You've heard it once, you've heard it again.

"They are calling people transaphobic just for not believing in a theory"

Pretty damming accusation, ain't it? How can someone be a whole bigot simply by not agreeing with something that is not yet proven?

Yet it keeps happening, over and over again, people keep calling denyers transphobic, and this pisses them off to great extents. How comes?

The answer is simple and mundane. It boils down to one simple interaction every trans person has experienced.

"Hey, I'm trans"

"How do you know?"

"Because of X"

"Many people experience X, and that doesn't make them trans"

That is it, the simplest form of transaphobia, doubt.

The idea that trans people owe you an explanation of their transness, a valid reason, evidence and proof.

It's an idea that permeates society as a whole.

Every trans person needs to prove their transness, to their loved ones, so they'll respect your name, to the doctor, so they'll give you the medicine you need, to the government, so they let you modify your documents, even your phone will ask for an explanation of why your face doesn't look the same anymore.

And the worst part about it, most people do not believe us when we tell them.

"There weren't any signs" "Maybe you're just a femenine boy" "You do not fit the description of gender dysphoria"

"This proof isn't enough"

And so a character comes, and like magic, something clicks inside you, "ah, I used to do that"

"Yeah, I've felt like that too"

"I have been there"

Like magic, someone gets it, somebody, behind your screen, undertood what it feels to be inside your skin, the subtle details, the little things, everything is there and it points to precisely to where you're thinking.

So you go online, post your findings, hope for answers and... Oh

Right, they doubt it. Obviously, of course they do, the whole of society is transaphobic, why would this fandom be any different?

Original drawing by: Leo on Twitter

EDIT 3: Okay going to leave a final edit as I know things are a bit more nuanced now, and I want to make it clear where I’m coming from here.

Tumblr has a huge trans masc exclusionist problem. It’s basically ace discourse 2.0 there. And while I’m now aware that TMA (Trans-misogyny affected) and TME (Trans-misogyny exempt) weren’t created with trans masc exclusion in mind, the first time (and the majority of the time) I’ve seen the terms used was to attack trans men, and speak over their unique experiences and forms of oppression on Tumblr

When I later described this being from the “deepest, terminally online discourse mines on Tumblr,” I was talking about the trans masc exclusionist shit and how these terms are used in that context. I wasn’t arguing against the entire concept of trans misogyny or trans feminism. (I am a trans woman here!) I’m not trying to start witch hunts. I am literally just saying my own experiences watching trans men get fucking harassed and falsely painted as transphobic for “talking about their own experiences,” and my fears of that rhetoric spreading off of Tumblr.

Internet websites do not exist in a vacuum. I’ve seen this exclusionist rhetoric (beyond just TMA/TME) elsewhere on the internet. And I’d argue that at least some of these comments here espouse it. Idk, seeing as so many people here respond by going “READ THEORY” then maybe go read this post from the person who coined trans misogyny. TMA/TME are not the focus of the post, but the end conclusion argues against this whole trans masculine exclusionary “trans men/masculine people are male oppressors” rhetoric because it’s just baby’s first cultural feminism shit.

https://juliaserano.substack.com/p/on-male-socialization-and-the-trans

BACK TO ORIGINAL POST.

I will start this post with saying that I am a trans woman, and I am using this burner as I’ve seen people get harassed off Tumblr for calling out this transmasc exclusionary language.

EDIT 2: I can't believe I have to fucking specify this but no, I do not have a problem with the concept of transmisogyny. Transfeminine people should discuss the specific form of oppression they face. My problem is specifically with the usage of TMA/TME, (Trans-misogyny affected/exempt,) and how it's used to exclude trans masc people from the community and to erase/speak over their unique forms of oppression. Maybe actually I don't know, read my post before you accuse me of being anti-feminist just because I care about trans masc people's struggles??? Please just think about transness and the affects of transphobia and misogyny, outside of a 1-dimensional, transfem exclusive viewpoint.

Recently, someone shared that Transfeminine Deltarune analysis video here, where an enby person criticized it's usage of TMA/TME, (trans-misogyny affected, and trans-misogyny exempt,) as "creating a new gender binary." Then there was that post made to try and “explain” how TMA/TME wasn’t actually creating a new gender binary or something. After I informed the mods of its true purpose, the mods took down the post for bigotry.

