- Research Log 1: Consideration -

So it begins!

Prompt: Start your research journey by exploring two or three potential objects of analysis.

Oh boy here it comes...

>> The Research Project <<

So, to start off, here are some of the primary sources I considered:

》════════~ROUND 1~════════《

Things I considered and did not immediately reject

What do all of these have in common?

They're my past and current fixations lol

ELIMIN

ATION

> I thought about them for more than 10 seconds and realized I will hate myself if I chose any of these

These did not make the cut 😔

➜ J. Edgar (2011) - Movie

pros: I already did a ton of research on it

cons: literally everything else

- it's J. Edgar. Hoover dude there's nothing pleasant about this
- I do have a some thoughts on how this film (and critic reaction to this film) treat romantic relationships, especially gay/queer relationships, as inherently and entirely sexual when that is not the case
- anyways, I just don't see myself enjoying writing about this for 10 weeks so Bye Bye

➜ The Great Gatsby (1925) - Novel

A queer reading of TGG we are so back⁉️

I don't really like the book that much but the queer subtext is Interesting™️for sure

There's already a million essays and papers written about this Book I don't think there's anything new I can bring into the conversation. The more I think about it the more I don't really know what complex questions I can ask about this. Pass.

》════════~ROUND 2~════════《

Taking a closer look 👁️

The Stranger (1942)

// Basic Info

Novel by French author Albert Camus
philosophical novel - absurdism and existentialism*
Meursault, the main character of the novel, is a French settler living in French Algeria → Camus was born in Algeria during the French colonization

// Worldbuilding Themes

The Decameron argues that there is a list of good values/virtues that all humans should have. The Stranger explores a character who lacks those qualities. Meursault rejects the notion that these values matter in the first place.
A person's place in society - and what if someone doesn't care, at all, about their place in society?
How society reacts to people who are "different" (spoiler: they react with hostility)

this brings back memories omg

I read the book in high school senior year and made an animatic of it

Why I wanna write about this:

I was/am emotionally attatched to the main character❤️he's literally me guys (kind of but not really). There's so little content on this book I was actually starving bro. The queer subtext is RIGHT THERE (Meausault's girlfriend literally calls him "a queer fellow") AND NO ONE CARED ENOUGH TO WRITE ABOUT IT💔💔💔

// Potential Areas of Research

The obvious choice is to write about the philosophical aspect of this book, which I kind of did already back in high school so BORINGGG. What I'm interested in is to examine this story through a queer lens.

How does the main character's portrayal as "Other" (un)intentionally parallel the experiences of Gender, Sexual, and Romantic Minorities?

- I argue that there is a queer subtext and that Meursault's character is very much queer-coded. If we apply today's vocabulary, I'd say Meursault can be easily read as loveless aromantic allosexual.
  - - research terminology used in 1940s to describe queer people
    - research how 1940s society viewed queer people
- Meursault doesn't feel like there's anything wrong with him. Everyone else thinks there's something wrong with him.

How does the novel deconstruct the notion that familial, romantic, and platonic bonds are inherent, universal experiences that make someone "human"?

- Meursault lacks these characteristics, which makes him a monster in the eyes of pretty much everyone else
- focus on how this story is challenging society's heteronormative and amatonormative standards
  - - Meursault is an absurdist - he wants to live without appeal to societal constructs or any higher powers
    - research the general perception of how much people value familial, romantic, and platonic relationships

❝ Make it a Passion Project.❞

Hmm. Passion, you say?

My current obsession is Transformers so...

────────────

The first thing and kind of the obvious thing that came to my mind was writing about the societal structure of Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers, which, for the most part, features some theme of classism and oppression. I kind of already did a trial run of this when I wrote about worldbuilding in Transformers One in Envisioning What-Ifs. It's interesting for sure and one of the reasons why I love this franchise so much, but I don't really see myself writing about this for the next 8 weeks.

So what else makes the worldbuilding of Transformers interesting?

hmm...

Aha! I got it!

It's the characters!!

I feel like there’s a lot to be explored about TF character designs. Even though these characters technically don’t experience gender the same way that humans do, their designs are very much clearly separated into male and female category, reflective of what is traditionally associated with masculinity and femininity.

And oh boy do I have the perfect show to talk about gender and Transformers:

What makes EarthSpark the topic of my interest is that it has the first canonically non-binary Transformer, Nightshade!

Is this a cartoon made for kids? Yes.

Does this show have bad writing? Yes. Sometimes.

Do I love this show to bits? Yes, yes I do. Season 1 only though we don't talk about Season 2 and 3.

Nightshade's my favorite character from the show and I will defend them with my life 💚

I love art so analyzing character design (visual analysis who cheered!!) is right up my alley. I think when it comes to film analysis, I would need to analyze how the characters are portrayed and how their characterization in the writing relates to their designs.

// Let's Talk Research ➜

➜ What does Nightshade's characterization in EarthSpark reveal about the stereotypes and lived experiences of trans/non-binary people?

the non-binary character's story is a B-Story of gender identity/expression, which is reflective of the A-Story of the Human Experience (?)
- - is gender a universal thing or are we transposing gender onto giant sentient robots?
  - research how gender is different across (human) cultures
  - isn't this lowkey envisioning a utopia where queer people are accepted. ES really said transphobia is a human thing because these robot from space will show you why gender discourse rooted in hatred makes no sense
  - why is it important that Nightshade is a non-human character? how does that connect with their gender identity?
research trans (or specifically nonbinary) representation in cartoons in general and how it has evolved over the years
- - it seems to be common that, when a show only has one NB character, that character becomes representative of all NB people and thus are more likely to have an androgynous design
  - research the association of nonbinary with androgyny
how the show captures (or tried to capture) the experience of a queer person navigating a hostile environment (the world)
research public reception regarding Nightshade's existence
- - that one Fox news clip
  - what queer fans thought of the character

I feel like if I want to go deeper with this, I would have to talk about character design in Transformers in general. But doesn't that make it more than one primary source?

➜ How does the design philosophy of Transformers characters in general reinforces the gender binary?

character design visual analysis - connotation/associations of colors; masculinity, femininity, androgynous features
- - G1 female characters compared to more recent ones
research how gender is discussed in Transformers media
- - spoiler alert: this franchise has a pretty nasty history when it comes to sexism, not to mention misogyny displayed by certain parts of the fanbase...
  - what dooes this reflect about our society at large? it's a work of science fiction, afterall

//

Um so this page was not supposed to be this long but I got carried away. I do have to come clean and say that by the time I started making this page I'm very much learning towards choosing EarthSpark as my primary source. Maybe I'll end up choosing something else, who knows...

References / Image Credits

Sources:

N/A

Header Image:

"Unknown episode." Transformers: EarthSpark, season 1, episode ??, Entertainment One, 2022. GIF taken from here.

Yep that's right, I'm deviating from my theme of astronomy pics because I just love Transformers that much! Transformers gif be upon ye💥It'll be really funny if I end up not choosing Earthspark as my primary source. Check back in 9 weeks to find out lol.

Other Images:

J. Edgar, The Stranger, The Great Gatsby, Transformers
Nightshade GIFs from EarthSpark, taken from 1, 2, 3

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