Robots as Trans Allegory

[@DewEnjoyer]

Man I *really* like robots

[@goIdy]

who are you?

[@ZunkleFunkle]

NEW CO2GOLDY FEATURING OOMFIE!?

[@DewEnjoyer]

​@@goIdy friend of the channel

[@goIdy]

enemy of the channel

[@xoxowena]

robo-chaser 😍 🤖

[@LuciferLuckless]

As a robot there's no reason for Wall-E to have an inherent gender at all, and yet he gravitates to the male lead of an old musical, using him as a template for his own behaviour. He sees masculinity from an outside perspective and decides "that's how I choose to be." I can absolutely see that as trans masc.

[@goIdy]

that’s real as hell, i love that

[@marcusaaronliaogo9158]

@@goIdy wall e is so peak

[@aguyontheinternet8436]

feels more accurate to call that enbymasc but fair enough

[@sophiatrocentraisin]

I mean, Wall-E is either transmasc, or a butch (could be a butch transfem). Either way, ain't no way he's cis het. Eve absolutely radiates transfem energy

[@obsidianjane4413]

The reason is to conform to the customer... I mean audience's expectations of gender norms. EVE is a "girl" so Wall-E has to be a "boy". Otherwise the forks and pitchforks come out to storm the Disney castle.

[@Uraniumpancakes]

I feel like a lot of these points also connect to neurodivergence/ autism, but I never realized how much the trans exaperence also connected with robots! I love your video.

[@PrincessFelicie]

As the video said, there's a lot of ways robots map onto a whole buncha marginalized identities, and it's fairly obvious neurodivergence is one of the big ones. ...The rates of comorbidity between being trans and being ADHDtistic also help, to be fair.

[@goIdy]

while looking at stuff for this video, it became clear that there is also a big connection between robots and neurodivergence. i didn't really touch on that because i wasn't confident that i was informed enough to talk about that topic, and didn't want to misrepresent anyone. one of the articles i linked in the description, the first one, actually has a section specifically on that and i recommend checking it out !

[@ejoty_6128]

davey gunface video ("robots and autism")

[@crosana01]

As someone with cripplingly severe OCD I definitely have related to the idea of being a malfunctioning machine.

[@Nisteth]

​@@ejoty_6128 Considering his disdain for LGBTQ+ individuals expressed in that exact video and putting a doublethink on display by describing his own oppression as a marginalized group, then putting down other marginalized groups, I'd say stay away from this video.

[@Captain_Maeve]

My takeaway from this vid is that Robots is about DIY HRT

[@carimeslockdownedtree2654]

And that's why there's little to no transmasc robots. Synthesing your own T is illegal, unlike E. I don't even know how all that works tbh

[@GardenGD]

@@carimeslockdownedtree2654 It's mainly due to T being categorized as a type of steroid

[@Jooptroop]

@@carimeslockdownedtree2654 lots of people diy

[@Captain_Maeve]

@@carimeslockdownedtree2654 yeah its a massive shame and really shouldn't be the case.

[@coconutcorejf]

​@@carimeslockdownedtree2654 considering T is a precursor to E that doesnt seem very like it would be necessary legistlation.

[@mastercat381]

"Queer relationships a lot of the time don't conform to that structure. Like, me and my wife can't figure out who the dog is gonna be!" This line absolutely fuckin killed me. Good video

[@delve_]

LMAO that one knocked me out.

[@legitimatemedicine]

Actual relationship goals Made me genuinely laugh

[@sailorharmakhis]

That Rodney from Robots mention gave me such an intense flashback to being a kid watching that scene thinking "i wish i could build myself like a robot" 💀

[@TimpanistMoth_AyKayEll]

That, and always being jealous of the shapechanger characters. Which I assumed everyone was, because who wouldn't want to change their body??? :facepalm:

[@Monderoth]

4:42 interjecting here! Sechs from Battle Angel Alita is an excellent example of a transmasc robot, and he's really overt about it too! He was originally created to be a copy of female cyborg, but he hated being forced into that role. Gender was one of the ways that he differentiated himself from the original Alita, and he used to wear bulky armor to look more masculine until a mechanic was nice enough to give him a masculine body. After that point, he completely ditched the bulky armor and showed off his new body at every opportunity he could get! My memory is slightly fuzzy, but I think he even mentioned some emotions that sounded a bit like gender dysphoria pre-transition, and gender euphoria post-transition. But the visual storytelling of seeing him strip half naked and flex his new muscles pulled a lot of the weight for that trans narrative! Being trans isn't his only character trait though! He's a state of the art machine, an incredible martial artist, and a surprisingly goofy person once you get to know him! He can be a very... enthusiastic individual, so he's always a pleasure to watch whenever he comes up! (And he does have quite the character arc, but I don't want to spoil all of it!) All in all, he's a really cool character! You should look up some art of him if you haven't already! You can search for "Sechs Fizziroy Body," he's the one-eyed doofus with the number 6 on his forehead!

[@Megapixel8063]

Transmasc robots? Mettaton from Undertale, obviously. He might be the most blatantly transgender robot of all time.

[@Kianfox]

soo true!!

[@Dhampire1976]

I see them more as gender fluid/nonbinary but honestly them being transmasc works too

[@Megapixel8063]

@@Dhampire1976 But he’s he/him though. Undertale/Deltarune’s got enough enbies as it is lol. Let the trans boys have their boy :P

[@neoqwerty]

@@Megapixel8063 I dunno, as a trans man, Mettaton definitely felt more cis than trans masc, even when he was obviously meant to be coded as transitioning from ghost to robot. His androgynous experience is more "cis rockstar man rebelling against socially-enforced trad masculinity with androgyny" than the transmasc experience I've lived and the similar stories of other trans guys and transmasc NB peeps I'm friends with, at least in my view of things. If he's transmasc, then he's a very niche one. Also this is your friendly reminder that not all non-binary umbrella people are they/them, neopronouns, xenopronounts, it/its, or she/they or he/they. There's she/her and he/him enbies around too who don't think they're going to be taken seriously if they go out of the "standard pronoun sets", and genderfluid people who don't see the point in switching pronouns because they're fluid between masc and non-binary. (this was my soapbox moment, thank you for reading it if you got to this point, my best bros are a masc they/them-but-he/him-is-acceptable enby and a "it's slightly complicated" he/him-because-of-being-neopronoun-shamed trans guy so I have Words about pronouns gatekeeping gender)

[@Concrete21]

A Non-binary robot is an amazing joke, so I prefer to go with that.

