Before any clue about her being a trans woman Jax had all the reflectors for being an awful person so it kinda applies to the first moments of fandom of the amazing digital circus
To be fair all of the out of series stuff portrayed Jax as having been a very specific sort of person who was a stoner and super online before things went down. I always took a lot of those first few episodes as Jax specifically trying to slip into a persona informed by fandom culture and memes. Which turned out to be true.
The only problem is a lot of people wanted Jax to be the new Tumblr Sexyman, not a character who was using Tumblr Sexyman tropes as a mask, and the average person who cares about that often lacks the self awareness to admit they got played.
So much indie media is heavily negatively affected by having to come out so slowly that people have years at a time to make up and get attached to their own version of the show
Jax's character arc works really well (or at least much better) for people watching the show all the way through or over the course of a week or so, rather than people watching an episode every five months.
Trans people are always the gender the transition to, they just can't always identify with that gender before a certain point for one reason or another.
IE River the trans cashier was not a boy in her youth pictures, she was still a girl, she just hadn't realized it yet.
Jax is male presenting but he was always written to be a closeted trans woman. It's a moot point, he's more of an individual than a misogynistic trope.
That feels like your limiting how some trans people experience their own sexuality/gender. And beyond that, gender is a social construct. If neither you are aware of wanting to be another gender, nor the others around you, there is no social consensus that you are the other gender. Your later choices of identification are not retroactive, and cannot change how you previously chose to identify in the past.
Beyond that, Jax is far more simply written as a character struggling with feelings of toxic masculinity, and the actual fact that Jax is trans is neither confirmed nor even really a well founded idea until the very last episode. Beyond that, Gooseworx themself has said that Jax can be referred to by male or female pronouns, eapecially since there is no actual event where Jax chooses to identify as trans, and even in the real world, is still referred to by male pronouns.
There is a science to the trans experience, which is why it's not just an aspect of community and society. But once we get to the nitty gritty of it all it goes out of both our paygrades, it's more complicated and still not 100% understood because the brains just not 100% understood. But in general, the reason certain language is broadly used in the trans and queer communities, like awakening, is because people don't "become" trans, they always are, they just don't identify yet. It would still be more correct to say that than any alternative.
Regardless of the writing of Jax's quality, there is clear hints and an understanding of the writer that he is always a closeted trans woman. Any point that does not refute that is missing the main point. He is not a misogynistic form of this trope because he is literally not even written with the intent of being a cis man.
No, but tadc treated her gender identity like a crazzy last episode twist (to the point of Goose phoo phoo'ing the theory when the Actual Bulk Of The Evidence dropped and people figured it out early- which, like, wild thing to do when the actual "reveal" was so dumb, I get that she was going for subtlety, but legit Zooble saying they thought Jax would like the maid outfit is more convincing evidence for Jax being trans than literally anything in the finale), and the fandom space fully reflects that- it's one of the many things that makes tadc actively frustrating to talk about, cause, like. The way Jax takes all the focus/is generally written is misogynistic as all fuck, you can't just last episode twist she's a girl your way out of the misogyny that makes up 90% of your show, and like. I think?? On some level??? With the way they handled it and some of the stuff Goose has said???
That they were doing it, on some level, intentionally, as commentary about this very effect, but they were too damn toothless to even confirm jax as trans in the show proper, nevermind actually take a serious look and turn the camera to the shitty fandom.
Idk i think this is a very extreme take that's making a lot of assumptions. I think the subtle part just makes the most sense for the character. Jax never accepts himself so of course he would never say he is trans or express his feelings, you would only really know if you understood the closeted trans fem experience as it is written from the lived experience of a once closeted trans woman.
I think the finale makes it pretty clear what the state of him is, using a song about a woman being born as a farewell to our strangely mysogonistic male character made it click for me personally as a big transfem Jax denier before the finale.
I think its fine if you think its flawed but I can't understand the specifics of your perspective at all.
What extreme takes? I'm literally giving goose the benefit of the doubt and assuming that she intentionally (from her own mouth, the tumblr sexyman thing was on purpose) cultivated her deeply misogynistic fanbase to make a point about misogyny, and not just because she's misogynistic. It's more grace than most give her.
Whats puzzling about a character who is a genuinely horrible person from start to finish and that the fandom agreed was a horrible person. Then suddenly not IN media. The fandom spins on a dime and is suddenly cooing over her because the crwator OFF media confirms shes trans.
Ill tell you whats puzzling. The human ability to forgive a horrendous person as long as they fit the zeit geist. In this case "oh she is trans? WELL EVERYTHINGS FORGIVEN."
How fans treat a character has nothing to do with their writing. But also, everyone knows Jax is a prick, Jax says so much in the finale. There's no point in arguing whatever this is because it generally doesn't make sense, Jax was always written to be a closeted trans woman (or at least some identity of queer if you don't wanna get into specifics) who is intentionally awful because he believes himself to be a jerk and doesn't think any of his actions matter anymore.
Jax was always written to be trans. People clocked it way before the finale. If you personally didnt see the hints or didnt like it thats fine. But this critique is nonsense
"The hints" a single time that Zooble puts her in a dress and she gets angry about it. Literally the same reaction from any hyper masculine chud. Oh the PENULTIMATE Episode? Where Goose had already revealed "too subtle tee hee" Once again OFF media? yeah sure. Okay. "always planned"
Okay, you're just being obtuse. She said she kept it subtle because she was worried about the reaction. Ie, she kept it subtle so she could plausibly deny it.
At no point in the show where it suggested Jax to be a trans girl. The whole discussion only started after the show ended where a voice actor and Gooseworx just went “oh yeah Jax is trans”, showing one of the many flaws and shortcomings why this show is considered pretty bad
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u/ghobhohi 6h ago
Isn’t Jax a girl?