#transgender media representation

[nekhcore]

HEY YOU!

Yeah, you! Are you trans? Do you like reading books? Or watching movies?

Do you like media about trans men/transmasculine characters but don't know where to find it?

That's sooo crazy because I have this little spreadsheet I'm working on where I'm trying to document all media with protagonists/major characters who are FTM or transmasculine.

The spreadsheet currently has 400+ entries spread across the following categories:

Books

Manga

Memoirs and non-fiction

Movies

TV Shows

Graphic novels / Comics

Webcomics

Audio dramas

Books and movies are also sorted by:

Which character is trans (MC, love interest, antagonist, etc)

If the trans character is POC

The trans character's sexuality (Because I saw lots of transhet guys sad about only being able to find gay romances)

If the author/actor is also trans (if we know for sure)

It's free to use, and free to add to as well! Editing permissions are on, and I check on the spreadsheet every now and then to make sure everything is in order and to clean up.

If you know something that isn't on the list, please add it! You don't have to fill in every single column, but fill it to the best of your abilities.

If you don't want to use the big ass long link below, you can also use: bit.ly/FTM-protags

I made this because I want it to be a community resource. So even if you're not a trans guy or transmasculine person, please reblog!

[a-map-of-gays]

More queer media that doesn't focus on being bullied and harrassed. More queer media that doesn't centre around cis gay men. More queer media that features aros and aces. More queer media that isn't about suffering. More queer media that has genderqueer people. More queer media with characters who use multiple sets of pronouns. More queer media that has supportive parents (especially fathers). More queer media that isn't about wanting to be 'normal'. More queer media that represents all the facets of drag. More queer media that represents the whole queer community

[cepheusgalaxy]

(You don't know for how long I've been thinking on doing this)

LGBTQIA+ representation on media be like:

ID: The meme with an adult holding up one child in a pool while the other drowns, and underwater is a skeleton. The adult is labeled "LGBTQIA+ "representation" in media." The kid being held up is labeled "gays" with an asterisk of "sometimes, lesbians and bi people." The drowning child is labeled "Transgender and other sexualities/romantic orientations." The skeleton is labeled "Intersex people." /end ID.

(Edit: id by @aromanticsky)

[randomalistic]

MY MINI ANALYSIS IS READY !?!??! it's about disability rep and also trans shit

Put it on in the background lemme know if you Enjoy :) (also turn on captions if you want some extra silliness)

[barbthebuilder]

What do y'all want to see more of in genderfluid media?

Like, let's say there will be a new character in your favorite show who just happens to be genderfluid. How do you want them to represent themselves? In what ways you want them to show their genderfluidity?

This is question mainly to genderfluid folks but if you're not genderfluid you can speak up too! Just make sure to state that you're not genderfluid first.

[nightcolorz]

in my experience bad and problematic representation will always connect with me more then representation that is considered inoffensive and positive. I’ve seen myself in trans and gnc characters played by cis actors cross dressing offensively, but I’ve never seen myself in an animated cartoon character voiced by a trans person with articles written about them praising the accurate trans rep. The more pandered to I feel, the less able I am to find relatability or enjoyment. Idk, am I alone in this? I’ve always found representation more special when the sincerity and relatable emotion in it feels accidental. The uneducated nature implies that there was someone behind it who felt something and put it into a character in a messy way they weren’t supposed to. That’s real! If I’m able to find myself in an offensively written queer character from the 90s, if I’m able to see the real queer emotion in a story that had no pandering motive behind it, then I know I’m listening to the voice of someone like me, and not the chatter of a boardroom

[ellowynthenotking]

Totally fixed several plotholes in one swoop by adding a little bit of rep to the main character, I don't know why I didn't think of it before!

[goblinofthelaboratory]

so I've heard discourse about nonhuman rep for nonbinary people, aro/ace spec, neurodivergence (especially autism), etc. amalgamating a few different opinions I've heard, I propose that not all characters of those types should be inhuman, all inhuman characters must be at least one of them. your alien/robot/cryptid/other nonhuman understands gender and romance and sexual attraction and human social norms? unrealistic do better

[nyxsealia]

An example of why LGBTQ+ representation in media matters, especially children's media.

