The other day I finished watching Helluva Boss for the umpteenth time. Helluva Boss is a spinoff of Hazbin Hotel, which is essentially a queer Disney musical set in hell. Helluva is much less saccharine than Hazbin --- it's downright filthy, honestly --- and centers on romantic relationships that are surprisingly compelling. Here's a highlight from season 2, when it becomes more musically oriented like Hazbin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUOvuKW2O_I
Just about every character in the Hellaverse (as the shared fictional universe is called) is queer. You could count straight characters on one hand --- if you could even rack your brain long enough to think of them --- and they're mostly minor characters. The only major hetero character is in a relationship with a bisexual one that only qualifies as "straight" on the barest technicality.
This is wonderful! What a treat! But it throws into glaring relief the paucity of trans characters. There's only one named character who's trans --- Sallie Mae --- and she's minor enough that it's a surprise that she even rated a name. She's just a token. The only other trans "characters" are background decorations.
The queerest show in existence has more straight people in it than trans people.
And why? Numerous characters whose storylines don't even involve romance have had their sexualities proclaimed in merchandise and social media posts. Why can't they just arbitrarily declare them to be trans the same way?
The total absence of trans characters turns the queer-utopian Hell into something much darker: a vision of cis LGB community that's been cleansed of gender-described undesirables. Their existence is obliquely referenced, but they're not seen. Where did they all go?
For that matter, where did all the "theys" go? There are exactly zero characters who don't use he/him or she/her pronouns. Is this really the fantasy world cis queers want to retreat into?
The Hellaverse is not totally without gender diversity. Angel Dust from Hazbin is sufficiently femme that he says his chest fur is mistaken for boobs (a mistake encouraged by his wardrobe choices). The demons in Helluva all seem to instinctively crossdress on their visits to the human realm, and Moxxie --- the bisexual half of the "straight" couple --- finds other excuses to femme up.1 And the women of the Hellaverse are not restricted to gender-stereotyped roles; Milly, the straight woman from Helluva, is the strongest and most vicious fighter of the lot.
Maybe these features help gentle negative reactions to the show's systematic trans exclusion. I certainly appreciate them! But the fact remains that the only gender transgression celebrated by the show takes place within the confines of binary gender assignment. This show is comfortable with people whose gender expression violates social norms, but not people who change their gender altogether.
And to return to Sallie Mae for a moment: let's just say it's interesting that we know she's trans due to a trait that's sexually dimorphic in demons (the color pattern on the horns). A trans-inclusive worldview would of course include people who are easily identified in this manner, but it would also include people who aren't. It would represent gendered traits as mutable, fluid, and not necessarily obvious. Trans characters would be plentiful --- including ones who are neither male nor female --- not rare. In short, a trans-positive Hellaverse would depict gender the same way it depicts sexuality.
Maybe things will improve in the next season of Helluva Boss which is still a long, long, loooong three months away. But I doubt it.
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By the way: check out this adorable piece of merch. You could probably write an entire thesis on just that episode and its dicey portrayal of gender transgression. The pin was too cute for me to resist, though! <-|