happy lesbian day of visibility

tenko is a lesbian

shes a lesbian written by a... questionable straight man (one hint: all the incestuous bullshit in danganronpa), so of course her writing's gonna be fucked up. she's not good lesbian rep, but for the love of everything, she's a lesbian. and the only strongly lesbian-coded character! her entire schtick is that She Loves Girls and She Hates Men. other characters like mahiru and aoi that are commonly hc'ed as lesbians are a lot more subtle/subtext, but its the blatant "I LIKE GIRLS AND DONT LIKE GUYS" character that everyone suddenly wants to insist is bi. like, if tenko were a man who loved guys and hated girls, people would be vehemently saying that anyone who hc'ed him as bi was homophobic. but when its a girl who hates guys and loves girls, its suddenly "her hatred of men is so childish and she just needs to meet the right guy"

like, some of y'all will say that tenko is "predatory" and "stalkerish" towards himiko but turn around and act like the common fanon interpretation of sai/oma is the best thing since sliced bread! people will go to any lengths to discredit wlw ships while not giving their precious yaoiz a second glance!

in short- just say y'all are lesbophobic and leave

Guess I'll throw my hat into the ring.

Tenko is a lesbian, plain and simple. She's not good lesbian rep, I'll admit, but she's a lesbian. Her character is primarily built on the man-hating lesbian trope, and, to a lesser extent, the predatory sapphic. (I acknowledge that "predatory" can be applied to all wlw.) 85% of her personality outside of her FTEs is "hurr durr I hate men and I automatically suspect men of being the culprit in Class Trials despite the two trials I was alive for turning out with female Blackened." This, along with other tidbits (only letting girls touch her abs and hand-sewing frills onto her costume to attract girls, both stated in the official artbook, come to mind), suggests heavily that Tenko is a lesbian.

But that's not the only issue with bi!Tenko headcanons. A lot of the time, when Tenko is shipped with a man (specifically Rantaro, as that's the most common Tenko x Man pair I've seen), the story usually goes, "Tenko sees (Male Character) being nice to a girl, gets closer, ends up learning that Not All Men are bad and being cured of her irrational hatred of men, and falls in love with him." That narrative in and of itself is lesbophobic, suggesting that a lesbian who "hates men," like Tenko herself, just needs to meet the right man to be "cured" of her "irrationality." It's a troubling trend in Tenko/Rantaro fanfiction, and god knows if it's in any other Tenko/Men pairings.

Again, I'm not claiming Tenko is good lesbian rep, but she's a lesbian. End of story.

most bi tenko hcs go like "tenko grows by realizing that Not All Men are bad uwu" "she is Cured of her Irrational hatred of men"

news flash, asshole, that's lesbophobic!

tenko's character is heavily reliant on a specifically lesbophobic trope, the man-hating lesbian, and, to a lesser extent, the predatory lesbian. plus the whole idea of her being Cured of her non-attraction to men is lesbophobic in and of itself