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Neat video and I like your art style - it's simple and cute! Are you in a writing stage or is there already a running comic/some other media this OC of yours is from? On topic of 'never design a character before you write them' I'd paraphrase it into 'never finalise a design until you write them', sometimes it's easy to start from a visual and when you explore it by writing, to update that visual to match.

Dude, that sounds like Misandry towards Trans Men and TransMasc People to me.

We could have had Dipper as an explicitly trans male protagonist in Gravity Falls BACK IN 2012 but DISNEY wouldn't have it. They wouldn't even let the gay cops be gay, man. We were ROBBED.

Really interesting thoughts, thank you for sharing! All these "turns out she's a girl after all" would be less frustrating if there were also some more stories that ended in "yup, definitely not a girl!". Heck, normalising cis people exploring what gender even means to them could be a good thing. (If it's deeper than pretty dresses.) Would be cool to have a show with multiple characters questioning/exploring their gender and coming to different conclusions.

Always weird to listen to the other side of the isle. Quite fun though!

I really enjoyed this video! As a transmasc nonbinary person (in the vaguest most "idc" sense) this really spoke to me, it's hard finding good representation. Adding a recommendation (not sure if anyone's mentioned it), "Camp Here And There" is a horror comedy podcast whose main character is Sydney, a trans man! There are multiple trans characters, but he is by far the one you see (well, hear) the most. His identity isn't the center of the story, but I love how it's handled. His voice actor (and creator of the podcast) is trans himself, and I like that Sydney is kinda the opposite of the tomboy trope. He's very much a man, but he also has loooong hair, wears accessories and fluffy dresses, and he's had top surgery but isn't taking hormones. I wouldn't say he's a feminine guy, it's just awesome to see a more funky trans man in media, without it "taking away" from his identity at all. Someone even refers to him as curvy (he IS pudgy) and question why Syd's closest.. friend.. would hesitate to agree. YES he's a dude and YES he's got "nice hips" don't be shy to admit it. ANYWAY. There's a lot of care put into the writing of his character (as a gay, trans, autistic, physically and mentally unwell fellow), as well as his relationships with others and with the world at large. Highly recommend <3 And again, thank you for making this video. It's been in my recommended for like a week and I finally got to sit down and listen to it while drawing.

That strange thing where "progressives" start bashing transmen for being misogynistic or "betraying" women by doing the "evil" side. Women are so precious uwu radfem types which are basically social conservatives.

As a bi guy, I can definitely relate to the feeling of erasure. It's like writers are allergic to writing male lgbtq+ characters! It's like male lgbtq+ characters just don't exists to most people, and it's soul crushing... I noticed I made a lot of queer characters in my stories, and I noticed they do lean towards being men. It could be me trying to fill the void that media failed to fill. I want to see more cool male queer characters in stories, but it always feels... wrong in way I guess to ask for them?

Fallout! Maximus' best friend is non binary and they're cool

Yeah there is literally 1 mainstream transgender man character I can think of and it's Viktor from Netflix's Umbrella Academy. Who is not transgender in the comics. Or is a man. In general it's difficult to name examples of LGBT male characters.

omg thank you so much for talking about Tomboy the french movie!! we watched it in class when i was small and it pissed me off so so much ever since, even before i realised i was trans

I feel safe here ngl

tomboy (2011) was the movie that made me realize I'm trans because the amazon reviews mentioned the character likely being trans but because of the ending I repressed it for another three years living as a tomboy. and I don't even want to think about how horrific the transmasc part of wandering son was god a manga has never made me more upset. Reminder to read boys run the riot

I hope you don't mind there being a comment that's against your opinion, I completely get the "If you dress feminine you must be a female and if you dress masculine you must be a male!" part but when it comes down to there not being enough trans representation in shows, I don't think that's something to be upset over. At the end of the day, its their show and just because there isn't a trans person in the show doesn't mean they're transphobic or against that kind of thing.

french has gender neutral pronouns (ex: iel/lea = they/them),it is considered as neopronouns

As a gay trans man, I am *painfully* aware that queer men in general get very little representation, especially in animation, which is most often praised for lgbtq representation. When there is explicit, binary trans male representation, it seems to be focused on the dysphoria and trauma aspect, which I can't stand, i already live it, i don't wanna watch it.

