Fun fact, they also use the neutral pronoun "Iel" in French for Raine Whispers, I almost screamed when I heard it since the pronoun is still new and not common in French. It's even the subject of polemics from the far right, so I really did not expect Disney to use it, but I was (and still am) very glad that they did, maybe it will help normalize the pronoun 🤞
That's so cool ! I'm French and I was wondering about what pronouns they were using for Raine in French but I never checked it out. Awesome to hear they're using "iel". :D
I started watching Owl House because of the bisexual representation, but because of lack of time I didn’t continue. Now I hear about this non-binary representation, and as genderfluid I’m really concerned I didn’t know that before. Im definitely continue watching it and hope they un-cancel the show.
raine is such a great character. not just bc theyre nonbinary, though that was so amazing to see, but theyre actually integral to everything going down in the second season. also avi gives a phenomenal performance. they give raine so much charm
Dana said that at this point there won't be another season of the show 💔 However, she said that there might be a chance of getting comics or a spin off for example
animator here. they will not un-cancel the show, unfortunately. it’s way too far into s3 production to do so (it was cancelled during the s2 hiatus). the best we can ask for is spin-offs (highly unlikely) or comics, but disney tends to fuck those up without direct creator involvement. there’s a reason alex hirsch was so adamant about not allowing disney to do anything more with gravity falls post finale
The Owl House really means the world to me. I wish I had this show when I was a confused youngster. I can’t imagine how my life would be different if I had seen a transmasc character on television as a kid. Even as an adult, this show is so good that it reminds me why I wanted to be a writer in the first place… and Disney’s cancellation of it has reminded me why I never want to work with major companies.
I wish I had Steven Universe as a kid, Spinel helped me understand how I had BPD and struggled with my sexuality, antagonising everyone due to the suffering I put on myself
I'm a cast member at Animal Kingdom in a VERY guest facing role. I wear heart-shaped earrings with the trans flag on them every single day. I have the full support of my leadership. Guests have been very vocal about how much they like seeing them. I do have a trans flag Mickey pin, but I'm not allowed to wear it. Only American flag pins are allowed to be worn on our costumes. That's the case across all Disney property. But my manager said I would be welcome to wear my pride pin on a necklace. In my department (Animal Trails) the leadership is incredibly enthusiastic about visibly supporting LGBT cast and guests, with several of us identifying as trans and/or non-binary. It seems while some locations are all-out with the allyship, others haven't got the memo from upper level management. Official policy is that non-binary cast are to be supported and accommodated, but when my spouse did their onboarding, they weren't allowed to request a name tag with their chosen name. Everyone they've told about it since that day has said they should have been allowed to, and they've already ordered a new name tag at their location (Housekeeping) but apparently that HR cast member went against policy for whatever reason.
I think it's so cool that Raine is a HUMAN nonbinary character. Technically they're a witch, but the only difference is their ears. It's really cool. TOH also has The Collector using he/they pronouns which is pretty cool! There's also lesbian, bisexual and aromantic characters in the show. Love it!
Same! For all the wins representation through characters like Double Trouble brought, it's nice to see nb characters that are actually human. (Or, well, a witch, but as is the vast majority of the cast, and as you said they're nearly identical to humans.)
@@seekingabsolution1907 a very minor correction/opinion: I think it may be better to say that witches and humans have a bimodal *sex* distribution. Gender is different from sex, and it's varied enough that I'm not sure even bimodality describes it, since it doesn't revolve around two "modes" like sex does.
Yes! It's great to have representation but it completely sends the opposite message when that character is a monster or an alien or any number of "not like us" being or creature! I've had this issue with little people in film too! You rarely see little people actors playing canonical humans! Especially in fantasies where they're considered an entirely separate race of creature when "man" is one of the options. I'm looking at you LOTR! But yeah stop "creature casting" people!
I’m so happy you talked about the owl house. It’s such a great show and while it has great representation it also has an amazing story, memorable characters, and and a pretty good score for a tv show. I have tiny issues here and there with the show but overall it’s amazing and it’s really helped with my queer journey since it came out a little over a year before I came out.
@@AdbotsStuff well one of them is with the way Luz is designed. Dana said that she’s supposed to be Afro Latina but her actual design doesn’t really show any indication that she’s black aside from being dark skinned. I highly recommend watching harriyana hook’s video “y’all don’t care about black stories” for more info on that
@@itmecatalina ahh okay. I’ll be sure to check it out! Edit: I finished the video and it included some great points and made me think about the kind of media I want to create. Thank you for recommending it to me!
As a HUGE fan of The Owl House (and a nonbinary person myself) I had a really, really pleasent surprise when I realized that one of my favorite channels released a video that had Raine Whispers as one of its main topics. Thank you so much, Marlene and John! 🥰 P.S Have you seen the latest episode of TOH, "King's Tide"? It was amazing! It introduced the physical form one of my favorite characters, the fun-loving, reality-warping cinnamon roll known as The Collector! 🤩 They (who are my current pfp) use he/they pronouns, and, given their confirmed status as a Child of the Stars, they're probably (cis) nonbinary.
@@muppetvision Yep, it sure does! I really hope that King/Luz/anyone who isn't evil manages to befriend The Collector and calm him down. If they end up having to reseal or banish him, I'll get VERY sad... 😢
When Raine was first introduced, I immediately saw bits of myself in them. I may not be a musician, but I’m an artist, and Raine’s personality is quite similar to mine (if I had to go into specifics, I’m a pretty good blend of Raine/Luz/Amity for personality) but as a non binary person, I’m so thankful that Dana and the crew was able to bring Raine into the cast. Happy pride month everyone 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
keep in mind too that disney doesn’t really market the owl house *at all*. it’s still decently popular from pretty much word of mouth and that’s crazy to me. I could ramble all day about how toh doesn’t fit “the disney look” either, both in its queerness and in its horror aspects, but that’d be a really long comment to put you through. I’ll just say raine is the character that helped me finally feel okay saying I’m nonbinary, and medically transitioning specifically. I’ll forever be grateful to dana and avi for bringing them to life :)
I thought It was weird that when I looked on the pride selection I could only find it on the episodes featuring queer characters section and nobe of the other ones like not the from queer creators or anything
I didn't even know that they canceled Owl House. I had heard about it before, but thought it was just a rumor. I really hope they bring it back. Not only is it great that it has so much queen representation, but it's just an overall funny and creative show. I started watching it from a recommendation, mostly because the main character is Latina like me.
Sadly, given how long the "cancelation" was in effect, it's unlikely for it to be undone. See, Season 2 was split in half; the first half dropped onto Disney+ in like late 2021, and most of the second half just dropped like a month or two ago. Hell, there are a couple episodes of the second season that have aired on TV but were not on Disney+ the last time I checked. The decision to shorten S3 into a couple "long episodes" and then cancel "The Owl House" was made either while S.2A was airing on TV or else shortly after it dropped onto Disney+. ---- So, the decision to cancel "The Owl House" came while the second season was still being animated. At the right time that people who hear it is canceled would finish the show's available episodes, see the news, and by the time January rolled around would have forgotten the show still has episodes left for the current season. Disney DESIGNED the release of "The Owl House" Season 2 such that it would fall into obscurity and fail to meet viewer quotas. As such, we're lucky that Disney decided to be "nice" with what might be considered "Season 3" given any sort of greenlight. ----- (Also, there's the possibility that Disney canceled "The Owl House" because of the queer representation. But that would be silly to openly suggest. Instead I'll just casually allude to Disney's prior political donations and such to politicians who are anti-LGBT as an indication that maybe Disney isn't exactly queer-friendly.)
@@onijester56 Oh I hadn't even thought of that. That's so depressing (...and also kinda funny because oh my god we care so much more about this show now after season 2b that did not work At All)
As a cast member I'm kind of surprised Disney hasn't publicly discussed the new 5th key for guest service that was introduced last year. Many Disney fans know that cast members have always followed the "Four Keys": Safety, Courtesy, Efficiency, and Show. The new 5th Key is "Inclusion." It's meant to be it's own key, but to also be applied to all four of the other keys. For example, to apply Inclusion to Safety, we're required to ensure all guests feel they have a safe space to be themselves at Disney. Inclusion is slowly but surely touching every part of the company. Disney Look in the parks has already shifted even more to make sure non-binary cast are comfortable. New Disney content will be more overtly inclusive of minorities, especially LGBT+ folks. It seems they should have made a pretty loud statement about the 5th key if they wanted to show LGBT+ Disney Fans they're doing more than just lip service. It's not exactly meant to be a secret. They drill it into us pretty hard with extra trainings and department meetings.