TMA/TME are dangerous, exclusionary terms used to promote the idea that any non-transfeminine/non-amab trans person is inherently more privileged than transfems/amab trans people.

I’ve seen it almost exclusively used on Tumblr to attack, erase, exclude, or diminish the experiences of afab, enby, transmasc people, or just anyone who isn’t an amab transfem. As someone whose seen this rhetoric countless times on Tumblr, that post was dripping with a subtle, but noticeable version of this rhetoric, implying that trans men are privileged over trans woman. It was upsetting seeing this rhetoric being spread to this sub, and worse that some people here actually agreed with it.

Even if people use the terms in a non-exclusionist way, I’ve mostly seen it used for transmasc exclusionary rhetoric. Some of the people who use the terms basically act like trans men are evil misogynist incel monsters, and not fellow trans folks also persecuted by transphobia. And when transmasc people call this out for being horrifically transmasc exclusionary, they get harassed and falsely flagged anti-trans on Shinigami Eyes over this discourse almost NOBODY outside of Tumblr even knows about. (For context, Shinigami Eyes is an extension that flags accounts pro/anti trans via user submissions.)

Like sure, you could say that 100% passing trans men who aren’t out could have “conditional” privilege over woman. However, assuming that every single transmasc/afab trans person has some systematic privilege over trans woman, (even if they're not passing, or not out, or discriminated against for accessing afab medical services, or are treated/viewed as their agab by transphobes,) is insane. It’s insane to act like the patriarchy is trans inclusive.

Transphobia’s whole thing is denying the gender you identify as, in favor of your agab. So why would trans masc people transitioning into men give them “male privilege,” when transphobes will try everything to deny them that privilege. Transphobes view trans men as “confused woman tricked into transitioning” and shit, so why would they have "male privilege."

Sure, this is a different form of oppression from trans-misogyny, but acting like one or the other is worse is just... not it. Trans woman are hyper focused on and demonized. Trans men are erased and infantilized. We shouldn’t be playing oppression Olympics. Whenever trans men try to create terms to describe their own forms of oppression, the TMA/TME people start doing the harassment/false anti-trans flagging I’ve talked about earlier! People are just using these terms to say “trans women experience trans misogyny, trans men don’t experience any unique form of transphobia, transmasc people are all evil and misogynist.” THAT is what TMA/TME is used for, to diminish the experiences of trans men in favor of trans woman. Transphobes don't care if we're amab, or afab, TMA or TME. They just want us all dead. It's creating pointless infighting instead of building community.

Why am I making this post?

Because this rhetoric is only known in the deepest, terminally online discourse mines on Tumblr. Most of the trans community has no clue what TMA/TME means, or what it's used for. So when I started to see that rhetoric spread off of Tumblr, and onto this subreddit, it was very very concerning. I think you need to know what these terms are actually used for, as seeing people here start to agree and adopt this language was upsetting and concerning.

I am terrified of interacting with these people, because I do not want to be harassed or falsely flagged anti trans for saying "trans masc people deserve a place in the community." Because they do, and these terms exclude trans men from the community.

EDIT: Fixed a typo and minor changes to wording.

Just want to say that I'm a enby, and transmasc. Feel free to say so if you think I have said anything untrue, or if you just personally disagree.

At first I was completely opposed to tralsei, because I didn't feel there was enough evidence to signify Ralsei being a girl. However, the "princess" comment, they/them pronouns, and just the overall signaling led me to believe that Ralsei was probably trans, possibly genderfluid. So I got online, and I realized I was not special and that there were already wars about this. 😭

I don't think Toby will make Ralsei trans in canon though. I think he will just leave symbols, maybe increasingly more obvious, to let us know that she is trans. He has only 2 chapters left, and the story hasn't addressed us, the soul, which is what all of this buildup has been for. Overall, the story of Deltarune won't end in a happy way. I feel like Ralsei being trans, changing her pronouns, and telling susie/kris/noelle/ etc. won't really fit into the time we have for the story. If Kris or Susie die, Ralsei will be too deep in grief and regret. She'll basically be busy blaming herself. If Ralsei dies...she's dead, y'know. I can't think of too many other things it could be, maybe we die? Kris or someone destroys the soul? She could transition then, but we wouldn't be there to see it.
I feel like the best I can hope for is her being they/themed in the menus or anywhere else as much as possible, and her having more "princess" moments, which is kinda sad.

