Watashitachi wa Moto Joshi desu - Vol. 2 Ch. 10

[katajaton]

Very interesting way to tackle transphobia in a gender bender manga, it's essentially what a transwoman would have to go through with their parents, but with quite the twist.

Anyway personally I hate the mom, but I can see they all have a complicated relationship, and her stopping the transition and the MC listening to her is 100% necessary for the plot to continue. I think transition to her birth gender would be the best for her, but in a horror film you just can't let the victims out of the haunted house, they have to stay locked in and face the monsters, just like she can't just start taking hormones and escape her ordeal.

 

[Razen]

Astagfirullah ma'am that's a fact, some people don't like it.

Will there be explosions?

 

[Kirin-kun]

Also, the mother's right in that Rinko shouldn't be led to believe she would go back exactly as she was. Like she lived as a girl, so she has previous knowledge of how it is. But all the surgery and hormones won't bring that back.

The mother only says that Rinko should know what to expect and what not to expect before rushing into transition and do it for her own sake, not for the sake of someone she likes (when she's not even sure he likes her back).

 

[okaeri_arisu]

Anyway, I take this manga more as a "what if" than hard facts and truths about trans men/women. It's "scifi" from the start.

I think this is a bit of a cop-out.
Rinko has lived her entire life as a girl. She percieves herself as a girl despite her body rapidly changing to something else, in basically a 1:1 literalization of the "woman trapped in a man's body" cliche. Her options to avoid this terrible reality involve puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery - in stark contrast to mainstays of gender-bender manga, where "changing back" would be about divine intervention or chance.

Rinko is the thinnest bridge away from real-life transgender teenagers, and her treatment in the manga will inevitably reflect back onto real transgender people. Just look at the chuds already gathering around in the comments to say "based mom, you'll never change your sex".

As for the mom...she's not exactly wrong in any of her individual statements, but she's boneheaded and insensitive. Pressing hard on all of her daughter's body image issues, jumping to conclusions about her motivations, going off half-cocked about surgery that's at best a couple of years away - all of those are categorically not how a parent needs to approach their GNC child. It's basically scare tactics.

As for Rinko herself, i think both her and her dad are winding themselves up too much, like the world is gonna end if she's not on HRT tomorrow morning. The proper thing to do here would be to let Rinko meditate on this a little, and get her puberty blockers in the meanwhile to give her time. Hopefully they'll find an actual gender clinic where they'd be told about these options, because clearly medical support has been lacking here.

 

[Luke_chase]

Yup, understand the mother's position and the desire to not rush it, even tho any hrt would start with hormone blocking for quite some time before actually taking harder meds

JUST TAKE THE GIRL TO A DAMM PSYCHIATRIST AND LET SOMEONE COMPETENT HANDLE IT.

Gender dysphoria is a bitch, hope she sorts everything out

Fr hope they address hormone blockers, feels like an obvious choice (address as in the mangaka acknowledges the exist in the story)

 

[Redice]

I'm on the mom's side on this one. She's just basically telling the currently impulsive teenager to think twice and thrice before doing something that can permanently change the course of their whole life.
It's not like she's completely opposed to it, just really think about it. Specially when being preyed on by predatory "professional help" that just sees your body as a money tree to trim easy cash out off for the rest of your life.

 

[okaeri_arisu]

it is more that she is trying to get her to understand how massive a decision for gender reassignment would be for her body, and how she wouldn't have kids in ANY sort of way due to that. The body structure and changes esp made. She use to have the biological thing and function, and now doesn't. It is all going to seem not real in a way. She didn't say no, but to take more time and understand it is going to be harder to be seen as a women now that the disorder already happened.

so for the record: this is not completely true. What's typically done before you start hormones is that you can freeze your sperm. There's also a lot of success people have with temporarily stopping hormones to resume gamete production - not a hundred percent, but it's not like you're sterilizing yourself as soon as you start the E pill. Adoption is also an option, obviously.

SRS is a big deal, requires long recovery times, and removes your ability to have kids permanently, but i think it's important to note here that it was her mom that brought up SRS, not Rinko herself. In real life - and even in Rinko's fictional case - SRS is at least a few years away, and entirely optional if you don't want it.

 

[NighS]

She went from a weird mom, to a good mom, damn

 

[drakedog]

The skeleton was totally different huh. Interesting.

So cutting off your dick and having an artificial vagina doesn't make you a woman? Who would've guessed, This author is a genius!! Nobel prize winner.

 

[Kirin-kun]

The skeleton was totally different huh. Interesting.

So cutting off your dick and having an artificial vagina doesn't make you a woman? Who would've guessed, This author is a genius!! Nobel prize winner.

That's not what she said, but you do you.

She just said that Rinko shouldn't expect to go back exactly to how she was before.

