1 Title: There Should Be a <em>Closetspace</em>/<em>Lease Bound</em> Crossover Fic
4 Tags: review (webcomic/graphic novel)
7 I want to use the platform of my comparatively ("comparatively") obscure blog to tell you about two comparatively obscure webcomics I like, that display some striking parallels, and whose readerships probably anti-correlate—overlapping less than two _arbitrary_ webcomics of similar comparative obscurity.
11 [_Closetspace_](http://www.dolari.org/cs/index.htm) is the story of a boy named Jason who decides to live as a girl named Carrie in Texas of the late '90s or early 'aughts. Escaping family disapproval, Carrie moves in with a new housemate, Allison. The twist in the premise is, it turns out that Allison is _also_ a male-to-female transsexual, but [neither is aware of the other's secret](http://www.dolari.org/cs/31.htm).
13 The series follows Carrie and Allison as they face life's challenges—[their house gets attacked by a insurrectionist](http://www.dolari.org/cs/34.htm); Carrie gets [accidentally kidnapped by a dominatrix](http://www.dolari.org/cs/48.htm) [(who is _also_ trans)](http://www.dolari.org/cs/53.htm); [Allison copes with regrets about her own transition](http://www.dolari.org/cs/83.htm); Carrie's mom [has a stroke](http://www.dolari.org/cs/81.htm) [and dies](http://www.dolari.org/cs/153.htm), and Carrie [faces pushback](http://www.dolari.org/cs/160.htm) ([including from](http://www.dolari.org/cs/164.htm) her [previously mostly supportive](http://www.dolari.org/cs/15.htm) sister) after showing up [at the hospital](http://www.dolari.org/cs/90.htm) and [to the funeral](http://www.dolari.org/cs/158.htm) _as_ Carrie, causing her to [develop social anxiety](http://www.dolari.org/cs/178.htm); Allison [gets addicted to an old video game](http://www.dolari.org/cs/193.htm), connects with [an interior-decorating client](http://www.dolari.org/cs/116.htm) and [an old friend](http://www.dolari.org/cs/317.htm); Carrie's drag queen friend [also dies](http://www.dolari.org/cs/266.htm).
15 It wasn't something I noticed when I first encountered _Closetspace_ around 2010 or so, but knowing [what I know now](/2018/Jan/dont-negotiate-with-terrorist-memeplexes/), it's really striking how much the Blanchardian [two-type taxonomy](/tag/two-type-taxonomy/) shines through in the course of telling Carrie's story, not because the author intended any such reading, but because the taxonomic structure in human psychology is going to show up when you tell a story that's true to human life. (Recap for new readers: there are [two etiologically distinct types of male-to-female transsexuals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanchard%27s_transsexualism_typology)—an androphilic type coterminous with the most effeminate gay men, and an _autogynephilic_ type—["men who love women and want to become what they love"](http://unremediatedgender.space/papers/lawrence-becoming_what_we_love.pdf).)
17 The author probably doesn't believe in the typology (if she's even heard of it), but _the traits line up anyway_. Carrie is straight—gynephilic (["Guys just aren't my thing"](http://www.dolari.org/cs/16.htm), she tells her sister). Carrie's gay (androphilic) drag queen friend Victor/Victoria [doesn't understand Carrie's motivations](http://www.dolari.org/cs/67.htm): "Not to mention you don't _think_ like one of 'them'", she comments on Carrie's lack of innate femininity. (Anyone can see that effeminate gay men taking on female roles "make sense"; autogynephilia is harder to understand if you haven't yourself felt the tug of the scintillating but ultimately untrue thought.) Heidi the (male) dominatrix [displays a working knowledge of the typology while coming on to Carrie](http://www.dolari.org/cs/268.htm): "We're both crossdressers, and we aren't anything like drag queens [...] sometimes I want to hang out with someone like me. Someone like you." Indeed!
