Really hope this is "hes a trans man w/o top surgery" and not.. any other option... besides maybe they are misgendering a trans fem character and eventually they will stop doing that
I'm inclined to think Yang is transmasc due to how accepting and queer friendly Peach Town (or at least Mu Xiaoen's bubble within it) has been shown to be so far. Like they have a conversation specifically about how these gendered terms are more important socially than they are strict biological tags, right? Somebody does not need to be your AFAB biological older sibling to be a Jiejie. So surely the labels can be flexible in other ways as well, like respecting the gender of your trans little brother.
Maybe I'm overly cynical but I'm inclined to think exactly the opposite in this case for the same second reason you used. The thing you mentioned with non-family using familial terms is normal in China (and most East Asian or Southeast Asian cultures), or at the least it's very normal in manhua in particular. I've seen many where this happens. Sometimes another character will ask for an explanation of why they use this term for that person, but half of the time I feel that's purely for the reader's sake.
And this flexibility in familial terms does -not- typically extend to other things like sexual orientations or gender identity in places like China (or most East Asian or Southeast Asian cultures). It's obvious for us to connect the extension of one term to the potential extension of others, but it's probably not obvious for the author. I also think that authors in these environments are focusing on inclusiveness but for a sort-of selfish reason - they're often including themselves. A decent chunk of Yuri writers in Japan are lesbians, for example (not even remotely all of them, likely not even 25%, but it seems to be a sizeable minority, especially amongst amateur writers). Writing can be escapism, or it can be intentionally writing something you know is escapism-ish for a community in need of it.
But maybe I'm not giving the author enough credit. We shall see.
Whatever their gender is, I already love our new chaotic gremlin.
Also agreed!
last edited at May 8, 2024 9:07AM