@avclub-884c4beddd8c98bb3b016bdfcc1bcdf8:disqus , you're getting blowback that you wouldn't be getting if you said that Wanda was "physically male" or "genetically male" or "has male genitalia" as opposed to saying that "she is a man".

@LurkyMcLurkerson:disqus I don't read @avclub-64f027640f63616a277e92096313264f:disqus as saying that. I read him as saying that some people, regardless of the arguments being made, can't help but read Wanda's arc as transphobic and think this reflects poorly on Neil Gaiman the author, or at least on Neil Gaiman as he…

@LurkyMcLurkerson:disqus I don't read @avclub-64f027640f63616a277e92096313264f:disqus as saying that. I read him as saying that some people, regardless of the arguments being made, can't help but read Wanda's arc as transphobic and think this reflects poorly on Neil Gaiman the author, or at least on Neil Gaiman as he…

That's always what I thought was most frustrating about Wanda's death — that she dies for, essentially, nothing. (As with the Women in Refrigerators trope, dying as a kind of plot token rather than the truly heroic death dead male superheroes get.)

That's always what I thought was most frustrating about Wanda's death — that she dies for, essentially, nothing. (As with the Women in Refrigerators trope, dying as a kind of plot token rather than the truly heroic death dead male superheroes get.)

It would've been a really interesting alternate ending for this story for the possessed housemate who serves as the Cuckoo's escape to be Wanda.

It would've been a really interesting alternate ending for this story for the possessed housemate who serves as the Cuckoo's escape to be Wanda.

"Man" or "woman" is a social category LIKE ALL WORDS. It's frequently conflated with a specific physical characteristic associated with that category, but the fact that it's associated with social and personal concepts that go way beyond that physical characteristic is why that physical characteristic isn't a…

"Man" or "woman" is a social category LIKE ALL WORDS. It's frequently conflated with a specific physical characteristic associated with that category, but the fact that it's associated with social and personal concepts that go way beyond that physical characteristic is why that physical characteristic isn't a…

Morpheus even specifically calls out Thessaly at the end of this story arc for how reckless and stupid her actions were, and Thessaly's reaction to this doesn't speak well of her maturity or self-knowledge.

Morpheus even specifically calls out Thessaly at the end of this story arc for how reckless and stupid her actions were, and Thessaly's reaction to this doesn't speak well of her maturity or self-knowledge.

Being transgender is a real "biological" phenomenon, since it occurs in the brain and the brain is biological.

Being transgender is a real "biological" phenomenon, since it occurs in the brain and the brain is biological.

If Neil had made it clear that a woman who had had a hysterectomy would have the path of the moon shut to her just as much as Wanda, transpeople might not have reacted so badly to it.

If Neil had made it clear that a woman who had had a hysterectomy would have the path of the moon shut to her just as much as Wanda, transpeople might not have reacted so badly to it.

The definition of the word "man", like the definition of any English word, is not a scientific but a social question.

The definition of the word "man", like the definition of any English word, is not a scientific but a social question.

There's plenty of people with an XX chromosome who, for whatever reason, also end up not generating eggs, having periods or bearing children. We don't define them as "not women" or "less of a woman" (though there are certainly cultures from the past that to a degree would have done so).

There's plenty of people with an XX chromosome who, for whatever reason, also end up not generating eggs, having periods or bearing children. We don't define them as "not women" or "less of a woman" (though there are certainly cultures from the past that to a degree would have done so).

The acting during the dialogue sequences actually has way, way more to do with successfully selling a sequence as "action-packed" to the audience than the effects during the action sequences.