Lowri's Agender

Tag: LGBTQIA

  • ~☆♥A Trans Icon To Die For!!!♥☆~

    ~☆♥A Trans Icon To Die For!!!♥☆~

    Content Notes: Spoilers For Black Butler and Discussion of Child Death, Mutilation, Sexism and Transphobia

    I am a massive Black Butler fan. It was the first anime I ever watched, it is one of the few mangas I keep on top of and the series has been somewhat of a preoccupation since I was a teenager. The unapologetic zaniness is captivating to me, whilst still being stylistically gorgeous and allowing for profound moments. But one character, more than any, has had a immense influence on me. So, let’s discuss Grelle Sutcliff and her many shades of red.

    A Brief History of Black Butler

    Black Butler is an ongoing manga that began in 2006, created by Yana Toboso.[1] The story is set in Victorian London, following the escapades of Ciel Phantomhive, a 12 year old Earl, tasked with solving the supernatural crimes that no one else can. Alongside him is his butler, Sebastian Michealas, a demon he has secured a contract with to seek revenge on those who murdered his parents.

    As much as I would like recapping the entirety of Black Butler in excruciating detail, I will gather us to the focus of this essay. First introduced in Chapter 6 Page 7, Grelle is the seemingly male butler of Ciel’s aunt, Madame Red.[1] They are both introduced to us when Ciel visits London, on the orders of the Queen herself to investigate the serial killer de jour himself, Jack The Ripper.

    Madame Red is shown to be a somewhat of a vapid socialite, despite being a medical doctor. Although she exhibits a ferocious protectiveness for her nephew. In contrast, Grelle is a bumbling foil of a butler to Sebastian’s hyper competence.

    Chapter 6 Page 7 of Black Butler by Yana Toboso
    Note: For those unfamilar with manga, you should read from right to left and top to bottom

    Their investigations, including a madman Undertaker with a love of jokes, lead to Ciel and Sebastian setting up a sting for The Ripper. And they are revealed to be none other than…Grelle Sutcliff![1] And also Madame Red. It is at this point Grelle’s design changes from hapless butler boy to fabulous scarlet women.

    She is also revealed to be a Shinigami, a Japanese folkloric figure meant to carry the dead into the afterlife. In Black Butler, the duty of Shinigami is to look at a person’s Cinematic Record that showcases their entire life. And to intervene should they have died too early or in an otherwise unacceptable fashion.

    The sanguine duo had been killing sex workers for marginally different although similar reasons.[1] Madame Red was driven mad by the death of her sister. As well as suffering in all senses from an accident that killed her own husband and child, on top of rendering her sterile. In her capacity a doctor, she consulted for sex workers seeking hysterectomies, which infused her with jealous spite that boiled over into murderous rage.

    Initially, she was alone in slaying these women and taking their wombs as a form of prize. However, this rampage captured the attention of Grelle, who had been assigned to these murders and became sympathetic to Madame Red. For she too could not bear children due to the inconvenience of her natal male biology.

    Madame Red eventually backs out when confronted by Ciel, unable to execute her own nephew, resulting in Grelle executing her former assistant. Sebastian then promptly defeats her and the crimson delight is taken away by another Shinigami.[1] That is the only arc so far to truly focus on Grelle to some degree, but she does appear in other sections.

    Chapter 55 Page 30 and 31 of Black Butler by Yana Toboso
    Note: Red line added to mark the page break

    In Chapter 54 she makes a return on the luxury ship Campania, which is being overrun by zombies. Ostensibly created by Rian Stoker (yes it’s not even subtle), Ciel and Sebastian are pursuing the company behind Rian that sponsored the technology, whereas Grelle is trying to discover how the dead are still walking.

    It is revealed that our comical Undertaker is the puppetmaster behind the living dead.[1] Sebastian and Grelle try apprehending the Undertaker but both fail. They then escape the sinking Campania separately.

    The final section of note that Grelle appears in is Chapter 124. Sebastian and Ciel are investigating people stealing blood through the Victorian version of k-pop idols; I swear I cannot explain it more succinctly than that.[1] They run into Grelle once more who is researching people who were predestined to die of renal failure but manage to delay their deaths. Grelle mysteriously intimates to Sebastian that they will see each other soon. And then in Chapter 128 she does.

    To explain the scene a little before I reveal the panels, since Chapter 14, there has been recurring pair of characters.[1] The naïve but cheerfully effervescent Prince Soma of Bengal and his sober but ever loyal butler Agni. The pair are foils to Ciel and Sebastian respectively, showcasing more innocent but also kinder personalities. They remain beloved staples in the fandom. Yet in Chapter 128, Agni dies protecting Prince Soma from attackers. And above it all, Grelle appears recording his death.

    Chapter 128 Page 4 and 5 of Black Butler by Yana Toboso
    Note: Red Line added to mark the page break

    Remember these panels they’ll become significant later.

    Grelle does briefly appear later in Chapter 141 and 142 to try an apprehend the Undertaker but there is little of note for my purposes.[1] And I don’t feel like dissecting the Ciel twin reveal here. But what is important to further analyse is a curious question of Grelle’s gender identity. More specifically, if she is designed as a transgender woman?

    Meta-Textually Transitioning

    There has been a long debated topic in the anglophone fanbase as to whether or not Grelle Sutcliff is really transgender. No academic articles on this topic exist and through my own research it seems Toboso herself has never explicitly used queer terms for Grelle post 2014.

    So a little interpretation is required and I am relying on amateur sources. Though I do trust their translations as I have separate corroboration that they are not veering wildly from the text.

    The earliest examples of meta-textual gender references is a 2010 blog post by Toboso. In it she states, as translated by user akumadeshitsumon:

    “ Yes, Grell is a man, but has the heart of a maiden. […]Women understand that sort of thing, right~ Grell is a boy, but has the heart of a maiden (laughs)”[2]

    This alone suggests Grelle is trans in Yana Toboso’s eyes. As she is employing extremely similar terminology to the common cisgender narrative surrounding Japanese discouse. There was a very strong emphasis on the “sex of the heart” akin to the idea of a woman trapped inside a man’s body.

    Therefore any reference to Grelle being a boy could be more to do with her assigned gender at birth than her authentic identity. However, this does get more complex with the following quote from Toboso’s blog in 2014, again translated by akumadeshitsumon:

    “I think this time (actually not only this time but on other occasions, too), this okama[referring to Grelle] has benefitted most, don’t you think so as well!!?? (lol)”[4]

    In addition there is the following 2010 image drawn by Yana Toboso.

    Unnamed Sketch By Yana Toboso
    Note: User Akumadeenglish translated the following section in the top left “それにねえ オカマにだって人” to “Even Okama have human rights”

    So there are direct referrals to okama, which many believe to indicate that Grelle is meant to be seen as a homosexual man. I did try to obtain a focused history of the word okama. But the only paper available to me was written by someone who’s bigotry kept leaking out of the essay.[5] Consequently, I believe the best way to precede is to present you a slightly more piecemeal but less biased account.

    Okama as a phrase has its origins in the late Edo Period (1600-1868), being used as a catch all term for any effeminate sexual deviants.[6] It is slang for buttocks, deliberately alluding to anal sex and meant to also evoke a passive femininity to the bearer of the word.

    It continued to be routinely used in the 1960s and 70s as a title for effeminate kinksters and sex workers.[6] As well as being used by transgender women and gender non-conforming men as a self-identifier. It is a very messy word.

    Although in 2010 the label used by Japanese mass media was Eidōitsuseishōgai (Gender Identity Disorder) common self-descriptors for transgender women remained nyū-hāfu (New Half) and okama, amongst others.[7] Moreover, there had been relatively recent move by sexual minority activism groups like OCCUR, to distance gay people from the label okama. In 1993, OCCUR won a harassment case against a governmental hostel where they cited receiving homophobic slurs including okama.[3]

    OCCUR Logo
    Retrieved From: OCCUR.jp

    More broadly, homosexual male activists had tried to move past terms like okama because they were infused with ideas of effeminacy, deviancy and sex work.[3] I’m not saying this is a prudent move. But rather that, by 2010, gay people weren’t really using okama as a phrase to describe themselves in an effort to be seen as more socially acceptable.

    It was a title reserved for the effeminate and especially those who were transgender or otherwise gender nonconforming. As a result, it’s feasible to say that Toboso was using this term to refer to a transgender woman rather than a homosexual male. But it is hard to tell her specific intentions and how up to date she really was.

    However, there is some more recent evidence to back up a trans reading of Grelle, such as a 2018 Twitter post by Toboso, translated by akumadeshitsumon:

    “[…] I had a request to Grell’s actor Mr. Uehara. “Could you please [play her] as a strong woman”, […] So I asked  [Mr. Uehara] to please portray her as a career woman in front of her kouhai (younger colleague)”[2][8]

    The terms applied here are specifically gendered, and Toboso even states Grelle and Madame Red are like sisters in another twitter post.[2] All things considered, the most reasonable interpretation is that she views Grelle as a woman and at worst, utilised outdated terminology to speak about her.

    It seems unlikely for a writer to meta-textually reference a sex of the heart and to call someone a woman, in order to get across that a character is an effiminate gay man. However, it is likely for a cisgender person to call transgender people more ambigious terminology, which is why I was often called a cigarette/delicious British dish for wearing feminine clothes. That and the fact I—

    Transitioning In Glasses

    If you have engaged with the English translations of the series, you have likely gained the impression that Grelle is gendered as male. This is not to start a protracted debate about the validity of translations on canon. But I think its fair to say that we should at least examine how she is gendered in the original version. And that is, barely at all.

    Japanese is a subject null language, that means it can work deftly without the necessity for direct referrals to individuals, unlike English.[9][10] We have to use subjects, that is to say, we require explicit reference to the thing that a sentence is about. This is ordinarily achieved through nouns or pronouns. However, Japanese doesn’t need to. As far as I can tell, in the native version, no one genders Grelle as male. In fact, she explicit refers to herself as female.

    Panels From Chapter 9 Page 15, Chapter 11 Page 22, Chapter 60 Page 21 and Chapter 56 Page 10 of Black Butler by Yana Toboso
    Retrieved From and Edited Together By: chibimyumi

    Chibimyumi argues these four panels show how Grelle genders herself.[9] The first uses Atashi, a feminine first-person pronoun usually employed to explicitly call attention to the speaker’s femininity. Additionally, she calls herself a joyuu (女優), a literal actress and not the more gender neutral yakusha (役者) . The second literally is just her calling herself a lady ( レディ), plain and simple.

    The third is her describing herself as an otome (乙女) meaning maiden.[9] Huh. So that’s why they’re called otome games? They’re for virgins! Finally, bringing on the camp as all transgender people should, she refers to herself as a daijoyuu (大女優) or a great actress. Grelle constantly, explicitly, self identifies as a woman.

    And those around Grelle never explicitly challenge this or misgender her. The sole example that would come close is the Undertaker referring to her with the honorific prefix -kun.[11] Although this is often used as a male honorific, it is equally implemented to women in the workplace. And the Shinigami are clearly business orientated in aesthetics and manner, hence the idea of Grelle as a business woman.

    So, it could be seen as a modernised gender neutral term, meant to reflect the aesthetics of the Shinigami as a whole rather than a deliberate misgendering. There is still some misogyny because -kun is used for all women in industry regardless of position.[11] As a result, this is essentially sexist trans affirmation.

    If you want to explore this further, I recommend the deep dive linked here by akumadeshitsumon, but overall, no-one textually misgenders or questions Grelle’s femininity. She is explicitly positioned as hyper-feminine, on par with Madame Red, a cis woman.

    So despite what I would deem transphobic renditions by Yen Press and Funimation, rightly known for totally 100% accurate translations, Grelle is meant to be a trans woman. But even if she is trans. Is she good transgender representation?

