#and np I like reading essay type thoughts lmao sry it took so long to get to this

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Hmm. Something I would like to bring up with Jade, Jake, Roxy, and Dirk, is that honestly I think their perception of gender is very much effected by their isolation. With Jake of course he has for more of an external influence than the rest of the three because of the sheer amount of movies he watches, but it's still something where only having the influence of Hollywood and not having people around him, his idea of gender is very much based in those movies. Funny enough I think one of the reasons where I think he would be okay with his chest is because of those absolutely shredded actors where they have massive pecs. To him having a chest, mixed with his muscle structure, is just like the guys in the movie he looks up to.

Then we look over to Jade and Jade is someone where her only external influence of gender is some stuff online and the paintings upon paintings of women that her grandfather kept. I think this, mixed with her autism, makes her feel very isolated from any sense of "feminity" because she isn't curvy and she doesn't have perfect hair or anything. I think Jade Harley has a disconnect from the gender binary and I think her isolation generally adds to this.

Then with Roxy and Dirk, the total destruction of society as they know it gives them the chance to have their own version of what gender is. I think that if you asked them what being a guy was and what being a girl was they would give you fundamentally "wrong" answers. They have built their identities, and ideas of identity, in reflections of shadows. When you are the only two people in the world left, your idea of social constructs are going to be different than what they were back when there were people to enforce them.

(btw of course the autism effects more than just Jade's gender, it effects all four's genders. I just felt it was incredibly noteable for Jade)

HOO OK TIME TO TRY TO ANSWER THIS ONE AGAIN

Honestly I don’t tend to primarily think of jake as a trans man but I really love this hc, and yeah he was far more affected specifically by movie media and it’s tropes than any of the alpha kids and it’s interesting how much it’s built into his character and gender. Like for me his idolization of femme fatale characters and girl characters in general is huge on why I hc him as transfemme/nonbinary, there’s just so many ways to interpret him along with the media he like

🤝 Somebody said it ty, no matter how u see jade that gender can autistic 🤝

Ok the thing with dirk and roxy is Jesus is gender perception warped, building your ideas about identity based on what little knowledge remains about a dead culture you were never apart of is rough to say the least. I love to interpret them as transmasc and transfemme respectfully bc they took what they looked up to from a era they were never part of and tried they’re best to imitate it even if it came out somewhat wonky traditionally. They’re hanging on by thread to something they can’t experience but still have to attempt to fit in with its culture, but they’re def still trying to do it their own way