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I wasn’t going to say anything, because I don’t want to upset anyone, and I believe that everyone has the right to their own opinions and headcanons, queer or otherwise.
But at this point it’s unavoidable.
The sheer prevalence of the “trans Apollo Justice” headcanon trend, and the way in which some of the fandom treat the idea and interact it with it is uncomfortable.
Speaking as a trans man, the way I see Apollo Justice presented in fandom as trans is deeply uncomfortable.
It’s uncomfortable because the “evidence” people use for this headcanon is all deeply emasculating stereotypes about trans men, and reflective of the insecurities that trans men have.
Saying that “Apollo could be trans” because he’s short, small, unconfident, and has to work hard to be loud and be heard is reflective of negative stereotypes of trans men that many trans men feel uncomfortable, ashamed and like they’ll never be seen as men.
Likewise, a lot of the way that people talk casually about trans Apollo Justice is anything but affirming of his masculinity. It’s again emasculating– it’s humiliating. It’s all uwu soft bean, tboy swag, twink, so small so precious. It’s not affirming of his gender.
There are 355 works on AO3 tagged with “trans apollo justice”. Out of those works, 155– fully half of them– are tagged as explicit. They’re about, or contain, explicit sex. This is not a bad thing.
However, a quick glance at the last 2 pages or so “trans apollo justice” fics? They’re all “vaginal sex” “breeding”, “breast fucking”, “cunnilingus”.
I’m not one to cry “fetishization” but this feels like fetishization.
Do you think I could find a fic where Apollo uses a strap on someone else if I tried?
This doesn’t feel gender affirming.
This feels uncomfortable.
And I raise this point not to yuck anyone’s yum.
But it’s becoming unavoidable. I have the tag “trans apollo justice” blocked on tumblr, and I still see uncomfortable posts about it because people don’t tag it.
I’m not saying anyone has to stop headcanoning Apollo as trans.
But I hope you’ll take another look at why you feel that way, how you’re talking about Apollo and his masculinity, and why all of that might make some trans men uncomfortable.
Discussion ¬