[@Chronoplague]

I think a lot of trans people could relate to Astro Boy. Astro was built to replace Dr. Tenma's deceased son, Tobio. Astro fails to demonstrate the qualities Tenma is looking for, reinforcing his feelings of loss for his son. Instead of learning to love Astro for who he is, he kicks him out (well, sells him to a circus). While Astro continues to self actualize and build a found family, Dr. Tenma becomes more bitter. Even after rejecting Astro, Tenma tries to control his life, often coming into conflict with each other.

[@soupcake3092]

Here to inform everyone that starscream is the best trans rep we've ever gotten. In the comics he changes his body every so often because instead of his spark being able to help shape a body when he was born he was put in a mass produced one. So he's trying to find a body that's right until he sees it in a mind battle thing. Another character gives him a little hologram locket of it and he spends a fair bit of time crying over what could have been while looking at it. He doesn't get a chance to reformat himself again unfortunately because the world starts ending and he has to save it.

[@DiamondDude-so6dz]

💎which Starscream is this/what continuity does this take place in?💎

[@soupcake3092]

@@DiamondDude-so6dz the IDW comics.

[@wobblyspongebob346]

IDW comics!! It spans over a few series but I think this part of Starscream most prominently features in The Transformers: Till All Are One Anyone feel free to correct me, it’s been a while since I’ve read them

[@Macrochenia]

IDW also had three explicitly trans characters in the same continuity: Arcee, who was retconned into being trans*, and Anode and Lug, who were both original characters who were created as trans. Interestingly, while Arcee looks like her classic fembot appearance from the G1 cartoon, Anode and Lug are both significantly less feminine in design: Arcee got a full-body makeover, Anode made a few minor alterations to her appearance after coming out, and Lug didn't bother changing anything. So not only did the comic have trans representation, the trans characters aren't forced into conventional standards of gender presentation. *Long story due to IDW having to address some seriously transphobic content from early in the comic's run thanks to Simon Furman hating the idea of Transformers having gender.

[@soupcake3092]

@@Macrochenia The early stuff with arcee was so rough. Not a big fan of simon. I do find it funny that starscream still best represents the trans experience while there are other characters in the comic that are actually trans.

[@jacksquatt6082]

Movie monsters and robots have always been a stand-in for "the other." The only thing that changes down throughout time and location is *which* "other" they stand for.

[@Crushanator1]

And interestingly, even the same monster can be interpreted differently by readers. Dracula was written at a time when the other was a foreigner, the vague eastern European with different culture and mannerisms, and now we see queer subtext.

[@Sara3346]

@@Crushanator1 *Also as exploitative nobility, someone corrupted by greed and wealth but yes many valid readings.

[@masona.5631]

Nai from Yokohoma Kaidashi Kikou is the one potential transmasc robot allegory I can think of. In a manga series where all robots are made to look indistinguishable from humans, he's the only male one that's shown, and all other robots in the story are surprised to meet him for that reason. There's dialogue between him and main character Alpha when they meet in which she says that she simply assumed all other robots were female, and he says that gets that a lot, but that he's as much a man as she is a woman. There's not any explicit discussion of gender beyond this that I can recall, but it was worth mentioning

[@jaeki1312]

what a great catch!!

[@boneappleyee8356]

The idea of robots as trans metaphors really clicked with me personally when I finished the game library of ruina, where the robot protagonist is exiled for having "thoughts a machine shouldn't have" and identifying herself as a human, her defending herself was a greatly written scene and honestly really helped me with coming to terms with how I identified myself.

[@rageleague188]

Angela’s entire storyline in ruina is one big trans allegory, it’s great

[@marcusaaronliaogo9158]

@@boneappleyee8356 angela is peak character

[@daw8285]

0:18 the nails look so good!!

[@enzonanozone]

i could talk for hours about ghost in the shell, that movie was beautiful. great video! really enjoyed it.

[@chedder_chandlure]

One of my favorite bits of trans rep and one of my fictional characters is Bot from the web series inanimate insanity. Without getting too in detail, they were made to be a robotic recreation of a deceased character, but after learning the truth they strive to become their own person. Over the next few episodes we see them slowly transition into their true self and its just great. The scene where their creator/parents sees them transitioned for the first time and instantly accepts them made me tear up ngl. Their design looks like a butterfly for crying out loud!!!

[@Marbles-q3h]

oh this is a great example!! i also love bot, they’re my fav season 3 character :]

[@chedder_chandlure]

@@Marbles-q3h Bot is my favorite II character in general :3

[@WeaponizedToyCar]

I love Bot so much grrr. I even have their plush :D

[@finch-2763]

OSC SPOTTED ALSO YESSSSS

[@Plut0TheCrypt1d]

YESSS I KNEW ID SEE A COMMENT LIKE THIS BOT IS SO COOL

[@acidsugarz]

Me looking back at my childhood, always having a fondness for Teenage Robot, Bionicle, and Ghost in the Shell: "Yeah, I may be trans..."

[@choromaster5978]

Really great video!! I feel like I'm gonna explode if I dont mention the absolute GOAT that is Mettaton from Undertale as an example for transmasc robots here lol. His backstory is a super clear allegory for transness and his relationship to his own body and his close relationships are all super interesting and well written in my opinion. Also he's hilarious and his themes go EXTREMELY hard

[@goIdy]

i have shocked a lot of people by saying that i've never played undertale lol. i've gotten a lot of replies mentioning mettaton, thats really cool !

[@SunnyS.Studios]

@@goIdyWHAT ARE YOU DOING WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN HOW DO YOU EXSIST?? Jokes aside, you should its really fucking good

[@matthewgagnon9426]

@@goIdy Undertale is really, really good. Easily one of the best games I've ever played, and I've been playing video games since the early 90s so it has a ton of competition. The music alone is worth the price of the game.