I appreciate the CMs perspective. I did initially send you an email asking more about what information you wanted, but had some medical emergencies recently that prevented me from responding in a timely manner. Ultimately, I agree that the sentiment of "It depends on your area management" is true. I've generally had positive experiences, but I know that isn't always the case. And sadly, NB Cast Members seem to be treated better than most trans women CMs, from what I've noticed. I've heard lots of complaints from my trans girl friends about their treatment. I urge you to do a deep dive on just Cast Members and publishing their stories anonymously. People should know what goes on.
I'm sorry to hear about the medical emergencies, I hope things have gotten better since then. I also appreciate you reaching out in the first place. I have been wanting to make a video about internal things for a while, but assumed that it would always just be speculation as someone on the outside looking in. I think I also underestimated how many CMs watch my content, so I was very surprised by the amount of responses I got and it has inspired me to maybe return to similar subjects in the future. Who knows, maybe a future video analysis similar to this one can be a way to help CMs air their real experiences anonymously without the worry of it being attached to their names.
I cried really hard the first time I saw Raine in the show. I'm a young enby who almost never gets gendered correctly in any circumstance, so seeing they/them pronouns be used effortlessly and seamlessly in a Disney property of all things really blew me away. On top of that, Raine is an _older_ non-binary person who's allowed to be in love. There's been so many times in my life where I couldn't see myself growing old, couldn't see myself being loved by someone, so seeing Raine with their crows feet and graying hair and smile lines shows me that it's possible for me to have the future I want for myself.
I went to Magic Kingdom at Disney World pretty recently. There was a cast member checking to make sure the crowd was behind the safety line before the parade got there. I noticed they were wearing a bi pin above their name tag. I said "I like your pin," and they smiled and said "Thanks. Happy Pride." Also, I love The Owl House!
6:35 i wish it could but dana said extensively that only thing we might get is a spin off or comics or novels but the execs made it adamant that they don't want a new season of owl house which is terrible news
If you haven’t, I would recommend watching Dead End: Paranormal Park. It’s a fabulous show with good characters, and has really wonderful representation, including a trans main character, and they don’t shy away from talking about non-accepting family members while not letting that take over. It’s a pretty short series on Netflix, and it’s worth checking out
Not to mention in the spanish dub (latin america) the team of dub was a mess, first they changed Raine's pronouns to he/him (because spanish uses gender in many words and even if there's the proposal of using "elle" as an alternative of "él" or "ella", many people are against it), also they changed the name from Raine Whispers to Reinaldo. And there's more but yeah, they deleted the non-binary identity from Raine.
As a bearded feminine person... Im outraged at disneys dress code tho not that shocked by it. Ill pt out that Walmart tried no such thing and that place had many workers who were openly transphobic towards me and it was otherwise shitty towards me for how i dressed... But still the dress code officially let me wear what i wanted regardless of gender, and not just bcuz state law required such. I wudve been pissed if someone had tried to insist i needed to shave to be allowed to wear a dress.
About the Dream and Shine Brighter celebration! I was there just earlier this week, and during the show, one of the (male) dancers got the mad hatter to give him a hand kiss, it was the cutest thing and he looked super proud of himself after that. I wish i had been filming it, but since it was my third time watching the show i hadn't bothered to record it that time :( but still. i saw you, cast member.
i started watching the owl hpuse right when it came out, and have been watching it since, and have gotten my partner into it along with me and now we are both devistated bc all we have left to watch is the 3rd season and we have. absolutely no idea how thats gonna go. im slightly glad that disney decided to cancel it a bit earlier because this gives the creators more time to really like, write out what theyre gonna do with the story and such instead of feeling SUPER rushed n all. it just sucks though that this show that means so much to me is getting less content because it doesnt fit the "disney brand" :(
I find it annoying that Disney just doesn't give that much attention to their animated shows anymore. Ducktales '17 had a merchandising presence, as brief as it was, but Amphibia, Big City Greens, and Owl House are screaming for t-shirts and Funkos and plushies. I know there are very obvious reasons why Owl House does not "fit the brand" but maybe if they released merch of that show, they'd make enough bank to look the other way. The show speaks to a lot of people, and those lot of people would gladly throw money their way. Whatever. They're probably going to spend whatever the budget a full third season would be on some other throwaway, forgettable preschool series ( Dino Ranch? Alice's Wonderland Bakery? Really?!) or yet another season of Bunk'd.
The lack of merchandise for their shows is so odd to me. The money's right there. Have they not seen how much stuff other people are making and selling? It's like at one point the only official thing you could get for Star Vs the Forces of Evil was a Hot Topic shirt, but head on over to eBay and you'd find a whole bunch of factory produced Star Butterfly costumes. Now we've got the Mystery Shack selling all sorts of unofficial merch for their shows. I've seen at least two different plush designers (excluding whoever does the designs for Mystery Shack) getting factory runs of their Amphibia plushes. Meanwhile Disney themselves are doing basically nothing.
@@wendyheatherwood Star Vs at least had Funkos, as did Gravity Falls. Ducktales '17 had a Target exclusive action figure line that they rushed off the shelves before we could get a second wave. There was frustratingly even a Pickle and Peanut vinyl figure set for some reason. The best Owl House, Big City Greens, and Amphibia have are print on demand T-shirts through amazon. HT would be the prime place for Owl and Amphibia stuff, even if it's just shirts and accessories, but the lack of Greens on toy shelves is baffling, considering how much of a presence it has on the Disney Channel.
@@mightyfilm Oh yeah, the Funkos were something at least but even then they didn't come out until a few months before the show finished. Disney are just ridiculously bad at handling their animated shows these days.
That's true, but since the character isn't referred to as non-binary and there's no documentation of that being the explicit intent, I don't really consider them the first canonical non-binary character (which is what I consider Raine). Even when I talk about old characters and queercoding, usually I have a quote or something from the creators saying they were meant to be portrayed as gay or queer. I think Zoit is interesting in that there is a clear non-binary reading of their story and I'll be talking about them in a future video :)
@@DreamsoundsVideo ooh! I'm looking forward to it! I still remember the first time seeing that episode (while I was dealing with severe homophobia) and while I wasn't a big fan of the show in general, that episode made an impact on me.
i was watching the owl house from the beginning (bc i’m a big dumb cartoon nerd) and the moment raine was introduced i FREAKED OUT??? like, non-binary rep?? nblw rep?? in a cartoon??? i felt seen! they were treated normally like the rest of the cast, with correct pronouns and 0 questions! it was just an amazing feeling and i’m super happy you’re talking about them and TOH as a whole :-D
The Owl house is my favourite show, the music, storytelling, worldbuilding, writing, characters, representation, literally everything, I love it so much, it's such a great show
I remember for the longest time being queerphobic, only growing out of it once my younger sister came out as queer. So Disney...y'all are just having the mindsets of a literal child? Queer people exist and deserve to be seen!
I decided to watch this show because I saw it was getting cancelled, but I was so shocked to see how great the representation is. I was half expecting for someone to bully Lumity for being together, but it was so refreshing to see such a “taboo” topic to be normalized
In The Boiling Isles, there is no homophobia-a lot of the prejudices at Boiling Isles are simply not related to it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Belos was, given the timeframe he came from. However since everyone else isn’t like that, he likely wouldn’t share that particular opinion with anyone at BO.
1. That was a great video! 2. The logic for the shaved head thing leads somewhere weird. So…if a person who typically wears feminine-presenting clothes shaves their head because they have alopecia or are in treatment for cancer and they’ll lose their hair anyway, they have to…wear the masculine-looking uniform or invest in a wig? That’s probably not ADA-compliant, if that’s in the United States.
Raine is one of my favorite characters. When I first heard Eda say "they" in reference to Raine I nearly cried. It made me so happy to see a character that represented me. And one using a name that I had been considering using was a wonderful surprise as well!
