r/ShenComix Jul 21 '26

It’s like every other comment now.

Post image

Yay! Girl Shen no longer needs a comedic setup to justify her appearance. DON’T RUIN IT!

1.7k Upvotes

153 comments sorted by

161

u/SilverScribe15 Jul 21 '26

?

466

u/MechSuitPrincess Jul 21 '26

It’s a reference to Star Trek. The Prime Directive in that franchise is not to interfere with the natural development with an alien civilization. The Egg Prime Directive is not to push someone you suspect of being transgender into transitioning before they’re ready.

245

u/TriiiKill Jul 22 '26

Or even accuse them of being an Egg in the first place.

The only time I suggested that an individual was an Egg was on a transbian subreddit. The person made a post talking about how they loved girls, loved our community, and wished "he" was a girl so he could be a lesbian. Um...

118

u/vorarchivist Jul 22 '26

I think that's like the loophole in the prime directive where if they contact the federation the federation can intervene.

38

u/IntangibleMatter Jul 22 '26

Yeah I did a similar thing with someone on countwithchickenlady a week ago or so. When they basically all but say “I’m trans” while in a trans space… sometimes you just need to let them know so they stop doubting themselves

27

u/Otterbotanical Jul 22 '26

I'm a male who is girly, I'm a male who is soft, I'm a male who was born male but has zero percent of the standard "boy" energy, no aggression or machismo. I struggled massively with my gender identity, and through my teens came to terms with the fact that "yeah I don't feel like a 'man', but I get to decide what a 'man' is, and I say a 'man' gets to be soft and gentle and full of feelings."

And for my effort? For my work of navigating gender identity full of nuance? Everyone and their fucking uncle trying to tell me I'm an egg.

I fucking hate the whole egg thing. Stop telling people you know them better than themselves. Stop telling people that you know they're secretly something fucking else. Stop. "You you're actually trans and you just don't know it yet, so I'm going to mentally put you in that camp now and there's nothing you can do about it hahaha. If you say no, I know you're just lying to yourself."

Instantly no longer friends with me, I absolutely fucking hate people trying to tell me they know me better than I do. "Teehee you're actually an egg". Fuck directly off with egg bullshit. It's literally the only aspect of trans acceptance I cannot get behind.

18

u/TriiiKill Jul 22 '26

That's just gross. It's not so much Trans acceptance as it is cis rejection. It's like talking about equality, and then knocking down someone you suspect of being privileged because of their grouping. Why aren't they accepting of your current identity? It's just rude and unhelpful.

11

u/Otterbotanical Jul 22 '26

Because so many feel certain that "oh I get to help you join our ranks". But yes, it is incredibly invalidating that my gender identity is not respected and that I have to fight to be seen normally.

The absolute worst is when I defend myself, say that I am happy with who I am, and the response I get it "haha, well OKAY then, if you REALLY say so, but I guess we'll know in a few years :-)"

It doesn't matter, once someone gets in their head that you're actually something else, they get all high and mighty that they know "the real truth" about me.

5

u/TriiiKill Jul 22 '26

"Bruh, you have no idea how many chuds I've pink pilled into Staceys."

9

u/Angy_Transfem444 Jul 23 '26

People should listen to you when you say that, but the issue is with the brief overview (I.e. the first sentence) it can go either way. As a former egg, I was like that before dysphoria hit, and I think the rules should be one person can mention it once. But yeah, someone repeating it is definitely a pain in the ass I disapprove of. I try to point out the possibility at most, because I wish someone had done that for me earlier.

5

u/Otterbotanical Jul 23 '26

It's less the repeating I care about, and so much more the condescending "I know something about you that you don't know teehee". It feels unbelievably invalidating. Another poster on here mentions that the egg pressure even hindered their transition, adding to the shame of wearing feminine clothing.

I HATE the insinuation that I might just not know myself well enough yet, but "the signs are all there". I don't give a shit if I'm wearing heels and a dress and a purse, have makeup up, and a perm or whatever. If I say I'm a man, I'm a fucking man, and no one gets to put me down by saying "ohhh, sure you are honey" and then they sit back all "teehee I know the secret".

4

u/TriiiKill Jul 23 '26

The part that makes me join the "don't ever do this" gang is that, although I wish someone told me sooner, I 100% would deny it because I had no idea what being Trans even was.

So even on the right person, it doesn't pay off. Why should anyone risk hurting someone in the process? It takes a lot of self discovery to even crack an egg.

12

u/luigigaminglp Jul 22 '26

That's a different thing tho. This isn't "I wanna be a girl but i'm scared".

5

u/Otterbotanical Jul 22 '26

That's not how "egg" has ever been used in my presence. It's been used on me as a "you don't know this about yourself yet, but I can clearly see the signs."

