fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2872 ]

[ SECRET POST #2872 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2872 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 019 secrets from Secret Submission Post #410.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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04. http://oi60.tinypic.com/4hvyaw.jpg

In my experience, most trans people actually feel the same way. I mostly see people saying that it's actually kind of offensive (in most cases) to headcanon a character's gender as being contrary to how they canonically choose to describe themselves. The idea is that if a character calls himself a guy in canon, then it's cool to headcanon him as a trans guy, but it's offensive to say that no, he's not really a guy like he says he is, he's actually a girl. Headcanoning someone as nonbinary is considered to be a bit of a gray area that needs to be evaluated on a case-to-case basis.

But I'm very picky about who I follow and I rarely venture into main fandom tags anymore.

Now you've explained that, I agree. If a character identifies as a certain gender, then it is rude to say they're not really, unless it's a clear AU or something.

I usually stay away from trans issues as I just plain don't understand the complexities.

There was a lot of trans man Dean fic in Supernatural, and some of it was really good. I've seen trans fic for quite a lot of "presenting as the gender you see on screen" characters and I often liked them.

Occasionally there's a character in a situation where they couldn't come out as trans, and that's not so unreasonable to me for headcanoning, but those aren't usually the ones involved.

Well said. I completely agree.

i'm a trans dude and this is really bothersome to me, too. something seems very off about it - maybe like you said the lack of ever thinking of already present women characters as trans women.

Well, being a bad tumblr feminist might actually be a good thing...

What mostly annoys me is to shoehorn characters in this for the sake of diversity itself. It also annoys me that the characters picked for these headcanons are often "non-stereotypical" in their gender expression. Which has the uncomfortable implication of butch girls and more effeminate men being headcanoned like that and...no, just no. You're feeding the very gender stereotypes you say you're trying to get rid of.

Agreed. A lot of headcanons are pretty gross and even border on genuinely transphobic. I have a few pet trans headcanons myself, including my icon here (Alana Bloom from NBC Hannibal), because her character in the books was male and it's a cool way of reconciling the canons IMO. But it bothers me a lot when people pick out arbitrary "feminine traits" and declare them proof that Male Character X is actually a trans girl! Or nonbinary!

Or when people pick out "masculine traits" (usually, you know, things like non-feminine appearance, competence at their non-traditional jobs in a male-dominated enviroment, or being a decent fighter) as proof female characters are trans men/nonbinary.

As an unfeminine woman it makes me feel as though some fans take the very rare character I can relate to and suggest she can't "just" be a woman.

(Not saying this is what you're doing, btw. I'm not even familiar with your fandom, just that your observation tends to go in the other direction in the fandoms I am in.)

I definitely see that too, although it tends to be "female character is really nonbinary" in my section of fandom because "why would you ever add more dudes to a show" or something.

I feel the same way and it's so shitty. It's really sexist, too, which is almost funny, because the people who do this are invariably the aggressively feminist types.

(Oh no, I didn't get that impression at all! Although to clarify, my semi-headcanon is that Alana is a trans woman, not a trans man. I realized it might not be clear what I meant.)

not to mention how most people with trans headcanons tend to enforce the gender binary and gender roles far more stringently than anyone else. :/

Yep. "This character is slim and graceful and wears shoes that kind of look like some really, really weird high heels; therefore, they must be a transwoman!"

I'm trans and this is 100% my problem with most 'trans headcanons'.

It's like god forbid we have characters who don't conform to the rules for their assigned gender, can't have that, so let's headcanon them as trans so can fit whatever 1950's gender roles I think are cute.

This.

Wait, I thought trans headcanons meant "Pepper Potts was born Scott Potts but identifies as female and Pepper Potts is now the woman she always wanted to be" (excellent fic (http://archiveofourown.org/works/67195), btw), not that Pepper Potts identifies as female.

I think I just realised why so many people seem to dislike trans headcanons. Huh.

It can go either way, depending on the character and what aspect people tend to fetishize about them. Like (fake example that probably exists)

-Loki is secretly a female Jotun, which explains why she's so delicate and graceful and so obsessed with fitting in. But mostly in fic this is a vehicle to get Loki knocked up and wearing pretty dresses and acting catty towards the ladies of court.

I forget the title, but I saw a decent "Jotun don't distinguish between male and female, and Loki was intended to be Thor's bride" fic once. I remember it was on AO3, it was OT3, and it was rated Explicit. (I found it through TV Tropes, but I think they purged all their recs for fics that weren't worksafe.)

So who was the 3 in that?

Re: OT

feotakahari - 2014-11-14 02:29 (UTC) - Expand

Re: OT

diet_poison - 2014-11-14 02:38 (UTC) - Expand

Re: OT

feotakahari - 2014-11-14 03:12 (UTC) - Expand

Re: OT

(Anonymous) - 2014-11-14 07:52 (UTC) - Expand

Re: OT

diet_poison - 2014-11-14 18:49 (UTC) - Expand

Re: OT

(Anonymous) - 2014-11-14 03:13 (UTC) - Expand

Of course in the case of Loki... in both myth and comics Loki often takes female form...

And did get knocked up a couple times in myth... so yeah.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2014-11-14 06:24 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

ozaline - 2014-11-14 06:55 (UTC) - Expand

It can mean what you thought it means, but it more often seems to mean "Pepper Potts is in a male-dominated field and has taken on a position in the company that evokes traditional views of masculinity; Pepper therefore identifies as male".

AYRT

That makes no sense to me, but it does explain why there have been so many secrets and people complaining about trans headcanons here on FS. The few trans fic I've read so far always had the character identifying as their canon gender, I never came across the other side of trans headcanons.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2014-11-14 15:06 (UTC) - Expand

OP, your idea makes MUCH more sense than the weird gender-essentialist crap that people usually call trans headcanons. Based on the trans guys I've known, I would have a trans headcanon for a male character if he met a few of the following criteria:

* Short
* Goes to the gym a lot
* Modest, uneven beard
* A little pudgy
* Has shaved his head at least once

or to turn Rainbow Dash into a guy. which. NO.

I read a lot of canons that are full of magic, superscience or which contain canon sex-switching, so this kind of thing annoys me a lot. If this character wanted a dick or a vagina or whatever, they'd get one.

Those headcanons are fine, but being trans myself I also like fic about characters figuring out their identity and coming out as trans, I think that's an ok thing to explore with headcanons.
Though I don't headcanon characters as a closeted trans just because they have opposite sex traits. It's mostly characters I identify with in that regard, and they're generally anxious, standoffish, compulsively conformist, stuff like that. If we only allow headcaonons like that guy has been a trans guy all along then all we'll ever have are fully transitioned well-adjusted trans people who don't ever struggle with gender at all, and that's boring and depressing. It's like saying it's homophobic to write fic about gay couples having relationship problems or sleeping around, because their lives have to be perfect and they need to defy all stereotypes.

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