    Murder Most Camp

    To ask what makes good transgender representation or indeed what is good representation of anything is to invariably reveal your own taste. It is effortless to point to things which are bad portrayals. Such as Silence of The Lamb’s Buffalo Bill, a psuedo transgender woman who skins women to enact transforming their gender.

    But, if you ask the type of character someone enjoys, that causes them feel seen, it is personal to their own journey and identity. So keep in mind this analysis is somewhat contingent on my own tastes.I want to start with the negatives because it is critical to highlight the failures of Grelle as representation before mentioning the parts which appeal to me.

    Firstly is the…well murderous lunatic of it all. Grelle does conform to a Buffalo Bill stereotype, murdering cis women for the crime of having wombs. An act of lunatic barbarity that, at least to Western audiences, fits a trope meant to insinuate that to be transgender is to have a detachment from reality. To be an outcast and dangerous to the innocent frail cisgender heterosexual women.

    Chapter 9 Page 28 of Black Butler by Yana Toboso

    Now, I am not outright defending this. But this genre cliche is less relevant to Japanese audiences than it is to UK and US audiences. Stereotyping for Japanese transgender women leans less onto them as psychotic and more as forms of comedy.[7]

    Nyū-hāfu and Blue Boy as terms for trans women (amongst other gender identities) that were literally founded by entertainers.[3][7] There is a long, long history of Japanese effeminate gay bars being used by heterosexual audiences as forms of amusement, as a lesser that soley exists for cis people to laugh at.

    Additionally, the deliberate paralleling of Madame Red and Grelle, makes me feel like this is less a lazy stereotype and more of an interesting dichotomy.The two are not treated equally in their traumatic reaction, Madame Red is portrayed as more sympathetic. But she is the beginning of the murder spree, she is the instigator, and that means you can’t really view Grelle as uniquely a transphobic caricature. Because she is dyadically paired in goals and action to a cis woman.

    Futhermore, there is something hauntingly powerful to me about the representation of transgender pain that frequently isn’t seen. I don’t witness many transgender women characters or even media figures discussing the sorrow you feel at always being incomplete.

    It is not something that preoccupies my mind too much in this specific regard, I’ve never wanted kids nor to be pregnant. But having known transgender women for who that reality is agony. The portrayal of this as equal to that of a cis woman is undeniably beautiful in a torturous manner.

    To have accidental sterilisation and sterilisation by genetic whim as equals in motive is a daring comparison. To highlight the shared experience of helplessly watching your body continue to betray you each day. It really could have been something uniquely poignant.

    But the beauty of this horror is rather undercut by the stereotypical portrayal of Grelle. She is often relegated to a comedic side character, who although powerful and malevolent, is lacking in substance. I adore her campiness, but it feels like she is never allowed to be serious for longer than a fleeting moment. Leading to her initial impression being both a comedic transgender failure and a murderous psychopath.

    Chapter 12 Page 20 of Black Butler by Yana Toboso
    Note: This is immediately after the climactic fight between Grelle and Sebastian.

    This is exacerbated by her being the only openly transgender character in Black Butler. There are moments of gender deviancy, like Ciel dressing as a girl, as well as general effeminacy from the male characters. But Grelle is the only one who could be argued to actually identify outside of cishet ideals.

    Although she identifies as a woman Grelle is, nevertheless, gender deviant in how she acts. The shinigami is loud, uncouth, wildly sexual and very unlike other female characters such as the tragic socialite, Madame Red.

    I cherish this about her. But because she is the sole transgender character, all of the good and bad of her ends up feeling extrapolated as part of her gender identity. We don’t get to see variance in the portrayal of transgender experiences. Though it would be deceitful of me to pretend I only see the bad.

    Here, Queer and In The Clear

    You know that scene I asked you to remember. The two page spread. That is why I ended up loving Grelle. Because in this scene, she showcases depth and seriousness. There had been glimpses previously in the Campania arc, but here it is in full view.

    She’s smiling, but with bitterness. Her eyes are down and slightly squinted as she leans against her chainsaw scythe. The rain drips down as even the Heaven’s themselves weep. And there is no joke. There is no comedy. Just the haunting acknowledgement that she knew this was coming and that nothing could have prevented it.

    The scene genuinely tears me up even now. My eyes started misting up re-reading the chapter. And the first time I read it, the twist devastated me like a freight train. It’s still one of the most impactful moments of Black Butler in my eyes.

    And yes, whilst the focus is on the death of Agni, the allowance for Grelle, a literal drama queen to be this serious is genuinely touching. It shows that Toboso did genuinely enjoy her as a character, a narrative person, and not just a stereotyped cluster of transphobic cliches.

    Grell’s Character Sheet From The 2nd Kuroshitsuji Musical: The Most Beautiful Death in the World by Yana Toboso
    Retrieved From:Tumblr

    But adding to this, more than anything, I like Grelle as she’s pretty unique character. Not merely due to her ties to Japanese queerness and gender deviance. Not only because she is one of a select few of fantasy shonen trans women. But because, at least in my experience of media, she is one of the only transgender women who gets to be continuously happy.

    In his excellent academic review of Wandering Son, Kieren Wiley argues that one of the most pivotal parts of transgender representation is trans joy.[12] So many stories portray the horrors of being trans, our pain at our bodies, families, society, and more. But so very few allow for the glee of new clothes, of medical care, of love and community. And even less demonstrate the joy that Grelle showcases.

    The joy of extravagant queerness.

    If we see transgender joy it is ordinarily through the assimilation to the cisgender framework. The idea that trans women are happy when wearing a dress or applying makeup. When they are akin to a stereotype of cis women. But Grelle constantly showcases a level of overwhelming personality that is not afforded to the other females in Black Butler. She’s not just a woman; she’s The Woman. The most feminine, flirtatious, effervescent personality to ever exist. She quite literally outdoes everyone on femininity with effortless ease.

    Pivot (2018) by Yana Toboso
    Retrieved From: Twitter
    Note: According to Akumadeenglish, Grelle is saying “(You are a) pathetic woman” in reference to comedienne Blouson Chiemi

    To me, that is a valuable form of transgender representation and joy. That even if Grelle endures the pain of her biology, she is still self-confident, dazzling and artistic to a fault. She loves herself so completely and adores who she is even without medical care.

    And Grelle isn’t afraid of her masculine past, relishing in a level of gay queerness reserved only for the campiest of men. She remains an iconoclast of femininity and manifests a degree of self-love, confidence and happiness that I enviously aspire to. It’s difficult to overstate how much this height of radical acceptance touches my heart.

    And how time and again I have found it comforting to embody such characteristics.

    Becoming Ourselves

    In the reading for this essay, the conclusion of Kieren Wiley’s dissertation struck me:

    “I remember crying underneath my blankets as I watched the first episodes of the Wandering Son anime as a closeted transgender junior high student…It spoke to me like nothing had. I also cannot forget the betrayal I felt with Yoshino – the disappointment that he decided never to go to school in a men’s uniform again.”[12]

    This is a pain I remember all too well when watching Fruits Basket, seeing Momiji and Ritsu both return to their natal gender expression. The triumphant self-congratulatory reversal stating that to be truly whole is to deny any form of deviant gender manifestation.

    It was a crushing blow for me as a transgender teenager, to see how other people viewed my own actualisation. But with characters like Grelle, all I feel is spoken to.

    It has been onerous to be someone like Grelle in the UK. To be campy, queer, and incredibly gay. Even more so when seeking to medically transition, which requires you to hide away any part of yourself that doesn’t conform to an idealised form of a cisgender heterosexual. But I don’t have to suppress that now. And quite frankly I can’t be bothered anymore.

    As a dear friend once informed me, the more I transitioned the more androgynous I became. This wasn’t deliberate to be honest with you. I just became free; able to live outside of binaries. To transcend conformist notions of what it is to be an achillean man or a sapphic woman. Because I’ve been both. I’ve loved as both. And I don’t want to get rid of either part, even now when I identify as non-binary and asexual. Transitioning isn’t solely for transgender people in my experience.

    As people explore shifts in their identity, it feels like there is internal communal pressure as well as external societal compression, to relocate from your old sexuality to your new one. A gay man realising they also like women must cast aside their old community and transform into The Bisexual.

    But with characters like Grelle, you get to see continuity. Although undeniably a woman (as I am undeniably agender), there is a continuation of the femininity only seen in gay men. A sense of brash queerness that cis women often avoid, but that I relish in.

    Even if it wasn’t deliberate, I want more characters like her. Trans and gender non-conforming people in media who aren’t afraid of their past. Those who love their past and themselves in every form. There is nothing more queer, more transgender, more transgressive, than a joy born from a love of your entirety and whole.

    Although I have witnessed this in real life and in research, it is desperately difficult to find in media. Sometimes because cisgender writers fear getting it wrong. But I think the primary reason is because if we embrace parts of us that were male or female, or anything else, then transgender people can’t assimilate into cisgender identities.

    We become something more than that simplistic conceptualisation of humanity. A beautiful complexity unable to be captured by any binary or form of language. Something unique to ourselves, born of us and changing as we do.

    We become ourself. And nothing less.

    Thank you all so much for reading. I will be back to discuss video game addiction and online gambling. Until then, I wish you all the happiness in the world. And stay queer.

    References

    1. Toboso, Y.(2007-2025) Black Butler (Vols.2,3,12-14, 22-28) Square Enix Translation by Yen Press.
    2. :akumadeshitsumon. (2019). Hey everyone, I’d like to drop a quick side note about Grell Sutcliffe, as I’ve had a couple of questions about her by now. Retrieved From: Tumblr
    3. Hitoshi, I., & Takanori, M. (2006). The process of divergence between ‘men who love men’ and ‘feminised men’ in postwar Japanese media. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, 12.
    4. Toboso, Y,. (2014) Archived Blog. Retrieved From:Web Archive
    5. Lunsing, W. (2005). The politics of okama and onabe: Uses and abuses of terminology regarding homosexuality and transgender. In Genders, transgenders and sexualities in Japan (pp. 97-111). Routledge.
    6. McLelland, M. (2004). From the stage to the clinic: changing transgender identities in post-war Japan. In Japan Forum (Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 1-20). Taylor & Francis Ltd.
    7. Dale, S. P. (2012). An introduction to X-Jendā: Examining a new gender identity in Japan. Intersections: Gender and sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, 31.
    8. Toboso, Y,. (2018). あ、でも今回は脚本完成時、グレル役植原[…]. Retrieved From: Twitter
    9. Chibimyumi (2021). Man!Greller Debunking Series Retrieved From: Tumblr
    10. Tsubomoto, A. (1989). Null subject phenomena in Japanese: Incorporation, null expletives, and topic-agreement. English Linguistics, 6, 130-149.
    11. Chibuyumi. (2019) I have a question about THE TOPIC. How is Grell being referred to by other shinigami in the original manga? Retrieved From:Tumblr
    12. Wiley, K. (2024). Wandering Son’s Negative View of the Transgender Experience: An Emphasis on Pain and the Marked Absence of the Transition. Minnesota Undergraduate Research & Academic Journal, 6(1).
  • The Land Of Rising Gender Diversity

    The Land Of Rising Gender Diversity

    Content Notes: Artistic Rendition of Topless Nudity and Discussions of Acephobia, Homophobia, Pathologisation, Sexism, Transphobia, TERFs and Xenophobia

    I know I promised last time to discuss trans representation in a manga. And we will get there. But before that, I think it’s only fair to dedicate an essay to attempting a brief 4,500+ word explanation about the intricate history of transgender people in Japan. Because without it we will be helpless to understand the context a character grows from. And because this pride, I can’t help but be thinking of my trans community at home and abroad. So together, lets see how gender diversity developed in Japan.