What if every man in every piece of media is a trans man, and they just pass well, and don't talk about it? People can and do ship / interpret anything any which way they please. Building the lore of a person being trans and masculine, along with the hardships that come along with that are absolutely not for every story, but in many cases a story in and of itself. It is weird that you want the situation to be outed, when passing seems to be the goal. I understand that visibility and representation matter. However being inclusive of every race, creed, religion, sexuality, et al, in every piece of media, sensitively is just not possible. Couple this with the fact that transgender persons are less than 1% of the population, and 50% of the US pop is conservative, and its going to be an uphill battle for years. Imagine if you took the time you spent on this video, and instead sought to be the change you wish to see in the world. Furthermore being Trans isn't an exact state of being so much as it is the result of transitioning either physically or mentally, there are plenty of pieces of media with Tomboy characters, and while I would say yes, it doesn't give a complete picture of that person, media is representing you more than you might think, and more subtly than you are giving it credit.

Another trans male character I know of: Togata from Fire Punch. I haven't read Fire Punch yet, really want to, but it comes from the same writer as Chainsaw Man- I've heard so many good things about both Fire Punch and Togata

masculine The term is 'masculine'. There is no 'transmasc'.

Honestly, not trans male, but it still saddens me, why is it easy to accept the one side, but not the other? It's such a double standard, and brings a community apart more then together..

Yay, fellow agender person here (specifically libramasculine) who is so happy to have stumbled on this video 🔥

As a trans man and an aspiring animator I really loved your little essay and also reading the comments. I'm also autistic and its incredibly difficult for me to actually verbalize/ put into words everything I feel and experience and this video and commentsection really helps. I definitely want to contribute to transmasc representation in the future

you did not finish wandering son if you think that's how that character's story ends

I’m starting to write an animated show and am ensuring I add representation like trans masc because I really want people to see themselves in the show,because it’s sad to see how people aren’t represented as they should be

It's because you're women, and people are misogynistic. But also, non-gender conforming women are getting erased because of the trans trend. See: history rewriters/deniers

I don't have anything to add to the conversation at the moment, but I saw this video had no comments and I wanted to say that I found it to be a very interesting discussion. <3

CZcams recommended this to me randomly and I really like this video. It's always bothered my as a trans man that we have have practically no representation. I struggled for years not knowing what I wanted. I knew I didn't want to be a girl, but I had not idea that transitioning to being a man was even an option. Literally the first time I saw a picture of a trans man I instantly knew what I was. I probably could have figured myself out a lot earlier in my life if I had ever seen any sort of representation at all. At least when I was growing up it could be argued I didn't see and trans masc representation because there was hardly any trans rep at all 20+ years ago. (Though even back then I had at least heard of trans women existing.) It's just sad to see that as far as we've come in trans visibility and representation since then that trans men are still so invisible. Instead so many potentially trans masc stories get sacrificed for "well they were a girl all along, they just wanted to present as a man for xyz other reason." It always ends up being a story about accepting womanhood instead of accepting transness. It's like people think that wanting to be a man is betraying women.

This actually put into perspective and clarified something which really frustrates me as a non-binary trans woman about how some other transfems talk about transness and particularly transmasc folks. It's honestly a pretty small minority of people I've known through the years who really buy into this, but I think there's this draw for some trans women to the way that older schools of radical feminism talk about womanhood and suffering which tends to crystallise into, whether they intend it or not, an animosity towards other trans people who they see as "having it better than us," to the point of tacitly endorsing really strange analyses of privilege which don't actually reflect material reality despite their assertions to the contrary. And this frustrates me a lot, because, like, y'all do realise they're after us *all,* right? That testosterone was already a scheduled drug and that "drag bans" impact all people engaged in social transition? It's a really dark time, particularly for trans children and those who support them in their lives, and rehashing 1974-by-way-of-2014 Tumblr gender politics isn't helping! Sorry for the rant. I'm just. So tired. ._.

