Will be firm in all my original fictional characters will be biological men and women. No trans characters what so ever.

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[–]haveanicedaytoo💗💜💙 35 insightful - 15 fun35 insightful - 14 fun36 insightful - 15 fun -  (11 children)

If you write a trans character, you are guilty of literal violence stealing stories that could have been written by trans women of color who died for our rights and financially gaining through cultural appropriation.

If you don't write a trans character, you are guilty of literal violence erasing trans people and murdering trans youth by not giving them adequate representation in popular media.

[–]CAB_Life 21 insightful - 1 fun21 insightful - 0 fun22 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

When everything is “violence”, anything is violence. I feel that the snake is finally starting to eat itself though, at last.

[–][deleted] 21 insightful - 1 fun21 insightful - 0 fun22 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

And when everything and anything is violence, actual violence is erased or diminished.

[–]CAB_Life 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Totally. And that’s the shitty thing about all this crying-wolf: actual victims get shuffled under the feet of TRAs shrieking about the daily murder/ rape/ violence toll on trans people. As if no other lives of importance are lost or ruined to violent crime or hatred. Pretty sure on the old sub, there was a 2018 DoJ report on hate crimes and gay men were at the top of the list, with trans women down at the bottom. (And lesbians, mercifully enough, were the lowest and least affected for once.)

[–]RedEyedWarriorGay | Male | 🇮🇪 Irish 🇮🇪 | Antineoliberal | Cocks are Compulsory 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

"But gay men have did privilege, do it's not as bad as trans women and trans men being victims."

[–]xanditAGAB (Assigned Gay at Birth) 4 insightful - 4 fun4 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

putting violence in quotes is violence

[–]JulienMayfair 12 insightful - 3 fun12 insightful - 2 fun13 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

It's a classic Catch-22. Damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

[–]quickbeam 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, this is definitely one of those "can't win" situations that some of the woke ideology has set up.

[–]witchdicktor 31 insightful - 1 fun31 insightful - 0 fun32 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

I always found it a bit weird how trans people want trans representation in media... so you don't identify and don't feel represented by men and women? I thought you said trans women are women? So why don't you feel represented by cis women? Same thing with '' I WANT TO PLAY AS A TRANS CHARACTER '' what? You have all the possibility to play as the sex you identify as, but you still want to be born in the wrong body in a fictional universe that gives you the option to just be a regular woman/man? Smells like a fetish and a trend rather than transitioning because of legit dysphoria ngl.

[–]artetolife 10 insightful - 3 fun10 insightful - 2 fun11 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah I've thought the same. I've been playing the sims lately and their custom gender options that are supposed to cater for them make me laugh because the only thing it adds to the gameplay is the ability to create sims that are the opposite of trans validation, like big burly male bodies in dresses and female bodied sims that pee standing up.

[–]indeepshadowsBi woman 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Right??? This is something I've wondered about for a while.

[–]zerosis 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This is honestly a good point. Why isn't this brought up more frequently?? Seriously???

[–]artetolife 19 insightful - 7 fun19 insightful - 6 fun20 insightful - 7 fun -  (1 child)

Doesn't matter. If your comics gain any kind of popularity with them then they'll declare all the characters trans anyway.

[–]CAB_Life 17 insightful - 1 fun17 insightful - 0 fun18 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I managed to write an entire multi-book, critically acclaimed series without a single gender-swapping character and no one gave two shits. One of the most important aspects of a story anyway is strong characterization, and if you’re doing some paint by the numbers wokeness checklist that will reek of inauthenticity. I’ve seen many series like that in the last few years, including a much lauded sci fi one about transgender robots (can’t remember the name, think a Wired writer wrote it, and I actually did a reading with her back in 2018 and her head was so far up her ass on this stuff that she could barely breathe), which bombed on Goodreads and quickly vanished from popular culture under the wave of similar woke material.

Also, 90% of your audience—assuming you have grand aspirations for your work—will be heterosexual, and another sizeable chunk probably Christian or conservative, and yet you’ll find that demographic quite tolerant of LGB stuff, so long as it’s—again—not some major crux to your story. While my series isn’t romance, I’ve got one pairing of a very masculine woman and a very effeminate man that fans just adore, and another pairing of gay couple, with the occasional racy scene with said characters and no one cares or bats an eye.

Write well, write authentically, and the trolls won’t be much of a bother. Also helps to delete your Twitter account for general sanity’s sake.

[–]LilianH 12 insightful - 2 fun12 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Anyway, if you aren't trans yourself aren't you not allowed to write about or create trans characters now? Isn't that how the world works in fiction writing now.

[–]Rosefield 8 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I don't want to do it anyway.

[–]Rosefield 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

As a writer I will only include lgb people and I also have an idea about a major character who has an ambiguous gender because he isn't human and doesn't care about it. But that has nothing to do with the gender identity cesspit that is tq+.

[–]RedEyedWarriorGay | Male | 🇮🇪 Irish 🇮🇪 | Antineoliberal | Cocks are Compulsory 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I like your attitude. If I was a creator, trans and non-binary characters would not exist in any of my works.

[–]bonsleeweinerwarmer 7 insightful - 3 fun7 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

my literary lesbians say no to 'feminine penis'

[–]xanditAGAB (Assigned Gay at Birth) 4 insightful - 4 fun4 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 4 fun -  (1 child)

you can say the trans men ands women pass so well, it looks like there aren't any in your stories.

[–]LesbiSilly 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

As a writer, I disagree. I think shoving people in to be 'inclusive' is annoying, but I think that trans people deserve reasonable representation. Aka, if your story has a trans character, they have a character. I get not wanting to force any of your characters to be any sexuality, etc. I don't like mob mentality as much as the rest of you, but going out of your way NOT to write any is a little rude, if I dare say.

[–]haveanicedaytoo💗💜💙 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I agree with this. For some authors the characters just come to them, and if a T or Q character comes to you, you should just do your damndest to make an accurate a portrayal as possible. (But if you think your accurate portrayal will get you fucked, obviously, you need to look out for yourself first.)

I think this is what happened to JK Rowling actually, she was researching online in order to make her MTF character realistic (one of the Cormoran Strike novels I haven't read) and I think either in the long essay she wrote recently or one of her tweets, she implying that's how she originally stumbled into this whole mess.

[–]LesbiSilly 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thank you! I am one of those authors who has character come to her. I do think we should try our hardest to accurate, but also know it's not going to be perfect and that people have to accept that. I think as long as one writes with respect, do so. If people whine, it is they are removing representation for themselves. It is on them.

Aw, I am sorry that JK got in a tangle. That sucks when she was trying. The thing is, just write any LGB(T) character like a person. Because we are people.

[–]crypkidsformally 'rezkidsinlove' 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I get this.

I have a few stories in the works from BEFORE I stumbled upon this -- and one or two of the characters are trans. It's definitely been a process of trying to figure out how to go about it in a way that isn't cringy/is the healthiest I can manage to convey the character and their situation.

At the same time it's given me difficulties, it's definitely given me some new material/ideas to work with.

[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I kept Tumblr after the porn ban, mostly because I also used it to follow character artists. Eventually I just dropped the app completely, because every damn character had their pronouns listed right below their name. I’m working on my own stuff, and putting the pronouns is something I’d never even consider doing.