    The Beginnings Of Having Fun

    From the early Meiji period (1868-1912) there was already a seedling of transgender adjacent history. Men and women were understood to exhibit a variety of sexual behaviours including dressing and living as the opposite gender.[1][2] However, there is no evidence of a strong internal identification.

    The modern use of the term transgender often relies on personal knowledge. Someone is transgender because they identify with a gender that is different to the one they were assigned at birth. Those who are cisgender identify with their birth gender. But there is often alot of grey area between transgender and cisgender, especially when looking to the past.

    Therefore when we look at historical cases, even if they appeared as another gender, there is usually little record of an internal identification. This is not to definitively say they were or weren’t transgender, but rather that any such attribution cannot be solidly stated. And that such complexity of gender identity and deviancy should not be compressed to conventional modern understanding.

    From the 1920s onwards sexology began to sprout in Japan. This resulted in a quick boom of research around perverse desire, including transvestism (crossdressing), sadomasochism (pleasure from pain), fetishism (unusual sexual interests) and homosexuality.[1]

    But in the lead up to WW2, such studies were banned and it wasn’t until the 1950s that there was a new wave of sexological research. This was due to US occupation ending, which resulted in many of the restrictions on the purveying of pornographic material being lifted. [3]

    Collection of Kasutori Zashi Magazines photographed by darkamyy
    Retrieved From: Reddit

    Of note are two similar genres of pornographic material. Hentai magazines (not the kind you are expecting) and kasutori zasshi or pulp magazines.[1][3] The latter is essentially just your run of the mill romance and kinkster periodicals, though these often included transvestite, transgender and homosexual content, alongside more familiar kinky spreads.[3]

    The former are pervert publications, which utilized a unique process of creation. These magazines were produced, ran by and read by both sexologist academics and queer people alongside kinksters.[1] Essentially both those deemed perverse and those who study the perverse interacted, theorised and researched together within columns.

    And these magazines were very progressive even by modern day standards. Some rejected the view of perversion as a medical disorder stating:

    ‘Sodomites, you must have pride! You are definitely not abnormal!’ [1]

    And as stated by Mark J. McLelland:

    “These publications were considerably more supportive of sexual and gender variety than any publications existing in English at this time…the paranoia about ‘the homosexual menace’ in 1950s America being absent in Japan.”[3]

    However, some parts do not align cleanly with modern sensibilities.[1] There was a common understanding of perversion as taking traditionally male or female attributes and slightly subverting them. The paradigm was good for the time, but still relied on notions of masculinity as inherently sadistic and femininity as inherently masochistic. It’s just feminine bodies sometimes behaved masculine and vice versa.

    The simple binary of attributes began to break down in the 1960s. This was due to an increased national attention on “feminised men”, who comprised a mix of camp gay men, crossdressers and transgender women.[1] First through the propagation of gei bās (a transliteration of gay bars) where effeminate gei bōi servers, who wore Western women’s clothing and makeup, captured heterosexual imagination. [3] This was to the point that so called tourist gei bās popped up exclusively to cater to a heterosexual clientèle.

    Photo of Le Carousel’s Blue Boys (e. 1960-1964) by an Unknown Photographer
    Retrieved From: Digital Transgender Archive

    And second through the Blue Boy Boom. The term Blue Boy was implemented by a variety of gender diverse people who were Assigned Male At Birth (AMAB).[1] Originating from a group of transgender and transvestite Parisian performers called The Blue Boys featured in Europa Di Notte by Alessandro Blasetti in 1959.[3]

    The interest for Japanese audiences started in 1961 when Europa Di Notte was released in Japan, followed by Blue Boy performances in Tokyo in 1963.[3] This led to an unique blend of AMAB people who usually desired surgical enhancement to their femininity but identified as anything from homosexual man to heterosexual woman.

    But the most influential part of the Blue Boy Boom was The Blue Boy Trial.[1][3] A doctor was arrested in 1965 for performing Genital Reassignment Surgery (GRS) on three people, who were later charged with prostitution. In 1969, the doctor was tried under the Eugenic Protection Law for sterilisation.

    GRS is the surgical procedure to turn penises and testicles into vaginas (vaginoplasty) and vaginas into penises (phalloplasty). These are complicated procedures and have undergone major revisions since they were first recorded in 1930 and in 1946 respectively.[4] Neither procedure makes anatomy that functions similar to cisgender genitalia, but it does make anatomy that functions for urological and sexual activity.

    The Blue Boy Trial led to SRS being banned in Japan until 1998 and so anyone desiring transgender care had to go abroad. But, it’s not like laws ever stopped the trans community from flourishing on home-soil either.

    Separation Between Gay and Trans

    The 1970s saw transgender people and transvestites discussing their own relationship with gender. Carrousel Maki commented on openly experiencing a masculine nature even after having GRS.[1] Others viewed themselves as both homosexual male and transgender woman with some even conceptualising themselves outside the gender binary. However, cisgender consensus was shifting towards understanding of transgender people as possessing “a sex of the heart” that was different from their bodily anatomy.

    The 80s saw even further gender complication with the introduction of the term Nyūhāfu or Newhalf.[1][3] Initially created by Betty of the Osaka show bar Betty’s Mayonnaise, the label gained popularity after Keisuke Kuwata produced a hit single employing the phrase. It became more recognized by cisgender heterosexual audiences after model Rumiko Matsubara released an album called Nyūhāfu and openly identified as such.

    Cover for Rumiko Matsubara’s Nyūhāfu Album (1981)
    Retrieved From: Tumblr

    This cemented within the broader public a distinction between gay men and transgender people.[1] Although it should be noted, such a distinction was not necessarily retained within the community. Many individuals still view their gender identity as tied to their homosexuality. As well, others who crossdressed or otherwise appear as another gender, identify solely with their natal gender.

    Through the mid 80s and into the 90s, there was a boom in transgender and more broadly queer activism. Transgender activists specifically began to lean into pathological labels.[3] In 1995 when four doctors at Saitama Medical College submitted an application to their ethics committee to prescribe GRS to trans patients. This was approved in 1998, with the provision of stringent guidelines to get around the Eugenics Protection Act.

    Photograph of Saitama Medical School (2019) by an Unknown Photographer
    Retrieved by: Ondotorism
    Note: Please appreciate my upmost maturity in having resisted the temptation to put a One Punch Man panel here

    Torai Masae, a trans man and founder of FtM Nippon was active in redefining transgender identity as a disability.[3] The tactic was successful in no small part due to a fortuitous coincidence between the Japanese term for Gender Identity Disorder (seidōitsuseishōgai) and disability (shōgai).[5] This inspired a sympathetic public that, amongst other gains, supported transgender people’s right to change their legal sex. And in 2004, spearheaded by Masae and other transgender activists, such recognition was passed into law providing the person was:[6]

    • Over 19 years old.
    • Unmarried.
    • Had no children.
    • Had no reproductive glands or had reproductive glands with a permanent lost of function.
    • Had a body which appears to comprise of parts that resemble the genital organs of those of the opposite gender.

    The no children rule was amended to only count progeny who were minors in 2008[5] and the requirement for sterilisation was deemed unconstitutional in 2023.[7][8] There is still ongoing judicial action regarding the requirement to possess genital organs aesthetically resembling the opposite sex.[7] But although the public at large and governmental institutions only recognise trans women and men, it does not mean genders outside the binary stopped existing. In fact, they were becoming more popular than ever.

    X-Jendā? I Hardly Know Them!

    X-Jendā is a Japanese umbrella term for genders outside of the binary whilst additionally representing an identity itself.[9] Although akin to the English word non-binary, it is significant to state x-jendā is a unique category with its own complexity.

    Part of this is due to the Japanese language blurring the distinctions between gender and sex that exist in English. Seibetsu means both biological sex and gender in Japanese and the suffix -sei is applied to gender and sexual identifiers.[9] This can be seen in ryōsei which describes intersex people and those who’s gender is fluid. Therefore in utilizing an English loan word, x-jendā explicitly decouples sex and gender whilst showcasing not just gender identity but ones perspective on gender itself.

    Cover of X-Gender Vol 1. (2022) by Asuka Miyazaki
    Retrieved From:Bleeding Cool

    The word x-jendā originated in the Kansai queer communities of the 1990s, with Sonja Dale specifying Osaka and Kyoto being the most probable areas to have spread the term.[9] The first textual reference to x-jendā appeared in a 2000 gay rights magazine Poco a Poco, ran by G-Front Kansai. They included it in a glossary of useful terms with the following definition x-jendā :

    “As the narrow definition of MtF[Male to Female]/FtM[Female to Male] strongly indicates a desire to move towards the opposite sex, [x-jendā] is used by individuals who do not fit under the existing categories of male (dansei)/female (josei), or who are unsure of their sex/gender.”[9]

    Shinichi Morita, a founding member of G-Front Kansai, would be instrumental in the spread of x-jendā as a term.[9] On top of that, they would later identify as MtFtX in the G-Front and PESFIS documentary ♀？♂？※？. Put differently, they transitioned from male to female to x-jendā.

    More specifically, Morita states that their gender is close to female internally but they are attracted to gay men. [9] This leads to them enjoying an internal feminine experience but an external presentation that allures homosexual men. Morita even advocated for the removal of gender roles in the workplace and an end to gendered discrimination, siding with the now contentious jendā-furī (gender-free) movement.

    X-Jendā would subsequently appear in a variety of texts within the early 2000s, both by academic and by queer people themselves. The 2007 Rockdom of Sexuality text Toransu ga wakarimasen!! (I don’t understand trans!!), included essays by FtX individuals.[9] There were even televisual appearances by FtX people to discuss their gender on talk shows although outside of such programs there was little representation. However, it is with the advent of the internet that x-jendā skyrocketed into popular use.

    Blog spaces long housed personal stories and tales for x-jendā individuals to converse about their identities and their own issues.[9] Mixi, an anonymous social media somewhat akin to Facebook has x-jendā specific groups like Otoko Demo Onna Demo Nai Sei (The Sex That is Neither Male Nor Female) and Seibetsu no Nai Seka (A World Without Sex/Gender). Both of these have over 4500 members.

    Furthermore, gender diverse groups allow folks to discover their x-jendā identity,[9] similar to how some Western transgender and non-binary people start in Butch sapphic circles or femboy Twitter. Speaking of, even Twitter has allowed for x-jendā individuals to connect and follow specific friends or creators. Though I’m not sure how truthful that is presently in the year of our Devil 2025.

    Image of Nuriko from Fushigi Yûgi by Yuu Watase
    Retrieved From: Mini Tokyo
    Note: Although Fushigi Yûgi is not my favourite anime, it occupies my mind so much because of the really good music and NURIKO MY BELOVED!

    And there have been examples of celebrities in Japan coming out as x-jendā. Mangaka for Fushigi Yûgi, Yuu Watase, disclosed she is x-jendā in 2019.[10] And based on the specific tweet she opened up in, there is evidence of at least some doctors becoming more receptive to gender diverse identities outside of the binary. But sadly, there is a more broad move to preserving the history of pathological control in Japanese medical establishments.

    Sterilising Fun

    Pathologisation has long remained an issue with the treatment of transgender individuals. Since the rise of sexology in 19th century Western Europe, medical practitioners with little actual knowledge of the community have tried to be the gatekeepers of our bodies.[11]

    In the 1960s, psychiatrists tried to develop transexual models of disease to decide who was worthy of hormone treatment and surgical intervention.[11] They prioritised a stable binary identity, aversion to our own bodies, adherence to gender roles and heterosexuality as the defining traits of “genuine” transgender people.