Makeover scene but it’s a girl putting on a binder and dress like a handsome man (aka violia from twelfths night and mostly references to 1998 film )

I'm surprised that this was not touched on, but the two transmasc characters in sex education were handled pretty damn well. as a bi trans guy, I also really appreciate this show's representation and general depictions of many other queer identities. the transmasc representation got even better in the last season with the transition journeys of both characters being unique to their circumstances and identities. one character (cal) is more reserved, is masculine/androgynous in their presentation and only just began HRT, while the other (roman) has a more outgoing and feminine way of presenting himself and had already been medically transitioning for a while. they give each other advice and share their struggles and connect on the basis of that. transitioning as a whole is not treated as something that can only happen in one way in the show. it conveys the message that being a trans person does not mean that you are doomed to a life of misery by including many depictions of trans joy, but also doesn't shy away from the prejudice that we often face and the terrible mental state that it, as well as dysphoria, causes. I think it's awesome that representation like this is in a mainstream TV series

The way I had a panic attack when I opened this video and you have almost the exact same voice as my ex bf 😭 But thank you for pointing this out. I have been saying this for ages - transmascs are ignored and just called lesbians most of the time. Look at the whole Jagged Little Pill musical fiasco and the US vs Aussie version

I hate always feeling like just because i like feminine things that i can't be a man and that im only a woman. Like its stupid. They only see me as a woman bc i dont pass and was born female. And im tired of explaining that i can be this way. Im tired of proving any of this to anybody. 😮‍💨😮‍💨

I love media analysis. It was a big video category for me to watch for awhile. This is my first video I've watched on your channel - I like the depth. I'm a trans man (he/him) who, for the time being, is not going to transition, and don't see non transitioned trans men represented anywhere, so media can be uncomfortable sometimes. I'd really like a trans man/trans masc plushie. It's like weird hearing only from my councilor that trans masc can like to wear dresses too, and now from your video. I'm the only trans man I know who still likes dresses. I like makeup on other people but I don't wear it because I'd be too messy at applying it, and I usually wear clothing labeled as for men.

tbh the makeover scene trope is so affing tiering, like even if you just look at it from cis girl perspective, like it just implies that being you is bad or not enough or that all women inherently must be famining at te end, like you just canot be a masculine woman after you turn 18 or sometong. this shit always bothered me, it realy makes me want to say to those authtors "ITS NOT A PHASE, MOM!" in unironical way, because i really hate that we are basically forsed to grow out of being ourselves to fit in the expectet mold. like they always expect that every one need to reconnect with their femininity as if it was impossible to gennuinely prefer masculinity or androginy there was this russian(?) animated movie ive seen on dvd as a kid that had a tomboy elf girl as one of protagonists who was kinda bratty but competent, at one point she dies and gets revived with the main plot's artifact they all serched for, some heart gemstone that becomes her literal heart. so when she is back to live she is no longer tomboy, her personality just does a 180, she is calm and polite now, her robin hood-esque closing gets replased with a white dress and her short hair magically grows out into long luscious locks. i hated it because she just became a different character entirely, and not through gradual proggression and selfdiscovery, but a magical heart transplant. this ruined the movie for me. there was potential for an unconventional girl role model, esp for an elf girl, but traditional values(TM) won.

I might actually say, choose stuff to be interested in, then the audience will come. Doing it the other way around could lead to being trapped in a box, or an audience that is too small.

Thank you for this! I was deep in the tumblr discourse mines about shit like this to the point it makes me hesitant to hear what even other trans people have to say (even trans masc people!) about trans masc representation. Very thankful for this video! Radfeminism def has a lot to do with it imo, partially because people don't understand what radfeminism is and end up parroting a lot of their beliefs without realizing it, the "women are the most oppressed" being a huge part of that I still need to watch Dead End (cannot believe my side of tumblr wasn't going crazy for it) and this is another push for me to do so!

