So if you've seen the show, you know about Cece Drake, the transwoman.

I've been watching a lot of pretty little Liars analysis videos lately and I keep noticing a few key points that are always mentioned when it comes to Cece Drake and how the storyline around that character was bad and disrespectful. I disagree with many of them, but I didn't wanna leave a YouTube comment since you know how that would go so I thought I would mention my thoughts here.

Most people who support TRAs are unhappy with Cece's portrayal. The writer's clearly intended to do justice to LGBTQ+ representation, but in the eyes of most people, it didn't work that way, but as someone who is gender critical, I think their mishandling of it was actually better at showing reality.

So here are the main key points they make and my rebuttals: (I'm using 'she' pronouns because the actress was female)

• Cece was the only transgender character and she was a villain.

This isn't as much of an argument as it is just a fact. Yes she was a villain who identified as transgender, so what?

• Cece's motivation for torturing the liars was directly tied to her gender identity and mistreatment as a child due to it.

Sounds about right to me. She was a mentally ill child in a mental institution.

• Her being transgender was unnecessary.

It was a vital part to most of her storyline surrounding her family. Her siblings didn't remember her at all and her father only knew her as the little boy he sent away to the psychiatric facility so her coming back as a teen girl who was dating her brother and her dad not recognizing her wouldn't have made sense if she was born female.

• The clues constantly alluding to A being a man was messed up and transphobic.

I disagree, Cece using her real name (Charles) was necessary for her backstory with Allison and she was a man. That's just a fact.

TDLR: Cece Drake was a mentally ill child who suffered from gender dysphoria. I think her transgender representation was actually very realistic with her mental illness and everything. The only thing I didn't like was how she was too convincing as a female. She was played by a female actress and there was no sign of her being trans until it was revealed. This is very unrealistic in my opinion. She should have had more male traits that came in her mannerisms and really showed that she was male. You can put on makeup, grow your hair out, and get surgery, but male socialization doesn't go away. Overall, if you isolated just Cece and her character and portrayal around transgenderism, I actually liked how it was handled.

Opinions?