What Superman Means To Me As A Trans Person
You’ll Never Look At Superman The Same Way Again
Welcome to TRANSlating Everything, a newsletter covering pop culture, news, politics, and the science of storytelling through the lens of a cool trans mom. You can support my work by leaving a tip or choosing a paid subscription to Translating Everything on Medium or Substack.
Y’all remember Superman?
This edition includes a TRANSlation of Superman, an Elseworlds tale in which Clark was once Clarice, the most bizarre stats readout for Superman from an actual movie, and a hilarious meme from two trans pop culture specialists.
If Superman can be bisexual, they can for sure be trans
Superman: I’m here to fight for truth, justice, and trans people.
Lois: You’re gonna end up fighting every transphobe in the country!
At the end of Kill Bill volume 2, Bill tells [redacted] that Superman’s mythology is unique among superheroes in that he is the only one who is already a superhero without an alter ego.
Everyone else has to put on a mask. But Superman? Ah, he is the one among them all who wakes up already super.
And to Bill — because he’s so old he can only remember the version from Action Comics #1 — Superman being inherently “super” makes him not just super. It makes him superior — and Superman knows it.
Bill:
“Clark Kent is how Superman views us, and what are the characteristics of Clark Kent? He’s weak, he’s unsure of himself, he’s a coward. Clark Kent is Superman’s critique on the whole human race.”
For Bill, Superman may be the only cis version of a superhero. The rest of them need to transition. The rest of them will never truly be super.
Spoken like a true cis dude.
TRANSlating Superman
For me, a cool trans mom, Tarantino’s hot take misses the heart of the character.
Kal-El is at heart Clark. The mild-mannered reporter isn’t a disguise or performance. He really is that guy. He had to LEARN how to present as Superman. In all but the earliest incarnations of the character, he didn’t even have powers until he was older.
As noted by Sheraz Farooqi for ScreenRant, even if Clark came to Earth with powers, he didn’t learn how to be anyone but Clark until he was much older.
Throughout Clark’s early and teenage years, he is just Clark, not Superman. His truth is not revealed to him until well into his teens and he lives this portion of his life simply seeing himself as a human. All of Superman’s core beliefs, hopeful nature and need to help others comes from his upbringing from Ma and Pa Kent.
Indeed, some of the best writers in recent years for the beloved Kryptonian character chimed in with similar thoughts.
Brian Michael Bendis:
“I think about that Kill Bill bit often. It gets brought up to us quite a lot. My feelings about it are so different, even using the word ‘disguise,’ I wouldn’t… Superman was kind of thrust on him. His father said, ‘You are going to do this and we are going to send you to do this.’ The choice Clark made in his life was to be a reporter. Everything else was kind of thrust upon him, or he was sent to a place, but he chose to be a reporter. He said, ‘There’s truth out there, and there’s justice to be had that Superman can’t get to just punching it … and being a writer to reveal that truth is something I’m going to do.’ He chooses to spend his time doing that, and I find that enormously admirable, and it makes me love him more.”
Jeph Loeb:
“Clark Kent is the man. He changes clothes and becomes Superman. It’s a fundamental difference on how you approach the character,” Loeb says. “He is a Kansas farm boy who loves his parents. His identity to Krypton, if anything, is minimal.”
John Byrne:
“He was very much, in the ’70s, played as the stranger in a strange land, which really didn’t make any sense because he was raised on Earth. That’s the key point, he was raised as a human. All his values and understanding of the world, he got from us — from Ma and Pa Kent, that Midwestern, Bible Belt upbringing.”
Or heck, let’s pray to Rao the Krypto Sun God — also known a Eldirao, also known to Earth astronomy as LHS-2520 — that Clark Kent will clarify the situation for us.
This juxtaposition of his true self vs the perception by the public that he is and has always been Superman is part of what I love about the character.
I connect with it so much that it inspired one of my earliest stories after I came out. If the real Superman can be bisexual, who’s to say they can’t also be trans?
Elseworlds: What if Superman were trans?
It’s an Elseworlds tale in which we discover Clark was once Clarice. Once the sun began to manifest their powers, it was the same as a girl’s body suddenly being hit with male puberty. She had to decide whether letting those changes overwhelm her biology was worth it in order to become Earth’s greatest protector.