As a child I didn't know LGBTQ+ people existed. There were no queer people in my family, or in family friends. (At least, that I was aware of) I remember one time we went to the library and there was an educational table set up outside with information about pride. I asked my mom what all the rainbows were for. I don't remember what she said, other than I remember her mentioning one of my older brother's friends who apparently had two moms. I was very little. I forgot about that conversation and was no more aware of queer people.

I don't remember seeing queer characters in media. The first time I can remember seeing LGBTQ+ people depicted in anything was in the music video for Avichii's "Addicted to You" the plot of the music video follows a pair of female robbers who are explicitly in a romantic relationship. I was absolutely fascinated by this music video when I saw my brother watching it. I was eleven. This music video follows a lot of the common queer TV tropes. The women are criminals, the "bad guys" and they die in the end. But this was the first time I can remember seeing lesbians.

Even as a teenager, I don't remember seeing much LGBTQ+ characters in media. I was intrigued when the token gay side character would show up in a TV show, but that wasn't really representation. I still knew nothing about queer people. A boy in my art class came out to me as trans. The exact words he used were "I'm a trans guy." and I legitimately didn't know if that meant ftm or mtf. I accidentally misgendered him once because of it.

In my early teens, I said some pretty ignorant things. Luckily just to my family, but still. It wasn't until I started questioning my sexuality in my late teens that I actually started to learn anything about the LGBTQ+ community. I did a lot of research, not all related to figuring out my sexuality, just about LGBTQ+ experiences and identities. I watched videos by LGBTQ+ YouTubers, listened to podcasts, read articles, all by queer creators.

I especially made a point of understanding transgender people, because that was something at the time that greatly confused me. So I looked for videos, podcasts, articles etc, made by transgender people themselves where they talked about their feelings and experiences. It made a huge difference. I wasn't confused anymore, I couldn't relate to how they felt, but I had understanding and empathy. I went from confused and unaware, to understanding and supportive. Just from a bit of research.

But even at this point, there was still little to no LGBTQ+ media representation. When I came out at 18 and felt comfortable picking movies focused on queer characters, I had a heck of a time finding any. I did find some, and while a lot of them weren't great, I did find a few really good ones. (Saving Face and Late Bloomers are two of my favourites)

Things are getting better, slowly. We're starting to see more media focused around LGBTQ+ characters, and children's media including the topic. It's long overdue and we're still not quite there yet. You're gonna have a hard time finding media focused on LGBTQ+ characters that aren't white, able bodied gay, lesbian, or bisexual characters. Representation for trans, non binary, asexual and aromantic identifies, queer people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, religious queer people, and disabled queer people, and any combination of the above, is still lacking. We still have more work to do.

Having these kinds of shows and movies would have made a big difference for me growing up, and it will make a big difference for thousands of other kids who are growing up right now.

This isn't a negative post to complain about the lack of media, it's an example of it's importance and optimism for the future. I do believe this will continue to get better, however slow that may be. This is just my little reminder of why it needs to.

I hope anyone who reads this is having a good day. You're valid and loved, no matter who you are. Stay safe.

[aherowhowashappy]

trans culture is watching fanfic on netflix and getting so excited because!!! that's you!!! it's not even just about a trans character/has a vague side character,, it's literally you, a gay trans dude who has never seen any other published content about your identity and it even has a happy ending??? what dimension have you hopped to?? and then you go on the internet and find a) it has hardly any media attention at all, which seems fine and whatever except then b) all of the attention it does have is from people on other parts of the trans spectrum talking about how shit it is because it doesn't accurately represent exactly how they felt??? anyways maybe i'm disproportionately sad about it because it's late and i'm tired but. not gonna lie the wind was really taken out of my sails for this one.

[artistsonthelam]

I will get to it at some point! // (my tweet)

[queergaygaygaygay]

Trans Spider Gwen Helped Me Come Out

Though there is no confirmation that Gwen is trans, it is reasonable to assume that she is trans given the level of support she gives, the colour scheme, of her outfit and surrounding world, and her story arc which can be easy analysed as a trans allegory. (It is also a fun headcannon.)

