On the topic of Grell Sutcliff's gender...

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BloodlustDetox's avatar
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I first wore my Grell Sutcliff cosplay at Anime Boston in 2011. It was my first cosplay that was not utter rubbish and about an hour after I arrived, a trans man approached me and asked me if I agreed that Grell was a MTF, or a trans woman. He shared his story with me and told me how he was a transgendered man and how he admired the character of Grell, and was disappointed about how people ignored Grell's longing to be a woman and have children and just wrote him off as the gay, flamboyent man that was good for giggles.

I had just barely finished the anime and had not started the manga, so the question intrigued me. I had never really thought about it much, and I wasn't in the fandom in any way. I thought about it for the moment and told him that I wasn't going to comment about it. I wasn't comfortable making a decision on a topic that I hadn't really thought about.

When I got home from the convention, the question and the man who had asked it was still on my mind. I had only known one transgendered person before, and I hadn't known him all that well. His name was Alex and I thought back to all the trouble he had had with people not respecting his gender, including his father and his best friend (who he ultimitely broke up with during the course of me knowing him). I thought about all of that and how something as simple as someone calling him 'sir' would completely make his day.

I realised that I didn't know much about trans people other than things I witnessed with Alex, and not only did I research Grell, I researched the trans community and learned so much about it that I had never known. I grew to understand and respect them and today I have many FTM friends and I'm sure there's people I know that I'm not even aware of them being trans.

Back to Grell, I learned as much about the character as I possibly could and I realised that Grell was a beautiful, passionate and yet so sad and lonely woman. Her desire to have a lover and birth children is inspiring and I honestly hope that Yana Toboso gives Grell the sex change she wants so badly later on in the series. I also hope that she finds a lover that can keep up with her amazing self, even if it isn't William T Spears (though that would be lovely~). And even if she cannot give birth, I also hope she gets a child some way or another.

And something that makes me sad is that people who won't respect that. If I'm at a convention and someone refers to me as a he in some way, I correct them and so far, every time I do this, I've gotten laughed at and they continue to refer to me/Grell by the wrong gender. It genuinely hurts me because I think about what Grell, and more importantly, real trans people have to go through everyday and this is the additute you get from people.

Someone at one convention even had the nerve to SCREAM at me that I was a man. It was very hurtful and it still bothers me. So, please, at least consider how you think of Grell and what kind of an impression you're making on the fans of Grell, as well as the trans communtity when you call Grell a 'he'.

© 2011 - 2024 BloodlustDetox
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TiffanyToast93's avatar
She is honestly the only reason that. I have become interested in the series.

before finding out she is Trans like me, I just thought: meeh... Just another anime...boring, not worth my time.


But NOW I have become interested.