fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3360 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3360 ⌋

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

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02.

[Niche]

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[Rush Hour 1, 2, 3]

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04.

["The Bride Was A Boy" manga]

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05.

[J.K. Rowling]

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06.

[Pretty Little Liars]

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07.

[Twin Peaks]

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08.

[The Walking Dead/The Flash]

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09.

(GIRLS)

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10.

[The Grinder]

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11.

[Pokemon]

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[Lord of the Rings]

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13.

[Babylon 5, Tolkien, Star Wars, Harry Potter]

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14.

[Star Wars: The Force Awakens]

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15.

[Pete Seeger]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 032 secrets from Secret Submission Post #480.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm curious which other trans male representations you know of!

I think I've come across some manga with trans male characters that don't fall under the sex/gag exploitation umbrella, though they're also not main characters. Maybe the only one with a trans male MC is Claudine! by Ryoko Ikeda, but it's definitely dated from what I remember wrt... a lot of things, since it was done in the mid-80s (major angst, unfortunate wordings/implications, tragic ending, huge hair). But in the end it's unambiguous about Claudine's identity as a trans man (imo; I was surprised to find reviews of it as a yuri drama).

sa -- mid-80s -> actually 1978, sorry (refreshing myself with it on a site that had 1987 as publication)

AYRT

So far everything I've seen is this:

Family Compo- Probably the least problematic representation, although all the trans characters are still completely violated for sake of "comedy", but keep in mind that this manga is old, and for it being old it's actually...somewhat okay. The trans guy is a real cutie and it's really refreshing to see a trans man and a trans woman in a relationship that isn't portrayed as them both longing to be with "obviously superior cisgender" men/women.

Yuureitou- The main character is a trans man, and it's a horror/thriller manga set in the 50's so he's pre-hormone and pre-top surgery. His body is used multiple times for titillation, although it somewhat redeems itself at the end with a male character admitting he's attracted to Tetsuo as a man.

Wandering Son- While this is lauded as awesome trans representation, the author really doesn't give a shit about trans men (she mentioned at the end that she was inspired by reading abut "men who wear women's clothing" or something and it really, really shows), and the only prominent trans male character pulls a 180 at the end and really unconvincingly decides to detransition. The only reason I don't hate this manga with a burning passion is because it acknowledges that lesbian trans women exist, where so many straight trans women end up just being played for male chaser fantasies. So seeing the fact acknowledged that lesbian trans women are a thing? Awesome.

Tokyo Ghoul has Tooru Mutusuki but I'm not holding my breath, the manga recently pulled some BS that implies Tooru might be one of those "I'm a trans man because ~rape/trauma~" stereotypes and once that trauma is resolved he'll magically detransition.

Yukimura Kusunoki is another trans male character but he's handled really, really badly even if Yukimura himself is a cutie. Not to mention the fanbase is disgusting. Yukimura explicitly wants to be referred to as a man, but because of his pushover personality (which is thinly veiled Authoor Intent for ~sexy female fanservice kawaiiiii~) he's dressed in a maid outfit for 90% of the series he's in. He does eventually don a butler outfit, but....well, to give you an idea of the kind of representation, here's one of the two most popular figures made for him:

http://s1.tsuki-board.net/pics/figure/large/166995.jpg?r=1397249459

The other figures don't even bother with the pretense. A friend of mine introduced me to him, and explained that he's basically who my friend points to whenever he tries to explain how Japan is super obsessed with trans men's original sex in a weird form of misogyny that doesn't affect trans women in Japan the same way. Sure there are tons of "woman with penis" chasers, but they're invested in it being a woman with a penis. Trans men? Well trans men are just women. Period. All but one of the guys on this short list have been forced into women's clothing via Flimsy Plot Device at least once, more often multiple times.

There are other "coded" trans masculine characters too, not many, and I'm not going to list them and inevitably get into an internet slap fight (try and argue Naoto Shirogane is arguably coded as a trans guy and you'll get sooooo many angry fans), but there are a few.

but... naoto isn't coded as a trans guy at all. if you think she is, then you're completely missing the entire point of her character arc, which is a commentary on gender roles in japanese society.

DA

Don't forget Isabella from Paradise Kiss - the narrative chose not to focus on her gender identity, but in flashbacks to her childhood, she's portrayed as male.

I'm sure there are more but I have the worst headache ever and feel a bit like I'm dying, so I'm going to crawl back into my hole now. Oh! That one trans lady from Shangri-la?

ayrt

I read a bit of Family Compo and Wandering Son, but hadn't heard of the rest. Thanks, very interesting!

Actually, one of the things Claudine! did well was have him explicitly shoot down the childhood trauma stereotype near the end, though it seemed like it was going to go there for a bit.

Other ones:

Honey & Honey, which is similar to Bride as it's an autobiographical LGBT 101 mixed with slice-of-life, with an emphasis on the author's cis lesbian relationship with a bi woman. It's also light, but I find it less cutesy than Bride. There's a chapter on two of the author's trans male friends and transitioning, though they and another are introduced and are series regulars long before then.

Level E, a sci-fi manga, has a storyline where an alien princess and a trans male character fall in love, but wherever that alien race breeds, the planet dies soon after and the main characters have to prevent it. It's really been a while since I read it, and iirc there's some unfortunate implications/wordings/explanations as well, plus... well, there's the whole "trans male character gets full-body (advanced alien) surgery, the world will die" reading. He does end up fully transitioning via alien surgery while the princess gets fooled by a clone so the world doesn't end, but... At the least, the character doesn't end up being used as sex/comedy fodder iirc.

A brief glimpse and mention in a Chi-Ran short of a trans male character, though the other characters see it as "becoming a man (for the sake of a woman)" (the POVs are, admittedly, "terrible dad" and "naive sister"). Same as above, at least the character isn't used for fodder, and the sister admires his stance.

Trans male characters apparently also appear later on in the 4-koma series Poor Poor Lips and in the US-published anthology Yuri Monogatari (vol. 4), though not sure how they're handled.

(Re: lesbian trans women: There's a couple chapters in the anthology Mermaid Line ("Ayumi & Aika") with a lesbian trans woman coming out as both to her cis girlfriend. It's fluffy, but it acknowledges a bit more than expected.

There's also a lesbian trans woman in the mess that is Kyou Kara Yonshimai, but, oh boy, that one's a big, big mess.)

Certain old Riyoko Ikeda manga have trans characters, or at least I can think of one. I can't remember which, though. Pretty much all her manga include either crossdressing women, lesbians, or transmen. But she's also a product of her time, and the stories generally end in death or tragedy. Her stuff is from like the 70's.

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