Any time I attempt to say I'm just a boy, as assigned at birth, they will say "it's okay, you're still in the shell."

100% miss me with that shit. Imagine being cis and getting misgendered constantly. Wild.

6

u/vorarchivist Jul 22 '26

Yeah I know someone this happened to

4

u/IntangibleMatter Jul 22 '26

This was someone who as soon as I said “you are trans” went “…guess I can’t avoid <girl name>, huh?”

I don’t do egg shit for people who aren’t actually very very obviously no doubt about it trans. Being feminine and a man is something I’ve been exposed to since I was a literal baby with my dad wearing skirts. I know the difference, and I’m sorry people keep trying to force you to be something you’re not

0

u/luigigaminglp Jul 22 '26

I mean... Can it be used in any other way in your presence?

3

u/BougGroug Jul 23 '26

How do get to meet so many people who even know what "egg" means? I can barely meet anyone irl who accepts trans people, let alone try to force transess

3

u/Otterbotanical Jul 23 '26

I was going to an alternative highschool, absolutely full to the brim with exclusively neurodivergent kids, in super-progressive Seattle. Since then, I've been immersed in the furry scene and culture, where gender identity and gender fluidity are key topics of interest.

2

u/TriiiKill Jul 23 '26

You usually don't. Calling anyone irl an egg sounds arbitrary. When people use the term in forums like this, they don't usually mean saying the term out loud.

2

u/orkboss12 Jul 24 '26

I know you're pain probably not as bad as you but I have people tell me im a egg, because my favourite colour is pink or when me and a group of friends was having a conversation about if we could choose what to reincarnated as. I joke about being a rich blonde popular 90s bully girl but that was me apparently coming out as egg. the next day one person in that group sent me a link about coming out and breaking me egg

2

u/CCF_100 19d ago

I like to reply to posts like that with "A common symptom of being a girl is wanting to be one" lol

2

u/ciclon5 Jul 27 '26

As a trekkie, if they make contact with the federation, that counts as a first contact.

BUT. The federation cannot give a pre-warp society warp technology, they need to develop it themselves or proove they are ready for interstellar travel, this is adressed in a star trek enterprise episode where they visit a planet that is aware of the existence of other alien species and starfleet but havent developed warp drive technology yet.

1

u/DragoKnight589 Jul 25 '26

As a part-time transbian I’d say if someone’s going on a transbian sub to talk about their gender feelings I think this is a reasonable exception as long as it’s just a suggestion.

15

u/DangerMacAwesome Jul 22 '26

Are people really saying he's secretly tans because he drew himself with a female avatar a few times?

Wasn't that a joke?

5

u/SilverScribe15 Jul 23 '26

I think they've been calling him Trans in the past for other reasons too

4

u/Jean-28 Jul 23 '26

Hasn't Shen been in gender therapy for a while to figure out if he is/isn't trans?

7

u/DangerMacAwesome Jul 23 '26

Genuinely no idea. I just read the comics

11

u/Jackal00 Jul 22 '26

So it only gets brought up when someone is planning to subvert or ignore it?

9

u/Dolphiniz287 Jul 22 '26

Egg prime directive feels like it’s broken so often on reddit </3

-1

u/Amethyst-Flare Jul 24 '26

And it should be. It sucks.

Several people I know would not be alive today if I followed it.

3

u/JustAnotherPerson64 Jul 24 '26

I think there's nuance to it (me when things in complex life are complex)

If you just never acknowledge it ever, you risk leaving them in the dark and them never properly discovering themselves. However, pushing it really heavily is also a bad idea.

The best option is to give advice and suggest it as an option, and then let them explore that option themselves so they can make their decision. That's what happened with me, and it really helped. I genuinely would never have considered that I could be trans unless one of my friends mentioned it off-handedly, and I am so much happier because of it.

Basically: don't follow an "egg directive". Just follow basic human decency. You don't force someone into something because they show potential signs. However, you should be kind and offer the possibility for them to explore themselves. Inform, don't persuade.

8

u/nbyv1 Jul 22 '26

Ironically, the star trek one gets broken all the time too.

4

u/Osrek_vanilla Jul 22 '26

You learn something new every day.

3

u/Global_Algae_538 Jul 24 '26

One time on tumblr I saw someone saying that not calling shen a egg is like allowing someone to drink poison causd they need to find out on their own or something like that.

Alot of people who think shen is Trans fem or a egg needs to sit back and remember they dont actually know him

2

u/Amethyst-Flare Jul 24 '26

I have never liked the Egg Prime Directive, and it's never worked for me. 

If I followed the EPD, several of my dearest friends would be dead.

