Hmm. You know what. I already ranted about this on a tiktok post but i feel like its gonna be deleted or whatever and i actually feel like it deserves to be said more permanently, or at least more open to discussion, so. I’m gonna say it here.
For context: it was a post about June Egbert’s canonicity. It said that anyone’s opinion about John’s gender identity doesn’t matter because June/transfem John was made canon. It also claimed that anyone who doesn’t believe that John is June/is transfem is immediately transphobic.
I feel like there’s a lot wrong with this.
The biggest issue I see with this is calling everyone transphobic for not following Transfem John. This is for many reasons: people could be headcanoning him as transmasc, or anything under nonbinary — much like myself. I headcanon he’s a Demiboy. Always have. There’s also the issue that just because people think he’s cis male doesn’t automatically make them hate trans people. Like, there’s nuance here that I can’t delve into without making this post twice as long as it already is, I fear?
Secondly, opinion does in fact matter, considering it is a piece of fiction. It has been a piece of fiction its entire life and has had a massive following for years with a growing fandom and therefore many MANY people forming their own opinions on the kids’ genders and identities.
Transfem John is a canon that was interjected after Homestuck the Webcomic finished(? I believe it was post-finish. If not, then very near the end). A lot of people have become very adored to their own canon (as in, the headcanons they’ve made and stuck with) at this point. And sure! Some of those people maybe already declared transfem John in their canon. But some others didn’t, and that’s okay. They shouldn’t have to uproot their personal takes just because of an ARG prize.
Which is another thing that I admittedly hate about all of this. Using a prize as a meta leverage to enforce a very damning headcanon to be real is… I dunno. It feels kind of sleazy. Given how big the fandom was and how liberal the canon material was of making its characters kind of a blank canvas to imagine however you want (with some exceptions (and even then its still fiction. People will disregard canon for headcanons all the time)), to dictate an entire part of that for the *arguable protagonist main character* just feels fucked up. I dunno. I do understand this part is more personal grievance. Maybe this entire thing is.
Anyways, I just hate how freely some people throw around calling others transphobic for not accepting the ‘canon’ of the statement. I feel like we all forget who we’re talking about here; Hussie is notorious for just saying things to fuck with the fandom (remember the ‘all ships are canon’ tweet, anyone?).
There has not been any visible efforts to make June Egbert canon in Homestuck’s basest form, the Webcomic (I am disregarding subtext and implications, because that shit is never uniform across people ever). I don’t read anything Beyond Canon, but I have only just heard that in ^2 they’ve finally begun to hint at John transitioning? Which, that’s cool. But, if we’re deciding that everything Hussie says is biblical levels of word of God, then we need to remember that they’ve said ‘the epilogues and HS^2 are only canon if you want it to be’. It’s referred to as *Beyond* Canon for a reason.
So until Hussie goes and turns John into June at any point in the base webcomic (which I doubt will happen given that it’s literally been rereleased and I’ve not seen any changes), I’m sticking to my own headcanons. I will continue to mind my own business and let people headcanon whatever the hell they want, because ultimately I don’t care and I can’t control anyone anyways. But I will not let it slide being deemed transphobic just because I am not conforming to a forced-in decision made by a fan and dubiously granted by Hussie themself.
If there happens to be more info, I’m willing to listen and look at sources. But if you’re going to be contentious I’m just gonna ignore you. I’m open to learning, not being berated because my opinion is different from yours.
