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Roko's Predicament as Allegory for Gender Dysphoria

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AnchovyJovi:
Hey Guy's Gal's and Robots, Anchovy Fish girl here long time watcher and reader first time writer.

I wanted to get your opinions on a particular "Vibe" I'm getting from this recent storyline with Roko and her new body.

Sensation of begin stuck in a body that dose not feel like your own the way it seems to just haunt her periodically regardless of her mood (whether in good spirits or bad), psychologically feeling that something about your body just doesn't reflect you correctly no matter what you do going so far as to repeatedly preen and pick at the attributes that do not feel right, And now currently expressing a desire to injure or harm yourself to "correct" the error.

Now I mean I know Death of the author an all, and whatever you take away is true but no more or less true than someone else's interpretation but it's still validating if others see or feel it too or but I get a subtle feeling that this is intended to be an allegory to Gender Dysphoria and I'm getting some funky Resonance with my own life experiences.

Now I know we just met but I have to admit I was not always the catch you have today but I was instead born a prawn, and not the fish girl you see before you now.
As a Teen I would wear super heavy oversized black hoodies to "obfuscate" my body preferring to be seen as this unassuming "blob" rather than the prawn body I had. I also akin to Roko engaged in the obsessive compulsive scrubbing and preening but then lead upto pulling the chitinous protrusions that had begun to grow from my face with tweezers, I'd engage in this behavior  so much so that I'd injure myself  scrubbing holes in my membranes and I'd go out with scabs over my face weirdly I'd feel superficially better knowing I'd done something but horrifying my friends and family, this got worse with me ultimately inflicting some grievous wounds on my Prawn biology that ultimately got me put in hospital.

And like Roko the alienating thing is you "KNOW" something is wrong. You try to explain it to others and the response is "you look fine" "your supposed to look like that" No it's not fine! Something is wrong, I have something wrong with me... And it was impossible to explain.

Until I fixed it but that's a different story.

I mean I could be well off the mark, Their certainly is a large lack of Fish-Girl Prawn-Boy media as of late hell even a few years ago circa 2010 - 2016 you'd find more media about it but I guess the political climate has made it controversial so nobody wants to speak about it so I might be reading far to much into this due to a hunger for the subject material.

I dunno I'd like to hear if anyone else has other interpretations for this particular arc or if they relate to what's happening in any particular way?

Umlaut:
Yes, that was my immediate thought on it as well (and I'm not really a regular at these forums but popped in just to see if others were seeing what I was).

Makes a lot of sense to me that Jeph would tell the dysphoria story via this allegorical route, rather than more directly. As a matter of representation, we need characters who happen to be transgender but whose story isn't about that, and QC has done that quite well. In Jeph's shoes, having accomplished this I might eventually wonder if I had done so a bit too well, to the point of downplaying or dismissing the real pain of body dysphoria that people can and have gone through, and whether there were a way I could honor that struggle without undermining what I'd already done. If that's what Jeph is in fact doing with this storyline, I'd say he nailed it.

fantasticalice:
I was going to post about this and stumbled upon this thread after hitting next.

Wow. Between Doctor Who Sevenrh Doctor's New adventures(big finish 2018) and this I am seeing sruff that reflects my unique brand of dysphoria.

I used to post on MySpace "The face in my mirror isn't mine" and I still can't see myself unless my eyebrows are done a very certain way.

It's really easy to feel alone when you are actually the .2% that is intersexed and a lot of media(even the good ones) I can't relate to.

Despite floating betwixt nb and female(my stated gender identity is "dyke") Boys don't cry is the only film I have completely and 100% identified with.

So when I cry or jusf look at something and feel.... Well I need to mention it. It's still surprising how well qc pulls of queer relationships to me.

It's why I am a huge fan or #ownvoices being multifaceted. If I were to put a checklist I would say 1: promote, liftup, and help #ownvoices get their qork out there.
2. Listen to input, advice, and clarity from #ownvoices for your own projects. Share diversity and show people why it is important. Until creators are as diverse as they should be we can all help art itself to be diverse.

And I think it's so awesome how amazing QC is on diversity. And it feels and looks natural and I love thaf too.

As a huge fan of Doctor Who I am both a strong proponent of ownvoices as well as knowing that a straight white bloke from Scotland can have me crying my eyes out.

In regards to gay mixed race companion, Bill it's technically two Scottish blokes and of course Pearl Macky.

And QC has done that so many times. If just 50% of the men in this world had the insight and compassion Mr. Jeph, James Goss, Alan Flanagan, and yes even Steve Moffat have this world would be safer.

I have very complicated body dysmorphia issues. I'm intersexed and I was butchered at birth because of it. I can never tell when I will relate to an experience or I will just cry because their experience is done well.

And this panel helped me relate. I have so much anger and frustration when it comes to my body. Between never knowing what life would be like if I had not been cut up as a child and having my foot cut off and reattached 4 years ago it's a complicated reality.

But I needed this. And honestly, even the bread strip was important. Knowing certain things about you still work the same is super important.

Also, Seventh Doctor new adventures is really really good and has an amazing third story with great writing and lots of nuance. It's my favourite release right now because of how real the trans character was.

It's a Big Finish radioplay and it is the seventh Doctor and his companions Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester. Chris is pansexual and Roz is not only a woman of colour but has a long and storied ancestry going back to Nelson Mandela.

I'm a little off topic but trans characters don't show up in scifi a lot and it's also a really good box set of stories.

I hope they do more because not only was this amazing but I love the Doctor having a pansexual companion. It's why I love Torchwood so much.

Back on topic. It's really wonderful seeing a visual medium like comics show what art Should be. When I see the trailer for secret life of pets 2 and am disgusted because the entire cast is white it's nice to see that not all people are stupid.

Even if webcomics can be expected to never be as bad and as sexualised as comics at their worst(ie the 90s, chuck austen, and new 52 Supergirl and Starfire) I still love how progressive this comic has ALWAYS been.

And I mean that. I know Jeph has written about some missteps and also his feelings on the early years of the comics but..

My favourite character has been Dora for a very long time. And honestly it's partly because she is bi. This was mentioned really early on and it was never Grossed On in any way. But mainly it felt like a character detail in a way bisexual characters don't always get to be.

even in some of the best and well.meaning writing for something there can still be some sensationalism to it.

I'm not bi..... Well, truth is I do identify as gay and males horrify me. But with my semi frequency of finding trans men attractive(and I see them as 100% men) and the rare head turns with blokes from my home country(NI) I... might identify as bisexual if people didn't treat bisexual folk as horrible!s, awful,evils, etcetera.

I get so much horrible crap just for being gay and I also identified as bi for 5 years.

But wow long post.

I love this storyline and the way I relate to it.

Milayna:
Since it's been mentioned a couple of times in this thread, some of you might want to check out Zombieland Saga and gen:LOCK. (Spoilers follow obviously!) One of the main characters in Zombieland Saga is trans (it can be debated what parts they do well and what they misstep on, but the sincere effort is apparent and there was of course some controversy because mainstream anime in general is pretty conservative), and gen:LOCK has at least one and probably 2 characters on its 5-person "Voltron Team" that are non-cis. It also becomes apparent that it's explicitly exploring the question of identity, self-perception, and body image, within the context of giant mechas.

Is it cold in here?:
Welcome, new person!

I think you're on to something given what I've heard on the subject from trans* people here.

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