third-gender-journal

Incidentally the book I'm working on now is probably Very trans as well. Not intentionally. It was just on my mind at the same time.

There are various ways this is true, but the foremost one is Erika as an Empath. Fundamentally her character was born out of a subversion of the Empath trope. The expectation of an Empath is someone emotionally in tune, caring; female. Erika is the opposite of this: crass, rude, murderous, emotionally repressed; but still female. She struggles and has mostly triumphed over the expectations of her as an Empath, but her struggle is ultimately against the reality of being an Empath, coming to terms with what she has and what she doesn't.

The analogy of Empathy to femininity is obvious. I'd imagine that transfolk might see a lot of similarities in the arc she takes.