#content recommendations

Same for mollies in media if you have any hc.

Oh buddy. I’m sorry for the bad news. You must be new here 😂

Off the top of my head… Toph, Mizu, and Ambessa (Arcane) are the only ones.

There’s a few other possibilities from shows and movies I haven’t seen though. I talk about media representation of gender nonconformity (or lack thereof) somewhat frequently here so there might be a few I’m forgetting that are hiding in my media tags somewhere (#hetGNC representation, #culture & media, #content recommendations). As an example, I’ve heard Odessa (from the movie Odessa) is good representation but idk, I haven’t seen the movie myself yet.

There’s a lesser-known virago (?) character from a short story I’m in the middle of reading right now that I LOVE, plus her mollis (?) love interest. It’s called “Six Deaths of the Saint.” Haven’t finished it yet (I’m SAVORING it hahaha) so I’m hesitant to call it representation before I’ve finished it, but it’s been amazing so far. I’ll report back when I’m done reading.

I think there are also a couple of indie games with virago and mollis characters— check out @cecidibujera and @why-js !

Oh for sure, I totally think voice can be a cool aspect of outward expression/presentation. (Related: I gave my thoughts about my own voice here.)

For example I am OBSESSED with Gigi Perez’s deep voice, especially in Sailor Song and Fable.

I did not know about that!!!!! Either of them! I’ll have to check both of those out!! I have to admit that I’ve sort of lost faith in books that promise to have some sort of genderbend/nonconformity in them but maybe I’ll go read some reviews and see what’s up…

It was really inspiring to read, and gave me a bit of hope for myself.

Here's a link to the forum posts anon is talking about!

"There are SO few cultural examples of men showing attraction to butch women that I find it really hard to believe any man could genuinely find me hot. My brain tells me those men must be out there, but my heart isn't convinced yet. I always find myself thinking that men might like me in spite of my butchness rather than because of it."

God, OP summed this experience up so well here. No notes. That's exactly how it feels.

Here's one of my favorite comments of encouragement:

I can say that since I got a stereotypically lesbian haircut, I get less attention from men in general, but the men who no longer notice me are for the most part the sorts of men who think of women as some general concept rather than as individual people. It is admittedly harder to pick up men on Tinder, but the people I actually meet are less likely to be disappointing, and a lot of them are enormously turned on by me.

That sounds about right-- Being yourself might please less people than being a people pleaser will, but it will also attract the people who are actually meant for you, and filter out all the people who were just going to waste your time anyway.

This is kind of random, but I was wondering if you had any gnc book recommendations? You might not even be much of a reader, so this ask may be pointless, but I love to read and just-- I don't like... romance. At least normal romance. I'm just not a big fan of the dynamic between the guy and girl in most stories

If you could think of anything that'd be greatly appreciated :>

But if not that's fine too, no pressure always

I've been thinking about it but I really don't think I know of any, at least not any that are exactly what you're looking for. It's possible there are some out there that I'm unaware of though for sure!

Honestly the lack of diversity in the book (specifically fantasy) industry is frustrating. Not even solely from a social progress standpoint but also just... as a reader, I feel like lately all the books on the shelf are just the exact same story recycled over and over with slightly different names :/

I feel you with not finding straight romance appealing at all, I can't relate to the dynamics at all either 😂😂 For a while I was reading some mlm romance because it satisfied the dynamic I was looking for, but I would really love to see a hetGNC romance in a book someday.

I'll list all of the stories that I know of that you might want to check out, but all of them fit what you're looking for only partially. Also, they're all romances, which might disqualify them in your book?

Traditional Books

Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer (a genderbend rewrite of Twilight). I have not read this one but have heard it was a refreshing read for others in the community. Apparently the characters themselves aren't all that GNC, but the narrative frames them in a GNC way, if that makes sense? I'd imagine that means it's something like a gender-conforming Role Reversal romance.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. One of the mlm romances I read and really liked. Obviously, this one isn't "het" but it is a bit "gnc." Keyword is "a bit" here though haha. The book is told from Patroculs' perspective and the way he describes Achilles is interestingly quite feminine. There's even an instance where Achilles is wearing women's clothing and the characters describe him as something along the lines of "he's so naturally feminine that for a second I didn't even realize he wasn't a woman." It also includes the "touch him and die" trope.

Fanfiction

A fanfiction I loved as a kid, which I talked about here.

@cadybear420's GNC fanfiction for the Choices SYP fandom.

Comics/Manga

The Rose of Versailles, which is a manga. This is one I also haven't read, but have heard others in the community refer to it as hetGNC androgynous x androgynous "straight yaoi" lol so I'm assuming it belongs on this list. I had someone tell me about it a while ago.