I think yang has sort of filled two semi-disparate genre-defying roles over the course of rwby. In the first like 2/3 seasons, she essentially functioned at the unexpectedly strong feminine character (even more so than ruby and blake), which to be fair was an already established trope but it couldn’t have hurt to have a little more, as a treat. The more interesting ground shes tread upon is the role she fills in seasons 4-8 (And I give that timeframe not to imply that her character hasnt changed over that span, salem knows it has, but rather to better encapsulate what I’m trying to get at) The role she fill in these seasons, a primarily butch woman who still very much desires her femininity (and this is something that, as a cis man, I cant really speak to so correct if you believe I’m wrong)— this is much less common, and is also part of the reason we saw such a reversal of fandom expectations of her, *especially* from incels and others like them. Like you look at the way she reacts to seeing the bikes for the first time and thats an explicitly feminine reaction, to a somewhat masculine interest. I just think the places where crwby has been taking yang are interesting.
yeah i mean, i think it’s less so that she’s a butch woman who is still desiring femininity and moreso that she’s just,,,,,,,, free of stereotypical restrictions that typically come along with butch or futch gender expression
speaking as a masc lesbian, my years of being perceived as femme, replicating those perceptions, and associating with femme people means that a lot of my behaviours or ways of moving are still femme or not representative of what’s expected from someone who looks like me,,,,,,,,, my hand movements, the way move voice turns upward at the end of sentences or when i’m excited, these are all things that consciously remind me of my femmeness even while occupying mascness as my aesthetic
i think yang is along these lines as well re: her journey,,,,,,, in the early seasons her behaviour was very femme with hints of masc shining through and i feel like we’ve seen a reversal of this,,,,,,,, when she was separated from people her age for a prolonged period of time and forced to grow into herself without much outside influence, we saw her start to grow into this hypermasc way of being (v4-5 specifically),,,,,,, now, in v8, i think we’re seeing her settle into a solid mix of both as she kind of lets herself just,,,,,,,,,, be
which is why i think i take issue with femme yang so much,,,,,,,, i truly don’t think you can characterize her effectively unless you acknowledge her inherent butchness that underlies the way she moves through the world and through her own identity now,,,,,,,, idk i just wish that there was more work that actively addressed how unique yang is as a character and i think much of that uniqueness is tied to her gender expression and journey over time
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