#genderqueer representation

[canonqueers]

Canon Queer of the Day:

Francois

Francois is a supporting character from Dr. Stone! Their gender isn’t stated but they’re heavily implied to be genderqueer / non-binary, and they also use they/them pronouns.

Submitted by Anonymous

[our-enbian-experience]

My enbian experience is making my own enbian representation, relationships and characters as an artist and a writer because there's not enough celebrating non binary people and their relationships without encasing them into the binary.

It is why I made this piece when I found out enbian exists, even though Im an enby and a boygirl, I love the fact that we have a word for our relationships and it doesn't have to be chalked up to "like mlm" "like wlw"

Above are two non binary characters that I created. On the left is Umeko, who is genderqueer and genderfluid although remaining primarily queer even if its gender shifts, and uses any pronouns. He's also a fat and disabled person, she uses a wheelchair during bad days and has strabismus.

This is Yinmn, who is the character on the right. They use they/them exclusively and describe their identity as non binary. Here they're introducing themself using asl as they're mute. They'd be a fencer and they adoree a birds.

I have more art of non binary characters, I love the range of our different experiences and exploring them through characters, and I love to give non binary people all kinds of meaningful relationships and representation. Agender, multigender, non binary, demigender, genderflux and genderfluid, unlabeled and labeless people, androgyne, I just like learning new labels, hearing about others' experiences and with my characters, see what their relationship to gender is.

I love non binary people and I love being non binary<333

[ID: the first image is the two characters, Umeko and Yinmn, hugging. Umeko hugs Yinmn from the side and kisses them in the cheek. Yinmn touches Umeko's cheek and looks at it affectionately. Umeko and Yinmn are surrounded by the purple inscription that says "Enbian love" and several purple sparkles. Yinmin is dark-skinned and has dark wavy hair. the left side of their hair is cut short, and the right side of their hair is long. they have a painting in the center of their forehead. it's a dot and three leaf-shaped pieces going left, up, and right from the dot. Umeko is described in the next picture's description.

the second image is Umeko in the wheelchair. it sits, winkles, and waves his hand. xe is light-skinned, tall, and fat. they have shoulder-lenth blonde hair with purple tips. a yellow butterfly sits in his hair. Umeko is dressed in the long dress that gradients from blue and green to yellow and orange. eir wheelchair is brown and looks similar to the armchair with wheels.

the third image is a sketch of Umeko standing using a cane. xe looks forward, smiles, and makes a thumb-up with its right hand.

the fourth image is a gif of Yinmn smiling and introducing themselves in ASL. end ID]

wow this is wonderful! thank you for sharing your arts, they're so beautiful! i like Umeko and Yinmn so much!

[readingtillmidnight]

Into the Midnight Wood by Alexandra McCollum

Release date: 13 January 2026

Genre: adult magical realism romance

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

If you like:

Roommates

Hurt/comfort

Serious uptight accountant x silly chaotic artist

Miscommunication, like every possible misunderstanding happens

I hate comps but this is like Boyfriend Material x Sorcery and Small Magics but from the POV of the serious guy

There are at least 100 things wrong with Meredith Schwarzwelder. In fact, keeping track of these things is the only way David Carew has managed to remain living with him for as long as he has. Meredith is an irredeemable eccentric who flirts with everyone in his path (#3 on the list), cries at anything (#35), makes the worst coffee in the world (#70), and talks to mice, or imagines he does (#50).

It’s bad enough living with such a person on the edge of the Midnight Wood, but when magic starts to seep from the wood and a dark being emerges with a sinister plan involving Meredith, David decides that it’s time to leave the cottage, and his roommate, behind. Then Meredith’s brother gets engaged to the daughter of David’s boss, and he sees the perfect opportunity to advance his career and make his escape.

With wedding bells sounding and the dangers of the Midnight Wood encroaching, David realizes there’s much more hiding beneath the surface of his roommate’s seemingly carefree charm, and that perhaps his own exasperation carries more fondness than he’d like to admit.

Review:

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC!

This is a fun and hilarious, yet emotional and angsty romance.

I absolutely adored the romance. The initial dynamic of David's exasperation of Meredith's chaotic antics and Meredith's obliviousness of the fact was so much funny and entertaining. They do lose a little of that later on, but it felt like a natural progression of their relationship. Their journey from one-sided hate to lovers was an emotional roller-coaster that I couldn't get enough of!