See, Raine was introduced in a short flashback/memory scene and I didn't even catch pronouns being presented. But then Raine came back in Season 2 as a side-character, and I waited in anticipation for Disney to flub and reference Raine with either "He" or "She". And every instance that Raine has been on-screen, referred to explicitly with "They" and solely "They", has given me joy unfathomable. Like, Luz is my favorite character. And King is a close second. But Raine is a definite Top Five.
I'm nonbinary, an animation student, and a cast member at Disneyland- so this stuff takes up an inordinate amount of my brain at all times, and I'm really glad to hear someone coming from this perspective :} Thank you for the lovely video 💗
Hi thank you for covering this topic. The Owl House is a great show and has many different queer characters. I enjoy the character The Collector and they use he/they pronouns just like me and it helps me feel validated 😳
Who are these people who don't know about our precious Raine Whispers? I will find them! On a side note, the way you phrased 'Terrace stands with the LGBTQ community' kinda makes it sound like Terrace is an ally instead of a member. She's bi, just in case others didn't know.
I do want to "quickly" point out how complex and confusing gender can be in German. I mean as far as the people who speak German that I know, they tend to use I/Ich or Mein/meine for themselves depending on the context but a lot of non binary Germans use the 'opposite' pronouns for themselves (For example, if they are MAAB they'd use female pronouns) and from my understanding, (which is sadly more limited than I'd like) neologisms is far harder to introduce into German. In English you'd need at most five new forms since English gender is restricted to personal pronouns, possessives and reflexive pronouns. But.. in German, gender shows up on personal pronouns. And relative pronouns that agree with the referent. And demonstratives. And possessive pronouns. And possessive determiners, that are not always identical to possessive pronouns. And all possessive forms agree in gender and number with the possessor and the possessed so you need all the possible cross-combinations for any possible gender and number for the possessor and the possessed. Gender shows up on definite articles and indefinite articles. It shows up on adnominal adjectives except for the weak inflection. And all these forms are inflected by case, therefore you need to multiply the number of new forms you need by four! You can't just add a few forms into German, you have to introduce an entire grammatical gender, which tends to be a lot for people to memorize. To add onto this - making neologisms actually fit into the structure of German is another massive pain. For examples sake, if inflectional suffixes have a vowel other than schwa or if they end in an obstruent they sound horribly unnatural. But you really don't have a ton of choices to coin new forms that aren't homophones to already existing forms (if) you stay in the limits of German. TLDR; There are a lot of reasons why you would stay far away from neologisms and why you would choose a grammatical gender that has established pre-existing forms. And some people actually do this. I don’t know how common this is overall, but I’ve come across a few such people. It’s not so unusual. (A lot of this is what you've already said with a lot more text, but I do feel like greater even if admittedly minimal.. elaboration is helpful for understanding why the choice was made. I've also just realized I'm becoming one of the text wall people....)
This has nothing to do with the video but alot of people say the The Owl House is inspired by Harry Potter but alot of the characters, plot points, and creacher design feel more like Far Scape and God Emperor of Dune.
I’m so happy to see you finally talk about The Owl House! It seems like anytime someone on the LGBTQA+ spectrum discusses Disney’s approaches to queer representation, they always leave it out. It’s not just the representation that makes me happy, it’s the fact that the characters in and of itself are amazing, some of the best I’ve ever seen in a show. I was heartbroken to hear its third season was being whittled down to three short tv films. I don’t know if it’s too late to change that, but Dana Terrace said that she wants to expand on the world of the show through spin-offs and comics and such, so I’m certainly going to keep supporting it however I can.
I love the owl house, but I don't think anything we do is gonna change the show being cancelled. I wouldn't be shocked if they've already finished the final episodes by now.
i must say i loved it when you talked about the disney look- my dad is a disney employee at our local disneyland, and it was so fascinating to almost be a part of the conversation as he would talk to me about the developments on the "disney look". I recently attended a pride parade with him for disney and I was so grateful to see how disney has evolved to becoming way more inclusive!!
Dana said that at this point they can't uncancel the show and we can't change that, but by supporting the show the best we can, we could have spin offs and comics
Something you quoted in a previous video applies to me here. Something the the effect of, "I couldn't realize I was trans until I knew trans people." Well, I couldn't realize I was genderqueer (agender) until I met and became friends with someone who was non-binary AND saw Raine Whispers in The Owl House. Their inclusion made me so excited and I had to explore that excitement more before I could realize how I've felt all along.
The german dub from The Owl House had fixed Raine's pronouns to xier/xiem by the second time they showed up and later the older episodes with Raine got fixed as well! :D I was positively surprised!
dana said that season three of the owl house cannot be extended because it is too far into production. however, there is still a chance for a spinoff or comics etc
Oh, that’s unfortunate. I hope that there are other opportunities for her to work in The Owl House universe, as it is really one of the best shows to come out of Disney in a long time imo
Regarding the "there are still many options they could've used for gender neutral pronouns in the German version" There is a first for everything and this could very well be it, but the thing is, I'm german and I never even heard about most of these pronouns, only the standard er, sie, es. Also I think it would've been a bit more difficult to make the pronouns you present here really align with german grammar, because they are so unheard of. I don't want to come with the "how am I going to explain it to my children" argument but in this case, when very likely not even the parents know what's going on they can't really explain it that well (I mean the word/the pronoun that would've been used) I know for every problem here probably exists a solution but I think germany in general isn't really ready to integrate a new pronoun, that they heard the first time in a TV show, into their language yet (especially because we're just now really beginning to use gender invlusive language (extremely many people make fun of gender invlusive language here) and our language is one of the few completely r/ pointlessly gendered ones). I feel sorry for sort of making excuses for Germany here, I also really wish we had gender neutral pronouns besides "es" which means "it", but I think it couldn't have really worked, or at least not very well if we look realistically at it.
Definitely, my experience is also informed by me being someone who moved to Germany as an adult with English as my first language and who learned German as my second. I think neopronouns and non-binary pronouns are more complicated in German than they are in English (I responded to another comment with a more detailed breakdown into that), but it is interesting that languages with similar discussions (like French) have translations that use neopronouns that aren’t as mainstream as they/them is in English, which makes me think it is possible for German and why I listed all those options even though not many of them are in wide circulation. I personally don’t think that it’s unrealistic, as linguistic shifts like that take effort and time, but anything is possible if enough people want it. They/them in English was at a similar place 10 years ago and now it’s commonplace in many parts of the US
@@DreamsoundsVideo I do hope that we will start talking about integrating a new gender neutral pronoun into the german language soon. I mean for example, non-binary is a ...how do I say that.. I guess ...by the government validated gender to have (??) here (Bei uns wird das dritte Geschlecht anerkannt, man gilt dann als divers, das wollte ich sagen. Ich bin nicht so gut mit Fachbegriffen). I guess if they would talk about it in the news that would be a first step.
If you’re German how do you feel about „das Gendern“? I think it has good intentions not making male the default, but I feel like it is making the language MORE pointlessly gendered when I think it should be less gendered and thus excludes nb people. Technically nb people are included in the Gender*sternchen, but you literally don’t use this symbol in German anywhere else, so it looks very out of place. Also the pronunciation sounds whack too. I don’t understand how academics put so much emphasis on that, but nobody talks about implementing gender neutral pronouns, something that the German language could really use.
@@DreamsoundsVideo Hi, remember me? Guess what, they actually used gender neutral pronouns for Raine in the german version (I think... like I said, they're not very common here). I didn't really get what they tried to do at first, but thanks to this conversation we had, I managed to figure it out pretty quickly.
The Owl House means the WORLD to me and I'm so sad to see it go. I wish I had it when I was younger like I did with Steven Universe (Kind of, I was maybe 8 when it came out)
i got so excited to see this video once i saw it in my sub-box ♡ thanks so much for creating and polishing such a fascinating piece; there was so much i was unaware of that was featured here!!
The thing is that disney has been doing a lot when it comes to supporting although while with major major backlash from the right calling them “woke” and stuff. 1. They just starting to commit to stop saying, “boys and girls” in their parks. 2. in the Buzz Lightyear movie, there was a 0.4s shot of 2 women kissing, once again backlash. it’s weird for them to try to side with both yet failing for both of them 🚶♀️
When I watched this show with captions on they would refer to the character as 'he'. I'm glad I'm not dead so I could recognize that was inaccurate but I am a bit concerned for people who are and get mislead. Unless they fixed the captions.
