Something else I really like about Raine from The Owl House is that they're a middle-aged non-binary character, which is really rare and definitely needed
Absolutely true!!! Not just good for representing older folk, but amazing to encourage younger folk to keep on living. It totally debunks the "it's just a phase" argument, too
The whole "if you're non-binary you have to be androgynous" thing was a raging argument that took place in the Monster High community when the character Frankie was confirmed to be non-binary in the reboot. A lot of people didn't consider them non-binary because they are more fem-presenting, they wear skirts, long hair, earrings and more feminine outfits from time to time, but at other times they also have more masc-presenting dolls. Frankie is a good example that androgyny is not a standard for non-binary people, they are fem-presenting and that doesn't make them any less non-binary! Since then, non-binary fans have started posting memes of the character with the phrase "we don't owe you androgyny" or something like that.
That whole controversy was absurd. Imagine liking Monster High and being weird about enbies. Like, do they think men and women can't be androgynous? Or be tomboys or femboys?
@@KingOpenReview same! like, the creator of the franchise is a gay man! He himself said that he wanted to include gay characters and that he likes the fans' LGBT headcanons! This franchise has always been about inclusivity and embracing your differences! This genuinely made me leave the fandom, because if they can't accept LGBT, plus size, and autistic characters, then why should I be part of it?? I've have been called "braindead" for enjoying the reboot! I've never seen so much hate and bigotry in a fandom that should be inclusive!
@fictional-enby Frankie wasn't my favorite in G1, but G3 Frankie is just adorable! They are also extremely autistic-coded and I love them! one of my favorites in the reboot!
I definitely get what you're saying, but about Double Trouble specifically, with the amount of queer representation in She-Ra, I kind of reveled in the fact that we got an openly trans asshole character. I feel like after the era of depicting all queer people as monstrous villains we have only gotten tame representation, and I for one was glad to see a character who's honestly just really fun but not particularly ~good~. I will also add that DT does have some sweet and tender moments, they're not an empathy-less alien creature. Idk, I think we should give more space for queer and trans villains when they're not harmful IRL stereotypes
I likw doubletrouble I think they're funny and something I really like about them is that they r not there just to be enby they r an actual important character in the story them being enby is just another thing they do which I really like because most enby representation I watch is kinda just "wow guys look they use they/them pronouns anyways they r not going to be relevant at all anymore"
My thing about queer villains too- real queer can be bad people. I’m queer and I’ve done some shitty things to people- that doesn’t I’m evil because I’m gay. Only making ‘good’ queer characters demonizes real queer people when they aren’t flawlessly good and moral. It only helps homophobes use queerness as reason for why someone did something bad. What we really need is the understanding that whatever you are- if your a minority race, minority religion, minority gender or sexuality, disabled, not a minority at all- you can be literally anything at all, and also still be a shit person.
PRECISELY people can be assholes and also non binary It's fine. Assholes exist everywhere and come in all shapes and sizes. (Came out worse than I thought lol.)
I think as you brought attention to, so often, the problem with the sort of "explained nonbinary-ness" or "nonbinary = alien/shapeshifter" isn't necessarily a problem, but it becomes deeply problematic when that is the ONLY representation in a given piece of media follows that tropes. I feel like it's so rare to find more than like 2-3 nonbinary characters max, which feels kind of bad and weird as a nonbinary person.
That's the problem with being such a minority, I suppose. People act like it's weird to see even one of us, let alone a full group. But that's why I try to encourage people to include more and explore more options. All we can do is keep creating and keep existing, and eventually things will get better.
Yeah, I agree. That's why I do like Double-trouble from She-ra even though they are a shapeshifting alien - but the majority of the cast isn't human, so they aren't noticable different from everyone else. Also, they're just cool. And I envy them for their ability T_T
This is why my One-True Ship is Vee (a shapeshifting demon who identifies as "she/her") and Masha (a plain-old, regular human who identifies as "they/them")
I disagree with Doubletrouble. The whole point is that we don't want NB characters to represent the whole community. we have to be allowed to be portrayed in all ways, which includes as a villain. its problematic if that's all that we become in media, but the ammount of examples of us as wholesome goodhearted fun-loving quirky people far outweighs DT's presence. A critique that I think is more evident is that enbys in media often are shape changers or magically able to present themselves in a more neutral way. I enjoy the power fantasy of being able to change shape, but I wouldn't want every NB character to be a shapechanger. TLDR - if we don't want creators to make NB characters that try and fail to represent the whole community, we can't expect single NB characters to be perfect representations as if they speak for NB people. Let queer people be campy villains, but don't ONLY make us as campy villains.
I think that's why they were suggesting having more than one nonbinary character in a story at a time, though not always practical if it's a more limited set of characters. The wider representation across different media is the more important thing, as you say.
I think the point is more that if the only non-binary character is a villain, it can be kinda uncomfortable. Like "how can I tell if this character was made just to show a variety of personalities for enbies, or if the writer really fuckin hates us?" Personally I felt Double Trouble was fine cos they're clearly written to be an entertaining and endearing kind of villain. They always hit me like team rocket in Pokémon, I'd never think James crossdressing is meant to be "trans bad!" because he's the dude you're supposed to adore. So I also agree that Double Trouble isn't a problem, but it's a complex issue and some people might just prefer zero ambiguity on the subject. ...or it's just better to have more than one enby, then having one of them as a villain means nothing at all.
@@Bunni89 It's not just about whether it's uncomfortable or not, it's about the message being sent. Double Trouble is a fun character and my favorite villain in the show, but they're also the only nonbinary character in the show at all, and so they carry the burden of being the lens through with the audience is meant to interpret that aspect of their character, and for all the reasons I listed in the video this means that, as the sole point of nonbinary representation in the show, they are BAD. And yes, having another character be nonbinary would have fixed these issues, because there would have been another point of reference for the audience. Plus, the creators and even DT's voice actor all made a big deal about representation being important and how proud they were of DT as well, so they were clearly meant to be representation. I don't attribute this to malice on the showrunner's part, I just think that they didn't give any thought to what making the only enby in the cast into an untrustworthy bastard would imply. I don't fault anyone for liking double trouble, but I will not humor anyone who tries to argue that they're actually good representation or that "it doesn't matter actually," because they're not and it does.
@@WritinRealSlow I can see taking it that way, and DT maybe isn't the best for those reasons, but it feels a bit unfair to call DT "the only nonbinary character in the show" when an enormous majority of the side and background characters are very non-traditionally gender coded; most of the mix traditional male/female clothing and appearances. If the artists had in mind what (binary) gender these characters are and people had to guess, I'll bet nobody would do better than 50/50 in general! She-Ra overwhelming presented to me a world in which, essentially, nobody gives a damn about gender presentation.
I'm so glad you brought up how most enbies present "how we look". One of my biggest struggles as an AFAB enby has been that I am naturally fat and have larger breasts and fuller hips. It is impossible for me to look androgynous. When I was more fluid than I am now (I identified as gender fluid for 12 years, and recently started to consider myself more a gender, or gender apathetic at the least), it was thoroughly gutting that I could never embody the masculine energies I felt some days. Binders did not work, and that's the go to way for most folks. (And I was binding before it was actually affordable! My first binder was 70USD!) The double whammy of being fat and being nonbinary in a culture that hates both these things has been difficult. Community is the relief, and having safe people and places to return to helps get it through. But I also know I will never see a representative of my experiences in media ever. Lots of people would have to get cool with lots of things real quick haha.
Yeah, it's a shame that people aren't willing to show larger enbies in most media. One of my former friends had your same situation, and they really struggled with feeling seen and accepted.
One reason I try to discuss online about my appearance as a huge ogrish person is because I am *done* with the idea that being nonbinary is to be a svelte, femme-spec androgynous type of elven being. Eff that! I am more like Pyornkrachzark (the Rockbiter in Neverending Story) or Sweetums (the giant Muppet) and whilst my size causes me some dysphoria at times it is who I am. Much love to my fellow large nonbinary people (whether they call themselves enbies or not)!
I really like Pocket from Deadlock. They're nonbinary, but have a masculine body, and voice, and way of dressing. There's not much of anything feminine or androgynous about them. They're also a human character, in a game that has robots, ghosts, demons and living statues.
34:21 i think you hit the nail on the head with this essay, part of what has always made it difficult for me to 'explain' my gender is that there is no example, no shorthand, to help describe how complex my understanding of my gender is. i'm very aware that often i am read as a girl in boys clothes, but it goes SO much deeper than that for me, and it sucks that people just don't get it. man i miss overwatch
Honestly, sometimes the best you can say to someone is just "these are my pronouns, use them if you want to talk to me," because explaining your gender is like trying to describe the sun to someone who's lived underground their whole life.
@@WritinRealSlow At a certain point it's not worth wracking your brain about labels. Much better to focus on tangible changes you can make. Do I like dresses? Do I want tits? Do I like getting called ma'am? Even a lot of cis people have complicated relationships to gender identity.
I love this video because as a cis girl, I thought you *had* to make a character as androgynous as possible to be non-binary, and I really really like learning that there’s a lot more to being enby than that. It’s ok and good to be shown more masculine or feminine and still have any set of pronouns, and I doubt im actually gonna make any kind of media with my art, but I would still like to make some more varied non-binary characters Also you showed a bit of In Stars and Time and I think that is a wonderful game for representation. While Siffrin and Bonnie I don’t think ever talk about their enby identities, the fact that Isabeau is not only trans but is also still not done with his identity journey is really cool, and the fact he has no problem sharing that he used to be girl. The talk about Siffrin and Mirabelle’s sexual identities is really cool too, because they have a whole conversation going into detail about their feelings about it. The only thing that could be better is including that being asexual doesn’t *just* include being completely sex-appalled, but I appreciate the effort and inclusion nonetheless. And the fact they included being aro/ace *and* still having romantic attraction with being asexual is awesome too (they also did great by having these things as topics but that’s not what the game is about, it all feels so natural (imo) and well put-together, I love it) Anyway, thank you very much for making this video, it is very informative and I appreciate it a lot :3
I'm happy I could help! And yeah, In Stars and Time is honestly one of the best games I've played in a long time! I've only been working on it for a couple days, but it's so good!
I have a friend who uses they/them pronouns, but they represent themselves in their sonas very femininely. They love pink and purple, skirts, and have long hair. I think that reminds me that non binary people *can* and often *will* lean more masc or fem.
Yes, but in practice if you want the general public to see you as nonbinary, presenting extremely androgynous is absolutely necessary. I say this as someone who used to be a femme presenting enby until I realized that I actually hated that people saw me as female but was too much of a wimp to do anything about it. I had to go on testosterone for 6 months and dress full masc 90% of the time before I started getting called 'they' by anyone other than my absolute closest friends. I live in a very progressive city.
@@sersergv The point of increasing the diversity of nonbinary representation is to teach people that you can look however you want and still be nonbinary. Most people still aren't even aware that enbies are a thing, but that's slowly changing. Even still, you can't expect people to immediately clock you as nonbinary because gender presentation is as varied as there is types of people. What you should always expect of people is for them to respect your pronouns when you tell them what they are. And if they tell you they don't want to or don't see you as nonbinary, tell them to go to hell. It's not for them to decide.
About shows that explore gender identity, Nightshade from Transformers Earthspark is a non-binary transformer and in two episodes there are scenes where they talk about their identity. In the first episode they appear in (episode 10), they present themselves with their pronouns, saying that she or he don't fit who they are. In episode 17 they meet a non-binary human who teaches them what non-binary is, and they comment on how they always knew their pronouns felt right, and how they find being non-binary a wonderful experience. This is not something that is explored 100% and each scene lasts at least 2 minutes, but it works for the character. There's another episode that kind of explores the concept of an altmode (the transformers' alternative mode) as a way of expressing who they are, kind of serving as a trans analogy if you prefer. Nightshade is a great character and it's a shame that their reception was so negative to the point that the show received negative reviews because of it.😢
That's honestly really cool. Transformers has never really been my thing, but I've heard good things about earthspark from some people I know, so I might actually give it a look.
@@WritinRealSlow Nothing to do with Nightshade, basically because of the strake of writers and poor treatment of the show's staff, not only the animation studio but also scriptwriters were changed, resulting in a season that contradicts the first season's message that everyone deserves a second chance and that one should not judge someone for who they are. The Decepticons (who are usually the main villains in Transformers) were not the villains in the first season, the villain is prejudice and xenophobia. The Decepticons still cause trouble but they also just want to survive on a post-war planet that hates them for who They are. The first season shows several of the characters interacting with Decepticons who have both positive and redeemable sides such as Bumblebee and Brakedown's close friendship and Satrscream's clear and the clear abuse he suffered at the hands of Megatron during the war, who happens to be a good guy now. At the end of the first season the Decepticons help the protagonists fight the main villain(a human who physically modifies himself to become like them and who wants to cause mass genocide against the Transformers on Earth, believing himself to be the hero of the story), but in the second season they immediately return to villainy and ignore the end of the first season. Starscream suffers the most from this, going from an abuse victim who created a close connection to one of the protagonists who shares a similar trauma, to an irredeemable villain who has no problems killing the Transformer equivalent of two children! Even twisting a line he he said to the character he formed a connection with from something selfless to something selfish. In other words, the second season saw a decline in writing and several of the characters suffered from character assassination. Luckily, none of this involves Nightshade, they're completely untouched and haven't even received that much focus this season which is a shame. The first season is genuinely good, the animation is amazing and the characters are endearing, but the second season has a downfall in almost all of that.
Putting your ask box up for the writers out there like myself is so unbelievably helpful as a resource, even though I (and likely many others) fall under the non-binary umbrella. I might just run my ideas through you regardless, even if I’m somewhat confident in my representation and how it’s written! Thank you.
Overwatch's bastion was for a long period when the game released only called by they them pronounce in official material. But nowadays they're commonly called by he him instead
It's so funny to see Actiblizzard try so hard with the corporate rainbow capitalism, but they straight up forgot about Overwatch's first nonbinary character's pronouns 💀💀
@IceFireofVoid Personally i don't feel like any of the LGBT stuff in overwatch specifically feels very "Rainbow capitalism"ish. It's all handled very respectfully, feels very genuine and non of the stuff is behind a paywall. The new player icons and banners are very front and center with them even adding 2 extra long after because Venture got released. Even the cop cars on Midtown are repainted to be normal cars in the pride version of the map and characters like lifeweaver will openly flirt with other characters of the same gender in spawn rooms. I think the bastion thing was probably just something the lore people thought was cool since it's a robot and stuff but then forgot about it since everybody collectively reads them as a boy.
@Kamil_Horvath I've been into Overwatch for a long time and I generally agreed with that...with the old team. I really liked how Overwatch previously handled its LGBT characters because they were written much more as real characters, and they were LGBT too. Their stories, and the parts that involved their feelings like Tracer's girlfriend and Soldier's failed romance with his ex fiance, were really compelling. I don't feel that same care at all with their more recent characters. It feels like they added them because someone in a meeting room thought they had to be there. It's lazy. Pharah had a coming out as a lesbian, the only lore she got in years, and then they proceeded to shove her back into the background and continued to do nothing with her. Venture was added as a nonbinary character, but they got no skins. Heroes that came after them got multiple skins by the time Venture got their first with the upcoming ATLA collab. Lifeweaver is alright and Baptiste being bi is cool, but overall the lore aspect being so neglected really hurts the characters. It's more the lack of passion with the entire game's story side that happens to be affecting the LGBT characters so badly. I just wish I could know more about these characters, that they could do more in the story. I just want the regular lore drops back, man.
I thought bastion was referred to as an "it" at first, and then they started calling it "he" as a way to recognize his growing sentience. I could be wrong though, bastion is one of the few characters I never really looked into further.
