I am an angry trans person and I have some WORDS for the fandom.

Now I'm aware that most people nowadays are on the trans fem Grell train, and that most books on wattpad about her are super outdated from when BB was massive in the early 2010s. But this is more of a retrospective and analysis on how horribly Grell has been treated by the fandom in the past and a big fuck you to the few man grellers out there.

So let's start, we all know Grell is a canon trans woman. It's been stated over and over, there's been a million analysis posts on it, the author herself refers to her as a woman. The only reason she's misgendered in the story is because it's set in the 1800s, when being trans was a big no no. I mean she literally is implied to have KILLED HERSELF because of the transphobia and gender dysphoria she was experiencing as a human. And just in case anyone wants proof

Right there, highlighted in yellow. Straight from the manga.

"The thing I want to do the most is have a SEX CHANGE. I'm serious you know?"

Girl wants big tits and a juicy pussy. How much more obvious can you get?

In the past 20 years we've seen a rise in acceptance of LGBT people, but even then the progress has been very slow. The recent past (like 2019-now) we've definitely had a bit of a rapid spike in understanding, but still there's a massive amount of work that still needs to be done. The fact that Black Butler came out in 2009 and had a Trans woman character is already wild enough. 2009 when people thought throwing around the word f*ggot was fun and totally normal, when "that's gay" was still an insult.

And trans women have always had an insane amount of discrimination, as a non binary person I can say that while I've definitely faced some disgusting stuff, the hate toward trans women in particular is especially vile. Mainly by TERFs and radically religious people, who paint all trans woman out to be "sex crazed men trying to g*oom kids" which is total fucking bullshit.

So even though yana wasn't amazing at writing Grell in the early days just the fact she even made an openly queer character in 2009 is pretty cool. Most openly queer characters in anime were from fetishised yaoi back in those days. Black Butler is definitely far from that, despite the rumours. No it wasn't originally meant to be a yaoi, it was always meant to be a psychological horror type show.

But yaoi culture was MASSIVE back in the 2000s anime space, and shipping culture in general. The way Grell was treated by fujoshis was abhorrent. Her identity as a woman was COMPLETELY ignored and cast aside for the sake of having a gay ship. Because god forbid Sebastian/Will kiss a WOMAN am I right? Totally ignoring the fact that since Grell is a trans women would make the ships STILL QUEER. Just because the ship is straight passing doesn't mean it's not queer. She's still trans.

A bi girl and bi boy can be in a straight passing relationship but they're still queer. A trans man and trans woman can be in a straight passing relationship but they're still queer.

But no, back in the 2000s it was only acceptable for two cis male twinks to be in a gay ship within fandom culture. Because they're conveniently attractive and can easily be sexualised and fetishised. Forget girl x girl ships, forget trans people in relationships, it's ONLY two hot boys. So pretty much every fanfic and doujin from 2009-2016ish misgenders Grell, and wildly mischaracterised her as some crazy yandere drag queen type character.

Now I can't exactly blame a bunch of teens growing up in a not so accepting time for not understanding at first. Because for a while Grell wasn't canonically stated to be trans, it was just implied. But by the time it was made canon, there was absolutely no excuse.

By then it was around 2014, we'd had years of this story pointing toward Grell being trans and then the actual confirmation itself. And yet, people still completely ignored it. You can still find fandom content post canon announcement misgendering her and even arguing AGAINST the canon panel. This was when the fandom split into two, the trans fem Grell truthers and the man grellers.

And fuck, it got toxic FAST. I joined the fandom about 2016ish and the discourse was still going on at the time. I remember seeing people go on these long rants in comment sections trying to justify their blatant transphobia TO trans people trying to defend Grell. And one of the arguments I saw all the time was "she's fictional"

SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP.

Fiction affects reality. Point blank, period. It was Grell that helped me realise I WAS TRANS. If you can't even gender a fictional character correctly, then what does that say about your ability to gender a REAL trans person correctly? By showing your support to fictional trans characters you're showing real trans people you're a safe person, that you accept them. I knew that when I saw someone refuse to call Grell she, they'd refuse to call me they. Because if they can't even get a drawings pronouns right they definitely won't be able to get mine right.

And it was always the transphobic people who refused to gender Grell right who shipped sebaciel so hard... transphobic and a nonce? Unsurprising.

Long time followers will know that I actually had another Grell x reader book in 2018, but I took it down because of how many "actually Grell isn't a girl" comments I got. Even after making it clear she was by making a whole chapter dedicated to all the canon evidence.

Although there was one comment I got that I found so funny, some radically religious person telling me I'm going to hell for supporting/ being trans. And like... they were reading a fanfic about a story involving a literal demon?? And grim reapers??? Black butler is literally the occult and black magic shit. If you're so concerned about going to hell you shouldn't be reading fanfic about black butler dude, or watching black butler at all.

I'm definitely glad that in recent years support for trans people has gone up, and we've basically chased the transphobes out of the fandom. Although some stragglers do show up, for time to time.

But fuck, living through those years of constant discourse over a fictional characters gender and identity as a trans woman was tiring. Tiring as a trans person knowing that thousands of people were so against a fictional person being trans, knowing that if they met a real trans person they'd probably try and hate crime them.

The last thing I want to point out is the fact some people to this day stay 'neutral' and use they/them for Grell. No, stop. As a they/them myself, STOP. This is just giving into transphobia, you're still refusing to use the correct pronouns. Maybe I could understand before she was confirmed canon, as it was still unknown at the time. But almost a decade later? You should know better. She is a trans woman, end of story. You will use she/her and nothing else. End of story.

Staying neutral is just silently siding with transphobic beliefs, because even if you're not out here calling people slurs, you're still refusing to support a trans person and their confirmed identity. Which again, reflects on how you'd treat a real trans person.

I wouldn't want someone staying 'neutral' on my gender after I explicitly came out as non binary and told you to use they/them. If I tell you to use they/them, you use it. Not she/her, not he/him. They/them.

Pronouns aren't that fucking hard and the fact that for SO LONG most of the fandom couldn't even use the right ones for a fictional character was just fucking sad.

It's sad it took us this long to get to a point where Grell being a trans woman was common knowledge and mostly accepted, of course I'm glad it is now but I wish it didn't take that damn long. I'm just glad she didn't get called a trap that often, because the trap joke is so fucking gross.

No trans fems aren't 'trapping' you into falling for them only to reveal they have a dick last minute. They're literally just trying to live their life, and if you're falling for them then guess what, you're attracted to someone you perceive as female. That's ok, and the fact they're trans shouldn't matter if you truly love them and aren't just sexualising them.

In conclusion, Grell has received more transphobia than I probably ever will. And it's sad, it's so sad in very recent years she was still facing it. It goes to show how slow progress is, just because we've had several places in the word de-criminalise gender affirming care in the last 20 years, the fact that as recent as 2018 Grells gender was still a big discourse goes to show how slow progress really is.

Grell is a good example of what trans people have to deal with, and why she's such an important character to so many trans people. She was our awakening for a lot of us, she shows us how cruel people can be when they think 'oh it's fictional so it doesn't matter' and reveal their true ideologies.

Basically

My 9 months on T dick my be small but it's capable of choking you if you don't respect trans people.

Grell is a trans woman.
You will use she/her and nothing else.
It is ok to write/draw her pre-transition as long as you are using the right pronouns and acknowledge she's trans.
But it's preferable if you give her the tiddies she dreams of. She deserves them.
End. Of. Story.

Ok rant over, I just wanted to scream into the void about how shit for brains transphobes are.