speaking of transfem interpretations for characters presented as men in the source material. one such case i have been stewing in my mind for a while is black sails charles vane
which i realize (hence the big post about it) would probably not be most peoples first assumption because vane is very stereotypically masculine on first blush. youve got the whole rugged individualist sigma male thing going on, the growly voice the immaculately shaped stubble, etc. but: as the show goes on we get more insight into WHY he presents himself that way and it becomes more and more clear that there are two (well, three but we'll get there) major reasons for this
1) his father figures' enduring influence (the conflicting desires to both appease and outdo them, to different levels for each, but both sides of which can only be achieved by performing masculinity The Best),
and 2) the practical need, as a pirate, to be respected and feared by the men following him,
both of which can be boiled down to "we live in a society". and on their own i would just take these parts of his character as an exploration of how gender roles are socially mandated and reinforced, but, unusually for this type of character, he seems very matter-of-fact and self-aware about the reasons hes Doing Masculinity. this is one of his parallels with flint, whos also consciously spinning his motivations through a narrative of cishet machismo to achieve respectability under patriarchy.
obviously to some degree vane IS shown to have internalized the bioessentialist 18th century england view of gender roles ("i can understand a womans desire for domesticity", etc) (and even still! you CAN understand it? interesting wording!). but he doesnt express things like this remotely as often as, say, jack, who repeatedly goes full throttle Boomer Wifejokes Mode when he feels undermined or slighted by a woman, even one he cares about. in contrast vane is quick to empathize with and relate to and even (especially!) project onto the women in his life. he strikes up a weird rapport with abigail; max, a total stranger to him, gets past his selfish crew-appeasing decision to keep her prisoner by appealing to their similarities. its not just that hes attracted to women (though he obviously very much is), he views them as people who are Similar To Him. maybe more similar than men?
the biggest example is his whole relationship with eleanor. hes CONSTANTLY pointing out how alike they are, how much they hate being oppressed by fathers, aka by men. arent you tired of being tied down by gendered expectations? dont you just want to go apeshit? hes constantly trying to pull her out of this box society has built around her but also hyperaware of and seemingly resigned to his OWN box. he identifies with and lives vicariously through her rebellion. shes his strongest and most genuine emotional connection, and not in a woodes rogers "grieving my beloved unlawfully-wedded wife. what do you mean she was a real person who didnt just sit in the corner and knit silently" way, but like, For Real. even if they were ultimately so incredibly bad for each other.
which brings us to the third secret reason he performs masculinity so hard. that connection, his bonds with women (like flint and the Witch Puppetmaster Rumors about miranda) is repeatedly shown to be considered by the men around him to be a weakness– one that might need forcibly correcting if he ever falters from peak masculinity even a little. hes only allowed to continue to explore that side of himself via the narrow avenues of male heterosexuality and social dominance– his actual relationship with eleanor is very equal, he has no desire to dominate her, or... anyone, really? hes super big on just letting his crew do what they want (to the extent where this winds up causing severe issues). but his ability to lead men requires that he put on the show. and even still, he never seems willing to sacrifice the part of his life with eleanor in it no matter how much pressure is exerted on him from men above or below him in the pecking order. SHE is always the one who winds up abandoning him for HER goals.
shes ultimately too caught up on the lie of finally achieving respectability. and, vane is too, just from a different facet of society. his character arc is about confronting that desire, reckoning with it, and discarding it, choosing to follow flint instead of blackbeard.
(meanwhile we have eleanor falling back on the patriarchys narrative in order to dehumanize him before his execution, even though she ALSO grew up without a mothers love. theyre the same, but through her privilege and adjacency to even more privileged men, shes been given all the tools she needs to deny it– at the cost of boxing herself further into her own role. a cost she chooses to pay every time, no matter how much she claims to hate it.)
theres just...... a whole lot of really good commentary about gender in this show. other characters have their own ways of exploring it but normally their sense of displacement within the gender binary is via the lens of queer sexuality, whereas vane is judged mainly for having a relationship to womanhood that goes BEYOND sexual attraction. and i think that while this part of the narrative stands strong on its own without it, a transfem reading would add some fun new layers and make a lot of sense. and i would love to know if anyone else has had the thought that hrt could have. well maybe not saved her. but definitely Helped
my final miscellaneous piece of analysis, is that aside from that one clothes-on nut-and-bolt between miranda and the pastor, which lasted ~5 seconds so it doesnt count. the only mutually passionate sex scenes shown happening on screen, either(?) involve two women, or a woman and charles vane. & like im just saying. for consistencys sake. we could just resolve that one outlier real quick