This video is so eye opening to me. I only now noticed that I'm strongly influenced by the "100% androgynous" non binary representation we see in media. When I first saw Raine in The owl house I was confused and thought "If this character is non binary, shouldn't they look a bit less like a man?" But now I get why that's stupid. This opens so many possibilities I didn't know I had for my own OCs! I have finally the words to describe how they identify and express themselves. Thank you for making this video!
What’s so funny is I thought Raine was Afab at first, which while that doesn’t take away from their identity ofc, goes to show how their design could honestly be interpreted differently
@@semidecent4395 yeah, I've heard multiple different interpretations of their design, same with venture. None of which are bad takes, it just goes to show how vastly different people's interpretation of gender markers can be.
I honestly couldn't tell at first, and didn't realise they were non binary bc that's just so rare in TV shows, and only realised because anyone being referred to as only they them is like a dog whistle to me now
as an artist myself i’ve been making my own masculine gender-non conforming characters ones that aren’t afraid to play with gender or drop the idea entirely especially since I create fat / chubby characters, each leaning masculine but way different ways to express it it’s something i’d love to see more of fat masculine people being allowed to be genderless or find their ways to understand it
Ive got someone named Jank that usually is masc presenting and has top surgery scars but some of their outfits still include skirts. A mechanic in a skirt is what we’re all missing in our lives.
Another thing that you briefly mentioned but didn’t go into detail with is pronouns. I always appreciate representation wise is non-binary characters that don’t *just* use they/them, though it does make sense why it’s rarely used as it can be a little confusing in media, but as someone who identifies under the non-binary umbrella and doesn’t use they/them at all, it makes me really happy to see characters that don’t just use they/them. The thing i love about genderqueer-ness and gender expression especially in being trans, is when characters aren’t perfectly androgynous in every way, the trans experience is so varied that practically every single trans person you meet will have a different experience, outlook and opinion on gender and i love when thats shown through characters.
I had originally thought about going into pronouns more, but the video was already way longer than I'd originally intended and that was one of the things that got cut. But you're absolutely right, there should be more variation in pronoun usage for characters.
I find that a lot of really-great queer representation usually comes from indie products (whether comics, books, films or games) which makes sense since they usually only cover for a specific or niche market and don't focus on mass consumption like more corporate media. It was funny to hear a more "negative" take on Testament who was weirdly an awakening for me ( I'm non-binary but more on the transfemme side). To me, I read their design as a feminine non-binary person finally having come into their own so seeing their transition from their old art to the new one felt empowering, especially in the context of their backstory. I always thought of myself as non-binary but reading about their story and just looking at their design cracked my transfemme egg a little (also they is sexy, me is scared). When it comes to androgynous designs, I don't entirely hate it but its definitely overdone and can feel like a cheap cop-out to have a non-binary character without doing any of the work. Woking with GNC designs can be super fun and interesting but too many of them are "degendered" (covered entirely/made non-human,, etc) or made "equal" (50% boy cuz tall and broad but 50% girl cuz hair long and dress or "twinkified" short person). I think more inspiration should come from actual non-binary people and maybe that's why boyfriend dungeon's design are appealing cuz they don't homogenize non-binary experiences but slip and slide between a few various aspects per character. I think it can be a hard line for cis-gender people to walk when it comes to depicting misgendering. I hate, LOATHE scenes that makes it feel like padding/overcorrection (hey audience *THIS* is character X's pronouns and NO OTHER) or they make it feel like "the misgendering scene...part 31009 cuz you've never scene a person be misgendered before". On the other hand sometimes it felt so natural to the setting/story of a work that I didn't even take note of it cuz it was such an authentic character moment. Basically I don't want it to be an instruction manual or lazy writing but inform character relationships, "deeper" characterization and the setting at large (is that too much to ask for, cis-writers??? is it?? ~~and queer writers, queer writing deserves to be bad too~~.
On the subject of queer writing deserves to be bad too, it always feels like people are more overly critical of indie comics/projects made by queer people as well. If the media made by the queer person is too sexual, not sexual enough, not diverse enough, they get a slew of criticisms and even people calling them fetishizers or taking away their “gay cards”. As a queer artist myself it’s really tiring and sometimes makes me not want to write or make art with queer characters at all, it feels like people will just attack or invalidate me. It’s also strange because it feels like it’ll always be marginalized people being attacked for how they write queer people instead of corporations.
I was born as Male and for the longest time I felt as though I was born as the wrong gender. As a kid I was into all the things considered feminine (Winx Club, Barbie, Bratz etc) I know now that it doesn’t matter what I like. But seeing characters like Raine helped me discover that I’m really Nonbinary. I still dress fairly masculine but I’ve been wanting to try other styles and clothes. 💖
I mean in a lot of ways you're right about Double Trouble but personally I still love them, while they're definitely not a good person I find queer "fuck everyone else" type characters like Double Trouble to be super comforting when I'm upset or angry. Maybe there's stuff to unpack there but every now and then it's nice to feel like I can just fully be me, fuck everyone else.
Someone misgendering nb in media and being corrected is actually a really genius way to add that characterization in a natural way. Even better might be not misgendering them to their face, but a new character they just met is talking with nb’s friend and they refer to them as he or she, and the friend gently corrects them, without it being a huge deal, but a sign of immense respect and solidarity for their friend without nb character being directly involved. It’s realistic that people will assume he/she and they would need to be told otherwise. And then people just move on and use the correct pronouns in the future.
Yeah I know it is, that's why I had it. I kid. I don't think your thing is better per se, but it IS a good idea, because it would also serve to teach people the proper way to handle someone misgendering an enby.
@ both is good. lots of variants to make it more relatable. Not as in it being a recurring thing in the same show (unless it being a constant part of enby’s life is the point they want to make) but across different shows and mediums. :D
As someone who's questioning if they're nonbinary, this video really helped me. I always found androgyny cool, and I've been struggled with being called the gender aab by strangers, so I thought it was my solution. But after watching this, I realized it doesn't and shouldn't matter as much how I'm perceived, as long as I'm following how I feel. It sounds cheesy, and its also something I've known for quite some time as I learn more about nonbinary people and how everyone can present differently, but I've been battling that voice that says they way I appear needs to confuse people about my gender, so they'll ask before they assume. I'm realizing I don't need to do that to feel validation. Because no matter how masc I'm dressing, literally sweatpants and hoodie, I can still be refered to as "ma'am." I've been called a boy once, which triggered something in me, I was elated to be missgendered and I didn't know why, because I didn't feel like a guy. I realize because of 4:25 it was because I was finally not called my gender aab. This also made me realize I'm probably projecting onto my nb characters by making them both afab, one more masc and the other androgynous, and the masc one struggling with the dislike of being called a girl. I'm going to work on them a lot more, thank you for your video!!
I was about to say: "If only they got to complete the show then maybe" but then I remembered She Ra got a full 5 seasons and (as far as I know) got to tell the story wanted and that I've spent too much time watching shows that got cut short
@@AceOfSpadesForAll I honestly don't recommend watching season 5, it threw out all of the character growth and buildup of the first 4 seasons and pulled shit that made me genuinely angry. I know a lot of people really liked how it turned out, and maybe you'll still enjoy it, but speaking as an abuse survivor I will never forgive the writers for what they did.
I had an NB character in the works for a while, She uses He/She Pronouns (Kinda like me, But without They/them in the mix) He is an operator (Artificer but she doesn't make his own machines) who presents both ways, dressing masc or femme depending on her situation (Like wearing a modified uniform that takes traits of the male and the female uniform, or wearing a sundress casually) I actually originally made him nonbinary until I could decide a gender, but her being NB just kind of clicked better then either gender. I Still have yet to finalize his design, but his helped a bit! Thanks!
This got me thinking about my non-binary characters in my stories. I've definitely fallen into the whole androgyny thing but i've been trying to break it down into figuring out the character's and personality individual expression instead of just going straight to neutral. Also there's a character in the new dragon age who is non-binary and has a coming out arc! Lily simpson made a video about it
@@yurisei6732 Okay, at this point it's pretty clear you're making bad faith arguments in a poor attempt at hiding your transphobia. Take your garbage elsewhere, because it's not welcome here.
*gasps* it's me! the Testament liker! :D i still love Testament and their design even with the issues i have, and i love playing them, something i had forgotten to mention to writin is that Testament's voice is more masculine leaning (in english at least) which is fairly nice
I'm not a gears fan either but I like testament as an example as nonbinary who does hrt to "get to the other side" but is still NB. I saw their redesign and i was like "omg! They took E!" And it reminds me of a friend I have irl 🥺
The part of the video where you discussed how being misgendered can be a good way to talk about being nonbinary is really interesting, because I HAVE seen a game do this before, its just that it’s a Markiplier Fan game, so not an original title. I love that game tho. It’s called Hearts and Heroes They also have diversity in their races, their sexualities and their life experiences, so theres someone with Hijab too
I want to say thanks for this video. Its good to hear this criticism from the mouth of an actually non-binary person. This video not only gave me more tools to make my trans characters more accurate(im transfemme so i had some already) but it also helped open my eyes to the fact i might be non-binary myself. Never gonna escape that eggshell i swear. The Non-binary character ive written is supposed to be an edgy over the top anti-hero who wants to be the best fighter in the world, who then goes through a redemption arc because of the guilt of all the other people they stepped over to get there, and i have been petrified that id do a bad job of representing the community. The answer really is as simple as make more enby characters, it feels obvious and frankly thats good cause i had so much fun designing them, and also now i dont feel as "selfish"(?) and afraid for making so many transfemme characters in my stories. As a character they are AFAB nonbinary with They/them pronouns and to give a little insight to the character they decided against top surgery in favor of replacing their legs with robo legs to kick people harder(they could only afford one or the other), and also because they felt forced to be androgynous at the start of their transition by their family, however ultimately are proud of their body type and rejected how their family looked at them. As for presentation they are mostly masculine however they do not bind, and arent afraid to show skin and wear kickass eyeliner. Finally, their transition is more part of their backstory, so ultimately i feel like i did a decent job of making a character that is trans rather than make their whole arc and story around them being trans. And also i just wanted to make a Buff enby, i dont see that all too often. But all my characters are perpetually W.I.P so there is still time to develop them more. Wolfertinger66 (a trans artist i follow) on tumblr has done wonders for my understanding of how non-binary and even binary trans people still can be masc or femme in ways despite their pronouns, and im proud and thankful to Him for the fact i escaped that idea of non-binary=androgynous before this video. P.S. I need to go watch owl house, ive never seen Kings Dad before and i think im in love.
i'm agender and i usually just write and design the characters without gender in mind (unless said gender is crucial to the story in some way), then assign whatever feels right to me once i'm done
This video actually helped me realise a part of my own gender identity, thank you for the help this has been something I've always felt like was missing of my own identity so this is a big relief for me
The talking about non-binary characters was the first video i watched on your channel. It's sitting on my liked list and this one will be too. It's nice to hear about nb characters and watch another non-binary creator. Though i don't often talk about my nb characters gender directly in the narrative. As i wanna make it normal in the world. It also bothers me as. So i don't wanna write something that hurts me.
Like I said, you don't necessarily HAVE to if you don't want to. It's perfectly alright to just make a world where enbies are common knowledge and don't need an explanation. What I consider "good enough" is still leagues better than what we had before. There's no need to push yourself; it's absolutely fine to just enjoy having a nonbinary character who just exists.
i disagree about the "purpose" of representation. i think representation makes minority ppl feel seen and makes them more comfortable/joyful consuming the media becuz they can relate better to the characters
I would argue DT being nonbinary wasn't actually IMPORTANT to their character, though. Like, shapechanger, androgynous, alien untrustworthy... THAT's all important, but unlike Mystique, who was using being feminine as a plot point, DT wasn't. Still, all arguments valid, and even unintentional representation should be examined.
I completely agree that fem and masc presenting enbies should be embraced in character design! sadly there are a lot of people who already disrespect that though. Dante, the protagonist of Limbus Company has a human body with a prosthetic clock head and goes exclusively by they/them pronouns. However, players more than frequently disrespect that and refer to them using he/him, which 1, is stupid and 2, I believe is both due to their masc presenting body + clothes as well as the majority male playerbase. Even the character in my pfp, Lotus Dragon Cookie, goes by they/them, but because they're very flowery, colored in pinks and pastels, and is calmer compared to their kin, they are suddenly smacked with the label of she/her pronouns by fans. we really need more nonbinary characters that present in these ways so that people can start respecting their identity regardless if they look androgynous!!
I cannot recommend Transformers: Earthspark enough for not only having a nonbinary character have a moment of "he or she just don't feel right for me" but later having two different types of nonbinary person (they/them alien, she/they human) talk to each other about gender. Nonbinary people talking to each other about gender, nonbinary friendships, conversations and interactions are so important and so rare. It's hard enough to even have multiple nonbinary characters, let alone have them interact meaningfully.
@WritinRealSlow Ah yes Season 2 onwards sadly got taken up by different writers, and becomes weirdly ableist and drops the themes/characterisation previously established, but the first season is fantastic and had a nonbinary writer on board, nonbinary voice actors etc. Very wholesome, very nicely done
So happy to hear someone talk about how there isn’t always a transition option for nonbinary people. 🥰🥰🥰 Surprisingly I’ve had more comments from trans people who have been through transition wanting to put me in a box than cis people. (Though I’m sure cis people are still thinking it lmao)
I mean, it's important to acknowledge. I try to be relatively comprehensive in my videos so I can help people understand these things, and I don't think most people realize the nuances of transition and identity. Binary trans people have their own set of biases that they're usually not forced to confront, but I think it hurts more from them because they should understand at least a little better than a cis person.
i have a lot of stories and ocs, and being non binary myself (more accurately i am transmasculine) i really like to put in the effort to make every character feel real. one of my favourite things is to research the experiences of people i dont know much about and do my best to represent them in my characters. with non binary or transmasc characters i find it easy to take from my own relationship with my gender but i'm not the only non binary or transmasc person in the world, gender identity and expression are not linear. and so i still like to see how other people explain their experiences so that i don't make basically a glorified self-insert every time. this is a banger video and i really appreciate having your input, character design is a huge thing to consider and i love puttting as much effort as possible into it.
From listening to this I realized I made a few mistakes with writing my characters. The first nb character I made was a literal alien shapeshifter but it was a roleplay character I never really used much. Second character I can remember is more recent: they are an engineer kinda character who is sarcastic, intelligent, and more initiated with the world than the MC. They would wear rather neutral clothing like cargo pants and hoodies. Sadly the reason they are nb is cause I didn’t know what gender to give them when describing it so I purposefully left it vague. Gadgeteer honestly doesn’t have much development and was a part of my script writing class. If I were to rewrite Gadgy I would add a scene where the MC, Hiro, asks about Gadgy such as their real name and stuff, this could show a bit of the character such as discomfort from the topic, bad memories, or of the sort. The clothes would likely stay cause comfort clothes. Any other ideas for how I can write future enbies? (For reference I’m cis-male and want to be more inclusive with my life and understand more demographics)
I mean, roleplay is meant to be fun, there's no shame in indulging in being tropey so long as you're having fun and not making anyone uncomfortable. As far as gadgy goes, that's still good enough. some nonbinary people legitimately don't know if they fit any labels at all. The ideas you already have are great ways to explore the character further. As far as other ideas go, I'd honestly just recommend thinking about what, if at all, you'd like to use the character to explore. It's perfectly alright to have a character that just uses nonbinary pronouns and leave it at that, but something that's rarely explored in writing is how the gender someone assigned at birth has colored their experiences and personality. A good writing exercise for you might be to think about all of the things that you associate with maleness and examine where the idea that they're masculine comes from. Society expects things from men that they don't expect from women, so looking at those things and making a character that has to deal with those associations might be interesting, especially if they're outwardly masc-presenting. There's honestly a lot you can do with nonbinary characters, so I'd honestly recommend just taking an idea you like and seeing where it leads.
