#trans!dipper

[bumbleboyart]

happy summerween!! they dressed up as each other

[ariel-s-awesome]

Identical twins where one's a boy and one's a girl in media are great because one is likely trans.

Identical twins are-- aside from rare cases-- the same sex (and in said rare cases at least one is intersex in some way.)

[daydreaming-cheese-weasel]

dipper pines is trans and if you disagree with me you’re transphobic and i am legally allowed to hunt you for sport

[v4mp-doll]

I love the Internet

[dogboy-willgraham]

pls i am BEGGING for a rant ab dipper and his transness pretty please <3

Oh dear do you KNOW what you've done??? /lh Okay, my unedited and all around scrapped together rant on Dipper Pines and tranness, by a gay genderfluid transmasc with no regard for sleeping.

SO. You're gonna have to multi-bear with me, I'm not good at structure:

Dipper pines is a 12 year old boy who, with his twin sister Mabel, gets shipped up from California by his parents to Gravity Falls to stay the summer with their great uncle Stan at his shop.

When not solving mysteries or getting into trouble with the supernatural, he spends his time with Mabel and Stan, plus Wendy and Soos, or any of the characters that live in town.

Dipper is often the subject of ridicule, whether it be that his voice cracks, he likes Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons, he's not very big or strong, or any number of reasons, he is mocked and made fun of.

While teasing and mockery is to be expected from family and friends, especially a sarcasm/teasing-as-a-love-language family and friends. The constant teasing of Dipper for not being big or strong, or having a squeaky/high-pitched voice, or liking 'girly' music, is to be noted. While it's incredibly common for cis boys to be mocked and teased for such things, and feel the need to be hyper-masculine to make up for it, it's also very common for trans men to have to/feel the need to be hyper-masculine to be recognized as their gender and respected. And if you're already insecure in you're gender, you're only going to be more insecure if everyone is making fun of you for even liking 'girly' things or not being incredibly masculine. It's expected in some circles, that you will either act exactly like a cis man is supposed to or you're just a tomboy, a confused girl, not a real boy. Aren't you a boy now? A boy's gotta do this and that to be a real boy, or else you're just a sissy boy. Or else you're not a boy.

There's even an episode all about Dipper tackling manliness, and what that's supposed to be vs. what he is as a boy becoming a man.

While there's many ways to read into Dipper as a cis boy trying to find firm footing as himself and as a boy in a world that demands he act a certain way, I'll be reading it as a trans story about a trans boy who is trying to find his footing as himself and as a boy in a world that demands that he act a certain way.

We'll begin with names.

In the episode Double Dipper, Dipper is trying to get Wendy to dance with him and through the various hijinks that ensue, we find out that not only is Dipper's actual name Mason, Dipper being only a nickname based on his big dipper forehead birthmark, but he wishes his name was Tyrone. He even names his first clone Tyrone.

It's not uncommon for trans people to go by a nickname instead of their deadname. (I've even done it) If Dipper wasn't out to his parents, it'd make complete sense that he wouldn't want to out himself by using Tyrone, and instead make a workable middle ground with Dipper. And when given the chance, he named himself Tyrone, even if it was only a clone of himself.

In the same episode he talks to Wendy while she waits for the bathroom, and the two have a sweet moment when they acknowledge and laugh over their shared weirdness. Wendy shows a picture of herself from when she was about 12, and Dipper reveals his birthmark, the source of his nickname. Wendy has also been said to have been bisexual from behind the scenes. Queer also means weird, and queerness has been treated as weird, so a tender moment between these two about weirdness could also serve as a tender moment between two queer people, not hating or despising their weirdness but enjoying and celebrating it.

Next we have the episode Dipper vs. Manliness, and as it states, it's about Dipper tackling manliness.

Dipper tries to beat a 'manliness' test, in reality just a strength tester to get free pancakes for his family, and fails, while the very masculine manly lumberjack beats it easily. At the table he gets poked and teased for not having chest hair, for being small and scrawny, for listening to girly pop music, and the failure to beat the manliness test drives him over the edge and he runs off. Stan simply laughs and asks how he's related to 'that'.

Even a completely unrelated comment from a woman looking for a mailman prods his nerves, and he asks 'Oh what? Are you saying I'm not a "male man?" Is that what you're trying to say? I'm not male? I'm not a man? Is that-is that what you're getting at?' And he runs off with tears in his eyes.