I feel like this book reads like a very indulgent fanfic. I'm not saying that in a negative way, but the writing style, the emotional confrontations, the abundant tropes (angst, hurt/comfort, miscommunication, roommates, opposites attract) does give it a fanfic vibe.

Speaking of tropes, a big one here is miscommunication. I know a lot of people hate miscommunication, but I personally LOVE miscommunication in romance! David is incredibly oblivious, and he and Meredith are dedicated to misunderstanding each other in the worst ways possible, and I couldn't get enough!! If you dislike miscommunication, though, it might be best if you gave this book a miss.

One thing that bugged me about the romance though is that, in his obliviousness, David does or says certain things that hurt Meredith, to the point where it feels kind of like bullying? Like, David does eventually realise his mistakes and tries to make up for it, but in the meantime it's hard to sit through his blunders.

Aside from the romance, I feel like the rest of the plot was pretty half-baked. Like, I would read this book solely for the romance, because the whole plot about the Midnight Wood was kind of... nothingy? The Midnight Wood is important, but I feel like the whole mysterious threat thing could have been built up more. I did enjoy the whimsical creatures that live in the Midnight Wood, but regarding the plot surrounding it, there were certain elements that could have used more development, or perhaps more foreshadowing to build suspense.

Overall, I loved this book for its humour and the swoony romance and the quirky characters and the drama, but I don't think this book will be for everyone and that's okay <3

Content warnings:

Toxic family, emotional abuse, verbal abuse

Queerphobia

Mentions of racism

Sexual content

[tepli-mravenci]

The genderfluid representation I personally really want to see one day is a reoccurring background/supporting character in a movie/series that just sometimes presents feminine for a few days but then that same character presents masculine next few days, then one feminine day again then you can't even tell

and everyone just uses whatever pronouns for them and noone says anything about the changing presentation the character just exists there and we know it's still the same character and noone calls them genderfluid it's just commonly understood this character is fluid and it's no big deal no profound struggle no "true" sex or gender reveal it's just Sam from the coffee shop he makes the best lattes and she gives a discount to the main character for protagonist reasons

Alternatively every character that knows them thinks they're a different gender Stacy thinks Sam's a girl and has a crush on her, Billy is convinced Sam's a guy and does a handshake with him and they call each other bro, Max is too embarrassed to ask so they just always use they/them pronouns for Sam

It's never "revealed" which pronoun is right because they all are sometimes

[song-of-oots]

On Vaarsuvius and gender

I realise the fact that I’m even mentioning V in terms of their gender will likely make some people switch off because yes, this is a subject that people seem to obsess over even though it really shouldn’t be a big deal. Which is true, it shouldn’t, but somehow it still is. It’s a big deal because genderqueer representation is rare and because for V to exist the way that they do is incredibly thought-provoking in a society still stubbornly clinging to rigid concepts of gender.

I feel I should acknowledge the fact that I am cisgender, and thus I don’t think I’m in a particularly good position to talk much about the authenticity or sensitivity of V’s portrayal, other than to say that it’s a positive thing that V is a very significant and interesting character in their own right regardless of their gender (or lack thereof).

(I do vaguely recall Rich Burlew commenting that he tried to keep the emphasis of the gender-themed jokes on other characters – basically trying to poke fun at their discomfort at V’s gender ambiguity rather than V themself – but he also acknowledged he probably wasn’t always successful with that.)

As a cis person, what I can talk about is how my understanding of V has coincided with my increasing awareness of trans and particularly non-binary people and challenged me to think about my own gender preconceptions. For instance, why did I start off thinking of V as female and then later shift to thinking of them as male? It was only when I stopped to think harder about this that I realised that actually V doesn’t appear to have a strong concept of gender at all, so perhaps neither label actually fits? Which is just one example of why genderqueer representation is basically a good and important thing, as it can help people like me to expand our understanding.

