I usually do edits but MAN I need to talk about the last act. So SPOILERS FOR TADC
So first of all I absolutely loved it. Especially the themes :
This show was always about mental health and feminity.
This final is specifically about the many ways misogyny, transphobia and toxic masculinity kills people.
So I wanna talk about Jax and womanhood.
For disclosure I am a cis pan woman, I do have body dismorphia, while a bit similar, it is different from gender body dismorphia.
So I never did and never will experience what a trans woman goes through to discover herself, but from what I have heard and read about an "average" trans woman journey, I genuinely believe that it is so very similar to the one of a cis woman. Bear with me.
Disclaimer I am doing a lot of generalisation, please don't come at me about this. This is an observation of tendencies, this is not meant to pretend that all women's experiences are strictly similar to what I will describe.
The discovery of her own feminity for a cis woman is, as the one of a trans woman, very different from one person to another.
But there are a few key points that the very biggest majority of women go through. And most of these key points have one origin : misogyny.
Being taught that you will ever be too much or something and never enough of it's exact opposite *insert the Barbie movie monologue here* learning to consider yourself as "not like other girls" because society condition us to view "women" as accessories, pretty things for the male gaze. And as a little girl, you are not for the male gaze, you are not an accessory. You are a person. So surely you must be different from other girls.
And there goes the rejection of feminity, the toxic masculinity getting a hold of you too. It might affect you by making you out of touch with your feelings, because you don't want to be viewed as crazy and emotional. Or you might be struggling with food and your apparence, because you're trying to look like the top models you see, that seem to be loved by men for their appearance and only this. You might be chasing a man's attention because that is what you have been conditioned to look after.
You're being forced in a gender role, that doesn't seem to fit you quite well if you have been experiencing women representation mostly expressed by the male gaze for a huge chunk of your life.
When you break away from the male gaze, when you discover sorority and get the opinion that you have of yourself without the poison of the patriarchy and misogyny, you get to discover yourself and your real expression of your feminity.
If we're talking about expressing your feminity through your style, the biggest change for me, was to get a pixy cut as a late teen, and I felt so comfortable and good in feminine clothes and dresses. I used to never ever wear dresses from a preteen to a young adult, I felt uncomfortable, afraid and ashamed of wearing dresses. I was afraid and ashamed of my feminity.
Everything I have just expressed, I found this in the story of Jax. In the story of a trans woman, written by Goosework, a trans woman telling her story.
I am not trying to tell what a trans person's journey is like, I am telling what I have experienced a woman's journey to look like.
This is why The final act might speak to women and maybe less to men, at least to cis men.
And to extend just a bit on how TADC is deeply about feminity, it is about it through Ragatha, Pomni and Gangle, all expressing their feminity in different ways, and being mocked for it by the one character driven by toxic masculinity (which ends up being Jax's own doom. I do believe Jax being a trans woman wasn't said word for word was to keep the layer of showing the ways toxic masculinity is also poisonous to cis men)
Ragatha is always caring about others and forgetting herself, a habit that is taught to little girls from a young age.
Pomni is very in touch with her feelings and extremely empathetic. Which is a thing that is pointed at as ridiculous and silly from the patriarchy.
Gangle is an open book, expressing her emotions that are eating her up alive. Being emotive is considered as bad as empathy by the patriarchy.
Even kinger being a man centered around women in his family life (with his wife and daughters) is showing a man comfortable with feminity, even if it is not about him expressing feminity, but about the one of women in general. He sees the strength in all of their feminine traits that I listed, where Jax sees an opportunity to mock them.
Zooble's traits are inherently more about being trans, but there is still feminity in some of their traits such as their strong sens of empathy and emotional intelligence.
This show was always deeply about feminity. If you are a trans woman, know that Jax's story also resonated with cis women on some levels. Definitely not as strong as it probably did with you. But it still did.
Because (and you, reading this, probably already know that, but I think it can never be said enough) trans women are women.
And if you are a cis woman, wondering why the story of a trans woman resonated so deeply with you. Again, it is because trans women are women. There is no feminism without trans women. We protect them too.
Happy pride month ❤️
Man I can't believe they killed doomed trans fem Jax during pride month. This is so homophobic