[@peachyleaf8836]

HOLY SHIT UR SO RIGHT ABT METTATON BEING TRANS OMG MY MIND IS BLOWN >:0000

[@Sukairuto]

> characters raised to be only a weapon but slowly learning how to be human? > this trope is actually about being transfem btw welcome back A2 (NieR: Automata) I knew I liked you too much

[@Sukairuto]

lol I immediately commented this thinking they wouldn't put her on screen, but they sure did

[@hexagonalchaos]

so thats why this is one of my fav tropes

[@DaisyDies]

this fucks so fucking hard, i love trans media analysis

[@sn0wgnome]

the murderbot novel series is a good example of that arc of starting as a deadly weapon and, through your experiences and the bonds you make with those around you, learning to be human

[@SpaceSoups]

I'd argue that becoming human was not the point of Sec Unit.

[@Stairdweller]

Also tens of thousands of hours of entertainment serials

[@catdownthestreet]

​@@SpaceSoups Stories are meant to be interpreted.

[@antiv4470]

Murderbot specifically stated that it didn’t want to be human. It even says that humans egotistically think that being human is what all robots want. Whereas it seems to be more interested in bodily autonomy. It is also strongly against sex related things and is worried at one point that if it had sex related parts it would be like a sex-bot and possibly be seen as more human. It does run programs to blend in with human society but it still firmly holds to the idea that is different from humans and augmented humans.

[@krill_CO]

my friends always tease me about how much i love the "ancient robot now without a purpose not knowing what to do" trope, which they always blamed on my autism but now theres this! also an an avid my life as a teenage robot fan who is trans..stop making me feel feelings ]:

[@KatieAngelWitch]

Right, generally there's no transmasc robots because robots only have trans sisters(say it out loud) but to get into Sechs from Battle Angel Alita: What you need to know about Alita is that she's an amnesiac cyborg found in a dump and given a new body by a kind doctor who moonlights as a bounty hunter, and the story goes a lot of places. One of these places is a government entity making copies of Alita for her Martian Martial Arts technique that is very effective against Cyborgs and super secret and not taught. They do this by copying her skills onto brainchips, as there's two types of cyborgs in the seetings on Earth split between the floating city and the grounded city, the grounded city cyborgs have human brains but cyborg bodies, the floating city cyborgs have human bodies but their brains get taken for a quantum computer and replaced with a chip that functions as a brain. It's a big reveal in the manga. So these Alita copies are cyborgs with Cyborg Bodies and Brains and there's a bunch of them that are numbered. One of these, Number 6, Sechs, ends up becoming a member of the crew, first getting the brainchip installed into this little chibi gremlin pocket bot and then plugging that bot into a body built for him which is explicitly masculine, as if Alita went on Testosterone and got taller, and it's only this one copy of Alita that transitions, the other ones like being girls. I do recommend reading it but it is taking a while to release the third run, Mars Chronicle, which gives us details on Alita's life before she was a cyborg, which is zero time because of how she was born. Pretty solid phylosophical study of Humanity. And, you know, it only just hit me that Robots (2005) is another example of TME people claiming rep from a Transmysoginist Caricature, since the "Red Guy" robot has the whole bit in the third act of the movie where he loses his lower half, grabs the first one, it's a skirt, which makes her transition pretty quickly and the yellow robot girl excitedly goes "I have a sister?!" before we see red robot's still same face and yellow robot goes "An ugly sister" with a frowny face. The Britney cover dance bit was neat but, still, ya know. I'm also gonna shill for myself since I got an hour and a half video covering the play R.U.R. which gave the word Robot to the science fiction world, comparing it to the two blade runner movies and ending on O Human Star, which I cannot recommend enough, hence why I finish that video of mine with it. It's on my channel if you're curious.

[@piskyys191]

I do really hope this comment is not written by a Landian accelerationist or a D Haraway cyborg-feminist, or a techopagan (I.E incoherent Larper). I mean, there's a common pattern among these types of people. Which is that of glorifying the Femininity, comparing transfems to sci-fi robots like those from the Animatrix, and a likely moral resentment of TMEs, specifically transmascs due to their transmisogyny (we should give up on these people alright; that's definitely how difference works). And I'm assuming you're engaging in this pattern and therefore belonging to one of these milleus. I apologize if this accusation causes some unwanted offense. I want you to understand that I've had some run-ins with these types of people and that has earned me a new trigger, and I find their philosophies to be generally disgusting, especially and especially accelerationism. Like it's not just a disgustingly reactionary philosophy but they have managed to distort and taint Deleuze and Guattari beyond repair. So now one of the first things one knows about Deleuze and co is their false association with accelerationism and his non-discipline known as Nick Land. There is a great description by a real Deleuzian about Land and the appeal of his incoherent philosophy, "Land is an eschatologist who thrives on predictions of doom and death, which is what accelerationism tends to concern itself with anyway: speculation about mass death with an unclear distinction made between its cautionary prediction and its summoning. With his cybernetic runaway teleology, hyperstition, hyper-racism [Ewwwwww] and the Dark Enlightenment, Land reminds me of a kind of Marxist I dislike, one who implicitly desires the kind of worsening of material conditions apt to hasten a presumed revolution. There's a distastefully misanthropic voyeurism in it, the analysis persistently reorients itself towards Land's cathexis in human extinction. I get why this thought is enjoyable, but it's like smoking meth: one can acknowledge it feels excellent without wanting to make a habit of it." Regardless, this video and your comment have helped clear away my confusion of the relationship between robots and transness. I can't exactly relate to much of this despite being trans myself, it's very weird. But at the same time it makes me realize the lack of substantial non-gender robots or a true non-gender world for matter. I'm starting to vision my own worldbuilding and philosophical system that is meant to get pass all power systems of humanity which includes gender, but not descending into accelerationism which ironically has once attempted to co-opt anarchism in the 90s. It won't be an easy task though.

