Why is it harmful to see Naoto Shirogane as a girl?
[This is not an argumentative post. I am a trans man. This is meant to be educational anyone who denies or even gets aggressive at the idea of Naoto being trans.]
There’s already some posts about this, but I still wanted to make my own and dump it. I apologize for not putting this under a cut, but I feel like people will dismiss it otherwise.
Naoto introduces himself as a boy. Naoto/ 直斗 is a boys given name that means “Honest Big Dipper”, likely not the name he was given by his parents at birth since he’s afab. He clearly doesn’t use his ‘natural’ voice, and tries to make his voice sound deeper, but it still sounds off. This implies he’s working on voice training still and hasn’t mastered his range.
From just looking at canon art of Naoto, we can tell he binds. Sometimes he has a very clear bust, and sometimes he’s completely flat. In Line Sticker art, this is confirmed to be done with bandages.
I bring this up because it’s important to establish: Atlus does not know what they’re doing. Safe binding is not a trans only resource. Cis afab cosplayers bind if they want a flat chest when cosplaying either flat chested women or men, so safety on doing this should be known.
Bandages are not safe. Naoto is putting himself in danger just to make himself look flat chested.
Let’s look at his shadow:
Regardless of in boss-form or not, the shadow has a flat chest. If Naoto’s shadow was a part of himself that he was hiding from, and what he’s hiding is that he’s supposedly a girl, why does his shadow fully present as male?
That’s not what his shadow is. His shadow is Naoto’s insecurities. “He’s not actually a boy. He’s childish. He just doesn’t like himself. He’s scared that people will see him differently if he was clearly a girl. He’s just doing this to success.”
Taking these thoughts that Naoto’s shadow expresses, it becomes obvious that he has internalized transphobia. He’s justifying why he identifies the way he does and telling himself he’s not really what he is.
The game portrays these thoughts and insecurities as internalized misogyny that he needs to overcome.
I don’t know how to tell you that telling an afab person who has said that they’re a boy that they are, in fact, really a girl with internalized misogyny is incredibly transphobic, toxic, and harmful.
This exact mind set is the reason I personally and many other trans men are not allowed to start our medical transition until we are able to leave our parents.
For Naoto’s justifications, saying that it’s so he won’t be judged in the work place- His mother was a famous detective. There’s no reason he should have this fear, and even then, why go so far as he has? Voice training, unsafe binding, and for his work place to not know his agab or dead name? He would have had to legally change it. No one who is just pretending to be a gender they aren’t would not go through THIS much trouble.
There’s also the tons of medical themes that Naoto’s shadow talks about, which- again- for a trans person, having medical themes and surgery on the mind, especially a ‘life altering’ surgery, it’s not that uncommon among trans folk who plan to medically transition. Why would a detective’s dungeon be medical themed when he has no medical traits to his character aside from, perhaps, his transition plans?
Something that bugs me and I’m sure many others a LOT is how, as soon as Naoto’s shadow says he’s ‘actually a girl,’ everyone instantly begins to refer to Naoto as a girl. When this happens from a source that isn’t the character themself, it’s blatantly transphobic. If you hear about someone’s “actual gender” from a person who ISN’T that someone, talk to them about it. Ask them how they actually want to be referred by.
Another small thing, but Kanji is meant to be gay but then they pulled “Aha, he has a crush on Naoto, so he isn’t ACTUALLY gay!” which, yeah, homophobic and transphobic. If a gay man likes a trans man, that is still just as gay as if he liked a cis man. Making Naoto ‘actually a girl’ was hitting two birds with one stone, and cishets- and even other queer people, sadly- ate that shit up.
I’ll go over some arena screenshots now, thank you to @covecaller for posting them.
How much needs to be said about this one? It’s very common for trans people in unwelcoming situations to wish they were born as the gender they actually are, and it especially would make sense for Naoto. As soon as he was outed as afab, no one refereed to him as a boy and they never even asked him about it first.
This is blatant transphobia. “You lack confidence in yourself” is word for word what my mother said to me when I came out to her. Calling trans people ‘lies’ or a ‘liar’ for their identity? Also blatant transphobia.
You can look at the other arena screencaps Zach posted here.
You can say all you want that p4 is old, so of course it’s going to be bad, but so what? Letting it constantly get off the hook and never criticizing the creators will give them a message. Letting things like this go hurts the minorities that that character is a part of, and this is backed up even less by the fact that Atlus STILL hasn’t done anything about it. There is still persona 4 content being made, and Naoto is still being sexualized when he is, by the way, 15-17 throughout the series, and misgendered.
Yes, Naoto is portrayed as a girl who isn’t confident in himself and has internalized misogyny in persona 4, but that’s because the creators see trans men as girls who aren’t confident in themselves and have internalized misogyny.
Reblogs are highly appreciated, feel free to make your own additions with more proof if you feel like I missed out on something important with explaining why Naoto should not be portrayed as a girl.
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