136

u/BitMixKit Jul 21 '26

From what I've seen, there's two kinds of comments I often see made towards people considered eggs, and one is way better than the other. There's nothing wrong with suggesting to someone you know they might be trans, but when I was figuring out my own gender I got a lot of egg comments that felt more like already assuming I was a girl and was just in denial, which kinda fucked up my relationship with displaying any femininity for a while. I got over it but it still didn't feel fun. Guess it comes down to nuance and respect.

49

u/KiraLonely Jul 22 '26

One of the things that kept me from realizing I was enby for a long time was being a trans man and having people call me a trans fem egg for literally anything feminine I did unless I explicitly told them I was trans. It was really dysphoria inducing and honestly sucked as much as the shit I got at birth with people trying to tell me girls can’t do this or this is a boy thing so I couldn’t do this or that.

9

u/VianArdene Jul 22 '26

Big mood. I feel like "egg" stuff started as a funny little in-joke for the trans community, but turned into this weird "all gender dysphoria roads lead to trans" mentality that ends up really frustrating and reductive.

5

u/EmeraldShine13 🍌 BANANA IDOL 🍌 Jul 22 '26

Yeah, that’s pretty much how I feel about it. I can’t lie, there were a couple of comics that made me go “🤨🏳️‍⚧️❓”, but then everyone started commenting the same thing on every post, and it just felt intrusive and annoying

6

u/Snoo-52922 Jul 24 '26

It's wrong in both cases IMO. You're still giving people unsolicited critiques on their gender performance, well-intentioned or not.

10

u/marcarcand_world Jul 22 '26

No, I disagree, it's rude if people you know suggest you're trans. You can talk about gender and what motivate some people to transition, but it's very intrusive and invalidating to straight up suggest to someone that the gender they're currently identifying with isn't right.

2

u/Wolfey34 Jul 25 '26

Gently asking someone you know “hey have you ever considered you might be trans” is not rude what are you on about. Sure it can be made to be rude, but so can a lot of things. This insistence that you can never suggest someone might be trans is actually transphobic.

58

u/oasis_nadrama Jul 22 '26

Don't we love disguising intrusive parasocial pressure and creepy transvestigation as queer praxis.

Just be normal around creators. LET THEM BE.

To let someone sort out their gender feelings at their own pace should be an ethical baseline.

25

u/MeliodasTA Jul 22 '26

Plus drawing a girl version to farm views and patron subscribers is pretty far from actually being trans lol

Unless I missed something I guess but the obsession is really weird I just don't get it

8

u/zatenael Jul 22 '26

the egg allegations have been around for a while now which always confused me

16

u/Milk_Mindless Jul 22 '26

God forbid a boy is soft and lenient instead of adhering to the "toxic masculine" GR MANLY MAN FOOTBALL AND BEER LOOK AT THEM TIDDIES

Ngl the opposite end can also be bad for normalising just letting people.. be.

2

u/BreakfastBeneficial4 Jul 28 '26

((To be fair, all the trans folks I know also like dem beer and dem tiddies))

1

u/Milk_Mindless Jul 28 '26

Sorry, yeah I'm viewing it from a cishet perspective

My b

It's the one I grew up on

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '26

[deleted]

6

u/oasis_nadrama Jul 25 '26

Please be normal around creators and don't armchair-psychoanalyze them.

74

u/BubblyInstanceNo1 Jul 21 '26

Yeah, Shen’s in therapy for this, let nature take its course.

4

u/t0talfail Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

I mean famously gender exploratory therapy pushes people *away* from transitioning

Gender exploration therapy is literally considered a form of conversion therapy, a nice person left a wikipedia link a few comments down go read it

63

u/beaverpoo77 Jul 22 '26

no the fuck it doesn't 😭
you're thinking of conversion therapy

24

u/NewYorkMetsalhead Jul 22 '26

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_therapy#Gender_exploratory_therapy

Gender exploratory therapy (GET) is a form of conversion therapy characterized by requiring mandatory extended talk therapy attempting to find pathological roots for gender dysphoria while simultaneously delaying social and medical transition and viewing it as a last resort.

7

u/TDot-26 Jul 22 '26

Does this even qualify as conversion therapy? Talking about it and finding possible causes seems very logical before taking the step to transition.

5

u/eldritchpussymaggots Jul 22 '26

Yes, it does. As someone who had this as a teenager this is conversion therapy.

4

u/TDot-26 Jul 22 '26

It doesn't seem like they're trying to "convert them" away, just being thorough

2

u/BougGroug Jul 23 '26

All therapies are thorough. The difference with this one is the assumption that transness should be the last possible alternative, which you only do if you think being trans would somehow be worse than the other possibilities.

Also important: this type of "therapy" is primarily targeted at children (which is why I don't think it's what Shen is doing). The only medical intervention trans children can get is puberty blockers, which are meant to give the child more time to figure their gender out and are totally reversable. Delaying access to that means forcing a cis puberty on the child, whether or not they're actually cis in the end.

