Gwen Stacey trans? Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse

[ChuffKnows]

Can't verify this as I haven't seen the film but have seen some screenshots and discussion of Ghost-Spider's outfit being the trans colours (which I think is a bit of a stretch) but there is a still from the film showing a trans poster in her room. As I say, no idea if this is real

Ghost spider has always had pink and blue accents in her costume. What’s the wider discussion? Whether she is in fact a TW?

Her costume has always been those colours. But yes the screenshot is definitely real. I noticed it immediately. There's also a scene where she's talking to her dad about herself and they do weird things with the colours of the scene and it all runs pink and blue. So people are jumping on that saying she's really talking about being trans rather than spider gwen.

Her costume is white, black and pink. No blue. But heavy blue overlay is very common in comics. It makes blacks look blue. And as far as I've read in comments from people who've seen this, the colours just change a lot. For no real obvious reason other than the animators liked it. I don't think there is a lot to be read into the chosen colours.

Actually, she does have teal shoes.

It was my partner who sent me a few bits about it so not sure. Apparently there's talk of Ghost Spider's whole arc being a trans allegory. Her dad supposedly wears a trans pride badge above his police badge also.

I meant the spider pattern bit… inside her hood, didn’t she have a stripe on her legs? Pink with a blue web?

Ah did she… the current cartoon version has teal shoes but I can’t picture comic book version this this. Maybe the web pattern was pink and teal then?

I also read that her dad had a trans badge on. But cannot find any evidence of that anywhere. I didn't notice it in the film. I did find online someone saying that it was part of his police badge that just looked like it was in trans colours when they did the pink blue colours running through the scene. Until someone can post a screenshot of her dad and the badge I don't think that's true.

This goes into it in more detail. It's supportive of the idea and thinks it's "touching", "brave and kind"

Gwen article

There are a couple of stills in the article I linked but they're not definitive.

@ChuffKnows yeah was just looking at that thanks. I'd searched for the badge for a while and nothing came up and it's not one I noticed while watching it.

The flag above the door is clear, unless that image itself has been photoshopped, haven't seen the animation so can't verify it. It's not really of interest to me though, other than this theme of "protect trans xyz" is a common one on social media and online "news" sites at the moment. Current life is often reflected in imagery like this, I don't think it's a comment either for or against that ideology.

What's more interesting is the idea that a superhero "coming out" to their parents/family/friends is a "trans allegory". It's been the format for superheroes to have alter egos and guard who knows about their real identity since the start of comic books. So, many many decades of this concept, and it absolutely won't have been formulated deliberately as anything to do with transgender people coming out.

So no female spider man then? Oh well. Plus ça change...

@ChuffKnows just looking into that still of the badge a bit more. If you look at it from a scene that isn't the very blue/ pink one, it looks very different.

That just looks like the strips of ribbon that go on dress uniforms to signify medals recieved by an individual. No idea what their official name is.

Wishful thinking on someone's part.

That's all a fairly new addition. The teal ballet flats are from pretty much her start but the rest of her costume was only ever white, black and pink.

Spider-Woman has been around since the 70s. She even had her own cartoon series in 79/80. She's Jessica Drew though, not Gwen who's a multiverse version of Peter Parker's dead girlfriend. Julia Carpenter was another Spider-Woman in the mid 80s.

Ah that’s interesting, thanks. This is how I’ve always pictured her…. So not sure when the blue got added but I don’t think it’s an addition for this movie just to align her with trans colours. I’ve just checked DS toys and the latest kids cartoon doesn’t have the web pattern at all, just solid pink.

I believe she's voiced by Hailee Steinfeld, who isn't trans, so I don't think the character is supposed to be trans, as these roles are generally reserved for trans actors nowadays (or there's a big uproar). I mean, people are free to see allegory there, but then I wouldn't be surprised if the thinkpieces about 'why not a trans voice actress then?' start.

By the way, people were definitely writing about superheroes and their hiding their identity/coming out as an allegory for being closeted/coming out of the closet as gay 10+ years ago, so I suppose the trans comparison kind of follows.

I meant no female spider man in the spider verse. They are all male. Even the pig.

I've seen it, she's clearly female. No hints of anything else physically or behaviourly. The poster is probably her being an ally.

They do seem ridiculously tortured about coming out as spiderman though.

In earlier films spiderman keeping his identity hidden made more sense. It feels odd in this film, as clearly they seem to be much loved and their parents seem like reasonable humans ( no elderly aunt to protect). Gwens backstory reaon for not telling her dad is forced.

Ps it doesn't have a proper fucking ending, it's too long and the start is discombobulating.

Adding this comment here as I saw the film yesterday with my kids. One thing i was pleasantly surprised about was when Jess, the pregnant superhero on the motorbike, rubs her big bump and says we don't know the sex yet.

The character could easily have said gender, but she said sex. small victories!

Frankly, I want two hours of my life back. Without spoilers, the film has no ending. It is an abrupt and sudden stop for a third film to carry it on. There's not even the way Peter Jackson handled that in the Lord of The Rings movies by at least reaching a satisfactory emotional peak and conclusion of a sub-arc, and LotR had to be a trilogy. It literally just stops without warning.

I was pissed. I hope nobody considers that a spoiler, there's not one thing in my comment about the actual story or characters and I think it's fair warning to anybody thinking of watching it. It may be 2hrs long but what you get is half of a story.

I just thought it was convoluted and boring. I didn't mind the cliffhanger ending as I knew about it going in and I really just wanted the movie to end as I was bored. Just for context, I'm a long term comics fan who grew up reading Marvel and I thought the first Spiderverse movie was great. But this one was a boring pile of shite.

On the cliffhanger ending, I have read plenty of arguments about how it wasn't well done. Empire Strikes Back, a mid-trilogy movie that ends on a low note, still tells a reasonably complete story in that Luke trains throughout the movie but leaves to fight before he is ready and unprepared both physically and emotionally, he loses while learning a truth he isn't ready for. Han and Leia come to love each other while learning that there is nowhere for them to hide in the Empire's galaxy. Leia loses Han but manages to save Luke and together they are left at their lowest but with a resolve to do what is necessary to change things. In Spiderverse, tbf, Gwen goes through something of an arc with regard to her relationship with her father but nothing really changes for Miles. While none of that aspect of Gwen's life was evident in the first movie. And Peter is kind of just there with a baby instead of character.