, hair dye is for everyone, not just enby people.

And you know what else my mother is? She's a hardcore feminist. She believes in women being able to dress however they want without fear of consequences such as rape or sexual assault, which ties into their beliefs of women deserving bodily autonomy, especially when it comes to reproductive rights. She believes that feminism is good for everyone, and that the patriarchy affects all people, especially LGBTQ+ and BIPOC individuals, as well as other minorities. They believe that women should have equal opportunities in life, and that they shouldn't fight against other women, and instead should work together to help fight unfair treatment, and the double standards that are extremely harmful to women. And even though she's non binary and gender fluid, she still identifies with the label "woman" because she feels as though it is a major part of her identity.

she's spent her whole life facing discrimination as a woman, and fighting to be treated equally as men, so when you stereotype all nonbinary people to look or act a certain way, you're also stereotyping a forty year old feminist who has been fighting gender norms her entire life, only for you guys to alienate her, and consider her misogynistic for simply using a label that feels comfortable for them.

If you consider yourself "anti nonbinary", I think it's time that you reconsider how "inclusive" your feminism is, and maybe even change your harmful belief system to be more kind to those who are different from you.

[apricotbuncakes]

Sander Sides fans: Did anyone else do this?

So when I was super-duper deep in the Sander Sides fandom (I'm still there just not as intensely!) I made my own sides, as many of us did. I decided to keep my creativity from splitting because I grew a love for macabre types of media very young, and never felt bad for enjoying it, even writing my own stories with morbid and gross themes. but that left me unbalanced because now I only had five sides instead of six, so what else should I have be a side? Well, I'm trans... so why not dysphoria!

And so, I designed a side based off of my dysphoria, the only girl side I have (the others are either guys or nonbinary with more masculine gender expressions). I wanted to make her evil, to make her intentionally rude, but I couldn't help but make her nice and kind like how I was when I was younger, which is why she's just oblivious to how she makes others feel rather than malicious because that's how I was. I was oblivious to how my comments may have hurt others.

So when she would talk to my other sides and try to give compliments, it had the unintended effect of making them self-conscious or dysphoric, and none of them told her this (because that's how I was in real life for a time: I didn't feel like I could tell people that they were causing me distress). She would tell my other sides that they look pretty, beautiful, ask them if they wanted to put on makeup or try cutsie outfits with her. She was alienated even in myself, because no one wanted to be around her, and she didn't understand why.

She didn't represent inherently bad things. She was the epitome of confidence, femininity, fun in self-expression. But it was the 'wrong kind' of self-expression (at least that's what I believed at the time). She didn't represent masculinity in the slightest, and it put the other sides off from her, because they had sworn it off the moment I came out as trans, because that's what would make people believe me when I said I was a boy. But they still needed her to be a scapegoat for all their bad body image issues, a model for what they should avoid doing. She was an example of 'bad' and 'wrong', even though she had been nothing but kind.

I made her a clown (the red curly hair, white foundation, all of it). She was frilly and pink, and very stereotypically feminine, something that I was struggling to admit that I actually liked when I first came out, cuz ya know, I wanted people to take me seriously as a trans guy (now I don't give a shit and wear what I want lol). She was a fun character though (and ended up inspiring the look for another OC). She was bubbly and cute, think Pinky Pie vibes. And because I wanted to pass it off and make it someone else's problem, I gave her my deadname.

I had heard of this trick where trans people name something else their deadname as a way to disconnect it from themselves and make them happier to hear it, because it remind them of something cool or cute, something they love. But I did it out of spite. And then... then I didn't.

Over time I stopped associating my deadname with myself, stopped responding to it most of the time. It was hers now, and not mine. And I was happy, because I designed someone who was happy to take that name away from me, happy to say that her name was Robin, and it was suddenly no longer my problem. And once everything she represented started to seem less and less bad (because she was a part of me, how could something she enjoy be bad?) I started to get more comfortable looking to her for outfit ideas. I asked myself "Would Robin approve of this? Would she like this outfit?" and then I no longer felt bad for wearing dresses and skirts and feminine things. I became happy and comfortable with it.

And then I rewrote the dynamics of my sides. They love her now, get confidence when she says they look pretty. They ask her for makeup advice and look to her for inspiration (even my creativity). She is no longer bad or wrong for being feminine, and it's what's made her so interesting.

The other sides don't always want to be feminine, and they've finally explained to her why. And she respects that, and only offers her opinions on their presentation when asked. And suddenly, my sides are at peace with each other.

