Can't deal with chapter 2. (major chapter spoilers)

[antipodeFabricator]

I can already tell this is terrible idea. I shouldn't bring this up, but I'm going to lose my mind here.

If you haven't played chapter 2 yet, I'm about to spoil a major reveal here, so you may want to leave.

I beat chapter 2 - solved the case, executed the murderer, saved at chapter's end - and I don't know if I can deal with some of what happened. I don't know if I can continue dealing with this world at this point.

I myself am transgender, and the whole reveal with Chihiro being a """crossdresser""" felt like just..... tasteless, to say the least. Upsetting, triggering even. Everyone just accepts what Monokuma says, and they all just flip to using male pronouns and male terms for "him" without so much as a thought. I know "he" is technically a "crossdresser," but, it just... it hits home too hard. It feels too much like they're misgendering a transgender girl, who can't defend herself because she's DEAD now!

If you don't understand transgender issues, if you just want to tell me "Just get over it, stop making a big deal about this," please just don't. I'm begging you.

I want to keep going. I've been having fun, I like this game. I like the world, I like the characters, I like solving murders and unravelling mysteries and getting to know everything in more detail. I want to see how this game ends. But I can't continue without a few answers:

1) Are they going to keep misgendering Chihiro like this? If so, how much more? I can maybe handle a little I guess.

2) Is there a mod that fixes this? A mod to alter some of the dialogue to have people defend Chihiro and refer to her as a girl? (obviously Monokuma gave her access to the boys' locker room, but that can just be him being a jerk and misgendering her. It still sucks, but it's tolerable to play a game where JUST THE VILLAIN is misgendering someone, rather then THE WHOLE CAST.)

Sorry if this seems whiny and stupid. I don't know what to say. I can't explain how much this part of the game hurts, and if you can't understand, I'd appreciate you just walking away.

Thanks for understanding. I hope I'm not disrupting anything too badly.

[DespaiirBear]

You have to understand that this game is a lot older and a lot of these issues have only been being addressed on a social standard over the recent years. Also these games are set in a different cultural setting. Tbh i believe that Chii is the only one that this applies to in the entire series so you likely wont encounter that again (unless i'm brain farting and there's others) the point has nothing to do with social acceptance of transgender anything, just a plot twist where Chii is in the mens workout rooms and not the females and it is a surprise to all. The entire point that makes it so confusing is that we don't know that she is actually born a boy and monokumas rules are not specific to that sort of thing.

[DespaiirBear]

It's not unreasonable that it bothers you because you make such a personal connection to it. But again, timing, cultural differences, and understand that chii is a very beloved character who is very much adored by her classmates throughout the rest of the game and the series. While it might feel offensive from your standpoint, try to look at it from a different point of view.

[Null]

Chihiro crossdresses and hides his true sex because he was relentlessly bullied for not being "manly" enough as a kid because of his sensitive nature and physical weakness, something that many men across the world have gone through, sometimes to the point of severe depression, lashing out in violence, and even killing themselves.

He doesn't have gender identity issues, he has a severe inferiority complex[en.wikipedia.org]. This is literally canon and a major part of his character. The only misgendering going on here is you two branding a boy a girl for not acting manly enough, just like his bullies did.

[Runa Silvertongue]

^^ Exactly. Nowhere in the game does it even imply that Chihiro wants to become a girl - he dresses in girl's clothes because he felt weak as a boy and wanted to grow strong so that he could face his fears/aforementioned inferiority complex.

What shocks me is that his parents were permissive with him crossdressing, since Japanese society is very conservative in lots of issues, including LGBTQ+/crossdressers.

[Housse]

Chihiro is not trans, he was just crossdressing. There is no misgendering issue here.

[BOON: GLHF]

Originally posted by Persephone:

Chihiro crossdresses and hides his true sex because he was relentlessly bullied for not being "manly" enough as a kid because of his sensitive nature and physical weakness, something that many men across the world have gone through, sometimes to the point of severe depression, lashing out in violence, and even killing themselves.

He doesn't have gender identity issues, he has a severe inferiority complex[en.wikipedia.org]. This is literally canon and a major part of his character. The only misgendering going on here is you two branding a boy a girl for not acting manly enough, just like his bullies did.