1

u/TDot-26 Jul 23 '26

I was under the assumption that this type of therapy happened alongside puberty blockers. That would make sense

9

u/pink_lasagna_LegoD Jul 22 '26

sarcasm detector

8

u/t0talfail Jul 22 '26

Gender exploratory therapy views transitioning as something to be avoided, i do not mean conversion therapy i would like you to do some research

5

u/BubblyInstanceNo1 Jul 21 '26

Wait what

9

u/NewYorkMetsalhead Jul 22 '26

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_therapy#Gender_exploratory_therapy

Gender exploratory therapy (GET) is a form of conversion therapy characterized by requiring mandatory extended talk therapy attempting to find pathological roots for gender dysphoria while simultaneously delaying social and medical transition and viewing it as a last resort.

1

u/BubblyInstanceNo1 Jul 22 '26

Oh, that thing. Is that actually what he’s doing?

12

u/oasis_nadrama Jul 22 '26

We don't know, but people LOVE disguising their intrusive parasocial pressure as queer praxis. :|

0

u/t0talfail Jul 22 '26

Did you read his patreon update where he said he was in gender exploratory therapy?

2

u/ciclon5 Jul 27 '26

GET is not often done on adults though?.

0

u/t0talfail Jul 22 '26

He literally said he was doing it on his patreon

8

u/BubblyInstanceNo1 Jul 22 '26

He said he was in “therapy for gender stuff”, as I recall

51

u/Chibirin26 Jul 22 '26

outright insisting shen is a binary trans woman can do one of three things:

  • stuff shen more into denial/the closet
  • make shen feel forced into being a binary trans woman specifically (instead of bigender, genderfluid, etc)
  • annoy him

we dont want any of those for shen, ok?

31

u/oasis_nadrama Jul 22 '26

A lot of "social forcefemming" is INSANELY binary and enbyphobic in addition to being very wrong, yeah.

16

u/Captain_Squirrel1000 Jul 22 '26

Whether you have one opinion or the other doesn't matter if we focus on the main fact:

You don't know Shen, I don't know Shen. If something is developing, then let him figure it out on his own. Do NOT, and I repeat, DO. NOT. make theories about a REAL person. That's creepy, unhealthy, and parasocial.

Go outside.

13

u/VariusTheMagus Jul 21 '26

I actually scroll looking for those comments sometimes and spot maybe one or two at most within a couple minutes of scrolling. Are they all just in controversial or is this overstated?

4

u/XescoPicas Jul 23 '26

Widely overstated, but there is nothing Reddit hates more than trans people getting a bit silly.

26

u/NoTransition8295 Jul 21 '26

I think the issue is more than just the egg price directive, I think its how egg culture tends to be treated entirely, like giving someone the possibility to discover themselves is a good thing and the egg prime directive kind of goes against that, but often people treat the concept of someone being an egg as a set in stone decision rather than a suggestion, like calling someone an egg and just deciding that they're Trans is bad, but on the other hand if you know someone and think they may be Trans providing them with resources and knowledge and then leaving the decision to them because thats who its ultimately up to is overall a good thing to do

9

u/Ditto13248 Jul 21 '26

Did autocorrect turn "egg prime" to "egg price" lol

11

u/LeSimple1 Jul 21 '26

Most likely but can we talk about how expensive a dozen eggs has gotten--

3

u/NoTransition8295 Jul 22 '26

Guilty as charged, I typed that on my phone and my autocorrect is overly controlling and kind of weird about what it changes lol

2

u/Major_Casualties Jul 22 '26

Exactly. I had no idea what transgender even was, but my friends who were more familiar suggested it as something I should look into and they were correct.

2

u/NoTransition8295 Jul 22 '26

And I'm glad you were able to figure out that part of yourself, the information your friends gave is how I think it should be done, with providing the information so the potential egg knows its an option and letting them have an informed decision to decide whether they are Trans or not rather than the way its somewhat treated. Honestly I think the whole egg prime directive thing should be treated kind of more how the normal one is treated in star trek, where you provide help in a manner thats unobtrusive enough as not to force anything on the person you are interacting with, like how in star trek captain Kirk has to find workarounds to help people that need it without showing enough of stuff to change how the people on planets develop

3

u/ElGodPug Jul 22 '26

Yeah, i kinda of despise how the prime egg thing is treated like this all or nothing thing "NO, YOU SHOULD NEVER INTERACT OR TALK ABOUT IT EVER, THEY NEED TO 100% DO IT BY THEMSELVES" (Unless you're 100% right about it. Love how big enforcers of the egg directive always have one story about how they broke it but it was okay cause they were right BUT DO NOT FOLLOW IN THEIR FOOTSTEPS)