I'm not non-binary but I can totally understand why overly androgynous and or non-human non-binary characters can be a bit problematic, at least if overused, not every non-binary individual is going to be this perfect androgynous genderless being in fact very few non-binary people will or even would want to be, which can lead to the always *fun* "You don't look ____" response from people, someone can look conventionally "masculine" or "feminine" and still be non-binary, a non-binary person can be large, broad shouldered and have a beard and that shouldn't make them "less non-binary" than other non-binary people who lean more androgynously, non-binary is an identity YOU feel for yourself not other people choosing it for you. Also I want to bring up a non-binary character from a rather recent game that I think deserves more attention, (maybe you've already talked about them I don't know) Juniper from Xenoblade Chronicles 3, they only ever are referred to as they/them, even in other languages Juniper is either given gender neutral terms or if a language doesn't have gender neutral terms they'll use both the masculine and feminine terms not leaning either way, while design wise Juniper is somewhat androgynous they aren't overly androgynous and to me read as an AFAB non-binary person (I hope that's the right thing to say). There's also a non-binary character you've definitely never heard of, Dante from Limbus Company, the main POV character of a gacha game and they have amnesia but unlike other gacha protagonists Dante is not a blank slate self insert but their own distinct character who develops and grows over the course of the story (which isn't finished yet btw) Dante does have a clock for a head but they are still human with their clock head being a prosthetic and there are other character in Project Moon's body of work that have non-human looking prosthetic bodies and are still gendered, also there are a few characters who knew Dante before they lost their memory and gained their clock head who still use non-gendered language with Dante, literally at no point has Dante been gendered.
I wasn't aware of either of those characters, no. Thank you for telling me about them, I'll definitely give them a look when I make another video on the subject!
@@WritinRealSlow It actually has both characters actively mention it too, both due to being kind of misgendered. One even directly explains what nonbinary means:D
Testament actually mirrored my own journey, going more masq presenting at the start and going softer. It's very much the sort of thing where if we had more NB characters in GG, it wouldn't be as isolating. That's the biggest takeaway from this; part of normalization is making more characters so one character doesn't need to do all the heavy lifting. My euohoria is anothers dysohoria, so allowing for multitudes can only help.
I remember when Steven Universe came out, and the creator talking about how all gems are essentially agender and all present rather fem. I always appreciated it, even though gender wasn't really a big focus of the show.
as a nb myself, i absolutely love Double Trouble, because they're so chaotic and sly, i just love this type of characters. but i never thought about them being only nb rep in She-Ra, so that video actually got me thinking. I won't love them less, I'm just sad now 😢
Thank you!!! I totally agree with your points. As an enby myself, seeing as most enby rep I've encountered in media is androgynous and/or non human, eg a robot (a different issue with asexuality that covers the same thing) is that it seems kind of lazy. The same way that a "passing" or "not passing" trans character has different design and connective opportunities with the people who share being trans, different "flavors" of being enby are important. Especially since there's so many people falling on the different waypoints of the spectrum, it's a shame how they don't get much represented. So many cool character ideas that are just scrapped! And secondly, as a character creator, the majority of my OCs have a unique point on gender, using different pronouns, coming from different places and having their surrounding people treat them differently. I think it's important to show that being nonbinary is more than just falling in the middle between masculine and feminine features. It's not about how you look, it's about your lifestyle and how you feel about gender and yourself. Reducing nonbinaryhood to just binary rules of visual elements isn't anything meaningful. It's just a design choice someone made regarding the exterior while disregarding the interior (I have nothing against androgynous character designs, just the same grimes as in the video points) And lastly, I hope you recover well!!! Take care of yourself ❤❤
The androgyny thing is so real! It influenced my perception of how non-binary characters "should" be presented in media, and for a long time I (a fem-presenting enby, mind you) was confused as to why some non-binary characters *weren't* androgynous. It's not an issue for me anymore, but uhh... that was definitely ✨️a thing✨️
The androgyny issue is something most people never even think about, it's just a largely accepted norm. I don't blame you for not realizing it, it took me a long time to realize it too.
Honestly that intro was so nice because ive been having a lot of issues trying to understand my gender and this has helped understand myself even a tiny bit more, thank you, and i really mean it
I'm honestly really happy I could help you! Even if this video hadn't unexpectedly blown up, it would have been worth the effort of making just to know I was able to aid you in your journey ^_^
I just really want to say, Thank you so much for talking Fem and Masc presenting Non-Binaries. I remember when I first was questioning if I was NB or not, I always pushed it back, using my femininity presenting self as an excuse as to not accept that identity. I thought being androgynous was how someone was Non-Binary, which was very narrow minded. It wasn’t until I came out to my friend and these concerns, where they replied with “ You don’t have to be androgynous to be Non-binary “ which I’m glad they did since I don’t think I would be able to identify as it today. Anyway enough about me, this is a great video!! I feel like you brought up a lot of good points so thank you for taking the time to do this!! It’s making me rethink about my Non-binary characters I’ve written or plan on writing sometime. So we love the writing advice.
I actually got an idea for a story the other day where everyone has both sexual organs so gender truly is just a social construct. The main character would be non-binary because they don’t feel like just a boy or a girl but society makes it where you have to choose a gender, even if it’s gender fluid, so them not choosing is considered a problem. I’m still working on it but I want it to be very clear that the main character is nonbinary and will dress in both masculine and feminine ways.
@ yeah. I’m also not going to shy away from people misgendering them because they just expect them to have picked one at the age they are. I’m thinking that in that world once you hit puberty it’s kind of expected to already know if you’re male or female but required by the time you’re 18. I do plan on using language like ‘I feel pretty in this tank top and handsome in this skirt’ to show how clothing can be used to gender but it’s the feeling that’s different for them. Clothing is also part of the social construct where they tell what gender the individual chose but children can wear whatever so that they can figure out what’s most comfortable for them. This kid would just wonder at the beginning why they can’t continue wearing both styles which is what leads to them figuring out they aren’t either gender. I’m not sure if I want to make this into a full novel or not. If I had to pick it would have to be young adult or middle grade since this would be more for the kids than the adults.
Ooh that sounds really cool! I like creating spirits I have my whole lore for them but they are by default genderless, they can choose to go by more gendered pronouns and I actually should make a spirit that just leans fully masc or fem. I do have my embodiement of chaos Eris, they use all pronouns so talking about her is really fun because I can just pull out neopronouns to talk about xir. Presentation wise I tend to draw her more femine leaning with his long mane and rounder face. Colour scheme wise they are a complete mess (affectionate) but I adore him and maybe I am going to draw her tomorrow because this video inspired me.
You might want to do research into intersex experiences for your story. From the general concept you've presented here you might end up touching on circumstances and feelings that many intersex people already go through - and it could help add nuance to what you're trying to get across.
Im glad my algorithm is working as intended As a writer and cis-male. Ive been making an effort to unpack a lot of the Gender structures of society in my mind to piece together what's actually there. Im thankful for your explanation at the begin because I've been learning most of this from first hand experience with friends. I've processed enough to voluntarily conclued my own identity (thus far) but I want to make an effort to understand and hopefully spread familiarity with the different perspectives. I remember being pretty confused by the concept of non binary in particular but your explanation has helped reinforce my understanding and I'm beginning to see the scope of how very difficult it must be to get that across to people.
I'm really glad I could help you! I was worried I might have made things too confusing, so it's a relief to know I made it easy enough to understand. Honestly, more people should re-examine their relationship to their gender. Even if you come away with the conclusion that you're cis, it'll give you a healthier outlook. Well done, you!
@WritinRealSlow We really should. A lot of gender issues I've seen this far have been people dealing with how fluid the system of binary gender expression itself can be. What it means to be "a Man" or "a Woman" has itself been in a steady flux. The minutes I got scope on that front it made it pretty easy to see why gender identity is so broad. It's like building a car then adding and removing parts on it for centuries and wonder why it doesn't drive like a truck. And why people prefer to walk or bike instead.
holy shit!! i remember avidly reading your fanfics on ao3 since like 2022!!! ahaha crazy seeing one of my favourite fic writers on youtube, great video!
Vash the Stampede from Trigun Stampede and Maximum was my nonbinary awakening. There is ton of underscoring and layers suggesting his gender is non-conforming and the mangaka even reposts nonbinary vash art! Vash is dear to me and other non-binary people. Vash is and will always be my space gunslinger ❤. Hope people make more videos about Vash and his gender coding and how its important to the story with the theme of bodily autonomy
I take it that's mostly found in the manga? I've only watched the original anime, and I don't remember seeing anything like that in there. Then again, it's been a long time and I could have just missed/forgotten, I watched it before I realized I was nonbinary.
@WritinRealSlow the show is really good imo ! It's different/retelling and a prequel to Stargaze(the new season coming out soon). Stampede also has themes of bodily autonomy too which I love. So hope you enjoy ❤️
Thank you for posting this!!! I’m about to start a dnd campaign and my character is a warforged (agender) so I want to portray them thoughtfully and this has been helpful
I'm really glad I could help! Though don't worry too much if it's just between friends, so long as you're having fun and not upsetting anyone then however you're most comfortable playing the character is more than good enough!
@ you’re definitely right and I think I was overthinking some of my concerns when designing them. There isn’t too much focus on their gender identity (or other facets of identity) just yet because they’re mostly concerned with helping others & making the world a better place, but you’ve given me some food for thought for when I have an opportunity to develop them a little more
Don’t take my word as fact but I believe testament in the lore hated humanity so they chose a more masculine figure to address that. After their encounter with Queen Dizzy another “gear” who loved and appreciated humanity testament learned that not everyone is out to hurt and hate them. So they made their physique more feminine to “STRIVE” towards their new understanding.
i appreciate this video bc i'm obsessed w venture but am more trans binary myself so i never felt super confident in where i thought they fell on the good representation scale, having input from an actual nb is super nice. very educational all around and i will also be using ur pointers for my own character creation! thank you!
I'm an older nonbinary person myself. Speaking about transitioning did hit me, while having a womb does cause me a lot of frustrations the rest of me is fine and I have no desire to change it. It's how society reacts to me and has expectations of me because they see me as female. I don't identify as any gender, wearing a dress is just me wanting to wear a dress that day. I normally present as a very butch person. I'm more comfortable with power tools, I don't wear makeup but I don't leave the house without chapstick! It took me decades to figure out what I was and the biggest hurdle was people who were happy in the binary taking up way too much space when talking about gender issues. It really feels like it's an extremely recent thing to let people who exist outside the binary even have a space in this community. Given I'm middle-aged, the last 10 years are rather danged 'recent' to me.
I think it would be neat if you brought up the positives of testament's change yes it does lost their masculine aspect but having them now slightly lean more into the feminine could also show a change in their personal character growth or how they can now represent how people can still change their gender presentation without having to match there new presentation
As an inspiring writer, this is a super helpful and informative video. Thank you for this. I'm saving this video so I can refer to it later. I'm also realizing flaws in past nonbinary characters that I've created which I can work on fixing. Once again, thanks!
This was a phenomenal watch. I’m usually pretty averse to watching creators outside of my personal list of comfort creators, but I clicked this video anyways. Within the first couple of minutes, you got yourself a like and a new subscriber. The latter half of the video, where you talk about how to write good representation was a great set of guidelines. I’m a novelist, and my current project includes 8 main cast members, all of which present or identify in a different way (whether that be in terms of sexual or romantic orientation, or gender presentation). Their diversity is integral to the story, and as such, even as someone who falls under the non-binary umbrella themselves, having an outside perspective is hugely helpful in reinforcing what I’ve done right and exposing what I can improve.
I'm happy you liked it, and I'm really happy I could help! I'm also a writer, and proper representation is really important to me, so I really wanted to be able to help others benefit from my knowledge! Also, I'd love to hear about your story sometime!
Great video, and thank you for highlighting how to properly design and write non-binary characters! It gave me so much to think about, including things that had never crossed my mind before, especially about androgyny. As someone who prefers being androgynous most of the time, it hadn’t occurred to me how that could feel limiting to other gender expressions within the non-binary spectrum. The part about being okay with being treated as a woman but feeling bad when treated as a man really resonated with me. As an AFAB non-binary person, I deeply dislike being grouped with women because I was forced to conform to that role for most of my life. In contrast, no one ever forced me to act like a man, so while it’s not ideal, it doesn’t bother me as much when that happens. It’s such an obvious thought in hindsight, but I’d never considered it before, so thank you for sharing your personal experience. I’d also love to hear your thoughts on the character Taash from Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Unlike many of the game characters you’ve mentioned, their story focuses explicitly on being non-binary. While it has faced some harsh criticism, I’d really like to hear your perspective on their character. If not, that’s okay too, but I do think it was at least a step forward to explore something like that so directly in a video game for the first time.
I'm really happy I could help you articulate your feelings on the matter! And I'd honestly love to do a video on the veilguard enbies, but I unfortunately don't have the money for the game right now. Someone did recommend a video on them to me, so I'll at least be able to learn about them. I'll see if I can get the game on sale, but it'll most likely just have to wait until my financial situation is more stable.
Little late to the party, but i always love how you approach lgbtq topics with such positivity, even during criticism. Its nice fo hear, "yeah, well this sucks, but I've got a whole list on how to fix it!" Super happy to see this kinda blow up for you too, almost 900 comments is amazing!!! :) I wonder if you've seen the fallout show? I realize Dane is the only enby in the show, so there's not much to say about their gender beyond 'only enby and also androgenous,' but i just love their character as a person. I saw them on screen and i was immediately like 'wow that is the coolest person ever.'
I feel like people hear enough negativity already, so I like to try to spread hope, or at the very least offer a learning experience. And yeah, this video blew up in a way I never expected! I have seen fallout, yes! I really liked it, though I didn't realize dane was supposed to be nonbinary. I liked them a lot though!
thank you for this video, i've had a lot of these thoughts but never knew how to process or explain them, and youve brought a very informative perspective
Personally I find that Testament's newer design better resonates my own gender and it's really cool to see a transition of the character discovering more about their femininity.
Listening to you talk about non-binaryness is really interesting, because I often find myself sort of stuck in the well of 'of course everyone knows about this, it seems so obvious.' So listening to not a cis person talk about it, but a fellow nonbinary person, is really nice, and, in its own roundabout way, is making me redraw and slightly redesign some of my own nonbinary characters, because I do think a lot about how they feel about their own gender, and what they want to be viewed as. (A lot of my non-binary characters end up looking very androgynous, but that mainly happens because all of my characters end up looking androgynous.) 4:25 Hearing you talk about why being gendered in a feminine way distresses you less than being gendered in a masculine way speaks to me a lot as a fellow agender person. When I was working retail, I would get gendered properly basically never, even and especially by my coworkers, so being gendered male rather than female by customers was almost a breath of fresh air -- it was almost like it was balancing out the other wrongness. 10:35 I love non-human non-binary characters, that's because I like both of them separately. This ends up being a problem, because I want them to be varied! I want them to be cool as hell! 12:30 This actually sort of relates to my last point, because, to a certain extent, Venture wasn't the first playable nonbinary character in Overwatch. Up until the release of a short story early in Overwatch 2's lifespan, Bastion was referred to using it/its pronouns. While there are issues with associating non-binariness with robots, I did love Bastion as such, and as I flirt with using it/its along with they/them, I thought it was cool. Maybe as a sign of growing humanity, Bastion would start using they/them, I wondered, but nope. He/him now, robot has gained humanity and is now a boy. It's a minor quibble, but it really did disappoint me. Also, Venture absolutely should have gotten a skin in the Egyptian-themed Battle Pass. They could have had either the archaeologist or the robot literally created by Anubis get the Mythic that season, or at least *a* skin, but nope! Reaper skin be upon ye. 22:00 That's my problem a lot of the time, where I love nonbinary characters, and would love them in a vacuum, but...they're the only one in the story. All the messiness of their character (because I do love a good villain/morally neutral asshole) is more or less forced to be how a mostly cisgender audience will see nonbinary people. My love for characters like this as a nonbinary person and as a person who knows how media trends work are at odds. 26:10 Goddamn I've missed a lot of Boyfriend Dungeon. I haven't played it in a good long while, but I had a lot of fun playing with it, and I almost missed Rowan my first playthrough, but they're so fun to play with in the dungeon. I did feel a lot of vibes with Sawyer, that sort of mild uncomfortability is very relatable to me. Boo that you hate Crocs though I love Crocs forever and always.