 

[shoker]

Judging from the other character who seemed to try hormones or another experimental method, it doesn't seem like it works and the Mother is right. We don't understand how the 'disease' functions, it could be magically converting hormones so treatment like that doesn't even work. I mean how the hell does your body change genitals over night realistically in the first place? That's some crazy anatomical changes on top of hormonal/cellular/DNA/etc.


More importantly as the Mother points out, the MC isnt doing it for any other reason than her crush. Hopefully we get some development on how she feels about herself.

 

[Goldis]

Based mama

 

[ARRR]

It was an interesting use of "mother will always recognize her child" trope, when the change made her bamboozled. She isn't easy to be around, and it's easy to understand MC's feelings about her mom. But at the same time she isn't some sort of manhwa evil villain parent, and the idea to wait a while, for the initial shock to pass and get to make proper judgement isn't bad honestly. There are people who would be comfortable in any gender, and there are people who are afraid of changes just because they feel safe in what they know.
I don't think this chapter was controversial, but i'm very interested in which direction it is going. There are a lot of people in these comments who read it for the sake of validation of their worldview, and while manga is obviously gender centered, contains body dysphoria, i think it would be best to read it more like a fantasy than real life commentary.

 

[Yaboyhg80]

wow, there are less transphobes in this comment section than i was expecting, but still, the woodchipper craves flesh

 

[gallifreyan100]

I know even bringing up this topic can upset some people and there's a good chance I will regret openly talking about this even though I am not looking to offend anyone...

But we have statistics of people that get gender reassignment surgery in our world. And they unfortunately have some of the highest suicide rates among any demographic that is statistically tracked. As harsh as it is, medical science is not there yet to deliver what they are expecting and hoping for... and likely won't for many years. And adding onto that conflicted disappointment on top everything and it does not bode well for many. We're doing things in a roundabout way both physically and mentally for the patient in this case and with technology that just doesn't allow what what most people in that situation would consider successful or viable transitions. And, once it's done, it can't be undone. Also, the mental health angle? They don't get adequate support there, either, and the medical community is just now coming to terms with addressing it and often it's found lacking.

I debated whether to say this last part, because openly talking about this even if you're attempting to be respectful often gets taken the wrong way, but... I think that in the years to come a lot of this is going to be looked back upon like how the medical community approached mental health in the past and how lobotomies were sanctioned and used. Far too few in the medical community are asking if we are not doing harm by attempting to help the person in these circumstances by what we are doing.

Again, that isn't the patient/individual's fault nor does it trivialize their own personal tribulations and struggles.

Yeah...I don't like this. There was no reason to say this here and, in all honesty, its just not true. Its just offensive.

 

[gallifreyan100]

Rinko is only in the early stages, she WILL get more masculine. And given how fast the disease has worked already, she may only have weeks until she’s so far she won’t be able to pass as female.

And parents saying ‘I support this BUT’ happens in the real world. There’s always a reason to say that. A lot of what was said feels transphobic.

But that isn’t this situation. Rinko has been a boy for like 3 days. No matter how familiar her words are, it’s a fair point that Rinko hasn’t really thought about being a boy.

That said, again, she has finite time.

It’s hard to believe she’s gotten this far and won’t masculinize further very soon so there’s every reason in the world for her to want to act quickly.

But just…is there an outside possibility this character likes being a boy and just wants to go back being ‘normal’?

ALSO though, I keep seeing people saying HRT and surgery will only make things worse but would just staying male REALLY be better than being a trans woman?

 

[NinjaGoemon]

Chapter definitely leaves with some thoughts. She's absolutely right that your gender should be something you do for yourself and not anyone else since it's what you live with. But also the thought of dysphoria getting worse leaves me with a panic.

 

[reu]

The mother is just like me fr fr
That's why I have no friends, can't shut up nor tell a proper white lie

 

[Kirin-kun]

While a feeling of dysphoria now, because she changed like, 3 days ago, is normal, nothing says yet that feeling isn't going to fade over time. Rinko hasn't experienced being in a boy's body long enough to know whether it's unbearable or not.

Contrary to real world trans women, where, I suppose, the feeling of dysphoria keeps increasing with time.

So, while Rinko's decision shouldn't take too long for the reasons mentioned before, they still need time to see how things pan out.

 

[Andigo]

Something tells me that the author only researched superficial info about gender dysphoria.

Since real life situations vary a lot and the story isn't in a clear mtf, ftm, nb, or intersex box, I think we can make allowances for the mix of fantasy and dysphoria. What this story does handle well is the confusion and discomfort where not even us behind the fourth wall can tell her what is best.

Wrong you are misinformed

She's got a lot of issues to work out, and isn't comfortable with her gender or sex, so you can't predict her.

man, cis people have some wild takes huh

Well said, Botan.

Fr hope they address hormone blockers, feels like an obvious choice (address as in the mangaka acknowledges the exist in the story)

This, so much this. The protagonist should have been on these right away, though it could be impossible until it's too late. They have to transition, whatever their decision, and a reprieve would be good.