#builder-tag

[builderlife]

Apparently, some people in this fandom wants you to believe that if a character:

Likes pink = transfem.

Blushes in a dress = transfem.

Wears a maid outfit = transfem.

Crosses their legs a certain way = transfem.

Has long hair or eyelashes = transfem.

Gets embarrassed by feminine clothing = transfem.

Doesn't fit traditional masculinity = transfem.

calls themselves "the peak of masculinity" = obviously overcompensating, so transfem.

gets unusually defensive when someone says a feminine outfit "fits" them = transfem.

has a bedroom decorated with pink or pastel colors = transfem.

has rainbow decorations in their room = transfem.

compares themselves to an egg = transfem.

doesn't change at the beach = transfem.

has issues with femininity or with characters that are women = transfem.

acts even slightly gender-nonconforming = transfem.

At some point it stops being representation and starts relying on stereotypes.

Jax can be read as a closeted trans woman, a gender-nonconforming cis man, non-binary, genderfluid, agender, or something else entirely. Fiction allows for multiple interpretations

What I find especially frustrating is that people keep treating every « feminine-coded » trait as evidence that someone is « obviously » a trans woman. That's not progressive it's recycling the same stereotypes we've been trying to get rid of for years. Men can be feminine without secretly being women…

And trans women are more than a checklist of dresses, bows, pink, and blushing…

All fans shouldn't be called media illiterate, transphobic, or totally wrong simply because they don't share the same headcanon. Fandom should be a place for discussion, not policing how everyone is allowed to interpret a character.

[builderlife]

« Jax is 100% Gooseworx's self-insert, so if you criticize Jax, you're just transphobic »

Okay... then by that logic, are you also saying the creator and the character share every other trait too?

That's obviously ridiculous.

Jax is a fictional character. People are allowed to like him, dislike him, love him as a awful character, or hate him because of his personality or bc of what he did

None of that automatically says anything about how they feel about the creator, let alone about trans people.

Disliking a fictional character isn't transphobia, liking one isn't a moral virtue either

No matter what, there will always be people who adore Jax and people who can't stand him, normally that's how fictional characters and fandoms work.

Trying to shut down every criticism of a fictional character by calling it transphobia doesn't make your argument stronger or anything: it just confuses criticism of a character with prejudice against a real person

So maybe stop treating criticism or hate of a fictional character like it's a personal attack on a real human being

People can separate fiction from reality. You should try it too.

[builderlife]

Why don't you want to accept Jax as a trans woman? It's all there in the show

I’m sorry, without wanting to be rude or anything, but can people really look at my posts before sending asks?

But I guess that I have to answer so here:

« I'm not against transfem Jax as a headcanon. What I'm against is the way it's often treated as if it's undeniably canon and then used to shut down anyone who has a different interpretation

The biggest issue isn't the headcanon itself, it's that some people use it as an excuse to harass others. I've seen people reply with fan wiki pages, Gooseworx art, or comments from a VA and say, « See? Jax is transfem. You're transphobic if you disagree. » That's not a healthy way to engage with fandom.

As far as I'm aware, this wasn't established in the show itself. 3 years after it started, show ended, an illustration or out-of-show comment became something that many people now present as official canon, and that distinction often gets lost

The other thing people need to understand is that it's become incredibly difficult to find content about Jax that isn't centered on this one interpretation. Some people always say,  « Just block the tags» ,but that doesn't really solve the problem when so much Jax content is tagged normally or when this interpretation feels dominant in the whole character's fandom space including communities and fanfics. Wanting more variety doesn't mean I'm attacking anyone's headcanon.

Honestly, I genuinely miss what this fandom used to feel like…For like three years, Jax was a character fans interpreted in dozens of different ways, and that diversity was one of my favorite things about being here, there wasn't only one one « correct » way to see Jax.. It made searching for fan content exciting because every artist and writer brought something unique… Now it feels like I mostly see the same interpretation over and over again, and feels like soooo much of that creativity and variety has been overshadowed. Feels like this has become so dominant that everything else gets pushed , and if you don't share it, you're treated like a problem, a transphobic I don't want anyone to stop enjoying transfem Jax, I just personally miss when there was room for every interpretation without people feeling like they had to defend why they saw the character differently.

I also miss when people didn't have to constantly defend or justify their pov about Jax just to be accepted in the fandom

I miss when fans could have different headcanons without arguments, harassment, or accusations. We didn't all have to agree, and that was okay

People should absolutely be free to enjoy transfem Jax. Other people should be just as free to enjoy different interpretations without being harassed or accused of bigotry over a fictional character. » »

« Second,. my point is that the series itself presents those elements through implication rather than explicit confirmation. Gooseworx herself has said it was meant to be subtle and vague, which is exactly why people interpreted it differently. The fact that many sooo much fans,including trans fans, had so much different readings before those posts and the drama shows that this wasn't simply a matter of media literacy. »

Og post:

Reblog by @builderlife · 1 image

💬 6  🔁 5  ❤️ 14 · As for your last point, I also don't think it's fair to characterize my post as « denying that a trans character is trans 

[builderlife]

You can criticize Jax’s choices as trans woman aren’t perfect; they are human

But apparently, you can’t criticize Gooseworx’s writing choices as she is a trans woman herself

[builderlife]

lmao. your entire argument is that gooseworx wasn’t explicit enough in detailing jax’s being a transgender woman, but it was exceedingly obvious. that’s like saying gooseworx was too subtle about ragatha’s mom being abusive

You're arguing against a point I didn't make.

