happy trans day of visibility! figured i’d draw two trans icons that were totally robbed from the disney catalogue. if i had a nickel for every time disney cut an important episode for a latina trans girl athlete, i would have two nickels, which is actually a lot and also really irritates me.
original screenshots and ramble under the cut
just to clarify, summer of maribossa was NOT cut for the same reason as the gatekeeper. the episode was not about tere being transgender, but rather about another part of her physical appearance that affects her identity (her birthmark), however you can substitute her pride towards her birthmark for her gender identity and it would make as much sense (maybe not exactly for summer of maribossa in particular since her butterfly interest stemmed from the shape of her birthmark but like OVERALL,,,)
the problem with cutting tere’s episode in particular (and summer of inhairitance, in which she gets the most time on screen independent from her sisters), is the fact that it makes her the only primo who didn’t get their own episode. even BABY BUD, THE LITERAL BABY, got an ENTIRE episode dedicated to him. this fact and tere getting the least attention out of her sisters becomes really questionable when you factor in the fact that she was the only currently transitioned primo!! (i say currently because cousin bud was supposed to transition but didn’t which i am equally upset about)
the weird thing is, tere being transgender didn’t even ever get addressed in the show. this was a canon fact about her, the t-sisters character sheet repeats that she is transgender, and unlike a lot of other stuff in the „sexuality/gender” segments, it seemed to be something that was supposed to be addressed, even if just in the background, and not just „this is just how i think they’d identify”. they had plans to hint at it through old photographs, but they couldn’t even do THAT, which is just??? fully ridiculous?????
so yeah, not only was a majority of her substantial (and all of her independent) screentime cut out, but her identity is pretty much erased — you wouldn’t know she was trans unless you checked the wiki and saw the character sheets.
i have… quite the supply of angry posts about tere’s treatment. if you want to see those then go ahead!
as for brooklyn… this has already been talked about to death, and others have explained it much better than i ever could (i’m going to be honest, the only full episode of mgadd i’ve watched was the gatekeeper), but GOD, what they did to brooklyn was just INFURIATING. tere can be given a pass, because there was nothing in the show that actually touched on her gender (i guess they just weren’t given a chance), but brooklyn was given an ENTIRE episode, in which the main conflict stemmed from the fact that she was transgender, and it was taken away because MONEY!!!!
it’s actually fucking appalling. the episode was fully written, fully voiced, and fully animated. it was perfect and ready to be released. but disney decided to cut it at the very last minute!! LIKE. YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS HERE.
transgender girls in sport has been a real hot button issue for a while now, so an episode that showcases the struggles and discrimination trans people face in this sort of contexts would’ve really interesting, and just really important. it’s important for topic like these to be discussed in media, and it’s important to expose children to characters like brooklyn or tere.