[@kiddycow_]

i’m absolutely obsessed with robots in media. I love the thought of robot found family and robots that are accepted and supported by humans/non-robots, it doesn’t matter if you’re organic or not, because you’ll always be a friend. i’m also agender, so i see myself in robots that simply don’t experience gender, but i like thinking about robots who DO experience gender and their struggle with figuring out who they are and how they’d like to present themselves. wonderful video btw

[@kyttynkross1121]

I loved My Life as a Teenage Robot when I was younger. An addition I'm sad wasn't included in your list (and a transmasc one at that): One of the first movies that ever made me cry -- and not just cry, but openly weep in front of other people (which was unheard of for my emotionally stunted, dissociated, numb, depressed teen self) -- was Bicentennial Man with Robin Williams. A robot slowly goes through the process of medically transitioning into a human while legally fighting for his right to be legally recognized as a human, all the while inventing wildly helpful medical advances that save and sustain human lives in the process, and still being denied his own humanity. I deeply connected to this movie in a way that as a young child, I could not explain. I watched it again and again and again. And I wept at the end, every single time. but also, I think there are a lot of autistic coded traits in robots as well that I connect with. The way so many of them are so literal and logical and trusting/take people at face value, and have poor social navigation or narrate their thoughts / actions / other people or unnecessarily explain things (like jokes and other people's behavior patterns ["your heart rate is elevating; you are nervous"]. and there is certainly a correlation between neurodivergence and being trans. also also, idek anything about Gundam or Transformers, but I would bet there are trans robots within those franchises. Heck, I see trans/formers joke all the time. "robots in disguise" "robot -> Car" "attack helicopter" the allegory writes itself.

[@clockworkcake8057]

maybe i dont go here but the thing with transmasc robots really caught me off guard because i dont think i've seen any good transmasc rep like ever. maybe something worth exploring

[@SparkleChord]

if you like manga i would highly recommend Boys Run the Riot by Keito Gaku! It's a story about a trans man written by a trans man and its super good imo

[@iofromthesky]

the protag in kino's journey is nonbinary transmasc!! the anime is from 2003, so even though it's really progressive in many ways it's still limited in its vocabulary and such.

[@ga4667]

Not a transmasc robot but some transmasc rep I liked was the Netflix cartoon Dead End Paranormal Park. Think I got the title right. Main character is a trans guy who runs away from home and lives at a haunted theme park that he also works at

[@N0tsaved]

Metatton from Undertale is pretty accurate when you look at who he was beforehand. It's worth a wiki dive.

[@sonatab2646]

Mulannnnnnnn

[@ParzivalRP1]

i just want to say, as a baby trans/genderfluid/nonbiary/idk man, i always love watching your videos and knowing other people are having or had simialr expexperiences to me, i really loved watching your "wait im retro" video and hearing your story of discovery and seeing how mine parallels

[@goIdy]

thank you ! i love hearing from people with totally different perspectives, but ultimately shared experiences. when i make these videos i always try to leave enough room open so that anyone can find themselves in them to an extent. "wait am i retro now?" is my favorite video i've made so far, and while it issss my worst performing video, the responses i've gotten from it are far and away my favorite to read.

[@ParzivalRP1]

@goIdy its a shame that video is your worst preforming because thats what made me decide to become a memeber and support you, aswell as getting to see videos early as since that video ive looked forward to whatever you post next, i love video essays and talking about the trans experience so

[@daw8285]

@@goIdy Wait I just noticed how less views that video has why?!!! it's soo good

[@OldLadyMapleSeed]

NO FUCKING WAY I’ve literally been talking about this all year. I swear to god Astro Boy make me a lifelong trans ally at the age of five. I remember the little spark lighting up in my head when I heard the story about a person made of metal like other robots, but with something different inside that made his experience human, only not in the same way as fleshy humans, and so many people hurt him and talked shit about him because they refused to believe. It just blew my mind, and when I went to school and talked to a little boy who said he was on the bad guy’s side because Astro Boy was just a robot, it blew my mind all over again. That’s literally one of the first moral decisions I can remember consciously making. It’s, like cognitive equilibrium dependent on flexibility, trust and the drive to empathize. That’s what sci-fi is all about. Man, I love robots. Especially ✨Data✨

[@LoboRundas]

Me and a friend were just talking about the intersection of dolls and robots in allegory representation and you drop it?? The stars alligned for sure Great vid!! There's a comic that you might like called O Human Star

[@DuskyPredator]

The intersection of robot and doll has been something stuck in my head for a while, and had been some inspiration for some fantasy writing for having dolls as robots. I don't think I realised quite so much the allegory I was baking in, but the specific elements I have made essential defy dehumanisation and flip the gender culture. I think my interest falls a bit in the appreciation of artificiality through attempts to look human. Something putting in the effort to show they are genuine being more than something that never had to try.

[@havinfunfallin9458]

As a trans woman who is incredibly Dysphoric over the fact that I can not ever get pregnant, the fact that men see women is terms of who can produce offspring seemingly solely makes it so hard for me to just feel like living, like I never got a say in what body I was born in, and never got a say in wether I can create children (hell even cis women don’t have 100% say in such thing’s either) but the fact that I feel like no one will ever love me for good because they could find a girl like me who is just cis and decide I’m not worth not making children that are “his” genetically. Yet my struggles are trivialized by bigots that I am not a “real woman” when I’m pretty sure any cis woman who found out she isn’t fertile goes through just with the added layer of my existence constantly called into question by horrible people.

[@commetsftw]

You are not alone. People will put us down for things we already feel awful about, but do not be discouraged. We must persist through this life and use pain as fuel for our journey. I'm not sure if you're spiritual, but having faith in something is a great way to gain confidence and hope in life. I personally think being trans is a baptism before being reincarnated as the other gender, so we can be a perfect version of ourselves.