    As we know seidōitsuseishōgai or Gender Identity Disorder became the key diagnosis for trans individuals in Japan, to the point it developed into a term of self-identification for some.[3][6][11] It is moreover the phrase most prominently used to describe transgender people in Japanese media. Whilst this leaning into pathologisation did allow for some to gain new rights and recognition, there was criticism early on.

    In 2002, academic discourse argued that such a move meant transgender people would be viewed as inherently needing treatment. As a result they would have to portray themselves as traumatised or distressed to gain access to healthcare.[3][9] This leaves those who live outside the binary like Nyūhāfu and X-Jendā to be legally, socially and medically ignored. Anyone who does not conform to cisgendered views of gender identity is ignored as assimilation is prioritised over care.[3]

    My favourite example of assimilationist tactics is in a study by Elroi Waszkiewicz, a paper I will never stop recommending to friends.[12] In it, he documents transgender men’s experiences in US institutions designed to help people transition. He notes a phenomenon called Gender Profiling, whereby gender stereotypes are used to decide if someone is truly trans. Specifically, the gendered biases of an individual medical professional become hoops for a trans patient to jump through in order to access medical care.

    Image of James Dean Smoking (1955) by an Unknown Photographer
    Retrieved From: Wikipedia

    This exists because of the vague rules of the DSM-5 and ICD-11 diagnosis. Since it is impossible to definitively define what makes someone any gender, the clinician is left to their own devices to assess if a patient is undoubtedly suffering from The TransTM. And cisgender clinicians suck at understanding gender.

    Some of my favourite examples relayed by Waszkiewicz include clinical judgement of: the right way to hold a cigarette, the correct underwear to use and the appropriate type of people to be attracted to (cisgender heterosexual women). [11]

    Adding to this, in the Japanese context, there is an awful twist. As transgender people are only allowed to legally change gender if they first fail to reach the standards of their natal sex.[9] In other words, there is active emphasis on the assimilation and inferiority of transgender people, as pitiable failures of traditional gender, whose disabled heart must be accommodated.

    To delve a little into my own personal experience, since this post comes out on the second anniversary of my GRS. When I was seeing psychiatrists in 2020-2022 to get surgery, the fact I wore makeup and dresses was noted down multiple times as valid reasons for surgical intervention.

    One psychiatrist rebuked me for saying I didn’t mind appearing masculine some days. A thing that was a relatively ordinary occurrence in my humble village in the North East, never mind a common experience for queer people. But because I am transgender, any enjoyment or acceptance of my natal masculine characteristics is seen as proof of deception.

    Additionally, after I went through with the GRS, there was a strange frequency to which specialist nurses and even the surgeon assumed my goal was to provide pleasure for a partner. More specifically, that I underwent treatment, aftercare and now constant dilations to make sure a hypothetical future cisgender heterosexual man received pleasure.

    Generic Man from The Heckler (1992) by Keith Giffen
    Retrieved From: Write Ups

    I even know of trans women being denied GRS on the grounds that they were asexual, leading to me hiding my asexuality. Not once did the idea I might enjoy being with someone without a penis, or the concept of my own personal satisfaction, seem to enter their minds. It shows how dehumanising clinical staff can be. Our needs are second to that of the presumed future partners.

    Even if a trans person is seeking medical care, the power being in the hands of ignorant clinicians leads to us having to contort to cisgender expectations. Further worsening this though, if people desire only certain parts of medical care, if they have an atypical gender identity or merely want to be their own brand of person, there are systematic barriers and legal vulnerabilities for such deviation.

    The system in Japan, as well as in other countries like the UK and US, hamper and strangle the trans community. It impairs our ability to be our authentic selves freely and to gain equal status with our cisgender counterparts. And this gets even worse with the rise of ultraconservatism and transphobia within Japan.

    TERFs Are A Mould That Infests Everywhere

    Since the early 2000s in Japan, there has been what Kazuyoshi Kawasaka calls a growing Anti-Gender movement.[13] This crusade is pioneered by ultraconservatives, emboldened by the popularity of Shinzo Abe during his two runs as Prime Minister of Japan. It has attacked both feminist scholarship and LGBTQIA activism within the 21st century, focusing on the subversion and supposed removal traditional gender roles.

    Official Portrait of Shinzo Abe (2012)
    Retrieved From: Wikipedia

    The feminists of the 90s and 00s promoted the concept of jendā-furī, the idea of a gender free society, where cis Japanese women would be liberated.[13] These activists relied on bureaucratic relationships to enact their policies and had little to no grassroots organisation to exert political pressure in a more bottom up manner. As such, when there was a rise of ultraconservative politicians that deliberately manipulated the idea of jendā-furī as a:

    “soft fascism of sexual perverts”[13]

    The feminists of the time struggled to develop a resistance to this rhetoric.[13] A struggle that was exacerbated by prominent feminists inability to counteract against the calculated misinformation, instead treating it as innocent ignorance. However, as you can expect, it was not only cis Japanese women who were targeted. In fact queer people and Korean women were especially vilified in this modern ultraconservative movement.

    A vilification that was made worse by a lack of intersectional intercommunity practice amongst activist groups, who all seemed to despise each other. Feminist scholar Chizuko Ueno commented that:

    “…if someone asks me if feminism can forge a coalition with gay men, I would answer ‘yes, if they are not misogynistic’. Gay activists would harshly criticise me if I talk like this, but I cannot imagine gay men who are not misogynistic. The gay men who are not misogynistic would be those who do not romanticise masculinity; if they exist, I want to meet them”[13]

    Conversely gay writer and activist, Noriaki Fushimi, argued that jendā-furī denied the inherent differences in sexual desire based on biological sex.[13] As well he suggested that gay people should focus on pleasure, not activism. It seems not everyone can be as presciently intelligent as Shinchi Morita.

    This backlash led to the deprivation of the rights for Korean residents in Japan, queer people in poverty, and the strengthening of xenophobia often lobbied at queer refugees.[13] And although it died down when Abe first resigned, after his re-election there was a whole new wave of ultraconservatives.

    This time it directly targeted transgender people, especially women. The late 2010s, saw Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism (TERF) be shipped from the UK into Japan. TERF represents both a movement and signifier of individuals that seek to exclude trans people, especially those who are AMAB, from feminist discourse. The central proposition is that transgender women are perverse males who obtain sexual titillation from transitioning. Whilst trans men are innocent soft girls cruelly tricked into removing their divine femininity. I wish I was overstating this.

    Photograph of Ochanomizu University (2018)
    Retrieved From: Zero Hora

    Ochanomizu University, a women’s only university, stated they would admit trans women by 2020.[13] In response Twitter TERFs in Japan decried the move and were routinely challenged. This led to a prominent Japanese feminist group, Women Action Network (WAN), to publish an article by an anonymous user.

    In it, the writer stated that TERF is a slur (it is not) and that trans people being allowed into women’s only spaces will cause a wave of misogynistic violence.[13] Furthermore, it spewed rhetoric similar to UK transphobic discourse and even name dropped Queen of Mould herself, JK Rowling.

    WAN decided against retracting the hate piece after there was understandable outcry, resulting in TERF politics gaining a large platform in Japanese feminist circles.[13] So not only did traditional liberal feminism once again fail to help marginalised individuals, in certain circles it actively made it worse. All the while, lessons of the past about intercommunal connections were never learned.

    On top of this, the modern era has seen a roll back on securities for queer people, like the blocking of a bill to enshrine protection from discrimination for the LGBTQIA community.[13] As, well there has been an increased movement in Japan to make transgender and gender non-conforming individuals feel uncomfortably alienated from single-sex spaces.[6] There has even been discourse around transgender athletes, with them being framed as dangerous to women’s sports.[14]

    Overall, like in the UK, the US, France and other countries in the West, Japan has moved towards the removal of trans people from public life. But that does not mean there is no hope.

    Progress Marches Onwards

    In 2017, Tomoya Hosoda became the first open trans man in the world to be elected into a public office.[15] He became the councillor for the Kanto city of Iruma on a platform to increase the rights of LGBTQIA people, the disabled and the elderly. He is the second transgender person admitted into a political position in Japan after Aya Kamikawa was elected to the Tokyo municipal office in 2003.

    Photograph of Tomoya Hosoda (2017) by Nerelle Harper
    Retrieved From: QNews

    In 2019, Yokosuka City became the first municipality to allow partnerships between x-jendā individuals and legally enshrines equal protections for them under the law.[16] There is a general trend in Japan for districts allowing marriage between same-sex couples and growing pressure on current Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s government to nationally recognise equal marriage for all.[17]

    Transgender employees are successfully suing governmental and private workplaces for harassment and discrimination, marking the beginnings of protection from bigotry for queer people.[18][19] There are and continue to be, legitimate strides being made to protect, uplift and dignify the LGBTQIA community in Japan.

    Furthermore, in reading about the rise, the continued resistance and ever-present queerness of the Japanese transgender and gender non-conforming community, I ended up feeling genuine trans joy. By reading about individuals whose gender is just homosexual, with the creation of terms to challenge pathologising traditionalism and witnessing the words of transgender Japanese people express their unbridled self-love. Even whilst acknowledging the horrors the community is currently facing, the unabashed communal love and self-confidence is moving.

    I know that Pride this month is mired by the horrors of the world. For as long as I’ve been aware I was a little queer, there has been a pervading sense in the UK of hatred towards me and people like me. Of governmental machinations seeking to crush my community. Made all the worse by recent decisions in the UK to offer protection only on the basis of chromosomal sex.[20] But as we can see in Japan and in other countries there are movements against this. Activists, politicians, celebrities and everyday people fighting in ways big and small to stop the repealing of progress.

    We might not be able to do a lot. All I feel I can do is write. But sometimes even the small things, like educating a friend or talking about your queerness can have a big impact. We as trans people, non-binary people, queers all around, need to maintain our presence in life. It’s hard. Even scary, and I will never judge someone for retreating. But the more we are open in the face of adversity, the more we openly challenge the narratives of pathologisation, politicisation and hatred. The more we become immovable to any force. Allowing our community to be out and proud.

    And allowing ourselves to be happy, if but for a moment.

    Happy Pride to everyone reading, no matter who or where you are. You’re amazing. Don’t stop being amazing.