I'm someone who is FTM and I am comfortable representing myself as feminine and masculine yet I feel awful whenever people argue and debate about my existence and wish there was more rep I'm tired of being told that I'm a ''confused little girl'' by a transphobe I'm tired of being told that I'm faking my dysphoria by truscum or someone who is cis and thinks they are helping other trans people I'm tired of being told that I'm transitioning because I ''hate women'' by a terf it truly makes me afraid and upset because I feel like I'm not doing anything right and due to the lack of transgender male characters, I hc a lot of male characters I like as trans and sometimes the pain some of my favorite male characters have gone through somewhat sound like the pain of dysphoria and being forced into skin you hate and one day peeling out of it

This obviously isn't a movie or a show (I mean, it kind of is), but The Last of Us Part 2 has, in my opinion, good Trans Masc representation. One of the characters, a kid named Lev, is trans. It's not really a main plot, it's a bit complicated because it's a videogame so the storytelling is different, but Lev is an important supporting character. It's the apocalypse, so the situation is slightly different, I'm not trans myself, but I think it's done well. I'm really excited to see how they will handle that plot in the show! There is so much I can say about it. For example, something I love about all of the representation is that it is just a part of the characters, like, Lev being trans is kind of the reason our character meets Lev in the first place, but it isn't Lev's only trait. Lev feels like a real person, and not just a trans guy, if that makes sense. Also, Lev's voice actor is trans, and some of Lev's story is based off of them. Their name is Ian Alexander, and I think they are going to play Lev in the show too. I really love Lev. If anyone else has played The Last of Us Part 2 and has anything else to add, that would be great. You too play-through watchers. Sorry I ended up rambling a little bit, I just love Lev so much!!!

Tbh it's kinda true with all queer rep. Most of the time when there's any queer character at all, it's a woman (or femme presenting). Like, how many bisexual men other than Captain Jack Harkness can you think of in mainstream media? It's fucking maddening, and it's clearly the result of the fact that we still very much live in a very patriarchal and heteronormative society that's really only okay with queer people existing if they have the possibility to turn on the straight men who run the media.

Chiming in from the video game side of representation for a minute. There are a few games featuring trans men/transmasc characters, some even as main characters! Just to list a few: Damien Bloodmarch (Dream Daddy): that dad dating game. You can make your dadsona character trans by picking the binder bod option in the character creation menu but other than that, there aren't many explicit indicator of your character's transness. Damien is a goth trans dad. There's a small line in one of his routes that indicate he's trans and it isn't really mentioned outside of that line. (The line being that he likes to wear historically accurate binders) And while the game has not much voice lines (mainly grunts and gasps lol) his character is voiced by a trans guy. Krem (Dragon Age Inquisition): a side character and the right hand man of a playable (if i'm correct) companion character. Although voiced by a cis woman, I know many queer and trans fans see Krem as rather positive representation. While the player mainly has options to ask ignorant questions, the companion character will defend Krem and affirm his gender identity as a man. Lev (The Last of Us Part 2): Honestly, the first Asian transmasc character I could identify with. Lev is a young trans guy who escaped a Cult he was part of with his sister. The playable antagonist Abby saves him and together they travel around. She is respectful of his identity and never misgenders him. His story and character come with a content warning for transphobia (from the Cult) and TLoU-typical violence. The whole game is depressive, grime and violent and many characters suffer and Lev is no exception. However, he is the only trans character and his trauma/angst mainly stems from his transness. Lev is voiced by a trans actor. Tyler (Tell Me Why): the first playable trans male character in a leading role. Tyler's a young adult who returns to his hometown with his sister to unravel secrets from their past, surrounding the death of their mother. There's a side story that can lead to a gay romance with another male NPC. A big part of Tyler's story is connected to his trans identity but I felt his story was pretty relatable in some aspects. He is also voiced by a trans male voice actor.

It's always a shame to see potentially trans-masc characters watered down to "it's ok to be a masculine woman" like being trans isn't even an option. I've been watching Rose of Versailles lately and have around 6 episodes left. It seems like the protagonist, Lady Oscar, is able to continue playing a masculine role while coming to terms with the fact she's attracted to men. Despite using she/her, I think it's easy to read Oscar as being nonbinary. I have so many thoughts about this show, but I still have to finish it.