[@grunklebran7535]

I remember seeing a little flavour text in persona 3 reload saying that Aigis was “passing” more as human, as a trans person that really struck a chord with me and made me see Aigis as a trans allegory

[@real_Clone_Gordon_Freeman]

I've been struggling a lot with my identity lately, I think I might be androgynous because while I physically express myself male I've never really done it for traditionally male reasons, but because Im masc people have often treated me as a chaser for being attracted to trans women but explaining how people only saw it as a fetish and something people couldn't keep long term really helped reassure me because the reason I gravitate towards trans women to begin with is because I seek something more romantic and long term and in my life I've found trans women to be some of the most empathetic and kind people in the world and I think a lot of that is because those scars build empathy. I really do admire the trans community and what it stands for, a lot of the times I feel ashamed for being masc presenting but this video did genuinely help to reassure myself so thank you so much for that

[@robinscompass5951]

As someone attempting to write a robotic character as an overtly trans allegory (albeit as one of my many, many scattered passion projects) this video was great to see in my recommended. Something that’s very recently fascinated me immensely on the topic of robots is robots created to hold the roles of humans that reject that, and instead of trying to be a human person try to be a robot person. I think this resonates so heavily with me because of how heavily the idea of either trans people being a deviation from some understood “base,” which I often see in robots as trans allegories as physically rebuilding their body or that trans people can exist only if they conform to the standards of society (robots as “human people”) as opposed to transness being an inherent, natural trait of some people. Small tangent over, this is not at all meant at a jab at robots building themselves bodies or becoming traditionally human, those are both still amazing tropes that I love but I wanted to share why I think I love rejecting humanity without rejecting personhood as a trope is one I love so much :)

[@jeffhiner]

A few other posters above have mentioned Martha Wells' Murderbot series as a great example of this theme. If you're not familiar, you really should grab a copy from your library and read it.

[@chester1882]

Another banger from one of the up and coming transgender essayists on KZbin! As someone who has read Alita manga but not the second series that features Sech, that story is steeped in gender and identity with many stand out moments and evocative panels. Well worth the read imo.

[@bubblemage1791]

I just wanna say that the line comparint robots having value/identity/selfhood and trans people as “a glitch in the binary” is fucking genius

[@TheMightyPika]

The OG Ghost in the Shell was a big part of my trans awakening (FtM). i already had a strong disconnect with my body as The Major did. The part where she undresses in front of Batou, as she feels her body is little more than a utilitarian vehicle, stood out to me.

[@user-yz1zj6fp6i]

the "me and my wife" joke made me laugh so so hard. great video overall i'm loving your stuff i just wanted to specifically comment on how good that bit was

[@LillianGraceFullofficial]

This reminds me of a oddly aged well chapter of “Astro Boy”, where Astro, as a robot, was wishing he was a human, while in the same story, found about a boy who wanted to become a robot, but his father didn’t approve and didn’t allow any surgery. Mind you, the original manga pages of Astro Boy ran from *1952 to 1968*

[@Starryken0324]

This video immediately reminded me of bot from inanimate insanity where even before they actually came out as trans I genuinely thought they were a really good trans allegory. Bot in the beginning was made as a replica of person who passed and once they figure out they are a robot they feel very uncomfortable in their own body which is very relatable as a trans person. After becoming more comfortable in changing their appearance and obviously transitioning they get really nervous about how their parents would react to their new everything, in the end their parents accept them and love them for them and that always warms my heart. Bot is genuinely one of my favorite characters from the third season

[@Fungitheclown]

TRANS ROBOT ALLEGORYS AND TRIGUN SOUNDTRACK USED AS BACKGROUND MUSIC AT 6:58????? ive never seen such a perfect video befor eomg- this feels tailored to me wtf

[@Ensu_Verna]

> My wife and I can't decide who the dog is going to be You missed the most important lesson of Undertale! Dogs can pet each other!

[@kamikeserpentail3778]

This is true

[@linq2c]

Every robot is trans, even having an assigned at build gender, either be their nature to not be any or to be in human binary, having their gender identity depends on having a sentient choice, either it is to go to their assigned one, exploring gender and how a bot could feel dysphoria is something i want to do so much in my own transformers AU, basing cybertronians as agender, characters can even despise human gender and its binary

[@linq2c]

Also, i think my identity might been built entirely by Jenny, Sari sumdac and AVA Gotta love the robot girls that go through some type of transformation

[@TransMascTrump]

You have no idea how glad I am to see a transformers fan exploring transformers gender outside of the stereotypical binary crap holy, Its weird how all the fanfic writers in this fandom just do the same stuff it's annoying!

[@truexenith8596]

Fucking based. I'm not trans myself, but I often find it annoying how Transformers never does anything really groundbreaking with gender when it literally has the PERFECT concept for that; The potential to explore and discuss gender as a social concept is IMMENSE, and neither Hasbro nor the fans ever seem to do ANYTHING with it! I also plan to do this with my own Transformers project, and I'm glad to see that there are others out there that have the same/similar ideas.

[@SnoFitzroy]

15:06 and since we're already talking about allegories and such with non-humans, I just wanna tack on a little thing: This also means being kind and empathetic to your _fellow nonhumans._ Because therianthropy is real and on the rise and we're getting attacked even by trans people, despite a lot of us (myself included) literally also being trans (how else do trans people think we're ending up in the same spaces?)

[@nohintshere]

i second this as someone who's (ironically, considering the video topic) robotkin

[@arlwiss5110]

i grew up more with fantasy books than with scifi ones, so for me this dehumanised representation is fulfilled by the undead. though sadly they seem to get far fewer pieces of work using them for narratives the way robots get used so i very rarely get to scratch the itch of seeing something categorised as inhuman living as itself and showing that even if society can't accept it, it is still equal to the living. shoutout to Gak from the Discworld novels - that skeleton's a one-off cameo character but i enjoyed it so much i lifted it for rp campaigns (with a lot of extra stuff) and it was really helpful in feeling more at home with a fictional character than the others i was writing at the time. also for the record i dont just mean vampires, they usually get lifted above the other undead frustratingly enough. anyways undead woo! and undead women! c:

[@RoseLexThorne]

There's also good ol' Reg Shoe, for the Discworld books! Proud to be a Zombie! Undead? Yes! Unalive? No! He doesn't get many appearances, but he's around in a couple books. Some *very* heavy tones towards marginalized groups wrapped around him, too. He's fighting the good fight.