This is true.
I would say that this character wasn't done with trans folks in mind and I can understand how it hurts, but he represents other problems.
If it means anything, I feel bad for you and fact that this situation hits to close to home to you.

[Soviet_Union100]

Stop being a degenerate.

[plutopidge]

This is a spoiler if you haven't kept playing the game but I absolutely recommend you keep playing the game if you haven't come across Alter Ego yet. I also felt somewhat uncomfortable when playing the game cause it did feel like Chihiro was being misgendered, but what I understand by it is that, Chihiro would have been happy for people to accept him as a boy, even if he feels he is weak. By acknowledging that Chihiro is a boy, it's essentially acknowledging that boys don't have to be strong.

[orayonbelt]

i felt the same way tbh,,

[MightyFineIncredible]

Chihiro is not a girl. He is a boy.

[Red]

Spoiler for chapter 2

Before Chihiro died, he decided he wanted to get stronger and be more manly, instead of running away from his problems by pretending to be a girl.

I doubt he would've wanted to be called a girl after that.

[sylvrain]

I totally understand why this is upsetting. I'm also LGBT (the G part). What I have to say about this is that I don't think Chihiro is transgender. It's clear that Chihiro sees themself as a boy, and Chihiro's journey was to become strong enough that he felt masculine enough to present as a boy and also to stop being bullied for being weak.
The game continues to refer to Chihiro as a boy. If this is too much for you, then bear that in mind. I understand the trouble. But I think it's easier and more accurate to interpret Chihiro as a cisgender crossdresser. I recommend that you keep playing the game, because it is so wacky and really worth it. Plus, I can't think of anything else that might trigger (excuse the pun) you like that. Good luck *thumbs up*

[bark]

ye, when i got to this part I also felt uncomfortable. Of course now I understand, but at the time before the game explained everything, it felt like "2010 devs really gonna pull this ♥♥♥♥? smh." honestly what helped me get over it was realizing that if Chihiro was really a trans character, they wouldn't have been written as going to Mondo to confess, instead of someone like Sakura.

[Ratirefure]

tbh, I only think this viewpoint exists because Chihiro's character arc was cut excessively short. In the end, he (i'm gonna use male pronouns, please bear with me) wanted to become stronger, and that's why he went to the manly biker gang dude for help. If he wasn't killed, he could have fully completed his arc and become stronger.

See, he was so weak, so unmanly at the beginning, that he went all-in to become the fragile girl everyone saw him as. It's obvious, however, that Chihiro still saw himself as weaker than everyone else, and this was probably exacerbated by seeing Sakura, the literal strongest woman anyone has ever seen.

So to continue to refer to Chihiro as female, even after making the effort to become stronger and more masculine, i would argue is more of a misgender than referring to him as male. Chihiro likely wouldn't want to be seen as a female because he equates that (due to his childhood bullies) as being weak and frail.

I hope all of this makes sense, and I hope I'm not missing any details that become obvious later (I'm also only just past Chapter 2 and coming to terms with Chihiro's death myself)

[antipodeFabricator]

Alright, I'm way past this part in the game. Took me forever to come back and face the topic I wrote. Blegh.... I need to stop writing things on the internet when I'm freaking out.

I'm more or less past this stuff. I understand that my perspective on Chihiro's gender identity wasn't quite right. Though, given the information I had at the time, I don't think I made a poor assumption; I still believe the developers could've been a little more careful giving us our information in a timely and more polite manner.

Which is to say, it sure would've been nice to know the truth of Chihiro's identity straight from his mouth, a lot sooner then this. I know this would be tricky with him dead and all, but what if he'd confided in someone? Sakura would be a good pick: she was asking him about working out, and he was suspiciously declining, so she had good reason to approach Chihiro. And Sakura was misgendered ONSCREEN - by Kiyotaka, in chapter one - so it would be plausible for Chihiro to confide in her. That would give us someone who can tell us Chihiro's true feelings, nearly as good as hearing it right from Chihiro himself.

But as said, I've worked through my feelings on this matter, and I'll be unsubscribing from this discussion now. To those of you who were kind and respectful: thank you so much, and I'm so sorry for leaving you hanging all this time. x.x

To those who were not respectful : you're the reason it took me months to come back to this topic. I knew you'd be here. : /