As someone who is both transitioning and is an anime fan, I feel the need to reflect on your post.

Anime fans get defensive of the word trap because among the anime culture, for many fans, the term has been reclaimed.

The term trap began being used in anime because the *translators* used the word. At the time, there was no real existing positive word in the American culture for someone who is trans, someone who is transitioning, someone who is crossdressing, etc. And so, the translators settled on using ‘trap’.

So your article is absolutely correct — if you come from an existing culture standpoint. The translators used a slur, and the slur stuck.

However, there is a point you are wrong on. In anime, those labeled as traps getting called perverts is an exception, not a rule, and a very very rare exception at that. Far more often is imagery of female-presenting males being accepted, treated fairly, and much more.

The character mentioned in Naruto, Haku, wasn’t presented as “a trap” in the western since, and despite being enemies and having to fight to the death, Naruto genuinely mourned at Haku’s passing. Other than a brief misstep of the realization that Haku was biologically male, Naruto was immediately compassionate towards his enemy. And that’s just the one example you brought up.

Steins:Gate features another female-presenting character, and through the anime, she does eventually transition into being female (through convoluted plot methods, but still). The main character doubting this transition is actually, as shown by the other characters, is reflected in a much more negative light on the main character, not the transitioning one (something for which he later apologizes).

Yu Yu Kakusho has a female-presenting male character that is not only a fan favorite, but is considered one of the most interesting and complex characters of the franchise.

In Gurren Lagaan, the mechanic also falls in this category, and other than one or two questions about it, is generally accepted and appreciated throughout the whole show (and even has less drama than pretty much any other character, and is shown as being the one with the most solid head on their shoulders.)

In Pokemon, James, the villainous member of team rocket (who is surprisingly a sympathetic character throughout the story despite being the antagonist), is constantly dressing female, and is never ridiculed for it, the rest of the characters always taking it in stride. Despite the opportunity to make jokes at his crossdressing, the jokes revolving around James focus him being overly dramatic about things.

In Fushugi Yuugi, one is literally the emperor of one of the four kingdoms.

The list goes on and on.

Throughout Anime, female-presenting males or lifestyle female biological males aren’t ridiculed, but celebrated. This is because in traditional Japanese culture, they’re celebrated as well. Female-presenting-biological-males are considered a beautiful and wonderful group of people in Japanese culture, and that carries over into how they’re presented in anime.

Now, fast forward to America, where these wonderful presentations of trans acceptance are being given the slur label ‘Traps’ by translators.

Now imagine children growing up in America, intense anime fans, an America that keeps gender-variance hush hush and doesn’t talk about it with their kids.

These kids (of which I was one), saw my first female-presenting male in anime (a pair of trans demons, one mtf, and one ftm, that were dating, and despite being demons, they were the most moral and caring people in that show), they see these beautiful, wonderful, and very valid people, and they here a word attached to them: “Traps”. It’s a new concept, and that’s the word that gets attached to the new concept.

Now, its worth noting, that anime went beyond base Japan. As we are want to do in our media, we go “bigger and better”, and Japan is no exception. The female-presenting biological males in anime were often put on a pedestal, often more beautiful than any females in the series. In many ways, they are the ideal that trans aspire to become. And that ideal got a name, and that name was “Trap”.

So to the anime fan, it wasn’t “Trap” as in “Ha ha, you’re caught in a viscious trap, squirm as the evil man twirls his mustache”, it became “trap” as in, “I was trapped by her eyes, but unable to bring up the courage to ask her out.” It’s not ‘trap’ as in a bait and capture, but a ‘trap’ as in captivated and unable to pull away — not through any malicious intent, but by simple presence, beauty, and grace.

Is it a bad word? Generally, yes. But how the anime community uses it is nothing but.

And you know the sad thing? There still is no equivalent word to what anime fans *mean* when they say “Trap”.

Coming from anyone not in the anime community, it’s an ugly and degrading slur, and I would be concerned for my life, but if an anime fan called me a Trap, I would take it as the highest form of compliment and be walking on cloud nine for the rest of the day, because I know what it means.

There is no equivalent word in “muggle English” or, sadly, even the trans community that conveys what an anime fan means when they say “Trap” (the latter maybe due to the trans community’s struggling just to be seen as valid… a Trans woman being idolized as the epitome of femininity… there’s no real word for it. And until the trans community comes up with a replacement word, there’s only one word Anime fans actually have to convey the meaning.

So rather than saying, “quit using that word”, we have to come up with a better one to replace it first (and then, hopefully, get translators to start using that one instead.)