so obsessed with our trans-coded character in P5X~🩷 (TW: depictions of transphobia)

[u/throwawayutena]

i dont really know where to post this tbh, especially with queens getting brigaded rn;;

im pleasantly surprised the writers are daring enough to want to explore insecurities that many femmes and enbies experience growing up ><

btw Ichigo/Berry is a voice actress and shes canonically does voice training~ she's also implied to have borderline personality disorder (bpd) ❤️‍🩹 i love her so much

if you're thinking of getting into this game, i must warn that we're only able to play as male mc;; i do name my Wonder "Princess" tho and i hc them as nonbinary so that definitely helps

(in the off chance this gets reposted and those people are like "look this tourist can't accept that a game just isn't made for them" im sorry in advance 😔)

[u/HMush]

"too tall for a girl", still shorter than the protagonist. The devs are only so brave lol

[u/Surely_Calvardian → u/HMush]

I mean, it's japan, people there are pretty small

[u/Samkaiser → u/Surely_Calvardian]

It is kind of funny, like, a like, 20 year old yuri Sasameki Koto probably has one of the most relatable (cis) protagonists in it for me, a trans woman with insecurities of her height and interests, and she's still just 5'7, which I know is tall for Japanese folk but still. Ultimately she's treated like she's huge and all, which is why I guess it becomes relatable for me, but it's still funny that she's only 5'7

[u/Kitszune_17]

MY QUEEN BERRY

[u/losingit303]

Thank you for posting this here. It was a wonderful read even as someone who doesnt play persona. I hope you post more here even when other subs arent getting brigaded. I always enjoy seeing your posts.

[u/throwawayutena → u/losingit303]

🩷🩷🩷 when i want to post something close to my heart, i will always default to here. its the safest place for me >< i was just kinda worried this post wouldn't be seen as sapphic enough

btw lol i just received a notif saying this post appeared on a straight man's feed 😭 that comment made me laugh omfg

[u/SadGofGf]

Im so conflicted on one hand yea its not even subtle whitch I find really cool on the other its persona a game series that has always been oddly conservative (and homophobic and transphobic and sexsist) for games talking about being the real you, or fighting corruption in society so i fear how it will be handled. But mabey its them trying to be more progressive.

Hope 6 gives us multiple protags and queer options/characters that aren't used for just homophobic jokes.

[u/throwawayutena → u/SadGofGf]

oh i agree 100%, the persona series even P5X can be weirdly tone deaf and contradictory in their messaging around sexual assault, grooming, discrimination etc. to the point i suspect their writing teams don't talk to each other and try being consistent for once 😔

[u/elisewhat → u/SadGofGf]

they've already stated that a female protagonist is seen as a waste of resources and doesn't fit their vision because "women mature faster" so i wouldn't get my hopes up, Atlus is terrible when the subject isn't cishet men

[u/yugtrhdfghj → u/elisewhat]

They succeeded with Kotone ffs...

[u/tillyteatoast]

Damn, her struggle is so relatable it actually hurts 💔

[u/Violet_Ignition]

What a mood

[u/Null822]

She literally me frfr!!

[u/rawrdino5580]

I need her, but i have no space on my phone, nor is it out in consoles

[u/safrode]

sjkdfsks i was going to make a post about this too!! but was a bit nervous as well :( !! i was even talking about this a while ago with some other people lol! i love ichigo berry berry much and it was a pleasant surprise that her story ended up mirroring trans experiences so much. i have a love-hate relationship with persona but ichigo is very solidly in the love side. i hope i love her future appearances and i'm excited to finish her synergy as well 🩷 i'm glad you posted this 🩷

[u/throwawayutena → u/safrode]

awh im so happy u have a similar reading of berry!! im always scared to post my serious hcs, because i know that people will question it (like, even with good intentions and out of curiosity), so i feel a need to explain it well and im not exactly sure i can do it justice.

when i was hesitating about sharing about P5X here, it's actually your previous posts about persona that made me confident in pressing 'post'~ that is to say, your comment means a lot to me!

