materialisticArsonic

Mutters into the distance

[materialisticarsonic]

Rate my Homestuck gender headcanons

[materialisticarsonic]

I have this trans man Jake analysis I wanna share because Jake's story really resonated with me and I think there's something to be said about how masculinity and gender is so integral to his story

Disclaimer, this isn't to say that trans women can't relate with Jake's story or see their own story in him, I'm just looking at this through a trans masc lens personally

In Jake's introduction, he immediately establishes himself as a hypermasculine character, or at least he tries to, and while the fandom does like to portray him like that at times, the actual narrative itself/Sburb seems to mock him for the opposite

Throughout the story, Jake is earnest in his attempts, he's technically doing everything right, and he's pushing really hard to be seen a certain way, but no matter what he does the narrative doesn't allow that, his friends don't even allow that

It's almost like the story is telling him "you're a girl, and there's nothing you can do about it" where he's unnecessarily sexualized over things he can't control, such as his hips/butt, his autonomy is stolen from him constantly because people in his life don't trust him to make choices on his own, Dirk gives him a robot to help him "man up" as if he's not already a valid man as is, Crockertier Jane mocks him for trying to keep the hypermasculine facade while also sexualizing him in the same conversation; it's the constant teetering between both infantilization and infatuation coupled with the mockery that reminds me of what it's like to be a trans guy (at least in my experience + from what l've seen from other t dudes)

Especially in that Crockertier Jane scene, that moment is largely regarded as Jake's worse moment (Jane's too but for different reasons); in that moment Jake has been broken down, he's become everything he didn't want to be, every choice he could've made for himself has been taken from him, and someone is yelling in his face insisting that his only purpose is to have children

That he's lucky he's attractive and able to have kids or else he'd be useless

And it's at that moment where Jake starts crying, when he starts begging for help, and when he's denied aid; Brain Ghost Dirk pretty much tells him that this is what being a man is, implying that if he can't do this than he's not a "real man" to which Jake responds "okay, I guess you're right, I'm not a real man; I need help and protection"

It's important to remember that Brain Ghost Dirk is an extension of Jake, both his perception and goal of masculinity, but also BGD represents a bit of Jake's internal thoughts and feelings.

This conversation is Jake at his weakest, most degraded, moment saying to himself "I guess everybody else is right, I guess I don't deserve to be a real man because I can't do this" and he's not claiming that out of a sense of identity or as an attempt to empower himself but rather out of desperation

He says that because he thinks it's the only way he'll get people to actually care about him

And he also says that because he's tired of constantly needing to prove himself, to advocate for his own manhood, so he finds it easier to just admit defeat, especially if it means actually gaining help in a dangerous situation

That scene reminds me a lot of the trans man experience; how trans guys are pushed out of safe spaces, how people use their masculinity against them to argue why they shouldn't need safe spaces, how in order to garner any form of respect they must denounce their identity, and how others mock them for not living up to the ideal standard of masculinity; trans men are often more dehumanized and ignored than cis men and even cis women, their problems are treated as something lesser, something to be easily pushed aside or ignored, and Jake's are too, both in-story and in the fandom

I also think it's also important to remember that the narrative/ Sburb is the metaphor for growing up and also a metaphor for the suburbs/suburban society, and its the thing treating him like this, like he can't win, like he's not allowed to be considered a real man but also he's too masculine to be allowed the same grace and community as his peers; it pushes him towards the arc of the heroine and then punishes him when he does it wrong

And the reason Jake does it wrong is because Jake simply doesn't want to follow that arc, he didn't sign up to be a heroine, but society/Sburb decided that he doesn't get a choice in that matter

Another point of this is how the story (and fandom) acts like Jake is incredibly gnc, when that's simply not true, the things that are gnc about Jake are again, things he can't control such as his body type, the actual clothing he wears is still pretty masculine, his booty-shorts being the only thing somewhat feminine because they're based off of Lara Croft's, and even then, the only reason they have that much focus is because he is seen as having a stereotypically feminine bottom which make the shorts ride up, something he mentions being uncomfortable about

This is Sburb treating Jake's femininity like something inescapable, like he's always going to be tied to it, and it is true that Jake likes to be feminine at times, in minor aspects, but it's different to embrace femininity in your own way that you're comfortable with and for it to be forced upon you at all times. I strongly believe Sburb does the latter, not caring for Jake's preferences and that's what bothers him; there are trans guys who like to explore their more feminine side but that doesn't mean they're comfortable with society trying to force them into being a girl; Jake is the same way

It's also the retroactive feminization of Jake that reminds me of a trans masculine experience; Sburb isn't this insistent about the girls being heroines but it is about Jake specifically, similar to how society isn't inclined to police how women express their femininity but as soon as someone comes out as a trans guy then people jump to over feminize him, as if to somehow prove to him that he has to be wrong about this and that he must not know himself as well as he thinks

Now I can't say for the epilogues or HS^2/HSBC because I'll be completely honest, I haven't read those and I probably won't in the future because I don't consider them canon (and I don't have to) but those are the reasons why I like to consider Jake as a trans man because even if Sburb acts like he doesn't have a right to manhood, I like to think that Jake does have a right to be a man, that there's no inherent "correct" way to approach masculinity, and that Sburb is representative of the transphobic society we live in that tries to claim there is