17.4 jellyfish in a dazai coat

Do you remember when someone asked the creator of “My Life As A Teenage Robot” created Jenny to be trans?

And instead of just lying and saying “yes we always meant for Jenny to be trans explicitly!!” he explained that they had not intended for Jenny to be trans but that it was cool that people had that interpretation and he was happy that Jenny resonated with them?

What’s happening with Dana’s response is the same thing. She may have worded it way more simply, but I need y’all to understand that it would have been way more performative if she had just said “Yes! Frankie is trans!” when that consideration and intention was not behind the writing of that character.

You can absolutely have trans characters and stories where the character’s story is not related SOLELY to their trans-ness. But I think it’s important to STILL show that their trans identity is there and important. Just saying “this character is trans/lesbian/gay/bi/ace/etc.” without ACTUALLY signifying or representing that in ANY WAY is not actually representation.

Imagine if Sherlock and Watson HAD been confirmed gay by Stefan Moffat but they never once had either character ever show any attraction whatsoever to men in any way. I think that would still be queer-baiting. Just SAYING “yeah this character is LGBTQ+” is not enough

I really respect Dana for being honest and not leading the audience on by saying Frankie is trans when the care, consideration, and intention for writing her that way wasn’t done. She did not say you couldn’t interpret Frankie as trans, she did not say you can’t resonate with Frankie as a trans person or read her story as a trans one, she did not say you couldn’t headcanon Frankie is trans.

She was just completely clear and honest about how the character was written and apparently people are trying to CRUCIFY her for it.

chapter 5 is coming out on yuri day...

There is 15 tomorrows til June 24th, the release date of deltarune chapter 5!