I will not apologize for hating crocs, they're ugly as sin and I REFUSE TO BE SILENCES ANYMORE! THE TRUTH MUST BE HEARD! I WILL NOT BE- *gets tranqed by the croc mafia*
I'll start by saying that I totally see your points, and think you are probably right in making these critiques. I personally don't ever look at a particular character in media as rep for their whole marginalized group, but I can see how from media critique point of view it can seen this way, since you are probably right about how someone can take a character that is the first of that group they have ever seen. Like, Double Trouble is so awesome to me, but I knew who double trouble was before they appeared in the new show and was happy to see they went with them being NB and their general depiction. Granted, the shape shifting NB is such a trope, but I relate to that trope, tho I'd prolly be slightly less of chaos agent than DT if I could shapeshift. Heh. As far as things like misgendering, I've seen so many times that a character's gender or sexuallity, and the trauma they experience because of it, be the focus of such characters that the first time I saw it just be treated matter of factly (Steve Cortez in Mass Effect 3, a gay man who simply mentions his husband whom he just lost in the war), I was blown away by it. Normally I'd have expected anyone hearing such a thing to be taken aback by the revelation of a gay man existing. But I'm old, and over conflict about such things in media, so I'm not the kind of person you viewer you're talking about. Like, that comes up a bit in Dragon Age Inquisition when you find out Krem is a trans man, which while mild, was kind of uncomfortable when it comes up. I also love Krem, a lot, tho they cast a cis woman to play him, which felt problematic, she did a great job with it however.
omg YES!!!! im an amab agender too and the 'nonbinary = femme/androgynous they/them' stereotype did not do me any favors when figuring out and feeling comfortable with my identity. like im glad we even have representation to the point we have stereotypes but yeah the representation being majority femme and androgynous they/them definitely can make things harder for us more 'male' presenting people. like i had some dysphoria about some male characteristics like my beard and adams apple, but going into nonbinary spaces/watching nonbinary creators that overwhelmingly[if not sometimes always] presented as femme/androgynous, made it worse in addition to feeling like a bit of an 'outsider' even though most everyone is cool/accepting. i too hope we get some more masc presenting nonbinary people to balance this out cause coming out to people [even gays] and them saying 'oh you dont look nonbinary [read:androgynous]' is like 'yeah presentation is separate from identity' which youd imagine gays would be familiar with, when weve had people think gays wearing anything feminine must mean theyre actually a woman
As a genderfluid lesbian, I really loved this video. I totally agree that we as nonbinary people never get to see characters that present more fem or masc but still identify as nonbinary. Lately I've been talking to more binary people and I've come to the realization that they see me as more feminine (while I feel more agender or masc) because I'm a lesbian and am AFAB. I think a big part of that stems from the androgyny issue and the lack of other characters. This video really helped me put my thoughts into words and realize how I've been feeling lately. Thank you for this!
This video was actually so helpful! I’m not nonbinary myself, but I’m working on a story with nonbinary characters, and this really gives me more ideas to flesh them out and make them feel real, so thank you!
@@WritinRealSlow crocs are my favourite shoes lol. I'm really passionate about them - cuz they're goofy. it's fun. you can put the shoe equivalent of stickers on them. it's perfect. there are super ridiculous crocs. i've seen mcdonalds crocs recently with fries on them. it's like crayons when every other shoe is guache, acrylics or watercolour. makes the inner child happy and it's comfy. platform ones can actually look really nice. i got two pairs with spikes on them for more alt-dressing days, they're awesome. there's a frog in knee high boots on one of those.
@@rubyrootless7324 I'm happy for you, I truly am. I wish you a pair of extra-comfy crocs for every day of the week. They remain the ugliest fucking kind of shoes I've ever seen in my life though.
I love Testament in GGST (they're the main reason I bought the game), but I do understand why some enbies who have known them for longer would feel conflicted about their redesign.
Its also great to see a video like this from a fellow enby! I find I often lean towards androgenous non-human designs for my own OCs. Simply because that's how I present in real life, I do enjoy baggy clothes lol. And I just really like monster characters. I think I hadn't noticed how common these traits are as a stereotype, so I really appreciate hearing other perspectives. I'll work harder to flesh out my cast of characters with more stuff other enbies can appreciate too!
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Do keep in mind though, my advice is strictly for people trying to make good representation. OCs, dnd characters for campaigns with friends, things like this are about personal joy and comfort, so there's nothing wrong with only designing them in ways that you want to.
Thank you! I have altered slightly the nobinary representation in the book that I'm writing thanks to this. I'm just a trans girl doing her best to represent. I wasn't really aware that masc nb representation was so much lesser, and so I will be including multiple nb people with various identities now.
On the theme of design: I had great joy playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I finished it two days ago, and it made me extremely happy in so many ways. Not only the plot twists in general and the fun little things you can do, but also that several characters struggle with identity, and one specifically with gender identity. I found it an extremely well-done (even if sometimes *too* in-your-face) attempt at introduction to the wide world of gender *through* a character. And several side-characters are non-binary, and you can make your main character non-binary if you like. On myself: As a person questioning their Identity every now and then, I am once again looking in to all the themes that encompasses. I have always presented myself more androgynous, and that's what I've always felt most comfortable with. Also, I've had two instances (one twenty years ago, one recently) where my gender was questioned, and both startled me. Not because they were 'wrong' in any sense (the first instance was calling me 'he', the second someone randomly asking for my pronouns), but rather because there was a question asked in the first place. And reflecting on that, it does mean that I probably present well how I feel, I guess? I never minded being a she/her, ever. But I never liked 'girly' things, not felt very 'femme'. But also not 'masc'. Thirty years ago, if I'd known 'non-binary' existed, I would have consciously strived for that for sure! But instead, I just almost always subconsciously leaned in to 'non-gendered'.
I've actually recently started playing veilguard. I made my character nonbinary, but I haven't come across any gender-specific dialogue options just yet. I DID just meet taash though, so hopefully they pop up with them.
Thank you for putting to words feelings I've held for so long. It's not like you can really make a nonbinary character wrong- by definition very rarely will two nonbinary people truly have the exact same experience with and of gender let alone its expression. I'm okay if you want to explore your character's exact nonbinariness or not or if you want to make your only nonbinary character in a story a villain- but a more diverse range of "nonbinarity" in media might help more people come to understand both us and themselves.
From about 4:30 to 5:00 I'll give you a great example of what you're talking about: I'm also an AMAB Agender person. And although I can relate to feminine gendering being less annoying, I define my identity as purely a lack of gender and in a nonchalant way. So although I find masculine gendering to be annoying, I don't care either way. Even though you and I share the same identity and even the same gender assigned at birth, our experiences are quite different. Which just goes to show how each and every NB really does experience life as their gender identity differently.
i really wish more people would design characters as agender by default and then add gender on top of that as just another of many characteristics, rather than starting with "man" or "woman" as a kind of SPECIES and building from there. that way, making a nonbinary character just comes naturally and doesn't require tearing down the deeply rooted gender systems that all your characters were built from
im nonbinary and i've def been falling into the nonbinary trap 😔😔 i tend to decide my characters' gender after i draw them. but ur so right abt there not being an nb look... tea 🙏
My favorite oc ever is enby, it doesn't come up much since they live in a world where other identities are normalized, but they're still important to me. A peice of my soul does die when my friends accidentally misgender them (they always apologize but still-)
Thanks for making this video. I am a binary trans person, and am working on a story which includes an NB character in the main ensemble. Being older and thus curmedgeonly, NB admittedly is something I am still getting used to, and being outside of that community, I am concerned about how to represent an NB outside of a context where it matters all that much (a new fantasy world) while stile properly textualizing the identity. This video and its "prequel" are extremely helpful. Why I absolutely intend to seek the help of sensitivity readers, these videos help to to conceive and flesh out the character from the start, so that I need not worry about having to completely rewrite them after the fact, and thus the story, if I f it up. Also, you might appreciate knowing the character was conceived with a masculine leaning presentation from the start, and I will try to stay true to that.
I'm glad I could help! And honestly, the fact that you're trying to understand and do it right is already a huge mark in your favor. I appreciate you and the effort you're putting in!
I myself have been having problems trying to get myself to make a masc non-binary character, everytime I design a non-binary character they always turn out androgynous or fem. I atleast have variety in pronouns, like how Greed uses they/she pronouns and they loves pretty dresses and skirts because those are nice and they make her happy. I've made demiboys but I somehow just haven't made any masc non-binary characters, likely because most of my ocs are guys so when I make characters who aren't guys they typically lean away from anything directly masculine
Personal projects like OCs or DnD characters don't really need to follow my guidelines, because they mainly exist for personal satisfaction and not to represent a marginalized group in a piece of entertainment media. The standards are different.
as a nonbinary person, my personal favorite representation is in the game gnosia. it's a sci-fi social deduction game/visual novel based around the game mafia/werewolf where you play a bunch of rounds of that through time loops to figure out a greater mystery. if has two nonbinary characters, and you can also choose the player character to be nonbinary. the two nonbinary characters present very differently, and they both explicitly talk about their gender. one of them has a whole spiel about how their body has nothing to do with their gender, and the other one has to deal with an annoying guy constantly hitting on them and misgendering them, and they get so fed up with him that in some loops they just kill him (lol). it's also getting an anime adaptation next year! i highly recommend checking it out, it made me so happy to play and both the enby characters remain some of my all time favorites. it's just a super fun game in general!
I love venture with my entire being and I’m genuinely so pissed at overwatch because of the lack of attention they get. Sure, they did one thing, made a non binary character. Then they straight up ignore them completely. Anyways, I am ventures number 1 fan even though the overwatch fandom is such a toxic community.
My assumption is that you didn’t play Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and if that’s true I would genuinely recommend it. Is it perfect? No. Does that imperfection apply to the representation of the 2 (excluding your created character as a potential) non-binary characters? Yes. But some of your recommendations actually end up being in the game and I just find it interesting. It’s my favorite series so I have a lot of bias in it’s favor, but I think at least giving it a try would give show a little more representation in gaming really is important to a significant portion of us enbies
No, I haven't played it yet, I don't have the money for it right now. I was recommended a video by another youtuber who talks about the characters though, so I'll at least be looking into that.
3:33 aha egg indeed. Thank you for these videos, something I've wondered about a lot so it's cool to have info from nonbinary creator. whole vibe of your channel seems perfect for me :)
This video reminds me of why I quite like pocket from deadlock.. very typically masc gender markers ( even some stubble) and with a typically male voice actor, but they are nb, and they/them pronouns.
@WritinRealSlow some people try to say "oh they are just obscuring their identity," but the bio that uses they/them also tells us thier whole full background and name so its weird ths it woild be the only info they respect to hide
I always gravitate to the "just a lil guy" design. But it really is nice to see some humanoid enby characters from time to time. Sometimes I feel more seen in the designs of gnc characters or ones who don't care about their gender expression than the hyper androgynous characters like the OW one you mentioned.
Something else I really like about Raine from The Owl House is that they're a middle-aged non-binary character, which is really rare and definitely needed
Yeah, enby elders are a huge rarity.
Absolutely true!!! Not just good for representing older folk, but amazing to encourage younger folk to keep on living. It totally debunks the "it's just a phase" argument, too
This, raine is awsome
I was in awe of Raine from the get go.
@@felixrivera895 oh yeah, raine is the best
The whole "if you're non-binary you have to be androgynous" thing was a raging argument that took place in the Monster High community when the character Frankie was confirmed to be non-binary in the reboot.
A lot of people didn't consider them non-binary because they are more fem-presenting, they wear skirts, long hair, earrings and more feminine outfits from time to time, but at other times they also have more masc-presenting dolls.
Frankie is a good example that androgyny is not a standard for non-binary people, they are fem-presenting and that doesn't make them any less non-binary! Since then, non-binary fans have started posting memes of the character with the phrase "we don't owe you androgyny" or something like that.
That whole controversy was absurd. Imagine liking Monster High and being weird about enbies. Like, do they think men and women can't be androgynous? Or be tomboys or femboys?
yes! frankie is my fav i love them sm
@@KingOpenReview same! like, the creator of the franchise is a gay man! He himself said that he wanted to include gay characters and that he likes the fans' LGBT headcanons!
This franchise has always been about inclusivity and embracing your differences! This genuinely made me leave the fandom, because if they can't accept LGBT, plus size, and autistic characters, then why should I be part of it??
I've have been called "braindead" for enjoying the reboot! I've never seen so much hate and bigotry in a fandom that should be inclusive!
@fictional-enby Frankie wasn't my favorite in G1, but G3 Frankie is just adorable! They are also extremely autistic-coded and I love them! one of my favorites in the reboot!
I honestly wasn't even aware there WAS a reboot! I've seriously got to catch up on those games, I've heard so many good things!
I definitely get what you're saying, but about Double Trouble specifically, with the amount of queer representation in She-Ra, I kind of reveled in the fact that we got an openly trans asshole character. I feel like after the era of depicting all queer people as monstrous villains we have only gotten tame representation, and I for one was glad to see a character who's honestly just really fun but not particularly ~good~. I will also add that DT does have some sweet and tender moments, they're not an empathy-less alien creature. Idk, I think we should give more space for queer and trans villains when they're not harmful IRL stereotypes
I likw doubletrouble I think they're funny and something I really like about them is that they r not there just to be enby they r an actual important character in the story them being enby is just another thing they do which I really like because most enby representation I watch is kinda just "wow guys look they use they/them pronouns anyways they r not going to be relevant at all anymore"
@@thefur4et895 totally agree
My thing about queer villains too- real queer can be bad people. I’m queer and I’ve done some shitty things to people- that doesn’t I’m evil because I’m gay. Only making ‘good’ queer characters demonizes real queer people when they aren’t flawlessly good and moral. It only helps homophobes use queerness as reason for why someone did something bad. What we really need is the understanding that whatever you are- if your a minority race, minority religion, minority gender or sexuality, disabled, not a minority at all- you can be literally anything at all, and also still be a shit person.
Also their character isn’t ABOUT being non binary. The story just has an iconic character that doesn’t (imo) have to represent being enby.
PRECISELY
people can be assholes and also non binary
It's fine. Assholes exist everywhere and come in all shapes and sizes. (Came out worse than I thought lol.)
I think as you brought attention to, so often, the problem with the sort of "explained nonbinary-ness" or "nonbinary = alien/shapeshifter" isn't necessarily a problem, but it becomes deeply problematic when that is the ONLY representation in a given piece of media follows that tropes. I feel like it's so rare to find more than like 2-3 nonbinary characters max, which feels kind of bad and weird as a nonbinary person.
That's the problem with being such a minority, I suppose. People act like it's weird to see even one of us, let alone a full group. But that's why I try to encourage people to include more and explore more options. All we can do is keep creating and keep existing, and eventually things will get better.
Yeah, I agree.
That's why I do like Double-trouble from She-ra even though they are a shapeshifting alien - but the majority of the cast isn't human, so they aren't noticable different from everyone else. Also, they're just cool. And I envy them for their ability T_T
This is why my One-True Ship is Vee (a shapeshifting demon who identifies as "she/her") and Masha (a plain-old, regular human who identifies as "they/them")
@@Spagettigeist I do like double trouble as a character, I just hate them as representation.