    References

    1. Hitoshi, I., & Takanori, M. (2006). The process of divergence between ‘men who love men’ and ‘feminised men’ in postwar Japanese media. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, 12.
    2. Wieringa, S., Blackwood, E., & Bhaiya, A. (Eds.). (2007). Women’s sexualities and masculinities in a globalizing Asia. Springer.
    3. McLelland, M. (2004). From the stage to the clinic: changing transgender identities in post-war Japan. In Japan Forum (Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 1-20). Taylor & Francis Ltd.
    4. Beemyn, G.(2013). A presence in the past: a transgender historiography. Journal of Women’s History, 25(4), 113-121
    5. Konishi, Y. (2024). Trans depathologisation and gender identity disorder in Japan: A critical discourse analysis of medical literature, 2010–2022. Social Science & Medicine, 353, 117039.
    6. Dale, S. P. F. (2022). Transitioning through the toilet: Changing transgender discourse and the recognition of transgender identities in Japan. In Rethinking Transgender Identities (pp. 163-181). Routledge.
    7. Doi, K., & Knight, K. (2023, October 25). Victory for Transgender Rights in Japan | Human Rights Watch. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch website: Human Rights Watch
    8. Khalil , S., & Tan, Y. (2023, October 25). Japan’s top court says trans sterilisation requirement unconstitutional. BBC News. Retrieved from BBC News
    9. Dale, S. P. (2012). An introduction to X-Jendā: Examining a new gender identity in Japan. Intersections: Gender and sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, 31.
    10. Watase, Y. [@wataseyuu] (2019, May 20)ブログでもここでも呟いたけど、再度。 漫画にも影響してると思うから。 私はXジェンダーと医師に診断されてて、中身は、男にも女にも寄れるし男でも女でもない。 見た目はちゃんと(20代後半から社会に合わせて)どうせやるならやるでメイクもオシャレもする、それだけ。 女性の身体は否定しないが . Retrieved From: Web Archive
    11. Konishi, Y. (2024). Trans depathologisation and gender identity disorder in Japan: A critical discourse analysis of medical literature, 2010–2022. Social Science & Medicine, 353, 117039.
    12. Waszkiewicz, E. (2006). Getting by gatekeepers: Transmen’s dialectical negotiations within psychomedical institutions.
    13. Kawasaka, K. (2023). Queers and national anxiety: Discourses on gender and sexuality from anti-gender backlash movements in Japan since the 2000s. Global Perspectives on Anti-Feminism: Far-Right and Religious Attacks on Equality and Diversity, 182-201.
    14. Tanimoto, C., & Miwa, K. (2021). Factors influencing acceptance of transgender athletes. Sport Management Review, 24(3), 452-474.
    15. Farand, C. (2017, March 18). Japan becomes first country in the world to elect a transgender man to a public office | The Independent. Retrieved from The Independent website: The Independent
    16. Tokoi , M., & Mochizuki, M. (2019, June 12). Pushing for “X-gender” recognition | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News. Retrieved from NHK WORLD website: NHK World
    17. Khalil, S. (2023, October 2). Marriage equality eludes Japan’s same-sex couples. BBC News. Retrieved from BBC News
    18. Doi, K., & Reid, G. (2023, July 18). Japan Supreme Court Ruling a Victory for Transgender Employees. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch website: Human Rights Watchruling-victory-transgender-employees
    19. Doi, K., & Knight, K. (2022, November 29). Japanese Trans Woman Wins Workplace Harassment Case. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch website: Human Rights Watch
    20. Fox, A. (2025, April 16). What does the Supreme Court ruling on definition of a “woman” mean?. Retrieved June 21, 2025, from The Independent website: Independent
  • I Was Once A Teenage Controversy

    I Was Once A Teenage Controversy

    Content Notes: Art of Sexualised Teenagers and Discussions of Acephobia, Gay Conversion, Homophobia, Paedophilia, Rape and Sexism

    I have adored the SCP Foundation since I was a teenager writing weirdly disturbing horror stories for English class. The communal atmosphere, the dedication to executing novel ways to write online, even the acceptance of the bizarre captivated my imagination. My love of this niche is to the point of having read the first 1000 articles and planning to go through them all eventually. But this dedication comes with the knowledge of the more disturbing and disgusting side of the SCP Foundation lore. Therefore, let’s explore perhaps the most famously controversial SCP. 166

    A Real History of A Fictional Organisation

    The SCP Foundation is an online forum where writers can submit stories. The narratives come in two flavours. The more conventional one is the Tales Series, which are stories that can follow any format and are meant to be writer’s exploration of SCP lore. The other is SCP files, where the story poses as an academic journal entry, introducing the reader to strange new anomaly. The point of these files is to produce unusual beings and objects, things that should not exist within the world and therefore need to be locked away or studied. Usually with a reliance on horror and science fiction genre conventions.

    As well, the SCP Foundation is itself in the lore, as a scientific private company that seeks to: Secure anomalies, Contain them from the outside and Protect the world from the dangers. Hence SCP. This establishes metafictive interactions with the files, where the reader imagines themselves engaging with in universe scientific write ups of the bizarre anomalies. The idea of a role-playing metafiction extends to the writers themselves, who screen names are repeatedly in universe characters, usually researchers in the SCP Foundation. A pertinent example is the primary writer for the article we are dissecting today, user DrClef, who’s fictive counterpart is called Doctor Alto Clef.

    The SCP Foundation started on the 22nd of June 2007 on…4chan.[1] Yeah that 4chan. The first SCP file 173 was posted on /x/, a creepypasta forum, by an anonymous user. Weirdly enough, this SCP is easy to explain to Doctor Who fans, just imagine the weeping angels. No genuinely, it is a statue that moves when no-one looks at it and breaks your neck. This story inspired a bunch of other articles and multiple threads on 4chan, that shared the format and even created a collaborative lore. But the restrictions with using threads were beginning to annoy the writers.

    A life-sized paper mache figure, ressembling a cross between a human baby and an alien standing upright. It sits in a decrepit white room, with rectangular windows at the back.
    Untitled 2004 by Izumi Kato
    Retrived From: The Scare Chamber
    Note: This was the original image used for SCP-173, but there is now no image on the SCP article due to copyright worries

    So on 18th January 2008, the series moved to the EditThis wiki website, which is described as a Wikipedia clone.[1] The articles from 4chan were then moved to the SCP wiki. During this time period there was little moderation or communal understanding on how to write an SCP file. After all, it was still a burgeoning community that had swiftly grown from one writer to many hundreds in 6 months. But EditThis would not remain the home of the community. Eventually, on 25th of July 2008, the SCP series would move to Wikidot due to EditThis trying to monetise the website. The former wiki was deleted on 6th September 2008, despite a minority of users still being active there.

    To this day, the SCP series continues to be hosted on Wikidot and is currently sitting at over 8,000 articles. There is a thriving and active population of writers in both the SCP files and Tales series. It has even inspired other online horror writing communities, most famously The Backrooms, as well as influencing hit games like Control and Lethal Company. Furthermore it has its own games like SCP-Containment Breach, Secret Laboratory and 5K which I am informed are indeed games. That exist. And can be played. There has even been real-world implications with the term infohazard being used in certain sections of online cults communities. Though today, we will narrow our focus onto one of the oldest articles in the SCP Series.

    Laying Down The Beginning

    SCP-166 is an SCP file created in Ross Fisher Davis on the 1st of June 2008, back on the EditThis website.[2] It was then ported over to the Wikidot site on the 26th of July. The original first article still exists and can be read here. Whilst I would typically recommend that people read the sources, this file contains disturbing sexualisation of a barely legal/underage girl, depending on interpretation. So, feel free to avoid it if that will harm you in any way. In case you do not wish to wade through it, I will provide the low lights. Moreover, throughout these essays, the character of SCP-166 will be referred to as Epon which is one of her canonical names. This is in hope of displaying quite how awful the writing is if she is named.

    All SCP articles begin with the a number, a risk classification and then the details of the procedures to contain the anomaly.[3] The containment procedures are relatively normal, stating she requires minimal security, though adds some foreshadowing by saying her windows must be misted. On top of that, male staff are forbidden from entering the vicinity or examining the contents of the video surveillance. Next, we receive a description which covers history, physical features and a report of the anomalous effects.

    Epon was found in a convent in England, left there to be cared for by the nuns as her mother was a supposed elder entity.[3] She is described as a pale, slender human girl around the age 16-18. Epon’s hair seems to grow abnormally rapid rate, and she is reported as refusing to wear clothing, therefore being perpetually naked. No further justification is offered. She is as strong as an adult man, but is susceptible to asthmatic fits when exposed to aerosols and cigarette smoke.

    Lastly, Epon’s effect is the capability to mind control any man that she makes eye contact with. The only limit is she cannot force someone to inflicted harm upon themselves. This is terrible enough without the following line about her final anomalous effect:

    “SCP-166 is sustained entirely on human male semen, which she would normally obtain by her powers over the minds of a desirable male.”[3]

    To help frame that behemoth of a sentence the tagline for this article, often used as unofficial titles, is A Teenage Succubus. Though I acknowledge the need to state why this is abhorrent, as a point of analysis, I want to add that the reasons should plainly obvious to anyone. Apparently they aren’t, but they should be.

    Let’s start by addressing the age range of 16-18. This is a cop out of an age range. Deliberately designed in the same way “barely legal” pornography is, to allow for the slightest wiggle room. So they can claim it’s not really predatory or creepy because it is technically lawful and morally permissible.

    In addition, the spermophagia and nakedness are obvious additions designed to titillate. But on top of this she is deliberately pale, slender and has long enchantress-like hair. It’s like the gothic horror ideal of a sexual partner, with the added paedophilic youthfulness desirable only to terminally online libertarians. As well, the mind control aspect to drain men of their semen, presumably through an oral sex act, is a naked sexual fantasy posing as horror. It’s not subversive or chilling in anyway detached from the fact someone produced this.

    But even if we imagine a far off world in which this is not a twisted dream, it is nonetheless an innately sexist story. The enchantress leading astray wretched vulnerable men with her rampant feminine wiles and powers. I’ve explored it further in this Kuchisake-Onna essay, but the essential point is viewing femininity as deceitful and manipulative compared to the logical and truthful masculinity. A type of narrative often used against feminine people (regardless of gender identity) to justify their sexualisation and sexual abuse of feminine people through their innate nature. Even their ability to refuse consent cannot be trusted, as their words say one thing, but their bodily presentation says another.

    Fortunately for all of us it was rewritten. Unfortunately, it was not rewritten well.

    Canonising Procreative Acts

    On the 7th of November 2008, user DrClef created and posted a full rewrite of the SCP-166 article.[2] He stated on the attached SCP 166 discussion board that this was due to it needing a punch up. [4] This rewrite was followed by a spate of edits over a year between DrClef and user Slate, the culmination of which can be viewed here as Rewrite 1. There is also a set of significant rewrites in 2013, which I will include a part from in my overview.

    We once more begin with containment procedures. First is an outline of items Epon has been given like a Bible with Apocrypha and a catholic rosary, suggesting a more religious aspect to her character.[5] At this point we encounter our first issue, as Epon is still unable to don clothes. But now there is an added explanation that she gets pressure sores after 45 minutes of wearing fabric. The descriptions of no male staff being allowed nearby and needing to drink 1cc of semen a day to survive is repeated.

    An illustrated pale girl fully naked, grasping a white rosary. Her blonde wavy hair goes to the floor, covering her chest and thighs whilst accentuating her body. Her ice blue eyes stare directly at the viewer as she prays, her lips slightly ajar. The background contains abstract decoration as well as the title "SCP-166 Teenage Succubus"
    SCP-166 (2014) by すわん
    Retrieved From: Pixiv
    Note: I feel the need to state I do not endorse these types of images, but I also need to show how Epon was drawn during the Rewrite 1 era.

    We then move onto the descriptions. Epon is physically similar, though they do not specify her being pale and includes a odd line about her being cute but nothing special according to the female staff. [5] Moving to her effects, her powers are described as more enamouring than direct mind control. In essence, regardless of sexual or romantic orientation, 100% of males who see Epon fall deeply in love/lust and will attempt to copulate with her. The effect will fade on 70% of men once they lose sight of her, though for 30% it leads to a continued violent desire to rape her.

    It should be noted, we get a small 2 line paragraph that explains this causes distress to Epon. This focuses in on the reason for her anguish being because she is Catholic and wishes to remain chaste. [5]

    After that we receive a couple of addenda . Addendum A talks about her history at a nunnery as previously mentioned, but connects it to a story of a young man catching sight of her at the convent. This man then murders one nun and injures three others in an attempt to rape Epon, before being killed himself. This gains the attention of the SCP Foundation and details why she is in their custody. Furthermore, the addendum provides one of two examples of a man being capable of somewhat resisting the urges Epon brings. As a male SCP soldier isolates himself from her in response to her effects manifesting in him.

    Addendum B is not present in the 2013 edits but is in the 2008 ones.[5] It describes Dr Alto Clef (the character), gaining access to Epon’s room and demonstrating no ill effects as well as enjoying a pleasant chat. We only know the chat was about Epon’s mother and Clef seemingly showed no effect analogous to other males in her presence.