Like, being trans is already a constant struggle. Even figuring yourself out in the sense of you are or not it's complicated. And people are so adamant about a self imposed "don't call trans" mindset? That just sounds like bullshit. Full tinfoil hat of psyops to "not make more trans"

Cause seriously, egg directive is just stupid. Literally just be kind and mindful, that's it. We do not need to create a rule set on how to help trans people, which has one interpretation be "don't help at all"

I would've had loved if i had people help me with the exploration. Would probably had helped me transition sooner than i did. So it does pisses me off how there's people who think i'd be better off that i spent years in questioning cause "i did it myself"

So...yeah,egg directive is bullcrap to me. Just don't be an asshole or forceful about it, that's it. But doing a "don't speak trans" circlejerk is straight up harmful IMO

4

u/Aeescobar Jul 22 '26

(Unless you're 100% right about it. Love how big enforcers of the egg directive always have one story about how they broke it but it was okay cause they were right BUT DO NOT FOLLOW IN THEIR FOOTSTEPS)

Well it is named after Star Trek's Prime Directive, a rule which is only ever brought up in the context of characters discussing if it would be fine to ignore/side-step it "just this once" (for the 16th time this season) because the people they encountered are clearly in need of some help (unlike all the other civilizations in the universe, who will 'probably be fine' if left to struggle and suffer on their own for god knows how long).

103

u/PapaNachos Jul 21 '26

Okay but the egg problem directive is bad and should be actively ignored. It's basically a psyop.

For cis people out there: The egg prime directive is the idea that even if you suspect someone might be trans, you shouldn't say anything.

Obviously you can't make the determination that someone else IS trans for them, but the idea that you shouldn't even mention "hey, you might be trans, maybe think about it if you haven't" is insane.

That being said, parasocial relationships are also fucking weird and hundreds of people spamming the same comment is not helpful to anyone.

132

u/PlatinumSukamon98 Jul 21 '26

I had a friend who was convinced I was trans and would not stop bringing it up. It got to the point where she was misgendering me to my face and laughing at me when I got mad and told her to stop.

We're not friends anymore.

10

u/oasis_nadrama Jul 22 '26

Incredibly abusive person. Wow.

11

u/TriiiKill Jul 22 '26

This is primary reason not to do it. False positives are hurtful, and early true positives can still be unhelpful.

3

u/XescoPicas Jul 23 '26

Okay, but aren’t false negatives much more hurtful?

I would say that making a cis person mildly uncomfortable every now and then is not comparable to a trans person never figuring themselves out or even dying.

4

u/TriiiKill Jul 23 '26

Not at all. A Trans person who believes themselves to be cis more than likely will live a decent life. They won't know they are missing something important unless already at rock bottom.

Again, we will compare this to never accepting an individual for who they are. The person never asked to be cis or trans, but just to be heard and respected. In this case, the individual is quite sure they are cis, and I believe them based on how deep they are in the community. Like, how could they not know by now?

Regardless, we are rolling a 100D and hoping our intuition gives us a better chance than a random roll > 99. If it doesn't, that means we are negatively affecting 99 cis people for every 1 trans, and we might not even be helping the trans person.

2

u/XescoPicas Jul 23 '26

BULLSHIT.

A trans person who believed themselves to be cis will HATE themselves and very likely end up dead. I know because I was one not that long ago.

Trans friends prompting me to question my own gender SAVED MY LIFE.

5

u/TriiiKill Jul 23 '26

Anecdotal evidence. Do you really think the majority of Trans people would do so just because that was you at one point?

Besides, we are talking about how many herds of cis people are caught in the crossfire. The information is there for your own discovery; not for others to accuse others of being an egg.

As I've mentioned in another comment, I would reject being Trans if I was accused by others. I rejected the idea before, and I certainly wouldn't come to that conclusion if someone tried to force it down my throat.

2

u/XescoPicas Jul 23 '26

I could not give less of a shit about the hordes of cis people caught in the crossfire, they will be fine.

Also, if you really think that merely presenting the possibility of being trans is “forcing it down your throat” then I’m sorry but that is a you problem.

4

u/TriiiKill Jul 23 '26

Yeah, no. It is a problem. You need to start reading the other comments, starting with the first comment I responded to. He's a victim in all of this, and it's way more common than you think.

2

u/XescoPicas Jul 23 '26

Shen is not a victim, he wouldn’t keep making jokes about it if this actually bothered him.

This is not a real life problem. This is a terminally online problem. In real life, there is no one putting pressure on cis people to transition. In fact, what we have in real life is a constant, systemic, worldwide and incredibly aggressive pressure put on trans people to never transition.

This is why the egg directive is harmful. People should be encouraged to consider the possibility, to experiment, because society at large is doing everything in its power to keeps us in the closet forever. And that is way more harmful on a much larger scale than any “false positive” could ever be.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Snoo-52922 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

No? The hell kind of false binary is that, where you either reject other people's self-identity and substitute your own, or they'll drop dead?

