Klaine Stan Ad Infinitum.

Well…I…umm…sigh.

Yes, there are things that squick me.  But I don’t want to talk about what they are right now, because…Anon, I’m really sorry that my answer turned into this.  I know you probably didn’t mean to be offensive at all, and this really isn’t personal, but things about this Ask really hit a nerve and a rant was born.

Again, not personal.  I promise.  I just…I have a lot of feelings and opinions about gender and…

Fuck it.

Rant under the cut.

A lot of people get pulled into this (sometimes pretty heated) debate about Kurt and his gender expression.  Yes, Kurt is a cis boy in canon, and no, we do not see any evidence that he has ever questioned this.  We also do not see any evidence that he hasn’t ever questioned this.  That fact is left up to individual headcanons.  The thing is - Kurt’s male.  It’s canon.  Playing with gender in fanfiction is no worse than playing with any other theme, in my opinion.  I don’t get messages from people criticizing me for writing a story about Kurt as an elf because he takes pride in being human.  Of course he’s human.  It’s canon.  It is under no threat whatsoever.  And neither is his gender.

You said “Kurt definitely takes pride in being a man, it’s a central part to his character.”  I’ve heard this notion expressed in one way or another throughout fandom, and if that’s your headcanon for Kurt, fantastic.  What bothered me is that it seemed like you presented it as an irrefutable fact, and personally I don’t think Kurt takes “pride” in being male.  I think Kurt just is male, the same way that Puck and Finn and Blaine et al are male.  When he feels like other people forget that about him he gets exasperated, absolutely, but I don’t think pride in being a man is ever demonstrated in canon.

We live in a patriarchal culture.  We live in a misogynistic culture.  We do not value being female the way we value being male.  You don’t have to find mpreg or genderswap (or boypussy or trans boy or trans girl or genderqueer) Kurt sexy, but to imply that there is something wrong with those things because it’s insulting to the character is, I think, attaching far too much value to Kurt’s maleness - as if maleness itself is some precious treasure - and it also attaches far more value to gender as a social construct than I think Kurt himself ever would.  “Feminizing” Kurt is not synonymous with depleting or weakening Kurt.  It’s just another version of Kurt.  The fics that bother me are the ones where gender is not addressed or questioned, but Kurt basically acts like “the girl” in the relationship and Blaine is “the boy.”  I think genderplay fics, if done with consciousness, are far truer to the fearless spirit that is Kurt Hummel. 

And thus concludes my Kurt and Gender rant.  I am going to bed now.  Good night and dream sweetly.