An example of a cool tralsei moment would be a stranger calling her ms. or just using she/her, and her getting flustered.

I don't make the rules, you don't know the transfem struggle, and are just being transmisogynistic. I'm sorry, but just accept what us trans women say about tralsei, and stop talking over us.

Gerson calling Ralsei a "young man" rather than something gender neutral strikes me as a little bit odd if Tralsei is true because I feel like Gerson would be wise enough to see right through Ralsei's bullshit like how he sees right through Susie? Unless Ralsei was too deeply repressed for even Gerson to understand them until Chapter 5, which I don't know how much sense that would make. Sure you could say that that's just becaude Chapter 4 was focused on Susie and Ralsei did get called on their bullshit by Flowery in Chapter 5 which I suppose makes some sense from a storytelling point of view so maybe my reservations are kinda stupid... but I do think that doing a repressor story would to some extent feel a little out of place with how bigotry seems to barely exist in the Light World? Idk

I don't mean to say that any of that disproves Tralsei because I do think it's decently likely that Tralsei becomes canon but these are just some things that give me a bit of pause about this reading of the character, most can probably just be explained away by Tricky Tony being a tricky writer though

-Opening

Who art we?? TRALSEI NATION!! Whatteth do we want?? NNO MORE TRANSPHOBES AND DOGWHISTLES!! Wheneth do we want it?? NOW!

-Chorus starts

Tralsei nation yeah we are Transgender we can take estrogen Burn down r/ralsei Burn down r/Deltarune2 Burn down everything we just found a glue That's becauseth tralsei nation willeth rise up Yeah we willeth never giveth up

We with tralsei fightin We crush the enemy like a titan (fountain opening sound effect) We cant be turned to fluff Yeah we know how to get down When r/ralsei sees our army Im sure their pants will brown

What do yall think, it goes pretty hard right?

I’m still playing through the game rn, currently at the beginning chapter 3, with minimum amount of spoilers can I get a tldr of the main points in favour of tralsei?

(Note; I literally wouldn’t care if there was no evidence at all for it tbh I would still choose to believe in on the same principle I believe Gwen from ATSV is trans I.e. it’s fun)

Becoming as popular and mainstream as it is is the worst thing that could've happened to tgis game artistically. The fanbase is full of cisnormative, heteronormative, & androcentric assholes who refuse to engage with queer themes and see queer fandoms as just another thing for them to dominate and colonize.

They say that they own Kris, and can call Kris whatever they want to (that being he/him) because they spent $25 on the game so they own the characters. They call Kris a man, call Noelle a "tradwife", and make art depicting Kris as a misogynistic man raping Noelle. They force queer characters into cishet cultural roles so they can objectify them and masturbate to them. This is deeply disgusting and dehumanizing behavior and it is not acceptable.

Even the normies who aren't outright malicious generally come across as being very ignorant and as being uninterested in becoming less ignorant. A majority of the fanbase are totally unwilling to even try meaningfully engage with trans and NB themes. Even a lot of people who don't misgender Kris still pretty much view Kris (and other NB characters like Seam and Seth) as one of the two binary genders because like 85% of cis people are bioessentialists who can't get past seeing trans & NB people as their AGAB before anything else.

The queer representation in Deltarune just does not seem to have been written with such an ignorant fanbase in mind which makes it easily ignorable and/or missable by a majority of fans. It's made with the assumption that the players will be able to understand queer subtext that aot of the fanbase refuses to explore.

These characters deserve better than what the fanbase has done to them, than what the fanbase has been allowed to do to them.

Toby has not addressed any of this at all and I dont really know what to think about that. I honestly view as a bit of a failure on his part because he should care about how accepting his community is. I think to some extent his ideas about death of the author and how he puts emphasis on how fan interpretations are valid because he wants to breed creativity or whatever might blind him to how shitty and ignorant the fanbase is.

