RantI’m not sure if this is the right sub to talk about stuff like this, but does anyone else feel like /everything/ has to have something trans related in it these days?

submitted by Smolders1Cock is god's greatest gift. from self.LGBDropTheT

Whether it’s movies, comics I like, or video game series I enjoy, but it just seems like the trans community always have to ‘trans’ something regarding that series.

A video game series I thoroughly enjoy has recently had some community drama in which members discussed on the subreddit whether a new character being introduced in the new instalment of said franchise was trans due to her lack of a tail (don’t do too much lore reading, but apparently this has been brought up since female members of her species usually don’t have tails).

And I’m just stuck here thinking: Why? Why does this character need to be trans so badly? She’s evidently a female and the developers have clarified that she isn’t trans, why do you have to keep bitching and moaning about it? It’s just getting annoying to constantly hear.

I got into an argument with someone about this and they said that the trans community is ‘starved of representation.’

Oh, really now? I wish homo and bisexuals had as much representation as you guys do rather than us having to be painted out as the evil transphobes and villains all of the time. I’d love if this new character was a lesbian as long as it didn’t comprise her entire personality, but I’m not whinging about it in an online forum meant for civil discussion regarding this game series 24/7.

Then, unsurprisingly I basically just got called a transphobe and was told the character was seen as trans within the trans community in order to piss off transphobes or some other bollocks similar to that. Surprisingly, the mods actually sided with me on this one and proceeded to ban the user who I was debating with for trolling and disrespectful conduct.

I just kind of feel like everything has to include some element of the transgender community in it or else the people making said product or pretty much anything in general will forever be branded as ‘transphobic bigots’ or the like.

Anyone else notice this or becoming slightly annoyed with it?

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[–]lovelyspearmintLesbeing a lesbian 22 insightful - 2 fun22 insightful - 1 fun23 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

It's not just trans. It's series having a 'Cast of Gay'. As in, the majority of the cast, if not the entire cast, are gay, bisexual, lesbian, (queer, trans). It's bothering me mostly because a) it's unrealistic statistics wise, and b) unless the author actually is gay/bisexual/lesbian (excluding transgays, transbians, non-binaries and pamsexuals), it feels like fetishisation, trend following and/or virtue-signalling, not a genuine desire to write about LGB characters.

One good example is the influx of 'cute' gay romances like Red, White and Royal Blue which purely exist for women to squee over. Just one look at the Goodreads page is enough to tell me this is written by women for women.

Another example of what I mean is the popularity of Gideon the Ninth and its sequel. I was interested when I heard the author was a lesbian, but then when I did a bit of digging about her partner on her Twitter account, I found that her partner is and continues to be a man. So she's using the lesbian label to promote her books about lesbian necromancers, and she has (since publishing) talked about her husband as a partner, never letting slip that he's a man.

The cherry on top is Sarah Gailey and her bullshit. She's a queer non-binary (who smartly never reveals the gender of her 'partner', always uses they), writes books with casts of LGBTQI+ people of colour (intersectional af), including a series set in alternate history Wild West where everyone is fine with people being LGB and respect and never question people's pronouns 🤮 I can stand that in far future sci-fi, but it's jarring and forceful in anything set in the past.

[–]Horror-SwordfishI don't get how flairs work 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I generally don't mind "alternate history" in that sense, although I would much prefer it to be just a completely different universe or something. Like "Bridgerton" on Netflix is "alternate history" but it's still jarring at first glance.

And I also don't mind a "cast of gay" necessarily. Sometimes it's fairly realistic - I'm thinking about "Queer as Folk" or "Looking" where I can buy that a group of gay guys that hang out in gay hotspots are all friends.

Mostly I get annoyed when there are gay characters that their whole thing is just "I'm gay, gay gay gaygaygay, look at me, I'm kissing another boy, I'm so gay, gay gay gay," because that's so offensive to me as a gay man. I'm more than just a gay guy. How hard is it to write just a regular old character and then throw in "and he's gay" at the end? I don't know; I guess for some people that comes across as pandering, too, but I'd much prefer to see characters that are acknowledged to be gay but it's just not even a thing that really comes up, because in most of my regular life, being gay is not even a thing for me.

[–]lovelyspearmintLesbeing a lesbian 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

My (straight) mother has always sung the praises of Tales from the City, which is a cast of gay that seems unforced, especially since they're in San Francisco.

The 'and he's gay' at the end feels like a gotcha or cop out, almost like 'we tricked you into thinking this guy was a normal guy, but he's actually GAY!' I personally think it's better if you treat the character the same as you would a straight one, have something hint at them being gay, or outright say it at some point in the story, but not have it be a twist or an ending beat.

