I mean I expected some negative feedback but mostly along the lines of like, “I wish you left it open for interpretation” alongside the occasional consideration “But given your track record I can believe that you thought you were sparing disappointment by saying it.”
So it’s kinda crazy seeing the discourse plummet from “Yeah that was non-optimal wording in the response but I can imagine what the well-meaning thought process was” to “Dana Terrace is offended by the thought of trans women relating to her” so fast like apparently you’re either the purest transfem ally or JKR herself and there is no in-between or nuance ever.
But also two months ago this exchange happened regarding one of her characters, a clone whose arc involved finding his own identity from his abuser’s intentions for him:
(Not to mention the original tweet that prompted the question, shown in this screenshot.)
Now obviously not everyone can know the deep Dana Terrace lore but I think these points still need to be made because like, it really sucks to be told that the creator of your beloved show is repulsed by you. So the fact that this can be pretty easily disputed should be brought up? By the end of the day we don’t really know Dana Terrace but that applies to both defenders and critics. But we do know some things:
Dana’s stated in the past “Death of the Author” and “Headcanon” wrt her own discussions on her characters’ identities, while acknowledging that it’s basically up for interpretation (I presume because the characters she mentioned were ones whose identities were never indicated within the show; When it came to Luz and Amity she did call them Bi and Lesbian without caveats, and the same happened for Lilith’s aroace identity, which comes from a canon voice-acted letter from a charity stream for queer youths).
Plus there’s also her openness to Frankie and Andi being read as sapphic with one another, which is much more clarifying about how that’s not the story she’s going for and it’s not the story you should expect, but don’t let that stop you:
I’ve seen some ppl use this against Dana but I feel yall are willfully assigning malice instead of admitting that she probably thought/forgot to clarify this again like she did the previous times. It’s kinda weird how ppl have decided retroactively that this is proof about Dana being anti-queer as if queerness is inherently defined by romance (screw aros I guess).
Plus I think some of this is an attempt to avoid eventual discourse, later down the road, about not leaning into Frankie as a trans woman more given the discourse about Willow Park not having black features due to having been presumed to be half-black, which Dana confirmed after Kiana Khansmith pointed this out.
Because Willow Park being assumed as half-black stemmed from ppl HC’ing that witches were capable of same-sex reproduction, and then applied that idea to the HC that Harvey was Willow’s biological father and not just a stepdad, which basically meant there was discourse founded over a HC that the show never actually indicated was true. Obviously Harvey’s ethnicity was a nod to Willow’s VA Tati Gabrielle being Blasian herself, but she was cast after Willow’s design had been finalized. Willow’s dad being visibly Korean like her while her other dad didn’t look the part was not just a reference to that but also an indication that they weren’t related and he was a stepdad, because normalizing step parents without having to comment was part of Dana’s stated intention.
And she’s not against criticism, as when people pointed out that Luz and Camila needed more black features, this did lead to their hair being made curly in the final season as a response.
All of this is to say: Dana seems chill and open with different takes on characters’ identities and generally makes it clear in the language of her response, has shown herself favorable of transfem HCs of her characters, and generally tries to take in criticism while explaining her thought process.
tangentwithtanner
ellievsbear
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kianamaiart
turnnoffyourmind
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