@@Simpson17866 it's also just really cute
I disagree with Doubletrouble. The whole point is that we don't want NB characters to represent the whole community. we have to be allowed to be portrayed in all ways, which includes as a villain. its problematic if that's all that we become in media, but the ammount of examples of us as wholesome goodhearted fun-loving quirky people far outweighs DT's presence. A critique that I think is more evident is that enbys in media often are shape changers or magically able to present themselves in a more neutral way. I enjoy the power fantasy of being able to change shape, but I wouldn't want every NB character to be a shapechanger.
TLDR - if we don't want creators to make NB characters that try and fail to represent the whole community, we can't expect single NB characters to be perfect representations as if they speak for NB people. Let queer people be campy villains, but don't ONLY make us as campy villains.
I think that's why they were suggesting having more than one nonbinary character in a story at a time, though not always practical if it's a more limited set of characters. The wider representation across different media is the more important thing, as you say.
That is one of many reasons why I said to have more than one nonbinary character, yes.
I think the point is more that if the only non-binary character is a villain, it can be kinda uncomfortable. Like "how can I tell if this character was made just to show a variety of personalities for enbies, or if the writer really fuckin hates us?"
Personally I felt Double Trouble was fine cos they're clearly written to be an entertaining and endearing kind of villain. They always hit me like team rocket in Pokémon, I'd never think James crossdressing is meant to be "trans bad!" because he's the dude you're supposed to adore. So I also agree that Double Trouble isn't a problem, but it's a complex issue and some people might just prefer zero ambiguity on the subject.
...or it's just better to have more than one enby, then having one of them as a villain means nothing at all.
@@Bunni89 It's not just about whether it's uncomfortable or not, it's about the message being sent. Double Trouble is a fun character and my favorite villain in the show, but they're also the only nonbinary character in the show at all, and so they carry the burden of being the lens through with the audience is meant to interpret that aspect of their character, and for all the reasons I listed in the video this means that, as the sole point of nonbinary representation in the show, they are BAD. And yes, having another character be nonbinary would have fixed these issues, because there would have been another point of reference for the audience. Plus, the creators and even DT's voice actor all made a big deal about representation being important and how proud they were of DT as well, so they were clearly meant to be representation.
I don't attribute this to malice on the showrunner's part, I just think that they didn't give any thought to what making the only enby in the cast into an untrustworthy bastard would imply.
I don't fault anyone for liking double trouble, but I will not humor anyone who tries to argue that they're actually good representation or that "it doesn't matter actually," because they're not and it does.
@@WritinRealSlow I can see taking it that way, and DT maybe isn't the best for those reasons, but it feels a bit unfair to call DT "the only nonbinary character in the show" when an enormous majority of the side and background characters are very non-traditionally gender coded; most of the mix traditional male/female clothing and appearances. If the artists had in mind what (binary) gender these characters are and people had to guess, I'll bet nobody would do better than 50/50 in general! She-Ra overwhelming presented to me a world in which, essentially, nobody gives a damn about gender presentation.
As a Nonbinary person, the best NB character design trope is BIG DUDE IN BIGGER ARMOR. Can’t have dysphoria under two feet of space steel!
I do have a certain fondness for beeg armor
why not cut out the dude and have just the armor
@@FerinitheBloodHusky Because I like men.
@@WritinRealSlow damn, i like the armor itself in that way
@@FerinitheBloodHusky Valid. Let's split the difference, you can have the armor and I'll take the dude.
I'm so glad you brought up how most enbies present "how we look". One of my biggest struggles as an AFAB enby has been that I am naturally fat and have larger breasts and fuller hips. It is impossible for me to look androgynous. When I was more fluid than I am now (I identified as gender fluid for 12 years, and recently started to consider myself more a gender, or gender apathetic at the least), it was thoroughly gutting that I could never embody the masculine energies I felt some days. Binders did not work, and that's the go to way for most folks. (And I was binding before it was actually affordable! My first binder was 70USD!)
The double whammy of being fat and being nonbinary in a culture that hates both these things has been difficult. Community is the relief, and having safe people and places to return to helps get it through. But I also know I will never see a representative of my experiences in media ever. Lots of people would have to get cool with lots of things real quick haha.
Yeah, it's a shame that people aren't willing to show larger enbies in most media. One of my former friends had your same situation, and they really struggled with feeling seen and accepted.
One reason I try to discuss online about my appearance as a huge ogrish person is because I am *done* with the idea that being nonbinary is to be a svelte, femme-spec androgynous type of elven being.
Eff that!
I am more like Pyornkrachzark (the Rockbiter in Neverending Story) or Sweetums (the giant Muppet) and whilst my size causes me some dysphoria at times it is who I am.
Much love to my fellow large nonbinary people (whether they call themselves enbies or not)!
I really like Pocket from Deadlock. They're nonbinary, but have a masculine body, and voice, and way of dressing. There's not much of anything feminine or androgynous about them. They're also a human character, in a game that has robots, ghosts, demons and living statues.
I keep hearing good things about Pocket, I should look into them.
Omg they look so good
Pocket's voice is sooo nice. It was a real surprise seeing the same person, Greg Chun, give a very similar performance for Metaphor ReFantazio's More.
I was hoping to hear mention of Pocket here. I absolutely adore them and i can't wait to get more info on them
as an enby with an unavoidably feminine-shaped body, i feel so seen with the "androgyny problem"
I'm glad I could give you that ^_^
34:21 i think you hit the nail on the head with this essay,
part of what has always made it difficult for me to 'explain' my gender is that there is no example, no shorthand, to help describe how complex my understanding of my gender is.
i'm very aware that often i am read as a girl in boys clothes, but it goes SO much deeper than that for me, and it sucks that people just don't get it.
man i miss overwatch
Honestly, sometimes the best you can say to someone is just "these are my pronouns, use them if you want to talk to me," because explaining your gender is like trying to describe the sun to someone who's lived underground their whole life.
@@WritinRealSlow At a certain point it's not worth wracking your brain about labels. Much better to focus on tangible changes you can make. Do I like dresses? Do I want tits? Do I like getting called ma'am? Even a lot of cis people have complicated relationships to gender identity.
I love this video because as a cis girl, I thought you *had* to make a character as androgynous as possible to be non-binary, and I really really like learning that there’s a lot more to being enby than that. It’s ok and good to be shown more masculine or feminine and still have any set of pronouns, and I doubt im actually gonna make any kind of media with my art, but I would still like to make some more varied non-binary characters
Also you showed a bit of In Stars and Time and I think that is a wonderful game for representation. While Siffrin and Bonnie I don’t think ever talk about their enby identities, the fact that Isabeau is not only trans but is also still not done with his identity journey is really cool, and the fact he has no problem sharing that he used to be girl. The talk about Siffrin and Mirabelle’s sexual identities is really cool too, because they have a whole conversation going into detail about their feelings about it. The only thing that could be better is including that being asexual doesn’t *just* include being completely sex-appalled, but I appreciate the effort and inclusion nonetheless. And the fact they included being aro/ace *and* still having romantic attraction with being asexual is awesome too (they also did great by having these things as topics but that’s not what the game is about, it all feels so natural (imo) and well put-together, I love it)
Anyway, thank you very much for making this video, it is very informative and I appreciate it a lot :3
I'm happy I could help! And yeah, In Stars and Time is honestly one of the best games I've played in a long time! I've only been working on it for a couple days, but it's so good!
I have a friend who uses they/them pronouns, but they represent themselves in their sonas very femininely. They love pink and purple, skirts, and have long hair. I think that reminds me that non binary people *can* and often *will* lean more masc or fem.
Gender presentation can be just as complicated as gender itself.
No matter the gender, everyone has the right to feel like a ✨️pretty (gender neutral) princess✨️
@@Vileplume87 You're right and more people should know that.
Yes, but in practice if you want the general public to see you as nonbinary, presenting extremely androgynous is absolutely necessary. I say this as someone who used to be a femme presenting enby until I realized that I actually hated that people saw me as female but was too much of a wimp to do anything about it. I had to go on testosterone for 6 months and dress full masc 90% of the time before I started getting called 'they' by anyone other than my absolute closest friends. I live in a very progressive city.
@@sersergv The point of increasing the diversity of nonbinary representation is to teach people that you can look however you want and still be nonbinary. Most people still aren't even aware that enbies are a thing, but that's slowly changing. Even still, you can't expect people to immediately clock you as nonbinary because gender presentation is as varied as there is types of people. What you should always expect of people is for them to respect your pronouns when you tell them what they are.
And if they tell you they don't want to or don't see you as nonbinary, tell them to go to hell. It's not for them to decide.
About shows that explore gender identity, Nightshade from Transformers Earthspark is a non-binary transformer and in two episodes there are scenes where they talk about their identity. In the first episode they appear in (episode 10), they present themselves with their pronouns, saying that she or he don't fit who they are.
In episode 17 they meet a non-binary human who teaches them what non-binary is, and they comment on how they always knew their pronouns felt right, and how they find being non-binary a wonderful experience.
This is not something that is explored 100% and each scene lasts at least 2 minutes, but it works for the character. There's another episode that kind of explores the concept of an altmode (the transformers' alternative mode) as a way of expressing who they are, kind of serving as a trans analogy if you prefer.
Nightshade is a great character and it's a shame that their reception was so negative to the point that the show received negative reviews because of it.😢
That's honestly really cool. Transformers has never really been my thing, but I've heard good things about earthspark from some people I know, so I might actually give it a look.
@@WritinRealSlow It's a great show! Season 2 is just... Bad. So much so that many fans pretend it doesn't exist!
@@laraprisma6381 Dare I ask what happened?
@@WritinRealSlow Nothing to do with Nightshade, basically because of the strake of writers and poor treatment of the show's staff, not only the animation studio but also scriptwriters were changed, resulting in a season that contradicts the first season's message that everyone deserves a second chance and that one should not judge someone for who they are.
The Decepticons (who are usually the main villains in Transformers) were not the villains in the first season, the villain is prejudice and xenophobia. The Decepticons still cause trouble but they also just want to survive on a post-war planet that hates them for who They are.
The first season shows several of the characters interacting with Decepticons who have both positive and redeemable sides such as Bumblebee and Brakedown's close friendship and Satrscream's clear and the clear abuse he suffered at the hands of Megatron during the war, who happens to be a good guy now.
At the end of the first season the Decepticons help the protagonists fight the main villain(a human who physically modifies himself to become like them and who wants to cause mass genocide against the Transformers on Earth, believing himself to be the hero of the story), but in the second season they immediately return to villainy and ignore the end of the first season.
Starscream suffers the most from this, going from an abuse victim who created a close connection to one of the protagonists who shares a similar trauma, to an irredeemable villain who has no problems killing the Transformer equivalent of two children! Even twisting a line he he said to the character he formed a connection with from something selfless to something selfish.
In other words, the second season saw a decline in writing and several of the characters suffered from character assassination.
Luckily, none of this involves Nightshade, they're completely untouched and haven't even received that much focus this season which is a shame.
The first season is genuinely good, the animation is amazing and the characters are endearing, but the second season has a downfall in almost all of that.
@@laraprisma6381 Well that's a shame, but at least nightshade made it out unscathed.
Putting your ask box up for the writers out there like myself is so unbelievably helpful as a resource, even though I (and likely many others) fall under the non-binary umbrella. I might just run my ideas through you regardless, even if I’m somewhat confident in my representation and how it’s written! Thank you.
Absolutely, I'm happy to help if you need it! And if you're feeling confident, that's all the better.
Overwatch's bastion was for a long period when the game released only called by they them pronounce in official material. But nowadays they're commonly called by he him instead
It's so funny to see Actiblizzard try so hard with the corporate rainbow capitalism, but they straight up forgot about Overwatch's first nonbinary character's pronouns 💀💀
@IceFireofVoid Personally i don't feel like any of the LGBT stuff in overwatch specifically feels very "Rainbow capitalism"ish. It's all handled very respectfully, feels very genuine and non of the stuff is behind a paywall.
The new player icons and banners are very front and center with them even adding 2 extra long after because Venture got released. Even the cop cars on Midtown are repainted to be normal cars in the pride version of the map and characters like lifeweaver will openly flirt with other characters of the same gender in spawn rooms.
I think the bastion thing was probably just something the lore people thought was cool since it's a robot and stuff but then forgot about it since everybody collectively reads them as a boy.
@Kamil_Horvath I've been into Overwatch for a long time and I generally agreed with that...with the old team. I really liked how Overwatch previously handled its LGBT characters because they were written much more as real characters, and they were LGBT too. Their stories, and the parts that involved their feelings like Tracer's girlfriend and Soldier's failed romance with his ex fiance, were really compelling. I don't feel that same care at all with their more recent characters. It feels like they added them because someone in a meeting room thought they had to be there. It's lazy. Pharah had a coming out as a lesbian, the only lore she got in years, and then they proceeded to shove her back into the background and continued to do nothing with her. Venture was added as a nonbinary character, but they got no skins. Heroes that came after them got multiple skins by the time Venture got their first with the upcoming ATLA collab. Lifeweaver is alright and Baptiste being bi is cool, but overall the lore aspect being so neglected really hurts the characters. It's more the lack of passion with the entire game's story side that happens to be affecting the LGBT characters so badly. I just wish I could know more about these characters, that they could do more in the story. I just want the regular lore drops back, man.
@@IceFireofVoid I couldn't agree with you more.
I too miss the time where it felt like the overwatch lore and characters always had more to tell.
I thought bastion was referred to as an "it" at first, and then they started calling it "he" as a way to recognize his growing sentience. I could be wrong though, bastion is one of the few characters I never really looked into further.
This video is so eye opening to me. I only now noticed that I'm strongly influenced by the "100% androgynous" non binary representation we see in media. When I first saw Raine in The owl house I was confused and thought "If this character is non binary, shouldn't they look a bit less like a man?" But now I get why that's stupid.
This opens so many possibilities I didn't know I had for my own OCs! I have finally the words to describe how they identify and express themselves. Thank you for making this video!
I'm really happy I could help! Thank you for watching!
What’s so funny is I thought Raine was Afab at first, which while that doesn’t take away from their identity ofc, goes to show how their design could honestly be interpreted differently
@@semidecent4395 yeah, I've heard multiple different interpretations of their design, same with venture. None of which are bad takes, it just goes to show how vastly different people's interpretation of gender markers can be.
To me Raine already looked quite androgynous lol
I honestly couldn't tell at first, and didn't realise they were non binary bc that's just so rare in TV shows, and only realised because anyone being referred to as only they them is like a dog whistle to me now
as an artist myself i’ve been making my own masculine gender-non conforming characters
ones that aren’t afraid to play with gender or drop the idea entirely
especially since I create fat / chubby characters, each leaning masculine but way different ways to express it
it’s something i’d love to see more of fat masculine people being allowed to be genderless or find their ways to understand it
fair and valid.
It's funny cause I have a black trans masc OC that's fat as well
:03
Ive got someone named Jank that usually is masc presenting and has top surgery scars but some of their outfits still include skirts.
A mechanic in a skirt is what we’re all missing in our lives.
Another thing that you briefly mentioned but didn’t go into detail with is pronouns. I always appreciate representation wise is non-binary characters that don’t *just* use they/them, though it does make sense why it’s rarely used as it can be a little confusing in media, but as someone who identifies under the non-binary umbrella and doesn’t use they/them at all, it makes me really happy to see characters that don’t just use they/them.
The thing i love about genderqueer-ness and gender expression especially in being trans, is when characters aren’t perfectly androgynous in every way, the trans experience is so varied that practically every single trans person you meet will have a different experience, outlook and opinion on gender and i love when thats shown through characters.