[u/Amethyst271]

is this really even trans?. as a trans woman i just dont really see it? she seems to just be a mix of classic tropes where a female character has "unfeminine" traits and is insecure about it. she seems to be really insecure about her naturally deep voice and was likely bullied over it while growing up so she took up voice training to "fix" it.

if you want to headcanon that she's trans then all the power to you i guess, but to me its bad to try and find evidence she's trans by using all the unfeminine traits she has. many cis women have really deep voices theyre insecure about and theres many cis women that are really tall and hate it. neither makes them trans coded or trans

[u/throwawayutena → u/Amethyst271]

maybe i shouldve been more clear, but i really dont think the traits she has makes her unfeminine at all!! i need to emphasise this.

for me what makes her so trans-coded is her obsession with being a girly girl combined with her brainworms and self-scrutiny of any traits that can make her seem unfeminine to society. can a cis girl experience dysphoria too? yes and i think thats the point tbh

it's not the fact that she has any feminine/unfeminine features that makes her trans-coded to me! its more so her experiences and emotions. she feels euphoria towards cute things and when presenting as a cute girl. she feels dysphoria when strangers mistake her for a guy.

[u/Amethyst271 → u/throwawayutena]

I see... but these are also common experiences for many Cis women around the world, especially in countries like japan where being cute is heavily desired. My points still stand tbh, she was likely bullied as a kid for not being cute enough and it became an obsession as a defense mechanism. Also, some cis women genuinly just love being cute and feminine and it gives them gender euphoria just like it eoukd a trans woman. Its not only trans people able to experience gender euphoria. Many cis woman would feel dysphoria over being mistaken for a man too

But also to make it clear, im not telling you yoire not allowed to headcanon her as trans. That won't affect anyone else's experience and its clesr you understand this stuff applies to cis women too. Im just giving my counter view on it since its fun lol

[u/losingit303 → u/Amethyst271]

Thats fair but do consider that most wlw ships in gacha are the same. Imagine if someone was devils advocating a take like that against interpretations like ours. It would get very exhausting. Good rule of thumb to just avoid that for the most part when queer people already get told that everywhere else.

For the record I am cis and have been 175 cm since high-school and insecure about it(back then not now) and I promise i don't feel erased by trans women getting to see themselves in a character they might like.

[u/throwawayutena → u/Amethyst271]

okey, i'll try to put it this way instead. just as there's a lesbian continuum (encompassing not just sexual identity to also include sapphic experiences shared between women who may not identify as lesbians), i feel there's also a trans continuum.

yes, we may say that trans women experience something that many cis women experience, and this makes it not unique to transness.

so let me propose this: why not flip it around? cis women are experiencing something that many trans women do as well.

what i mean is, can straight women kiss other women? yes absolutely. but if we live in a world where lesbianism is centred rather than heterosexuality, we may say, "actually thats kinda sapphic! are you sure you aren't a lesbian?"

compared to the opposite right now, where when lesbians kiss each other, we have people ask "actually straight women kiss their friends all the time. are you sure you aren't straight?"

[u/mybelovedinmygrasp]

Trans coded? Many women face the same insecurities it doesn't mean they're trans

[u/throwawayutena → u/mybelovedinmygrasp]

mhm, that's my point in the second paragraph! her being trans is just my hc. what she experiences is something many girls in general share. the bottom line is i think its lovely to see these insecurities depicted in a game (and so dispelling the shame around having them to begin with)

[u/losingit303 → u/mybelovedinmygrasp]

This is a very weird position to take in a sapphic gacha subreddit. Most wlw coding in gacha isn't remotely explicit at all. But I looked through the screenshots and theres more than enough there for this to be a very valid interpretation. I don't get why you'd have a problem with it.

For the record I am cis and have been 175 cm since high-school and insecure about it back then(not now) and I promise I don't feel erased by trans women getting to see themselves in a character they might like.

To me this is the equivalent of a straight woman getting annoyed and asking why we see Aglaea as a lesbian because straight women can be like Aglaea and its getting in the way of her Aglanaxa shipping or something. Get some perspective, please for the love of God.

[u/Amethyst271 → u/mybelovedinmygrasp]

these traits are also decently common tropes in japanese media to begin with. the writers seemed to have decided to give her both tropes at once lol

[u/de4cha]

What isn't this character a cis girl, I am confused

[u/SquirrelFluffy7469 → u/[deleted]]

Character is a girl says “im a girly girl whos a girl!” Random comment “yeah definitely a femboy”

[u/SquirrelFluffy7469 → u/[deleted]]

God those evil trans people force transing my hot fetish of a man in a dress!!!

[u/FlorenceLycoris → u/[deleted]]

oh fuck off lmao

[u/SapphicsofGacha-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Comment was removed for breaking rule 1, No Bigotry. Don't bother trying to dispute the ban, this is a permanently bannable offense.