[@radio5637]

Im not even trans i just clicked because i like robots

[@Purfunxion]

Robots are awesome!

[@WeaponizedToyCar]

Me too

[@Noodlewerfer]

"I was never so sure of myself until I actually started to be myself." I felt that. A lot. I never thought of robots as an allegory in this way, but this is a really interesting perspective. I like a lot of your points, and the "weaponized purpose" for robots was a really interesting comparison.

[@labghoul]

4:28 This scene !! I have screamed to the moon and back that this was accidentally coded as trans acceptance. 'Nano is just Nano. isn't that enough?'. When I was younger it always used to make me cry and still does. The EXTREMELY RARE time Yuuko decides to use her brain cells for once, and it's in the most casual caring way possible. Yuuko would be a trans ally.

[@gingerninja137]

If you haven't read The Murderbot Diaries i highly recommend them. the main character isn't actually a robot, it's a construct (robotic parts and cloned human tissue put together into a humanoid form) but it has to constantly decide between passing as a safer option or being itself and i relate to that as a non-binary person. it's also just a really fun sci-fi series

[@nohintshere]

i read your comment, was like "yeah i fw this" then saw your pfp and spit out my drink at v1 plushie jumpscare

[@shinkikomori7386]

im not done with the video yet but i just couldnt stop myself from coming here to comment that i love trans people i love all of you guys. we'll go through everything together. stay strong fam.

[@katfox_cal]

amazing video. aigis is an amazing character, thank you for mentioning her. you also gave me another reason to look into animatrix. i realized this more or less one time listening to "Moonlight Rendezvous" by Beast In Black, actually listening to the lyrics and hearing "save me / come close and whisper my true name / and become all soothing rain" hit me way too hard in the feels....

[@crisprat6391]

"Me and my wife can't figure out who the dog is gonna be" is so fucking funny I can't believe there's no comments about it

[@it_is_i_deo]

"I was never so sure of myself until I started to be myself" wow you're really gonna drop that one on me with no fanfare huh. I'm gonna have to sit and chew on that quote.

[@pillowmoment]

THIS IS WHAT IVE BEEN SAYING. All robots are trans/trans metaphors to me. I see aliens the same way. A living thing that is considered “othered” or.. literally alienated from the majority. I could go on for ages about the alien thing but it’s a lot harder to articulate because so many aliens are so different. But for machines it can be applied in relatively identical ways across various types of media and characters. One thing that is common between these groups is generalization. In media with robots, if one is violent, they all must be. Like in the example you mentioned at the start. This is common in alien media as well. Even if someone is just trying to defend themselves, they can easily become the example all others are seen as. I read stories and experiences from other trans people about how they’re stereotyped and generalized. I see how people react when a bad person turns out to be queer. I can’t help but draw conclusions between how real and fictional people/beings are treated. The blending of sci/fi creatures, real animals, and trans people has existed in my mind for a while. As a trans person, I’ve related to robot media like Wall-E and Portal, or alien movies like Nope, that unintentionally have the right stuff in them for me to draw these parallels. It’s equally upsetting and comforting. Trans people are everywhere and we will live forever 🙂❤️

[@elliart7432]

I think Mettaton from Undertale could definitely count as a trans masc allegory (as in he identifies as male and his story is about him experiencing the basics of the transition process. He otherwise enjoys feminine aesthetics and I think that's great!)

[@heeeeresmaverick]

A transmasc example is HUX from Dead by Daylight! A line from his lore reads "Him. Not It. He decided that first night he will never be It again. The human crew are asleep, and HUX - yes, HUX is as good a name as any." He literally chooses his own pronouns and name :)

[@liathedigger]

WAKE UP BABE NEW GOLDY VIDEO JUST DROPPED I really love your channel :3

[@smoothkiwi7032]

Your use of “laugh” in place of pun intended gets me every time (10:44)

[@3xfaster]

Okay, one major robot, or droid, that I think is an excellent example of this, is L3-37. She went from what typically is a masculine coded astromech droid to a fully vocal and self modifying fem-coded humanoid droid, whom has her own agency and recognized by Lando as her own bieng and self. The tragedy she faces, which now that I look in hindsight, is that she has her agency stripped from her and hard coded in to the millennium falcon as the new navicomputer, essentially like she was stripped of her ability to continue HRT with her body and forced to detrans and her autonomy stripped of her. Granted it was presented as a way to save her mind, but she no longer has the body she built for herself (her gender affirming surgery, her self modifying, her identity and affirmation and body euphoria)

[@Haunted_Plush]

Terminator: "John I just finished my top surgery let's go get ice cream to celebrate"

[@atshorlus]

Thank you for including a shout out to Nano in this video! I first watched Nichijou (despite being aware of it for a looooong time) when I came out as trans in limited theatres. Things weren't going well, but seeing Nano's struggles felt really relatable and I felt like things would be ok, cuz the people that care would have my back! Then I saw the "You want to go to school?' scene again after everything had gotten even worse because I found the "people that care" was a much smaller group than I had thought. That moment of acceptance in Nichijou, despite Hakase's discomfort, had once brought me so much hope. It eventually got me to get out and be a supportive voice for other trans people who had no one, like myself. I've helped guide a lot of baby transes in my time now... But oof, I almost didn't make it to that point. That was a fun video though! I look forward to seeing more 😊

[@DeonTain]

A transmasc "robot" character is Nimue Alban from David Weber's Safehold books. They are born female but after their death the wake up as a robot. As part of a plan to blend in to a artificially low tech human society they choose a male presenting form. As the books go on he decides he prefers being male.