I had originally thought about going into pronouns more, but the video was already way longer than I'd originally intended and that was one of the things that got cut. But you're absolutely right, there should be more variation in pronoun usage for characters.
I find that a lot of really-great queer representation usually comes from indie products (whether comics, books, films or games) which makes sense since they usually only cover for a specific or niche market and don't focus on mass consumption like more corporate media.
It was funny to hear a more "negative" take on Testament who was weirdly an awakening for me ( I'm non-binary but more on the transfemme side). To me, I read their design as a feminine non-binary person finally having come into their own so seeing their transition from their old art to the new one felt empowering, especially in the context of their backstory. I always thought of myself as non-binary but reading about their story and just looking at their design cracked my transfemme egg a little (also they is sexy, me is scared).
When it comes to androgynous designs, I don't entirely hate it but its definitely overdone and can feel like a cheap cop-out to have a non-binary character without doing any of the work. Woking with GNC designs can be super fun and interesting but too many of them are "degendered" (covered entirely/made non-human,, etc) or made "equal" (50% boy cuz tall and broad but 50% girl cuz hair long and dress or "twinkified" short person). I think more inspiration should come from actual non-binary people and maybe that's why boyfriend dungeon's design are appealing cuz they don't homogenize non-binary experiences but slip and slide between a few various aspects per character.
I think it can be a hard line for cis-gender people to walk when it comes to depicting misgendering. I hate, LOATHE scenes that makes it feel like padding/overcorrection (hey audience *THIS* is character X's pronouns and NO OTHER) or they make it feel like "the misgendering scene...part 31009 cuz you've never scene a person be misgendered before". On the other hand sometimes it felt so natural to the setting/story of a work that I didn't even take note of it cuz it was such an authentic character moment. Basically I don't want it to be an instruction manual or lazy writing but inform character relationships, "deeper" characterization and the setting at large (is that too much to ask for, cis-writers??? is it?? ~~and queer writers, queer writing deserves to be bad too~~.
I hadn't considered testament from that angle, thank you for sharing!
Thats how I read testement too
On the subject of queer writing deserves to be bad too, it always feels like people are more overly critical of indie comics/projects made by queer people as well. If the media made by the queer person is too sexual, not sexual enough, not diverse enough, they get a slew of criticisms and even people calling them fetishizers or taking away their “gay cards”. As a queer artist myself it’s really tiring and sometimes makes me not want to write or make art with queer characters at all, it feels like people will just attack or invalidate me. It’s also strange because it feels like it’ll always be marginalized people being attacked for how they write queer people instead of corporations.
I was born as Male and for the longest time I felt as though I was born as the wrong gender. As a kid I was into all the things considered feminine (Winx Club, Barbie, Bratz etc) I know now that it doesn’t matter what I like.
But seeing characters like Raine helped me discover that I’m really Nonbinary. I still dress fairly masculine but I’ve been wanting to try other styles and clothes. 💖
I mean in a lot of ways you're right about Double Trouble but personally I still love them, while they're definitely not a good person I find queer "fuck everyone else" type characters like Double Trouble to be super comforting when I'm upset or angry. Maybe there's stuff to unpack there but every now and then it's nice to feel like I can just fully be me, fuck everyone else.
Someone misgendering nb in media and being corrected is actually a really genius way to add that characterization in a natural way. Even better might be not misgendering them to their face, but a new character they just met is talking with nb’s friend and they refer to them as he or she, and the friend gently corrects them, without it being a huge deal, but a sign of immense respect and solidarity for their friend without nb character being directly involved. It’s realistic that people will assume he/she and they would need to be told otherwise. And then people just move on and use the correct pronouns in the future.
Yeah I know it is, that's why I had it.
I kid. I don't think your thing is better per se, but it IS a good idea, because it would also serve to teach people the proper way to handle someone misgendering an enby.
@ both is good. lots of variants to make it more relatable. Not as in it being a recurring thing in the same show (unless it being a constant part of enby’s life is the point they want to make) but across different shows and mediums. :D
Okay I haven't actually watched the owl house, but king's dad is giving very Sans energy so I love her already.
yeah, she's pretty cool for what little screentime he actually gets
Fun fact: King’s dad is voiced by Arin Hanson from Game Grumps.
@@lexx1745 That IS a fun fact, and one I didn't know
As someone who's questioning if they're nonbinary, this video really helped me. I always found androgyny cool, and I've been struggled with being called the gender aab by strangers, so I thought it was my solution. But after watching this, I realized it doesn't and shouldn't matter as much how I'm perceived, as long as I'm following how I feel.
It sounds cheesy, and its also something I've known for quite some time as I learn more about nonbinary people and how everyone can present differently, but I've been battling that voice that says they way I appear needs to confuse people about my gender, so they'll ask before they assume. I'm realizing I don't need to do that to feel validation. Because no matter how masc I'm dressing, literally sweatpants and hoodie, I can still be refered to as "ma'am."
I've been called a boy once, which triggered something in me, I was elated to be missgendered and I didn't know why, because I didn't feel like a guy. I realize because of 4:25 it was because I was finally not called my gender aab.
This also made me realize I'm probably projecting onto my nb characters by making them both afab, one more masc and the other androgynous, and the masc one struggling with the dislike of being called a girl. I'm going to work on them a lot more, thank you for your video!!
Double Trouble in original series of She-Ra was Glummer’s cousin. I see that as missed opportunity for comedy.
Honestly, that could have been so fucking funny!
I was about to say: "If only they got to complete the show then maybe" but then I remembered She Ra got a full 5 seasons and (as far as I know) got to tell the story wanted and that I've spent too much time watching shows that got cut short
@@AceOfSpadesForAll I honestly don't recommend watching season 5, it threw out all of the character growth and buildup of the first 4 seasons and pulled shit that made me genuinely angry.
I know a lot of people really liked how it turned out, and maybe you'll still enjoy it, but speaking as an abuse survivor I will never forgive the writers for what they did.
I had an NB character in the works for a while, She uses He/She Pronouns (Kinda like me, But without They/them in the mix)
He is an operator (Artificer but she doesn't make his own machines) who presents both ways, dressing masc or femme depending on her situation (Like wearing a modified uniform that takes traits of the male and the female uniform, or wearing a sundress casually) I actually originally made him nonbinary until I could decide a gender, but her being NB just kind of clicked better then either gender.
I Still have yet to finalize his design, but his helped a bit! Thanks!
I'm so glad I could help! I'd honestly love to hear about him when you finish her design! ^_^
Sounds awesome! love his aesthetic, look forward to seeing her.
This got me thinking about my non-binary characters in my stories. I've definitely fallen into the whole androgyny thing but i've been trying to break it down into figuring out the character's and personality individual expression instead of just going straight to neutral.
Also there's a character in the new dragon age who is non-binary and has a coming out arc! Lily simpson made a video about it
It's a learning process for sure, but it sounds like you're already doing a great job!
Also, thanks for the heads up! I'll give it a look! ^_^
@@yurisei6732 Okay, at this point it's pretty clear you're making bad faith arguments in a poor attempt at hiding your transphobia. Take your garbage elsewhere, because it's not welcome here.
Im currently working on a nonbinary character to a short novel im writing and this video was really insightful tysm for posting this:)
I'm really glad I could help! :3
*gasps* it's me! the Testament liker! :D i still love Testament and their design even with the issues i have, and i love playing them, something i had forgotten to mention to writin is that Testament's voice is more masculine leaning (in english at least) which is fairly nice
Gasp! Hi testament liker! I love you!
@@WritinRealSlow hewwo ^w^
I'm not a gears fan either but I like testament as an example as nonbinary who does hrt to "get to the other side" but is still NB. I saw their redesign and i was like "omg! They took E!" And it reminds me of a friend I have irl 🥺
aww, that's really sweet!
The part of the video where you discussed how being misgendered can be a good way to talk about being nonbinary is really interesting, because I HAVE seen a game do this before, its just that it’s a Markiplier Fan game, so not an original title. I love that game tho. It’s called Hearts and Heroes
They also have diversity in their races, their sexualities and their life experiences, so theres someone with Hijab too
I've never heard of it before, I'll have to look into it
I want to say thanks for this video. Its good to hear this criticism from the mouth of an actually non-binary person. This video not only gave me more tools to make my trans characters more accurate(im transfemme so i had some already) but it also helped open my eyes to the fact i might be non-binary myself. Never gonna escape that eggshell i swear.
The Non-binary character ive written is supposed to be an edgy over the top anti-hero who wants to be the best fighter in the world, who then goes through a redemption arc because of the guilt of all the other people they stepped over to get there, and i have been petrified that id do a bad job of representing the community. The answer really is as simple as make more enby characters, it feels obvious and frankly thats good cause i had so much fun designing them, and also now i dont feel as "selfish"(?) and afraid for making so many transfemme characters in my stories.
As a character they are AFAB nonbinary with They/them pronouns and to give a little insight to the character they decided against top surgery in favor of replacing their legs with robo legs to kick people harder(they could only afford one or the other), and also because they felt forced to be androgynous at the start of their transition by their family, however ultimately are proud of their body type and rejected how their family looked at them. As for presentation they are mostly masculine however they do not bind, and arent afraid to show skin and wear kickass eyeliner. Finally, their transition is more part of their backstory, so ultimately i feel like i did a decent job of making a character that is trans rather than make their whole arc and story around them being trans. And also i just wanted to make a Buff enby, i dont see that all too often. But all my characters are perpetually W.I.P so there is still time to develop them more.
Wolfertinger66 (a trans artist i follow) on tumblr has done wonders for my understanding of how non-binary and even binary trans people still can be masc or femme in ways despite their pronouns, and im proud and thankful to Him for the fact i escaped that idea of non-binary=androgynous before this video.
P.S. I need to go watch owl house, ive never seen Kings Dad before and i think im in love.
i'm agender and i usually just write and design the characters without gender in mind (unless said gender is crucial to the story in some way), then assign whatever feels right to me once i'm done
That's not a bad way to do it, honestly.
That's the normal thing to do
This video actually helped me realise a part of my own gender identity, thank you for the help this has been something I've always felt like was missing of my own identity so this is a big relief for me
Thanks amazing, I'm so happy I could help you on your journey! ^_^
The talking about non-binary characters was the first video i watched on your channel. It's sitting on my liked list and this one will be too. It's nice to hear about nb characters and watch another non-binary creator.
Though i don't often talk about my nb characters gender directly in the narrative. As i wanna make it normal in the world. It also bothers me as. So i don't wanna write something that hurts me.
Like I said, you don't necessarily HAVE to if you don't want to. It's perfectly alright to just make a world where enbies are common knowledge and don't need an explanation.
What I consider "good enough" is still leagues better than what we had before. There's no need to push yourself; it's absolutely fine to just enjoy having a nonbinary character who just exists.
i disagree about the "purpose" of representation. i think representation makes minority ppl feel seen and makes them more comfortable/joyful consuming the media becuz they can relate better to the characters
That's also a massive benefit, yes.
@ thank u 4 agreein. srry if i was rude
@@AuntBibby nah, you're fine. Trust me, I've had much worse people blowing up over way less important details.
it also help normalize them to others.
@@Snowmaninadesert ayup
I would argue DT being nonbinary wasn't actually IMPORTANT to their character, though. Like, shapechanger, androgynous, alien untrustworthy... THAT's all important, but unlike Mystique, who was using being feminine as a plot point, DT wasn't. Still, all arguments valid, and even unintentional representation should be examined.
I completely agree that fem and masc presenting enbies should be embraced in character design! sadly there are a lot of people who already disrespect that though. Dante, the protagonist of Limbus Company has a human body with a prosthetic clock head and goes exclusively by they/them pronouns. However, players more than frequently disrespect that and refer to them using he/him, which 1, is stupid and 2, I believe is both due to their masc presenting body + clothes as well as the majority male playerbase. Even the character in my pfp, Lotus Dragon Cookie, goes by they/them, but because they're very flowery, colored in pinks and pastels, and is calmer compared to their kin, they are suddenly smacked with the label of she/her pronouns by fans. we really need more nonbinary characters that present in these ways so that people can start respecting their identity regardless if they look androgynous!!
exactly.
I cannot recommend Transformers: Earthspark enough for not only having a nonbinary character have a moment of "he or she just don't feel right for me" but later having two different types of nonbinary person (they/them alien, she/they human) talk to each other about gender. Nonbinary people talking to each other about gender, nonbinary friendships, conversations and interactions are so important and so rare. It's hard enough to even have multiple nonbinary characters, let alone have them interact meaningfully.
a lot of people have been recommending the show, though I've been warned away from the later seasons.
@WritinRealSlow Ah yes Season 2 onwards sadly got taken up by different writers, and becomes weirdly ableist and drops the themes/characterisation previously established, but the first season is fantastic and had a nonbinary writer on board, nonbinary voice actors etc. Very wholesome, very nicely done
So happy to hear someone talk about how there isn’t always a transition option for nonbinary people. 🥰🥰🥰
Surprisingly I’ve had more comments from trans people who have been through transition wanting to put me in a box than cis people. (Though I’m sure cis people are still thinking it lmao)
I mean, it's important to acknowledge. I try to be relatively comprehensive in my videos so I can help people understand these things, and I don't think most people realize the nuances of transition and identity.
Binary trans people have their own set of biases that they're usually not forced to confront, but I think it hurts more from them because they should understand at least a little better than a cis person.
i have a lot of stories and ocs, and being non binary myself (more accurately i am transmasculine) i really like to put in the effort to make every character feel real. one of my favourite things is to research the experiences of people i dont know much about and do my best to represent them in my characters. with non binary or transmasc characters i find it easy to take from my own relationship with my gender but i'm not the only non binary or transmasc person in the world, gender identity and expression are not linear. and so i still like to see how other people explain their experiences so that i don't make basically a glorified self-insert every time. this is a banger video and i really appreciate having your input, character design is a huge thing to consider and i love puttting as much effort as possible into it.
I'm glad I could help. and it's great to hear how much you enjoy making new characters and bringing new worldviews to your work!
As a hobby writer who wants to include more queer people in my silly writing videos like these are a treasure. thanks for voicing your thoughts.
Happy to help! ^_^
From listening to this I realized I made a few mistakes with writing my characters.
The first nb character I made was a literal alien shapeshifter but it was a roleplay character I never really used much.
Second character I can remember is more recent: they are an engineer kinda character who is sarcastic, intelligent, and more initiated with the world than the MC. They would wear rather neutral clothing like cargo pants and hoodies. Sadly the reason they are nb is cause I didn’t know what gender to give them when describing it so I purposefully left it vague. Gadgeteer honestly doesn’t have much development and was a part of my script writing class. If I were to rewrite Gadgy I would add a scene where the MC, Hiro, asks about Gadgy such as their real name and stuff, this could show a bit of the character such as discomfort from the topic, bad memories, or of the sort. The clothes would likely stay cause comfort clothes.
Any other ideas for how I can write future enbies? (For reference I’m cis-male and want to be more inclusive with my life and understand more demographics)
I mean, roleplay is meant to be fun, there's no shame in indulging in being tropey so long as you're having fun and not making anyone uncomfortable.
As far as gadgy goes, that's still good enough. some nonbinary people legitimately don't know if they fit any labels at all. The ideas you already have are great ways to explore the character further.
As far as other ideas go, I'd honestly just recommend thinking about what, if at all, you'd like to use the character to explore. It's perfectly alright to have a character that just uses nonbinary pronouns and leave it at that, but something that's rarely explored in writing is how the gender someone assigned at birth has colored their experiences and personality. A good writing exercise for you might be to think about all of the things that you associate with maleness and examine where the idea that they're masculine comes from. Society expects things from men that they don't expect from women, so looking at those things and making a character that has to deal with those associations might be interesting, especially if they're outwardly masc-presenting.
