My Take on Juno

Good morning Jammers! Happy Tuesday!

So. As you know, Juno came in the lastest update, and it was confirmed that they were nonbinary by one of the writers.

I really glossed over Juno when reviewing the update, and at this point I don't have anything that you wouldn't already know. Besides my take. Which I will reveal. Lol. Because all of the other Bloggers are talking about Juno, and if I don't do it, I might not fit in! OH NO!

ANYWAY. Juno.

Okay, so. To start off, we have to establish something. And I'm going to stray from a few Animal Jam blogs' opinions to disagree with a few in that... 

I support this.

What? Q1ZX SUPPORTS THIS? OH MY GOSH THE WHOLE WORLD'S ENDING!!! MAYDAY! MAYDAY!!!

Jamaa Township in 2019

Okay, so let's take a step back. I've read through the Animal Jam Community Blog and the Animal Jam Jumble and all of the comments on there. I SUPPORT THIS FOR UNIQUE REASONS.

Please don't hate meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I need viewsssssssss. Lol. Hey, I don't blog for the views. I blog to inspire the upcoming AJ generation like Lostfairy said and I also do it because it's so fun.

Okay, so first, let's look at what AJ has done. Let's focus on Animal Jam. Not outside of Animal Jam. If I'm in-game and completely disconnected from YouTube and blogging, and I thoroughly look around, being nonbinary is subtle.

READ THE ENDING. "Was it made by Juno themself?" THEMSELF. THEMMMMSELF. That's not even a word. Blogger spellcheck doesn't even think nonbinary is a word. Lol.

So. I would have a problem with this if AJ did this:

However, they didn't do that.

 AJ chose not to openly declare this person nonbinary, they just hinted it, and it was confirmed online. They aren't drawing attention to it, and it would be cool if they let it slide. AJ is not giving Juno special attention then as a nonbinary.

Now, what this means is AJ is not really like, "OH LOOK, NONBINARY PERSON, LOOK AT THEM, HOW SWEET, WOWWWWWW NONBINARRYYYYY." Juno is painted, well, while we don't know very much yet they're not drawing attention to it. They're sort of letting it in as if it's natural.  It's just there. It's just a detail.

Should this influence kids to become nonbinary? No. First of all, no one pays attention at all to Alphas, no five year old should be able to infer that Juno is nonbinary by reading, if they can even read yet, and if you can make that inference you're a genius and you should go get a job.

But most importantly, Juno is nonbinary, but there's nothing saying you should be nonbinary as well. Juno is no different because they're nonbinary. Juno is not more or less powerful because they are nonbinary. They are not cooler or less cool because they're nonbinary. They're just nonbinary.

It's so subtle. This is how AJ is doing. I love how they did this. I don't believe, personally, that AJ should be picking sides on what you should and shouldn't do. If they were posting ads, like:

VOTE FOR THIS CANDIDATE!!!
GLOBAL WARMING IS A MYTH!!!
BEING GAY IS COOL!!!

I'm not saying whether or not I believe any of these, lol.
Now. AJ is not promoting Juno, they're just putting Juno out there.
AJ is saying, you can be nonbinary. They could care less about if you are or not, though. And if you're worried about Juno influencing kids...

No kid will become nonbinary because of a pixel arctic wolf.

Little q1zx: Hey Dad, can you look at this?

Big q1zx: Well, of course son, what is it?

Little q1zx: Look at this, on Animal Jam?

Big q1zx: Juno? What about Juno?

Little q1zx: The page says THEM, not he or she. (I NOTICED THIS BECAUSE I'M A FIVE YEAR OLD GENIUS)

Big q1zx: Oh! Oh yes, why I suppose it does.

Little q1zx: What does that mean?

Big q1zx: Well, I suppose that it means they're nonbinary.

Little q1zx: And what is that?

Big q1zx: Ummm... Well, they're neither male or female?

Little q1zx: What?

Big q1zx: They're outside of the gender... They're just not associated with male or female.

Little q1zx: WOW! THAT'S SUPER COOL! I'M GOING TO BE NONBINARY NONBINARY FOREVER!!! IMMA TELL ALL MY FRIENDS!!!

*the news comes on*

*gasps*

This wouldn't happen, no one's going to become nonbinary after a pixel wolf on an online trading game. No advantages are showcased about being nonbinary so I don't see kids seeing a point to becoming nonbinary. And no kid's going to think extremely in depth about this, when I was five I didn't even know how to think.

Also, note: I'm not educated on this situation, this is me making a guess, I could be completely wrong and I'm sorry if I am.

If you want to call Juno a girl, whatever. (I will laugh at you if Juno was actually born a male) But Juno is nonbinary, so keep in mind Juno might not be very happy.

Now, what if people go into Jamaa? Like:

No. I have a problem with this. They are raving about Juno because they're nonbinary. If Juno was male or female they would not be doing this. They are liking Juno because they're nonbinary. And this is where people start being all nonbinary because it's cool.

This would be annoying. Could this happen? No. It won't. Because genders don't matter in AJ.

And genders shouldn't matter in AJ. They shouldn't. It's an animal game. Not a game about mating, or anything. You don't see: "GIRL'S ONLY CLUB MY DEN!!!" Okay, well you do, but not that often. And while you can say your gender, and wear clothes that you associate with your gender, no one cares if you're at a fashion show and you're a boy with five other girls. No one cares.

AJ is breezing over this. Genders don't matter. But this is Juno's gender and this is Juno's choice and Juno is nonbinary and that's that. No one cares. Just sliding that in.

However, Juno will get a BIT of special attention. That will happen. It already is. Every Animal Jam blog has a post over Juno. And now, everytime there's an update, if it has Juno, more people will read it. And that's not really because Juno's nonbinary, more so that they are different.

Let's say Juno was female, but they wore a hat. They wore a traffic cone throughout their journey. That would bring attention as well. Juno would get special attention for being different in that sense. But if AJ just added that detail in, without promoting it, I don't see everyone suddenly requesting a traffic cone helmet for their Juno roleplays.

Juno is different. It doesn't matter that Juno is different, it's perfectly fine, but Juno is different, and because of that, Juno is going to get special attention. Not much, because no one pays attention to Alphas, but... Juno is different.

Let's think about Boy Scouts. Boy Scouts, as of 2019, will have girls too. When that first girl joins the team, that girl shows that girls are allowed, and Juno is similar in that they showing that nonbinaries are allowed. The Scouts will not be promoting girls, saying, JOIN SCOUTS IF YOU'RE A GIRL! They're saying, if you want to join Scouts and you're a girl, that's okay. And that's what AJ is saying. They are saying nonbinaries are okay. They are not saying they are cooler than other genders. They are not saying anything good or bad about being nonbinary, just that they are accepted. AJ is saying, join Animal Jam, and if you're nonbinary, whatever. AJ is NOT saying, if you're nonbinary join AJ!

So this move by AJ... I feel that it's just making AJ a more accepting place. If you're nonbinary and you're new on AJ and you see nonbinary Juno, you will feel more at home, and that's literally the only effect I see this having.

ALSO - I also support this because nearly every AJ blog made a post about this! More posts = Good! Blogging = Good! I LOVE ALL THE POSTS YAYYYYYYY.

Also, if you don't like nonbinaries I don't think anything will happen so you're good.

Thanks for reading this ridiculously long post. You don't have to agree with me, but I didn't even get into on if I accept nonbinaries or not so we shouldn't have World War III in the comments. And sorry for repeating things a lot.

So today, I have a challenge! You look at the photos and you infer what each one means!

Have a colorful day and jam on!

Jamaa Township photo from here.