Gender non-conforming characters

Last week Dee wrote a piece on how Chihayafuru handles main character Chihaya’s experience of femininity. We are here taking ‘gender non-conforming’ in the broadest sense possible to allow us to discuss a spectrum of presentations, from simply appearing as a ‘tomboy’ as Chihaya is in her childhood, to switching between gender presentations like Kuranosuke in Princess Jellyfish, or presenting fully as another gender as Isabella does in Paradise Kiss. The purpose of this post is not to discuss how characters do/don’t/might identify, but on how characters who visibly challenge social norms of gender presentation are meaningful to you.

• Who are your favorite gender non-conforming characters in manga or anime?
• Which characters most closely represent your own preferred gender presentation in an ideal world? (Whether you currently present in this way yourself or not is not important.)
• Are there gender non-conforming characters you feel are more damaging than positive?
• Is there any manga about gender non-conforming characters that you would love to see adapted into anime?
• If you have ever cosplayed as a character of another gender, what drew you to that character and what was your experience like?
• Which kinds of gender non-conforming character would you like to see more of in anime or manga?

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