naoto shirogane is non-binary — headcanon & thought dump

I just want to make it clear that I absolutely love P4G. It was my introduction to the Persona series and my favorite Persona game, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect! In fact, I think that it lacks some tact when tackling the topics of gender and sexuality.

In this post I’ll be referring to Naoto with feminine pronouns to avoid potential conflict. It is my personal headcanon that Naoto uses masculine and feminine pronouns interchangeably.

Points

• Naoto’s character is meant to represent the animus. In Jungian psychology, the animus is defined as the masculine part of a woman’s personality. Kanji is her counterpart, representative of the anima, or the feminine part of a man’s personality.

• Naoto responds to both male and female pronouns. She never makes it a point to correct those that assume she is male. Ex) Aigis in P4AU

• The game often groups her up with the male of the investigation team. Ex) When the Investigation Team was divided trying to decide Namatame’s fate

• She experiences gender dysphoria. As a result, she binds her chest, wears platform shoes, lowers her tone of voice, and keeps her hairstyle short.

• Although she voices her discomfort when wearing feminine attire, she still does it on rare occasions.

Thoughts

Naoto its that she doesn’t want to be a man, yet also states that being a man falls into her “ideal image.”

She wants to be comfortable with her biological sex, but wants to detach from the reality that women are viewed as less independent and weak by Japanese society at large.

She desires what it means to be masculine in society: To have social status, to be respected, to be reliable, to not show weakness. We see in-game how damaging these constructs are to Naoto as well as Kanji.

I think that if Naoto was presented with the fact that there are gender identities outside of just male and female, she’d feel relieved. Such is the case for many non-binary individuals.