Raine Whispers | Nonbinary Representation in Media

I didn't script out this video, so it's literally just a cutdown snippet of some of my rambling! I haven't edited a video in almost 3 years, so sorry if it comes across as a little clunky, I'm just a tad out of practice.

If any of you would like to share your thoughts about Raine or other nonbinary characters, please do in the comments!

I'll definitely be making more commentary videos on The Owl House in the future seeing as it's my favorite show!

SOCIAL MEDIA

MUSIC USED IN THIS VIDEO

#toh #theowlhouse #rainewhispers

[lgodproductions]

It's also very rare that a nonbinary person gets a romantic relationship with a main character

[artvulture]

Raine isn't white, isn't a young person, has a romantic relationship with a main character, is important to the plot, isn't a shape shifter or an alien, is voiced by a nb person, and has an interesting personality??? YESSSS

[thetwelfth]

What I also appreciate about Raine’s character is they’re not voiced by a cis VA, too often I see a similar type of erasure when a trans woman’s character is played by a man with a wig on TV. Their VA is also non-binary, and they ACTUALLY do their job very well which tells me they were chosen on the basis of their skill, not to fill an inclusivity checklist.

[williamstark]

To be fair, Owl House actually has good representation that isn't literally designed to be edited out so countries that hate gay can watch them too. Or designed just to pander and 'Look at us, we care guys, now give us money.'
It actually bothers to respect the audience in general and is mostly well written.
So I'm not surprised Raine's appreciated.

[Cruznick]

Raine made me tear up when I first heard Eda call them "them". I hadn't seen a masculine non-binary character before and it was so great to have another enby character to relate to! Especially seeing how Raine appears AFAB as a kid (I say appears, as this is my own interpretation). It's just so cool to have representation.

[Ecliptic-P]

when i first saw ER, i actually thought raine was a guy. I wasnt being transphobic, im non-binary myself. but my mind never picked up on the they/them part til later. I love how it isnt emphasized or like LOOOK EVERYONE RAINE IS ENBY LETS WORSHIP THEM. no. They're treated as a human being for lack of a better term. i absolutely love how they're just a normal person, and not a glorified "object" used to be like LOOK EVERYONE,
Edit: I now identify as genderfluid but I still love them

[buttondowndingo]

I just turned sixteen, and Raine Whispers is the first character that made me feel good about my gender identity, and Amity is really the first good Lesbian rep I've seen that makes me feel good about my sexual orientation.

[oldart]

I also like how on the Boiling Isles there seems to be no discrimination or stigma to lgbtq at all. Makes you re-focus again that the enemy IS Belos and not wild witches vs. covens or just people being hateful towards each other. By far not a utopia, but the lack of discrimination put me in a feeling of security that this cartoon universe is safe in that way :) Raine isn't glorified as their selling point of representation, either and no character is used in that way. I've never seen any kind of lgbtq rep that isn't a 'BrAgGiNG PoInT" kind of thing or downright miserable. The Owl House beautifully includes everything it can with no complaints from me!

[nighthawk]

The greatest part about this representation is that they don’t mention it or make a big deal out of it. Characters when referring to Raine just mention “they” and they just get along with the conversation without drawing attention to it. It sounds so normal and organic and even if I’m not non-binary it makes me feel happy.

[KHTimeProtecter]

Honestly, I didn’t think much about Raine’s pronouns. All I was thinking was how cool and bad-ass their character is and that they and Eda had better get back together after all of this. Their pronouns were a bit of an afterthought. Probably because I have quite a few nonbinary friends and I’ve become numb to it.

[roseystudio]

As an autistic person, I have the same issue with shows. Owl House became an obsession, when I KNOW I have to focus on less important shows to me.

[thephantommasquerade]

I luv Raine whispers they're so incredible and the fact that they introduced Eda to Apple blood, something she still drink's to this day despite everything that happened between them is so freaking precious.

[pandoratheexplorer]

About stevonnie and dt being "controversial" i think that was p much the only way the studio would let them put in an nb character. You could say "well steven and connie arent the same gender so stevonnie MUST be nb!" Or "double trouble can turn into boys AND girls so it doesnt make sense for them to be either." Its like how cn allowed gems to be gay as long as they specified they were "genderless female presenting aliens so its technically not two women kissing." And even then they still cancelled su for the gay wedding

These were groundbreaking characters in that they were allowed to be in a kids show at all. They set the expectation that nb characters can and should exist in cartoons. Terrace and stevenson both famously used steven universe to petition their studios to let them have gay characters. The "shapeshifter" and "fusion of boy and girl" tropes for nb characters are outdated now but it was the only way they were allowed to do nb characters 5-10 years ago and im glad it was done so much afterwards that it became a trope bc that meant we had a lot of nb characters

Its in poor taste to use those tropes now bc there is more acceptance for nb characters in cartoons now so its better to make them just normal ppl. But stevonnie was what they needed in 2014 to get an nb character onscreen at all. And dt was what they needed in 2018 to show any nb character being their own person.

Its like queer coded villains during the days of the hayes code. Or that one movie in the 90s about a trans woman played by a man in a dress. It would be offensive now. But it was what was needed back then to get queer characters in media at all and its thanks to characters like them that we can have more respectful representation now

[nschannel]

To be more concise with the alien thing: Most of the time the character's species is used to explain their non-conformity to the gender binary, most commonly because that species has a very different concept of gender to humans, or something like that. What makes Raine different is that witches don't really have a different concept of gender to humans. Granted, some things seemed to be more normalized, but you get my point.

[OrangeSpaceNewt]

Ever since Raine was introduced my brain switched immediately to "THEM!! THEM!! I LOVE THEM!!" mainly because I loved their design and payed attention to them the moment they got introduced and they SPARK JOY

[deadSalesman_GD]

I love that Raine is one of the most compassionate, loving, characters and even though they split up with Eda when they were younger they still love her and want to keep her safe and are willing to put their own safety at risk to protect her and do the right thing for the whole of the boiling isles.

Tl;dr Raine is a god damn hero and I love them!

[dysphanic_redshift]

Titan, the representation that comes with Raine makes me so damn happy just ghfdhf y e s
As a fellow non-binary person, we *need* this kind of representation

[milquetoast]

I just wanted to point out how much I love that Raine appears differently in the backstory episode with Eda. It's a really simple way of showing that trans people change, and also *need* to change. It also adds that, no matter what you look like, your identity is valid and your own, and nothing will change that. So despite seeming more AFAB in the backstory, and now more masculine later in the series, Raine is always they/them, which is really great! It also just makes sense anyways, because I'm sure most trans people's photo albums of when they were children will look very different to how they are today, in terms of gender presentation. So, that's also super important!
And then besides that, I love that Raine is also transmasculine, AND non-binary. As a transmasc non-binary person myself, this is super awesome to see! Not all non-binary people are androgynous! Let's go!!

[DarthOmelette]

As for Stevonnie, in the first episode they appeared Garnet spelled it out: "You are not one person. You are not two people. You are a relationship." They could be seen as non-binary representation, but space-rock magic makes it a bit more complicated.

[bluewolf.cosplay]

I'm working on a cosplay for Raine right now actually!!! It's way out my comfort zone since I've never made a clothing piece from scratch, and hard to find certain THEY ARE SO WORTH IT!!!!