There's honestly a lot you can do with nonbinary characters, so I'd honestly recommend just taking an idea you like and seeing where it leads.
I'm not non-binary but I can totally understand why overly androgynous and or non-human non-binary characters can be a bit problematic, at least if overused, not every non-binary individual is going to be this perfect androgynous genderless being in fact very few non-binary people will or even would want to be, which can lead to the always *fun* "You don't look ____" response from people, someone can look conventionally "masculine" or "feminine" and still be non-binary, a non-binary person can be large, broad shouldered and have a beard and that shouldn't make them "less non-binary" than other non-binary people who lean more androgynously, non-binary is an identity YOU feel for yourself not other people choosing it for you.
Also I want to bring up a non-binary character from a rather recent game that I think deserves more attention, (maybe you've already talked about them I don't know) Juniper from Xenoblade Chronicles 3, they only ever are referred to as they/them, even in other languages Juniper is either given gender neutral terms or if a language doesn't have gender neutral terms they'll use both the masculine and feminine terms not leaning either way, while design wise Juniper is somewhat androgynous they aren't overly androgynous and to me read as an AFAB non-binary person (I hope that's the right thing to say).
There's also a non-binary character you've definitely never heard of, Dante from Limbus Company, the main POV character of a gacha game and they have amnesia but unlike other gacha protagonists Dante is not a blank slate self insert but their own distinct character who develops and grows over the course of the story (which isn't finished yet btw) Dante does have a clock for a head but they are still human with their clock head being a prosthetic and there are other character in Project Moon's body of work that have non-human looking prosthetic bodies and are still gendered, also there are a few characters who knew Dante before they lost their memory and gained their clock head who still use non-gendered language with Dante, literally at no point has Dante been gendered.
I wasn't aware of either of those characters, no. Thank you for telling me about them, I'll definitely give them a look when I make another video on the subject!
Ooh, two more great examples from the same underrated game: Raqio and Setsu from Gnosia
@@luxthewriter I think I saw gnosia mentioned in passing elsewhere, I might have to check it out.
@@WritinRealSlow It actually has both characters actively mention it too, both due to being kind of misgendered. One even directly explains what nonbinary means:D
Project Moon mentioned 👁️👁️👁️
Testament actually mirrored my own journey, going more masq presenting at the start and going softer. It's very much the sort of thing where if we had more NB characters in GG, it wouldn't be as isolating. That's the biggest takeaway from this; part of normalization is making more characters so one character doesn't need to do all the heavy lifting. My euohoria is anothers dysohoria, so allowing for multitudes can only help.
I'm really happy that you were able to feel seen by them!
I remember when Steven Universe came out, and the creator talking about how all gems are essentially agender and all present rather fem. I always appreciated it, even though gender wasn't really a big focus of the show.
That's something I talked about in the original video, actually.
@WritinRealSlow oh cool, I enjoyed this one, so I'll check out the other!
you've articulated well a lot of things I've been feeling but couldn't quite express ♥ thanks and well done!
I'm glad I could help, thanks for watching ^_^
as a nb myself, i absolutely love Double Trouble, because they're so chaotic and sly, i just love this type of characters. but i never thought about them being only nb rep in She-Ra, so that video actually got me thinking. I won't love them less, I'm just sad now 😢
Sorry to get you thinking
Thanks!
Holy crap, thank you so much!
@ You are very welcome! I hope it helps!
@@BeaBea-54 It absolutely doe, thank you!
Thank you!!!
I totally agree with your points.
As an enby myself, seeing as most enby rep I've encountered in media is androgynous and/or non human, eg a robot (a different issue with asexuality that covers the same thing) is that it seems kind of lazy. The same way that a "passing" or "not passing" trans character has different design and connective opportunities with the people who share being trans, different "flavors" of being enby are important. Especially since there's so many people falling on the different waypoints of the spectrum, it's a shame how they don't get much represented. So many cool character ideas that are just scrapped!
And secondly, as a character creator, the majority of my OCs have a unique point on gender, using different pronouns, coming from different places and having their surrounding people treat them differently. I think it's important to show that being nonbinary is more than just falling in the middle between masculine and feminine features. It's not about how you look, it's about your lifestyle and how you feel about gender and yourself. Reducing nonbinaryhood to just binary rules of visual elements isn't anything meaningful. It's just a design choice someone made regarding the exterior while disregarding the interior (I have nothing against androgynous character designs, just the same grimes as in the video points)
And lastly, I hope you recover well!!! Take care of yourself ❤❤
thank you, that means a lot to hear ^_^
The androgyny thing is so real! It influenced my perception of how non-binary characters "should" be presented in media, and for a long time I (a fem-presenting enby, mind you) was confused as to why some non-binary characters *weren't* androgynous. It's not an issue for me anymore, but uhh... that was definitely ✨️a thing✨️
The androgyny issue is something most people never even think about, it's just a largely accepted norm. I don't blame you for not realizing it, it took me a long time to realize it too.
Honestly that intro was so nice because ive been having a lot of issues trying to understand my gender and this has helped understand myself even a tiny bit more, thank you, and i really mean it
I'm honestly really happy I could help you! Even if this video hadn't unexpectedly blown up, it would have been worth the effort of making just to know I was able to aid you in your journey ^_^
I just really want to say, Thank you so much for talking Fem and Masc presenting Non-Binaries.
I remember when I first was questioning if I was NB or not, I always pushed it back, using my femininity presenting self as an excuse as to not accept that identity. I thought being androgynous was how someone was Non-Binary, which was very narrow minded.
It wasn’t until I came out to my friend and these concerns, where they replied with “ You don’t have to be androgynous to be Non-binary “ which I’m glad they did since I don’t think I would be able to identify as it today.
Anyway enough about me, this is a great video!! I feel like you brought up a lot of good points so thank you for taking the time to do this!! It’s making me rethink about my Non-binary characters I’ve written or plan on writing sometime. So we love the writing advice.
I actually got an idea for a story the other day where everyone has both sexual organs so gender truly is just a social construct. The main character would be non-binary because they don’t feel like just a boy or a girl but society makes it where you have to choose a gender, even if it’s gender fluid, so them not choosing is considered a problem.
I’m still working on it but I want it to be very clear that the main character is nonbinary and will dress in both masculine and feminine ways.
That's a cool idea, I'd be interesting in seeing where you take it!
@ yeah. I’m also not going to shy away from people misgendering them because they just expect them to have picked one at the age they are. I’m thinking that in that world once you hit puberty it’s kind of expected to already know if you’re male or female but required by the time you’re 18.
I do plan on using language like ‘I feel pretty in this tank top and handsome in this skirt’ to show how clothing can be used to gender but it’s the feeling that’s different for them. Clothing is also part of the social construct where they tell what gender the individual chose but children can wear whatever so that they can figure out what’s most comfortable for them. This kid would just wonder at the beginning why they can’t continue wearing both styles which is what leads to them figuring out they aren’t either gender.
I’m not sure if I want to make this into a full novel or not. If I had to pick it would have to be young adult or middle grade since this would be more for the kids than the adults.
Ooh that sounds really cool! I like creating spirits I have my whole lore for them but they are by default genderless, they can choose to go by more gendered pronouns and I actually should make a spirit that just leans fully masc or fem.
I do have my embodiement of chaos Eris, they use all pronouns so talking about her is really fun because I can just pull out neopronouns to talk about xir. Presentation wise I tend to draw her more femine leaning with his long mane and rounder face. Colour scheme wise they are a complete mess (affectionate) but I adore him and maybe I am going to draw her tomorrow because this video inspired me.
You might want to do research into intersex experiences for your story. From the general concept you've presented here you might end up touching on circumstances and feelings that many intersex people already go through - and it could help add nuance to what you're trying to get across.
That sounds kind of like the webcomic Fluidum. It's pretty good imo
Im glad my algorithm is working as intended
As a writer and cis-male. Ive been making an effort to unpack a lot of the Gender structures of society in my mind to piece together what's actually there.
Im thankful for your explanation at the begin because I've been learning most of this from first hand experience with friends. I've processed enough to voluntarily conclued my own identity (thus far) but I want to make an effort to understand and hopefully spread familiarity with the different perspectives.
I remember being pretty confused by the concept of non binary in particular but your explanation has helped reinforce my understanding and I'm beginning to see the scope of how very difficult it must be to get that across to people.
I'm really glad I could help you! I was worried I might have made things too confusing, so it's a relief to know I made it easy enough to understand.
Honestly, more people should re-examine their relationship to their gender. Even if you come away with the conclusion that you're cis, it'll give you a healthier outlook. Well done, you!
@WritinRealSlow We really should. A lot of gender issues I've seen this far have been people dealing with how fluid the system of binary gender expression itself can be. What it means to be "a Man" or "a Woman" has itself been in a steady flux. The minutes I got scope on that front it made it pretty easy to see why gender identity is so broad. It's like building a car then adding and removing parts on it for centuries and wonder why it doesn't drive like a truck. And why people prefer to walk or bike instead.
@@nathanvarade5820 It can honestly be pretty crazy.
holy shit!! i remember avidly reading your fanfics on ao3 since like 2022!!! ahaha crazy seeing one of my favourite fic writers on youtube, great video!
oh hey, welcome to my channel! Still working on my fanfics, just a bit slower now.
Vash the Stampede from Trigun Stampede and Maximum was my nonbinary awakening. There is ton of underscoring and layers suggesting his gender is non-conforming and the mangaka even reposts nonbinary vash art! Vash is dear to me and other non-binary people. Vash is and will always be my space gunslinger ❤. Hope people make more videos about Vash and his gender coding and how its important to the story with the theme of bodily autonomy
I take it that's mostly found in the manga? I've only watched the original anime, and I don't remember seeing anything like that in there.
Then again, it's been a long time and I could have just missed/forgotten, I watched it before I realized I was nonbinary.
@WritinRealSlow the Manga and also the remake called Trigun Stampede! It's found on Hulu
The og anime is eh not as good imo
@@wolf_quill Cool, I'll need to give stampede a look then.
I mean, I've been meaning to for a while, this is just another reason.
@WritinRealSlow the show is really good imo ! It's different/retelling and a prequel to Stargaze(the new season coming out soon). Stampede also has themes of bodily autonomy too which I love. So hope you enjoy ❤️
Fun fact there's a canonically confirmed Non-Binary character in pokemon. Blanche the leader of Team Mystic from Pokemon Go
I am aware of blanche
Thank you for posting this!!! I’m about to start a dnd campaign and my character is a warforged (agender) so I want to portray them thoughtfully and this has been helpful
I'm really glad I could help! Though don't worry too much if it's just between friends, so long as you're having fun and not upsetting anyone then however you're most comfortable playing the character is more than good enough!
@ you’re definitely right and I think I was overthinking some of my concerns when designing them. There isn’t too much focus on their gender identity (or other facets of identity) just yet because they’re mostly concerned with helping others & making the world a better place, but you’ve given me some food for thought for when I have an opportunity to develop them a little more
@@Bjängo-n6y I'm glad I could help ^_^
I literally have been looking for this. Thank you
Happy to provide it ^_^
Don’t take my word as fact but I believe testament in the lore hated humanity so they chose a more masculine figure to address that. After their encounter with Queen Dizzy another “gear” who loved and appreciated humanity testament learned that not everyone is out to hurt and hate them. So they made their physique more feminine to “STRIVE” towards their new understanding.
huh, interesting.
i appreciate this video bc i'm obsessed w venture but am more trans binary myself so i never felt super confident in where i thought they fell on the good representation scale, having input from an actual nb is super nice. very educational all around and i will also be using ur pointers for my own character creation! thank you!
Glad I could help ^_^
Rowen is my favorite love interest from boyfriend dungeon I'm so glad they got mentioned!!!
Oh yeah, love that funky little witch!!
I'm an older nonbinary person myself. Speaking about transitioning did hit me, while having a womb does cause me a lot of frustrations the rest of me is fine and I have no desire to change it. It's how society reacts to me and has expectations of me because they see me as female. I don't identify as any gender, wearing a dress is just me wanting to wear a dress that day. I normally present as a very butch person. I'm more comfortable with power tools, I don't wear makeup but I don't leave the house without chapstick! It took me decades to figure out what I was and the biggest hurdle was people who were happy in the binary taking up way too much space when talking about gender issues. It really feels like it's an extremely recent thing to let people who exist outside the binary even have a space in this community. Given I'm middle-aged, the last 10 years are rather danged 'recent' to me.
I'm glad you could find a place for yourself then ^_^
I think it would be neat if you brought up the positives of testament's change yes it does lost their masculine aspect but having them now slightly lean more into the feminine could also show a change in their personal character growth or how they can now represent how people can still change their gender presentation without having to match there new presentation
maybe you should make a video about that then. I've already said everything I have to say about them.
Well, maybe when I broach the topic in the future, I'll see if I have more to say when that happens.
As an inspiring writer, this is a super helpful and informative video. Thank you for this. I'm saving this video so I can refer to it later. I'm also realizing flaws in past nonbinary characters that I've created which I can work on fixing. Once again, thanks!
Glad I could help ^_^
1:16 i won the election
Congratulations, I'll get you next time.
This was a phenomenal watch. I’m usually pretty averse to watching creators outside of my personal list of comfort creators, but I clicked this video anyways. Within the first couple of minutes, you got yourself a like and a new subscriber. The latter half of the video, where you talk about how to write good representation was a great set of guidelines. I’m a novelist, and my current project includes 8 main cast members, all of which present or identify in a different way (whether that be in terms of sexual or romantic orientation, or gender presentation). Their diversity is integral to the story, and as such, even as someone who falls under the non-binary umbrella themselves, having an outside perspective is hugely helpful in reinforcing what I’ve done right and exposing what I can improve.
I'm happy you liked it, and I'm really happy I could help! I'm also a writer, and proper representation is really important to me, so I really wanted to be able to help others benefit from my knowledge!
Also, I'd love to hear about your story sometime!
Great video, and thank you for highlighting how to properly design and write non-binary characters! It gave me so much to think about, including things that had never crossed my mind before, especially about androgyny. As someone who prefers being androgynous most of the time, it hadn’t occurred to me how that could feel limiting to other gender expressions within the non-binary spectrum.
The part about being okay with being treated as a woman but feeling bad when treated as a man really resonated with me. As an AFAB non-binary person, I deeply dislike being grouped with women because I was forced to conform to that role for most of my life. In contrast, no one ever forced me to act like a man, so while it’s not ideal, it doesn’t bother me as much when that happens. It’s such an obvious thought in hindsight, but I’d never considered it before, so thank you for sharing your personal experience.
I’d also love to hear your thoughts on the character Taash from Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Unlike many of the game characters you’ve mentioned, their story focuses explicitly on being non-binary. While it has faced some harsh criticism, I’d really like to hear your perspective on their character. If not, that’s okay too, but I do think it was at least a step forward to explore something like that so directly in a video game for the first time.
I'm really happy I could help you articulate your feelings on the matter! And I'd honestly love to do a video on the veilguard enbies, but I unfortunately don't have the money for the game right now. Someone did recommend a video on them to me, so I'll at least be able to learn about them.
I'll see if I can get the game on sale, but it'll most likely just have to wait until my financial situation is more stable.
The absolute win goes to Chaos in Hades 2. The utter gender envy that I get whenever they appear on screen is wild.
Plus, their change between games reflects their reconnection to the world and to nyx, which is just really cool!
Little late to the party, but i always love how you approach lgbtq topics with such positivity, even during criticism. Its nice fo hear, "yeah, well this sucks, but I've got a whole list on how to fix it!" Super happy to see this kinda blow up for you too, almost 900 comments is amazing!!! :) I wonder if you've seen the fallout show? I realize Dane is the only enby in the show, so there's not much to say about their gender beyond 'only enby and also androgenous,' but i just love their character as a person. I saw them on screen and i was immediately like 'wow that is the coolest person ever.'