My argument wasn't "Gooseworx wasn't explicit enough for me."

My argument was that if a significant portion of the audience watched the show and didn't come away believing "Jax is canonically transfem," then it's unreasonable to treat those people like they're denying something that was plainly stated in the text.

Using Ragatha's mother as an example actually show clearly the difference.

The show directly depicts Ragatha's trauma, fear, and reactions. Viewers can point to scenes and dialogue in the work itself to support that reading

So I'll ask the same question I asked in my post:

Where in the episodes is Jax identified as a transgender woman?

Which scene?

Which line?

Which interaction?

Not "which scene can be interpreted that way."

Not "which scene makes more sense if you already know Gooseworx's comments."

Which scene, on its own, tells the audience that Jax is trans?

If your answer is "Gooseworx said so outside the show," that's fine. Some fans treat creator statements as canon. Others only count what's presented in the work itself. That's a longstanding fandom debate, not something I invented.

The point of my post wasn't "Trans Jax can't be canon."

The point was "People who only use the show's text as their definition of canon aren't automatically media illiterate or transphobic."

No other character identifies Jax as trans and here is no discussion of transition, gender history, or a former identity.

The conclusion depends on interpretation and/or external creator statements rather than explicit information in the episodes.

Those are two very different claims.

[builderlife]

1. Pressuring someone into apologizing when they hadn't clearly done anything wrong. From the conversation shown, the person wasn't denying anyone's identity, they were discussing a possible interpretation. After being told they were wrong, they apologized and retracted their position, even though their original comment wasn't necessarily unreasonable.

2. Treating disagreement as bad faith. Instead of addressing what the person actually said, they were accused of posting "bait." …. That just accusing people of malicious intent without evidence discourages honest discussion.

3. Punishing clarification instead of encouraging it. Even after the person apologized for having their own opinions and explained their intent, the response wasn't "Thanks for clarifying." or « Glad you understand » It became « You should delete the post » like you should now delete it for having respectfully a different opinion. Wow.

That creates an environment where people feel pressured to retract or apologize simply to avoid backlash.

People should be able to discuss interpretations, ask questions, and clarify their views without being pressured into apologizing for opinions that were presented in good faith

Reminder: Jax is a fictional character. Interpreting a fictional character differently from someone else isn't inherently transphobic. Unless someone is expressing prejudice or denying real people's identities, discussing different readings of a character IS a normal part of engaging with fiction.

[builderlife]

Okay... I just noticed that someone I blocked reblogged one of my posts (before I blocked them) saying, « Jax is canonically transfem. » Okay, fine, like always

But then they added that enbyphobia, transandrophobia, and cisphobia are  just « bad arguments »

...Since when are those arguments?

Whether you agree with those terms is one thing. But reducing them to just « bad arguments » is incredibly dismissive and honestly really disrespectful.

« Jax is transfem » is one thing, but that doesn’t allow anyone to reduce those terms like that. Those are labels people use to describe experiences or discuss discrimination

Those are not even the same category of thing.

What frustrates me is that phrasing like this can come across as implying those experiences aren't real, or that nobody could actually be affected by them. You don't have to agree with my points, a lot of people disagree BUT reducing those to « bad arguments » treats them as nothing more than debate fodder instead of acknowledging that, for many people, they're attempts to describe real experiences. I can’t believe that a person can dismiss that to treat it like nothing just for a fictional character and act confidently like nothing is wrong…

I'm genuinely disappointed and disgusted that this is what the discussion with some people here got reduced to…

[builderlife]

Hii on a thing you said abt pomni (and Caine) being too rushed as characters-

Goose said that Pomni as a character was meant to be written to have anger issues, and that she toned it down because the voice actor they got for her had a more innocent voice (she also said in retrospect she regretted that) but I think it's really interesting to look at her character through that lense, especially knowing it was supposed to be way more evident.

Watching the show, I honestly never picked up on that for her, she seemed to be a fairly emotionally balanced person in terms of writing. I think the scene where she is trying to fight Jax shows it off best, but I really do wish that it was devolved into more, since a lot of the characters have very obvious issues we can point to but she's the only one where you kind of shrug.

Hi 👋 :)

I 100% agree with you

Looking at Pomni after knowing that "she was originally meant to have anger issues" makes a lot of her reactions more interesting in hindsight.

The only traces of it are when she fights with Jax and when she confronts Caine, but I never would've described anger issues as one of her defining traits just from watching the show because of it… (Can we talk about how she forgave and cared about Jax so quickly after all he did to her...)

It’s really a shame that it didn't get explored more, especially like through the series; it just looks like she’s totally ok with everything, want to be friend with everyone, and that her only problem is being stuck in the circus (that's why even if I don’t agree with people saying that Pomni is a Y/N, I kind of see why…)

Goose adjusted the characterization because of the voice actor, but I do think the original direction could've made Pomni stand out more and made her troubles visible at least a bit like other characters, it would give her more personality…

I’ve said it, but I said it again, but in my opinion ep9 ruined all chances for her to stand as a complex character (I have problems with that episode lmao)