[@アニメのゴミ]

"...like me and my wife. we can't figure out who the dog is gonna be." had me rolling lmao

[@mds_space2]

You missed a pretty HUGE accidental allegory which is Bionicle: Mask Of Light. Huge spoilers ahead: First of all, there are tribes of robots divided by elements and they are all color coded. The main character, Takua, is presented as a red fire robot with a blue mask that finds a golden mask that will guide the robots to a warrior of light that will save them from evil. He and a friend go on a whole journey to search for this warrior, in which Takua is always scared to continue and wants to step back and go home away from danger. In the end, Takua is actually revealed to be the warrior of light, and the journey was not about reaching a place but about learning and accepting his destiny. Lore added later in books reveal that Takua was never a fire robot to begin with, despite being red and living among fire robots, but actually a much older robot belonging to the light element, so accepting the mask in the movie wasn't changing to another element but accepting who he is deep inside to be the best version of himself.

[@SnufflySpy]

Bloody good video. Being a human is wild and weird and wonderful and I love it. Also nice use of a Rav song in the outro

[@ikimaster8842]

I AM USING THIS ALLEGORY AS A PRIMARY TOPIC FOR MY WEBSERIES PROJECT (in the making)

[@shepthedep5862]

I’m not trans but as a girl I’ve always been into big robots like transformers and gundams, heck even Samuel Hayden from Doom. I think they allow me to explore and enjoy aspects of masculinity because them not being human made it easier for me to attach myself onto them especially as a child being constantly told “boys and girls are different”

[@evilagram]

Hi, I heard that you referenced my essay. It's cool to see it getting noticed!

[@goIdy]

it was great work !! it shared a lot of ideas to my original train of thought and helped to find actual examples rather than just speaking in general terms. loved the inclusion of Nano from Nichijou because that was one of my favorite anime growing up, and one of the first characters i thought of when writing

[@evilagram]

@@goIdy Glad it helped out! That's just my style of writing. Also, my name is pronounced with a hard G. lol.

[@goIdy]

nooooo i apologize !! i went back and forth a couple times between pronunciations lol

[@evilagram]

@goIdy Coulda asked, lol. I'm not exactly hard to reach.

[@evilagram]

@@goIdy Oh yeah, and thanks for referencing me!

[@malith1321]

This was really interesting and I'm super happy about the Armitage clip. One of my fav animes! Thanks

[@sashaarin]

Oh hey, I was just thinking recently about how cis people are able to see a robot or other non-biological sentient being on screen and recognize them as male or female despite the robot, presumably, not having the body parts that many cis people claim are necessary for those labels. If a male robot character were given a human body and it was what cis people normally describe as female, I don't think anyone would be confused if the now-human robot expressed distress about their body not matching their previously-established persona- in fact, I think most people would be justifiably upset for the character. And I'm like "oh man maybe this will be the metaphor that breaks through the barrier for someone" but then again maybe all the people who'd cry for a robot are already awesome. Anyway, nice bideo, robots are neat.

[@omegacrump]

I remember seeing the scene in the Animatrix with the girl being killed on twitter when I was in class and I felt sick for rest of the day and I couldn't stop thinking about it. nothing I have seen has other than that has made me feel sick for a whole day I've seen a lot of gross, gory, and disturbing things nothing has messed me up like that. I think it's primarily because it specifically represented violence against trans people and I've probably seen other things that also represent violence towards trans people but at the time I didn't know that I was trans so it went over my head and didn't feel as strong.

[@goIdy]

yeah i censored it in my video because it actually made me sick to my stomach while editing, figured it was a little more graphic than what i wanted to show here

[@salinalunara]

@@goIdy ngl I appreciated the blur b/c I remember how intense it felt the first time that was pointed out to me on social media

[@WeirdedOutShiba]

This was great video, as somebody who has a robot dog fursona, I relate a lot to robots and didn't even realise that robots were also used as an analogue for asexuality until I found out that I was ace. I'm glad robots are being used to represent more people and you did great job with talking about them as trans allegory.

[@Nadiasreturn]

Awesome video, I got some media to rewatch! Thanks so much💖

[@ivynyan]

...idk how you explained this feeling so well. I have ASD and ADHD too and the whole experience of being something "other" than normal or human has always been a part of my life, even before I realized I was trans. Thank you for this lol it explains so much of my affinity towards robots and the like Edit: - also! Astro from Astroboy 2003 was such a mood as a kid. Even being positive and kind and people still see you as something to be afraid of or cautious of... AAAAAAAAAAAA EDIT EDIT: WAIT METTATON WHY DID I FORGET METTATON

[@KrazyKaiser]

I'm so glad Jenny is the first frame of this video because I always thought she specifically was a pretty good trans allegory especially in the context of her relationship with her mother. She has get her mom to stop deadnaming her. (EDIT) oh look, you basically made that exact same point in the video. I just compulsively left this comment after that first frame of the video lol

[@nickivilardi]

the way you potrayed my entire life in just the phrase "weaponized purpose."

[@HoneyRoll-ERB]

13:00 IT JUST CLICKED. This is why I see myself in Ramlethal Valentine more than any other character in Guilty Gear. She was a weapon turned human bc of puppies, hamburgers, and found family. Ramram isn't canonically trans, but she's trans in my heart.

[@MinorLife10]

Back in 2018, when my puberty began, therapist I attended back then assigned me to pottray my feelings with artwork. I drew a humanoid lady-looking robot who is shopping for spare parts she needs so desperately through Darknet. I did NOT know it was a trans allegory, but oh god, does it make sense!

[@haroldstrickland6126]

You might be interested in this: Star Trek The Next Generation "The Offspring" s3 ep 16. Data, the android crew member, decides to create a child. So, he builds an android named Lal (meaning "beloved"), and there's a scene where Lal chooses their gender. Lal chooses to be female, which is a choice Data's human creator never gave to him. Lacking any connection to his assigned gender, Data never really has any particular gender identity. He has the onboard equipment, as well as programmed knowledge on how bet to deploy said equipment, but it's just equipment to Data. He has no emotional or ego-based connection to his assigned gender. But Lal chooses. And she learns to socialize as a young woman. Part of her identity proceeds from her chosen gender. Now, in those days, Trek writers weren't really trying to make trans allegories. Such terminology didn't really exist in popular conscious. But watching this video made me think back on that story in connection to your observations. Data gave his child the choice he was never given. Also, there's Ex Machina, in which an assigned female robot/android must determine her own identity in the face of two men deciding what she is and isn't. She uses their own ideas of gender to her advantage, without ever really conforming. She crafts her own identity outside of CIS male-centered human norms. Finally, you mention Ghost in the Shell, and Major Kusanagi. While the Major is born as a human female, her entire body was replaced when she was young. And frequently, she is shown changing into different bodies, male, female, different ethnicities, different ages. She has ongoing relationships with other women so that appears to be her sexual preference, but she does also seem to fall for a guy who also ha a full body cyber-prosthesis in the series. She can literally choose her gender on a whim. I mention these things because I've never thought of them as trans allegories, whether designed intentionally as such or not, but your perspective has me thinking about them in a new light.