I picked up on Gwen’s transness as I was watching the film. I hadn’t seen any trailers properly or seen any theories on twitter or tumblr but I read Gwen as trans.

Seeing a transcoded super hero explain to her dad who she is and then to watch him accept her, despite everything that happened before, made me feel unstoppable.

It was only a couple days after viewing the film that I came out to my mother and she was somewhat confused but accepting and we managed to book an appointment with a GP (I’m British) and we actually got refered to a Gender Clinic. He was very accepting and encouraging- a complete contrast to some of the GPs I had heard about from other trans people. I hope more GPs will become supportive and disregard their personal opinions to represent the policies of the NHS. I was very lucky to find a GP willing to refer me and I’m very thankful for NHS staff who accept trans people.

Of course seeing Gwen Stacy in Across the Spiderverse wasn’t the only thing that made me want to transition and be openly trans around family and friends. I have also been experiencing heavy gender dysphoria due to puberty no longer letting me appear as androgynous or feminine as I would like.

Gwen being incredibly strong and very trans let me believe I could come out and express myself. Never have I seen a stronger trans character in media I have enjoyed and she’s been very accepted by the trans community.

This is just one example of how representation can help real life people feel confident enough to come out and be themselves in an increasingly oppressive society. I hope for more representation, more acceptance and more beautiful queer people.

[purplehalnw]

So, I just want to go on a little tangent here about Angel here.

Okay so when I first watched the pilot I initially thought that Angel was a trans man (because of the chest fluff of course). But later on after reading about him online I found out he wasn't and.... I'm kinda disappointed about that.

Because most on screen media depicts trans people as always dressing in the clothes that are associated with the gender they identify as. Ex: trans women always dress feminine and trans men always dress masculine. So, naturally when I saw Angel I thought it was nice that there was a trans guy character who preferred to dress more feminine.

And also again I didn't know that Angel's chest was just fluff so when he said "this body is flawless" and was you know acting proud of it I thought "oh cool we have a trans character who isn't at least completely dysphoric about their body".

Angel is still queer representation and I still absolutely love him. But there is just so little good trans rep out there (especially rep that isn't all about them being trans) and idk probably would've been groundbreaking to have a character who's a feminine gay trans man especially in a show as popular as this one.

[cepheusgalaxy]

They are trans and I will die on this hill

Desna (left), from The Legend of Korra

Look, that's seriously talk

Do you know what are bivitelin and univitelin twins?

Univiteline twins are the ones whose embryons are from the same origin

Biviteline are the ones whose embryons are unrelated, but happened to envolve and born at the same time

Biviteline twins often look very different, in what univiteline twins are identical

Obvsiously thought, they even have the same genes

Did you know uiviteline twins also are always the same sex

They are made of the same seed after all

See what I mean?

Eska and Desna as obviously univiteline

And they have different genders: Desna's a boy and Eska is female

I assume Desna is the trans one, since their designs, aside from being identical and giving us a vibe of nobelty and inaproachableness expected of the North Pole prince and princess, tend more to a feminine aesthetic

Also, Bolin thought they were both girls firs time they met lol

In a side note, Bryan Konietzo and Michael Dante Dimartino have a history of representing minorities, such as disabled characters

And brown/black people

As well, as they already have done queer characters (Asami and Korra), despiste the latter's representation abeing way more sutile

So it's natural to guess that the level of sutileness would be the same while approaching another queer character

Logical conclusion: Desna is super trans

Pyotr, from Carole and Tuesday

This guy

Come on, have you heard his music??????

Like, have you heard his music??

[ssaseaprince]

I feel like Hannibal is an allegory/metaphor for the queer/trans coming out experience in the same way the werewolf genre is.

[sage-thee-herbmaster]

Politicising representation in media is redundant and not fair to those who are surrounded by the majority, black kids grow up to accept themselves as black more if they see black representation in media, queer and trans kids grow up accepting themselves or even realising they’re queer and/or trans sooner if they see a queer and/or trans representation in media. That’s just makes sense.

To deny that kind of representation isn’t needed or pushing some “political agenda” thus marking it as negative is a sign of intolerance and an excessive resistance to change.