thecolourofyourhair1-deactivate asked: It's ok that genderqueer ppl identify with Haruka in the manga, and ok, have your interpretation. But isn't it more likely that Haruka is said to be "a man and a woman in one" because she has feminine and masculine qualities?? and thus, she doesn't really care abt gender roles or abt what ppl think a woman should be. Naoko said that Haruka was always a woman and described her as a butch lesbian. It makes me really angry when ppl say that non-feminine lesbians aren't actually women. it's shitty.

All those speeches haruka had are more likely to come from her own sexual orientation and the fact that she sometimes liked to do masculine things and wear men’s clothes. So it makes sense that her perception of gender and gender roles is less traditional. It happens to women like her in real life too.

There’s zero representation for butch lesbians, and lately everyone is trying to turn the few that exist into either non-binary or trans characters. aka not women. despite THEM BEING WOMEN. That’s the exact same things homophobes have always done. It’s ok to read characters like that but why not do that with feminine female characters?

There are more of them. Also, haruka and michiru are the only confirmed lesbian relationship in the manga. by saying haruka is not a woman, you’re literally taking away the only canon lesbian relationship in sailor moon. Yes, there are ships and yes, usagi kisses haruka and has a thing with seiya but they’re just flings, and she still ends up with a boy, so pls can you not trash over lesbian representation? bc tumblr “queer” culture is doing that a lot lately even better, ppl should just interpret male characters as being trans or non-binary, that way nobody has to fight over female representation

Naoko was responding to homophobes who were trying to sell Haruka as a hermaphrodite and a “really a (cis) man”. It is very easy to read her response as merely saying Haruka’s sex is female or that she identifies as a woman a lot of the time and would refer to herself as such. Even if that wasn’t the case, people are allowed to disregard it, because it’s not like Naoko would have known the word for genderfluid or how to express it, yet her text speaks for itself.

Butch lesbians have pretty low representation, but gender-fluid and bigender people have close to zero. There is nothing wrong with reading a character as genderfluid when the representation is so low, and it does nothing to take away from lesbian representation. Haruka still identifies as a woman sometimes (or even a lot of the time) if you read her as genderfluid of bi-gender. Thus, she is still in a lesbian relationship with Michiru and Michiru is still in one with her.

If you want a good example of an explicitly canon relationship between a genderfluid person and a lesbian where the lesbian never compromised her sexuality, you can see Karolina and Xavin in the Runaways comic (before Joss Whedon ruined everything- and if you want a real example of media literally turning a gender-fluid person into a cis lesbian, see his work on that title. THAT is what happens in media. Genderfluid people are erased for lesbians to make cis straight men more comfortable. NOT the other way around.).

It happens in real life, and it doesn’t “take away” anything. Nobody ever said it would mean Michiru wasn’t a lesbian, or that Haruka wouldn’t identify herself as such.

I am not a non-binary person, but I support the readings of people who are and understand that they need representation. I am perfectly content as a queer woman to support my friends and their readings, because their arguments are sound.

Moreover, reading manga Haruka as genderfluid does not take away the fact that anime Haruka is a positive representation of a butch lesbian. It just acknowledges there can be different readings of different versions of her. And nobody is even saying you can’t read manga Haruka as a butch lesbian if that’s your view after careful consideration.

You are basically upset marginalized people who get almost zero representation clinging to the closest thing to canon representation they have, even if it takes nothing away from you or has nothing to do with you. That is just like the person I argued with.

I have also literally never seen someone use their trans headcanons to claim good female representation exists in a show. People are usually good about criticizing media and then having headcanons that make it more progressive, and separating the two. I don’t see this kind of thing as a large trend on tumblr, and your concern about it seems frankly uncalled for. There are a lot more important issues than marginalized people seeking representation.

Some friendly advice- instead of focusing on sending long messages about how upset you are that people even more marginalized than lesbians and the people who support them are seeking and reading representation into fiction, I’d suggest using that energy to fight back against the people who are trying to erase representation and make everyone cishet, or complaining about things being too gay, like the person I argued with. I think your energy is better used resisting the people who attack lesbian and bisexual people for their readings, rather than acting in the same manner towards trans and non-binary people.

Someone literally told me to hurt myself because I called the person on their homophobia as a queer woman, yet the thing you’re concerned enough to spend energy on is how you think it’s bad some people read Haruka as genderqueer. I think it’s pretty clear what the bigger problem we should be uniting against is.