What's So Great About Gn Content, And Who Consumes It?

Why wrongly tagging gender neutral reader can be harmful

+ a guide to do it right

From: a queer, gn-content creator

If you read x reader fanfiction, are a fanfiction writer / content creator who writes x reader content, especially if you primarily write f!reader, or support the LGBTQIA+ community, please read this article guide

This article is, not at all supposed to force you to write gender neutral or, alter your writing so it fits this guide. Instead, I wanted to give more insight on something that you might not know about, on a topic that's really important to me, and if anyone decides to change something in their writing after this, it would mean the world to me.

Before of: the focus on avoidance of female characteristics in this is due to the minority of male and gender neutral readers, which I thematize here, though, writing gender neutral, avoiding hints about the readers gender goes both and all ways.

This is a really important topic to me, as a writer but especially reader of gender neutral content, and I wanted draw more attention to this issue. And hopefully, inspire someone to think in areas they have never considered/thought of before.

What's so great about gn content, and who consumes it?

The great thing about gender neutral writings is, everyone can read it. It gives options for people who may not read female, or male reader, but still want to enjoy headcanons, fics and content of their favorite characters. For trans people and people who don't fit within the gender binary, but also people who just feel not sure, or maybe uncomfortable about their gender, finding something to read can be significantly harder than for female readers. Gender neutral writings allow people who's gender is a complicated, tiring thing to them, to still consume content. Not having to give up on reading just because your gender seems to be a barrier. It harms no one, and nobody's excluded: cis female and male people can still read it. Now only, everyone else can, too. So because of this, gender neutral writing has a much greater audience; everyone.

What issue comes up with the lack of gn content / wrongly tagged content

A majority of x reader fanfics are for female readers. Mostly in m!character x f!reader pairings

So as mentioned before, it's way harder to find something if you don't fit in with that. This also is the case, if you are looking for a non-hetero pairing, such as male x male or other queer pairings. So gender neutral writings are not only about gender, but sexuality, too. When it comes to relationship headcanons for a male character for example, and it's somehow clear that the reader is female, it makes it unreadable for male and nonbinary people, or every other non-female person.

As a nonbinary, trans and gay person who hyperfixates on fandoms regularly and reads a lot, I found myself struggle so often in finding x reader stuff I could acctually read. It was so frustrating, and at some point I just kinda committed to reading female reader works and sort of ignore it. I knew I was doing harm to myself, but I desperately wanted to be able to have something, too. Even though it's so dysphoria triggering and in the end, made me feel worse than before. Realizing there's nothing to read for you, because of your gender or your sexuality, can hurt a lot. It just makes you feel as though, what you are isn't normal, or, not normal enough for people to write about. Feeling that made me really sad. Seeing the exact content I was looking for, but not being able to read it just because it's fem reader. It feels like having no option, either consuming the female reader content or, not at all. You may think that you could just, read it and ignore the female parts, but it's really something you can't ignore. Alone knowing you have to ignore something the whole time while reading it, knowing that's because there's nothing for your group of readers, feels bad and you can't really enjoy the actual content.

While writing female reader is not trans- or homophobic, the lack of representation of gender neutral and male audience, creates a feeling of discrimination. That most male character x reader pairings are written as hetero, makes you feel just so much more aware of being part of a minority. It somehow gives you the feeling the hetero-way is the right way since it's everywhere, and you're the odd one out.

There's nothing wrong in writing f!reader, and I'm not asking anyone here to stop writing for female readers or hetero pairings. But sometimes there is no need to put a gender on the reader, and making minimal changes to make others feel included is something I want to inspire every artist and writer out there to consider.

Why wrong tagging is bad

Sometimes artist decide to tag (/name) their work as gender neutral spontanously, because while tagging, they see no reason not to.

But if you write x reader content not specifically as gender neutral anticipated, please check before labeling it as such. So please don't put notes as "gender neutral, I think / should be gender neutral" or "gender neutral, probably". Just check or label it differently / as not gender neutral. If you aren't sure and didn't check, you can note things like "not sure if gender neutral, can contain non-gn elements" or something similar. There can be things you havent thought of, which can trigger people. Tagging female (/male) reader or such, doesnt hurt anyone, while wrongly tagging gender neutral does. It gets your hopes up, and it feels worse when at the end it becomes clear the reader is female / indicated as female. Reading fluff while in a bad mood, to get called their beautiful girlfriend in the end, or to it being mentioned the reader wears a dress and make-up, makes you feel even more bad about yourself after.

Tags and CWs (content warnings) are in general nice. They are considerate and don't take a lot of work. It makes readers feel safe to read the following work, knowing what they're committing to. This can be about any kind of trigger or content warning, not only gender-related.

What to look out for when correctly writing gender neutral

Pronouns. The first step of course, is making sure gender neutral pronouns are used (eng: they/them), if any at all. You can mention they/them pronouns in your CW / description, giving information about used pronouns is doing many readers a favor they will be thankful for.

Certain Mannersim. While mannerism definitely plays a part, you can't determine a person's gender just by their character and manners/how they act. Speak androgenous people, feminine men, masculine women etc. This might be the trickiest part, cause it's not really to determine. Society has lead to certain manners and behavior expected from male and female people, that is a thing you can't really judge a person's character writing for. Though it's good to keep in mind that some things might come off as female/male, while editing or writing. You never now what might be a trigger for someone. Dysphoria can be triggered by a lot of things, and you can't watch out for everything, neither are you supposed to. Writing neutral can be hard when you're not used to it, it becomes something really natural once you've done it for a while though. What you can do though and which you're definitely off good with, is this:

Example for a warning/note: gn!reader, sweet/caring reader

CWs don't only have to contain extreme content trigger warnings, but they can include pronouns and or gender, as well as keywords to describe the readers personality (calm, energetic, etc.)

Adjectives. There are certain terms strongly associated with gender, and certain traits commonly used for men or women. In general i would recommend avoiding to describe the readers body. Sometimes it's in context to the story, lets say you got a request about a poc reader or reader with scars/freckles. That is another thing. Though otherwise keep in mind: the less descriptions on the reader, the more readable your work is for more people. This is why leaving out descriptions of the readers body/hints on skintone/ethnicity is better, to avoid excluding poc readers or people with another body type. Writing neutral in general prevents the feeling of discrimination or exclusion. Its completely fine to do specific x readers, it always depends on your context. But again, its good to remark it.

adjectives/traits to avoid when writing gender neutral: muscular, curvy, slim waist, long hair, tiny hands/feet, shaved legs, plush thighs

One of the biggest and most 'mistakes' when it comes to gn writing: clothes. If you label your work as gn reader, make sure that if you describe the readers clothes, to choose something gender neutral. Or don't go into detail about clothes at all. Clothes can be worn by anyone and don't have an gender, but you cant assume everyone is comfortable wearing a dress or make-up. Refrain from describing anything stereotypical male/female, as those can be triggers and makes assume / can imply the readers gender.

Examples for gn clothing: pants, hoodies, tshirts, sneakers, beanies, caps, jeans, "underwear", vests

Examples for what to avoid: dresses/skirts, high heels, make-up, bathing suits/bikinis, bras/panties, boxershorts, suits, crop-tops

If you see this, I would be very greatful if you reblogged and shared this, so as many people as possible can see this, and we can get it out there for every writer to see.