Alt TextPanel 1: Shen is sitting at his screen tablet, holding his tablet pen. He looks at you, smiling, and says "Wanna know one cool thing about being a comic artist?"

Panel 2: Shen is now standing upright, the tablet pen having become giant in his hand. How gestures outwards with his other hand and says "You can draw yourself however you want!"

Panel 3: Shen magically "ting"s his forehead with his tablet pen, changing himself into a Sol Badguy-esque buff dude with a belt and a ponytail. He says "For example, I can draw myself like THIS!"

Panel 4: Shen again magically "ting"s his forehead, changing himself into a girl with a sweatshirt-dress, gym shorts, and choker. He says "OR like THIS!"

Panel 5: Shen winks, does a peace sign, and sticks his tongue out, saying "Bet THIS makes you feel some funny new feelings about me, huh??"

Panel 6: Life now has to hold a raging and frothing-at-the-mouth Shen as he yells "Bet THIS would make it easier to get you to go to my PATREON!!!!" and points at you, trying to fight you. Life is saying "Calm down, man!!"

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Fem-Shen Rule

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[–] 103 points 4 months ago (19 children)
  • [–] [S] 40 points 4 months ago (16 children)
  • [–] 31 points 4 months ago (15 children)

    Or they're taking their first steps on becoming the f1nn5ter of webcomics. We'll see how it plays out in a few years.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago* (14 children)

    Oh god

    Just to be clear, are folk in general anti-f1nn5ter, as it seems he only transitioned to femme with HRT for the popularity? Or is the consensus that he's cool? I've been out of the YouTube loop for a while

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  • [–] 28 points 4 months ago (9 children)

    Thinking that someone would transition while living in the UK for "popularity" is kinda an unhinged take, she transitioned for similar reasons as other transfemmes.

    The only real reason to dogpile on her is that now she has some very fucked takes about femboys.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (8 children)

    What are her takes on femboys?

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (7 children)

    she's said they don't exist at all, at one point, her take basically being "every femboy is an egg waiting to hatch" or we're trans in denial. Which like, I can get how she could come to that conclusion, but I also feel like she should appreciate that her experience doesn't match everyones.

    She's also said stuff like "you aren't really a femboy if you don't shave your legs," which I recognize is a shitty take even if I also share it.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago

    Idk, while I obviously try to appreciate everyone's experiences and don't like making broad statements, it can be hard to not feel that way when literally every femboy I've met eventually transitioned, myself included...

    That's not to say it's a great take, but it's definitely understandable why people would feel that way. Especially since for me personally, it was very much a coping mechanism for being trans.

    Again not trying to invalidate anyone's experiences, just kinda venting my own personal thoughts/feelings on the matter.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    I would say that it's insanely hypocritical for someone in F1nn5ter's position to embrace egg culture with open arms because they've almost certainly experienced the uglier aspects of persistent misgendering and harassment from egg culture.

    So I don't think them being ignorant is a good excuse for this because they've definitely experienced it, and likely continue to experience it. Since Egg culture is binary targeted it also negatively effects NonBinary people as well. The idea that egg culture and associated misgendering and attacks are perpetrated by ignorant and well meaning people who have just come out only works if you haven't experienced how bad it is for yourself.

    I think it's likely that they say things like this for the purpose of being hurtful for attention. F1nn knows that people have negative feelings towards the "haha egg" rhetoric and probably knows a good part of why as well. They also know that if they go live while doing makeup to talk about why being a GNC boy is impossible because "wearing a skirt and makeup makes you a girl" will get then lots of attention.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    I personally got the feeling that they invalidated femboys because that's what she genuinely believed, which made it more sad than anything. I still don't know of anybody with a more documented story, as most eggs didn't center their eggdom in their content in quite the same way. Most trans creators had more private journeys, expressing more fem over time, but not focusing on their self exploration. Most cis femboy creators don't set donation goals to lock their boy clothes in a box; it's about fun expression more than reshaping their entire lives. F1NN5TER just couldn't understand/accept that she was an outlier amongst both internet femboys and trans people who cracked while public figures.

    They were kinda naive about how other people viewed gender in general, thinking that gender expression and transition would become common and accepted within the next ten years. I guess you have to be that dense to be the sort of egg that she was. They probably underestimated just how much hate awaited her after coming out, and that's probably why they handled things so badly back then.

    However, the more recent race-baiting and ragebaiting transphobes? Definitely calculated moves to get donations on her OnlyFans. This is a person who sold micro transactions to kids on affiliated Minecraft servers; morally questionable business strategies are nothing new.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Yeah the only content creator I can think of that came close is contrapoints. And that feels different, it was a much more traditional "haha see how transgressive I am for regularly crossdressing in videos". And it was right around the mainstreaming of trans people.