19 [TODO: "And I feel a longing" ... could she be more specific http://www.dolari.org/cs/231.htm]
20 [TODO: pseudo-androphilia! http://www.dolari.org/cs/239.htm]
22 A point of skepticism on the premise: it doesn't feel realistic to me that Allison doesn't clock Carrie given that Carrie is [_not on hormones yet_](http://www.dolari.org/cs/55.htm). Passing is _hard_, especially when you're _living with someone_, rather than just seeing them "in passing" in public. No one mistakes [the Texas insurrectionist woman](http://www.dolari.org/cs/23.htm) as a man even though she has short hair and wears men's clothes. And Carrie _sings_! (Vocal pitch is hugely sexually dimorphic; [one study reports](/papers/puts_et_al-masculine_voices_signal_mens_threat_potential.pdf) the sex difference in mean [fundamental frequency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_frequency) at Cohen's _d_ ≈ 5.7, which is so huge that I can't _quite_ take it at face value insofar as it implies that Tracy Chapman (whose singing I've mis-sexed) should outright not exist, rather than merely being very rare.) I feel kind of vindicated that a [guest illustrator gave Carrie a realistically unfortunate face](http://www.dolari.org/cs/357.htm).
24 Okay, Heidi [who _is_ on hormones](http://www.dolari.org/cs/340.htm) [lied to Allison to cover for Carrie once](http://www.dolari.org/cs/54.htm)—maybe that helped tip the scales after [the hypothesis had been promoted to Allison's attention](http://www.dolari.org/cs/57.htm)?
26 How much work is being done by [the effect where it's easier to pass precisely when transsexualism is rare](/2020/Dec/crossing-the-line/)? Maybe Allison in particular is just really oblivious?
30 _Closetspace_ seems to be on life support—there have only been five updates since 2019.
34 Allison, "I thought I knew what to look for"!!! http://www.dolari.org/cs/255.htm
35 "had me thinking you were a guy for a sec, too" http://www.dolari.org/cs/254.htm
36 Maybe Allison is just oblivious?!
39 remaining summary points—
40 pervert assumption of Allison's last roommate http://www.dolari.org/cs/4.htm
41 "I like dressing like a woman. I like _being_ a woman." http://www.dolari.org/cs/11.htm
42 kidnapped by a domniatrix http://www.dolari.org/cs/48.htm
43 The dominatrix is trans!! Everyone is trans! http://www.dolari.org/cs/53.htm
44 This doctor does hormones http://www.dolari.org/cs/55.htm
45 story goes back to the 1990s: http://www.dolari.org/cs/articles/99706roo.htm
46 "When you make a very expensive decision, you think you'd learn to live with it" http://www.dolari.org/cs/64.htm
47 "I'll have medical bills to think about soon" http://www.dolari.org/cs/73.htm
48 a couple of snips doesn't change that http://www.dolari.org/cs/80.htm
49 "some of the effects are rather permanent" slave: "beards and breasts are forever" http://www.dolari.org/cs/82.htm
50 Alison has regrets: http://www.dolari.org/cs/83.htm
51 turned away from visiting mom in the hospital: http://www.dolari.org/cs/90.htm
52 hosting aunt/uncle http://www.dolari.org/cs/91.htm
53 passing to a kid: http://www.dolari.org/cs/92.htm
54 niece finds breastforms: http://www.dolari.org/cs/96.htm
55 glad to see you've got a healthy libido kid, we were beginning to think you were some kind of queer: http://www.dolari.org/cs/97.htm
56 "I'll keep your secret": http://www.dolari.org/cs/100.htm
57 Alison as a child http://www.dolari.org/cs/110.htm http://www.dolari.org/cs/111.htm
58 "When I was 21, I made a mistake" http://www.dolari.org/cs/115.htm
59 story so far: http://www.dolari.org/cs/132b.htm (note the non-identity model phrasing, "used to be")
60 more story so far: http://www.dolari.org/cs/252b.htm "is/was male"
61 "I haven't been your big brother for over a month" http://www.dolari.org/cs/133.htm (not the identity model!)
