This isn’t a complaint, but it’s funny how this chapter featured so much discussion of changing gender and internal vs external gender identity, but never brought up trans people
Like I have to assume it’s deliberate on the author’s part for whatever reason
Look, I'm arguably one of the biggest trans advocates on the MD forums. I piss off a lot of transphobes here on the regular. But even then I have to reel you in here because they use posts like this as a jumping off point to spew hate.
As much as trans people are highly represented on the internet, in social media AND the news... the condition is rare. Like, vanishingly
vanishingly rare statistically. Like we're talking 1 in 1000 for someone to have gender identity discomfort and for that discomfort to turn to full blown dysphoria is probably hundreds of times rarer than that. It's also both easy to hide and not so debilitating you can't painfully muddle your way through life. That's why until media sensationalized them in recent years, trans people have been stealthing through most of history.
Second, gender is very much mostly cultural expression. It's not cool telling other cultures how
exactly they need to express their own gender divergence, or that they need to easily fit in a box recognizable within our own cultural hegemony. That's a colonialist mindset. (As it is nonbinary people, among others, have it rough enough even within our own culture) Don't get me wrong, I think there is still space to criticize Japan's handling of it -- they've
finally stopped chemically castrating people -- but it does need to be done from respecting their own paradigms. What matters is getting people to be happy and comfortable, not the labels applied before or after the fact.
Third I'd be very very surprised if Nekotofu isn't keenly aware of trans people. Like, Onimai basically is now eight years old as of this chapter. I'm sure he's been inundated with fan mail from trans people deeply affected by the story. The anime has subtle nods to the community, even. (trans flag colors prominent in promotional material, the opening theme literally having the chant "trans trans trans!" in it etc.)
Fourth... it's easy to forget, but these are middle schoolers. People of that age are still learning about the world and poking it. They've likely only
just started exploring their own identities in earnest, but unless one of them is already dysphoric they're still early in their own journeys.
I do think there IS space to talk about trans identity in this manga, but it if it comes up I think it's more likely Chitose, Mihari or the other adults might discuss it and how the drug could be of big help to them. Nayuta might even be in the know on the topic. It'd be a super nice thing to see but I'll love Onimai regardless.
cough cough cough