[@rhinol-only8654]

I'm Astonished that Mettiton from Undertale wasn't thought of for trans mask robots. he is almost explicitly trans in the text of the game, and he's flamboyant as hell i love him

[@janehates]

Metatton from ‘Undertale’ has major transmasc coding. In his case though he was originally a genderless ghost (using they/them pronouns at the time) who had a scientist craft male-coded body for him inhabit. So less FtM than NtM

[@piskyys191]

But Metta wasn't really born a ghost. He had to have been assigned a gender at birth like everyone else

[@MotobugGaming]

I've been waiting for someone to make a video on this topic! As someone who's writing a story about an explicitly trans robot and her queerplatonic partner, I resonate with this subject so much. I think a second video on how robots can be allegories for neurodivergent ppl would be amazing, as that's something i feel not many ppl realize. The experience of having people tell you that your thoughts, feelings, experiences are not real, that you're just faking it, is something I've dealt with a lot and connects me even deeper to robot characters in fiction. Anyways i should probably stop before i go on a several paragraph long rant lol. Robots are my biggest hyperfixation if you couldn't tell lol.

[@Mecha-0178]

lmao, i was obsessed to become a robot / ai until i realized i was trans ( still love robot characters )

[@diomarkov2794]

On topic of sexualised female robots: Fun fact! In Va-11 HALL-A there is a character that is literally a brain in a can in a robot, that is a woman, and there is a whole discussion about appearances

[@agathebreuillot5517]

If you speak French, I would highly recommend reading the novel La séquence Aardtman by Saul Pandelakis, it’s a sci-fi story that puts in parallel the experience of being trans and being a robot (both main characters being trans and one of them being a robot) and dives into the theme of capitalism having huge impacts on people’s lives and bodies. I think it’s one of my favorite novel of all time !!

[@Macrochenia]

With regards to Ghost in the Shell, in the original manga, the Major ends up getting her brain put into a male body (Batou took her brain after her body was destroyed and tried pacing it in a new body for her, but didn't realize the body he'd found was male). After she wakes up, she expresses gender dysphoria over it and goes to find another female body.

[@Coolio_Ash]

Seeing the first bit about the animatrix, where 1 robots actions, done out of fear of being murdered, then reflected suddenly on all robots haunts me. I knew about the other part of it, with the woman robot, from the twitter debate a while back where some people were a little too overzealous on saying it *wasnt* a trans woman allegory and refused to see why it would be interpreted as such as well as the reasonings behind their refusal.

[@Coolio_Ash]

Seriously the actions of 1 marginalized person always gets reflected on all of that persons community. I hate that. Especially when in this case they simply didn't want to be murdered.

[@seradin8029]

Don't know if this is too niche or if it even counts, but Rabbit (Isabella Bunny Bennett) is the best trans robot rep there is

[@samhayzen]

I have thought about the trans allegory a lot in the past few years but have held my tongue because I know "so we transvestigating artists now" would absolutely get me crucified.

[@BushyBelle]

"Me and my wife can't figure out who the dog is gonna be" God that caught me so off guard but you're so real for that :')

[@crumpster]

thank you for the lovely video! may i ask what movie is blurred at 2:27?

[@insanity5764]

Animatrix the renaissance part I

[@crumpster]

@insanity5764 tyvm!

[@MayoGuro64]

MACHINE! Trans. Rights. NOW!

[@tryggverunberg2983]

Gabriel ultrakill? :3

[@hexagonalchaos]

the fact gianni actually voice acted that absolutely based devs

[@pageturner72]

"To them, it is not enough that I am real to myself" -- I love this

[@Waabbrr]

reminds me of how i, a maybe kinda sorta trans fem, relate to the character Rei Ayanami in the Evangelion series. The idea that she has a, as you mentioned, “artificial body”, and her constant search to become more human, and know who she, as a person, is. Great character.

[@under1085]

Aigis's story hits so close, same as you we tried desperately to be this "alpha" male type of person. We became a spiteful, mean-spirited, and uncaring weapon. It took our life collapsing, a family member dating a transman, and finding not only a gf but a pseudo family with a bunch of transfem and making a discord, that our mind changes and we became happy.

[@lorelaimorace-kk1xz]

Glad to see more robotic fans

[@taupathfinder657]

5:55 this kinda reminds me of the fact that back in ww1 tanks where classivied into male and female (male=cannon, female=MGs)

[@mrfigaloopierre9610]

Sentience in robots can often be viewed as a metaphor for the concept of gender. In most media that brings up the possibility of sentient robots, their sentience is difficult to prove, in fact, it is quite literally impossible to distinguish between a robot that mimics sentience and a machine that truly possesses it. Humans doubt that anything other than a human (something they have lived experience as) can possibly be any more than a mess of metal and wires. They are not very different from humans, except in that they exist outside of the reality which humans are willing to accept.

[@orderlysummit]

Signalis mention yes, absolutely peak game (made by a sapphics, one of whom is trans)

[@goIdy]

i actually just picked it up on steam since it's on sale. really hoping i get the time to play through it soon !

[@dinosaysrawr]

You want a deep cut? I really liked Transformers: Beast Wars and Beast Machines, and I think Transmutate was the first character whose death genuinely haunted me, in large part because Transmutate spoke to me at a level I couldn't yet articulate as a little kid.

[@G00dTaste]

I had a dnd character that was this EXACT concept, her name was Smack and she was a barbarian and she got picked apart by eldrich water zombies