Hello, So I have a trans man character in one of my main projects I am working on. And my problem is I want to show some of the character's childhood where he meets another character during this time. However, this time would be very much pre-transition, and that raises the possibility of the character's deadname coming up. Now as a cis author, it feels uncomfortable for me to do that. But I'm not sure if I can avoid it, or how much of a big deal it actually is. I also don't want to emphasise the character's transness too much, partially to avoid these sorts of awkwardnesses and partially because I want the story to have a slightly casual "and what about it?" vibe to the inclusion of LBGT character where LGBT issues are present but discrimination isn't as important to the story as it tends to be. Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts on the ethics or practicalities here? How should I handle this issue? Should I avoid flashbacks all together?
I don't see an issue. This is a pre-social-transition flashback if I understand correctly. What exactly is the concern? That covering his life pre-transition would be transphobic? Heck, even if you had a character actually deliberately deadnaming this character in the present, that wouldn't be transphobic of you, that would be transphobic of the character. It's how you treat what happens in the narrative that matters, not what happens in and of itself. You shouldn't feel reluctant to depict these past scenes just because it would involve showing a trans character pre-transition. It could provide valuable insights into his life and the life of his friends, and how he's changed as a person over time.
But it would also potentially mean naming the character their deadname in the narration, certainly at least have their deadname used regularly. And that's not entirely comfortable to me. It's a little like writing historical antebellum stories and using that as an excuse to use the N word a lot. Sure, it's something you can do in contexts. But there's a question of why you want to and how much you lean into that.
I mean, you'd only be calling him that in narration if that's what the character mentally still calls himself at that point in the story, right? If he's already calling himself "he" or using a male name in his own head, you'd use that, assuming this is third person limited narration.
Hey, finally a thread where my amateur ass actually has some insight, since I'm trans myself. Obviously, I can't speak for all trans people, but here's how I personally see it: You can't really avoid "deadnaming" a trans character by other characters in a flashback - that's just what they were named during that time. However, I feel that the narration should still refer to them with their chosen name and preferred pronouns. If you think there could be confusion for the reader, just explain it whenever necessary. It's not like cis characters don't go by multiple different names in other stories either, so I'm sure readers can handle it. Regarding "and what about it"-ness, I actually really like that you're going this route. We do need more stories where trans people are represented without their transness being a plot point. Because we do live our lives like all other people do and can have adventures that have nothing to do with being trans. Such portrayal normalizes it, so you have my thumbs up for it.
One way to avoid it is to give the character a nickname which carries past transition... like if they were known as 'ginger' when they identified as male they could still be known as ginger while identifying female and referred to as ginger by the narrator throughout, avoiding both dead naming and reader confusion... you could then use the dead 'real' name in flashback only where it was necessary to show that they were at the point male identifying
I'm not trans, but I am a gay guy with a fair few trans/nonbinary friends, so I think I might have some insight here. I also recently wrote a book with a trans main character, and I did not use their pre-transition name throughout the entire novel, even with flashbacks. For one, in conversations between only two people, you'd be surprised how rarely first names are used, so if you wanted to do a flashback, you could have them just involved 1-on-1 interactions. Also, you might simply write the events of the flashback into the prose without fleshing out the scene. Like: It reminded me of the time that side-character did such and such. Oh, we got into so much trouble, and this happened, and I could go into more detail but I don't feel like concocting an entire fake scene for this example. Even all these years later, I can't smell freshly mowed grass without thinking of that night. Almost always, yeah, and different trans people will have different answers to this, but I'd caution OP (and other writers) away from saying thing like: "Oh, you met her years ago, but she must not have left an impression. It was back when you were [deadname]." Which, isn't the same thing as a flashback, and it's not the same thing as calling the person the deadname, but
Wrong way round with the genders but interesting idea. I don't think that would work very well in this story, since only one of the other main protagonists knew the main character before transition and there weren't very well acquainted until after it, which is when they started to become closer. But it is an interesting thought.
My problem is I wanted to write the flashbacks in-situ as it were, not in a conscious recollection sort of way. Not necessarily as if the character is actually having some vivid recollection, more just "here's when Marcus met Shadow for the audience's benefit" (the character is Marcus and Shadow as a companion character is the main reason I want flashbacks) and narrated more as it was at the time. Perhaps I should avoid that though to make it easier to handle deadnames?
Such is life. It's fine for the prose and dialogue set before a transition to use a fictional character's deadname. I've done it myself.