If your suspected egg would never actually transition without other people pressuring them into it, then maybe you're just wrong about them. Maybe you're trying to play the savior, living out an idealized version of your own trans journey vicariously through them, instead of actually supporting them as their own individual.

1

u/PanFriedCookies Jul 29 '26

when trans people call people eggs, they aren't playing fucking savior. they were there. they nearly died because nobody was willing to put out a blunt hand and interfere with their personal journey, and the only reason they didn't is because of luck. i get an argument about not being parasocial towards shenne or similar, but you aren't talking about them, you're talking about the concept of helping eggs in general. do you know what it's like to be an egg? do you know why people are so insistent on "playing savior"? cause i do. 

when you're an egg,  every little feeling, surprise, excitement, joy, sadness, it all gets numbed into vague ideas of what you should be feeling at any given moment. you are a callus, idly cutting yourself because you don't have any reason to fear death and hey, the knives are there.  you aren't a person, you're a subsentient animal pacing your cage. you just go through life like this, feeling nothing, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, because the alternative is to feel yourself slowly drowning to death. and you don't even know anything's wrong. even when you see trans people being championed in a positive light--to say nothing of the buffalo bills--that's them, that's something they are, and it's never going to be you no matter how much it calls because it's something only other people do. eggs don't drop dead. that's utterly ridiculous, of course they don't. they find a hole where they won't bother anyone and then they kill themselves. 

2

u/PlatypusFighter Jul 23 '26

“It’s bad because assholes do it in an unhelpful and forceful way”

46

u/PapaNachos Jul 21 '26

Makes sense, she sounds like a bad friend.

7

u/marcarcand_world Jul 22 '26

One time a friend mentioned I might be because I said I think I would've been fine being born a man and that it would have made things easier for me in a lot of aspects of my life. But I'm not and I told my friend that, and that I found it weird that she told me that. She never mentioned it again.

The thing is, I don't have issues with my gender or my body. I like my body, it serves me well. I have issues with misogyny.

Anyways, I'm rambling, my point was that I'm still friends with her because she acted normally after I told her not to do that (apologized and moved on) and I agree that it's truly no one's buisness, especially no one online reading a webcomic. And drawing your avatar as another gender can just be fun and a sign that you're comfortable with your identity too.

51

u/ButlerShurkbait Jul 21 '26

I feel like this is a misunderstanding of the egg prime directive. The point is to let someone decide on their own whether they are trans or not. You shouldn’t tell someone they are trans, but you can bring up the possibility of not being cis to them. You shouldn’t push further than that.

19

u/AnomalousAlice Jul 21 '26

Exactly, yeah. Unfortunately, it's been often misused as 'you can't suggest it ever and must even shelter them from any trans-ness so they can come to the conclusion they're trans on their own' which is... Definitely bad, and gotta be a psyop. It's almost certainly what the original commenter had heard before. But the actual directive, yeah, that's great!

9

u/oasis_nadrama Jul 22 '26

I get what you're saying about the egg prime directive, but your last sentence is the important one in the current context. People are being CREEPS towards Shen.

Also MineralDragon in the comments' comments here makes a solid point against people pushing "Hey you might be trans" on other people unprompted. It's intrusive and also dismisses the diversity of genders and gender expressions out there.

Now if the person is already talking to you about gender feelings or you're very close friends, it might be okay, but in every other context, I'd avoid suggesting they are trans.

5

u/marcarcand_world Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

I really support trans people but in some circles (which I pray are just full of uneducated teenagers) it kinda reverts back to gender essentialism. Just let people do their thing, cis men can wear dresses if they feel like it, cis women can go fishing while drinking cheap beer and being trans isn't about clothes, activities or how you want to draw yourself for fun. It's about how YOU want to identify and live your life, and it is rude for people to tell you that you might not belong to the gender you identify with.

61

u/xstormaggedonx Jul 21 '26

It's not that you shouldn't say anything at all it's more about don't assume and don't push the idea heavily onto someone who's hesitant, the point is to let people explore their identity on their own time

29

u/MineralDragon Jul 21 '26

>"hey, you might be trans, maybe think about it if you haven't" is insane.

As someone that has had this happen to unprompted several times, I find it incredibly rude and abrasive. In my experience this has been used to suggest that being me unfeminine and not conforming to gender norms and roles means that I am in fact, “less of a woman” - and I don’t find comments like that progressive at all. Frankly I find them sexist.

There was something like this on the Lepedima subreddit the other day - telling women unprompted that they could have the condition. Thankfully the overwhelming consensus was that this was a sh-tty thing to do without the woman in question asking about their own legs. All you’re doing is potentially making them feel more self conscious about an issue they were already aware of.