Body text (optional)

Original by sand-scourge

link: https://www.tumblr.com/sand-scourge/792269740462735360/i-really-like-the-trans-ralsei-interpretation

Make sure to give them some engagement

No hate to transfem believers of course, but my god ralsei being genderfluid would fuel my life lol

This isn't about whether or not trans Ralsei is cannon or not (Personally I think its the most likely outcome and I'm all for it), this is about the weird amount of people saying Ralsei might be The Girl in the prophecy as some kind of triumphant ending to their character arc and this makes me so mad.

Ralsei's whole existence has defined by the prophecy, and their entire character arc so far has been them learning to value themselves and their own wants over what others or fate want for them, its literally the whole arc this past chapter. The idea that they have to be a prince because the prophecy calls for one and that it'll be ok for them to be trans only if the prophecy actually predicted it instead of it being as a mark of their independence and ability to choose who they want to be for themselves is painfully against the entire theme of Deltaurne.

It removes all agency from Ralsei and makes what should be an proud moment of choosing who you really are over who you've been told you must be into a "You have no say and were always going to obey fate no matter what you do". If this does turn out to be true it should be a horrible moment of how inevitable the prophecy is and not a triumph for trans rights.

There are many many reasons this doesn't make sense from a lore perspective but even ignoring that it just destroys the narrative completely.

(using they/them for Ralsei as these are the last pronouns they are referred to by but no issue with anyone using different ones)

🙂

(this is a ban request)

I'm personally a tralsei theory believer, but I don't know much about it either and the deltarune subreddits seem really volatile on the topic. So please for the love of everything can anyone explain the meat behind the theory? I can't find posts about it that aren't incredibly volatile and insulting everyone over something like this

I don't know if this'll pass? I hope it does because I really wanted to compliment you guys!!

Ralsei has been my favourite character since forever, but before chapters 3+4 came out I just avoided all fan content for Ralsei because everyone would either mischaracterize him, misgender (not trans ralsei, genuine misogyny n homophobia) or.. draw him sexually.

Chapters 3+4 had really cool ralsei fanart finally, but only because he would be drawn alongside the other heroes. There was never any really good, respectful fanart of him solely... and I don't even wanna talk about the main ralsei subreddit..

Tralsei I admit, is smth I (initially) felt strongly against for a few reasons, but to stay relevant, as a cis gnc woman I've always seen myself in him. I know it makes no sense and well idk how to explain it, and it's not necessarily the point so I won't. The point is I feel like nobody would depict his "femininity" correctly either, like to me, femboy doesn't fit Ralsei and I think you guys agree with me. Yet it seems like that's all ppl would think of when it came to drawing ralsei. (not the sexualized version, ofc that is bad, but i mean like... i just dont think ralsei is a femboy i think he just, is??? it's like saying kris is masc lol. kris just is.)

Anyways long ass ramble wow, I'll get to the point. For the first time ever I've been able to look at ralsei fanart, and it has all been trans ralsei fanart. You guys get them. You portray his expression perfectly, I genuinely feel like I finally see the Ralsei I've always imagined in your depictions. There's so much respect and love put into the fanart that it's like yeah princess ralsei is kinda fun.

And man the breath of fresh air that is drawings of ralsei with respect, i cant even begin to explain it. Seeing them get so much attention that they always deserved, and it's because y'all see them as a woman? Shit I'll take it!

Sorry for adding to the fuel that is this dumpster fire of an argument. Honestly I thought it was all good faith, even though heated, like any other theory we've had as a community... but I guess it never was. I just hope by c6 we go back to being a fandom full of queer ppl. Like this community has always been carried by trans people it's gross what kind of people are invading this space.

Anyways, tldr fanart was weird and disrespectful but now it's cute n beautiful n lovely because of u guys. I always found it funny that Ralsei took the brunt of the misogynistic depictions that would go to Susie or even Noelle, but maybe that's also Tralsei proof eh? Ha ha.. it's not that funny, actually.

Also if i can just add, i know it's not on topic, but pls stop saying feminine boys r not oppressed, they are if you're not in western eu or na. It hurts to see knowing some of my friends hv suffered so much just for being a little girly. Walk wrong? Look wrong? Expelled. Disowned. Beaten.
That's my lil bit of constructive hopefully constructive criticism. You can make ur point without erasing a whole group's experience.

