I've talked about this on my Twitter a few times, but I felt it necessary to make an announcement.
I will no longer be tagging or referring to my art as "Futa/Futanari" or similar, arts like that will be labelled as "trans".
Last time I made a journal that had anything to do with my identity, I got harshly transphobic comments, and that is part of this decision. I won't be locking comments, if you wish to immortalize your bigotry in response to this, go ahead, it's your funeral.
You may call me whatever dehumanizing names you want, I know what I am, I know my body, I know I'm human and a man. No matter what you say, it will not change that. You don't have that power over me. Never have, never will.
Why?
For me my art has always been in concept and in anatomy, trans, however I found "futa" easier for search function, and in some ways, cowardice to avoid the hypocritical bigotry that comes from some.
My decision comes from previous events and recent events in fandom. In practicality, if a futanari drawing were to be translated into real-life, the character would be a trans person.
There are people who are happy to consume the appearance of trans bodies sexually but expose hatred to the real life people who would represent that body type, to the extent of hate crimes, to the extend of denial of our humanity, dignity, and rights. There are people who think that it being fictional gives them free reign to believe it's different, "this is a woman with a penis, not an icky trans woman".
I am removing that dissonance, if you consume the representations of trans people's bodies, you do not get to keep that dissonance if it's the only way you can stomach our existence. You do not get to sexually gratify yourself with my art while being bigoted towards me.
As an artist, I study anatomy, I use references, even if it's cartoony, I do, and the references are trans, the art has always been trans. "Futanari" has always had a radical expression of gender, sexual, yes, but there has always been a deeper commentary on gender in futanari pornography (particularly that of the originating hentai content with semblance of plot). It's ridiculous to pretend there was never a trans or non-binary tone to it, however if you are cis, you may not have noticed. I did, I know many who have, and it's just completely unrealistic to think there is no similarity to trans women's bodies.
Some of you may be lite on this, you may say reading this "I don't like it being called trans! but I'm not like that, I'm not a transphobe!", and maybe you're not the worst of the worst transphobe, but I ask you to think to yourself, why does the label of this pornography change your perception of the exact same imagery?
At this point in my life, with all the overt transphobic violence I've faced IRL, with all the constant comings out of transphobes who use our bodies or draw our bodies while freely supporting the removal of our rights, I cannot abide pretending this doesn't exist and that people like this exist within my own audience.
I cannot imagine the audacity, to consume my art while wishing myself and people like me dead.
I cannot justify sexualizing my trans sisters without making some stance on this, even if it is a small act, this is where my power lies, and I would be equally hypocritical to allow this chaser dissonance around my content to go unaddressed. Even if this is a small act of solidarity, if it receives the same backlash I received before, then it is not a small act, and it says a lot of how hateful the rise in bigotry has become that a simple labelling change should offend.
To the nuisance... to my fellow trans persons...
I understand there is a case of dysphoria that causes the need of dissonance between the reality of our bodies and the fictive representations of us. I am aware there are trans people who disagree on labelling, but I cannot stand the dissonance existing for transphobic cis fetishizes. There was a time I agreed with that mindset, but I had a lot of internalized transphobia and my dysphoria was worse, sometimes it's dysphoria, sometimes it's internalised transphobia towards the reclamation of our own bodies, sometimes it is both. It's up to you to discover what it is and it's up to you to know what's best for you.
I am open to discussions with trans peoples on what labelling would be preferred for comfort as I wouldn't want to ostracise you from my audience, however I would like to ostracise transphobes from my audience.
...Peace