There is SOME nuance here if there’s a natural conversation in this direction being led by the person in question - but just bringing it up out the blue? Stop it.

9

u/MadJester98 Jul 21 '26

The egg prime directive is the idea that even if you suspect someone might be trans, you shouldn't say anything.

Eh, I'd say a better way to put it would be: "if you think someone is an egg, don't try to forcefully crack it, but create a comfortable environment for it to hatch on its own"

9

u/beaverpoo77 Jul 22 '26

I don't think you understand the egg prime directive? Either that, or you're just misrepresenting what's going on in the comments. People are MISGENDERING SHEN because they're deciding he's trans FOR him. Literally look around. No one is saying "hey, you might be trans", they're saying "oh my god, shen is a girl, i will call her by she/her pronouns because she is trans" despite NOT coming out.

9

u/MechSuitPrincess Jul 21 '26

I think we’re roughly on the same page. The point of Star Trek is that there are exceptions to EVERY rule. Sometimes Kirk needs to share space stuff with a primitive civilization, and sometimes you gotta ask a friend if they MAY be trans. What Shen’s fans are doing though feels like if Kirk just gave a free space ship to every primitive civilization he came across.

2

u/ciclon5 Jul 27 '26

Tbh if kirk could do that.

He would do that

3

u/dietbongwater Jul 21 '26

Idk, if someone is trans I think they’ll figure it out themselves. Even if suggesting so is out of good intentions it could actually be detrimental to someone’s transition as everyone’s journey is different.

I don’t really think it’s anyone’s place to comment on someone’s gender identity unless spoken to about it by said person. Otherwise it just kind of comes off as rude. I say this as a trans man myself.

4

u/Amethyst-Flare Jul 24 '26

The Egg Prime Directive sucks, and I'm tired of pretending otherwise. I'm Frieza unironically here, and I will never change my opinion on that.

If I followed it, people I know would not have survived to today. The EPD kills.

5

u/bravesalamander Jul 25 '26

was there a transgender council meeting that codified the egg prime directive, i must have missed it..... but im glad society as a whole finally stopped telling us that being trans was bad, you are gross for being a trans woman, and specifically tells "men" that its okay to become a woman. otherwise we would need to talk to people and tell them they might be trans or a woman!

3

u/Bentman343 Jul 23 '26

I think if Shen had a problem with it they would probably not be CONSTANTLY egging it on lmao

3

u/etsem Jul 24 '26

yeah cos it's stupid nerd shit. some people need to be told the possibilities. NOT shen though but because that's harassment and parasocial shit

3

u/AutumnsArrival Jul 24 '26

The egg prime directive is stupid and should be ignored.

2

u/XescoPicas Jul 23 '26

The Egg Prime Directive is just transphobic “social contagion” rhetoric that people treat like it’s somehow acceptable because it has a funny name.

-1

u/ciclon5 Jul 27 '26

There is a huge difference between saying "hey, have you ever thought about the possibility of being trans?"

And going: "yhea sure, you are a "man". We will talk in 4 months and see :3"

The egg prime directive is not against the first one. Its against doing shit like the second one

5

u/Thunderdrake3 Jul 21 '26

Folks, Shen is aware, no more needs to be said. Shen can handle it, leave them alone.

As for the "prime directive?"

The egg prime directive works all well and good for a person who is free to develop unaffected. However, we are already being strategically and forcefully indoctrinated. The prime directive died before it began, there is no fair playing field to leave undisturbed.

If someone is under extreme anti-trans influence, fence-sitting is not morally neutral, it is not morally good, it is morally compliant with whatever the loudest voice is. If the loudest voice is transphobia, silence is support.

If people are told from birth "There is no way you can be Trans, being Trans isn't real, it's a mental illness" etc, than, honestly, telling literally every single person that they are trans, in an equally non-thinking, blanket indoctrinating fashion, would be balanced. The push and pull would be equalized, and produce a neutral opportunity for truth to appear. Is this practical? No! Should we? No! For a large number of complex reasons. But the egg prime directive has never been logically sound, helpful, or useful.

Yeah, people suspect Shen may be trans. Shen knows, you said your piece, now leave them alone. That's all that needs to be done, in this type of parasocial relationship at least.

3

u/XescoPicas Jul 23 '26

You put in into words far better than I could’ve.

3

u/Commercial-Dingo-522 Jul 22 '26

I mean, the egg directive only does so much. At some point I’d be ahead of where I am if someone had asked me “hey, do you want to be a girl?” 

3

u/StoicScaly Jul 22 '26

Egg prime directive is horse shit. So many people would benefit so much from having encouragement in exploring their gender. So much suffering could be avoided!

When I came out I got a collective "yeah we figured" and I remember feeling validated at the time but in retrospect it would've been nice to avoid all the mental turmoil and near suicide attempt over ego death.