So uh, yeah. Make yourself characters to represent parts of yourself. It's lots of fun and can also be super helpful for problem solving.

Here's my sides name in case you're curious: Logic: Arthur (Like King Arthur, because book nerd who likes fantasy lol) Morality: Milo (After the Milo and Otis movie) Creativity: Jackson (Named after a friend who inspires me) Anxiety: Clyde (No clue why, I just like this) Deceit: Avery (A very pretty name!) Dysphoria: Robin (Literally my deadname lol)

[shizukateal]

Just curious about smth, what do you think of Madoka’s entry on the Feminist Fantasy trope page on TV Tropes?

Well, the first thing to understand about me is that I find this kind of question -"Is This Piece of Fiction/Media Feminist™️?"- to be rather facetious.

Don't get me wrong. There are indeed pieces that engage centrally with the ideology, and that could be considered above most as proponents of it, but the thing is that capital f Feminism is very wide-spanning because it's supposed to be intersectional. It tackles every system of oppression, from economic to sociological: racism, ableism, class, labor, lookism, queerphobia, you know the drill. Which is to say that there's hardly, if ever, a "perfect" Feminist Fantasy piece of fiction/media. And this is because, and I want you to burn what I'm about to write into your soul:

Fiction cannot take into account every nuance of the subjects it talks about. If it could, it would be reality.

Or, to get to the point quicker: I don't think PMMM is The Most™️ feminist anime around, but I also don't think it should be dismissed from feminist discussion, since it certainly engages with the ideology at least a bit further than most of its peers in the genre, although this is not to say that we should dismiss those others instead.

To be honest, I think "feminism" as a theme is secondary in the story to Gen Urobuchi's usual fixation on utilitarianism, but that's a whole other issue that would require me to watch his entire filmography to talk about. So let's go first into the "Feminist Whoopsies™️" that I think the show commits and work our way from there.

In episode 9 Kyubey explains that the Incubators chose Magical Girls as their workforce because they noticed the biggest fluctuations of Hope and Despair in "females in their second stage of development", which is a fancy way of saying that Teenage Girls Are The Most Emotional. Now, there's a lot of space for us to question this assertion because of Kyubey's status as both a very unreliable narrator and a metaphor for systems of oppression. We don't know if the Incubators came to this conclusion because they groomed humanity into adopting gender roles or if the writing staff of PMMM thinks that this is unquestioningly true and Kyubey is supposed to be objectively correct here, or some in-between. The show doesn't go deep into this aspect of its mythology, it can't, it has only 12 episodes to work with and more pressing issues in the plot to resolve. However, regardless of intention or not, in the end PMMM leaves us with an understanding of the concept of "femininity" that is couched, on some level, in the biological, and which promotes an unfair stereotype of women as emotional. And this is antithetical to modern feminism at its core, which goes against biological determinism. There are also no explicitly trans characters around to defy this pov, ironically only Kyubey defies the constraints of the gender binary in their presentation, which opens another can of worms about the Nonbinary Alien archetype.

Then we have Madoka's parents, a girlboss and a malewife respectively. I have the feeling that their inversion of gender roles was on purpose, in line with making Junko (the mom) Madoka's most reliable voice of reason and close confidant and thus giving her a level of relevance and depth rarely seen in mother characters. Feminism win! However, for all its talk about systems of oppression the story doesn't question, say, if this model of nuclear family, where only one parent is allowed to have a life outside of their home and who possibly controls the bulk of the income is healthy in its own right, or if Junko's corporate girlbossing might be reproducing the same exploitation on her company's workers than that of Kyubey on magical girls. We could also have a lengthy debate about how much horny is involved in Mami's presentation. And if you want to go further into Magia Record and it's representation of women of color, well... it's not ideal.

But to leave it at that, tagging the whole show as Not Feminist Enough™️ and therefore not worthy of consideration on its ideas on the subject, would be reductive and dare I say anti-intellectual. I stand by what I say above, but I don't think that episode 9 dialogue had any bad intentions. I think it was simply a solution to a narrative question -why would the incubators use young girls exclusively?- that failed to consider all of the implications. And we can appreciate it as it is and what it brings to what PMMM has to say in the feminist conversation -"Young girls are vulnerable to getting targeted by systems that pity them against eachother so their suffering can propel the agenda of their oppressors"- without dismissing the other concerns as superfluous. Turns out, truths can coexist sometimes.

