I understand people have headcanons about character's genders and stuff, which is all fine and good, but what I don't understand is the weirdly aggressive gender headcanons that people try to argue over. If a character is said in a show to use certain pronouns, then more times than not people will portray that character as such, but sometimes people will make a "gender-swap AU" or something along those lines and for some reason that opens the floodgates to bigoted arguments about gender representation. My question is this: Aren't characters there to fill the role of someone we want to connect with? And in such, doesn't that mean we're entitled to our own preferences about them? Let's take Spider-man for example: Peter Parker was very carefully crafted to be relatable to most concerned parties (i.e.: the people who consume the content in which he's portrayed), and so, he's left open ended in opinions and character. I've seen a lot of fandom creations portray him as a female, a trans man, and more, all of which are valid headcanons to have, because, as stated previously, he's subbosed to be projected onto. If someone says "I really relate to him, but if I were in his place, I wouldn't be comfortable with these pronouns," they are well within their rights to create content that makes them feel both closer to the character and happier with the canon content as a whole. So when someone comes along and finds said content, and realises that it clashes with their own headcanons, they appear to often lash out, and complain, usually using the age old argument "This isn't canon, therfor not valid." Now, I'm not saying that all of interactions are like this, but when I do find it, it puzzles me. Just because someone feels more comfortable with a female/trans Spider-man doesn't mean that: A. They are trying to invalidate your own headcanons B. Their headcanons are invalid or C. They are trying to 'ruin' the source material. Anyway, these are just my thoughts. Feel free to expand my knowledge about it, I'm always willing to learn.
blakekathryn
stormborns
theartofmadeline
areudirty
yousharknotpass
janainaart
