I think a lot about the super early Trans Jax discourse and how a sizable margin of it was about how it was bad rep and how there was "better" representation of transness in other media. What really got to me though was how a lot of the "good" rep were characters that had already transitioned or transitioned in the story.
While that type of representation IS very important (especially now), I do feel a little weird about how that type of rep is hailed as the superior type. I know more trans people that are like Lee/Jax, only out to certain people and/or are still moding for the most part. So the idea of a character like Jax, who is very messy ON PURPOSE, being seen as lesser rep for not outwardly saying the T word and not transitioning on screen feels really... off-putting. It especially makes me concerned for trans spaces where people who are having complicated feelings towards their gender and presentation LIKE Jax may see the discourse as invalidating their transness.
I don't think a lot of these people that called Jax bad rep are trying to do this, but it still stands that such a negative response to a style of trans rep not really common in mainstream media may unintentionally make people who do see themselves in Lee feel unwelcome, and that's a tragedy.
