Admitting my mistake + rant!
Needless to say, exorsexism has existed in Undertale fandom ever since the game existed. Which is sad, considering the very main character and our narrator (Chara) are only referred to with they/them pronouns. So, I wanted to write a little rant as well as admitting to my own mistake in this post. It's June so I think it's the best time to talk about this.
First of all, yes, since the very beginning I've been giving Charas and Frisks from my AUs specific genders, as well as doing so in my old fanfictions (they're in my native language and I haven't even shared them on his blog so that's just a funfact I'm sharing, I guess). And, for a long time I've seen nothing wrong in that, honestly. I was younger when I started this blog, and so much younger when I first had contact with Undertale.
This truly amazing game, right next to Steven Universe, was one of my first contact with LGBT. And I think it really helped me grow into this tolerant person I am right now. I still ship Alphyne, with determination. And these pieces of media helped me discover myself too. I've known I'm bi (homoflexible, to be exact) for a long, long time now. But, sadly, it's been only like this with other sexualities, and not gender identities and other pronouns. Why? I wouldn't blame the game for it at all. It did its part wonderfully.
But then, there are let's players… and well, honestly, I wouldn't really blame these guys either. Yes, many people, especially in my country and other intolerant countries like mine, who played the game on Youtube were misgendering Frisk, Chara, and often also Napstablook and Monster Kid. It does suck. But, many of the people I'm talking about right now are just people who happened to record their gameplay from this game a long time ago, often without thinking about things too hard, and might've never picked it up at their channel again after the series was over (including the let's player at whose channel I've seen the game first).
But, even if it was completly accidental, I admit, it probably is one of the sources of this trouble because many children, like myself back then, were watching these gameplays. And not only does children see world in a more binary way (good-evil, girls-boys, and so on) but are also impressionable. So, considering a big part of this fandom started out as kids, no wonder our fandom erases nonbinary character's identities.
Whom I would blame for it are people who were already older once the game came out and should've known better. Though, on the other hand, a part of me still wants to justify it by the fact that it was 2015, and you could get an impression that Frisk is supposed to be this vessel for the player to identify with. But still, if there's someone to blame, it's this part of the fandom who should've known better but partook in this erasure anyway. And, I'd also kind of put the blame for it on the country I am from. In my country, there aren't really generally-known gender neutral pronouns to use. There are suggestions that are offered, and I am often using ones my friend told me about and uses (by the way, hello if you're reading this @t4ng8rin8!). But, honestly, in my native language I sometimes do tend to still use gendered pronouns out of habit. Especially since it felt strange in my language at first. But, I must admit, the longer I'm using the gender neutral pronouns on Frisk and Chara in my language, the more normal it feels to hear and say. But, what I am frustrated about in my country is that even in dubbings of cartoons they misgender characters.
I've already mentioned Steven Universe, right? If you know the Future series, you probably know about Shep. Sadie's partner who is canonically nonbinary. And would you look at that, in a version with my native language, they are called "Sadie's boyfriend". And it's not like there's no gender neutral words you can use instead in my language. They are. But that's just how it is in my country. It's better than it used to be anyway. So, yeah, I'd put the blame here.
But, at the end of this post, I'd also blame my stubborn mind here. I should've done that a long time ago since I've been aware of this problem for a while already. But, I just couldn't stop viewing Frisk and Chara from Undermourning as boys, and it's similar for my older AUs too. It just took a while for my mind to adapt to the new knowledge. And now, it has adapted. So, from now on, I'm using they/them for Frisk and Chara in Undermourning, and again, it's similar for my other AUs. And honestly, I'm quite happy with this, considering how I've portrayed these characters.
I've already changed it here. I don't think I'll be able to edit my other posts where I use he/him pronouns on them, but I might later try that slowly. Not for every post because I have quite a lot of them on my blog. Well, we'll see. Maybe bit by bit since I feel much more like coming back to this blog.
But for now, Happy Pride Month!
baratheonpilled
gracieabrams
gummygunk
dailybridgerton
andulkaphoto
