Hughie Campbell is not a Boy:
so I had a whole thing written in a discord that got deleted and I don't wanna go reading the whole comic again so it might be a bit messy and missing a bunch of points.
The thing i find really fascinating about garth ennis's the boys is that on face value it's repulsive, it's violent, un-PC and explotative. It's often hard for me to tell at times what part of Butcher is supposed to a worthy criticism of masculinity, revenge, superheroes and soldiers, and what ennis just thinks is tough and 'ard.
But then you will get moments that make you think, wait.. does this guy get it?
Like to this day I have to fight over being called "mate" and garth fucking ennis of all people could recognise the malice behind it fifteen years ago
Simply put, Hughie is not one of the Boys. He's not tough, he can't bottle up his feelings, and he doesn't want to be violent. He's a pussy, and the rest of the boys treat him as such. This is his central struggle, that he is needed specifically for what his vulnerability provides for Butcher. But simultaneously he is bent and broken down by the Boys, they longingly cherish a time when they could be Hughie, but it is also not permitted. We are murderers and our job is to kill people.
For my TMA reading I want to point out that Kimiko, who is only known as "The Female" in the comics, is without question one of the Boys. What childish feminity she displays is accepted because she says little and commits violence without question. Kimiko is like a litte sister Butcher wants but not the one he knows deep down he needs. Somewhere without fully recognising it, Butcher sees Hughie as a part of himself he cannot permit himself to be of his own accord, so he drags Hughie down with him. Please stop me, please, please stop me from doing this.
That screenshot earlier is from a part where they are investigating the murder of a trans woman sex worker (Ennis's depiction is not without flaws, the women are drawn clocky, and there's no doubt that one of the Seven having a fetish for trans women is part of the whole "degenerate hedonist superhero" shock factor). Butcher is dismissive and unsympathetic to the friends of the victim, misgenders them constantly and uses his position of authority to threaten them into complying with his needs. It's what he does, and he does it to Hughie (not the misgendering part). I'm not reading Hughie as trans because he's defensive towards trans people, but i think it is interesting that it's in this context that Hughie does finally stand up for himself. How he feels he's being treated by Butcher is implicitly connected to his outrage at the way he treats those girls.
He's upset and they're literally like "girl your being hysterical..." He's always not taken seriously so when he reaches his breaking point and stands up for himself it's just this little silly thing. And to them it's like he's being a baby about something stupid and not an expression of everything that's been bottled inside.
Hughie's weakness makes him a target, exploited by Butcher and Vought to their own ends. In the show he's literally the most raped character, and this goes ignored or he's even blamed for being victimised. Vought sends a shapeshifter to impersonate Starlight and she blames him for sleeping with her, for not looking in their eyes and realising immediately. Hughie is not allowed to express his feelings of betrayal, that he was raped by deception is not considered. He begs Anne for forgiveness and she forgives him for his mistake.
In the comics he is sexually assaulted by Black Noir, this deeply traumatises him and for a very long time he hides this from the boys because he's literally ashamed of admitting it to them. When he finally does they question why he didn't say anything, the fact that Noir was present at that time, knew the boys were there and *didn't* kill them is a HUGE question. But Hughie correctly points out that they would have laughed at him, treated it as another joke that he got abused by another man.
Hughie is used for his body (both his powers and literal) and for emotional labour but is constantly told he cannot ask for that in return. He fits the form of a Boy just enough to be forcibly squeezed into one but punished for expressing the discomfort.
Most importantly, it never, ever works. No matter how much pain and suffering is inflicted she does not change. The systemic and interpersonal forces of the patriarchy fail to turn her into a man. Hughie is not a boy.
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