Content warning: transphobia, mental illness

Introduction

I used to watch a YouTube channel, Digibro, focused on anime analysis. I enjoyed the content on Digibro for its incredible critical detail, e.g. this 50 000+ words, 4+ hours video essay “The Asterisk War Sucks”. Some time around May 2020, I noticed the channel name and narrator voice changed, and found this tweet:

Thinking about going femme and changing my name to Diginee and branding myself as anitube's big sister

Digibro became Diginee, then just Digi, and has now completely re-branded as Ygg Studio.

“Traps”

I wouldn't call myself weeb trash. However,

Anyway, I watched my first anime, Zero no Tsukaima, with my sister in elementary school. The anime community I've come to know since then doesn't give much kindness to trans women. For example, in anime you'll sometimes encounter a feminine character born male, e.g. Felix from Re:Zero. Whether a trans woman or not, these characters seem to provide more fan service than exploration of gender. Anime fans often refer to these characters as “traps.” If not already obvious, trans women don't appreciate the term:

Beatrice

Digi, now Beatrice, played an active role in the community for long enough to have known this when she came out. Go back to the tweet and you'll see barely a third chose the supportive response. Even though responses more likely came from fans, “cringe” got the most votes. Digging around YouTube for artifacts of the Digi channel,¹ I witnessed such “gems” as ““““““““she”””””””” and “If only he got a girlfriend that didn't enable his worst behaviors” in just the comments of the first result.

Conclusion

I knew Digi as a negative person. Digi's anime analysis skewed pretty negative in opinion. When talking about personal matters, Digi would mention depression and suicide. I have to imagine “gems” (read: insults) like the ones I mentioned before have made Beatrice feel pretty terrible since she came out.

Regardless of the content she makes, I admire Beatrice for staying true. Even knowing how the anime community treats trans women, she came out. Not determined by the popular nor the easy, she does what she herself wants. From the ContraPoints video essay above (around 37:57):

A real man … is not the kind of man who lets other people's prejudices control his life. … And so, my edgy little boys, by that measure, I may be a woman, but I'm still more of a man than you.