I feel like people hear enough negativity already, so I like to try to spread hope, or at the very least offer a learning experience. And yeah, this video blew up in a way I never expected!
I have seen fallout, yes! I really liked it, though I didn't realize dane was supposed to be nonbinary. I liked them a lot though!
thank you for this video, i've had a lot of these thoughts but never knew how to process or explain them, and youve brought a very informative perspective
I'm glad I could! I spend a lot of time thinking about these things, so I thought it might help to share them a bit!
Personally I find that Testament's newer design better resonates my own gender and it's really cool to see a transition of the character discovering more about their femininity.
I'm happy for you then
Listening to you talk about non-binaryness is really interesting, because I often find myself sort of stuck in the well of 'of course everyone knows about this, it seems so obvious.' So listening to not a cis person talk about it, but a fellow nonbinary person, is really nice, and, in its own roundabout way, is making me redraw and slightly redesign some of my own nonbinary characters, because I do think a lot about how they feel about their own gender, and what they want to be viewed as. (A lot of my non-binary characters end up looking very androgynous, but that mainly happens because all of my characters end up looking androgynous.)
4:25 Hearing you talk about why being gendered in a feminine way distresses you less than being gendered in a masculine way speaks to me a lot as a fellow agender person. When I was working retail, I would get gendered properly basically never, even and especially by my coworkers, so being gendered male rather than female by customers was almost a breath of fresh air -- it was almost like it was balancing out the other wrongness.
10:35 I love non-human non-binary characters, that's because I like both of them separately. This ends up being a problem, because I want them to be varied! I want them to be cool as hell!
12:30 This actually sort of relates to my last point, because, to a certain extent, Venture wasn't the first playable nonbinary character in Overwatch. Up until the release of a short story early in Overwatch 2's lifespan, Bastion was referred to using it/its pronouns. While there are issues with associating non-binariness with robots, I did love Bastion as such, and as I flirt with using it/its along with they/them, I thought it was cool. Maybe as a sign of growing humanity, Bastion would start using they/them, I wondered, but nope. He/him now, robot has gained humanity and is now a boy. It's a minor quibble, but it really did disappoint me.
Also, Venture absolutely should have gotten a skin in the Egyptian-themed Battle Pass. They could have had either the archaeologist or the robot literally created by Anubis get the Mythic that season, or at least *a* skin, but nope! Reaper skin be upon ye.
22:00 That's my problem a lot of the time, where I love nonbinary characters, and would love them in a vacuum, but...they're the only one in the story. All the messiness of their character (because I do love a good villain/morally neutral asshole) is more or less forced to be how a mostly cisgender audience will see nonbinary people. My love for characters like this as a nonbinary person and as a person who knows how media trends work are at odds.
26:10 Goddamn I've missed a lot of Boyfriend Dungeon. I haven't played it in a good long while, but I had a lot of fun playing with it, and I almost missed Rowan my first playthrough, but they're so fun to play with in the dungeon. I did feel a lot of vibes with Sawyer, that sort of mild uncomfortability is very relatable to me. Boo that you hate Crocs though I love Crocs forever and always.
I will not apologize for hating crocs, they're ugly as sin and I REFUSE TO BE SILENCES ANYMORE! THE TRUTH MUST BE HEARD! I WILL NOT BE-
*gets tranqed by the croc mafia*
I'll start by saying that I totally see your points, and think you are probably right in making these critiques. I personally don't ever look at a particular character in media as rep for their whole marginalized group, but I can see how from media critique point of view it can seen this way, since you are probably right about how someone can take a character that is the first of that group they have ever seen. Like, Double Trouble is so awesome to me, but I knew who double trouble was before they appeared in the new show and was happy to see they went with them being NB and their general depiction. Granted, the shape shifting NB is such a trope, but I relate to that trope, tho I'd prolly be slightly less of chaos agent than DT if I could shapeshift. Heh. As far as things like misgendering, I've seen so many times that a character's gender or sexuallity, and the trauma they experience because of it, be the focus of such characters that the first time I saw it just be treated matter of factly (Steve Cortez in Mass Effect 3, a gay man who simply mentions his husband whom he just lost in the war), I was blown away by it. Normally I'd have expected anyone hearing such a thing to be taken aback by the revelation of a gay man existing. But I'm old, and over conflict about such things in media, so I'm not the kind of person you viewer you're talking about. Like, that comes up a bit in Dragon Age Inquisition when you find out Krem is a trans man, which while mild, was kind of uncomfortable when it comes up. I also love Krem, a lot, tho they cast a cis woman to play him, which felt problematic, she did a great job with it however.
omg YES!!!! im an amab agender too and the 'nonbinary = femme/androgynous they/them' stereotype did not do me any favors when figuring out and feeling comfortable with my identity. like im glad we even have representation to the point we have stereotypes but yeah the representation being majority femme and androgynous they/them definitely can make things harder for us more 'male' presenting people. like i had some dysphoria about some male characteristics like my beard and adams apple, but going into nonbinary spaces/watching nonbinary creators that overwhelmingly[if not sometimes always] presented as femme/androgynous, made it worse in addition to feeling like a bit of an 'outsider' even though most everyone is cool/accepting.
i too hope we get some more masc presenting nonbinary people to balance this out cause coming out to people [even gays] and them saying 'oh you dont look nonbinary [read:androgynous]' is like 'yeah presentation is separate from identity' which youd imagine gays would be familiar with, when weve had people think gays wearing anything feminine must mean theyre actually a woman
it's rough, because they usually don't mean anything by it, but it always hurts to essentially be told "well I don't think you're nonbinary enough."
As a genderfluid lesbian, I really loved this video. I totally agree that we as nonbinary people never get to see characters that present more fem or masc but still identify as nonbinary. Lately I've been talking to more binary people and I've come to the realization that they see me as more feminine (while I feel more agender or masc) because I'm a lesbian and am AFAB. I think a big part of that stems from the androgyny issue and the lack of other characters. This video really helped me put my thoughts into words and realize how I've been feeling lately. Thank you for this!
I'm really glad I could help and make you feel seen ^_^
This video was actually so helpful! I’m not nonbinary myself, but I’m working on a story with nonbinary characters, and this really gives me more ideas to flesh them out and make them feel real, so thank you!
I'm really happy I could help! It's been a relief to learn that people have found this so useful.
Okay the comment on the crocs made me chuckle
And the fact that I wear crocs on daily basis made it more funny
I respect your right to don the ugliest footwear ever designed by man, but I will stand in my truth.
CROCS ARE CUTE!!!! RAAAAAH!!!
@@Hydraina I hope that, one day, you're able to afford glasses, so you can see how horrifically ugly they truly are. XD
@@WritinRealSlow
crocs are my favourite shoes lol. I'm really passionate about them - cuz they're goofy. it's fun. you can put the shoe equivalent of stickers on them. it's perfect.
there are super ridiculous crocs. i've seen mcdonalds crocs recently with fries on them.
it's like crayons when every other shoe is guache, acrylics or watercolour.
makes the inner child happy and it's comfy.
platform ones can actually look really nice. i got two pairs with spikes on them for more alt-dressing days, they're awesome. there's a frog in knee high boots on one of those.
@@rubyrootless7324 I'm happy for you, I truly am. I wish you a pair of extra-comfy crocs for every day of the week. They remain the ugliest fucking kind of shoes I've ever seen in my life though.
I love Testament in GGST (they're the main reason I bought the game), but I do understand why some enbies who have known them for longer would feel conflicted about their redesign.
yeah, they seem really popular with a lot of people.
Oh cool, enby representation with the same name as me.... oh... oh no
I am so, so sorry
Its also great to see a video like this from a fellow enby! I find I often lean towards androgenous non-human designs for my own OCs. Simply because that's how I present in real life, I do enjoy baggy clothes lol. And I just really like monster characters. I think I hadn't noticed how common these traits are as a stereotype, so I really appreciate hearing other perspectives. I'll work harder to flesh out my cast of characters with more stuff other enbies can appreciate too!
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Do keep in mind though, my advice is strictly for people trying to make good representation. OCs, dnd characters for campaigns with friends, things like this are about personal joy and comfort, so there's nothing wrong with only designing them in ways that you want to.
Thank you! I have altered slightly the nobinary representation in the book that I'm writing thanks to this. I'm just a trans girl doing her best to represent. I wasn't really aware that masc nb representation was so much lesser, and so I will be including multiple nb people with various identities now.
As someone who's just an enby doing their best, I appreciate what you're doing!
On the theme of design: I had great joy playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I finished it two days ago, and it made me extremely happy in so many ways. Not only the plot twists in general and the fun little things you can do, but also that several characters struggle with identity, and one specifically with gender identity. I found it an extremely well-done (even if sometimes *too* in-your-face) attempt at introduction to the wide world of gender *through* a character. And several side-characters are non-binary, and you can make your main character non-binary if you like.
On myself: As a person questioning their Identity every now and then, I am once again looking in to all the themes that encompasses. I have always presented myself more androgynous, and that's what I've always felt most comfortable with. Also, I've had two instances (one twenty years ago, one recently) where my gender was questioned, and both startled me. Not because they were 'wrong' in any sense (the first instance was calling me 'he', the second someone randomly asking for my pronouns), but rather because there was a question asked in the first place. And reflecting on that, it does mean that I probably present well how I feel, I guess?
I never minded being a she/her, ever. But I never liked 'girly' things, not felt very 'femme'. But also not 'masc'. Thirty years ago, if I'd known 'non-binary' existed, I would have consciously strived for that for sure! But instead, I just almost always subconsciously leaned in to 'non-gendered'.
I've actually recently started playing veilguard. I made my character nonbinary, but I haven't come across any gender-specific dialogue options just yet. I DID just meet taash though, so hopefully they pop up with them.
Thank you for putting to words feelings I've held for so long. It's not like you can really make a nonbinary character wrong- by definition very rarely will two nonbinary people truly have the exact same experience with and of gender let alone its expression. I'm okay if you want to explore your character's exact nonbinariness or not or if you want to make your only nonbinary character in a story a villain- but a more diverse range of "nonbinarity" in media might help more people come to understand both us and themselves.
I mean, you CAN make a nonbinary character wrong, it's all in the framing. But you're absolutely right, we need more diversity in our representation.
The last 3 enby friends I’ve had all looked almost exactly like the “bad” in the thumbnail…
sounds like a you problem chief.
From about 4:30 to 5:00 I'll give you a great example of what you're talking about:
I'm also an AMAB Agender person. And although I can relate to feminine gendering being less annoying, I define my identity as purely a lack of gender and in a nonchalant way. So although I find masculine gendering to be annoying, I don't care either way. Even though you and I share the same identity and even the same gender assigned at birth, our experiences are quite different. Which just goes to show how each and every NB really does experience life as their gender identity differently.
yeah, that's a good example
i really wish more people would design characters as agender by default and then add gender on top of that as just another of many characteristics, rather than starting with "man" or "woman" as a kind of SPECIES and building from there.
that way, making a nonbinary character just comes naturally and doesn't require tearing down the deeply rooted gender systems that all your characters were built from
That would be a really interesting way to do it. I'd like to see a game that takes that approach.
im nonbinary and i've def been falling into the nonbinary trap 😔😔 i tend to decide my characters' gender after i draw them. but ur so right abt there not being an nb look... tea 🙏
There's a difference between making a character for yourself and making one for mass consumption, the way you make your own characters is just fine.
My favorite oc ever is enby, it doesn't come up much since they live in a world where other identities are normalized, but they're still important to me. A peice of my soul does die when my friends accidentally misgender them (they always apologize but still-)
I know the feeling
Thanks for making this video. I am a binary trans person, and am working on a story which includes an NB character in the main ensemble. Being older and thus curmedgeonly, NB admittedly is something I am still getting used to, and being outside of that community, I am concerned about how to represent an NB outside of a context where it matters all that much (a new fantasy world) while stile properly textualizing the identity. This video and its "prequel" are extremely helpful. Why I absolutely intend to seek the help of sensitivity readers, these videos help to to conceive and flesh out the character from the start, so that I need not worry about having to completely rewrite them after the fact, and thus the story, if I f it up. Also, you might appreciate knowing the character was conceived with a masculine leaning presentation from the start, and I will try to stay true to that.
I'm glad I could help! And honestly, the fact that you're trying to understand and do it right is already a huge mark in your favor. I appreciate you and the effort you're putting in!
I myself have been having problems trying to get myself to make a masc non-binary character, everytime I design a non-binary character they always turn out androgynous or fem. I atleast have variety in pronouns, like how Greed uses they/she pronouns and they loves pretty dresses and skirts because those are nice and they make her happy. I've made demiboys but I somehow just haven't made any masc non-binary characters, likely because most of my ocs are guys so when I make characters who aren't guys they typically lean away from anything directly masculine
Personal projects like OCs or DnD characters don't really need to follow my guidelines, because they mainly exist for personal satisfaction and not to represent a marginalized group in a piece of entertainment media. The standards are different.
@WritinRealSlow OCs do matter when you're someone like me who wants to make full franchises with them.
@@saphirestorm7952 then consider how you make them carefully I guess.
as a nonbinary person, my personal favorite representation is in the game gnosia. it's a sci-fi social deduction game/visual novel based around the game mafia/werewolf where you play a bunch of rounds of that through time loops to figure out a greater mystery. if has two nonbinary characters, and you can also choose the player character to be nonbinary. the two nonbinary characters present very differently, and they both explicitly talk about their gender. one of them has a whole spiel about how their body has nothing to do with their gender, and the other one has to deal with an annoying guy constantly hitting on them and misgendering them, and they get so fed up with him that in some loops they just kill him (lol). it's also getting an anime adaptation next year! i highly recommend checking it out, it made me so happy to play and both the enby characters remain some of my all time favorites. it's just a super fun game in general!
oh is THAT was gnosia is about?
1) design character you like
2) state they're NB
3) done.
I love venture with my entire being and I’m genuinely so pissed at overwatch because of the lack of attention they get. Sure, they did one thing, made a non binary character. Then they straight up ignore them completely. Anyways, I am ventures number 1 fan even though the overwatch fandom is such a toxic community.
hey same, I love venture. I just wish blizzard would show them some actual love.
Super interesting video! (Fellow enby gamer, so happy to hear another enby’s opinions on the topic!)
Glad you liked it!
My assumption is that you didn’t play Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and if that’s true I would genuinely recommend it. Is it perfect? No. Does that imperfection apply to the representation of the 2 (excluding your created character as a potential) non-binary characters? Yes. But some of your recommendations actually end up being in the game and I just find it interesting. It’s my favorite series so I have a lot of bias in it’s favor, but I think at least giving it a try would give show a little more representation in gaming really is important to a significant portion of us enbies
No, I haven't played it yet, I don't have the money for it right now. I was recommended a video by another youtuber who talks about the characters though, so I'll at least be looking into that.
3:33 aha egg indeed. Thank you for these videos, something I've wondered about a lot so it's cool to have info from nonbinary creator. whole vibe of your channel seems perfect for me :)
Glad you enjoyed them ^_^
This video reminds me of why I quite like pocket from deadlock.. very typically masc gender markers ( even some stubble) and with a typically male voice actor, but they are nb, and they/them pronouns.
neat, I'll look into them
@WritinRealSlow some people try to say "oh they are just obscuring their identity," but the bio that uses they/them also tells us thier whole full background and name so its weird ths it woild be the only info they respect to hide
I always gravitate to the "just a lil guy" design. But it really is nice to see some humanoid enby characters from time to time. Sometimes I feel more seen in the designs of gnc characters or ones who don't care about their gender expression than the hyper androgynous characters like the OW one you mentioned.
Valid.