*sits down and breathes*
Okay. Those who know me for my fan art may have noticed that my Kuro art folder consists of 90% Grell. Considering that I love everything Grell one would have thought I´d have a strong opinion on the character´s gender and would shout it from the rooftops...as a matter of fact, I have tried to stay out of the infamous Grell gender/pronoun debate for as long as possible.
Until now.
You see, someone (and I´m purposely not going to mention who it was and where you can find the quote) commented on a fan art of mine:
"i love how you make grell look like what she really is, a cute (but crazy) lady and not a man"
Note that this person has been very nice and decent; their remark just triggered my train of thoughts, and made me reconsider my choice to keep quiet about the issue. So I decided to elaborate on a few aspects, and to explain a few things at the same time. Some sentences will be copied and pasted directly from the reply I wrote to the quote above, because I´m not sure I could rephrase them accurately.
1. Why I don´t tolerate the Pronoun Debate on my dA account
I want this page to be free of hate. I despise nothing more than hate. This includes ship wars, and this blasted pronoun war.
I want people to be able to enjoy my art, regardless of their opinion. I want them to feel safe to express their opinion in the comments, no matter if I agree or disagree. I want them to be able to engage in healthy, mature and adult discussions with people sharing their views or having other views - should they feel the need to do so. I don´t want them to come to my page to look at something they enjoy, express their views on it, and getting lectured on how wrong they are and how they are supposed to live their life as a fan.
Of course I draw pictures with a certain backstory in mind. The colours I choose may have a certain significance; the way a character looks might mean something precise in my head. This does not mean that I´m going to tell anyone who sees something different in what I draw how wrong they are. That´s not how art works. Art is not static. Art creates opinions, art creates polemics. I want you to have different views of what I draw. I love it when you come up with your own headcanons for my stuff, even if it´s not what I imagined. I want the response to my art to be as diverse as possible. I respect and welcome every opinion, and I honestly expect my watchers to be mature and decent enough to do the same.
I know from experience how nasty this whole debate around Grell´s pronoun can get. I´ve seen people being bullied over it. I´ve seen people fall out of the fandom because of it. I don´t want that on my account. Whether you use he, she, they, ze, whatever - I welcome and accept everything, as long as you don´t shove it down my throat, or those of your fellow fans.
2. Why I use "he" when I talk about Grell
It´s a language thing, really. I don´t know if you´re aware of that, but English is not my mother tongue. I was born and raised in Luxembourg, making Luxembourgish my native language. Now when I type something in English, it sometimes happens that I translate things from Luxembourgish into English, because Luxembourgish is the language I am thinking in. That, and in German, because German sometimes has better words, or even more words, to express things (like "I love you". My mother tongue doesn´t have something to directly express that).
Now as far as I know the only stuff that is gendered in English are human beings, and animals if you specify whether you´re talking about a male or a female. It´s different in Luxembourgish and German. We gender objects too. And planets, and other neutral stuff.
Examples:
The chair → the = gender neutral
The flower → the = gender neutral
The book → the = gender neutral
BUT
Der Stuhl [the chair] → der = male pronoun
Die Blume [the flower] → die = female pronoun
Das Buch [the book] → das = neutral pronoun
Now I´ve always tried to talk about Grell as "the character". Only problem is: I keep thinking "der Charakter" as in German, and as you see, the word "character" is gendered male in German. I´ve tried to talk about Grell while using no pronouns at all and found it extremely hard (might just be me though), so I decided to stick with the male "he" , because I keep on thinking and writing "he" - not necessarily because I label Grell as male. Just thought I´d clear that up.
3. What I think about this whole gender debate
Well personally I do see Grell as a bit of both. I mean, he sometimes displays male traits and ways of behaving as well, which I link to the following things:
- The time period in which Grell lives
- The environment in which the manga was written (read: Japan´s view on LGBTQUIA+ things)
- Each and every person sometimes displays behaviour that will be attributed to the opposite gender. In fact, I do not believe that there is something like "typically male" or "typically female". Whos´ idea was it anyway to attribute gender to behaviour, or feelings, or pieces of clothing? In the 16th century, men wore high heels, so why should they be female only?
If you want to read more about this, you might want to consider reading this article. It´s related to the Japanese concept of okama and the old English concept of mollies, and how this comes into play with Grell´s gender identity. The article explains it way better than I ever could do it.
I had a bit of trouble finding the article, as the old link I had leading to it appeared to be broken. Should you not be able to access the site, shoot me a note. I have the article copied and sta.shed, but as I´m not the original writer I don´t want to post the link to the sta-shed version publicly.
So I try to show a bit of both sides. In fact, Grell is such a complex and multidimensional character that I´m pretty sure I won´t ever be able to show all of his facettes. That being said, I love to explore his feminine side, and I know he would enjoy it.
(Also, would someone introduce me to him in person, I would probably greet him with "Mr Sutcliff" but jump to using "she" as soon as he´d go "Call me Miss Grell, dearie". XD I´d definetely respect his choices. Furthermore, while Grell says in the character guide that he wants a sex change, Yana Toboso keeps on using male pronouns for him, so I´m sticking to that - except for when I´m writing Grell in the first person, which happens rarely enough. XD )
But hey, as said - this is my opinion, and mine only. People are welcome to disagree with me, and discuss their views with me, as long as they stay mature and respectful. This is why I don´t want the famous Grell pronoun war happening on my page, as it often takes a nasty turn. And I want each and every opinion to feel comfy here. :3
So my personal conclusion on this whole thing: I reckon getting misgendered can be a pretty painful experience, and public exposure matters for every kind of population group. But I firmly believe that there is no "right" or "wrong" with Grell, and this is something I really like and appreciate. Because it seems to me as if Grell would try to tell us that he´s "too awesome for normal standards" anyways (quote by hannikka ). There´s so much to explore about this character, and I think we should rather be amazed by that and marvel at how diverse the opinions are that he produces, rather than start a war over just one thing we can´t seem to agree on.
That being said - feel free to share your views and opinions in the comments! Just remember - no bullying, no bashing, all mature and adult discussions please.
Stock images & brushes courtesy of ChristasVengel-stock, RiNymph-Stock, dazzle-textures, DadiLights, iMouritsa, frozenstocks, PilgrimSoul, joannastar-stock, Atenaispd, bittbox & kuschelirmel-stock.
Design & coding by kuschelirmel-stock.Journal Credits
Design & coding by kuschelirmel-stock.Journal Credits
