I like monsters

twins 🩷🖤🤍

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also, I'll focus on the movie just fyi, but some parts of the book will be talked about.

Rocky and Adrian's relationship, gender and sexuality in fandom analysis

[PT: Rocky and Adrian's relationship, gender and sexuality in fandom analysis]

Gender

[PT: Gender]

So the Eridians seem to be a unisexual species, with no gender as we know it. And the use of he/him pronouns by Grace towards Rocky can be attributed just to our human social biases with patriarchy —Which are the one's I'll be using to make no confusions, and I want to reiterate that pronouns don't equal gender. But apart from the headcanon of after that Rocky and Grace talking about it and either:

1- It's decided that he prefers they/them or another rendition of neo/xenopronouns or combination of some after he researches human gender identity and expression.

2- It's decided that he'll keep he/him to match with Grace.

There have been others, but these are the main ones done when exploring it. The thing is that he in the fandom seems to still be pretty much associated with masculinity/androgyny for the most part, probably coming too from the pronouns used.

The thing is that then when doing Adrian it seems like, subconsciously, people have associated Adrian to have to be associated with androgyny/femininity. That is seen as most dynamics that are done with the pair are very much subversions of the perceived patriarchal expectations of relationships —The man/masculine one being the strong big typical western idea of masculinity, and the feminine one/woman being the smaller, emotional typical western idea of femininity.

These expectations are not only commonly put onto monoallo cishet perisex relationships, but they always are expected in some way in its counterparts. That can be seen with the idea of Sapphic relationships being expected to be masc x fem, Achillean relationships being expected to have a clear bear x twink, etc.

With Rocky and Adrian this can be seen with the general idea the fandom has done. As when these things I will be listing are drawn/narrated they often have an undertone of "how good! We're subverting expectations!". But with that comes also the connotation that one is generally seen as more feminine and the other as more masculine genderwise, and this changes subvert that already supposed idea of gender they have been put on.

This goes for what I've seen the most and therefore see as the majority, this does not go for everything, as fandoms are always very varied, and this one in particular especially in regards of queer themes.

This can be seen with the making Rocky very emotional/fidgety/whipped when he's with Adrian, and the other being much more nonchalant/quiet/serene.

The depictions of Rocky being a lot smaller in comparison and the shape language too. As Rocky is commonly depicted as more round and Adrian as more triangular, which could come from this idea of subverting expectations as feminine people are generally seen as soft/cute/little and masculine ones as sharp/strong/big.

And with this comes the next part:

Sexuality

[PT: Sexuality]

So with what we've seen with gender, we tend to have this idea of femininity and masculinity appointed to both of them, to try to subvert it.

But with that tends to not only come these conclusions of gender —on an, again, genderless species— but also this supposed heteronormativity. As in, we tend to suppose in a relationship, even if not fully calling it a straight relationship, this idea that we need to have these opposite sides of the spectrum of femininity/masculinity clear. That there needs to be this binary within a relationship, even when trying to subvert it.

But we're more often than not seeing it, when turned human (as a lot of fanarts of AU has) as a heterosexual relationship. Again doing the whole gender thing and then putting it together with heteronormativity.

To me this feels like it could come from this idea that for one, we have very much normalized this as the standard, and we've come to associate Rocky with Grace, who's a man. And putting together our heteronormative and binary subconscious ideologies, and fully only having Rocky interact with a man the whole movie can be the reason.

As for one, the movie uses he/him pronouns for him. And socially we have been used to seeing only friendships with your own gender, and any crossover being seen as cheating/intrinsically romantic/sexual, with no platonic option if none are confirmed to only like the same gender.