    A digital painting of a woman with flowing hair, wearing a light dress, holding a white object, set against a dark, abstract background with hints of red and orange.
    SCP-4231-A and SCP 166 by AmoneYun
    Retrieved From: SCP-DB
    Note: SCP-4231-A is called Lilly and is Epon’s mother

    The concluding part is from the 2013 edit, which includes a letter from Clef to Epon.[6] It states he is her father, and he slayed her mother when she was first born. The letter insinuates Epon’s mother to be a nature goddess of some sort and states Clef left his daughter with the nuns. Finally, its ends with Happy Sixteenth Birthday, implying Epon was or is 16 during her containment at the Foundation. Though due to a widespread issue with early SCP articles, we do not know the date of the letter as that information is redacted.

    Authorial Intentions Overriding Reality

    So. This edit fixes none of the problems with the first version and instead doubles down on a lot of the creepiness. Whilst I will go over the wider communities response in the next essay, I want to tackle DrClef’s vision for the article here. In a comment submitted on the SCP-166 discussion board, on the 16th August 2013, he argues three essential points:[4]

    • There is an apparent horror in both Epon and the men suffering from the mental alterations. With the latter being somewhat responsible for the suffering because of an operative having resisted the desires implanted in him.
    • That even if it perpetuates victim blaming, that doesn’t make this a terrible article. As we could see Epon as a metaphor for the male gaze and objectification.
    • That one can view Epon as a person who shows both sides of the Madonna-Whore Complex and this adds to the horror of the article.

    So, the first issue is, there is not much work being done about how horrifying the experience is for anyone involved. Most of that is left implicit save for a single brief paragraph by anonymous others stating that Epon is troubled by it. This, in and of itself, is not bad. Implicit horror is valid and often used to enormous success in the SCP Series.

    However, for implicit horror to work, the implications need to be the focal point. What is left unsaid, what is unknown, generates questions that should be the focus of the audience’s mind. But those questions don’t feel like the focus in comparison to DrClef’s grandstanding for his self insert character.

    Many comments on the first rewrite in 2008 remark that the article expands Dr Alto Clef lore.[4] People wonder if he is a demon or the devil incarnate, and this trend continues in the 2013 edits. Apart from that, instead of wondering about the delicate implications, the use of teenage sperm drinking and the insistence Epon remains naked are what chiefly horrify people. The idea of both Epon and these men experiencing disgusting violation is less commented on in comparison. Consequently, even if it was his intention, he absolutely failed to strike the appropriate balance to highlight that horror. Instead, he oversold the cheap shocks and his own lore-building.

    An illustrated character wearing a white coat and a black hat, holding a rifle, with a snake wrapped around him and flowers in the background.
    Kondraki/Clef (2013) by ptzs
    Retrieved From: Pixiv

    But even with nominal attention on Epon, the group who really are not focused on remain the men whose minds are twisted. We get no sentiment as to how they feel at what could either be an incredible mental violation or a resistible thought insertion. There is no sense of a need for therapy, memory wiping drugs (a staple of SCP Series) or any other interventions. Never mind the lack of access to any of these men’s experiences through their own words.

    We can never tell how in control they are, and that feels somewhat pivotal to a narrative about unwilling mental and bodily violation. If both the men and Epon are meant to be experiencing violation; it would be imperative to at least somewhat understand the nature of that violation. It is not just that Epon’s victimhood is barely considered, the men’s feel like a contrast to show how powerful and special Clef is.

    Furthermore, the fact Epon’s power overrides sexuality is never expanded on. If done right, this could have been an imaginative exploration of gay and ace conversion. The horror implicit in the distinct nature of marginalised sexual and romantic preferences being stripped away to conform to a societal standard.

    But we barely receive a single throwaway line, which ends up with Epon and the men being treated as disposable. Anyone who was identified as being victimised by DrClef’s own thesis for his work is never given the opportunity to express the horror within that experience. Instead their pain is a backdrop for the terrific tragic life of Dr Alto Clef. Because only through him can we apparently undestand the horrors of Epon’s existence.

    The Terrifying Twisting of Feminism

    Even if we view Epon as a metaphor for the male gaze and objectification, these issues are not subverted. Merely making her Catholic and an unwilling participant in her effects is not enough to actually comment on objectification. In fact, she is never allowed to be anything but the object of her own article. A being who’s opinions are not once given any narrative weight. Especially in comparison to that of her father who receives an in-universe letter to express how he feels. Who is allowed an actual point of view in the media.

    And it is not like it would be impossible to show her perspective. Many articles use therapy logs or letters or even drawings by the anomalous focus, to showcase their perspective and view of the situation. Instead Epon is relegated to someone else’s perspective on her, making her the text book definition of an object. Her perspective is paid pure lip service.

    But even then the lip service doesn’t make complete sense. Why is the focus of her terror at her situation how it effects her religion? I do not know many Catholics; the United Kingdom is infamous for our completely normal relationship with Catholicism. But surely, the peril of bodily injury is present along with the threat of spiritual detriment. And any religious orientated harm is linked to Epon’s chastity. The key reason for her harm is on the patriarchal expectation of her. Even as a victim of her own existence, the writing and world around her frames her victimhood by the ideals of men, and never through her lack of agency.

    A classical painting depicting two women and a child beside a stone fountain, with lush landscapes in the background.
    Sacred and Profane Love (~1514) by Titian
    Retrieved From: Wikipedia

    Finally, by making Epon a Madonna-Whore complex incarnate, DrClef is just enacting sexist stereotyping not commenting on them. Though originating in psychoanalysis[7], the Madonna-Whore complex is presently used as a pop feminist social critique for how women are measured as partners to men. They are to be both as chaste as the Virgin Mary, but as sexually debauched as the media portrayal of sex workers. Women are imprisoned in a double standard to be both asexual and hypersexual, to be good at sex but never enjoyed it with anyone apart from their one true love. To simply portray sexism is not enough to comment on it.

    In portraying a supposedly subversive character, DrClef’s complete lack of understanding around feminist literature and analysis leads to an outdated and overdone trope. A girl whose beauty literally is only enrapturing to a male gaze. A girl who must stay perpetually nude for contrived reasons and yet has to resist the innate sinfulness of the feminine form. She is the one who must carry the penance and is never allowed to grieve for the situation she finds herself within. Though of course, Clef is given plenty of narrative space to lament.

    DrClef never thoroughly examines the socio-cultural issues with this, nor ever condemns the men for trying to harm her. I’m ordinarily not one for the requirement to expressly condemn abominable acts. But when there are comments, art and fanfiction literally thirsting after the teenager from her inception, you need to explicitly counter them.[4] I do not comprehend how it took 12 years for a rewrite to happen. But we did eventually get one.

    Putting the Nymph in Nymphomania

    On the 5th of June 2018, after numerous critiques and calls by the divided community to change SCP-166 (as well as spiritual successors doing better jobs than the seminal article), DrClef requested a complete rewrite of the article.[4] On the 30th of October 2020, Cerastes had created the rewrite[2], though thanked users like UraniumEmpire and LtFlops amongst others for the help.[4] The article in its current version can be read here. There will be not as much analysis of this version, as it contains less compelling or horrific content.

    For the final time, we begin with the containment procedures and start off strong as Epon is allowed to wear clothes! Mostly loose fitting organic cotton and she eats…typical food, without any additives. They keep the Catholic items like the Bible with Apocrypha and the rosary. Her physical description has changed as she is still a European female, but with satyr-like features, swapping out the goat aspects for reindeer ones.

    A cartoon styled illustration of a character with antlers, wearing a simple dress and holding a rosary. The character has a friendly expression and features one blue eye and one brown eye
    SCP-166 (2021) by Zal-Cryptid
    Retrieved From: DeviantArt

    Epon’s anomalous power is reasonably simple, man made objects around her degrade and rust, with plant life growing in their place. She maintains the vulnerability to artificial pollutants, though they directly cause ulcers as well as asthma. Her existence is confirmed by a Global Occult Coalition agent (essentially the occult UN of the SCP Universe) called Agent Ukulele. A blatant nod to Dr Alto Clef, who routinely carries around a ukulele. It appears Epon caught the eye of the GOC due to being able to enact a ritual to force the world back to the Palaeolithic era. The anarcho-primitivists would have idolized her.

    We get a couple of addenda, the first being an interview between a chaplain and Epon. They both talk about their familial relations, with a hint of Dr Alto Clef being Epon’s father at the end. Addendum 2 features a higher up chastising a redacted researcher, though it is in fact clearly Clef. The researcher had given Epon a phone line without permission and showcases the regret that Clef has about not being there for his daughter. Ultimately we get a similar letter from before, stating he killed Epon’s mother but nevertheless wants to protect her. And that, is the current edition of SCP-166.

    I do not have much to say on this. It is a marked improvement over the previous article, but then again blank page would be too. The character concept for Epon is perfectly cute. The icon of the past actively transforming the world around them to return to a state of Edenic paradise is a nice, if a straightforward idea. The design also calls back to this with the reindeer like features and the need to wear and eat organic items. It even ties back to the letter, with her mother being a nature goddess. This is perfectly serviceable and wholesome, though I agree with commenters that it fails to leave an impact. [4]

    However, the rewrite is hampered by the desire to still treat the article as backstory for a self insert. As well there is an inability to modernise a deeply dreadful tale into something greater than the sum of its history. In essence, the story struggles to rise to the heights of the SCP greats because it is trying to do too much, leaving it with no cohesion.

    A character with long blonde hair wearing a black and white outfit, holding a crystal orb, standing in a mystical background with dark colors.
    SCP-166 (2023) by pirixiepeace
    Retrieved From: DeviantArt
    Note: Once again, I would like to reiterate that I do not support images sexualising teens (or nuns) and I am showing them I am showing them to relay the sexualisation is still present.

    Cerastes had to tie the SCP article to about 12 years of lore building by DrClef and others in the community. Allowing for all the contingencies as to who Epon is, what she has achieved and will achieve as well as DrClef’s vision for is fictive daughter. This impossible position means the story could never genuinely let go of the past and transcend it’s origins. Even moreso, people haven’t fully let go of the sexualisation of Epon, even with this tamer article. I prefer this over the other two versions, but it is eclipsed by other tales generated from Rewrite 1 like SCP 4166 or 0166. However, those are stories for another essay.

    Life-like Horror

    Throughout the research and writing of this essay, a comment made by user LittleCrow on the 5th of February 2011 has stuck with me:

    “I can’t believe I’m having to find the words to explain why I think a beautiful teenaged SCP who can’t wear clothes, must drink semen, and drives all the men crazy is a bad idea.”[4]

    In reading the comments made by the SCP contributors on the discussion board, I was pleasantly surprised by how much pushback there was. Even more so by how early the criticism was. But, in that is the horror I have found in this article. In the fact people surprise me by critiquing this. And in the comparable amounts of people praising the first rewrite.

    It’s kind of terrifying reading a story that fulfils all the sexist tropes used against you as a teenager. A terror multiplied exponentially when a bunch of men (and a couple of women) uncritically state that parroting paedophilic nonsense is good storytelling.

    Every time I read the first rewrite the lack of power Epon has, strikes me. Not just in the deliberate narrative, but in how she is invented with no agency. How a writer trapped a girl in this sick twisted hell and another framed this horror as chiefly effecting his self-insert above all others. How the uncritical perpetuation of sexist ideals infests horror even to this day, with people venting their grimmest views on women under a veil of inspired creation. Twisting half formed uneducated ideas of feminist theory to fit their narrative of auteur authorship. The horror is not in the story.

    It’s outside of it.

