Neil Gaiman rejects the argument that A Game of You, the fifth volume of his classic DC/Vertigo series The Sandman, supports transphobia.
Neil Gaiman has outright reject the argument that A Game of You, the fifth volume of his classic DC/Vertigo Comics series The Sandman, supports transphobic viewpoints.
The subject came about on Twitter after a controversy in which anti-trans “gender critical” feminists claimed that the late Terry Pratchett would have sided with their viewpoints on gender. Gaiman, who co-wrote Good Omens with Pratchett, was among those saying that all the evidence in Pratchett’s writing and personal life points to him being accepting of transgender people. One “gender critical” account responded to Neil’s defense with a series of out-of-context panels from A Game of You, in which Wanda Mann is rejected from entering The Land by the moon goddess on account of her chromosomes, writing, “This you Neil? Bit terfy, isn’t it?“
Yes, there were transphobic and TERFy characters in A Game of You. And there were other characters too, with very different opinions on the matter. With respect, I’m not sure you understand how literature works. https://t.co/iKGq4shU7g
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 1, 2021
Gaiman responded to this attempt to associate his past writing with transphobia by tweeting, “Yes, there were transphobic and TERFy characters in A Game of You. And there were other characters too, with very different opinions on the matter. With respect, I’m not sure you understand how literature works.” He also highlighted another rebuttal to the claims of The Sandman being anti-trans, showcasing the ending of A Game of You, with the cheeky comment, “Spoilers, sweetie.”
At the end of A Game of You, Wanda dies as a result of the moon’s rejection but is shown in the afterlife accepted as a woman by Death of the Endless. In The Sandman, the Endless hold more power than any gods, so even if the moon didn’t accept Wanda as a woman, greater powers in the universe did so. The arc’s main human protagonist, Barbie, is also sympathetic towards Wanda, crossing out Wanda’s deadname and writing her friend’s chosen name on the stone with lipstick. While A Game of You has been criticized by some transgender readers for being yet another depiction of trans women focused on suffering and death, it was by no means trying to present a transphobic message. Gaiman has also committed to making sure trans men and women are present in the writers’ room when Netflix’s Sandman adaptation gets to “A Game of You.”
Scenes from A Game of You being taken out of context is not the only backlash Gaiman has faced for speaking out against transphobia. Graham Linehan, the creator of The IT Crowd who has been a major voice in the “gender critical” movement and was banned from Twitter last year for violating the site’s rules against hateful conduct, recorded a podcast accusing Gaiman of being a Scientology apologist. On this matter, Gaiman tweeted, “I worry about Graham’s mental health. I had an email exchange with him last week that left me worried. He’s definitely not the person I used to know.”
Source: Twitter
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