alright i'm feeling brave so i'm gonna share more trans dude thoughts, this time about stuff regarding canon material that i feel actually give a bit of credence to a trans reading of dude. similar to the last post i made like this i'm mainly talking about p2 dude, but a lot of this is general stuff that'd probably work with other dudes too.
first of all, his iconic coat. casually wearing a solid black leather trench coat is already a little unusual, but the fact that dude wears one all of the time (even in the middle of a blisteringly hot arizona summer) definitely implies a few things. though it's entirely possible that he just isn't willing to give up his sense of fashion or the utility of inner pockets, it's worth mentioning that wearing a trench coat is an awfully convenient choice of attire for someone trying to pass as male. it hides your curves, makes your shoulders look wider, and just generally gives you a more imposing (and masculine) silhouette. plus, while not necessarily related, leather is also durable and more resistant to bullets than most other fabrics. so for dude, his trench coat may very well be a way to protect himself, in more ways than one.
there's also his mannerisms. dude is edgy, sarcastic, and sometimes outright cruel, to the point that it almost feels like he's compensating for something. this especially makes sense if you interpret him as being trans. as someone who wasn't originally born a man, he may feel the need to try all the harder to convince people of his masculinity. he exaggerates the qualities about himself that are "manly" and represses his actual feelings and any other sign of vulnerability as a self defense mechanism, albeit a very misguided one. (as a side note, i think dude had probably unlearned a lot of this stuff by postal 4, as evidenced by his much more laid back demeanor and willingness to experiment with his gender presentation.)
additionally, we've never seen dude naked (afaik). it's not just that we don't entirely know what his downstairs situation is, we've never seen him topless either. the closest we've gotten is a censor circle whenever he unzips his pants and the information that he's canonically "below average," but even then it's still kind of vague (i mean, for all we know, that could be referring to his bottom growth LMAO)
dude doesn't have any kids either, which to be fair, doesn't really prove anything on its own. however, if you check the bucket in the sample drop room after completing the first mission in apocalypse weekend, you'll see it's the exact same as it was before. in reality this probably doesn't mean anything, but i think it'd be really funny to imagine that it implies dude is either firing blanks, or he never had the right kind of "ammo" to begin with.
this last one is probably a stretch, but i've always thought it kinda looks like he's got a bit of a boob bump in the gimp suit? it's probably only me that sees this, but eh whatever, i think it's still worth mentioning.
anyways that's all folks! if you liked this then make sure to stay tuned for the next time i inevitably post several paragraphs over-analyzing a character from a game that's over 20 years old
jacobvanloon
germansingergirl
annaxmalina
tangentwithtanner
janainaart
