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Non-Binary Representation in Media


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Elaborating on The Owl House since its mentioned a lot [Spoilers for all seasons]

Spoiler

OK so the great thing about the Owl house is that not only does it have four different non-binary characters, but all of them are different in other aspects of their character, making them seem normal while also showing that non-binary is an umbrella term and not all are the same.

First we have Raine Whispers, who used they/them, and according to the voice actor is transmasc. They present pretty androgynously. They are middle-aged. They're also brown which is cool because trans people of colour are often underrepresented. They are a part of the main general cast in season 2/3

Second we have Masha, who also uses they/them. They present in a feminine way. They're a teenager. They're a side character that appears a couple of times.

Then we have The Collector, who uses he/they. They're technically an immortal being, but is implied to be their species equivilant of a child. They are one of the main antagonists in season 2/3. They don't really present in a feminine or masculine way.

And lastly we have Papa Titan, who I think is safe to say would be chill with any problems. He's ok with masculine titles such as 'Dad' and doesn't seem to be mind being perceived in a masculine way. Their gender is revealed when he is asked if he is King's Dad, he says 'I think King said it best, I am both King and Queen, best of both worlds!' making them possibly bigender? Some people have also pointed out its possible his species, the Titans, are intersex and/or reproduce asexually. The Titan is a semi-immortal being who is/was 400+ years. He only appears in the finale but is still an important character for the show.

 

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I think no one has mentioned it yet, but in the new transformers (earthspark) there's a cannon NB transformer! They're called Nightshade, their alt mode is an owl and they're so cool y'all

Maybe when I'm home later today I'll add some pics and clips of them, but for now here's some lines from memory that may or may not be 100% correct:

"What a gift, to know oneself so young"— this is from tarantulas, an older transformer, to Nightshade. Their episode together according to the writers is about meeting queer elders as a young queer

"What a wonderful word, for a wonderful experience"— Nightshade says this once they learn the word nonbinary. They always knew who they were, but this was the first time they learned the word that described them!  Also they literally say nonbinary, out loud and proudly. God I love this show.

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  • 7 months later...

Shiver from Splatoon! She's not canonically nonbinary but a lot of fans interpret them that way ever since they were revealed in the Splatoon 3 trailer because of her androgynous appearance. Many see him as transmasculine from seeing the sarashi on their chest, but I've also seen transfeminine headcanons. Shiver canonically uses she/her pronouns, but my headcanon is that she's ok with any pronouns and unlabeled. I love the diversity of headcanons I've seen about them.

shiver.webp.9589df26f4518f86a25e7ad3d874ec48.webp

Also Arval from Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. I haven't gotten far in the game at all, but they use they/them pronouns and look awesome.

Artwork_Arval.webp.5ed48177d0f7fb96afbb1d927a6449c3.webp

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  • 3 weeks later...

In a very good Soviet/Russian children's book Лоскутик и Облако (Little Patchwork and the Cloud) one of the main heroes, a literal sentient cloud, is technically non-binary. Helped by the fact that the word cloud, облако, is grammatically neuter-gendered in Russian. The character is referred through the book with neuter pronoun оно (closest English equivalent would be "it"), doesn't present in a specially feminine or masculine way behavior-wise or appearance-wise; being a cloud, it changes its appearance on its mood, sometimes taking animal forms, sometimes human forms of whoever it was interacting with recently (whether male or female people). In the world of the book not all clouds are necessarily genderless - we meet the Cloud's grandmother, and she's referred to as Бабка Грозовая Туча (Granny Stormcloud), where the word туча, meaning raincloud/stormcloud, is grammatically feminine. (Existence of this word demonstrates that if the author wanted to make the central character binary she could easily use this word, its more narrow meaning would work with the story still since the Cloud's association with rain is key to the plot, but she still went with the gender-neutral облако). 

Edited by Ekaterina
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  • 3 weeks later...

Acht from Splatoon canonically uses they/them pronouns. It's cool because they were a minor character before and haven't been referred to until the recent Splatoon DLC. I didn't expect it since they look a bit more fem and we haven't had a canonically nonbinary character in Splatoon before, so it's cool to see some representation.

Edited by dewy
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Double Trouble from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They're not a main character, but they're important to the plot, and absolutely iconic , and a plus, even the big bad villain respects their they/them pronouns, which I thought was neat!

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  • 1 month later...

ok so.... paintbrush from inanimate insanity!! you cna watch it on yt! (beware that in the first season, theyre misgendered a lot bcs when it was airing is was for comedy but they eventually are amazing enby rep :3)

object shows my beloved :3 

i love paintbrush hehehe theyre my FAVORITE!!!!

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I make content that is practically oozing with representation, (no, I don't have a YouTube channel or anything, its kinda a thing I do when I'm bored) and plan on making quite a few enby characters.

Name suggestions anyone?

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16 hours ago, P4R4D0X said:

Name suggestions anyone?

Name them something that symbolizes their primary emotions or thoughts. Concepts are fun because they can be genderless, or can have gender connotations. Giving someone who has a masc appearance a feminine name can create a mixed sense of gender, and a name with no gender connotations can defy the sense of gender-binary.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Big fan of Nico Sanjrani in the Expanse TV show. They have like 5 minutes of screen time and are a somewhat morally dubious person but seeing a middle aged character who I could relate both my body and gender presentation so heavily to at that point in my transition hit me really, really hard when I first watched the show. It was one of those "oh!! Maybe I do have a future ahead of me after all!" moments.

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