Giant/Tiny and Gender [ramble]
Y'know, instead of reblogging Terri’s post that’s semi-unrelated, I wanted to ramble about something that fascinates me about Giant/Tiny. Not calling anyone out with this, just musing.
I was never able to put it into words how fixated people in the GT community [and other communities in different flavors] are on the gender of the characters involved in things?
LIKE don’t get me wrong, I get it in some cases. Like how some people don’t like the idea of male giants because of the perceived power imbalance, or trauma.
But then there’s just. Cases where, to build off the same example, there will be a perfectly innocent/wholesome M/f or M/m piece of GT, and someone will be like.
‘This is great but I wish they weren’t male. :(’
‘I would like this but it’s a dude so I can’t.’
‘Why does it have to be a guy.’
And to hop off the anti-male example… I see it with feminine characters too. Less often, though. [This could be partially due to the oversexualization of feminine giants and the male gaze forcing itself upon a niche but I’m not here to get into THAT mess]
Moving On! Ramble time >:)
I can’t help but feel there’s a whole stew of different reasons for this. Some off the top of my head that I’m too lackadaisical to get into detail on right now:
- Despite many people saying GT is not a sexual thing for them [in that it doesn’t arouse sexual interest], this strange fixation on perceived genders involved in their niche interest may stem from their either known, or currently unknown, gender preferences in possible romantic or sexual relationships. This one is iffy because I know many people get into GT at a young age, and well into their teen years, so this may seem like a weird or icky take, buuuut people don’t start developing their ‘preferences’ ONLY after they turn 18, it starts much earlier and manifests in subtle ways sometimes. I’ve witnessed many female-presenting people who only liked GT with female characters, who later found that they were Bi or Lesbian. Same with male-presenting people who only liked M/M. Hell, I’ve seen dudes who were hyperfixated on only F/f, and it turned out they were trying to mask their homosexuality or convince themselves they liked girls ‘the normal way guys do.’ Those are just a few examples. Moving on to the next thing.
- Could just be a simple case of aesthetics! I don’t usually go with this, as often, people who claim ‘I just like X gender more aesthetically’ uuuuusually have some other reasoning beneath it, even if they don’t know that. But, maybe in the case of aesthetic attraction, this is true sometimes.
- Like the anti-male example I gave far above, there could simply be a case of trauma involved. Not wanting to see certain genders: In charge, Helpless, Scared, Confident, Weak, Strong. [The opposite is true as well. Sometimes people WANT to see certain genders in those positions.] You get the idea. There could be a deeper seated, perhaps unresolved issue of wanting to see [or not see] characters of a specific gender involved in certain compromising or uplifting positions via the fantasy of Giant / Tiny. A feminine person with trauma relating to masculine people may be repulsed or even triggered at the sight of a tiny F character being powerless to a giant M character. But, the same can be said for GT being a coping mechanism. That same sort of person may find comfort in all SORTS of scenarios. Learning to trust a gentle M giant, or being able to overcome their power imbalance through some means, initially having a power imbalance but then the giant M is humbled by realizing there’s an imbalance and he works to fix it, etc. There’s this interesting stew of people who want refuge, people who want catharsis, people who want to see someone they relate to being in control, or on the opposite end: people who want to relive their trauma in a controlled fantasy setting where they can work through it and other outcomes rather than the one they got, etc. Trauma does odd things to you, and this one is probably just as much of a factor as the Gender Preference example.
- Personal Projection / an attempt at feeling connected to the character, or lack of being able to connect to someone that doesn’t look or act like them, could be another factor. As we’ve seen from COUNTLESS female-centered films [Turning Red being the most recent example], many people lack the ability to feel they can relate to a character that isn’t ‘like’ them. If they don’t see themselves in the character immediately, they lose interest and disconnect. There may be something like this involved in G/T gender fixation.
I KNOW there’s tons more I could dig into this for some juicy food-for-thought, but I have exhausted my steam on this post so I shall leave it there. If you made it this far and you have thoughts on this topic, feel free to add! I’m interested in seeing if anyone has thoughts on this, or hadn’t considered anything I might have put forward. Definitely some things to consider. Hell, after this post, I’m gonna make an addition where I talk about MY reasoning for my g/t gender preferences. That’ll be fun.
Anywho! Have a lovely day y’all!
