I was thinking how Saeko have some hidden inner woman within herself, but I'm not sure about it anymore.
Now I think she is the slightest form of trans man. A straight trans man, exclusive top, who is somehow comfortable with female body, until sexually using that body in a way who Saeko isn't.
In that case, Saeko is not transsexual, but some transgender issues here are obvious. Tomboys belong to lesbian spectrum observing through sexuality and assigned sex at birth, but to transgender spectrum as well, observing identity expression through boyish look. Like both in same time.
I would be glad to hear other opinions about it, without drama and judgment to my personal point of view.
Saeko is watching herself from above "with cold eyes", it's definitely a split of personality in a moment. Her identity is "watching" her sexuality, expressed in a "wrong" way (being bottom is just unnatural for Saeko, she can't identify with it, she does not have anything to give through it, it simply is not a part of her inner being and it can't be forced).
This is my impression in current situation, how I perceive it for now.
I grew up as a lesbian tomboy and now consider myself nonbinary, so I can definitely see where you’re coming from, but personally I don’t peg Saeko as trans.
That watching herself from above thing seems like dissociation, which is often but not always a trauma response. If I were to armchair diagnose her, I’d say she’s probably got cptsd from whatever happened in middle school.
It’s true that lots of trans people report feelings of dissociation before transition, which makes sense. It’s a pretty traumatic thing to live as the wrong gender. But I would hesitate to say this is Saeko’s case. She doesn’t seem to have dysphoria (not that dysphoria is always necessary to be trans), and right now I’m not I’m not convinced that she’s secretly uncomfortable as a woman. I think she just happens to fall on the more butch end of the lesbian gender expression spectrum. When she does things like keep her hair long instead of cutting it short (which she might like better), I get the feeling she does that to better pass as straight, not convince herself that she’s actually fine with femininity and being a woman.
(And that hair thing actually works, at least in my case. Ever since I grew my hair out people have treated me a lot more nicely, and I think it’s because they can’t as easily peg me as the gay gender deviant that I am. They don’t waste time giving me the “what even are you” stare or fumbling with pronouns as often as they used to.)
But I don’t really know, that’s just what I think right now.