PARKER FANART BY MY DEAR FRIEND

"..."

"i'm not into emos"

(full r63 parker)

I was contemplating Parker's gender. So far I've labeled him a demiboy (AMAB), but I find that I keep essentially just treating him as cis, which I don't want. Despite my huge number of same-sex-love characters I don't really have any genderqueer characters. Ike was supposed to have very subtle hints of transfemininity, Ronnie is supposed to be gender apathetic, Asa is a trans man, but that's it. Their gender identities usually get swept under the rug anyway.

But I think it makes a lot of sense for Parker to be genderqueer, especially transmasculine. I've known a number of "Parkers" in my life, and I've played with the idea of FTM Parker since his conception. (I also would just like to draw him in a binder...) There are a lot of narrative benefits of Parker being AMAB that I think would be changed if he was trans, though. I would like Parker to be in settings like locker rooms or bathrooms with Ike, but unfortunately they are American teenagers. This setting can be easily fixed, though, I've already established that Parker is a little rebellious, so he might just do what he wants. Or I could take creative liberty and end systemic transphobia. Or I could explore an extra struggle for Parker. So it doesn't end up being that big of a problem.

I also like the idea of Parker being feminine. Not to say that trans men can't be feminine, or that trans femboys don't exist, but as a cis person writing him I think it could easily slip into dysphoria, which I wouldn't want. I think of Parker as being a doormat, even in his gender expression (like how femboys are fetishized by weird men to be called "she," in complete honesty I think Parker would be fine with that), but a transmasculine Parker is in my eyes more adamant and assertive about his maleness, even if he isn't so loud about it, and even if he likes to explore femininity.

But I want him to be perceived as male by his peers, and unfortunately I don't think that would happen. As a person who knows a lot of genderqueer people, the only people to my knowledge who had their identities widely respected outside their social circle were already very popular. And even then, not everyone I knew supported them. Parker is already so unpopular that I think that if he was trans then it would just give people another thing to torment him with. Parker needs to be bullied as a boy and I don't think his schoolmates are courteous enough to give him that.

Another alternative was MTNB. Parker's already very much his own person, and he already doesn't conform to gender, so I think making him non-binary would not only make sense for his actual gender identity but also for what he represents. I also liked this idea, but in my mind Parker is a man. So AMAB demiboy has been the answer for a while.