Too bad RTD's entire filmography is crazy biphobic. Man don't give a fck about bi representation.

while i have only actually watched doctor who and casanova and this video essay i feel kind of pretty safe dying on the hill that he does care a lot about queer rep (bi rep included) he's just, like.. unhinged about it. refuses to make it palatable. i think it's fair to say that the rep he makes doesn't resonate with every bi person or can perpetuate biphobic stereotypes but i think it's also fair to say that he did a lot for pioneering it in the first place. i never watched torchwood but if every main character's kissing a guy and a girl on screen there then like, i do think this is something that matters to him

Idk if your blog is the place for this discussion, and I know it's missing the point that trans people had made (but I dont want to speak for them) - from my perspective rule!63 for only one character in m/m ships is inherently homophobic. Changing one character to Fem is forcing a heteronormative structure on gay pairings. As a gay person, I see enough straight pairings, why do this in m/m fics?? If you're exploring discussions around gender, try making both rule 63 otherwise that's an excuse.

(Sorry about the late response - been a busy week(s) and the topic required some thought.)

Not gonna lie, I was very confused when I first saw this ask before I realized it was prompted by this post I reblogged. I’m not sure this blog is a place for this discussion either, at least in terms of visibility. This isn’t a discourse blog or any sort of discussion-oriented one, just my personal trashfire. All I can give you is my view on this.

Addressing the trans perspective first - I can’t speak for every trans person out there, no one can, but my perspective as a transmasc guy is that rule!63 has a place in fandom that’s very different from that occupied by trans narratives. Writing a cis male character as cis female or vice verse isn’t even comparable to writing a trans narrative. The way gender is conceptualized is these two cases are poles apart, and the you can potentially explore gender dynamics is also different. One cannot be replaced by the other, and that doesn’t mean rule!63 has to be chucked out the window while we focus solely on trans stories either.

Because as a trans person, I can tell you that 99% of the time, I stay the fuck away from trans narratives, whether or not they’re written by fellow trans folks. It hits too close to home and is usually very triggering. The 1% of time is an exception and even then, it takes a lot out of me. And I’ve trawled around tumblr enough to know that I’m not the only trans person who feels this way. Rule!63, with its cis main characters is a wholly different thing.

Now, onto your claim that Rule!63-ing just one character in a m/m pairing is inherently homophobic:

I disagree.

To start with, a good amount of m/m content in fanfic are of non-canon pairings. Which means the gay representation already doesn’t exist. Fanfic isn’t representation - it’s fans compensating for lack of representation and combining it with subtext or just generally playing around with sacred canon for any number of reasons. And just as some fans choose to ship male characters who’re canonically straight/unconfirmed together, some fans will ship the same male characters with other female characters. Neither one is more or less valid than the other.

The same way people are drawn to particular ships, they’re drawn to particular characters. And a huge part of fandom is made up of women - queer, straight, cis, trans. They might want to explore their existence in relation to their favorite character(s), and sometimes, they may do this using Rule!63. 

This is by no means the only reason a writer would rule!63 a guy and ship him-turned-her with another guy. And all these writers aren’t necessarily women either. It’s not like we know the gender of an author just from reading the content of a story. The above example was just one possibility that came to mind when you said this sort of Rule!63 is inherently homophobic. I’m a straight trans guy (clarifying because this is tumblr - I identify as a man and am attracted to women), but the stories I write are of gay and bi men, because exploring masculinity is more comfortable for me than exploring femininity, for obvious reasons. Point is, my fics reflect neither my gender (trans man) nor my sexuality (heterosexual).

You see the issue in trying to suss out motivations through fictional content? And this is just a mild example.

I understand wanting to see more queer content. I’m in the same boat. But the solution to that isn’t blaming Rule!63 writers. Use filters generously to blacklist content you don’t want to see. Either create or otherwise promote the kind of content you do want to see.

Because no, changing one half of a fictional m/m ship to female isn’t enforcing heteronormativity on gay characters. The gay rep didn’t exist in the first place. I’d argue that “ukefication” is closer in line to viewing male same-sex relationships through a heterosexual lens. A writer changing a male character to female is just playing in their fanon sandbox, as is their right.

It’s their story. They can do whatever they want.

I’m not saying there are no Rule!63-ed straight stories written because the writer is homophobic. It’s likely. People come in all flavors, some of them shitty. I don’t see why a m/m pairing would appeal to a homophobe in the first place, but I’ve also trawled around the internet often enough to see that people might support queer characters in fic, then turn around and be bigoted towards actual lgbtq+ people.

But the accusation that it’s inherently homophobic is in no way substantiated.

I do think it’s different when we’re dealing with a pairing that’s canonically m/m.Then, you have actual gay representation, and changing one of those characters into cis women would offend a lot of people and for good reason. My last fandom and ship revolved around a canon gay couple - Viktor and Yuuri from Yuri on Ice. Most wrote them as cis men, some wrote both as cis women, others wrote one/both as trans characters. Rule!63 for just one was rare, and the few times I saw it, I noped the fuck out. My current ship is non-canon (let’s not go into the subtext and tropes and marvel’s bs). At the end of the day, Steve and Bucky aren’t gay representation because that’s up to Marvel, and we know what they did. I’ve seen fics that portray them with a wide variety of genders and sexualities, and some of them show them as a straight couple. Unlike with Yuri on Ice, these stories don’t seem offensive to me. I may or may not engage with them, but the content alone is harmless.

(Anyone wants to add to this, feel free. As I said, I’m not a discourse blog, and these are my musings, not the gospel. Different people will view this issue differently. But do be civil.)