Transgender Headcanons
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About
Transgender Headcanons refers to a series of fan theories depicting fictional characters as transgender. Mostly found on Tumblr, those theories have been criticized and mocked due the tendency of their creators to confirm the theories as part of the character's canon, even if there is a lack of support for the theory from the character's source material.
Origin
Though the exact origin of these theories is unknown, it's believed that a precursor can be found on "Transstuck," a fanfiction and fanart trend featuring characters from the webcomic Homestuck as transgender individuals.[12]
Spread
Since their first appearances, trans headcanons have risen in popularity on the microblogging network Tumblr,[7][10] where some single topic blogs about them have been created.[3][4][5][6] Some popular characters featured on trans headcanons include Danny Fenton from the cartoon series Danny Phantom, [9] Dipper Pines from the cartoon series Gravity Falls [8] and Link from the video game series The Legend of Zelda. [11]
Criticism
These theories have been heavily criticized by various communities, including the transgender one, due the tendency of their creators to consider them as canon. In addition, critics have derided theory creators as being intolerant of criticism; they have also disagreed with the casting of transgenderism as a simple character trait, rather than a gender identity. On December 9th, 2014, on the subreddit TumblrInAction, user extrabullshitaccount published a link to a Tumblr post where user otterplotter mocked a transgender user who felt uncomfortable with a trans headcanon featuring the character Fenris from the video game Dragon Age. The post received over 300 points (97% upvoted) and over 200 comments in the following 9 months.[2]
Samus Is A Transgender Woman
On September 1st, 2015, Brianna Wu and Ellen McGrody published an article titled "Metroid’s Samus Aran is a Transgender Woman. Deal With It." on the feminist pop culture news website The Mary Sue.[1] Both authors claimed that Samus Aran from the Metroid series is a male-to-female transgender woman, using developer comments and instruction booklet excerpts as sources.
Within 24 hours, the article had 2000+ comments and made Samus trend on Twitter with almost 4,000 tweets in one day.[13] Criticism of the article focused on the author's lack of sources and mistranslations. An anonymous user on Wikipedia began editing the Wikipedia article for Samus Aran to include references to transgenderism, and claiming those who were reverting the edits were "Gamergators" and "transmisogynists." This user was quickly blocked and the article locked.
![Discussion on whether Samus is transgender [edit] I tried adding the proper info on Samus being a transwoman, but apparently some reactionaries probably found out and now are not only vandalizing the article, but creating an edit war. Please revert the vandalism caused by them and then lock the article. Thank you!12602:304 CFE0:FA09 E036:C835:6DE5:C (talk) 01:22, 2 September 2015 (UTC) "reactionaries"-are you serious? The only article that came out about this gives political reasons as the primary reasoning behind this, the first paragraph is "there's been a lot of talk lately about the lack of women protagonists in videogames. But our problems with diversity don't stop there. As one article recently noted, shockingly, there have only been 14 playable black women in videogame history. Gamers who aren't cisgender white men often find themselves lacking characters they can rally behind." Are you seriously considering this a legitimate source without biases? The mairn reasoning for writing this article is to stick it to a strawman of a industry entirely dominated by "cisgender white men." TussilagoFanfara (talk) 11:54, 2 September 2015 (UTC) Samus as a transwoman? Where did you get that from? GamerPro64 01:23, 2 September 2015 (UTC) There were no sources on the page about it either. Shouldn't that be a priority? -Aldude999 (talk) 01:26, 2 September 2015 (UTC) Yes. Unless you have a source, a reliable source, I would consider these edits vandalism and unproductive. GamerPro64 01:27, 2 September 2015 TC http://www.themarysue.com/metroids-samus-aran-transgender-woman/ It should work. _ Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:304:CFE0:FA09:E036:C835:6DE5:C (talk) 01:29, 2 September 2015 (UTC) Reads like poorly researched fanfiction, is a blog post (contributors) on a non-reputable biased source, and is directly counter to official sources. Samus is not a transwoman, no matter what some demagogue's fanfiction says. Also, "Transmisogynist" is not a real word. KITA (talk) 01:43, 2 September 2015 (UTC) Transmisogynist is, in fact, a word: see this Wiktionary entry. It derives from a relatively newly-coined but well established term Transmisogyny. (This doesn't in any way contradict your primary assertion, of course.) 