Here we go mothershovers
TADC EP 9 SPOILERS AHEAD BE WARNED
DISCUSSION OF TRANSPHOBIA AND THE LIKE. BE WARNED.
The big debate I've seen across all platforms in the TADC fandom recently is
"IS TRANSFEM JAX TRANSPHOBIC?"
I've seen lots of discussion of this over instagram and tiktok mostly but I cannot be bothered to argue with people in comments so I'm gonna lay out my thoughts here instead.
So let's discuss first - is it even canon?
Lots of people have said episode 9 doesn't canonise transfem jax at all and people are reading jax's being feminine as simply that, vulnerability and femininity in a man. I'd like to disagree.
In their conversation with Ribbit they discuss their mother and how they told her a secret before shoving her. Their mother had been comparing them to their father and so Jax tells their mother a secret to try and get her to stop saying that. Alot of people have theorised, and I believe it makes the most sense, that this was Jax coming out, ESPECIALLY with the fact that afterwards Ribbit puts the bow on Jax's head and says she will keep the secret safe. This is pretty clearly what happens. Something else I believe confirms this is Jax feeling so very uncomfortable being around femininity - but their room (built from their mind file) being incredibly feminine. They are terrified of people seeing their true self, their femininity. This is also confirmed from their torture scene in episode 8 - their skin being pulled off them revealing their inside a representation of their shell being removed to show their true insides. There is also a lot of people saying that the sequence "Isn't she lovely" is included in is proof of funnybunny or about ribbit but I have to disagree. For one thing the original meaning of the song is a father talking about his newly born daughter. Yes, the lyrics could be interpreted differently without the full context but I don't think we should ignore the original meaning. It also primarily focuses on Jax themself not Pomni or Ribbit. Jax is the she in the song. I think thats a beautiful way of confirming this.
Another thing I've seen going around is that Jax isn't a trans woman but infact a femboy. The use of the term femboy is a debate in itself that I won't get fully into but I think in this context it falls quite flat and can be seen as quite disrespectful. The term femboy originates from transgender p0rnography and to use it on a character who is quite obviously being hinted to be a trans woman feels wrong.
Something I do like though is the genderfluid interpretation. I saw someone saying that you cannot tell a rabbits gender by looking at them, that combined with their gender neutral name and purple colouring (a mix of pink and blue) could be used to push this theory. It's one that I liked but I think the trans woman interpretation is just as if not more viable.
Ok, now we have the evidence that Jax is trans -
Is that in itself inherently transphobic?
Jax is a character who could very easily be labelled as misogynistic. He is often cruel to the female characters in the show (gangle in particular) and people have been using this to say that Jax is bad trans representation and pushes the agenda that trans women are incels/misogynists pretransition.
To argue this I would like to bring up the fact that Gooseworx herself (a trans woman for those unaware) has said Jax is a self insert
However, this could be a joke for all we know, but I'm going to use it anyway. Taking this at face value, Jax's shortcomings could be an exaggerated caricature of Gooseworx herself pre-transition. I absolutely believe there should be trans characters that are good people and do good things, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't have trans characters that are flawed and do bad things too.
Maybe now isn't the time for that with all of the issues worldwide for trans people, but also if a trans woman wants to tell that story who are we to tell her no? As a trans person myself, I think its a perfectly reasonable thing to represent on screen.
Jax is a complex character that hides that through cartoonification of themselves. This is a common coping mechanism for people who have gone through alot of emotional abuse and rejection - such as jax. Yes, they're misogynistic in the circus but this comes about through them leaning into the role they believe they are supposed to play. They try and fit this role as best as they can because this is the most stability they have had in a while - having been homeless before entering the circus. This is also important because homelessness is extremely prevalent in trans youth. Transness is messy, its dangerous alot of the time and being trans can very easily create traumatised people. Not through being trans but the experiences that being trans can lead to due to the world we live in. Traumatised people do bad, fucked up things especially when they are not given the coping mechanisms to deal with it effectively which a young homeless person would not be able to access.
Ok ramble over -
Jax = Trans
No its not transphobic.