Does anyone else feel a little weird about Jax being referred to by she/her pronouns?
If Jax had been given time to come out and let go of the internalized transphobia, I'm sure Jax would have eventually been comfortable going by she/her pronouns. But... at the time of Jax's death, Jax went by he/him pronouns.
Not only that, but Jax would have been vehemently against being called she/her pronouns if you tried, and would mock and degrade anyone who did so. Jax's preferred pronouns in the show at the time of his abstraction were he/him.
I know Jax isn't a real person so it doesn't really matter if it's disrespectful towards the fictional character... but it still does feel sort of disrespectful to him.
And to be clear, this only applies to canon Jax. Obviously, if you're referring to a version of Jax in fanart or fanfiction who is out as trans and going by she/her pronouns, call her by those pronouns! That's a different instance of Jax.
And the above applies to any character for that matter. Even ones not confirmed trans in any way in canon. I would even encourage people to make their own fanon versions of characters trans.
But if we're talking about canon Jax who was insecure and chose to go by he/him pronouns, it feels weird. I don't want to say it's misgendering per se. But you aren't using the character's preferred pronouns.
And in a way, I find this more upsetting with Jax than if it had been some cis characters Because some characters might not mind going by different pronouns.
Steven Universe would happily wear a dress and didn't seem concerned with gems who used she/her pronouns to refer to him. I don't think Steven Universe is trans, but he also doesn't seem to care one way or the other what gender people see him as or what pronouns they use for him.
If you believe Steven Universe was trans and used she/her pronouns to refer to him, I don't think Steven Universe would be that bothered by the pronouns you used.
In contrast, Jax, despite being a trans egg, would hate it.
Maybe someday, Jax would have been comfortable going by she/her pronouns. But Jax never got that chance.
I realize this is a complicated issue though. Obviously, the trans community is happy to have representation in a piece of media that became so popular. And I think there's a feeling of... Nobody really being prepared to talk about a character like Jax because there just isn't another character like him in media.
The trans characters you typically get are already out as trans, or you get a satisfying coming out arc where they get to learn to accept themselves.
What you don't get is a cautionary tale of somebody who spent their whole life pushing everyone away, never accepting who they are, and then essentially dying before they get that chance.
Jax is incredible representation because he shows this darker side to the closet than traditional media presents. He's an amazingly written character who was never able to accept himself or what he was, consumed by this internalized transphobia.
But what that means is that at the time he abstracted, he was still a person who would not have wanted people to refer to him by she/her pronouns.
I guess really, my main issue is not with how people refer to a fictional character. Jax isn't real. But I think normalizing referring to Jax by pronouns he wasn't comfortable with also normalizes doing the same things to real people you believe to be trans eggs. And when I see people disrespecting a character by using pronouns they know the character wouldn't have wanted them to use, I have to ask myself if those same people would treat a real person the same way.
This isn't a big issue, but I wonder if anyone else feels uncomfortable about this.