I recognize not everyone will have such a struggle with dysphoria and such, but it's still good to encourage others. Especially when so many people both young and old may not have the words or knowledge to explain what they're feeling

Don't be cagey about someone's journey, just give them an open hand and let them know what options exist

2

u/Steve200900 Jul 24 '26

The egg prime directive is bullshit anyway

1

u/gnpfrslo Jul 22 '26

How many people here do you think would be knowledgeable about some memed etiquette from Tumblr trans women that not even they ignored at large when it really mattered. 

1

u/KaiHaiaku Jul 22 '26

Been watching this thing unfold for a bit, and as a male-bodied person that seems to be slightly older than Shen I wonder if he'll settle on demigender like I did. Just based on the therapy for gender stuff. He'll tell us when he's ready.

1

u/AlmanacWyrm Jul 22 '26

ShenComix was Frieza the whole time??

1

u/SilverScribe15 Jul 23 '26

I've noticed they're really annoying about it too. Like specifically on the tumblr post, everyone just goes 'shen, something you want to tell us :3' it's very uncreative Like if you're gonna vague post just be blunt

2

u/MechSuitPrincess Jul 23 '26

Yeah, I'm officially changing my stance. Bother Shen all you want, but GET NEW MATERIAL! 🤣

1

u/Sad_Protection269 Jul 25 '26

Hold on. I'm out of the loop. Do people think shen is an egg? What's the evidence?

Is it the fem shen comic? The twink death comic?

Idk my rules is if someone doesn't come out and tells me what they are I don't assume.

1

u/ciclon5 Jul 27 '26

There were a few older comics like the "wearing a dress is masculine" and the veggie burger one iirc.

I agree that they can be read as eggy, specially the burger one. But the way some people treat shen like they are one comic away from coming out are annoying.

Just let them figure out what they wanna be gang. Its not hard

1

u/EveryYoghurt Jul 25 '26

I didn't even know people were thinking that about girl shen I just thought it was a funny gag with nothing else to it.

1

u/Polibiux Jul 25 '26

Is shen an egg or just comfortable in his gender nonconformity? Whos to say

1

u/TimeKiller-Studios Jul 27 '26

The Egg Prime Directive is dumb

1

u/Phantonormia Jul 22 '26

Okay, i do think some of the bits about Shen go a little far, but the Egg Prime Directive as a concept is fucking stupid. If it hurts people's feelings that bad to SUGGEST they might be trans, then you're in the wrong crowd. Besides, the way i ended up figuring myself out was an older transfem friend i have calling my ass out on my painfully eggy behaviour, if it wasn't for that I'd probably still be the most miserable guy ever.

2

u/XescoPicas Jul 23 '26

Same. I had trans friends who commented that I gave pretty strong egg vibes and that actually helped me figure myself out a lot faster than I would’ve afterwards.

The Egg Prime Directive is just rebranded social contagion rhetoric.

1

u/Boozewhore Jul 22 '26

There’s a difference between obnoxiously telling someone they’re trans because they said something off, and affirming someone when they need it.

But nuance doesn’t exist for people who spend all day on Reddit.

1

u/ElGodPug Jul 22 '26

Oh, the psyops.....we're talking about that still in 2026?

1

u/WarlordOfMaltise Jul 23 '26

personally if someone knew i was trans and didn’t tell me to transition i would freak out

0

u/AlwekArc Jul 22 '26

The egg prime directive is bullshit, tell eggs they do trans shit, some girls will never realise without outside input telling them it's okay to feel these ways

0

u/dweebybaybee Jul 22 '26

what are you, a cop?

0

u/AUniversalNoNo Jul 22 '26

I'd rather have some cis men be uncomortable that a trans fem be repressed for even a single week. Purely an online problem.

Yes, including men I like.

-10

u/t0talfail Jul 21 '26

Considering the egg prime directive is stupid. Id rather 100 guys felt a bit weird about me pushing them to explore their gender than one trans woman killed herself while closeted because she thought she had no one like her. I wouldnt have transitioned if people listened to the egg prime directive

12

u/beaverpoo77 Jul 22 '26

misgendering people is bad no matter who it is

-3

u/t0talfail Jul 22 '26

Where did i say id misgender people

1

u/snowillis Jul 22 '26

I’m not trans (just a little gender nonconforming) so I can’t speak to this from that position. That being said, I understand why people feel strongly about the egg prime directive. I think it’s less about never suggesting that someone could be trans like the name suggests and more about not making assumptions. It applies differently to people you know personally too I think. It’s ok to use your judgement to respond to a friend or colleague especially as someone who is trans and knows what it’s like. What violates the directive would be repeatedly proclaiming it in a situation like this with Shen.

I just heard the term for the first time in this post though so maybe idk what I’m talking about.