Please enjoy this reprinted tale in its entirety. And if you prefer the audio dramatization, I recorded a performance down below!
Before there was Clark, there was Clarice
The Kents had begged for a boy. A human boy.
What they got was…something else.
They did the best they could. Who were they to question what gender meant to a child from Krypton? But certain pieces of a disguise had to be put in place. The danger was too great.
If anyone found out the truth…
Before There Was Superboy…There Was Supergirl
As a young girl, nothing about Clarice Kent’s body, behavior, or identity provoked the residents of Smallville into telling Clarice she was anything other than the child the Kents had prayed the skies to send.
So what if her parents told her to keep parts of herself a secret? What they said made sense. If anyone ever found out the truth about Clarice…
Her parents asked her to wear glasses. Keep her hair short. Tell everyone her name was Clark. The more elements to the deception, the harder it would be for anyone to see the truth.
Maybe one day, she could find a way to come out. But for now, time was what they needed. Time was what they had.
The Moment Before Transition
Early in the morning, Clarice often sat on the roof of the barn and waited for the day to begin. She looked to the sky and dreamed of the day she could remove these glasses, take the leap, and fly as her true self.
But the sunrise reminded her how far off that time still was and might always be. She had to put on a boy’s clothes. A boy’s glasses. A boy’s name. An alter ego that threatened to become more real than the girl fighting to exist.
The First Sting Of Pain
Pretending to be a boy hurt Clarice in a way she couldn’t explain. When she faced physical danger, she felt almost invincible. Like bullets would bounce off her.
But telling people her name was “Clark” felt like stabbing herself with steel. She suddenly felt human. Just as easily hurt, just as easily broken.
At least it was only a feeling. At least her body still belonged to her. She was a willing participant in the deception. Mild mannered for a reason. Girl, boy, her parents knew which one was best. If it meant safety, she would do it.
The Day Everything Changed
One day, she sat on the roof of the barn. She waited for the day to begin. The sun usually heralded a return to normalcy.
But this time, those rays touched her in a new way.
This time, the yellow sun began to change her body…
Some changes were amazing. Some were just WRONG.
And soon, Clarice had to decide whether becoming Earth’s greatest protector was worth sacrificing the things she never thought she’d have to live without.
What would you do?
Would you accept superpowers if it turned you into the wrong gender?
How would you continue the story?
Pick any point from the life of Clarice/Clark Kent.
Will you start as far back as Krypton? Or will you keep the story to their time on Earth?
Will you tell their life as a baby? Or will you go far ahead into the future — when they’re looking back on the decisions that came to define their life? Was it worth it?
What was it like before they felt dysphoria? What was it like when they did? What was it like after they chose how to live with their experiences in a world that would now treat them as an alien?
Is kryptonite their form of puberty blockers? Do they wear a kryptonite necklace to always keep their powers in check? Does it leave them weak, disoriented, vulnerable…but at least leaves their body as that of a girl?
Do they worry that if they ever take the kryptonite necklace off…they can never go back?
What happens when a crisis puts the people Clarice Kent loves in danger…and the only way to save them is to let go of the necklace? To let her body advance into the form of a man so super no one would ever suspect it was actually a girl?
To be continued…
Other Batman and Superman stuff I made
If I ever doubt what persistence and dedication can achieve, I need merely look at Henry Cavill, what many consider to be the best actor yet to play the Dude of Steel.
I Used Unsplash To Recreate Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy
Watchmen v Knives Out: Why Zack Snyder should embrace the kind of stories he’s great at telling
Superman and Lois just gave a HUGE nod to Superman ’78 (and a bunch of other cool easter eggs)
CW (almost) SOLD! Superman and Lois could undergo potentially dramatic reimagining
Other fun stuff
New trans superhero is ‘gonna be your favorite character,’ DC Comics editor claims
Behold this majestic meme from Tilly and Susan Bridges, the same trans team that brought you the deepest dive down a rabbit hole you’ll ever find about The Matrix
The stats readout for Superman from Superman III includes equations that would surely baffle anyone less than Bill Nye the science guy.
About Stephenie Magister
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