    References

    1. RJB_R. (2023) History Of The Universe: Part One. Retrieved From: SCP Wiki
    2. Containment Fiction Wiki Contributors (2023). SCP 166. Retrieved From: Containment Fiction
    3. Davis, R.F.(2008). SCP-166. Retrieved From: SCP Classic
    4. SCP Contributors (2025). SCP-166/Discussion. Retrieved From:SCP Wiki
    5. DrClef (2009). SCP-166. Retrieved From: SCP Classic
    6. Cerastes (2024). SCP-166. Retrieved From: SCP Wiki
    7. Hartmann, U. (2009). Sigmund Freud and his impact on our understanding of male sexual dysfunction. The journal of sexual medicine, 6(8), 2332-2339.
  • Feasting on The Goblin Juices

    Feasting on The Goblin Juices

    Content Notes: Discussions of Anorexia, Child Death, Compulsory Heterosexuality, Corrective Rape, Incest, Orthorexia, Starvation and Sexual Predation

    We have previously covered both the historical context behind Goblin Market and the religious interpretations bursting from its prose. But now we turn to a more universal experience. Hunger. Hunger for food, for others and for love. As well as the hunger to rebuke our desires.

    Divine Sapphic Triads

    In her essay, Mona Reed argues that historical sapphic literature should not be confined to obvious erotic acts.[1] Paralleling Adrienne Rich, she supports the examination of disguised love, such as shared feminine joy, sisterhood and intimate friendship.[2] In this case, we can consider the relationship between Laura and Lizzie as not just one of biological sisterhood, but as a sapphic joining of the two girls.

    Using this foundation, Reed states that the Goblin Market itself purveys the destruction of women through the coercive nature of compulsory heterosexuality.[1] Compulsory heterosexuality (hereafter referred to as comphet), is a sociological phenomenon first posited by Rich.[2] She asserts that all children are brought up to believe that straightness is not only the default, but an essential requirement. Put differently, society is built around the sublimation of any experiences outside of the dominant straight lens. Like young girls can be lured by the promises of delicious fruit, so too are children disciplined into the delights of a purely heterosexual lifestyle.

    But just as the fruit leaves dear Laura destitute, so too does heterosexual dominance rely on the destitution of women. In a strictly straight (and albeit Western) paradigm, the agency, power and control are consistently given to the man, whereas the woman is expected to submit to their authority. Now, this isn’t true of every heterosexual relationship, trust me I live in the North East. More precisely, it is the societal standard by which other relationships are measured. Especially within Victorian England.

    Stained glass depiction of a crowned female figure holding a book and a flower, symbolizing purity and wisdom.
    Stain Glass Image of Saint Æthelthryth , Photographed by Fr. Lawrence Lew
    Retrieved From: Flickr

    This idea is supported historically as Christina Rossetti never married, and in fact, denied three suitors. [3] Although it should be stated, the first was denied because he converted to Roman Catholicism. Moreover, Christina Rossetti admired Saint Æthelthryth for her ability to maintain her virginity despite being married twice.[2] In rebuking the standard to bear children and accept intimate relations, she challenged the heteronormative dynamics of the time. In a similar vein, one can view Lizzie and Laura’s castigation of the Goblin Market as their rebuking of heterosexual ideals, although taken a step further.

    Whilst it might not be a full on celebration of sexual sapphicness, Reed presents a compelling alternative to a standard dyadic pairing of the girls. She states that:

    “Rossetti [suggests] that women should form queer, homo-social triad unions with Christ so they can abandon the institution of heterosexual marriage that leaves women feeling unfulfilled and emotionally depleted.”[1]

    The reason we can view this as queer is twofold. Firstly any undermining of the traditional heterosexual dynamic, especially that which involves same gender relations, allows itself to be viewed as inherently queer. For they are considered outside the norms of the society. But, even more so, Reed argues that Christ (and to some extent Lizzie) can be viewed as gender subversive. According to Reed, Rossetti regarded God as neither male nor female, instead containing an essence of both and yet beyond our conceptualisations of gender.[1]

    Additionally, she put forward that if one accepts Laura as Eve, then one must view Lizzie as Adam. She too is tempted and tested to see if her heart waives from God, through the fruit of the Goblin Market.[1] However, Lizzie never strays, and she takes on the pain of her Eve-like figure. In this way, Lizzie can seen as a bigender figure, taking on both aspects of male and female whilst never renouncing either. A deliberate countering of bimodal sex based ideals. Through this, we could see Rossetti as glorifying a homosocial order devoid of masculine interference. A place where women can take on the roles of both binary genders, whilst communing with God in a vaster capacity than ever before.

    I genuinely enjoy this interpretation presented by Reed, but we should ground it slightly. Whilst I believe that authorial intent should never be considered the official version of analysis. It is critical to state that this framing was likely not Rossetti’s intention and, at best, she intended a more religiously orientated view of sisterhood. Although Reed’s viewpoint is equally valid, we should not allow it warp our view of Rossetti. She was unequivocally a racist, classist and anti-Semitic poet, views which do not support the interpretation of her as a lesbian ally. Any reading of Goblin Market as sapphic happens in spite of, not because of, her own beliefs.

    The Sanguine Made Sweet

    As stated in my first Goblin Market post, Christina Rossetti had deep ties to the gothic literature movement. As researched by David Morrill, her uncle John Polidori wrote The Vampyre, one of the oldest works of Western vampire literature.[4] Additionally, her grandfather was a noted admirer of the gothic romantics, and Rossetti invested much time in her antecedent’s library. Her environment being inundated with gothic horror seems to have bled into Goblin Market too.

    On a purely aesthetic level, there are many similarities to gothic vampire novels of the time. Fair maidens tempted by the allure of unusual animalistic men, delighting in their own logic to ensnare victims in a way that drains the body until it wastes away. Additionally there is the focus on biting, sucking and consuming as the cause of the wasting away. Although Goblin Market arguably uses proxy vampirism through the fruits. Even the trickling of juices seems like a stand in for a more sanguine liquid.

    An illustrated portrayal of a ruggedly handsome man with curly hair and a determined expression, dressed in historical clothing, against a warm, textured background.
    Cover for The Vampyre by David Rabitte
    Retrieved From: Black Coat Press

    But in the details, Morrill argues there are clear comparisons to Polidori’s The Vampyre. Firstly, in how the vampire Lord Ruthven entices his victims. It is not merely in his honey words and rakish demeanour, but importantly in his charitable acts which always led to those cursed by it to sink into misery.[4] Put simpler, in giving to others Lord Ruthven ensured that they would become vulnerable, so he can feast upon them. Similarly, the charity of Rossetti’s goblins results in the downfall of Laura. By offering her fruits for the simple prize of a lock of hair, they make certain their corruption spreads and that they are able feed on her youth.

    The offering of her lock of hair also mirrors another vampiric tradition in Morrill’s view. Just as Lord Ruthven has to be invited into an abode, so too must the goblins be invited into Laura’s body.[4] Morrill explicitly links this to religious themes, that the vampire represents the devil, that evil incarnate cannot enter a person’s soul unless they consent to it. The consent can be achieved through trickery or deceit, but irregardless, the power rests inside the individual to rebuke or court evil within their heart. Even more so, the goblins never seem capable of leaving the glen to enter the girls’ house, as if they are barred from the Edenic gardens. And therefore can only feast on the innocent good when invited to.

    Building on this, both Lord Ruthven and the goblins can be seen as stand ins for the men who would prey on young women. Lord Ruthven rather by design is a debonair predator that feasts on the youthful vitality of women until they are nothing more than monstrous husks which cannot be saved.[4] The goblin men similarly prey on young girls, causing Laura to also waste away into virtual nothingness. Laura even wakes up on the night after the market, desperately gnashing and gnawing, like she has been molded into a vampire and is desperate to feed. It is like she has become the goblins themselves and has been reduced to animalistic hunger.

    Whilst I would not go so far as to state that Goblin Market comprises a form of vampire literature, I would say there are clear inspirations drawn upon. Some of this could be similar cultural touchstones, after all Polidori and Rossetti were devout Anglicans and it is not unlikely both would comment on the nature of evil. But others such as the enticement through charity and predation seem to be at least indirectly inspired. However, Morrill’s comparison does seem to miss certain conventions of vampirism, like it being contagious. Though he is not the sole researcher to establish these connections.

    The Sanguine Made Sapphic

    Rebecca Little combines themes from the previous sections to attest that Goblin Market is an example of homoerotic vampirism, in a similar vein (pause for silent chuckles) to Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla.[5] Carmilla is a tale of the titular vampire, and her unrepentant hunger for Laura, the fair maiden. At 18, she meets Carmilla and is exposed to a world of sensual temptations and delights. However, in one of the first cases of “Bury Your Gays”, the vampire is executed for her depraved sapphic nature. And Laura is returned to Christian heterosexuality.

    Conversely in Goblin Market, it is our Laura who performs the role of vampiress. In the scene where Laura eats the goblins fruits, Little points to this section as key to her vampirism:

    “Suck’d their fruit globes fair or red:

    Sweeter than honey from the rock,

    Stronger than man-rejoicing wine,

    Clearer than water flow’d that juice;”[6]

    Here we can discern how the fruit starts as honey sweeter from the rock, a biblical reference to Psalm 81:16, wherein God would delivered those faithful to him honey from a rock.[7] Subsequently it becomes man rejoicing wine, seemingly distancing the juice from a more Eucharistic drink. And finally, it is like water, the essence of life itself.

    Little compares the taste journeying from sweet to intoxicating to necessary to that of a vampire’s first indulgence in blood.[5] Furthermore, I’d argue it becomes more basal. As it goes from God’s food, to an association with God’s food, to ordinary water necessary for survival. In this way, the possibly heavenly fruit becomes a simple consumable, an item for survival detached from the Lord’s grace.

    Little builds on this by paralleling the fruit to the Apple from The Tree of Knowledge. As Eve was cursed with the Knowledge of sin, so too does Laura become afflicted with the knowledge of heterosexuality.[5] By partaking in this erotic feast, Laura inherits a taste of heteronormative practice, indulging in the saccharine addiction of socially approved decadence. However, this indulgence comes at a cost. Her metaphorical virginity is taken, and she is transformed into a vampiric figure, a creature lacking the purity befitting a young girl.

    A woman with long hair sits against a tree, wearing a long dark dress, with a subdued and contemplative expression. A basket is visible nearby, and the scene conveys a sense of longing or introspection.
    Goblin Market (2011) by Jillian Tamaki
    Retrieved From: https://www.jilliantamaki.com/goblin-market/

    Laura is forsaken with no way to imbibe in heterosexual desire. As a result, she is a ravenous monster, gritting her teeth at night in a restless stupor for the echoes of delight.[5] And in the day she is static, practically asleep, allowing herself to wane away. Unable to handle even the trivial tasks that once presented her such nourishment both physically and spiritually. So to save her sister, Lizzie goes to the goblin men and braves their attempt to violently impose heterosexuality on her.

    Although never stated by Little, this scene could be seen as a form of corrective rape. This is where queer individuals are forced into sexual relations with the opposite sex to “cure” their queerness. Combined with the previous imagery of straightness siphoning Laura’s humanity from her, we could recognize Lizzie as actively resisting the draining.

    Resistance which is met by the Goblin Market punishing her for not succumbing to compulsory heterosexuality. Combined with the vampiric lens, Lizzie becomes our virtuous woman, resisting the parasitic wiles that seek to drain her body and soul. To put it concisely, she is able to defy both heterosexuality and vampirism through her fortitude.

    But it is the final feast with Lizzie covered in juices for Laura to suckle on that the vampiric elements are fully on display.[5] In this scene, Little argues the juices are a proxy for Lizzie’s blood, in a manner reminiscent of how wine is a stand-in for Christ’s essence. Therefore, we could regard Laura consuming this blood in an erotic manner as simple lesbian vampirism. This would be conceived as an incestuous relation by a cursory viewing. However writers used social taboos like incest to hide lesbian romance. Rossetti might be attempting something similar, or at the very least, is accidentally recreating the paradigm.

