I wanna preface this by saying that nothing I’m about to say comes from a place of hostility toward the characters I’m talking about or their identities. I don’t have any negative intentions with this post. The only reason I’m even making this disclaimer is because queer identities tend to become discourse points in basically every fandom space, so I’m assuming it’s the same on FRAF. I just genuinely want to understand people’s perspectives more and broaden my understanding :-)
What exactly makes June JUNE?
A lot of people have said there were implications of June being trans in Homestuck proper, but whenever I’ve asked where those implications are, I always end up coming to the conclusion that most of it comes from projection/people seeing themselves in June as a concept and headcanoning John as June. There’s obviously nothing wrong with that, but relating to a character doesn’t necessarily imply canon intent, if that makes sense?
Which also brings me to another question. Why is June’s identity treated as unquestionably canon while Roxy’s and Calliope’s queer identities often aren’t?
People deny or outright refuse to see Roxy as trans, refuse to use they/them pronouns for Calliope, refuse to see Rose as a lesbian, or refuse to acknowledge Dirk as a gay man. And yet nobody really pushes back against that nearly as hard as they do with June discourse. That’s what confuses me. What makes June’s identity more "canon" or more valid to people than Roxy’s or Calliope’s, especially when June hasn’t even really been properly introduced in the comic itself yet?
Every couple of weeks, there’s discourse on Twitter about June’s identity, usually because people who separate Homestuck proper from the Epilogues/HS:BC don’t view John as June. But that always confuses me because people are completely fine separating or outright rejecting other queer identities that develop in the Epilogues or Beyond Canon. Nobody really starts massive fights over that.
Even identities that are openly queer or heavily implied in Homestuck proper get erased or ignored constantly, and people still don’t react to it with the same intensity they do with June. So why is it suddenly such a massive issue when someone refers to John as John while talking specifically about Homestuck proper?
If people are comfortable selectively rejecting identities that develop in the Epilogues or Beyond Canon, then why is June treated differently? If Beyond Canon and the Epilogues are supposedly "not canon" or are looked down upon by a large part of the fandom, then what exactly makes June canon while other identities that also develop post-canon are treated as optional or ignorable? Why is June’s identity treated as more canon than the rest?
Which AGAIN brings me to Hussie’s word.
In my opinion, what Andrew does with this stuff feels really scummy. It reminds me of J.K. Rowling saying Dumbledore was gay years later despite barely meaningfully portraying it. It’s hard for me to see it as progressive or meaningful when Homestuck already had queer identities represented directly in the comic itself. A huge portion of the fandom seems to treat Andrew’s random Discord doodles/sketches as canon (for some reason???), but then turns around and refuses to treat Beyond Canon itself as canon or even read it. That’s another thing that confuses me.
Why are depictions of Beyond Canon characters in Hussie’s sketches treated as canon when they align with fandom interpretations, but the actual Beyond Canon comic, the place where these characters identities and developments are actively occurring is dismissed or treated as "not real canon"? Why is Epilogues and Beyond Canon treated as selectively canon depending on what people personally like?
Why is Hussie’s word treated as more canon than their own actual works?
And honestly, I know a lot of this could probably be answered with that Q&A where the team said June was always planned. But does that even matter if it was never actually presented in Homestuck proper? Especially when a huge part of the fandom refuses to treat Beyond Canon or the Epilogues as canon in the first place?
Which loops me back around to the same question! Why is June’s identity treated as something so concrete and universally canon when the place where her identity actually develops is constantly rejected by the fandom itself?
It’s genuinely really confusing to navigate this fandom sometimes.
I also just really dislike the way Hussie handles characters. It feels less like storytelling and more like playing dolls with them. Meanwhile, a huge chunk of the fandom isn’t even reading Beyond Canon and is instead only tuning in for random doodles of the characters on the Discord.
I’m left wondering what is even the point of all this discourse?
