#trans headcanons

Actually, I know exactly how they feel about it!

Alex Hirch has spoken multiple times about how he feels about queer headcanons for his characters (including in Hana Hyperfixates Book of Bill video!), and he explains that while he can't confirm any of them due to most of the characters being based off of his and other writer's experiences, he does consider transgender and other headcanons more than valid. Really, the only thing I've seen Alex push back on in terms of fan works is problematic shipping for Dipper and Mabel, like pinec*st and billdip.

Here's a clip @hkthatgffan posted from a recent comic con where Alex addressed it directly:

Heyy, don’t worry I didn’t take this as criticism.

Uhm, well, I still don’t know how I feel about trans headcanons but I never hated them. I particularly just feel..iffie with them if that makes any sense?

You're allowed to headcanon a character as trans for any reason. Whether you think their story resonates with the trans experience, you personally relate to them, you just think it would be neat, or any other reason. It's allowed. Headcanons do not need to be "deep" to be valid

And it also just. Is of note the subtle misogyny in telling trans men that they are stupid and incapable of media analysis because of our inferior brain function

But to say a little more, headcanoning a character who makes more sense as transfem as transmasc is still not a crime. And yes, that goes for vice versa. My prime example of vice versa is noelle holiday. A large percentage of the fandom sees her as transfeminine, with the only evidence or reasoning I've seen presented is her having horns as a female deer. Which does ignore how carol and rudy both have horns despite being her mom and dad. On top of this, she would have needed to transition very young, as it's implied she identified as a girl when she was still close with kris. Compared to this, a transmasculine reading of noelle makes a bit more sense. Her repressing her weirdness to be the perfect daughter, her saying she doesn't want to be just "noelle doing noelle things", the weird route forcing her into what many people have considered to be a heteronormative "female" role (her obviously hating it because it's the weird route), etc (I know it's lame to put etc here but there are better analyzers of noelle's potential transmasc coding than I lmao)

And despite this, transfem noelle remains the most popular noelle gender headcanon.

NOW. DO NOT TAKE THIS IN BAD FAITH. I like transfem noelle, and I like transmasc noelle, because sometimes fandom doesn't need to be perfectly plot relevant, and trans headcanons are already scrutinized enough by transphobic cis fans, so why should we criticize them ourselves as trans people.

This is all just to say, transfem headcanons aren't always the "deeper" option because not every character is the same. And, who cares if it is deeper? If a trans reading was already not intended, what's the harm in exploring every possibility?

IMAGE TEXT:

“I am a member of the svsss fandom and I also noticed the rampant transphobia. I don’t think a lot of the people writing for transgender headcannons see trans people as their chosen genders, trans people who write for these headcannons included.