#Im not gonna say hes not trans but makoto is not a trans woman hes somewhere on the nb spectrum

[frobby]

Im back in the trenches defending another otokonoko from people claiming that they are a trans woman even though they are explicitly stated not to be

[mimikyuno]

not to be a stick in the mud but isn't people's identity the most important thing? if someone says they identify as something, than they identify as that and they know better than we do? if he says he is a boy... i've done all that, but the other way around as a very masculine girl, got harassed on the street and wore dresses at home bc my parent's scared me more than the world. then i grew up and a bunch of my friends started asking me when i was going to transition and started using they/them or he/him pronouns to refers to me bc i just needed to crack, but i've always just been gnc, but it took them awhile to stop. is every gnc person actually gender conforming trans people waiting to come out? idk about that

this message has a lot to address imo so. see under the cut

first things first. makoto used the term “otokonoko”, a word that yes can mean boy (男の子, with 子 = ko as in child), but in this context it's 男の娘 (娘 = ko as in daughter). this term has a heavy and long history, which i recommend reading about. otokonoko can and is often used to discuss crossdressing amab people, but it has also been used to describe pre-transition trans girls or just trans girls in the closet or even out trans girls (see luka from steins;gate, god that shit pisses me off so much). let's just say it's a term loaded with history and lacking in an actual definition, as far as i know. anime is full of “otokonoko’s” who are just trans girls trying to survive in a transphobic society that heavily associates sex and gender. once you start seeing the pattern of trans anime girls being denied their identity as women by being third gendered as an otokonoko it’s impossible to miss, and it becomes clear that “crossdressings boys” in anime are often just a more socially acceptable way to portray trans women. historically, trans women have been third gendered as a way to deny them their identity as women, and this third gendering can become internalized. that does not mean they are not trans women. next.

as someone who grew up as a tomboy, being a masculine presenting “girl” is much much different than being a feminine presenting “boy”. wearing “boy’s clothes” at school as a “girl” is not nearly as dangerous as wearing skirts as a “boy” (in most cases and places). and i say this as someone who got bullied as a gnc amab person might have been, as in, i was targeted by boys (and often got in violent physical altercations) and was called the f and t slur my whole childhood despite not being amab. imo you and i cannot really compare our situation to makoto’s, as neither of us is amab from my understanding.

i also want to address something you mentioned that bothers me, mostly based on the wording.

is every gnc person actually gender conforming trans people waiting to come out?

i really don't like how this is worded, as to me it almost implies that we live in a world wherein being a "gender conforming" trans person is more acceptable that being gnc. like im sorry your friends made u uncomfortable by implying you're an egg and im glad you got it sorted out but uhm. you understand your experience is not the norm, unless you have a queer social circle? like let's not be too chronically online here. we live in an insanely transphobic society... another reason why i dont like this sentence is that i have recently seen a lot of discourse (ofc mostly aimed at trans women bc they're the default hate target) about how being non binary / gnc is more "progressive" and "radical" than being a binary trans woman, because they fit in the gender binary, which we want dismantled. im not even gonna get into how braindead this whole conversation is, i suggest you follow some transfems (who have not been nuked lol) and learn more about this from them. if you did not mean this sentence this way i apologize, but i wanted to mention why i disliked the wording.

back to makoto. based on episode 1 alone, if we look at other anime and manga with otokonoko's and the history of the term, and we see how withdrawn and socially shunned makoto is, how her identity is womanhood and manhood is her mask, it becomes clear that she's a pre-transition trans girl. i did not read the manga but i know for a fact makoto also later displays signs of gender dysphoria in relation to puberty. i also know that in the latter part of the story, the author fumbles the bag, so to speak, tho i am not sure how precisely, as im avoiding spoilers. this is when it's time to don our media comprehension glasses on. let me make a comparison with autistic representation in media. authors often write autistic characters and when asked about it, they deny it. or later in the story, a character loses their autistic traits with no explanation. in these situations, is the character autistic? the way i see it, my answer would be "yes, despite authorial ignorance". in this sense, yes, i do think makoto was meant to be a trans girl, written by an author who showed shortcomings due to ignorance and poor research. but we are not talking about late manga chapters, but about episode 1. and based on it, makoto is clearly a trans girl, as all contextual clues lead to that conclusion.

when i mention "media literacy" as an issue, i am using this show as an example, as this is a trend i have seen a lot. part of media literacy is also integrating what we know of the social, cultural and political environment in which an author writes a story. in this specific case, understanding the social position and history of trans women in japanese society and japanese media is key to understanding makoto's identity beyond authorial intent and vocabulary. imo.

tl;dr: to answer your questions. is every gnc person a binary trans person? no. is makoto a trans girl? also yes, based on episode 1 alone. based on the history of the term otokonoko (男の娘), past representation of trans womanood and gender non conformity in japanese media, and on contextual clues in the story, makoto fits the bill as a closeted trans girl. are you not trans just because you have not realised it yet?