Wait, I think that's a little harsh on the Jungle Cruise scene. Like, he says 'elsewhere' but that's not because the writers were afraid to say gay, he was speaking in euphemism because it was how he learned to survive at that time. He's a man who was gay and made to feel utterly ashamed of it. Like, sure, we aren't talking about the most earth shattering rep, but I still feel like it was at least positive.
I understand the historical context of that, but the way it was marketed as an important gay moment implies that it at least says he is gay or some type of queerness that deviates from cisheteronormative society. “Elsewhere“ doesn’t even mean he is gay, it could mean many other things that don’t relate to sexuality. That’s fine, the character doesn’t have to be gay, but it was specifically marketed as such and that is what makes it just a bit frustrating. Not the biggest issue in the world, but in the context of this discussion it has significance. If there has ever been an openly direct character maybe it would be different, but without that it still feels like trying to do two things at once (please the gays while not actually being explicit about it in a way that might upset other people)
2:16 someone correct me, but wouldn't the conjugation for both female singular and third person plural (they) be the same in this case? (as both female singular and third person plural is "sie" in deutsch?)
I think that might have been the intention, but the third person plural sie is not standardized in the singular as “they” is in English. There are some people who advocate for a standardized sie to refer to everyone instead of having gendered pronouns, but some people aren’t comfortable with that. This also has a relevance in feminism, but in this context similarly, some advocate for just a single “er” for all genders, but that has the same issue. Back when I identified as non-binary, I used sie as a pronoun because usage wise that was the closest to they/them because of the plural option, even though most people I spoke to wouldn’t think of it that way. However, in most situations it was still helpful because of how it is also she, so in most situations I avoided a conversation about grammar (or being chastised for supposedly not knowing the language) by just using sie. Then the onus isn’t put on me to explain the grammatical nuance of neopronouns, but to encourage the other person to change their perspective of me, because any reluctance to use sie doesn’t come from grammar “concerns”, but from how they read my gender. When I have non-binary friends visit, I usually explain this to them when they arrive and they usually opt for me to just use the “opposite” gender pronoun from their AGAB in the same way. Sorry for the long response, but wanted to answer thoroughly. Non-binary pronouns are a much larger discussion in German largely due to the fact that there has yet to be a standardized one or way of dealing with gendered pronouns. Thankfully, though, there are standardized versions of gender neutral language gaining notoriety, such as * and : (so for “Artist”, masculine Künstler, feminine Künstlerinnen, gender neutral Künstler*innen). There is also the term “divers” which you can see on many job advertisements and signs throughout Germany - it is a gender option that was created mainly for intersex people and still functions that way legally, but it has a growing non-binary context as well.
@@DreamsoundsVideo no worries, I'm grateful for your answer. as a person whose native tongue is also quite gendered I can somewhat relate. though I doubt that my country will try to standardise gender neutral language any time soon
@@ntazzy6326 I'm sorry to hear that, it is so complicated with linguistic gender being tied to cultural gender. It definitely was interesting as someone whose first language was English to learn German and see the many differences for describing non-binary experience.
@@DreamsoundsVideo I mean it kind of is standardized but only in formal exchanges, conversations, letters, interviews, also I think when you are at court sometimes. When you 'Siez' someone, it's just very formal. So it's definitely not like they in english. Just wanted to point that out. Though I agree with the points made above. Also sorry for replying to a conversation that's like two weeks old.
I am brazilian, and mostly watch the owl house in portuguese, but I always get a bit frustrated, since Raine gets misgendered the whole series. They are only referred by the use of the equivalents of he/him prounouns. I didn't know the person who's Edric was going on a date with used they/them prounouns either, since the brazilian voice acting just translated it to she/her. It's just awlful to see how Brazil is ignorant, terrible and disrespectful towards trans people.
I'm so happy that there are gonna be kids growing up, with this show. I remember when it was a HUGE deal for me, when during the finale of The Legend of Korra, Asami and Korra held hands while walking into the portal -- it later being confirmed that it was out of romantic intent. I was a teenager then and had only grown up with shows that used queercoded characters as either villains, or a punchline. But The Owl House? It's explicit and it's normalized and it's shown to be healthy & good! I get clowned on as an adult sometimes, since I still watch cartoons; but perhaps it says something about the world we live in, when the best rep in the past several years, has come from "kids programing." On a side note, Raine is legit one of my favorite characters of all time; not cause they are like me, but because they are just an amazing character. Raine's dedication to Eda is just awe-inspiring and beautifully tragic. They are also a huge, bashful dork, while still somehow being badass.
I loved this representation but as a Hispanic viewer I’m just wondering what pronouns they use for the Spanish dub since lots of people get angry when non-binary people try to make they/them pronouns for languages that don’t have gender neutral pronouns now that I’ve heard that sometimes any newer they/them pronouns aren’t used
I feel like one excuse for the German translation thing might be that they were either using the she/her to refer to a person (as die Person is grammatically feminine) or they might have used it in a similar manner to they/them since the third person plural is exactly the same as she/her. Regardless it sucks that German doesn't have gender neutral pronouns like English or other languages. Those excuses sound fancy but in the end they will always feel like misgendering.
If you're interested, there's another comment on this video that asked about the German specifics and I wrote a much longer comment about my interpretation of the translation
@@DreamsoundsVideo I've seen it. It's really interesting and I especially appreciated the fact that this was from the perspective of someone who doesn't have German as a native language. It really made me think about my own personal hatred against German pronouns.
It's sad that finally we get a Non-Binary Human character but nobody talks about it or brings it to the spotlight via Disney posts or anything. Now that hearing Owl House will be canceled is very bothersome and hypocritical of what kind of brand they're trying to advertise to people.
2:04 This really was confusing for a lot of people. People thought that it was referring to multiple people and not used to reference a singular person.
I mean, the simple answer is I did not prefer how my voice was. Please understand that I feel more comfortable speaking now than I ever did. EDIT: I was responding to the original comment which was more critical of my new voice
Happy pride!!🏳🌈What are you doing to celebrate?
The people that came before me 🏳️🌈💖
This will be my first pride :3 I’m going with my partner and some friends to Mexico’s city event :3 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
@@Jimmyvida That is awesome!!! Hope you have fun!!!
Hanging out with my friends.
Just hanging out my bi flag out the window and talking to friends
Fun fact, they also use the neutral pronoun "Iel" in French for Raine Whispers, I almost screamed when I heard it since the pronoun is still new and not common in French. It's even the subject of polemics from the far right, so I really did not expect Disney to use it, but I was (and still am) very glad that they did, maybe it will help normalize the pronoun 🤞
That's so cool ! I'm French and I was wondering about what pronouns they were using for Raine in French but I never checked it out. Awesome to hear they're using "iel". :D
That's awesome!! Thank you for telling me
Oh French has a new gender neutral pronoun? I support! Maybe I should use the French language more again.
It's a real word now?
@@DeadMeat991 yeah!
I started watching Owl House because of the bisexual representation, but because of lack of time I didn’t continue. Now I hear about this non-binary representation, and as genderfluid I’m really concerned I didn’t know that before. Im definitely continue watching it and hope they un-cancel the show.
I really hope they un-cancel the show as well. Even beyond the wonderful representation, The Owl House is a great show and it deserves a longer run
I definitely recommend catching up with it. The season finale was crazy (in a good way)!
raine is such a great character. not just bc theyre nonbinary, though that was so amazing to see, but theyre actually integral to everything going down in the second season. also avi gives a phenomenal performance. they give raine so much charm
Dana said that at this point there won't be another season of the show 💔
However, she said that there might be a chance of getting comics or a spin off for example
animator here. they will not un-cancel the show, unfortunately. it’s way too far into s3 production to do so (it was cancelled during the s2 hiatus). the best we can ask for is spin-offs (highly unlikely) or comics, but disney tends to fuck those up without direct creator involvement. there’s a reason alex hirsch was so adamant about not allowing disney to do anything more with gravity falls post finale
The Owl House really means the world to me. I wish I had this show when I was a confused youngster. I can’t imagine how my life would be different if I had seen a transmasc character on television as a kid.
