somebody whose liveblog I was following is arguing that Sayo "reads as more of a cis person thought experiment than anything else" and I want to scream
they ultimately do think that Sayo is trans but are also like "well CLEARLY this goes against the intended meaning of the text" and they argue that because their story is more fantastical than the depressing things that happen to real life intersex infants that
like. idk. even beyond how this demonstrates an alarming lack of faith in the text and ryukishi I'm reminded of one of Nanjo's lines in confession where he goes
which really reads to me that it's deliberately calling to mind and drawing parallels to the fucked up surgeries that doctors performed on intersex infants even if the situation wasn't one to one
there;s a very specific case of an intersex person who was raised in a very similar way to sayo who was almost definitely the inspiration for her story
idk this is reminding me of this weird trend that I've noticed of people tending to think that unless it's very blatant and overt japanese media having Gender in it is always unintentional
it doesn't help that "trans" brings with it a certain cis interpretation, but there isn't any way to point that out without undermining the actual transness of the gender
like its not a 1-to-1 parallel to the trans experience most people have irl, and you know, it's the convoluted history of mystery story character, and in many ways it has just as many parallels to intersex stories but
and if it is blatant and overt, it's either a "mistranslation" (complete with the speaker suddenly pretending to know way more japanese than they do) or "corrupting western sjw influence"
like if we get ultimately loveless with explaining it, Sayo is a gender-questioning intersex with severe physical damage and trauma and either plurality or a similar play with alter-selves to present as gender conforming in various ways
that's not "trans" in that there is no gender being transitioned to but
like, shit. Umineko is problematic as fuck and there is some VERY REAL, VERY BLATANT, VERY DELIBERATE trauma triggers in there because it's about dealing with trauma
I'd rather have someone make real genuine effort to portray messy ND and queer experiences and fuck up here or there than for everything to be sanitized and fit the most common definition and thus Perfect Representation
it's not like we portray ourselves perfectly all the time in art... and also we're a hundred times more likely to get "cancelled" for the slightest perceived bit of problematicness
yeah, I have some of my issues with umineko (because no work is perfect) but sayo was handled with obvious love and care from ryu, and is pretty clearly based off of a case of an intersex person. Was it perfect? no, this was written in the early 2010's and no work is perfect. does it show empathy and love towards people that suffer through this? yeah
Dude writes about some complex issues and does it really well. Too well at times given that some people find higanbana and cicciona hit too hard, I'm derp as hell and had to stop higanbana and come back because the suicide idealisation hurt
Cicciona goes strong with gender stuff, highly recommend if you can handle the waiting. Umineko Ryukishi was subtle and implying, cicciona Ryukishi is waving a neon sign with it in text
rose guns days was honestly the most awkward of R07's stuff and that's because, like. Nationality and the sense of alternate histories hinging on WW2 having different results is always... very, very awkward, because it leads into very specific conversational quagmires about politics
but also i am very tired of people thinking that autism just means magic and psychic shit, and not that this child is having a meltdown because no one is understanding what she's trying to convey
one of the things that umineko does so well, that it took eight episodes to get to the point of, is that it has to destroy "magic" in order to rebuild magic
magic is not some mystical force that changes the world in defiance of reality.
magic is how people rewrite reality to suit their needs and empower themselves
that's not "trans" in that there is no gender being transitioned to but
no, it's trans as fuck?
i am very tired of people thinking that autism just means magic and psychic shit, and not that this child is having a meltdown because no one is understanding what she's trying to conveythis is not okay, this is not some sort of creepy psychic shit, this is a little girl with no coping mechanisms disassociatingmagic is not some mystical force that changes the world in defiance of reality.
magic is how people rewrite reality to suit their needs and empower themselves