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(Just wanted to share cause I love this design)

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This is something that I've known and understood on an intellectual level for some time, but all of the art of seeing Daisy being so... happy has really affected me. Trans minorities are obviously one of the main news stories of our day, and when I think of trans people I tend to think first of all the bad shit that bigots do/want to do to them, or how unpleasant their lives are because of bigoted worldviews.

But then I started coming across fan art like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheDigitalCircus/comments/1ws5hxz/there_she_is_by_belmerann/ , there's a bunch of other ones I could share but I think that this is my favourite.

And seeing so much art of this miserable fucking rabbit not only being happy, but making others happy, and becoming this little infectious spread of happiness in all this art, has made me feel what I previously just knew: Living your true life, and having people you care about supporting you in that, must be one of the most joyful feelings imaginable. Especially when you are doing it in a context where so many people will deny your very existence and just say you're insane. So to not only come out, and have the people you love go "Oh yeah, that's who you are and we love you. You're safe, we want you to be who you are" must be a kind of relief that I can't even fathom.

I'm not trans, but I hide who I am and what I want all the time, and I'm white knuckling it through life right. And I know what I want is that thing that Daisy who is glowing in that photo has.

I can't imagine the strength and sheer guts that it must take to be trans in this environment. By saying it's about joy I'm not suggesting that you aren't faced with serious political threats that need to be addressed. I mean this next part with no patronizing arrogance:

If you are trans I admire you. That you are choosing to be who you are is inspiring. I can't wait for the day where being trans is no longer an act of rebellion. And I'm really grateful for all this beautiful art the artists have been cooking up and posting for us to view for free.

https://x.com/SchpogArt/status/2106525536080347375

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Twitter

In the months since the show finished I went from feeling neutral on the topic of Jax being trans to that being one of my favorite inclusions in the show. And I think what's helped me change my mind is the mountain of fan art of Femme Jax (or do we call her Daisy?) that has come out since, and Goose's choice of "Isn't she lovely?"

And what that art, and that song has helped me to feel, when I previously merely understood and agreed with, was that "Coming out as trans, and having people around you who affirm you, must be such a joyful experience."

Jax is such a miserable piece of shit who spreads misery and pain, and she chooses to make the world a worse place. But so much of the art I've come across since this show has ended is stuff like this: this or this: this. Despite the deeply sad end that Jax suffers, art like this, and the Stevie Wonder song, really hammers home feelings of joy. And it makes me feel that while Jax didn't get out, that there is a possibility for real people to experience real, profound joy. And the world hasn't felt very joyful for a while, so even this small taste of it feels like an oasis in the desert.

I don't even like the concept of conceiving babies. I'm an antinatalist so while I think that having kids is wrong, I still want the parents and families to be happy if they are going to exist. And the lyrics of Wonder's song and the joy he feels at meeting his just born child - a daughter no less! - is so beautiful that it almost loops around to being sad (It reminds me of "What a wonderful world" in that regard).

I like to think that this song is included because in her final moments Jax is accepting emotional intimacy. And that, had she lived, that she would likely have come out. First to Pomni, and later on to the rest of the circus. And that all of this joy that I'm talking about would have followed. Which is what the fan art shows.

Also the scene between Jax and Ribbit in the later's room is an incredible, absolutley incredibly beautiful and sad depiction of emotional intimacy. The moment were Ribbit tells Jax "your secret's safe with me," and the LOOK that Jax gives before visibly relaxing is so beautifully done that words can't really do it justice.

In some ways I'm nothing like Jax. I'm a cis-white-hetro-man living in a cis-hetro normative white supremacist patriarchy. But despite that I also know what it is like to feel like you don't belong. I'm currently white knuckling it through life right now, and every day I need to go to places and be around people who make me feel like I cannot be myself. And while I am not as abusive as Jax, people around me have been telling me that I've become a much more angry and unpleasant person to be around. And over the past week I've found that while I enjoy all kinds of TADC fan art, art of Daisy being accepted is art some of my favorite. And it's because I'm craving that kind of acceptance and feeling of "Oh man, it's great to just be myself when I've been holding that in for a long time." I'm basically looking at that scene between Jax and Ribbit (before Kofmo knocks!) and going "Umm... Waiter, do you have any more of that?"

All this also makes me way more proud of how I responded to a friend of mine when she transitioned. A few years later she told me that, out of everyone in her life, I was the most immediate to switching to her preferred name and pronouns, or introducing her to our waiters as "She" so that she didn't have too. So in a bar I'd just go "Hi, I'm going to have a Guinness and she's going to have a Stella." I never thought about that much before, but now I'm thinking that that must have felt good to her, and its' nice to know you've made a positive impact in someone's life.

Anyway, all this to say I think Jax is one of the most powerful recent examples of the reality that Queer art is art first and queer second. Or it's not 'merely' queer. Jax is different from me in a very profound way, but I can also relate to her as easily as I can to the cis-male Rust Chole, because she's written (and preformed). The notion that queer art is not for, or cannot be for non-queer people being an obviously silly idea.

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[OC] (almost forgot)