Even as an adult, this show is so good that it reminds me why I wanted to be a writer in the first place… and Disney’s cancellation of it has reminded me why I never want to work with major companies.
Same! I'm so glad kids today get to see it as an example. And they've got a great name.
I wish I had Steven Universe as a kid, Spinel helped me understand how I had BPD and struggled with my sexuality, antagonising everyone due to the suffering I put on myself
I'm a cast member at Animal Kingdom in a VERY guest facing role. I wear heart-shaped earrings with the trans flag on them every single day. I have the full support of my leadership. Guests have been very vocal about how much they like seeing them. I do have a trans flag Mickey pin, but I'm not allowed to wear it. Only American flag pins are allowed to be worn on our costumes. That's the case across all Disney property. But my manager said I would be welcome to wear my pride pin on a necklace. In my department (Animal Trails) the leadership is incredibly enthusiastic about visibly supporting LGBT cast and guests, with several of us identifying as trans and/or non-binary.
It seems while some locations are all-out with the allyship, others haven't got the memo from upper level management. Official policy is that non-binary cast are to be supported and accommodated, but when my spouse did their onboarding, they weren't allowed to request a name tag with their chosen name. Everyone they've told about it since that day has said they should have been allowed to, and they've already ordered a new name tag at their location (Housekeeping) but apparently that HR cast member went against policy for whatever reason.
I think it's so cool that Raine is a HUMAN nonbinary character. Technically they're a witch, but the only difference is their ears. It's really cool. TOH also has The Collector using he/they pronouns which is pretty cool! There's also lesbian, bisexual and aromantic characters in the show. Love it!
Same! For all the wins representation through characters like Double Trouble brought, it's nice to see nb characters that are actually human. (Or, well, a witch, but as is the vast majority of the cast, and as you said they're nearly identical to humans.)
It's significant because witches *do* have a bimodal gender distribution like humans.
@@seekingabsolution1907 a very minor correction/opinion: I think it may be better to say that witches and humans have a bimodal *sex* distribution. Gender is different from sex, and it's varied enough that I'm not sure even bimodality describes it, since it doesn't revolve around two "modes" like sex does.
Yes! It's great to have representation but it completely sends the opposite message when that character is a monster or an alien or any number of "not like us" being or creature! I've had this issue with little people in film too! You rarely see little people actors playing canonical humans! Especially in fantasies where they're considered an entirely separate race of creature when "man" is one of the options. I'm looking at you LOTR! But yeah stop "creature casting" people!
I live for characters who use one or more pronouns with They (They/he,They/she, They/xe)
It was very comforting how LGBTQIA characters are vary normalized in this world.
I’m so happy you talked about the owl house. It’s such a great show and while it has great representation it also has an amazing story, memorable characters, and and a pretty good score for a tv show. I have tiny issues here and there with the show but overall it’s amazing and it’s really helped with my queer journey since it came out a little over a year before I came out.
As someone who also adores the show, I’m interested in hearing your critiques of it, regardless of how minuscule they may be
@@AdbotsStuff well one of them is with the way Luz is designed. Dana said that she’s supposed to be Afro Latina but her actual design doesn’t really show any indication that she’s black aside from being dark skinned. I highly recommend watching harriyana hook’s video “y’all don’t care about black stories” for more info on that
@@itmecatalina ahh okay. I’ll be sure to check it out!
Edit: I finished the video and it included some great points and made me think about the kind of media I want to create. Thank you for recommending it to me!
As a HUGE fan of The Owl House (and a nonbinary person myself) I had a really, really pleasent surprise when I realized that one of my favorite channels released a video that had Raine Whispers as one of its main topics. Thank you so much, Marlene and John! 🥰
P.S Have you seen the latest episode of TOH, "King's Tide"? It was amazing! It introduced the physical form one of my favorite characters, the fun-loving, reality-warping cinnamon roll known as The Collector! 🤩 They (who are my current pfp) use he/they pronouns, and, given their confirmed status as a Child of the Stars, they're probably (cis) nonbinary.
i really love that currently, the fate of the boiling isles sits in the grubby hands of two children (one a titian and the other the collector)
@@muppetvision Yep, it sure does! I really hope that King/Luz/anyone who isn't evil manages to befriend The Collector and calm him down. If they end up having to reseal or banish him, I'll get VERY sad... 😢
When Raine was first introduced, I immediately saw bits of myself in them. I may not be a musician, but I’m an artist, and Raine’s personality is quite similar to mine (if I had to go into specifics, I’m a pretty good blend of Raine/Luz/Amity for personality) but as a non binary person, I’m so thankful that Dana and the crew was able to bring Raine into the cast. Happy pride month everyone 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
keep in mind too that disney doesn’t really market the owl house *at all*. it’s still decently popular from pretty much word of mouth and that’s crazy to me. I could ramble all day about how toh doesn’t fit “the disney look” either, both in its queerness and in its horror aspects, but that’d be a really long comment to put you through. I’ll just say raine is the character that helped me finally feel okay saying I’m nonbinary, and medically transitioning specifically. I’ll forever be grateful to dana and avi for bringing them to life :)
I thought It was weird that when I looked on the pride selection I could only find it on the episodes featuring queer characters section and nobe of the other ones like not the from queer creators or anything
@@AnotheraccountonYT i know, they should’ve put the whole show in the pride collection and not just the “openly queer” episodes.
@@space.arr0w999 yea or else the connection doenst really mean anything aside from "two girls dating"
I didn't even know that they canceled Owl House. I had heard about it before, but thought it was just a rumor.
I really hope they bring it back. Not only is it great that it has so much queen representation, but it's just an overall funny and creative show. I started watching it from a recommendation, mostly because the main character is Latina like me.
Sadly, given how long the "cancelation" was in effect, it's unlikely for it to be undone.
See, Season 2 was split in half; the first half dropped onto Disney+ in like late 2021, and most of the second half just dropped like a month or two ago. Hell, there are a couple episodes of the second season that have aired on TV but were not on Disney+ the last time I checked.
The decision to shorten S3 into a couple "long episodes" and then cancel "The Owl House" was made either while S.2A was airing on TV or else shortly after it dropped onto Disney+.
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So, the decision to cancel "The Owl House" came while the second season was still being animated. At the right time that people who hear it is canceled would finish the show's available episodes, see the news, and by the time January rolled around would have forgotten the show still has episodes left for the current season.
Disney DESIGNED the release of "The Owl House" Season 2 such that it would fall into obscurity and fail to meet viewer quotas. As such, we're lucky that Disney decided to be "nice" with what might be considered "Season 3" given any sort of greenlight.
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(Also, there's the possibility that Disney canceled "The Owl House" because of the queer representation. But that would be silly to openly suggest. Instead I'll just casually allude to Disney's prior political donations and such to politicians who are anti-LGBT as an indication that maybe Disney isn't exactly queer-friendly.)
@@onijester56 Oh I hadn't even thought of that. That's so depressing
(...and also kinda funny because oh my god we care so much more about this show now after season 2b that did not work At All)
As a cast member I'm kind of surprised Disney hasn't publicly discussed the new 5th key for guest service that was introduced last year. Many Disney fans know that cast members have always followed the "Four Keys": Safety, Courtesy, Efficiency, and Show.
The new 5th Key is "Inclusion." It's meant to be it's own key, but to also be applied to all four of the other keys. For example, to apply Inclusion to Safety, we're required to ensure all guests feel they have a safe space to be themselves at Disney. Inclusion is slowly but surely touching every part of the company. Disney Look in the parks has already shifted even more to make sure non-binary cast are comfortable. New Disney content will be more overtly inclusive of minorities, especially LGBT+ folks. It seems they should have made a pretty loud statement about the 5th key if they wanted to show LGBT+ Disney Fans they're doing more than just lip service. It's not exactly meant to be a secret. They drill it into us pretty hard with extra trainings and department meetings.
I appreciate the CMs perspective. I did initially send you an email asking more about what information you wanted, but had some medical emergencies recently that prevented me from responding in a timely manner. Ultimately, I agree that the sentiment of "It depends on your area management" is true. I've generally had positive experiences, but I know that isn't always the case. And sadly, NB Cast Members seem to be treated better than most trans women CMs, from what I've noticed. I've heard lots of complaints from my trans girl friends about their treatment. I urge you to do a deep dive on just Cast Members and publishing their stories anonymously. People should know what goes on.
