Steven

VITA CARNIS

why is no one talking about the fact they trans fem'd fern ? and beautifully ? like I feel like no one is talking enough about the fact that we have gotten extremely explicit transness/gender nonconformity/gender transgression for multiple characters in Fionna and cake. not even just with hunter having top surgery scars (which I'm still reeling over), or with fern going on cosmic estrogen, but both characters have traits and have said this which point to deeper trans themes.

we see hunter struggle to contain their hurt and insecurities when faced with Fionna blowing them off. as a trans person who faces similar insecurities, which may not necessarily be caused by my being trans but they're definitely related, I can relate. feeling like people don't want to give you the time of day because they don't take you seriously -oftentimes bc my being trans or bc of my being a poc, or both- makes it harder for me to contain my anger and resentment as well, like we see hunter express (in a moment which Fionna herself called rare) this same kind of frustration. i, like hunter, try to fight against these feelings of inadequacy and have to constantly remind myself that I'm enough, not despite my otherness, but in fact because I claim it. they're more confident than I am certainly but I still see this in them.

with fern, we're reintroduced to them for the first time since they MARTYRED THEMSELF DRAMATICALLY IN THE FINALE (again, why aren't more people talking about this??). they seem much surer of themselves and fulfilled, despite the strange/complicated reality of therapy world they find themself in. they even talk about how they've now let go of Finn, and decentered that yearning for his life. this to me sounds just like the kind of self acceptance and decentering of cisness that I've had to overcome as well. my life isn't perfect obviously, but taking the time to feel comfortable in my gender and transness helps me a lot.

you're beautiful