Satyr & Human Society Relations

All right, I promised I'd make a post about this eventually, so lets get into it... here is my explanation of SATYR GENDER. To be clear, I'm talking about this from the perspective of the fictional human society in the story, which is a relatively new society that's been dealing with immediate threats since its conception (Trying to avoid spoilers haha) and they haven't exactly had a long time to think deeply about concepts of gender etc. 

Human Views on Gender & Sexuality

We'll start here at the most basic. The human society in Sparks don't currently have a concept of 'trans' or 'nonbinary'- their language is limited to the binary concept of male/female. Saying this, there are without a doubt humans living as the opposite gender, intersex humans, and humans that push gender norms living in this world. 

Along similar lines, while same sex relationships/homosexuality aren't considered usual, they absolutely exist among the humans and aren't outlawed or criminalized. 

The main thing to understand about the human society in Sparks is that they're currently focused on a period of 'rebuilding'- you'll have heard mentions of a 'Rupture' event in the comic, and this was a near-apocalyptic event. Because of this having children is pushed as being an important duty. Same sex relationships are viewed as acceptable, but are expected to still be having children- so there are often arrangements involving surrogacy/opposite sex 'thirds' to the relationship etc. So the relationships considered 'abnormal' in this society aren't same sex relationships, but childless ones (which of course is its own whole can of worms/issue). Similarly, a human we would refer to as transgender would in this world be considered a bit of an oddball, but as long as they're still engaging with their community and raising children (whether their own or helping with others) they're accepted. They're trying to rebuild their population, not reduce it, so they don't shun or reject other humans unless they're forced to. 

Amongst nobility/royalty this gets a bit more complex, as there's a lot of arranged marriage and a lot more expectations- but it's not impossible there either, especially for the younger siblings who don't have as much pressure to marry well, or those with a lot of wealth/power who can afford to break the norms. 

Gender, Sexuality & Satyr

So, what does this mean for Satyr? To begin with, Satyr exist in much lower numbers than humans- Philo's class at the academy would have been the entirety of the Satyr 'born' in that year. As you've probably gathered/guessed by now, Satyr are all 'male'- that is, cis male, in the understanding of gender that the humans in Sparks have. 

As we recently found out, human/Satyr relationships are against the law/considered taboo. Because of this, its considered completely normal that Satyr will be homosexual/have relationships with one another. Satyr also can't procreate! The way they come into existence isn't exactly a spoiler- its not relevant to the main plot of Sparks- but I'm still not going to drop it here because I'm hoping I'll be able to work it into the comic at some point hahaha. 

In the image at the beginning, you'll see I divided it into male/female/satyr. Because Satyr are a species of all one gender, the 'male' that humans refer to Satyr as is considered different from the 'male' that humans have. So while Satyr are called 'male' and he/him pronouns are used for them, they aren't held to the standards/norms of 'male' humans. You can see this in the way that a broad range of gender presentation amongst Satyr is considered usual/acceptable. Because they can only enter relationships with one another, and because heterosexuality is considered the 'norm' in the human society, to the humans it makes sense that some Satyr would present more feminine and some more masculine.

You can see this in the way Satyr are treated by humans as well, like in this scene-

Everyone in this scene understood that 'no boys allowed' didn't apply to Philo & Pallas, because the way that they're considered boys is different from the way Marcos is considered a boy. This is partly because human/Satyr relationships are outlawed, so Satyr aren't viewed as 'sexual' in the same way. 

Bonus Info- Hair

You'll have seen it mentioned a little in the comic and you may have picked up on it, but long hair is considered the 'norm' for Satyr. This is because humans think it looks aesthetically pleasing! It also differentiates them from human men more clearly, although of course some human men still have long hair. So essentially this is a human beauty standard for Satyr. Some Satyr still cut their hair short, mostly those who are so powerful they don't need to concern themselves with appealing to humans (Vasilis), or those who are employed in institutions where they answer to other Satyr rather than humans (Satyr working as teachers at the academy or the Spire). Some other Satyr cut their hair short as a statement (Aster). 

Wrap up

So there we go! I hope that was interesting to read and answered some of your questions! This is what any human or Satyr living in this world would tell you. I hope it's clear that I'm not trying to portray this as some ideal/utopic situation- as we've seen in the comic humans & Satyr are just grappling with a different set of issues and problems and this society isn't functioning in the way it was perhaps intended to (Human/Satyr relationships clearly do happen for example, lol) 

This is a tricky concept to talk about which is why I took this long to make a write-up about it! When I started the comic I just wanted to make the most self indulgent comic possible, and I wanted to draw lots of cute boys, so I decided to make all Satyr male and didn't think it through much more than that. But as Sparks has developed and the world has been fleshed out, I ended up realizing I've infused it with a lot of Deep Gender Feelings... WHOOPS! That's on being trans I guess!