#laios is a classic dorito

[britcision]

Okay I’d argue that the dwarves definitely have more sexual dimorphism than the elves, but not the usual fantasy way

Per the Adventurer’s Bible:

The dwarves pretty clearly have some different body fat distribution averages, and while it is technically true that afab dwarves can grow facial hair, so can tallmen and gnomes

(That’s a mammal thing, the elves do too they just only get shitty facial hair I guess)

The elves…. Basically have none. At most 5cm height difference on average which for some reason seems to be mostly in the neck? Both sets of shoulders are around 125cm, both have a snatched waist, you could stack these two and not see a difference

Apropos of absolutely nothing, the gnomes also don’t seem to have much of any sexual dimorphism either, but we only have one named lady gnome in the series, so it never comes up

(Technically we don’t know which of the Tances carried their kids, and per this chart we have no way to tell, so enjoy that)

I’d actually argue that the whole reason for the changelings being the only real recurring “monster” is because Ryoko Kui had a fucking fantastic time playing with different expectations of masculinity within the same character

(Elf Senshi my beloved)

(Ogre Mithrun holy shit)

Someone else pointed out that part of the reason people assume a lot of men in Dungeon Meshi are women is because they aren’t hyper-masculine caricatures - they just look like normal people you’d see in the street

Laios is the only one with what you might call a typical dungeon crawler’s male physique, built like a dorito - and that is sooooooo intentional

He’s the protagonist, he’s a stereotype in a lot of ways which are also actively subverted by his personality, and he’s visually distinct because yeah, he’s the only one with that classic silhouette

And yeah, to Senshi, he’s a delicate little twink, just like Chilchuck sees Senshi as a paragon of masculinity 👀

From our perspective, all the elves are default twinks and the only reason Otta reads as easily butch is her short hair - and that in world confuses people, despite none of the elf men wearing their hair short

OP’s right, Kui has done a lot of intentional world building with the different people in her world and the different ways masculinity and femininity are constructed, playing with common fantasy tropes in interesting ways

The dwarves are paragons of masculinity to everyone else, and while the two dwarf women we do see (Namari and Daya) are both distinctly more feminine than Senshi, neither of them have body types you’d usually see in a dungeon crawler, and it’s wonderful

By contrast, any elf not wearing a shirt with some kind of cleavage is basically a coin flip; they all have the same long hair styles, none of them have facial hair, and they seem very feminine to us because they’re not musclebound doritos

(Genuinely fucking incredible that the only elven man not a secondary antagonist is Lycion, who is literally running around tits out the entire time and is still canonically mistaken for a woman in-world

The length of his hair and gentle disposition are used more as gender markers than a flat chest that is literally in your face - literally none of these are reliable indicators and Lycion is here to prove it

How the fuck do the elves even guess at each others’ gender. Do they have tertiary pronouns for anyone who hasn’t told you theirs. They’re also fucking up Otta and Lycion’s genders is it not visually based at all are they fucking scenting each other???)

Kabru’s only twinklike when stood next to Laios, because it highlights that he’s not built like a comic book dorito - which is why he gets especially twink-ed by Labru fans, because the whole point is to put them next to each other and I support that

But Kabru next to basically anyone else in the series is pretty clearly a fighter, he’s larger and more solidly built than every single elf and most of the tallman women - put him next to Rin or Falin and he’s pretty clearly more masculine

(Falin being large and powerfully built like her brother gives me fucking LIFE though I live for a buff healer girl, love that all of the human women are also not your typical dungeon crawler waifs)

Kabru’s shorter than Shuro by about 10cm, but they’re pretty similar in build, and no one’s calling Shuro a twink

Gender, masculinity, and femininity pretty clearly mean different things across all of the different people in the world of Dungeon Meshi, and best of all the different cultures have all! Influenced! Each other!

The half-foots idolize dwarven masculinity, the dwarves think literally everyone else is a twink (and they are right relativistically), the elves are anyones’ fucking guess and a lesson in not assuming on appearance if you meet a cranky one

There’s a whole comic of Laios and the orc chief discussing how tallmen and orcs have very similar ideals about feminine beauty even though their women look totally different and express their femininity with different styles and ideals which is played for laughs but also so real

I feel like it does a disservice to the story to treat a lot of the male dungeon meshi characters (especially kabru and mithrun) as twinky femboys when they're objectively considered masculine in the context of the story and within the cultures they're part of.

like. according to senshi, LAIOS is a twinky femboy.

it's interesting how dwarves are just as androgynous as the elves are, but no one seems to talk about them that way 🤔