Ultimately I feel like for V to exist as they do is incredibly powerful. Vaarsuvius advances the idea that it’s possible to comfortably exist outside the gender binary without worrying much about their or anyone else’s gender identity. This is simultaneously the most and least remarkable thing about V – though the only reason it’s remarkable is because of what it reveals about our own cultural hang-ups. In fact, I feel like that’s pretty much the point Rich Burlew is trying to make with V’s character; their gender shouldn’t matter, but not in a “stop making a fuss about your gender identity” kind of way, and more in a “why does V’s gender ambiguity cause such a huge fuss amongst (some) other characters and the fan base/society at large?” kind of way. It’s truly quite amazing how a character who has no clearly defined gender identity, and who appears not to think about gender very much at all, can provoke so much thought and discourse on the subject.

In fact, I’ve been musing on a point Rich Burlew made in one of his patreon Q&As about V and elven society:

Is there any chance V being genderqueer will be mentioned on-panel?

Rich: Not really. The reason being that V would never think of themselves in those terms—that was a word I used to describe V when discussing a scene’s real world subtext in a book commentary. But V doesn’t think about this issue at all (and in fact is annoyed by it when others bring it up), because not talking about gender is just culturally part of being an elf. They would have no reason to adopt the term as a stated identity. And if V wouldn’t use the word, no one else is in a position to put that identity on them. Except me, I can say whatever I want about V because I made them.

And it made me wonder if part of the reason V is so gender-blind* is because they can afford to be? It seems like the non-binary people I know often have to fight to assert their identity, and have really had to think hard about gender issues in order to define and explain themselves to a society which is largely determined to keep them neatly in a particular gender box. Apparently in elven society such things don’t happen, ergo V hasn’t had to put much thought into it to the point where it seems ludicrous to them that they’d even have to.

* actually, gender-blind is probably not the right term here. It’s not that V doesn’t have a concept of gender, because they clearly do; they continually refer to other people using very formally gendered language (Miss Starshine and Sir Greenhilt, for example). But there are also several instances where they display a distinct lack of insight on the subject. The most obvious examples being V’s somewhat alarmed admission to Sabine: “I am not certain I am the most qualified to comment on gender traits”, and the time they failed to notice much difference when Roy wore the belt of gender-changing. (There are probably other examples, but those are the obvious ones that leapt to mind.) Basically V’s understanding of gender seems a bit fuzzy? It comes across as something they have passing familiarity with as a concept but don’t fully get and don’t feel the need to think about much.

Tl;dr: Vaarsuvius’ gender identity (or lack thereof) is a powerful thing not only because it is representation for actual non-binary people, but it also helps challenge us to examine our attitudes to gender. Furthermore, V’s completely blasé attitude around the whole topic is telling because it exposes the way we as a society are still culturally hung up on rigid notions of gender (whilst challenging the idea that such definitions and gender policing are either accurate or helpful).

[lgbtqliterarycharacteroftheday]

Page from Blanca & Roja is a genderqueer trans boy!

[quinintheclouds]

Even if you don’t watch or care about Star vs. The Forces of Evil, I wanna share an AMAZING moment that made my genderqueer heart SING 

(I’ll keep it spoiler-free, too. EDIT: aside from the video clip)

So the characters thought they found a woman they were looking for, but it turns out it’s an actor named Eric. Then Marco (the main guy character) goes wide-eyed with sparkles and walks up to him and says “Woah... you have a GIFT! That’s the most flawless contouring I’ve ever seen!” “Thank you!” “Y’know, sometimes Princess Turdina [Marco’s princess form he dresses up as] uses eyeshadow for highlight,” 

and the boys just talk for a bit about makeup techniques for when they dress as girls and??? It’s not treated as a joke??? The only joke is that they’re in danger and got distracted. Whether Marco’s cis, nonbinary, genderqueer, trans, or whatever, we have actual GNC representation in a kids show!!!

WAIT I FOUND THE CLIP IN ALL ITS GLORY

(the clip isn’t spoiler-free, but it doesn’t give much away either)

LIKE????

and thus far Marco’s only been shown to like girls, so a presumably straight male character being gender non-conforming and everyone being totally supportive is?? So awesome?? 

[write-the-galaxy-blog]

When people say they want more diverse representation, they also mean they want nuanced characters, not the cookie-cutter token queer, religious, poc, or disabled character we have seen so often. I get that in the YA genre every basic female protagonist is the same but that shit isn’t appealing either, so give us nuanced characters!