He runs to the woods and tries to do situps and fails. In his sorrow, the beef jerky he holds accidentally summons a manotaur, the very epitome of hyper/toxic masculinity. Dipper begs him to teach him to be a man, and after winning the favor of the manotaurs, like hairy Li Shangs, he and the other manotaurs vow to make a man out of him.

After completing many trials, juxtaposed to Stan's journey to try and win the favor of Lazy Susan, much of them involving pain and being generally typically masculine, he only has one task left. Kill the Multi-Bear, and he'll finally be a man.

He hesitates, but when the manotaurs find his CD of BABBA and begin doubting him, he resolves himself to go kill the Multi-Bear.

When he finally is poised to kill the Multi-Bear, the beast has but one request for his last moments, for Dipper to put on his favorite song. Disco Girl by BABBA.

While the Multi-Bear accepts his face, Dipper can't bring himself to do it. The Multi-Bear doesn't deserve to die for not being man enough, and is it really manly to do something like this?

Dipper goes back to the manotaurs and refuses his task. He doesn't need to do all of this to be a man, and he won't kill for it. He doesn't change the manotaurs, and he gets thrown out on his ass, shuffling his way back to the diner.

He explains what happens to Mabel and Stan, and Stan, the biggest source of teasing and mockery directed at Dipper, tells him what he did was quite manly in his opinion. He stood up for himself and did what he thought was right, sounds manly enough for Stan.

Dipper gets his first chest hair after that, and after Stan asks Susan out, the episode ends.

Another episode that points to Dipper possibly being trans, Bottomless Pit! is a multistory episode, where Soos, Dipper, and Mabel tell stories while the three and Stan are stranded in the bottomless pit.

Dipper's story is called Voice-Over, and features him getting made fun of for having a cracking high pitched voice. Upset and looking for a solution, he takes McGucket's solution to make his voice deeper.

It distresses Mabel and sounds weird on him, but finally, he has a deep and manly voice, and no one can make fun of his old voice.

Unfortunately it gets him in trouble and he begs McGucket for a different voice. McGucket gives him a new vial, a permanent voice, and Dipper pauses. He listens to the mixtape of his voice Wendy, Soos, and Mabel made, and he finds a sweet message at the end from the trio, and he doesn't drink it. He's okay with his voice, it isn't perfect, but it's his.

These are only the highlights of Dipper's struggle with masculinity and himself and how people treat him, Stan being tough and assigning tough chores on him to make him more of a man is an additional highlight, it's quite common for well meaning relatives to do such things to make their trans family members more like what they think of a person of their gender should be. There's plenty more instances of Dipper trying to be more manly and masculine to avoid ridicule or to earn respect, plenty more instances of him struggling to be and find himself.

While it may not have been written as a trans story, it could be read as a trans story.

Thank you for listening.

[feferipeixes]

Puppeteer Dysphoria

Inspired by the TAUtober 2021 prompt for day 2: "Puppeteer".

(AO3 link)

Mabel's body was very similar to Dipper's, before the Transcendence.

Too similar, in fact. There was a strange feeling that hit him every time it happened. A fire burned within him, ever since Bill Cipher sparked it with his dying touch. It was fire, and yet his sister offered herself freely to it, reaching her hand in and letting him pull back.

It was natural in an unnatural way, the way he effortlessly slipped into the gap she left, spreading his thought through her nerves, caressing the sinews of her skin. He flicked a finger, as easy as pulling the string on a marionette's cross, and her body acted in turn. Another string made her head turn, so he could see Mabel's ghostly form giving him a goofy look from the Mindscape. One of the strings jerked of its own accord, and he realised he wasn't breathing. That gave him the opportunity to open her lungs and suck in that delicious, delicious air.

Dipper didn't have a body of his own anymore -- hadn't for a long time. Now he lived in the realm of thought, and his only tether to the real world was Mabel. Mabel, who supported him from the very beginning. Mabel, who trusted him when his own parents didn't. Mabel, who even let him use her body as if it was his own. This was just one of the many ways his life had changed, how even the most fundamental things like having a body were now alien.

And yet, everything about her felt familiar. They had the same face. They had the same build, the same skin, the same hair. When he passed by a pool of water and looked in, he didn't see Mabel possessed by a demon. He only saw himself.