I'm sorry to hear about the medical emergencies, I hope things have gotten better since then. I also appreciate you reaching out in the first place. I have been wanting to make a video about internal things for a while, but assumed that it would always just be speculation as someone on the outside looking in. I think I also underestimated how many CMs watch my content, so I was very surprised by the amount of responses I got and it has inspired me to maybe return to similar subjects in the future. Who knows, maybe a future video analysis similar to this one can be a way to help CMs air their real experiences anonymously without the worry of it being attached to their names.
I cried really hard the first time I saw Raine in the show. I'm a young enby who almost never gets gendered correctly in any circumstance, so seeing they/them pronouns be used effortlessly and seamlessly in a Disney property of all things really blew me away. On top of that, Raine is an _older_ non-binary person who's allowed to be in love. There's been so many times in my life where I couldn't see myself growing old, couldn't see myself being loved by someone, so seeing Raine with their crows feet and graying hair and smile lines shows me that it's possible for me to have the future I want for myself.
I went to Magic Kingdom at Disney World pretty recently. There was a cast member checking to make sure the crowd was behind the safety line before the parade got there. I noticed they were wearing a bi pin above their name tag. I said "I like your pin," and they smiled and said "Thanks. Happy Pride."
Also, I love The Owl House!
6:35 i wish it could but dana said extensively that only thing we might get is a spin off or comics or novels
but the execs made it adamant that they don't want a new season of owl house which is terrible news
If you haven’t, I would recommend watching Dead End: Paranormal Park. It’s a fabulous show with good characters, and has really wonderful representation, including a trans main character, and they don’t shy away from talking about non-accepting family members while not letting that take over. It’s a pretty short series on Netflix, and it’s worth checking out
Will absolutely DIE MAD about Raine being referred to with he/him pronouns in German.
Not to mention in the spanish dub (latin america) the team of dub was a mess, first they changed Raine's pronouns to he/him (because spanish uses gender in many words and even if there's the proposal of using "elle" as an alternative of "él" or "ella", many people are against it), also they changed the name from Raine Whispers to Reinaldo. And there's more but yeah, they deleted the non-binary identity from Raine.
As a bearded feminine person... Im outraged at disneys dress code tho not that shocked by it. Ill pt out that Walmart tried no such thing and that place had many workers who were openly transphobic towards me and it was otherwise shitty towards me for how i dressed...
But still the dress code officially let me wear what i wanted regardless of gender, and not just bcuz state law required such.
I wudve been pissed if someone had tried to insist i needed to shave to be allowed to wear a dress.
About the Dream and Shine Brighter celebration! I was there just earlier this week, and during the show, one of the (male) dancers got the mad hatter to give him a hand kiss, it was the cutest thing and he looked super proud of himself after that. I wish i had been filming it, but since it was my third time watching the show i hadn't bothered to record it that time :( but still. i saw you, cast member.
i started watching the owl hpuse right when it came out, and have been watching it since, and have gotten my partner into it along with me and now we are both devistated bc all we have left to watch is the 3rd season and we have. absolutely no idea how thats gonna go. im slightly glad that disney decided to cancel it a bit earlier because this gives the creators more time to really like, write out what theyre gonna do with the story and such instead of feeling SUPER rushed n all. it just sucks though that this show that means so much to me is getting less content because it doesnt fit the "disney brand" :(
I find it annoying that Disney just doesn't give that much attention to their animated shows anymore. Ducktales '17 had a merchandising presence, as brief as it was, but Amphibia, Big City Greens, and Owl House are screaming for t-shirts and Funkos and plushies. I know there are very obvious reasons why Owl House does not "fit the brand" but maybe if they released merch of that show, they'd make enough bank to look the other way. The show speaks to a lot of people, and those lot of people would gladly throw money their way.
Whatever. They're probably going to spend whatever the budget a full third season would be on some other throwaway, forgettable preschool series ( Dino Ranch? Alice's Wonderland Bakery? Really?!) or yet another season of Bunk'd.
The lack of merchandise for their shows is so odd to me. The money's right there. Have they not seen how much stuff other people are making and selling? It's like at one point the only official thing you could get for Star Vs the Forces of Evil was a Hot Topic shirt, but head on over to eBay and you'd find a whole bunch of factory produced Star Butterfly costumes. Now we've got the Mystery Shack selling all sorts of unofficial merch for their shows. I've seen at least two different plush designers (excluding whoever does the designs for Mystery Shack) getting factory runs of their Amphibia plushes. Meanwhile Disney themselves are doing basically nothing.
@@wendyheatherwood Star Vs at least had Funkos, as did Gravity Falls. Ducktales '17 had a Target exclusive action figure line that they rushed off the shelves before we could get a second wave. There was frustratingly even a Pickle and Peanut vinyl figure set for some reason. The best Owl House, Big City Greens, and Amphibia have are print on demand T-shirts through amazon. HT would be the prime place for Owl and Amphibia stuff, even if it's just shirts and accessories, but the lack of Greens on toy shelves is baffling, considering how much of a presence it has on the Disney Channel.
@@mightyfilm Oh yeah, the Funkos were something at least but even then they didn't come out until a few months before the show finished. Disney are just ridiculously bad at handling their animated shows these days.
There's an earlier instance of a nonbinary character in a way. Lloyd in Space. A one time character called Zoit claimed to be neither a boy or a girl.
That's true, but since the character isn't referred to as non-binary and there's no documentation of that being the explicit intent, I don't really consider them the first canonical non-binary character (which is what I consider Raine). Even when I talk about old characters and queercoding, usually I have a quote or something from the creators saying they were meant to be portrayed as gay or queer. I think Zoit is interesting in that there is a clear non-binary reading of their story and I'll be talking about them in a future video :)
@@DreamsoundsVideo ooh! I'm looking forward to it! I still remember the first time seeing that episode (while I was dealing with severe homophobia) and while I wasn't a big fan of the show in general, that episode made an impact on me.
i was watching the owl house from the beginning (bc i’m a big dumb cartoon nerd) and the moment raine was introduced i FREAKED OUT??? like, non-binary rep?? nblw rep?? in a cartoon??? i felt seen! they were treated normally like the rest of the cast, with correct pronouns and 0 questions! it was just an amazing feeling and i’m super happy you’re talking about them and TOH as a whole :-D
The Owl house is my favourite show, the music, storytelling, worldbuilding, writing, characters, representation, literally everything, I love it so much, it's such a great show
The owl house is a non Disney show that happened to be on Disney.
I’d argue it’s more inline with Cartoon Network than Disney.
It still is a Disney show…
@@randomhuman_05 An odd one out.
I remember for the longest time being queerphobic, only growing out of it once my younger sister came out as queer. So Disney...y'all are just having the mindsets of a literal child? Queer people exist and deserve to be seen!
I decided to watch this show because I saw it was getting cancelled, but I was so shocked to see how great the representation is. I was half expecting for someone to bully Lumity for being together, but it was so refreshing to see such a “taboo” topic to be normalized
In The Boiling Isles, there is no homophobia-a lot of the prejudices at Boiling Isles are simply not related to it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Belos was, given the timeframe he came from. However since everyone else isn’t like that, he likely wouldn’t share that particular opinion with anyone at BO.
1. That was a great video! 2. The logic for the shaved head thing leads somewhere weird. So…if a person who typically wears feminine-presenting clothes shaves their head because they have alopecia or are in treatment for cancer and they’ll lose their hair anyway, they have to…wear the masculine-looking uniform or invest in a wig? That’s probably not ADA-compliant, if that’s in the United States.
Raine is one of my favorite characters. When I first heard Eda say "they" in reference to Raine I nearly cried. It made me so happy to see a character that represented me. And one using a name that I had been considering using was a wonderful surprise as well!
See, Raine was introduced in a short flashback/memory scene and I didn't even catch pronouns being presented. But then Raine came back in Season 2 as a side-character, and I waited in anticipation for Disney to flub and reference Raine with either "He" or "She". And every instance that Raine has been on-screen, referred to explicitly with "They" and solely "They", has given me joy unfathomable.
Like, Luz is my favorite character. And King is a close second. But Raine is a definite Top Five.
