THE BOARD, please!

i regret to inform you that this actually happens in the original show and you just missed it. Steven spends the entirety of Lion 4: Alternate Ending trying to find hints from Rose about what he’s supposed to do with his life, what he is supposed to be for. Eventually, when he finds the Nora tape he takes it to Greg who tells him that as far as he knew, Steven isn’t necessarily supposed to have a magical destiny, his entire purpose to be something that doesn’t have a purpose, to be something that is supposed to grow and change and be different one moment to the next —

"Because you're going to become something extraordinary. You're going to be a human being. *giggles* That's my favorite part. A human being. A human is an action. I wonder who, how you'll be, what you'll think, what you'll want. Oh, I'm so happy for everyone who's going to know you.

Steven even asks his dad the exact question that so many trans youth before him struggling with their identity asked: Would you have preferred me if I were a girl? Was I supposed to be a girl? These are questions that haunt kids working out that they’re trans, as if everything wrong with Steven’s life would be explained by how he was supposed to be a girl. I relate to this a lot. But the part that really sends it home to me is how Greg responds:

Steven, she just wanted you to be you. When you have a kid, you have no idea who they're gonna be. Even Garnet couldn't predict it. That's what was so exciting to your mom, that life is full of so many possibilities, and you would get to explore them for yourself. I mean, you could be Steven or Nora or anyone else. And you can always change your name. Hey, I did.

Erika, referencing ebenezer scrooge: You, boy! What day is it?!

sorry but this video is like a parasitic species to me

definitely yes. it centers around a transmisogynistic caricature who is a "transvestite from the planet transsexual" who rapes half the cast, murders a captive, and essentially transes the survivors

the creator comes off as deeply closeted, talking a lot over the years about their gender but also saying trans women can't be women. the show, to me, definitely seems to reflect a lot of internalized transmisogyny. don't get me wrong, this makes it an interesting and at times somewhat cathartic watch! to an extent it feels like it cheekily plays with and revels in transmisogynistic stereotypes, and the villain's final song before dying gives them a grain of pathos in the 11th hour. a sort of transfeminist read of the play is possible. if you squint

I adore my local theater and its actors, but when some friends invited me to go to the show with them, I stayed home, because I wanted to still be able to watch performers I loved (all tme), and I knew seeing them do this show would make me hate them. I think it's possible to enjoy the show while deconstructing it through a critical transfeminist lens, but I'm under no illusions that it's become a staple of queer culture because TMEs just love to deconstruct its transmisogyny. no, people love to fawn over a ~scary and controversial~ transmisogynistic caricature. many get offended and defensive at transfeminist criticisms of the show, treating it as being above critique because it's a classic. transfeminists are annoying buzzkill prudes for taking issue. the villain from the planet transsexual surely can't be transmisogynistic because they're not explicitly called a trans woman. we're just looking for reasons to get offended