It's time for another new blog post! For today's blog post, I will be talking about the problem with anime and gender. Yesterday I talked about the issues with body image, so I wanted to talk about gender today. Anime is well-known for confusing characters. There are super feminine girls and majorly masculine guys, but there are also feminine guys and masculine girls. People call the latter types of characters traps, but that really depends on the character. A good example of this is Astolfo from Fate Grand Order. He often gets mistaken for a girl even though he's openly a male. He isn't trying to fool anyone at all, and most characters aren't trying to fool anyone. They just wear whatever they like. Another good example of a complex character is Grell Sutcliff from Black Butler. Grell dresses however he wants, and refers to himself by male and female terms. He's similar to a drag queen, but people assume he's trans; even though nothing has even hinted to this being true. A male being feminine or a female being masculine does not mean they're trans. It just means they're comfortable enough with who they are to dress and act however they want. In this sense, it isn't anime that has the problem; but rather the fans that assume they know things even if the creators themselves say that isn't the case. But, those are mostly just my thoughts on this topic. Personally I have no issue with these gender non-conforming characters, or just people being themselves in general. It's actually pretty fun to see such a variety in anime, as long as people don't project their own ideas so heavily on the characters. Headcanons are fine, but only if they're left at that. Nonetheless, I hope you all still enjoyed this blog post!