Tw! Swearing
Tw! Trans issues
Tw! Sex
You can always tell who the infantilized bottom is in an m/m ship is by seeing which one a fandom makes ftm.
I have never seen a slashfic in all of my time reading ao3 that has a headcanoned ftm recieving a blowjob. Or who has a phalloplasty. It’s always the “x character has a pussy” tag and they have to let you know that he LOVES it. Where is the love for ftm tops. You know why there isn’t any. I can’t think of a single slashfic where I’ve seen a trans guy doing any of the traditional sex acts associated with men topping (penetrating with a penis, rimming, fingering, whatever). It’s crazy to me because when you click on their profile or tumblr or whatever 90% of the time they do not have any trans ocs or like canon trans characters. They’re not remotely outspoken about trans issues. But for some reason they need their explicit pwp yaoi fanfic to have trans representation in their fav twinky bottom.
While I cannot speak for all trans people, in my personal opinion, the idea of (as an ftm) constantly having your hole referred to as a pussy or getting “eaten out” or getting creampied or feminized or pregnant, and having inherently queer sex being constantly crammed into “missionary style” heterosexual sex and dynamics (smaller one with a pussy has to be submissive) is honestly a horrid dysphoric nightmare. And yet I have read many popular ftm hc fanfics in which all of those have happened. And it feels like the majority of readers are really okay with this.
I feel like it’s honestly transphobic and homophobic at the same time. Like, the venn diagram of people who feel really squicky about anal sex and the people who constantly make bottom characters ftm for the sake of gay smut is probably a big round circle. Like they dont care about trans people they just want a gay guy to have a pussy for stupid reasons. That are also probably related to feminizing and fetishizing gay men too.
I want to be clear and draw a line here. This is not about criticizing real ftms who like to bottom or be penetrated or refer to their genitalia with female terms, or engage in certain dynamics, or who consider their expression feminine. I acknowledge and genuinely cherish trans people’s diverse preferences and expressions, and there’s nothing wrong with doing any of the above as an individual. This is mainly about ao3 writers who are blatantly trying to jerk off to trans-fetishizing porn and at the same time claim that they are reinventing the progress wheel so far that they actually come back to misogynistic, homophobic, and transphobic.
Side note, I think there are a lot of cis female writers out there who might write a character as ftm because they themselves have experience with the sensations associated with having female genitalia, and so are more comfortable with writing it. I can see the logic there, and I can empathize with it to an extent. But I am so, so tired of cis fanfic writers thinking they are doing something by giving ftms the most bland, inaccurate, and consistently transphobic sex. Trans guys have dicks! I feel crazy for having to say this!! Can writers stop only engaging with female genitalia!!! Fuck!!!! Where the hell is the frotting or the blowjobs or fucking anything!!!!!!
Back to what I was saying, this isn’t just an issue of misguided cis writers. When I started writing this, my intention was more to write about the intentional feminizing and infantilizing fetishization that trans men face in fanfiction portrayals. People who do this are not allies. I am disgusted with the way that trans men are CONSTANTLY portrayed in ao3 fanfiction, more specifically as having sexualized female labels (pussy, cunt, don’t whataboutism this, please,) and having to always bottom and submit to penetration or “cunnilingus” while engaging with these labels. Like I said, there can potentially be space for some of these things. Identities, behaviors, and word preferences are varied and depend on the individual. All characters behave differently. But the people that I’m talking about aren’t engaging with that genuine diversity, they’re engaging with a rote objectified fantasy of a man with a vagina. I am disgusted with the way some people treat feminized, submissive, vaginally-centered sex for transmascs in fanfiction as progressive, especially as this is common representation as far as fanfiction goes. Queerness is and can be so much more than this. Portrayal alone is NOT inherently progress. I am going to call bullshit. No, he would say or not do that, and saying that isn’t putting trans ftms in a box or perpetuating harmful ideologies around traditional masculinity or whatever the hell argument someone wants to use. People are not deconstructing gender or exploring queerness when they’re writing these things, and they know it. If it was genuinely an exploration, all of these fics would be different in that expression, and on every level, they are not. These statements are whataboutisms that are used to justify fetishism. You cannot convince me that the kind of hc trans representation that does not engage with factors like (potential!) dysphoria or euphoria, canon relationship dynamics, actual character personality as well as preferences, and often neglects to portray queerness within a queer relationship is not actively harmful and disrespectful. It is bad writing and bad representation. Someone’s own allyship or queerness does not absolve them of this harm.
*Obligatory mid-writing blanket announcement: fuck terfs!! Fuck transphobes!! If you are here to divide or discriminate against trans people get the fuck off my page!! I don’t want to see some hinky bullshit underneath this post!
(When I use the term trans men in this post, I am also deciding to refer to canonly cisgender individuals who, in fanfic, are given female genitalia or entirely female sex/characteristics through magic, sex pollen, or other means, and are almost! always! unconsensually! made to transition to this form.
These plot devices are, in my opinion, often used as an excuse to engage in fetishized transmasc sex like how “headcanoning” characters as ftm can be, and is objectifying a real queer minority in doing so, whether or not a writer is using a framework of assigned identity at birth for transgender as a label. This is not a condemnation of these plots as a whole or of their use to explore queerness or gender identity, just how they are often weaponized. )
I’d really like writers to ask themselves some questions here. Why are you writing this character as transgender? What parts of his body are you focusing on when writing smut? Why? What are your opinions on trans people? Do you see them as human beings? Are you supportive of trans people in public? Are you treating this character with respect? Is he acting in a way that he would in canon during these sexual experiences? Do you really think he would consent to this? Is he topping, or bottoming? Why is he bottoming? How is he expressing his emotions during this encounter? Are you using terms that you think he would use to define his own body, or are you, as the writer, intentionally using feminine ones regardless? Why are you doing that? If this is a plot in which he didn’t always have female genitalia, how would this character truly feel about this change? Be honest. Do you see him as a man? What tags are you using, what language, what is your focus,
are you being empathetic, or are you just masturbating?
There is an immense place for queer exploration within headcanoning men as transgender or giving men female genitalia, and writing trans erotica in general. There would probably be a lot less people who realized they were trans without exploring and reading about it. I’m not saying you can’t sexualize characters, just don’t fetishize. Once again, I am fine with people bottoming, femininity, and anything else you worry i may have criticized in this post that a real transmasc person might engage in. This consistent portrayal in slashfiction of FTMs though is just, in my opinion, horrible and inaccurate, and people know what they’re fucking doing when writing it. Sayings like “Oh, some ftms get pregnant, actually!” is not helpful to the discussion, it is missing the point entirely at best and can coexist separately to my argument.
I have read some portrayals of headcanoned trans men on ao3 that I have absolutely loved. By and far, however, they are completely in the minority. Like, I can count them on one hand. I’m tired of the annoying and frankly gross motivation that is most often behind trans slashfic portrayals today, and the fact that some queer people seem to accept the excuses given from those who perpetuate it. I can only speak to my experience but holy fuck I would never fuck like how some ao3 people write transmascs and if i ever met those writers in real life I would genuinely be scared of and disgusted by them.
I’m worried there is a real media literacy crisis going on as far as reading the author’s intent goes. This harmful fetish writing needs to stop. Now more than ever, trans people having a space where they can be themselves and be represented well fucking matters, and ao3 has always been a haven for queer people and relationships. I would really appreciate it if we could just have an honest look at the way headcanoned ftm characters are often treated in slashfic, and more importantly for what purposes they are made to be trans, and improve trans portrayals by doing so.
