A new butch snapping turtle icon has entered the chat (with a femme rabbit, as well).<\/p>\n
The Toronto Tempo unveiled two new mascots on Tuesday, with the life-size furries taking the floor at the Scotiabank Arena in a game against the Indiana Fever. <\/p>\n
The two mascots, Dez and Dot are, respectively, a tortoise and a hare: more accurately, a snapping turtle and an arctic hare. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the beginning, we wanted our mascots to feel distinctly Tempo \u2013 rooted in who we are as a Canadian team,\u201d Whitney Bell, the Toronto Tempo\u2019s chief marketing officer, said in a statement on the WNBA team\u2019s official website<\/a>. \u201cDez and Dot have completely different personalities, but they\u2019re better together. One knows when to slow things down, the other knows when to turn the energy all the way up. That balance felt like such a natural expression of Tempo, and we can\u2019t wait for our fans to get to know them.\u201d<\/p>\n But unlike many sports mascots who are just kind of weird little creatures with very limited backstory, the Tempo\u2019s press release includes a dossier on the pair<\/a> that reads like a novella \u2014 a very queer novella. Dez, who uses she\/they pronouns, is a \u201cborealis blue\u201d snapping turtle from Muskoka, Ontario. Their name is a play on the word \u201cdecibel\u201d due to their love of music. They are described as \u201ccalm, clever and thinking a few steps ahead.\u201d Dez, who is also clearly a bit more butch, is also a Taurus who DJs in their spare time, meaning this might be the first-ever DJ mascot who uses they pronouns. (This is the future liberals want, et cetera, et cetera.)<\/p>\n Dez\u2019s counterpart, Dot, is an arctic hare who takes her name from Toronto\u2019s nickname T-Dot. As a true foil to Dez\u2019s more measured personality, Dot is energetic and enthusiastic and serves as the \u201chype woman\u201d of the pair. She is a Gemini who loves cotton candy. (No side hustle for Dot, apparently.)<\/p>\n Of course, given Dez\u2019s use of they\/them pronouns, many people on social media speculated that Dez might be nonbinary or transmasculine. <\/p>\n \u201cThe name being like an alt nickname to a longer, overthought, multi-layered chosen name is so transmasc coded,\u201d one person wrote on the Instagram post announcing Dez. And, of course, many people pointed out that Tempo might have given us our first \u201cMASCcot.\u201d <\/p>\n Several comments on Instagram also speculated as to whether Dez and Dot are friends or \u2026 more than friends. The pair\u2019s official bio includes a \u2026 perhaps romantic-sounding meet-cute about Dot following the northern lights south to Ontario in the winter, and meeting Dez, with the pair discovering \u201ca shared love of rhythm.\u201d Hmm\u2026<\/p>\n Them has reached out to the Toronto Tempo for clarity regarding the pair\u2019s relationship status and Dez\u2019s gender identity and will update when we hear back. <\/p>\n Dez would perhaps not be the first nonbinary WNBA mascot \u2014 if that does turn out to be the case. Earlier this year, Grace Karlsvik, who is an assistant to the Seattle Storm\u2019s mascot Doppler, a maroon-furred creature, said that Doppler is nonbinary. <\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s really special that Doppler is (I think) the first nonbinary mascot, at least in the WNBA,\u201d Karlsvik told Seattle Met<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s something that really matters to us, just having that representation. I think it really matters, and people definitely recognize it, which is really special.\u201d<\/p>\n Some fans found the unveiling of Dez ironic, given that it was done at a game against the Indiana Fever, a team featuring noted Sophie Cunningham<\/a>, whose anti-trans positions on sports have made her a darling of the American right-wing. Several games featuring Cunningham have become lightning rods for anti-trans protests<\/a>, with sparsely attended rallies outside some stadiums, and fans wearing shirts bearing \u201cXX-XY\u201d logos courtside<\/a>. <\/p>\n Dez and Dot clearly have a lot to live up to, given the popularity of some WNBA mascots, especially the New York Liberty\u2019s Ellie the Elephant<\/a>, who has become a viral icon<\/a> whose presence is able to whip a crowd into a frenzy.<\/p>\n