moe

*teleports behind you* now i'll show you what true illiteracy really is....

*turns around*

Jumpscare! That hot chick had a cock! This incident is about how everyone except her feels about it.

This is Fern, everyone exclusively refers to them with they/them pronouns, it will never be elaborated upon narratively, they are a static character outside the main cast

Tee hee, I'm an anime girl who's actually a BOY. Have I mentioned I'm a boy today?

Critically acclaimed subplot where a trans man self actualises and then does nothing else for the entire rest of the series. Everyone has long serious talks about his identity in vague terms that are perfectly useless for anyone to reflect on themselves or relate to him in any way whatsoever.

Critically acclaimed story about the tragedy of a 40-year-old trans woman who's so, so brave. Just so incredibly brave. The cis man playing her sacrificed so much of his dignity for this role where he put on a wig and said "respect my choice to live my truth".

Today on Copaganda we ask the important question: Is the murdered sex worker in the wrong sometimes? It's complicated, because penis.

Because Fern is treated as a substitute for representation of nonbinary experiences in general. Fern has always been Fern, their pronouns have always been they/them, and that means as far as the story is concerned they are effectively a cis nonbinary person.

They have never transitioned beyond what the audience has to infer from the fact that they exist and use they/them pronouns. The same trans representation for someone using she/her pronouns literally would not register as trans rep, because she would just textually read as a cis woman.

One Fern is whatever. Many Ferns across multiple pieces of media, consistently treated as sufficient representation, become a problem. Trans "representation" without transition.

Defanged. Nonthreatening. Easy to pretend you didn't even notice. Decoupled from having been born, having been expected to be one gender and then actually being another.