[–]Horror-SwordfishI don't get how flairs work 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I haven't read "Tales from the City," but I actually started watching the original TV series of it a while back and, while I was somewhat into it, there was something weird about it for me. I think the musical cues messed me up, because there's always this slightly-creepy suspenseful-sounding music going on in the background but it's just like, two people talking about ice cream or something and it was a weird disconnect for me. Not sure how the newer version is, though. But yeah, that's the same as "Looking" - it's set in San Fran, so you'd expect a large gay population, and it wouldn't be surprising to see a group of four gay men as friends. If I was watching something set in, oh I don't know, West Virginia in a small rural town, and there was a group of four gay male friends that always managed to find gay guys outside of their group to date or whatnot, I'd be a little perturbed because that's not very realistic, and it just serves to take me out of it.

And yeah, that's kind of what I meant by the "and he's gay" thing. I don't want to see that as like a gotcha or anything like that, but I want to see well-written, fleshed-out characters that happen to be gay and it's neither a big deal nor the entirety of their personality.

[–][deleted] 18 insightful - 1 fun18 insightful - 0 fun19 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

To be honest, I have just been conditioned to believe that all representation of non-heterosexual orientation or transgenderism in media is just mindless pandering. I get why people want it, but I really couldn't give a shit. If I want to indulge in a gay pairing, canon or not, I can just hop over to Wattpad or AO3. Don't really care for being reminded that Big Corporation™ only cares for the Homos™ as long as "we" increase their profit margins.

[–]censorshipment 4 insightful - 7 fun4 insightful - 6 fun5 insightful - 7 fun -  (0 children)

In the US... these calls for representation usually start off with my people... black people. And other poc start talking about being underrepresented. And then white women start talking about being underrepresented. And then lgb people start talking about being underrepresented. And now it's the queer weirdos turn.

If population size is used to determine underrepresention... then white women should surely be prioritized. But white women don't seem to even support their own demographic like minority groups tend to do. When I bring up Charlize Theron's amazing film "Atomic Blonde" (2017)... there are crickets in predominately white women spaces. Why isn't Atomic Blonde a women's cult classic?

But black women, like me, watch movies starring black women and discuss them. We supported "Us" (2019).

And since I'm a lesbian, I tend to purposely seek movies starring women such as Terminator: Dark Fate... I want to see badass women. But white women want to see white men. Smh

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

Yeah. I'm going through an extremely rough period in my life where not only have I lost my family life but my friend groups are falling apart too. I decided it was time to try and go full hog on a guilty pleasure and get into the fan community for something I loved as a kid, only to find out the fandom has decided the 'secret identity' part of the superhero trope is obvious trans subtext and is in open revolt against the creator for saying it's not. To the point where some of the biggest creators have simply left the fandom in disgust, so presumably there is just nobody sane left. :| And of course there's a throwaway line at the end of almost every recent fanfic or piece of art disclosing that THEIR depiction is a TRANSMAN depiction.......

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

Ahhh you reminded me that I got really so tired of some people, who liked to queer literally any trope, theme seen on my favorite media. Suddenly a theme of struggling with accepting yourself and then embracing your identity as a hybrid of two species was seen as a trans story and these people seemed mocking people, who didn't see that. For the fuck's sake. Not everything must be about trans. The struggle with accepting yourself is universal and it's not limited to trans people only. Not even to gay, bi or asexual people. Even so called "cishets" have their identity struggles related to either sexist expectations, religious upbringing, self-hatred or even just parent's expectations. I hate that this very cool trope of accepting yourself for who you are is now "transed".

[–]NonimeTired of Explaining Reality to Fuckwits (TERF) 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The Queen's Gambit was ruined for me with the introduction of a trans character posing as a woman in an orphanage full of vulnerable girls. It was so obvious and weird and out of place, and the whole cast didn't acknowledge it in any way.

Fuck Wokeflix.

[–]lovelyspearmintLesbeing a lesbian 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

My mum and I clocked the person immediately, and it felt really uncomfortable, especially, as you said, they were in a sex segregated space for vulnerable girls.

[–]PeakingPeachEaterfemale♀ | detrans🦎 | eater of peaches 🍑 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes...it's quite annoying to see everywhere. I just don't bother talking to turbo fans about it. For example, I almost didn't want to play Apex Legends because of the dumb gender identity politics they added...but my partner(who's oblivious to it and only plays for the achievements and dailies lol) enjoys the game and doesn't even notice that stuff.

I'm thinking about not....thinking too deep lol. It'll make the games much more enjoyable.

THOUGH there was a show I was watching called "Casa de Papel", in English, I believe it's called "Money Heist", and suddenly they pop in random transwoman(MtF) character...but used a biological woman to act the character. It was really out of the blue for one, two, they used this character as a deux ex machina lol. I haven't finished the series yet...

They do have two gay male characters and 1 bisexual male character. Though the bisexual character is an ego maniac and one of the gay male characters is in love with him and equally an asshole.