I mean can you blame them?
Just look at it! Horrific!
I'm shaking in my boots!
And just imagine: there are people out there that are nerdphobic and even fetishphobics... What has the world come to?!
I do kinda wish a different term from "transphobic" had caught on first.
Something that lasers in on "bigot" but as it pertains to hating/oppressing transfolk specifically.
"phobic" as a suffix really allows for the dismissing of the actual issue on the basis of semantics far too easily and it just muddies the waters all the more.
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To make this comment on-topic to the actual manga:
I do wonder if even a nuanced, "hinted at" dysphoria narrative will be at play, or if the protagonist will continue to identify as "him", just passing as a girl within the academy to avoid being lynched by anyone who finds out about the equipment downstairs (given that referenced event in the last quarter or so of the chapter).
I could see it playing out in either way, given what the protagonist lamented right before being struck by Truck-kun, so I think it could be argued the groundwork is laid to include a trans-centric element to the story, or go the tomgirl/femboy route of just hiding in plain sight as the protagonist navigates the world and story and lives the academy life alongside the various heroine capture targets.