Sometimes he was Alcor, the distant and powerful demon, puppetting this mortal in fulfilment of the basest instincts that ran through his species. He could revel in the ability to touch and move and be real, to have an impact on the world, to carry out his deeds.

And sometimes he was Dipper Pines, once again trapped inside a girl's body, and that was when things became too real.

It was times like that when he did not feel like a puppeteer, reaching into reality from above. It was times like that when he felt suffocated by her skin. He'd try to alleviate it by putting on his old vest and t-shirt, and by tucking his long hair into his pine tree hat. But in a way that only made things worse, because it put him right back to when he used to do that in his own flesh.

Before he transitioned.

Before the Transcendence.

As he went to work on whatever cult needed bashing or whatever mystery needed solving, that feeling remained a palpable presence on his mind. And later on, when he stood in the shower, cleaning off the blood and letting the bruises heal so that Mabel didn't have to deal with them, Dipper could not help but notice the ways in which her body was not the same as his.

It was a reminder of what he'd been heading toward, back when his body was on the cusp of entering the wrong puberty. Back when everyone else thought he was girl just because of the way he was born. And though he still enjoyed the feeling of walking around in a suit made of matter, it made him feel grateful that he was only puppetting the body; that at the end of the day, he could slip back out of that suit and into a more comfortable form.

The form of a boy, like he always knew he was.

[evaroze]

Quick sketches of my interpretation of an adult Pacifica feat. Her boyfriend Dipper~

[cartoonsofthecosmos]

So, I think Dipper Pines is a trans boy. If you would like me to explain why I have that headcanon/theory, let me know and I’d be happy to make a post about it. For the meantime, however, there are already a lot of posts outlining the evidence. Today, I wanna talk about a common reason people reject the trans Dipper theory, and why I think it just makes the theory MORE believable.

A little background on the trans dipper theory. Again, there is a lot more to the theory than what I list here. The theory was actually once relatively common when Dipper’s real name was shrouded in secrecy. People theorized that his real name could actually be his deadname. Dipper’s name was not revealed until the print version of Journal 3, released after the conclusion of the series. After Dipper’s real name, Mason, was revealed, the theory died down in popularity (although it had already lost some popularity by then). Fans saw Dipper’s real name as counterevidence. But I disagree.

The name Mason was revealed in Journal Three, in an entry written by Ford. Here’s exactly what the journal said (written from Ford’s pov):

“You and I are some of the strangest beans this town has ever seen, Dipper,” I told him.

“Mason,” he blurted out. He seemed shocked by what had come out of his mouth, and then deliberately repeated it. “My real name is Mason. Dipper is just a nickname. But everyone got used to it, and now it feels too late to tell everyone the truth. And it’s kind of a dumb name anyway. Don’t tell anyone.”

I tussled his hair and smiled at him. “Your secret’s safe with me, Mason,” I said. “And I think it’s a great name. The Masons are a great secret society, you know.” He smiled. I realized how much he trusted me–and what a shame it was that he was leaving at the end of the summer.

Let’s set the scene. Dipper and Ford are adventuring together. They are bonding, and Dipper has been developing this complete trust in Ford. I think that while they were on this trip, Dipper started to think about potentially telling Ford his big secret–he’s trans. Naturally, his brain wandered, and he started to think about his name.

I think that Dipper DOES have a deadname, and we don’t know what it is. He adopted Dipper as a nickname, perhaps even before he knew he was trans, and  kept it, never choosing a new name. But, of course, he was thinking about it, and he privately thought that he liked the name Mason. In a moment of trust, he blurts out his chosen name to Ford, who is the first person to hear it. (Ford, however, was in another dimension when Dipper was born and does not know that Mason isn’t his birth name).

This theory is supported by everything else that Dipper says. He blurts out his name, and then repeats it, almost to himself. I think it’s the first time he’s said his chosen name to anyone else. Then there's the line “and now it feels too late to tell everyone the truth.” That line sounds absolutely trans-coded to me. It’s hard to tell people about a name or pronoun change, especially when you’re already Dipper’s age or older and it feels like it’s too late because everyone already knows your deadname. And finally, Dipper instantly second-guesses and feels self-conscious about his choice of name, saying “it’s kind of a dumb name anyway.” 

The way Dipper reveals his name implies to me that it is a chosen name. I don’t think learning that Dipper’s name is Mason disproves the trans dipper theory. I think it does exactly the opposite.