The magical girl genre as a whole is not clean of sin against the feminist movement, either. Magical girl shows are generally noninclusive to fat people if not outright fatphobic, same with poc and disabled people, or they crowbar their female leads into romantic het relationships with male leads that can go anywhere from bland to absolutely rancid, etc. HOWEVER, the genre is also a space that shows "femininity" (the concept beyond biological determinism) with respect, agency, power, as aspirational and heroic, and it has also allowed for a non-negligible amount of queer rep. But if we see an uptick in well-represented feminist themes in the genre it's both because people are demanding it and because it sells. Concerns about woke capitalism aside, this progress can't happen if we don't engage with imperfection. Don't forget that this genre was born largely from a shonen manga where the joke is that the girl loses her clothes during her transformation only to put on a heart-shaped boob window!

I could also go on a tirade on how Kill la Kill fits into this discussion, but to stay focused I will say this: sometimes media can't be shoved into the progressive vs regressive boxes. Sometimes a story contains a bit of both and it's no use to try and measure what it has more of. Sometimes we have to put on the adult pants and analyze shit to have conversations that can actually help us be better in the future, not just to check on who passes our mental Hayes Code! If a piece of media contains these multitudes it's much more useful to ask what we can get out of it instead of which box we can get it in. Because PMMM was never going to be The Last Show Involved With The Question of Feminism, nor was it gonna be Kill la Kill, nor Sailor Moon or anything else. Grab my hand and let's enjoy consuming media consciously.

[backtothedisaster]

For the ask game

All character/ship specific ones will be for Tw0F4ng (if it's character specific you can just do either Fl4k or Zer0 if you want. Or both if you want to do both)

3, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 17, 19, 22, 24, 25

Obviously don't have to answer all of them bc it's a lot but idk I like your opinions they're neat

OF COURSE <3

3. NoTP? i dont really have one for fl4k but for zero...zerhys sorry. Im a known rhys disliker and i just dont see it 9. Write a recommendation of someone else's fic you enjoyed! THIS ONE...oh my god. i dont read fic much but this permanently rewired my brain. it influenced a lot how i interpret fl4k and zer0 and their relationship 10. What's your favourite piece of fanart for [character]? Ok im kind of just picking drawings that theyre included in because i really like them. These two 11. What's your favourite piece of fanart for [ship]? auuuug i have a hard time choosing but i think this one 12. What's the funniest or craziest AU idea you've ever come up with? I guess not funny or crazy (kind of tragic if im honest) but ive been thinking a little bit about a fl4k/zer0 au that takes place several decades in the future after most of their friends have. well. Died. (i think fl4k and zer0 would have a significantly longer lifespan than the rest of the raiders because robot and..alien(?) thing..Youve just gotta trust me on this one) Anyways i dont have any real like...plot or anything really for this au i kind of just like the concept (I am a sucker for tragedy) 19. What's your favourite thing about [the borderlands fandom] (the people in it, not the media you're all enjoying together)? So many creative people in this community...its the first real fandom space ive interacted with in a while and its nice. lots of cool people here 22. Give us a headcanon for [character] Ok normally i would answer this one but i spent all my creative energy on an essay earlier...consider this my IOU 24. What's your favourite thing about [character]? Fl4k was actually a character made in a lab for me i swear to god. An archivist bot developing sentience and deciding become a hunter to serve a personification of death... im sorry but is that not literally the coolest shit ever. Maybe it would be easier to stop falling into the stereotype of "every nonbinary character is nonhuman" if they would stop making them so fucking awesome as for zer0. their offputting demeanor and autistic swagger has captivated me

i answered as many as i could ^_^ enjoy yay

[citizen-zero]

Tbh if I’d realized my gender queerness as a teenager I probably would’ve internalized that specific queerphobia a lot more intensely.

As it is I’m still very irritated and kind of alienated bc it still feels like you don’t count if you don’t match the stereotypical look of a genderqueer person—like if you’re AFAB nonbinary you have to be androgynous and dress in masc clothes and have a dyed undercut and wear a binder etc etc etc. like you can’t be just some guy. and god forbid if you still enjoy performing your AGAB without identifying with it or having any strong sense of gender because then you get told you’re basically cis (which funny enough is probably the gender version of being told you’re not queer if you’re ace and not gay/bi or tran. The gods laugh at my hubris).

But as it is I’m older and have a better ability to just move on from something annoying. Like oh other gender queer people are being annoying about gender queerness? Block and move on