    A young woman with a thoughtful expression is seen biting into her finger while surrounded by fruit-laden branches. In the background, fantastical creatures and additional fruit are depicted, enhancing the sense of allure and temptation.
    Walking Through The Landscape of Faerie (2016) By Charles Vess
    Retrieved From: Enchanted Living Magazine

    More importantly though, is that Laura’s feasting seemingly cures her vampirism. Unlike more modern lesbian vampire stories, the sapphic relationship is not framed as the corruptive element but the panacea for the corruption of comphet infection. The wasting away caused by a life of heteronormative pining is cured by the redemptive power of “sisterly” affection.

    Although the feasting is painful for Laura, that is because the ideal of heterosexual bliss is being burned from her blood, and being replaced with a more pleasant alternative. With the caveats of the previous lesbian explanation in mind, Goblin Market could be interpreted as a narrative about the redemptive powers of queerness. And how queer love can liberate people.

    Secular or Spiritual Hunger​?

    Though many writers have focused on Laura’s descent into devouring, others have explored Lizzie’s refusal to eat. In particular, the parallels between her denial of sustenance and Anorexia Nervosa. After all, she is never seen eating within the poem and is framed as virtious, even spiritually enlightened, because of her defiance against the fruit. However, to explore if anorexia pertains to Lizzie, we first need to understand the condition and unravel the history behind it.

    Anorexia Nervosa is a mental health condition characterised by a refusal to ingest food resulting in a person becoming severely underweight.[7] This is typically accompanied by a warped perception of their body. Such as viewing themselves as fatter than they are otherwise perceived or hyper-aware of minor “flaws” in their appearance. Moreover, it results in a myriad of physical health conditions due to the starvation and a counter-intuitive obsession with food.

    Anorexia was first considered a medical condition in the 1870’s, originally termed Hysterical Anorexia as well as the currently used Anorexia Nervosa. [8] Although in the lead up to this, it was debated in Victorian medical circles for decades.

    Joan Brumberg connects this debate with the Fasting Girls, a movement of women and girls starving themselves (or faking starvation) to prove religious piety.[8] Such devotional deeds were not unique to the Victorian period and have a history in 13th century female saints, who refused to ingest anything but the Eucharist. According to Brumberg, this continued into the 16th and 17th century with ordinary women performing these acts as forms of miracles.

    Black and white engraving depicting a scene with a young girl sitting at a table, surrounded by a flower arrangement, while a woman observes her. In the background, a farmhouse and several people in Victorian attire are visible. The image is titled 'Sarah Jacobs in her Bed Room The Fasting Welsh Girl Case'.
    Contempary Drawing of Sarah Jacobs by an Unknown Artist
    Retrieved From: The Geneologist
    Note: Sarah Jacobs was one of the more famous Fasting Girls and died at age 12 due to starvation.

    These Fasting Girls represent just a limited part in a grander movement by medical institutions in the Victorian period to secularise and pathologise religious behaviours. However, it therefore needs to be noted that devotional denial was considered by the majority of Victorians to be a sane and reasonable act. Although not the norm, it was regarded by spiritual leaders and their congregations as proof of divine providence. Even Rossetti was known to starve herself for religious purposes. [9]

    Because of this, it is challenging to call Lizzie’s act of defiant starvation close to that of anorexia or even a similar comparison. Though both involve the act of deprivation, Lizzie’s (and the Fasting Girls) have religious connotations whereas anorexics seek control or to drastically reshaping their body.

    As well, the fact such fasting was not viewed as harmful by the individual or community stops such behaviours from being a disorder. Since most mental health issues depend upon an understanding of harm towards the person with it or those around them, which requires treatment. People are allowed to do risky things to their body, without constituting a disorder.

    Though Lizzie’s actions do not merit a direct comparison to anorexia, it would be erroneous to state Rossetti recognized no virtue in the act of tempered eating:

    “The balances suggest scarcity short of literal nullity: hunger, but not necessarily starvation. Scarcity imposes frugality, exactness . . . No waste, latitude, margin; self-pampering can be tolerated, but only a sustained self-denial: self must be stinted, selfishness starved, to give to him that needeth.”[10]

    As stated by Anna Silver, Rossetti truly believed in the ascetic refusal of nourishment as cleansing for the soul. She expressed a certain contempt for the body, specifically for its desire for food. [9] Or rather, when such hunger was indulged with ordinary earthly foods. Because satiating your appetite was tantamount to succumbing to bodily sin.

    Like inviting a vampire into your abode, by allowing for culinary decadence they were giving into the body’s greed. And as discussed previous, such bodily hunger should be used to lead a person to the Lord.[11] Only though achieving physical inanition like the virtuous Lizzie could one ever hope to attain spiritual health. Which is not like anorexia, but is strikingly similar to another eating disorder.

    Hunger for Health

    Orthorexia is a proposed eating disorder, first coined in 2000 by Steven Bratman and David Knight in their book Health Food Junkies. [12] The term is used to describe an unhealthy obsession with eating healthily. This is not purely a desire to be more nutritionally aware, but a ritualised restriction of nourishment to the point of malnutrition. This can be cutting out certain food groups necessary for bodily function such as sugar, carbs or meat, with no mitigating health reason. In addition, it mirrors anorexia with an obsessive consideration of food.

    I want to emphasise that I am not diagnosing Rossetti or anyone else as being orthorexic. Moreover, it is imperative to state that to the best of my knowledge, nobody links spiritual health to orthorexic behaviour.

    Instead, I wish to implement the framework that people can develop maladaptive obsessions with health, to explore Rossetti’s preoccupation with divine vigour. Simply put, what if we view the contrast of Lizzie and Laura as the argument for the prioritisation of the metaphysical over the physical? An argument Silver believes to be a cornerstone of the tale:

    “Goblin Market” juxtaposes sinful consumption with a virtuous renunciation of appetite to teach its readers a moral lesson about the world”[10]

    By itself this would not necessitate an issue, as people are allowed to have other priorities for their own health and well being. Some prioritise the physical, others the mental, so why not the spiritual? The issue is that Rossetti goes further by solely focusing on metaphysical health in Goblin Market and rebukes bodily satiation completely. It does not matter if Laura’s body burns like wormwood, for her spiritual health is being tended to.

    Furthermore, Laura is rebuked by Lizzie for being tempted by the sounds and sights of food at the Goblin Market. The temptation of food itself, of the material form’s desire to be satiated is to be controlled and ordered. One should not partake in fruits for the priority must always be in the spiritual.

    A young woman with long, flowing hair sits in a yellow dress, delicately holding fruit while goblin-like figures surround her, eagerly reaching out for her attention, set against a pastoral backdrop.
    Goblin Market (1910) by Florence Harrison
    Retrieved From: Instagram

    Adding to this, Silver argues that Rossetti views the hunger for Christ and spiritual satiation as taking effort.[10] Laura is allowed to easily feast by giving her lock of hair, whereas Lizzie must undergo a barrage of violation to achieve sanctified satiation. In essence, the argument becomes that those who are obsessed merely with bodily health are lazy. Not dissimilar to orthorexics who can monitor the nutritional intakes of others. Though it should be noted that most tend towards self-monitoring critique.

    Instead Rossetti’s external criticism is more akin to that of modern-day diet culture, the impetus behind many orthorexic issues. The fallacy that health and well-being can wholly be yours, if you stick to a strict, overly particular and unnecessary ritual of ingesting nourishment. A fad diet.

    Devoid of any scientific justification, except for how restriction leads to a placebo effect that causes you feel better in the short term. And to gain more health problems in the long term. Just try the Atkins diet the Carnivore diet the Stone Age diet the starvation diet. It’ll work this time.

    Although I do not believe it rises to the level of Orthorexia, I do think Lizzie’s exaltation is Rossetti’s authorial approval for the refusal of carnal pleasures. That such temperance will lead to experience spiritual satisfaction. A message tainted by social narratives at the time that caused young girls to starve themselves to death for spiritual closeness to God.[9]

    If not a symptom of medical malaise, Goblin Market could be seen as a propagator of social illness. It is spreading a narrative that people to this day are barraged with. A message that we should fixate on food to the point of mania to achieve a form of existential enlightenment, whether that enlightenment is social captial or religious salvation.

    Remembering The Market

    In writing these essays I have grown to both love and loathe the Goblin Market. There is so much beauty and connection to Anglican history that I never learned about, as well as deeply fascinating theological structuring. Even the interpretations that fall outside of Rossetti’s intentions have such wonderful explorations of human experience. Every paper I read I acquire another connection to the Bible or to queerness or mental health.

    But, with every paper I also discover another way that the grimmest fruits of British society are sold within the tale. I have said that I will not advise you how to feel about the Goblin Market. And I do not wish to take away from the sapphic and religious beauty of the poem. However, I need to state this.

    No matter how much you love the poem, remember what Christina Rossetti was really like. I, like many of the authors I have read for these essays, struggle with the whitewashing of Rossetti as a feminist and pseudo-queer poet. A narrative I held coming into the research and informing why I enjoyed the poem.

    I think that while she is progressive for her station and time, such a statement is damning with faint praise. Whilst you can enjoy Goblin Market as a testament to lesbian love, it is impossible to say that Rossetti ever would have approved of such ideas. And that somewhat dampens my enjoyment, especially when she is uplifted instead of actual sapphic writers.

    Therefore, I will leave you with a brief work by Jewish Victorian poet Amy Levy. A gift to her friend and unrequited lover, Violet Paget. An example of the writers left in the shadows of Christina Rossetti.

    New Love, New Life

    She, who so long has lain

    Stone-stiff with folded wings,

    Within my heart again

    The brown bird wakes and sings.

    Brown nightingale, whose strain

    Is heard by day, by night,

    She sings of joy and pain,

    Of sorrow and delight.

    ‘Tis true,—in other days

    Have I unbarred the door;

    He knows the walks and ways—

    Love has been here before.

    Love blest and love accurst

    Was here in days long past;

    This time is not the first,

    But this time is the last[13]

    References

    1. Reed, M. (2020).The Queer and Feminist Myth-Revision of Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”. The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Journal, 113-117
    2. Rich, A. (1980). Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. Signs: Journal of women in culture and society, 5(4), 631-660.
    3. Duguid, L. (2004). Rossetti, Christina Georgina (1830–1894), poet. Retrieved from: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
    4. Morrill, D. F. (1990). “Twilight is Not Good for Maidens”: Uncle Polidori and the Psychodynamics of Vampirism in” Goblin Market. Victorian Poetry, 28(1), 1-16.
    5. Little, R. (2020). Homoerotic Vampirism in” Goblin Market” and Carmilla. Furman Humanities Review, 31(1), 69-80.
    6. Rossetti, C.G (1862). Goblin Market and other poems. Cambridge London. Macmillan.
    7. Silver, A. K. (2002). Victorian literature and the anorexic body (Vol. 36). Cambridge University Press.
    8. NHS. (2024). Overview – Anorexia. Retrieved From: NHS UK
    9. Brumberg, J. J. (1985). ” Fasting Girls”: Reflections on Writing the History of Anorexia Nervosa. Monographs of the Society for research in Child Development, 93-104.
    10. A. K. Silver. (2002). Victorian literature and the anorexic body (Vol. 36). Cambridge University Press.
    11. Rossetti, C. G. (1892). The Face of the Deep: A Devotional Commentary on the Apocalypse. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
    12. Bratman, S., & Knight, D. (2000). Health food junkies : overcoming the obsession with healthful eating. New York: Broadway Books.
    13. Levy., A (1889). New Love, New Life. Retrieved From: Victorian Queer Archive