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hostage-fiver — Pidge

#genderishard #pidge #voltron
Published: 2016-07-18 20:25:30 +0000 UTC; Views: 1463; Favourites: 56; Downloads: 0
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Description Not Sure What I Want To See Them Do In Season 2, Why Not Both: The Pidge Gunderson Story

No really. On the one hand, a female pilot??? Awesome! They wouldn't even have to change a thing, Pidge could just be themself and have that be cool. But then, does it become a case of "you can be an awesome paladin too, as long as you're completely indistinguishable from the boys"? Feminine rep in these genres would be so cool. Don't let the angry mysoginists carry on in plausible denial that that plot line didn't happen and Pidge is actually Just A Cis Boy - Let Pidge Be Feminine It Won't Bite You I Promise

On the other hand: dies of thirst for trans rep

maybe Pidge will re-accept and lean back toward their femininity (they left cutting their hair to the last minute, it seems; almost remorseful about the change as a marker of their femininity bc let's face it this is a cartoon and shit is symbolic, if a girl (cis or trans) cuts her hair in real life it does not magically make her a boy in the same way you can have long hair and be a boy ANYWAY it's a complex discussion about presentation vs identifying but Pidge's internal identity wasn't the issue for them at that point in time)

OR MAYBE Pidge will find themselves at odds with it all, in which case comes the important distinction of "I can still identify as a girl behaving/dressing how I do because girls can be anything fuck you nothing has to change" (great)

or "maybe I don't identify as a girl but it's because of my own feelings on the matter not because of how other people see my presentation/behaviour" (also great)

or even "actually I identify as neither/both/don't give a fuck say what you want I do what I want at any given time" (my pref I think) IN ANY CASE there needs needs to be some elaboration on Pidge's actual inner workings about it because they are a cartoon character and do not have the agency to define themselves

look what it boils down to is there are not enough characters exploring these issues so Pidge is left in a nebulous void of You're The Only One We've Got So Any Way You Handle This It Shits On Someone and I'm so sorry my space child

please help
I've spent too long here
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Comments: 3

DeadCobra [2016-08-06 13:23:40 +0000 UTC]

Great
She looks lovely

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3Fangs [2016-07-22 00:02:02 +0000 UTC]

Well NUTS.
I thought the art style for the new Voltron was just fine...until I saw this.
Why can't I watch an animated show that has YOUR art style? (I love this rendition of Pidge, with both long and short hair.)
I like how you kept the fem aspects subtle on the one side--both versions are obviously the same character and it's really cool to see that you didn't have to go too far one way or another to make that apparent. You did a superb job.

Ugh. Maaaaan, I don't know what I'd rather see in the series either.
There are too many good options to play with, there honestly NEEDS to be more such characters just so that all these interesting facets can be touched upon and properly explored. I know TV-land still has a ways to go, but it's making progress and I'd LOVE to see something tackling gender issues. I do feel bad that this particular character and however they're handled will shit upon someone, but I sincerely hope that SOMETHING gets done with them. I haven't even watched the show (yet) but just thinking on this ties my brain in knots because I want so badly to see diversely gendered characters on TV. It wouldn't be so maddening if there WERE other options out there. Instead Pidge stands as a beacon of glorious possibility...I'm sure at some point other characters will come along somewhere, but right now this is what we have and dammit, it's IMPORTANT. We'll get all sorts of diversity in webcomics but when it comes to more "traditional" mediums (TV, movies, print comics) it's a slooooooow process. (It's so frustrating!)

Siiiiiiiigh.
I'm really torn on this one. My brain keeps circling, unsure of what it wants to see more.

Also: jeez, your colors always look delicious.

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hostage-fiver In reply to 3Fangs [2016-07-30 17:45:15 +0000 UTC]

Haha! It would be so hard to animate like that though :'D
Thanks - I've seen a few drawings of Pidge now with even shorter hair?? Like shaved sides. I thought that suited them pretty well too. The options are endless!

The problem with fictional characters is they have no agency to explain themselves. We just have to take whatever the series shows us at face value as to how the character identifies, so I'm guessing Pidge will continue to be portrayed as "cis girl with some behaviours people don't expect of women" and honestly unless they got a trans person to look at the writing for the character it's probably for the best. At least Pidge will provide some counter balance to Princess Allura's hyper femme deal, heh

In the meantime, we'll carry on quietly making our own rep

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