Quote:
Originally Posted by Sol Falling
How does wanting to be a girl(/boy), mean you actually are a girl(/boy), even if only on the inside? From my perspective, the limits of gender boundaries are already incredibly broad (boys can be feminine, girls can be masculine). As such, I have yet to find a satisfactory answer as to why it would be less accurate to say that Nitorin is 'a boy who wishes to retain his cute, feminine body', over assertions to the effect of 'he/she is a girl in a boy's body', or other such things.
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You're right about the landmines - I don't think there's One Right Answer to your question, but here are a few ideas to chew over (this post is deliberately noncommittal, so no offence intended to anyone with strong views on the subject).
It really depends on how you think about gender identity - how much does a person's own perception of their gender count, compared to external factors like their body or how other people see them? Is "feeling that you
are a girl/boy" different from "feeling feminine/masculine"? A reason for saying that Nitorin "actually is a girl inside" would be that that's a fundamental part of Shuu's identity, something much deeper than a desire to "be a girly boy" (contrast
Takemoto Novala, for example).
I guess most people never really think about their own gender identity because it's never called into question. But as a clumsy approximation, try this thought experiment: you wake up tomorrow to find yourself in a body of the opposite gender, and everyone you know treats you like you've always been that way. Now try to imagine living the rest of your life like that. I don't mean in some shallow cutesy
Kashimashi sense, I mean for real: think about your closest friendships, your family, your sex life, the image you choose to present to the outside world every time you decide what to wear in the morning... Would you say to yourself "oh well, I guess now I am a <whatever>, but that's fine because I don't have to conform to gender stereotypes"?
Let's suppose you get over the shock and manage to adapt day-to-day. Despite appearances, would you still feel like <not-a-whatever> inside? That's sort of what Nitorin and Takatsuki are grappling with.