Firefly identity headcanons: revisited
In honour of pride month I am going to #redux my Firefly identity headcanons, now that it's been about three quarters of a year, I've discussed the show more with other queer people who've seen it, and I've gotten more into the behind the scenes stuff.
Still bisexual. I think that's more or less implied canon, through "sly? No, no, I lean towards womenfolk". I assume what they meant to convey was that he's, like, chill about being read as gay, but that's not actually what they said, which I think stems from them not considering that people might actually read him as queer.
I'm adding trans man into the mix. I have a full post dedicated to that, but honestly I can't be assed scrolling far enough to find it, so I'll summarise here.
This is from the script for The Train Job. This combined with the reveal in Our Mrs Reynolds that he's worn dresses before, lead me to headcanon him as trans. I think he's on t and has had top surgery, but not bottom surgery, and I don't think he plans to get bottom surgery, which creates clashes with Jayne's rigid ideas of masculinity and manhood (said clashes exist in the show already, but I think it's fun to extrapolate on them from a trans perspective).
My thoughts on Zoë have remained unchanged. She and Wash are in a bi4bi relationship. She identifies as a cis woman but at the end of the day she doesn't really care. She's greysexual. Actually I don't think that last one was in my original post that might be a new addition.
That man is NOT cis. The direction in which he's not cis is fairly ambiguous, I can see arguments for every trans identity, but I personally lean towards nonbinary, in the sense that his gender is whatever's funniest. His gender is The Bit. I think the important thing is that no matter what his gender identity is, his gender expression does not change in the slightest.
Also, as previously mentioned he's bisexual. Look at him.
Canonically bisexual, and I think there's room to say that demisexuality is also supported by canon, considering how much she emphasises the emotional connection with her clients.
I'd also say polyamory is sort of implied by her job, seeing as the whole deal is that she has multiple romantic and sexual partners at any given time. And I don't think she'd want to date someone who wasn't ok with an open relationship, because she wouldn't quit her job, so one of them would always be unhappy. This is one of two main sticking points that's stopping her from confessing to Kaylee, the other being how restrictive the Guild is (I really need to make a full post about that).
I think she's cis, but I could absolutely see a transfem interpretation, which could also be super interesting to explore the intersections between trans people and sex workers, especially as it pertains to the decriminalisation and government affiliated unionisation of the Guild compared to the lack of support on the Rim.
The most consistent of my headcanons. Bisexual aromantic trans man. Has had both top surgery and bottom surgery. Is on testosterone but will NOT trust Simon with managing that. Basically, trying to be as cis as possible. Not necessarily stealth, but won't bring it up unless it's in an argument with Mal or an environment in which he's SUPER comfortable (yet to be seen on Serenity. Maybe with Book)
Lesbian. That's also her gender identity. But it takes her a while to figure that out, so I'd say for most of the show she's identifying as bisexual due to comphet. In my rewrite, the turning point comes through a conversation with Inara in The Message.
And I think she's demiromantic, because something about always wanting romance but never quite being able to make it click seems fitting to her character (which is me projecting) and the fact that I think she's in love with her best friend.
There is no universe in which that man is straight. If he's attracted to women he's bisexual. If he's exclusively attracted to women he's a lesbian.
There's an archivist on tiktok (@/butchboyfriend) who wears a lot of vintage fashion which then kind of masks the fact that he's actually jacked, and he describes himself as "transsexual twinkbutch", which I think would SO be Simon if he was trans.
As it stands, though, my main Simon Tam headcanon is gay, demisexual and demiromantic, cisgender. I think he's an incredibly supportive and well-meaning ally and he never says anything transphobic, but sometimes says things that carry unfortunate implications that he doesn't pick up on until they're pointed out (very in line with his canon struggles, if I do say so myself). Over time on Serenity he learns to recognise those implications, but he'll still occasionally find new ones popping up, and everyone on board knows him well enough to know that it's unintentional.
In terms of being gay, it's not necessarily implied by canon, but like... his struggles with Kaylee can definitely be read that way. Particularly, I didn't realise his "not with Kaylee" line was supposed to mean "we were drunk, I wouldn't do that to her", because what I heard was "I would never have sex with Kaylee". Some of that is for sure my literal thinking but I do think it was also written sort of clunkily to create the maximum miscommunication drama (which is my number one issue with the way saylee is written in the show. The way it's written through the eyes of my mutuals, however? Perfection). See also "tell me more good stuff about me!" "well, every other woman I know is either married, professional, or closely related to me, so, you're... more or less, you're literally the only girl in the world!"
And, quite frankly, if there's a non-zero amount of people who read his struggles with Kaylee as self-sabotage and use that to come to the conclusion that he's in love with his sister, I think it's more than reasonable for me to say that said self-sabotage is evidence of homosexuality. Not that I think anyone here is gonna call me unreasonable for that, I just hate that people seem to think incest is more likely than queerness. Anyway I digress.
Also has not changed. Agender and aroace. The triple A battery, if you will. Recognises gender as an invented social construct that she Will Not participate in. Doesn't care what gendered terms are applied to her, but you can pry mèimei from her cold dead hands.
I believe in the comics she has a girlfriend? I haven't read the comics, nor do I plan to, but I'm accepting that as canon. Whether that's a queerplatonic relationship or River choosing to partake in romance and/or sex without attraction is up to audience interpretation. This ties into her autism coding, as this is a relationship that has to be built outside of social norms.
Aroace. The biggest indicator of this, to me, is in Objects in Space when he tells Jayne that some Shepherds do marry, but he follows a narrower path. The idea of someone becoming a Shepherd to get people off their backs about getting married and having kids is also really funny to me.
I think he's nonbinary but like at the end of the day also doesn't really care. Any pronouns, any gendered terms, whatever. I like to think "Shepherd" is a gender neutral title. Specifically, I think he's nonbinary because he identifies strongly with the belief that God has no gender, and he was made in God's image, so therefore part of his path as a Shepherd is to reject that human construct - though he's of course very understanding that that is his path, and doesn't push that onto anyone else. Tries to use it to connect with River, before realising that religion won't help with that and switches tactics to theology.
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