I'm nonbinary, an animation student, and a cast member at Disneyland- so this stuff takes up an inordinate amount of my brain at all times, and I'm really glad to hear someone coming from this perspective :} Thank you for the lovely video 💗
Hi thank you for covering this topic. The Owl House is a great show and has many different queer characters. I enjoy the character The Collector and they use he/they pronouns just like me and it helps me feel validated 😳
The Collector is absolutely adorable. I hope they don't turn out to be like or worse than Belos.
I think it's really cool that there's a multipronoun character! Enzo Gabriel supremacy
Who are these people who don't know about our precious Raine Whispers? I will find them!
On a side note, the way you phrased 'Terrace stands with the LGBTQ community' kinda makes it sound like Terrace is an ally instead of a member. She's bi, just in case others didn't know.
I do want to "quickly" point out how complex and confusing gender can be in German. I mean as far as the people who speak German that I know, they tend to use I/Ich or Mein/meine for themselves depending on the context but a lot of non binary Germans use the 'opposite' pronouns for themselves (For example, if they are MAAB they'd use female pronouns) and from my understanding, (which is sadly more limited than I'd like) neologisms is far harder to introduce into German.
In English you'd need at most five new forms since English gender is restricted to personal pronouns, possessives and reflexive pronouns.
But.. in German, gender shows up on personal pronouns. And relative pronouns that agree with the referent. And demonstratives. And possessive pronouns. And possessive determiners, that are not always identical to possessive pronouns. And all possessive forms agree in gender and number with the possessor and the possessed so you need all the possible cross-combinations for any possible gender and number for the possessor and the possessed. Gender shows up on definite articles and indefinite articles. It shows up on adnominal adjectives except for the weak inflection. And all these forms are inflected by case, therefore you need to multiply the number of new forms you need by four!
You can't just add a few forms into German, you have to introduce an entire grammatical gender, which tends to be a lot for people to memorize. To add onto this - making neologisms actually fit into the structure of German is another massive pain. For examples sake, if inflectional suffixes have a vowel other than schwa or if they end in an obstruent they sound horribly unnatural.
But you really don't have a ton of choices to coin new forms that aren't homophones to already existing forms (if) you stay in the limits of German.
TLDR;
There are a lot of reasons why you would stay far away from neologisms and why you would choose a
grammatical gender that has established pre-existing forms. And some people actually do this.
I don’t know how common this is overall, but I’ve come across a few such people. It’s not so unusual.
(A lot of this is what you've already said with a lot more text, but I do feel like greater even if admittedly minimal..
elaboration is helpful for understanding why the choice was made. I've also just realized I'm becoming one of the text wall people....)
Never thought I'd be seeing a video on this channel based on Raine Whispers.
This has nothing to do with the video but alot of people say the The Owl House is inspired by Harry Potter but alot of the characters, plot points, and creacher design feel more like Far Scape and God Emperor of Dune.
I’m so happy to see you finally talk about The Owl House! It seems like anytime someone on the LGBTQA+ spectrum discusses Disney’s approaches to queer representation, they always leave it out. It’s not just the representation that makes me happy, it’s the fact that the characters in and of itself are amazing, some of the best I’ve ever seen in a show. I was heartbroken to hear its third season was being whittled down to three short tv films. I don’t know if it’s too late to change that, but Dana Terrace said that she wants to expand on the world of the show through spin-offs and comics and such, so I’m certainly going to keep supporting it however I can.
It's because it doesn't often get marketed as Disney's FIRST GAY CHARACTER
I love the owl house, but I don't think anything we do is gonna change the show being cancelled. I wouldn't be shocked if they've already finished the final episodes by now.
I’ve been waiting for this video! I’m so happy I was able to help you out with this video!
i must say i loved it when you talked about the disney look- my dad is a disney employee at our local disneyland, and it was so fascinating to almost be a part of the conversation as he would talk to me about the developments on the "disney look". I recently attended a pride parade with him for disney and I was so grateful to see how disney has evolved to becoming way more inclusive!!
Dana said that at this point they can't uncancel the show and we can't change that, but by supporting the show the best we can, we could have spin offs and comics
The German version does use an alternative version of They/them when referring to Raine!
Marlene always does these videos wonderfully, even if there is a mistake or two, and I can't wait to learn even more from her videos
Something you quoted in a previous video applies to me here. Something the the effect of, "I couldn't realize I was trans until I knew trans people." Well, I couldn't realize I was genderqueer (agender) until I met and became friends with someone who was non-binary AND saw Raine Whispers in The Owl House. Their inclusion made me so excited and I had to explore that excitement more before I could realize how I've felt all along.
The german dub from The Owl House had fixed Raine's pronouns to xier/xiem by the second time they showed up and later the older episodes with Raine got fixed as well! :D I was positively surprised!
Oh, that's wonderful news!
dana said that season three of the owl house cannot be extended because it is too far into production. however, there is still a chance for a spinoff or comics etc
Oh, that’s unfortunate. I hope that there are other opportunities for her to work in The Owl House universe, as it is really one of the best shows to come out of Disney in a long time imo
Regarding the "there are still many options they could've used for gender neutral pronouns in the German version" There is a first for everything and this could very well be it, but the thing is, I'm german and I never even heard about most of these pronouns, only the standard er, sie, es. Also I think it would've been a bit more difficult to make the pronouns you present here really align with german grammar, because they are so unheard of. I don't want to come with the "how am I going to explain it to my children" argument but in this case, when very likely not even the parents know what's going on they can't really explain it that well (I mean the word/the pronoun that would've been used) I know for every problem here probably exists a solution but I think germany in general isn't really ready to integrate a new pronoun, that they heard the first time in a TV show, into their language yet (especially because we're just now really beginning to use gender invlusive language (extremely many people make fun of gender invlusive language here) and our language is one of the few completely r/ pointlessly gendered ones). I feel sorry for sort of making excuses for Germany here, I also really wish we had gender neutral pronouns besides "es" which means "it", but I think it couldn't have really worked, or at least not very well if we look realistically at it.
Definitely, my experience is also informed by me being someone who moved to Germany as an adult with English as my first language and who learned German as my second. I think neopronouns and non-binary pronouns are more complicated in German than they are in English (I responded to another comment with a more detailed breakdown into that), but it is interesting that languages with similar discussions (like French) have translations that use neopronouns that aren’t as mainstream as they/them is in English, which makes me think it is possible for German and why I listed all those options even though not many of them are in wide circulation. I personally don’t think that it’s unrealistic, as linguistic shifts like that take effort and time, but anything is possible if enough people want it. They/them in English was at a similar place 10 years ago and now it’s commonplace in many parts of the US
@@DreamsoundsVideo I do hope that we will start talking about integrating a new gender neutral pronoun into the german language soon. I mean for example, non-binary is a ...how do I say that.. I guess ...by the government validated gender to have (??) here (Bei uns wird das dritte Geschlecht anerkannt, man gilt dann als divers, das wollte ich sagen. Ich bin nicht so gut mit Fachbegriffen). I guess if they would talk about it in the news that would be a first step.
If you’re German how do you feel about „das Gendern“? I think it has good intentions not making male the default, but I feel like it is making the language MORE pointlessly gendered when I think it should be less gendered and thus excludes nb people. Technically nb people are included in the Gender*sternchen, but you literally don’t use this symbol in German anywhere else, so it looks very out of place. Also the pronunciation sounds whack too. I don’t understand how academics put so much emphasis on that, but nobody talks about implementing gender neutral pronouns, something that the German language could really use.
@@DreamsoundsVideo Hi, remember me?
Guess what, they actually used gender neutral pronouns for Raine in the german version (I think... like I said, they're not very common here). I didn't really get what they tried to do at first, but thanks to this conversation we had, I managed to figure it out pretty quickly.
The Owl House means the WORLD to me and I'm so sad to see it go.
I wish I had it when I was younger like I did with Steven Universe (Kind of, I was maybe 8 when it came out)
ENBY RIGHTS FOR MY FELLOW ENBIES!! 💛💜🖤
i got so excited to see this video once i saw it in my sub-box ♡ thanks so much for creating and polishing such a fascinating piece; there was so much i was unaware of that was featured here!!
Edric's partner is easy to miss just from how casual Emera said their so it could go over the heads of most people.
Love The Owl House a lot and Raine Whispers is an inspiration to all Non Binary people.
