Seeing the Dana Terrace drama on Bluesky about how people are upset that she confirmed one character in her show (Knight of Guinevere I believe) was cisgender because many fans assumed she was trans is just something..... I’m not surprised it turned into this, but what really bothers me is how people immediately started calling Dana transphobic or a TERF because of it. Like… really? Dana Terrace? A TERF? The director who literally fought to make queer characters canon in her show? Come on.

I get that people can feel disappointed when a character they thought was queer turns out not to be, but that doesn’t automatically make the creator queerphobic?

One thing I’ve noticed in the discourse is that some fans said Dana shouldn’t have clarified the character’s gender at all, because it “erases the possibility” of her being trans. Honestly, that’s such a weird mindset. I see this a lot in English-speaking fandom spaces , people assume a character is queer until the creator explicitly says otherwise. That might make sense if there were strong hints or if the author’s previous works leaned that way, but let’s be real: we live in a cisheteronormative society where people tend to assume cis and straight as the default.

This assumption also extends to queer characters, most are still written as cis, while trans characters usually need explicit confirmation or explanation. There’s definitely an issue with that, but that’s a bigger societal topic, and I don't think our society in general is that conscious about gender issue….

As for the “erasing possibility” thing, if this character were actually trans, the creator would’ve shown or hinted at it in the story. I haven’t watched the show myself, but I doubt Dana was “baiting” the audience like that. Assuming every masculine woman or GNC character is trans feels shallow. A woman can present in a gender-nonconforming way or experience some gender conflict without being trans. Cis people can have gender moments too and that’s okay. Gender expression is a diverse.

Honestly, this whole situation reminds me of how the Xenoblade fandom treats A. people just can’t stop debating A’s gender even though the creator already confirmed it.

Even if a character is confirmed to be cis, you can still headcanon them as trans or queer. I do that all the time! I’ve got plenty of cishet characters I headcanon as queer just for fun, “death to the author” and all that. But I’m not going to get mad at the creator for having a different vision. It’s their story and their characters: we’re just playing dolls with their characters.

What worries me is that this kind of reaction might make creators afraid to talk about their work at all, out of fear of invalidating fan headcanons. I can kind of understand now why some artists and authors see fandom culture as toxic — there’s this sense of entitlement, like creators have to cater to fans or avoid touching certain topics just to not upset fans.

“Death of the Author” is still a thing, and it means that audience interpretations and perspectives are important and can enrich the meaning of art. But that doesn’t mean the audience’s interpretation is absolute, or that we should completely disregard the author’s intent.

At the end of the day, headcanons should be for self-indulgence and fun! And you have to be ready for the fact that other people or even the author might see things differently from your interpretation