How would she define herself? And what of pronouns? None of the girls knew they were talking about a girl because there was no linguistic way for them to know.
Fisheye is, if not a transwoman, certainly nonbinary. She added this wonderful energy to the group dynamic and was a villain we fell in love with and loved to hate.
And then inevitably, be it weeks or even months later, we found out that Zoisite was actually an effeminate gay man whose gender was altered in the name of homophobic censorship. As a gay teenager at the time I personally felt very divided about this and I still do even now, decades later. Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! On the one hand, I was ecstatic to know that there was this loving, committed relationship between two men villains, but who cares? What if, in an inevitable future interpretation of Sailor Moon , Zoisite were nonbinary?
In a way, a nobinary Zoisite would be the perfect compromise for those who crave that queerness but also like a feminine energy amongst the generals. But in gaining representation in one area, would we lose it in another? If Zoisite were no longer a binary male, the romance with Kunzite would still be queer but would no longer be squarely gay, as it would no longer be a relationship between two men, but rather a man and an enby. Another baddie, Fisheye, was an effeminate gay man who played with gender presentation.
He wore makeup and dressed in dresses, but was made to be a woman in the English-dub because these behaviors were not deemed appropriate for children.
Good or bad, the erasure of these characters sexuality and gender presentation was detrimental. By not letting these characters be who they really are, it sends the message that there's something wrong with being like Sailor Neptune and Uranus. And that can hurt people who are still coming to accept who they are.
Erasure can make those struggling with their identity feel even more invisible. The wildly-popular Legend of Korra featured a same-sex relationship , with the show even ending with a shot of the two women in love. And Disney XD recently featured a bunch of same-sex kisses on Star vs. I can't help but wonder how much seeing Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus in love would have helped me growing up, even before I realized I was gay myself.
Gay superheroes. Smell ya later, Mamoru! It would be a disservice to present this as the ultimate in queer representation. At the end of the day, this is a decades-old shoujo anime whose main characters would likely not identify as anything other than straight. It is OK to be attracted to other women? Is it OK for me to be a woman in a different way than what society tells me?
Modeling that kind of questioning, as something that can be grounding and nurturing rather than terrifying and isolating, is an important and rare depiction of a crucial life skill for queer youth in an anime aimed at young girls.
Sailor Moon could never have done that for me in real-time; it was off the air by the time I needed it, and the infamous DiC dub severely straightwashed the anime. But knowing that it exists for current and future generations, even those who might not seek out such a nuanced representation, makes my heart feel glad… and even a little proud.
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