- Research Log 3: Proposition -
The clock's ticking but I'm on a roll🔥🔥🔥
Embedded Files
Make a pitch for what you propose to explore in your Research Paper. Including a concise introduction to the chosen topic, your humanistic research questions and method(s), and your interpretation.
✦ Research Project Pitch ✦
✦ Research Project Pitch ✦
The rest of this page is more or less based on these slides :)
// Tentative Titles
(I wanna combine all of them somehow)
Transforming Beyond the Binary: Character Design, Gender, and Queer Worldbuilding in Transformers: EarthSpark
Transforming Beyond the Binary: The Queering of Transformers
Transformers as Vehicles of Queer Worldbuilding
What is Transformers?
What is Transformers?
Transformers is a multimedia franchise about alien robots that transform into vehicles*. The Transformers always end up on Earth at some point during their million-years war. Hmmm I wonder what we can learn about our world through looking at the way Transformers interact with Earth culture...
Toys, cartoons, comics, movies, video games... You name it! Though at its core, it's a franchise made to sell toys to kids and adult collectors. (It's me I'm the impressionable consumer😍)
Each story is its own "continuity" or universe, separate from other stories. This franchise as been going on since 1984.
* They also turn into other stuff, like dinosaurs.
// Why EarthSpark?
// Why EarthSpark?
Basic Info
Basic Info
The first season of Transformers: Earthspark came out in 2022. The basic premise is that new Transformers who are born on Earth get adopted by a human family and must learn to navigate the world.
What Makes It Compelling
What Makes It Compelling
First, a quote from the show's production bible:
❝ Our show . . .[is about] exploring the themes of identity, contribution to community, and the idea that what you are doesn't define who you are. ❞
I believe EarthSpark is ultimately a narrative about the human experience—the experience of being a kid growing up and finding your place in the world—that just so happens to use Transformers characters as vehicles of storytelling. It also has the first canonically non-binary Transformer <3
Research Questions
Research Questions
1) Do Transformers character designs reinforce the gender binary?
1) Do Transformers character designs reinforce the gender binary?
How are the designs reflective of cultural norms around gender identity and gender expression? Does Nightshade’s design subvert this norm?
3) To what extent did the queer fanbase influence the production of EarthSpark and the Transformers franchise as a whole?
3) To what extent did the queer fanbase influence the production of EarthSpark and the Transformers franchise as a whole?
Exploring the concepts of fandom as free labor and rainbow capitalism.
2) How does Nightshade's experience of othering and self-discovery function as a trans/queer allegory in EarthSpark?
2) How does Nightshade's experience of othering and self-discovery function as a trans/queer allegory in EarthSpark?
A look at queer worldmaking! Evaluating the queer representation of the show and its repercussions. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Approaches
The Approaches
Queer Theory
Queer Theory
the very concept of Transformers as transforming robots is queer
gender as a social construct: social conditioning of gender presentation as a performance and how that's reflected in Nightshade's design
Technocultural Theory
Technocultural Theory
the notion that science and technology are inherently masculine endeavours—this applies to Transformers
the internet enables fandom culture to directly interact with and influence media production
Visual Analysis
Visual Analysis
colors and their connotations
shape language
hypermasculinity vs hyperfemininity in character deisgn, especially in sf and non human characters like Transformers
the GIFs are intentional btw
I put a lot of thought into what GIFs to put here :)
queer theory - the gif is a scene of Nightshade interacting with another non-binary character
technocultural theory - the character on the left is named Hashtag and she can access the internet from her processor; very much a chronically online teen just like me frfr
visual analysis - my project is about analyzing the character designs of Transformers and making the case that their design reflect human culture, hence the human character next to the Transformer; but also I just really like EarthSpark Megatron's design ashdkasfjlf
// Scholarly Conversations
// Scholarly Conversations
➜ Lots of research on masculinity vs femininity in sf, but not a lot spend time discussing androgyny.
In my paper, I will be taking a look at the pitfalls of androgyny as the overwhelming character design choice for non-binary representation in shows and video games.
➜ How sf functions as a playground for exploring and challenging the structures of cultural norms.
This lays the foundation for my research project.
➜ I literally can't find a single paper taking a visual analysis approach to character design.
There's a Denny O'Neil reference in EarthSpark and lowkey I feel like I could cook up something with this👁️Nightshade parallel to Batman anyone...? A nocturnal flying animal who take up the role of a guardian/protector...
And now for the moment you've all- erm, I mean, I've been waiting for...
And now for the moment you've all- erm, I mean, I've been waiting for...
✦ The Thesis ✦
✦ The Thesis ✦
preliminary, still a work in progress of course
The character designs of Transformers reinforces the gender binary, reflecting a broader trend in science fiction where non-human, alien characters are given markers of gender that conform to heteronormative and cisnormative ideologies entrenched in reality. While EarthSpark attempts to break out of this mold through the inclusion of Nightshade, a non-binary character, the show ultimately falls short of fully subverting the binarism of masculinity and femininity by relying on androgyny as a shorthand for non-binary identity. Nightshade’s journey of self-discovery and Othering emerges as a narrative of trans experience in navigating a hostile environment, revealing that the very concept of transforming robots is undeniably queer. The evolution of Transformers from an androcentric franchise to a more queer one can be partly attributed to its LGBTQ+ fanbase, suggesting a positive feedback loop between media production and audience reception.
Nightshade drawn by me :3
References / Image Credits
References / Image Credits
Sources:
EarthSpark Pitch Bibe, available on the Internet Archive and thanks to a leak back in 2023
Header Image:
"Unknown Episode." Transformers: EarthSpark, season 1, episode ?, Entertainment One, 2022. GIF taken from here.
Other Images:
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