9:50 so like if a woman is recovering from chemo and the cancer is in remission what does she do?
I guess they'd make her wear a wig
That was my first thought. Also women bald so??? 😭
Saw a bot and I reported it anyway I do think disney needs to uncancel the owl house as we need more representation.
At the very least I hope it isn't the last one with a main character who is a part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Does Lightyear count as a mainstream movie? If so, I find it hilarious a mainstream gay character appeared a week after this video
I’d love to see you do more TOH videos!!
The thing is that disney has been doing a lot when it comes to supporting although while with major major backlash from the right calling them “woke” and stuff.
1. They just starting to commit to stop saying, “boys and girls” in their parks.
2. in the Buzz Lightyear movie, there was a 0.4s shot of 2 women kissing, once again backlash.
it’s weird for them to try to side with both yet failing for both of them 🚶♀️
Disney look? Morel like Disney look at yourselves and realize that men with beards who wear dresses and women who are bald exist!
I don't think your last video was a mistake. Your videos about being trans and/or non-binary are both really great!
When I watched this show with captions on they would refer to the character as 'he'. I'm glad I'm not dead so I could recognize that was inaccurate but I am a bit concerned for people who are and get mislead. Unless they fixed the captions.
I knew of him despite not watching, I knew because I watched reviews of the show.
Wait, I think that's a little harsh on the Jungle Cruise scene. Like, he says 'elsewhere' but that's not because the writers were afraid to say gay, he was speaking in euphemism because it was how he learned to survive at that time. He's a man who was gay and made to feel utterly ashamed of it.
Like, sure, we aren't talking about the most earth shattering rep, but I still feel like it was at least positive.
I get the feeling perhaps you've talked about this in other videos but I've not seen them so this is just the knee jerk response.
I understand the historical context of that, but the way it was marketed as an important gay moment implies that it at least says he is gay or some type of queerness that deviates from cisheteronormative society. “Elsewhere“ doesn’t even mean he is gay, it could mean many other things that don’t relate to sexuality. That’s fine, the character doesn’t have to be gay, but it was specifically marketed as such and that is what makes it just a bit frustrating. Not the biggest issue in the world, but in the context of this discussion it has significance. If there has ever been an openly direct character maybe it would be different, but without that it still feels like trying to do two things at once (please the gays while not actually being explicit about it in a way that might upset other people)
2:16
someone correct me, but wouldn't the conjugation for both female singular and third person plural (they) be the same in this case? (as both female singular and third person plural is "sie" in deutsch?)
I think that might have been the intention, but the third person plural sie is not standardized in the singular as “they” is in English. There are some people who advocate for a standardized sie to refer to everyone instead of having gendered pronouns, but some people aren’t comfortable with that. This also has a relevance in feminism, but in this context similarly, some advocate for just a single “er” for all genders, but that has the same issue. Back when I identified as non-binary, I used sie as a pronoun because usage wise that was the closest to they/them because of the plural option, even though most people I spoke to wouldn’t think of it that way. However, in most situations it was still helpful because of how it is also she, so in most situations I avoided a conversation about grammar (or being chastised for supposedly not knowing the language) by just using sie. Then the onus isn’t put on me to explain the grammatical nuance of neopronouns, but to encourage the other person to change their perspective of me, because any reluctance to use sie doesn’t come from grammar “concerns”, but from how they read my gender. When I have non-binary friends visit, I usually explain this to them when they arrive and they usually opt for me to just use the “opposite” gender pronoun from their AGAB in the same way.
Sorry for the long response, but wanted to answer thoroughly. Non-binary pronouns are a much larger discussion in German largely due to the fact that there has yet to be a standardized one or way of dealing with gendered pronouns. Thankfully, though, there are standardized versions of gender neutral language gaining notoriety, such as * and : (so for “Artist”, masculine Künstler, feminine Künstlerinnen, gender neutral Künstler*innen). There is also the term “divers” which you can see on many job advertisements and signs throughout Germany - it is a gender option that was created mainly for intersex people and still functions that way legally, but it has a growing non-binary context as well.
@@DreamsoundsVideo no worries, I'm grateful for your answer. as a person whose native tongue is also quite gendered I can somewhat relate. though I doubt that my country will try to standardise gender neutral language any time soon
@@ntazzy6326 I'm sorry to hear that, it is so complicated with linguistic gender being tied to cultural gender. It definitely was interesting as someone whose first language was English to learn German and see the many differences for describing non-binary experience.
@@DreamsoundsVideo I mean it kind of is standardized but only in formal exchanges, conversations, letters, interviews, also I think when you are at court sometimes. When you 'Siez' someone, it's just very formal. So it's definitely not like they in english. Just wanted to point that out. Though I agree with the points made above. Also sorry for replying to a conversation that's like two weeks old.
I am brazilian, and mostly watch the owl house in portuguese, but I always get a bit frustrated, since Raine gets misgendered the whole series. They are only referred by the use of the equivalents of he/him prounouns. I didn't know the person who's Edric was going on a date with used they/them prounouns either, since the brazilian voice acting just translated it to she/her. It's just awlful to see how Brazil is ignorant, terrible and disrespectful towards trans people.
yess so glad you’re talking about this
TOH REP BABYYYYYYYYY
Holy cow, your voice sounds so fem! Love the video too!
It appears that Disney now a second one in the form of a-spen from zombies 3
ty for this vid ;u; gives me some semblance of hope
As someone who is german im really sad that they didint use gender neutral prounons in the translation
I'm so happy that there are gonna be kids growing up, with this show. I remember when it was a HUGE deal for me, when during the finale of The Legend of Korra, Asami and Korra held hands while walking into the portal -- it later being confirmed that it was out of romantic intent. I was a teenager then and had only grown up with shows that used queercoded characters as either villains, or a punchline. But The Owl House? It's explicit and it's normalized and it's shown to be healthy & good! I get clowned on as an adult sometimes, since I still watch cartoons; but perhaps it says something about the world we live in, when the best rep in the past several years, has come from "kids programing."
On a side note, Raine is legit one of my favorite characters of all time; not cause they are like me, but because they are just an amazing character. Raine's dedication to Eda is just awe-inspiring and beautifully tragic. They are also a huge, bashful dork, while still somehow being badass.
I loved this representation but as a Hispanic viewer I’m just wondering what pronouns they use for the Spanish dub since lots of people get angry when non-binary people try to make they/them pronouns for languages that don’t have gender neutral pronouns now that I’ve heard that sometimes any newer they/them pronouns aren’t used
I feel like one excuse for the German translation thing might be that they were either using the she/her to refer to a person (as die Person is grammatically feminine) or they might have used it in a similar manner to they/them since the third person plural is exactly the same as she/her.
Regardless it sucks that German doesn't have gender neutral pronouns like English or other languages. Those excuses sound fancy but in the end they will always feel like misgendering.
If you're interested, there's another comment on this video that asked about the German specifics and I wrote a much longer comment about my interpretation of the translation
@@DreamsoundsVideo I've seen it. It's really interesting and I especially appreciated the fact that this was from the perspective of someone who doesn't have German as a native language. It really made me think about my own personal hatred against German pronouns.
It's sad that finally we get a Non-Binary Human character but nobody talks about it or brings it to the spotlight via Disney posts or anything. Now that hearing Owl House will be canceled is very bothersome and hypocritical of what kind of brand they're trying to advertise to people.
What song was sung at the end...? It sounds really pretty uwu
Not a witch, nor a wizard
A....*WIZZITCH!!*
Witch is a gender neutral term in The Owl House!
@@randomhuman_05
Let me have this, hootsy!
thank you for this!
frankie in the newm onster high movie said their pronouns were they/them
That's Nickelodeon, though.
I thought it should be sie/Sie. Oh well. I'm a budding German language student. Idk
4:56 wow i did not know that sneaky son in law sneaky
2:04
This really was confusing for a lot of people.
People thought that it was referring to multiple people and not used to reference a singular person.
I think they're trans masc as well, just because their hair and dress is a little more feminine in the flashback episode.
Why are you pitching your voice higher in these latest videos? I am confused.
I mean, the simple answer is I did not prefer how my voice was. Please understand that I feel more comfortable speaking now than I ever did. EDIT: I was responding to the original comment which was more critical of my new voice
=D