[ SECRET POST #5789 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5789 ⌋

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


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[Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart]


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10. [SPOILERS for She-Hulk]




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11. [WARNING for discussion of suicide]

[Extraordinary Attorney Woo]


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12. [WARNING for discussion of rape]

































Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #828.
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.

Comments

[fscom]

04. https://i.ibb.co/p3HhrRp/ficsecret.png

[(Anonymous)]

JFC. If there is one singular wish I have for the Trans / Gender positivity movement, it is that they learn and understand that cross-dressing, drag, etc, is its own culture, having absolutely nothing to do with what they're arguing for. Gender Expression =/= Gender Identify, FFS.

Sorry this has bled over into a fic you liked, OP.

[(Anonymous)]

This. Gender identity (or the lack thereof) is personal and shouldn't be assumed like that, feels like we're going backwards sometimes. Thanks for understanding.

[(Anonymous)]

While I know that some people use crossdressing as a way to test the waters before they come out as (or sometimes realise they're) trans, some people DON'T, and that's okay.

I'm a cishet lady who doesn't have any personal experience that's relevant, but the way people sometimes treat crossdressing as automatically = trans gives me major "oh, they're just saying they're bi because they're afraid to come out as fully gay" energy. I.e., majorly patronising and a denial of someone's stated identity because the identity doesn't fit neatly under a label the way someone else wants or sees the world

[(Anonymous)]

the way people sometimes treat crossdressing as automatically = trans gives me major "oh, they're just saying they're bi because they're afraid to come out as fully gay" energy

This is a fantastic metaphor IMO

[(Anonymous)]

Some dudes just really like doing makeup and wearing dresses sometimes and that's fine! They should be able to rock whatever they wanna wear without people speculating about their gender or sexuality.

[(Anonymous)]

*slowly claps*

[feotakahari]

Yeah. I wasn’t against trans Bridget in and of herself, because apparently this was a long time coming, but I didn’t like the vibe in the fandom that turning a crossdresser trans equals “fixing” them. And I get annoyed when Chihiro from Danganronpa gets “fixed” by turning him from a crossdresser to trans.

(That said, I do reserve the right to complain about the thing in Japanese media where a woman who wears men’s clothing learns the Valuable Lesson that she’ll never be a man and she should start acting feminine. Naoto from Persona 4 is the highest-profile example of this, but I’ve also seen it in Dark Rose Valkyrie, and Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk seemed like it was heading this way before I quit playing.)

[(Anonymous)]

That said, I do reserve the right to complain about the thing in Japanese media where a woman who wears men’s clothing learns the Valuable Lesson that she’ll never be a man and she should start acting feminine.

That's... not what happened with Naoto, though. Like, that's completely missing the entire point of her story. The only reason she was trying to pretend to be a man was that she was afraid that she wouldn't be taken seriously in her chosen field as a woman, it didn't have anything to do with how she personally wanted to present herself. The entire point was that it was fucked up that she felt she had to pretend to be a man if she wanted to be a detective and her choosing to be more feminine was her finally embracing who she was, which was a detective AND a woman.

[(Anonymous)]

Does Dark Rose Valkyrie have anything like that? I want to know what I am getting into...

Agreed that sometimes Japanese media ends up being really confusing regarding matters of gender from a foreign perspective. Sometimes it is a fetichistic take which is horrible, the fictional equivalent of corrective rape really. Even Ouran Host Club left a bitter taste in my mouth, because in the end the girl marries the guy who kept complaining that she had to be more ladylike and becomes more ladylike. So... ehh.

But regarding Naoto I agree with the above comment in a way, the whole point of her (deliberately using her pronouns for the sake of practicality) story was something else: she wanted to be taken seriously but wasn't while presenting as a teen woman, which is very valid criticism. Teen women face an absurd level of scrutiny (even more so in societies like Japan ...) they're often sexual material for predatory old het men and "kids" for older women at best. In trying to present as (her image of) a mature man in order to be taken seriously by society and even to take herself seriously, she hides the parts of herself that are fragile because she internalized others' prejudices against young women (that they're fragile etc). When asked how she feels about her gender she says that being a girl "doesn't fit her image of a detective" (obviously, a prejudiced one cause society sucks.) and it's a male-dominated field so it's hard to be a woman there. When Yukiko says that what Naoto wants is not to be a man or a grown-up implying that what she wants is to be respected regardless of gender or age - Naoto AGREES.

This journey of self-discovery is one many young AFAB who are unhappy about being women go through I feel. Some reach the conclusion that they are trans while others may reach the conclusion that they want women to be respected. But Naoto never changes her clothes (even as she ends with the guy in a way) she just goes "by the way yes I am a woman and was lying about it for reasons". The fact that fans propelled her to a trans hero even though her reason for feeling gender dysphoria and presenting as male was societal male chauvinism feels weird to me to this day. If anything, Naoto reads as NB to me since her level of gender dysphoria is hardly that intense: she isn't necessarily a woman or a male, she is a proud detective and looking feminine and young doesn't fit her image of what a detective should be... because society sucks.

Wow, sorry that was huge. LOL I have been procrastinating this essay for a while and now I just did it on Fandom!Secrets past midnight because Why Not huh. go brain

[(Anonymous)]

I just felt the Bridget thing was handled in... not so great a way. The origin had some really strong 'nature vs nurture' things going on and it felt like Bridget didn't really stand a chance.

Took me a while to convince myself that Bridget decided to live as a woman on HER terms and not her family's terms and that it wasn't ham-fisted or anything

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's ok for fans to interpret some of the limitless supply of cis crossdressing characters (as opposed to canon trans characters) in older works as trans or nonbinary even if they have to tweak canon a bit to do it.

This is the same argument as "why do they have to be gay, there's nothing in canon that says they're gay" against slash, with a new coat of paint.

[(Anonymous)]

Sure is, as long as we don't fall into the equivalent of the old "you're homophobic for disliking my ship" or: you're transphobic for disliking my alternate reading of canon.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree in principle, I just think sometimes people take it to an extreme that isn't great

[(Anonymous)]

Personally I don't like all these hot-takes and interpreting a gender / sexuality into characters these days.
Especially when it is different from the canon.
A lot of times I roll my eyes and just keep on scrolling. I'm glad when stuff like that is tagged, so I can know which stories I'll avoid.

[(Anonymous)]

I find it less of an issue when it's just "this is a fic where X is Y just for fun or to see how it might change them as a character" or whatever, but most of the time it's "X is Y sorry I don't make the rules" and that's where the line gets crossed from "annoying but harmless" to insta-block.

[(Anonymous)]

You said "gender/sexuality," so I assume you also don't like it when a character who appears to be straight and was presumably intended to be straight in the canon is interpreted as bi, or just shipped with a same-gender character without bringing up sexuality?

[(Anonymous)]

Why am I getting Ouran vibes...

[(Anonymous)]

Oh it's 100% gotta be Ouran

[pantswarrior]

Yyyyyyep, this is totally Ouran, if the character descriptions didn't do it, the background would. XD

[(Anonymous)]

It’s for sure Ouran. I’m thirding(fourthing?) that.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know why secret maker bothered being coy about the fandom when it's very obviously Ouran.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, OP can say it's OHC, it's really obvious that it is from the description.

[(Anonymous)]

Is the fic about Ouran?

[(Anonymous)]

It would only make sense to me if it was, because it describes Ryouji/Ranka and the Lobelia Zuka trio perfectly. Not the fic, obviously. But OP’s description.