    You can compare her to say PhilosophyTube who did what's much more common, of starting transitioning off camera, not really showing anything of it except making a point to be a good ally in the early questioning stage, then coming out when she was ready.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (2 children)

    I never got to see pre-transition Contrapoints, as she had already scrubbed her channel by the time I found her, and I never cared enough to try and seek out something she clearly didn't want others to see. However, from the vibe I got, she seemed like someone who just barely escaped 4trans before 4trans became big. She is, at her heart, an edgelord who revels in controversy, so it does make sense that she had an egg phase.

    You are right about PhilosophyTube, as by the time it was already obvious that something was up, she was already deep into her transition. Most other already famous creators did it like her, discovering themselves behind the scenes and only being visible in a closeted state rather than an egg state. F1NN5TER was a genuine egg who became so ingrained in the culture that some people still haven't received the memo about her cracking. I've never seen anything like it.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah tbph her content had a massive boost in quality right arounf where the video cull happened, so you aren't missing much. Mostly just an egg dressed for rocky horror bowing to a shrine of Anita Sarkeesian if I remember correctly. And yeah her public persona had a lot of /tttt/ energy and she had been on there, but it hadn't consolidated on 4chan yet back then. She's always seemed to struggle with the push and pull of her own self consciousness and self esteem issues vs her philosophy focused brain that just thinks if everyone can talk things out with an open mind everything will be better, and being queen edgelord is how it manifests when she's not being healthy about it (hence her describing twitter as more addictive than heroin having been addicted to both)

    I think it's also important to acknowledge how shortly after coming out she brutally lost an online debate to Blaire White, an experience I don't think she's ever rhetorically or philosophically recovered from. It taught her the raw shallow value of rhetoric and aesthetic over ideas. I suspect it contributed to her becoming the anti cringe, convincing herself she's straight, very model of what /tttt/ thinks the ideal trans woman to be. The post "shame" era seems to involve a lot of her working on all that to varying degrees and regularly falling back to trolling. Fundamentally her public persona is messy and so of course her relationship with her gender on screen was going to be messy from the beginning honestly up until the past few years.

    PhilosophyTube I think is a great contrast to contra. Her pre transition videos remain excellent and while her production quality has improved as she's transitioned she's talked about it being partly her healing from an abusive relationship. Unlike contra I'd feel sad if she were to delete her pre transition videos (and I highly doubt she ever would) in part because she was hitting pretty hard in them. While she's been very open about her mental health issues as well you don't really see them unless she's told you where to look.

    But yeah anyways that was long and largely tangential. I swear I'm too young to go on these old lady rants about how things have changed over the years. There are a few other trans artists I can point to who had things that in retrospect were signs like Suzie Orman's fashion tastes (but it was only a sign because something was there) or some of Laura Jane Grace's pre transition songs (yeah it's proof of a different time that nobody was saying anything about "The Ocean" until she came out). But F1NN5TER and Contrapoints kinda seem to stand alone in how overt and public their egg phases were.

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  • I get what you mean about being too young for old lady rants. I feel like I remember internet lore that most people have either forgotten or never experienced in the first place. Like people not knowing how fascist cultural movements work and getting duped by them again and again, and I'm all like "Really? These strategies aren't even novel anymore. How do people keep falling for them so hard?" I guess the TikTok generation needs their GamerGate too, and I guess mainstream social media going mask-off has really opened the floodgates.

    Anyhow, things have both changed and stayed the same. I don't think anyone could have the same experience as F1NN5TER or Contrapoints. No egg will again exist on an internet where people are largely ignorant about trans people like Contra, and no egg anytime soon will think that trans people have a safe future like F1NN. If one didn't crack because the common culture was in its infancy, and another didn't crack because they were innocent and dense as a brick, the next one will probably repress themselves intensely while being unable to resist the internal pressure.

    I'm imagining a "femboy" who gets big by being edgy and terminally online in some way. A fully left wing creator would likely be buried by current mainstream algorithms and face more right wing harassment for gender nonconformity. However if someone acts like the ultimate pick-me, an egg who openly resists the urge to transition, they might get held up as a beacon of how the right wants trans people to say closeted. Such an egg would get forced out of the right eventually, and probably transition to repping 4tran brainrot.

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  • [–] 19 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    as it seems he only transitioned to femme with HRT for the popularity

    This might be the consensus on certain corners of the internet, but it's absolute transphobic bullshit. He got so much less hate before she transitioned, as being "just a cishet femboy" was far less controversial than the truth. The real problem with F1NN5TER is all the ragebaiting on Twitter to promote their OnlyFans. She relies too much on bigots who secretly simp to ever back away from the toxicity that's the real source of these bigoted theories.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    I think that's transphobic garbage. The only real reasons people take HRT involve them wanting to for themselves. The effects and changes can be very unpleasant if you don't want them and also don't go away if you stop taking them.

    I will agree that F1nn says a lot of shitty things for attention and views but taking HRT isn't something one does for attention and views.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago

    Cool. I loved their videos because I loved seeing F1nn genuinely enjoy showing off how great a femme they make, until I got wind of folk thinking F1nn was a poser or other things that absolutely do sound like transphobic arguments.