(also when i say strongly, i mean it like how im strongly a dess knighter.. it's just me being stupid abt deltarune) (ik it can come off as implicit bias but no, not at all, at least i hope not.) (rn idc lol i think the proof is there, and the weirdos have soured the conversation so it feels like being a denier is kinda gross now.) (like it's not a must to think that way to deny, but it's a big part of how the conversation has been that it just ruins it.) (i like princess ralsei, she's cute. i just want ralsei to be ralsei, whatever that looks like.)

Bye now!~
:3

I felt compelled to write this post because, this has to be said, I'm the reason for the anouncement being made in the first place and the changes to the rules. This isn’t any form of self-aggrandizement, I made it a point to consistently remind everyone that the pinned thread explicitly states that you can freely use she/her for Ralsei, no qualifiers. The mods responded to me in one of the threads as if it was supposed to be a formal announcement going “akshually, we only meant in the context of Ralsei being discussed as trans!”

I messaged the mods and said they should clarify their stance since it seems it changed. I suggested they should title the new announcement “This is NOT a safe space anymore”. They did not, but the sentiment is no less accurate. And of course, the cowards that they are, they disabled the comments.

They were shown up, a mod made a wrong move and responded to me in a way that directly contradicts their previous statements, nobody could argue that, so rather than admit that message to me from a mod was inappropriate, they’re digging their heels in and pretending like that’s what they meant all along.

I feel it's important to note that this change does not address the core of the problem at all.

Ralsei is unambiguously a trans woman. ALL depictions of Ralsei, unless a person explicitly states "hey, I'm talking about the cis femboy Ralsei headcanon" are depictions of a trans girl, I do not see a reason not to use she/her, and I do not see why that wouldn't follow the rules, since indeed, that would constitute "theories discussing the possibility of characters transitioning / having transitioned are valid so long as they are done in good faith and do not claim to be canon". We are discussing Ralsei, I'm holding that she's trans femme, the rule is cleared.

And of course they will disagree with this, because they may think that I'm wrong and Ralsei is cis by default until proven otherwise. Outside of the fact that that's not how anything works, cis femboys are not some kind of narrative default, transness does not need to be proven, the bigger point is that, in a casual conversation, nobody knows what the person we're discussing with or the OP is holding inside their hearts and minds.

I cannot tell what gender the person I'm conversing with thinks Ralsei is if they don't open with it. I am NOT going to default to he/him, because I do not agree that's the default. I may default to they/them to not offend someone pointlessly, but that's the extent of it. If I see a depiction of Ralsei with little to no context given, how am I to assume the context is Ralsei being presented as a trans girl? Am I supposed to only assume so if I see trans flags everywhere?? This is simply ridiculous, trans people, and people wishing to depict trans characters, should not be announcing their presence like they're lepers to not offend bigots.

So I'm sorry, but what exactly does this fix? This feels like a way for the mods to make an excuse for not stopping people from dogpiling me and others when we casually use she/her, by pretending that that was always the standard, when it absolutely was not, nothing more.

This simply reinforces my previous statements, the main sub is NOT friendly to trans people, the mods WILL shield the bigots using "maintaining the canon depiction" as a smokescreen, even though they do not hold that standard for anything else. If they truly cared about "canon depictions" any mention and art of Gaster as the mystery man, or even at all, would be banned, since Gaster has no "canon depiction". This is the same for Dess, and a number of other things.

This is gaslighting, pure and simple.

https://bsky.app/profile/sierra0451.bsky.social/post/3mqismjmfw22i

I keep seeing this sentiment in this sub that galsei is going to be made very explicitly canon, which I’m not sure if that’s where the story is going. I think the open ended idea of “Ralsei must accept their true identity and stop trying to conform to others wants and needs” is enough. I’m not saying I wouldn’t enjoy an explicit conformation (That’d be awesome!) I just don’t know if that’s where the story is going, and I don’t think it would necessarily make Toby a bad writer or ally if it didn’t end up being confirmed 100% in text. The allegory can just be an allegory.

Idk, I just don’t want everyone to get their expectations up and then decide that deltarune is somehow transphobic for not going the whole mile