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male gardevoir as transgender symbol

B

babaGAReeb

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u guys so funny lol

i just selected transgender to see what pokemon it would have and it was a a gardevoir(u know its male)

gardevoir was the first pokemon that came to my mind when i thought about what pokemon would be best as a transgender symbol


heres a suggestion, maybe u can use two different transgender symbols

male ganrdevoir for male to female transgender

and female machamp for female to male transgender

i think machamp is the manliest looking female pokemon
 
... There's a difference between male and female Gardevoir? How do you show that in a tiny sprite?
 
BlackOsprey said:
... There's a difference between male and female Gardevoir? How do you show that in a tiny sprite?
Click to expand...

The point was that the Gardevoir symbol seems to be universal, even though it more appropriately represents a male -> female change because of Gardevoir's feminine looks, and that Machamp should be used as a female -> male equivalent so as to not make it seem one-sided.
 
Baf said:
If it were up to me you could choose any pokemon as your gender.
Click to expand...
even mewtwo?
i want mutant gender, it would be mewtwo
Yun said:
BlackOsprey said:
... There's a difference between male and female Gardevoir? How do you show that in a tiny sprite?
Click to expand...

The point was that the Gardevoir symbol seems to be universal, even though it more appropriately represents a male -> female change because of Gardevoir's feminine looks, and that Machamp should be used as a female -> male equivalent so as to not make it seem one-sided.
Click to expand...

what he said

....well okay i admit i am just sayin this cuz i want machamp as my gender symbol

i would be like male to even more male transgender since machamp is like twice a man
 
It's supremely stupid that Gardevoir is the icon for "transgender" here. Like, why should animals fit human standards of gender?

Marill would be a better option.
 
I like the Gardevoir symbol, since i am like that way anyway. I consider myself gender neutral but with traits of both and very feminine-looking.
I also like the Machamp idea, maybe Mr. mime would also work.

I wonder why there aren't more options for straight up male/female though. Like Nidoking/Nidoqueen, Frillish, Jellicent, Meowstic, Gallade/Froslass etc. I'm not a big fan of the Latis (not as big as some of the others listed here) and say let's add even more diversity.
 
Mako said:
Trans is a pretty big umbrella though :/ It's not simply "male to female" or "female to male." I think a universal symbol is best.
Click to expand...

People can be trans and still identify as male or female, a lot of people do. Maybe an additional shiny latias and shiny latios could be given as options for trans male and trans female specifically. Then maybe Gardevoir could be changed to non-binary.
 
This is the part where the amount of genders you can put into a drop-down and represent with Pokemon gets confusing.

There will be so many genders and opinions that an umbrella term/Pokemon is practically required. What Pokemon best represents transgenders is up for debate, since there's not really a good Pokemon to represent that, but Gardevoir's a decent choice for the sake of simplicity.
 
Mijzelffan said:
Mako said:
Trans is a pretty big umbrella though :/ It's not simply "male to female" or "female to male." I think a universal symbol is best.
Click to expand...

People can be trans and still identify as male or female, a lot of people do. Maybe an additional shiny latias and shiny latios could be given as options for trans male and trans female specifically. Then maybe Gardevoir could be changed to non-binary.
Click to expand...

I never said that trans people couldn't identify as male or female. I was just saying that it's a big umbrella that includes things like genderfluid and bigender.
 
Maybe it should be Sylveon. Anyone who has Tumblr has probably seen that post that points out Sylveon's colors perfectly match the transgendered flag colors. =P
 
Or, yeh could be happy that bmg had thrown yeh a bone and included transpeople in the option at all, and feel lucky that, of all the non binary genders someone (or thing! ) could identify as, your has been deemed worthy. Or, you know-- you could just pick your sex, to be technically accurate-- or your gender, which you want to be identified as anyway-- or genderless, as you find yourself not fully in either camp.

Or, not giving a damn because gender is pretty meaningless outside of gender-stereotypes, which weren't we fighting to break those social boundaries in the first place?


BlackOsprey said:
... There's a difference between male and female Gardevoir? How do you show that in a tiny sprite?
Click to expand...
a one-pixel bulge, maybe?
 
Personally, I like Gardevoir as a symbol for transgendered people and when it comes to genders or such, it's important to focus on the big picture. Why I brought the "big picture" stuff up, is that otherwise there would be a long list of detailed options which would be complicated and would require time and effort to plan and work equally. I understand however if people find their gender identities dismissed if there's only approximate options and some identities seem more promoted than others - it's a very complex topic.

However I would be fine with if the gender-system was removed from our profiles, or made more like an additional information instead or required; there would be a text input field which people filled up if they felt like it. And if you went to someone's profile, you'd see it in that page instead of seeing it under your avatar in every post you write. The only possible problem I see about this, would be confusion about preferred pronouns, but it's not forbidden to ask privately either if you want to get it right. Personally I'm not even strict about this stuff anymore - I can take it if someone happened to call me with other pronoun than "he", even as I'm FtM.

On the internet and especially on forums focused mostly around Pokemon, genders don't really matter so much - or they matter if you choose to promote them. Your common personality, behavior and what you write matters more here in my humble opinion. I understand if people agree or disagree with me and it's your right too.
 
That is actually quite the interesting suggestion. The forum simply assumes all transgenders are male-to-female, which obviously isn't the case. That being said, it is a miracle that the site even gives the option of "transgender" and other non male/female options to be chosen, so the way it is implemented might not be perfect, but I'd call it a progress when you compare this to most other forums and sites.
 
I think Gardevoir was chosen because it can be seen as androgynous, I didn't know it could be male when I saw it in Ruby lol.
 
Gardevoir, to me, can equally represent someone who is biologically a woman but identifies as man (the appearance reflect their biological body, but the actual gender of M Gardevoir reflect what they identify as), or someone who is biologically a man but identify with the social role of women (M Gardevoir being M reflect their biological sex, but the appearance reflect their identity).

The fact that M Gardevoir is less caricatural and more ambiguous where Machamp is...well, it wouldn't know subtle if subtle hit it in the face with a clue-by-four made it a better choice. Gardevoir is kind of ambiguous (as in: it can represent multiple things). Machamp is to male caricatures as Jynx is to female caricatures. And if there was a M Jynx in the game, I don't think it would make a good transgender icon either.

Which is not to say we won't consider adding other options (though I'm afraid that we're never going to be able to cover all the myriad possible gender identities - there are only so many appropriate pokémon sprite, and constantly updating the list to add new terms take time and effort that we might not be able to afford).

Just that Gardevoir is not meant to represent specifically MtF or FtM at the expense of the other group.
 
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