208.85.32.249 (talk) 02:22, 2 September 2015 (UTC) (edit conflict) Thank you for providing a source but The Mary Sue is considered a situation source in the Video Game projects. And I'm not really seeing any evidence of Samus being trans. Unless an actual member of Nintendo trans. GamerPro64 01:35, 2 September 2015 (UTC) nfirms this we shouldn't use this source or say she is A newly written article is the furthest from a reliable source. Until this is verified by the original creator it should not be considered reliable. Evanx11 (talk) 01:33, 2 September 2015 (UTC) The page has no references from anyone it quotes, no official word, no videos, or written statements. Just curious if there's anything like that out there? It just doesn't seem sufficient to me is all. -Aldude999 (talk) 01:35, 2 September 2015 (UTC) It will never have any official word. The developers haven't said anything conclusive, and the MarySue article is pure speculation based on a conclusion that had little evidence and only biased thinking. Until the devs give a definitive answer to the question, it should be assumed that Samus is female You reactionary MRA gamergators have nothing reliable to disprove the article. The Mary Sue falls under Wiki's list of sourceable websites. If Brianna Wu states that Samus is a transwoman, which she has WITH evidence, then that's what the article will include. The only way I'll stop is if the creator himself will step up and say that no she isn't. Until then, your reactionary dogpiling won't help this time.2602:304 CFE0:FA09 E036:C835:6DE5:C (talk) 01:39, 2 September 2015 (UTC) Your vandalism has been reverted and the article is locked. Have a nice day. 69.115.224.183 (talk) 01:41, 2 September 2015 (UTC) Your lack of faith in other editors and assuming they are all "reactionary MRA gamergators" will get you nowhere but assumptions from everyone else that you are either here to troll or here to push an agenda and not collaborate. That source is considered unreliable for video game articles, from an author who is not a full time writer at the publication. I don't think the 'evidence' of the article is sufficient but that doesn't affect whethe game characters being t Even if this argument was made from a reliable source, unless that source directly quoted the the Weedwacker (talk) 01:54, 2 September 2015 (UTC) siders it reliable to use. On cle fromm on-reliable source about f the most recognized female video s is not something that is accepted as fact requiresC tersourcing from the creat reven inc ors saying "yes this was always the case" t would t be a small blurb somewhere in the cle saying "x speculated that Samus is trans", not inserting it all over the article as fact Go t You won't be laugh afte ntact the sysops to revert andalism. Have you transmisogynist f-- 2602:304:CFE0:FA09 E036:C835:6DE5:C (talk) 01:43, 2 September 2015 (UTC)](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/012/824/6af.png "\"Go to Hell. You won't be laughing after I contact the sysops to revert your vandalism((returning article to default state)).")
Search Interest
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External References
[1] The Mary Sue (Archive) – Metroid’s Samus Aran is a Transgender Woman. Deal With It.
[2] /r/TumblrInAction – Tumblr users mock a transgender person for being uncomfortable with a headcanon
[3] Transcanon.tumblr – Main page
[4] Transheadcanons.tumblr – Main page
[5] Bandomtransheadcanons.tumblr – Main page
[6] Transsherlockworld.tumblr – Main page
[7] Tumblr – Search for trans headcanon
[8] Tumblr – Search for trans dipper
[9] Tumblr – Search for trans danny
[10] Tumblr – Tagged as transcanon
[11] Tumblr – Search for trans link
[12] Tumblr – Tagged as transstuck
[13] Topsy – Search: #samus, Samus
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![[deleted] • 3 yr. ago. Edited 3 yr. ago . Once met someone who said I was a horrible person for liking Mondo because Mondo "Committed a trans misogynistic hate crime" and Mondos murder was because Chihiro came out as a trans girl so Mondo thought Chihiro was disgusting. So I guess we just ignore Mondos PTSD, anger issues and emotional break downs that leads to the murder? Like literally harassing people in the comments of the video who tried to explain the motive and their usual defence was "You aren't trans you don't have a say". I have no issues with the Chihiro trans head canon but don't try to twist a story made in Japan in 2010 to revolve around your personal issues and traumas. 163 ↓ Reply Share TheRivan • 3 yr. ago Once met someone who said I was a horrible person for liking Mondo because Mondo "Committed a trans misogynistic hate crime" and Mondos murder was because Chihiro came out as a trans girl so Mondo thought Chihiro was disgusting. So I guess we just ignore Mondos PTSD, anger issues and emotional break downs that leads to the murder? Wow. And I thought Sayaka is completely misunderstood. 448 Reply ↑ Share Karnewarrior • 3 yr. ago Toxic people don't only exist on the nazi side of the pool. Just be glad ours aren't in charge. 428 ↓ Reply Share](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/002/678/673/c38.png "More Chihiro stuff")
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