So the thing I'm questioning myself on with regards to this idea is whether I want to look at fandom reactions to transfeminine readings of characters. I've settled on exploring the characters listed there, as well as adding in Kirara from JJK, to give myself a nice mix of characters & story types without having too broad of a scope. The question now is whether I just do textual analysis or if I take a step further and explore metatextual dynamics.
I don't want to expand my research scope too broadly. I fear that will both drain my capacity by taking on too large of a project, while also weakening any conclusions that I draw due to poor research practices. In other words, I'm doubtful of my ability to take on what could easily become an extensive research project.
If I keep the analysis textual, I can explore overlapping themes between explicitly trans women characters, strongly implied trans women characters, and analytical readings of characters as trans women. The research question would fundamentally be about patterns around and signifiers of women characters whose transness impact their stories across different types of media.
If I do that and then expand to metatextual readings, I'll be able to incorporate useful context for the readings of these characters. Reactions to Kirara or Bridget insisting on them being "femboys", the prevalence of transmasculine readings of Kris, Ralsei, or Jax (or even Robert!) over transfem readings, Dana Terrace's shutting down of the Frankie as a trans woman theory— there's so much there. There's so much that is crucial to how these characters function in popular conversations they appear in. In this case, the research question would fundamentally be about how audiences and creators react to transfeminine readings of characters in media, particularly (though not limited to) characters that are not explicitly trans women. (Hint: it's transmisogynistic)
This is all a lot to be decided but I just needed to get my thoughts down somewhere. This is gonna be a long process, and I don't want to dilute the conclusions by overestimating my ability, but I do strongly feel as though those conclusions are worth finding. I'll figure this out.
