Xenia, the fox girl mascot of Linux, was first designed in 1996 by Alan Mackey. She was meant to be an alternative to Tux, the official mascot.

She had fallen into obscurity, but was noticed by a Twitter user in 2019 and was redrawn as a fox girl. But as it turned out, Xenia was originally meant to be male! The original creator, Alan, was cool with this, saying "It matches the transition of a lot of the smartest, nerdiest Linux users I know" and "And sure, you made her trans!".

So now we have a trans Linux mascot. And I think that's neat.

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  • Bureaucrat [pup/pup's, null/void]
    ·
    7 hours ago

    Hey, guess I'm gonna use the anonymity the Bureaucracy affords us. I just saw the current icon of the new !cute@hexbear.net community. It's currently an animation of Fluttershy from MLP G4 vibing and I started to wonder how many people here were/are bronies (in the widest sense possible). I watched the show during its original run and I was strongly aware that I wasn't in the target-demographic, which caused me shame even if I never shared it with anyone irl. I only consciously started questioning my gender long after the show had its run, but now I start to wonder how many eggs were/are in the fandom of MLP.

    In retrospective it's kind of obvious why I found great joy in watching that show and I guess I just wanted to ask if others here share a similar experience?

    • JohnBrownsBussy2 [she/her, they/them]
      ·
      4 hours ago

      I watched the first 3 seasons, loved it, and definitely got into the whole "brony" fandom. Went to a few in person meetups, listened to all the fan music. Read and tried writing fanfiction. It was definitely something that I hid from my parents for a while, then bought some merch. I remember my mom being concerned.

      In retrospect, I think it was a way of indulging in gender/feminity in a way that I felt was somewhat acceptable, since it was ironic/post-ironic. I was also really into F/F shipping, which I conceptualized as "male horniness" at the time, but looking back on it certainly has gender implications. It definitely helped me come to terms with my own bisexuality at the least: I had that figured out a long time before I realized I was trans. I definitely identified strongly with the female cast, especially Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna. I wanted a Princess Luna plushie for years, and only now with my egg cracking that I was able to overcome those hangups and finally buy one.

      I fell off the show in season 4. I had other interests, and I kinda felt that the fandom had fallen off. There was this vein of alt-right infiltration and weirdness with fandom drama that made me less comfortable with the fandom, or at least with figures that I used to respect.

    • Wmill [they/them]
      ·
      6 hours ago

      I watched the first 2 season, still have season one on dvd on my shelf, but dropped it during the 3rd season. Didn't really feel any shame the songs where good and the characters were fun but 3 season didn't hook me as much. Idk if I'd go back to watching it or not my attention is too split for now to sit down and watch.