About Chihiro Fujisaki (TRANSPHOBES DNI)

[Mahiron]

There are two main issues I have with the portrayal of Chihiro. Let’s start with the chronologically first one. In chapter 2, Chihiro is murdered. During the trial, a second examination of Chihiro’s body reveals she has male genitalia. The characters remark on how she was “really a boy” and instantly switch to describing her with male pronouns for the rest of the game. Keep in mind, up until this point Chihiro has presented entirely female. The logical conclusion for the characters (and player) to come to at this point is, “Chihiro is a trans girl”.

Later in the trial, a justification for Chihiro’s presenting as a girl is provided, but for the next half hour or so of gameplay, this character, who by all appearances is trans, is missgendered by her former friends for no particular reason. This was actually really new to me and it was absolutely shocking. Occasionally a video game striving to be edgy will include trans people as the butt of a cheap joke or two, but that’s relatively easy to ignore. This was a character’s identity being invalidated at the drop of a hat by people who should be supporting her and for an extended period of gameplay.

After some time – like I said, I think it was around half an hour of gameplay – an explanation is provided. Chihiro is “really a boy” and dressed as a girl because, as a child, she was bullied for being too weak, and presenting as a girl instead was a way to solve that problem. One thing that is striking is that this is a perfectly plausible story of a trans kid finding a justification to present the way they want to. The other thing that is striking is how little sense it makes as anything other than a justification for doing what she already wants to do. A kid crossdressing to be bullied less? On what planet does that make sense? And this hasn’t been something fleeting – by all appearances from what you learn in the game, Chihiro has been presenting as a girl for a long time, maybe even over a decade.

It’s very worth remembering that part of why it’s a huge shame is it’s so rare for a trans character to have such an active and crucial role in a story. With just minor adjustments it could have been one of the best examples of trans representation in video games, but instead it became one of the most shocking examples of transphobia by killing her and deniying her identity even when her dad in Ultra Despair Girls seems to be super supportive about her being trans.

I hope that someday... This community can face the reality and specially, I hope that someday Spike Chunksoft ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dissapear for doing this to a trans kid.

[Loowiz]

Автор сообщения: Potato Demon

Yeah, it's pretty hard to find good trans rep in popular media. It's either politicized or shows them as over the top mentally ill and neurotic, the classic 'scary trans breakdown' trope. And I'm a big fan of Chihiro's character because he's realistic without any hidden agenda shoved down your throat. He feels pressured to dress as a girl and in the post game school mode he comes out as a guy and wants to get stronger out of wanting to improve his self worth and confidence. Another problem with trans or crossdressing characters is that people tend to impose their own experiences on them, and get offended and pissed off when that character isn't the identity they thought. Gender Identity can change and the main point is freedom to choose how you present and call yourself, having full control over your own body and feeling comfortable in your own skin. I, for example am a guy. I dress feminine and soft while fully considering myself to be a guy. Would I care if I woke up one day and got Isekaied into a woman's body? Not at all, my male identity isn't that important to me but I am proud of it. Chihiro was actually the only character I was determined to get the ending for in the post game mode because of how depressing and premature their death was. Chihiro really got screwed over by Mondo. It's horrible how realistic the situation is of some self conscious idiot committing violence against someone who isn't the 'traditional' gender norm.

Автор сообщения: Luci

I really don't feel like Chihiro is transgender based on his story. Though, despite that, as a trans man, he is very inspiring since I relate to his struggles of wanted to come out as a man to everyone around him but is too scared to due to feeling too weak. I've been exercising lately and been working on gaining up muscle so I can feel more confident as myself as a man. Just because he was more written about toxic masculinity in Japan instead of trans people doesn't mean we can't look up to him and works towards our own goals like him.

I hope in general we will have enough trans rep in media that we don't have to literally scrape the bottom of the barrel to try to get some.

Also good on you, it's important to improve yourself and feel comfortable in your own skin. It sucks coming out to people because while most are at least supportive and understanding there's always that one bigoted jerk who treats it like you died or something. Don't come out to someone if you don't feel safe or comfortable around them, there's no shame in it. Frankly I wish I never came out as bisexual to my grandpa, that sucked.

Trans people are about 0,5% of the population. They're still a lot more represented than people with down syndrome (around 0,125%) or people with autism (around 2,7%).
The main issue here is how in the few scenarios where trans people are portrayed, the community attacks the developers for not making the person a paragon of morality. No one wants to risk being the scapegoat for PC cancel culture in order to represent a small minority of people. Just look at Chihiro. Even though he's not a trans, he has a sort of identity crisis, which relates to the same dysphoria trans people have. Yet, the game developers are called transphobic, because Chihiro, even though its not trans, is not portrayed as a trans character. If I was one of Danganronpa developers, I'd say ♥♥♥♥ it, and never touch the subject again. Modern LGBT is, unfortunately, creating a very negative stereotype for people already known for being marginalized.

[Potato Demon]

Yeah, that too. With the Modern LGBT and general LGBT issues I think it's better to focus on individual people instead of the larger picture. The issue of Autistic and Down Syndrome representation is very real, but focusing TOO much on the larger picture can have the opposite of the intended effect and make the individual people who have to deal with these issues feel worse about themselves. It kind of sucks when you're just thinking about how to come out to your family or why people feel the way they do about sexuality and someone starts talking about Hollywood. It can make you feel like you're just a cog in a larger machine and that your issues don't matter in the face of everything else. It's important to focus more so on personal relationships and what you specifically can do to help the people around you instead whatever's going on in politics or the entertainment industry. Everything matters on a human scale and YOU are a part of everything.

(I'm not disagreeing with you by the way, literally everything you said was completely accurate and it needed saying. I just wanted to point this out because this is an issue that's always personally gotten under my skin).