62 "only because I haven't seen you this confident before" "it's the perscription bra" http://www.dolari.org/cs/136.htm
63 http://www.dolari.org/cs/142.htm
64 you wasted Allen's life, and now you're wasting Allison's http://www.dolari.org/cs/150.htm
65 showing up at the funeral http://www.dolari.org/cs/158.htm
66 "She's my son" http://www.dolari.org/cs/163.htm
67 Sister disapproves; Carrie isn't real http://www.dolari.org/cs/164.htm
68 servers gossip: http://www.dolari.org/cs/175.htm
69 Servers being obnoxious: http://www.dolari.org/cs/177.htm
70 Jem! http://www.dolari.org/cs/198.htm
71 grocery shopping http://www.dolari.org/cs/209.htm
72 visit from niece/aunt http://www.dolari.org/cs/215.htm http://www.dolari.org/cs/216.htm
73 "One small gene, all these problems from one tiny little gene" http://www.dolari.org/cs/231.htm
74 "Chromosome" http://www.dolari.org/cs/232.htm (Actually, they're both right! The SRY gene is the active part of the Y chromosome)
75 "in Thailand, no questions asked" http://www.dolari.org/cs/320.htm
76 ambiguity on what "Carrie" means!! (Carol vs. Carolyn this is actually relevant to me) http://www.dolari.org/cs/326.htm
77 nine months http://www.dolari.org/cs/332.htm
78 drag queens make Allison uncomfortable http://www.dolari.org/cs/253.htm http://www.dolari.org/cs/254.htm (Alison is committed to relative "stealth"; this isn't a "trans women are women" setting— )
81 Allison is only three years in http://www.dolari.org/cs/317.htm
84 but the world of the '90s/'aughts]
88 _Lease Bound_ is the story of
90 Rainbow background "oh": http://leasebound.com/comic/c1p03/ explains "does she sound different" http://leasebound.com/comic/c1p01/
91 It's weird that Jaden went to uni (http://leasebound.com/comic/c1p08/) and has never heard of trans?—is she, like, old?—no, she's 24 http://leasebound.com/comic/c6p16/
92 "I guess they're stereotypes for a reason" http://leasebound.com/comic/c2p08/
94 T is for trouble: http://leasebound.com/comic/chapter-3-t-is-for-trouble/
95 actually a women's only venue: http://leasebound.com/comic/c3p09/
96 trans women, understand now: http://leasebound.com/comic/c3p11/
97 http://leasebound.com/comic/c3p15/
98 What the fuck is a "trance" woman http://leasebound.com/comic/c4p10/
99 No ID, just tampons http://leasebound.com/comic/c4p13/
100 Were they part of madmarch or was I seriously supposed to believe they were women http://leasebound.com/comic/c4p18/
101 "You know those guys who say they're lesbian's trapped in a man's body. They're like that, but dead serious." http://leasebound.com/comic/c4p19/
102 Do you get a lot of homophobes http://leasebound.com/comic/ch6p39/
103 "Yeah, I think they called themselves.. _Trance_ .. _Women_ .. Or something." (Look at Riley's face! http://leasebound.com/comic/ch6p41/
104 (Riley is shaking) "Yeah I didn't really get it, either .. but hey, that's straight men for ya, haha!"
105 "Did she do something to provoke them?" http://leasebound.com/comic/ch6p54/
106 It doesn't make what she said right, but it makes sense to think that way when you're not in the know http://leasebound.com/comic/ch6p55/
107 If I want to be a good ally, I should probably say something to Jaden about it http://leasebound.com/comic/ch6p56/
108 Transwomen are bound to come up in conversation http://leasebound.com/comic/ch6p59/
109 If her bruises don't come up, then there'd be very little reason for transwomen to come up http://leasebound.com/comic/ch6p61/
110 A bigot wouldn't show that kind of remorse http://leasebound.com/comic/c6p72/
111 "To the pigs?" "Oh, no! I meant the transwomen, sorry." "Ah, the _other_ pigs, haha" http://leasebound.com/comic/ch6p86/
112 Like I wasn't supposed to be able to tell http://leasebound.com/comic/ch6p87/
113 "What pronouns do you prefer, Jaden?" "the way you pronounced it just then was fine" http://leasebound.com/comic/ch8p6/
114 Do you think Jaden could be trans? http://leasebound.com/comic/ch9p2/
115 I don't think Jaden knows it http://leasebound.com/comic/ch9p4/
116 Wrestling with ideology, diff. between looking and presenting http://leasebound.com/comic/ch9p6/
117 http://leasebound.com/comic/ch9p8/
118 "my husband" everyone is gay!! http://leasebound.com/comic/ch9p7/
120 Adelaide, Australian references: Madmarch, pawpaw cream (https://lucaspapaw.com.au/)
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