    You right: HRT, especially injections, especially if one has to pay for it, is definitely a personal, life-altering commitment. My dumb ass started buying the "some kids are doing it because its cool" claims.

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  • [+] 80 points 4 months ago (11 children)
  • [–] 44 points 4 months ago* (10 children)

    I'll never say it on her account or more mainstream social network... But oh, the egg vibes of shen are off the charts. It's basically an open secret

    That sheep and wolf comic ? It was so on-point that it had a role in breaking MY egg

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  • [–] 83 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (5 children)

    If Shen wants to come out as trans, that's great. But I think it's inappropriate to be making assumptions based only on vibes until then.

    Trying to preempt someone's egg cracking is either misgendering or goading someone to out themselves before they're ready.

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  • [–] 18 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

    This is all generally true, but omfg does Shen not make it easy. At this point they're egg baiting rather than simply getting called an egg for unintentional behavior. I'd be kinda upset if they aren't trans after these last few posts.

    edit: I'm realizing now that this comic didn't say what I thought it did. I hope Shen continues his silliness, as GNC stuff is always fun to see.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I mean by that logic simply being GNC in any way online is considered Egg baiting. I don't like that outlook very much because people within egg culture spaces say that GNC people are trans by virtue of being GNC. If someone wants to be more feminine because they like the idea of looking and dressing more fem but they enjoy being a guy and they get called an egg for that, they are getting called an egg for "unintentional behavior". For some of the very flagrantly GNC people including myself it can seem like we're bringing it upon ourselves on purpose. I can assure you that we're not. I don't enjoy being harassed in DMs and sent AI generated porn of my sona because people think I'm a girl in denial (yes that happened and it was disgusting) I do what I love in spite of the abuse I get/have gotten not because I like it or want more of it.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    I realized that I misread the original comic as Shen saying that looking like a girl made him feel funny things, which is why I said he was eggbaiting. That's entirely on me for jumping to a snap judgement while not in the right headspace to think critically. Egg accusations are really harmful, especially online where our knowledge of the person is parasocial at best.

    I don't always see eye to eye with you, but I respect you and hate how much people target you for not fitting into their preconceived notions. I don't get half of the personal attacks you get, and that's in no small part thanks to me being a binary trans woman who is somehow perceived as "normal" in this corner of the internet. I fit common schemas, so people almost always sort me into the box I hold no objection to, a luxury people who exist off the gender conforming binary don't get.

    I really should've known better, both as a former egg and as someone who experimented off the binary path and hated how little people respected it. I'm sorry that I said something so insensitive.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    Ah yeah, I definitely see why that could be considered eggbating. I do honestly think that eggbating is a problem just as much as egg accusations. It almost encourages the behavior.

    Although I think it's better to call out the egging behavior than it is to call out what could be egg baiting, but what also could be people expressing themselves, or encouraging others to express themselves freely. Behavior that can be seen as eggbating by others wouldn't actually be a problem if egg accusations weren't thrown around as casually as they are.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    I agree, trying to determine someone else's identity or push them to identify a certain way, especially on presentation alone is shitty. I would argue it doesn't help people. Feeling safe is what helps people and that means they need to be allowed initiative when it comes to exploration.

    Hot take, but people shouldn't feel forced to do something they don't want to do when it comes to their own gender.

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 4 months ago* (3 children)

    I forgot about the sheep/wolf comics! Just went back to re-read them, and deer^lol^ god… This shit seems scientifically formulated to crack eggs.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] [S] 34 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

    Sidenote: I like how manga author Nakatani Nio draws herself as a pigeon^[1]^ bird.

    ^[1] Apparently, I can’t read…^

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  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    You son of a bitch, she says she's a Little Grebe right there 😂

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  • [–] 28 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Fem-Shen

    She-Shen was right there aa

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  • [–] 26 points 4 months ago

    "Sex sells hommi, now put this on. "

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  • [–] 21 points 4 months ago
    [–] 12 points 4 months ago

    Reminds me of when the Penny Arcade guys drew themselves with hair and chins for years and years.

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago

    well now i feel like i need a visual for myself.... hmm-

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (8 children)

    What does the "> o" eyes mean? I saw it in the OpenBSD logo recently on their website.

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  • [–] [S] 17 points 4 months ago (7 children)

    It’s just winking, isn’t it?

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Oh, ok. Thanks. I still don't really understand, is it supposed to be the ">" symbol or is the eye doing that literally?

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 4 months ago* (1 child)

    Sort of both, I think? I’m guessing it started out as an emoticon, literally represented by a > character, but comic artists started mimicking the look of it.

    Unresearched speculation on my part; Take it with a grain of salt.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    The symbol is used in emoticons like this: >_o to mimic the wrinkles that show up when you're scrunching your eye closed. Nerd artists use the same symbology in comics.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I see. Would you say that the banner picture of this: https://www.openbsd.org/ is an example or is it just similar?

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago

    They’re not wrong.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    O |_/ B---- π

    Dammit

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