This makes me want to work on my one story more, bc two of the main-ish characters are a trans man and his "tomboy" girlfriend, and their relationship is very clearly written as a straight one. The story is historical and touches on a lot of era specific issues so I'm not fully equipped to write it yet, but it's basically a superhero origin story turned into a revenge plot as the MC realizes that her family's tragedy is directly connected to the same police organization she's been working for.

I'll join everyone else in the comments recommending different media and shout-out the oneshot manga called Stripping the Flesh, it's a coming out story with great representation and all of the characters genuinely feel real, tho it does have some body horror and nudity

I hc Andy (Raggedy Andy) being a trans man! It also comforts me with my own issues as a trans person (ftm)

if no one got me i know barney guttman got me!! anyway my fav transmasc charcater is raine from the owl house (they're transmasc nonbinary)

as someone who legally has to rec this show at every opportunity, while he is a side character, terry from the dragon prince is a trans man, and i think hes really good rep. he is on the villain side, but no one is transphobic to him. i think hes neat and i like him. hes also the only well adjusted person in the entire cast

transmasc enby (my gender is more specific than that but for simplicity-) here, and i needed to see this video. it feels like nobody has pointed this out so i'm happy to see this. thank you :)

Transmasculine erasure is so systematic it drives me up the wall. It's incredibly frustrating how much push-back there is to claiming "female" characters and figures that can easily be interpreted as transmasculine. It feels like reading a transmasculine narrative is framed as taking away from women's empowerment. The feminizing makeover scenes are so crushing to me.

The reason you see "tomboys" in the media but not equivalent characters for AMAB kids is because that archetype simply does not exist. The gender expression of "boys" is policed so strictly that it's essentially impossible in our society to make a character who both cis boys and trans girls could identify with, unless they're broad enough that trans boys and cis girls would also identify with them. Not to say this situation worse than how "girls" have it, just different: The tomboy trap is something I don't see talked about enough imo. The rhetoric of "oh you hate being treated as a girl? You hate wearing dresses and makeup? You hate boys coming onto you? That's just normal girl things we ALL experience that!" isolates a lot of transmasc people early from reaching out to other queer people by forcing them into a faux-solidarity with women who don't actually respect them. It's basically WHY Yoshino has a sad ending in Wandering Son, he doesn't have a transmasc role model or community in his life, just a whole bunch of people telling him being a "girl" is compatible with all the feelings he has and the presentation he wants for himself. Trans girls tend to face much more overt abuse for exploring gender but ironically are validated that yes she is in fact not a boy by the very same abusers, as cis masculinity is a test of worth to be passed or failed, rather than a cage to be locked in like cis femininity. Also my rec for good transmasc representation in the media is the absolutely fantastic queer manga "Our Dreams At Dusk". One of the many queer mentors for the cis gay main character is a trans man, and he's wonderfully refreshing in how assured he is of who he is and his position to give advice to others. That kind of role model role is more than any other sorely lacking among trans representation in general because the "mentor" is a self-assured paternal role, not a scared victim role, and none of us are actually seen as "real men" by cis society. It's almost exclusively an archetype in fiction occupied by cis men only. content warning for Our Dreams At Dusk it features quite a bit of explicit homophobia, especially in the first chapter, implicit transphobia and misgendering when the trans man takes center stage in the story, and also it's kind of the reverse of Wandering Son because the transfeminine character is the one who ends up depressed and desisting due to all the pressures they face for daring to experiment with their gender. Edit: Our Dreams At Dusk also prominently features one of the only agender characters I've ever seen who isn't given some kind of fantasy or sci fi reason for why they're agender (although through the eyes of the main character they do look magic at first that's just because he's so impressed by seeing someone obviously flouting gender conventions for the first time lol). Also the author is trans, identifying as xgender.

Yk it’s ass that there’s legit no FTM/Tmasc characters but HEADCANONS!!! OMG TRANS HEADCANONS AND IF PPL GET PISSED IDGAF BECAUSE THERE’S NO TRANS MEN