Gwen Stacy Is Trans Theory

Submission 16,670

Part of a series on Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. [View Related Entries]

About

Gwen Stacy Is Trans Theory is a fan theory that the character Gwen Stacy (Spider-Woman / Ghost-Spider) from the 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its 2023 sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is transgender or that her story is an allegory for struggles trans people face. The theory became a subject of viral discussions on social media following the premiere of the second film in early June 2023.

Origin

On June 2nd, 2023, the animated superhero film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse premiered in the United States.^[1] In the film, the character Gwen Stacy has a transgender pride flag in her room while her father wears a trans flag pin on his jacket. Additionally, the scene of her father accepting her identity as Spider-Man is highlighted with a white, blue and pink palette, which some argued can be perceived as an allegory for a father accepting his daughter's gender identity.^[2]

On June 2nd, 2023, Twitter^[3] user @Treblebaps posted a thread in which they argued that the film explicitly implies that Gwen Stacy is a transgender woman, mentioning the scene and the trans pride symbols (shown below, left and right). The first post in the thread accumulated over 390 retweets and 2,500 likes prior to the account going private.

Spread

In early June 2023, additional users on Twitter and other sites made similar posts sharing their belief that Gwen Stacy is a transgender woman in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. For example, on June 3rd, 2023, Twitter^[4] user @spacekatsubunny tweeted "Gwen Stacy is the first trans Spider-Person in the Spiderverse 🫶🏾🏳️‍⚧️," with the tweet gaining over 2,200 retweets and 20,700 likes in four days (shown below, left). On June 4th, Twitter^[5] user @FemK_Ultra made two tweets about the theory, the first of which garnered over 2,300 retweets and 28,900 likes in three days (shown below, right).

The theory inspired viral debates and fan art on social media in early June 2023. Some users argued that Gwen Stacy is not transgender, but is rather a trans ally, while others said that the subject of Gwen's identity was free to the viewer's own interpretation (examples^[6]^[7] shown below, left and center). Multiple artworks depicting Gwen Stacy as a supporter of transgender rights went viral during that period. For example, on June 5th, 2023, artist @spookynest tweeted^[8] an artwork that gained over 2,400 retweets and 19,500 likes in two days (shown below, right).

The fan theory and viral discussions surrounding it were covered by Kotaku,^[9] Decider^[10] and other news publications.