Trans Men/Mascs in Storytelling, Part One (4) Assigned Invisible at Birth

 

“…I’ve never been great at relating to other people. One time, Werner found me feeling low and told me, ‘People are living creatures too, right? That’s your field.’ Ever since, I’ve started to believe that I was born human for a reason.” - Erik, Monster Hunter Wilds, Capcom (directed by Yuya Tokuda, released 2025)

One of the oldest, the tried and truest, forms of telling queer stories is character coding. Until rather recently in media history, we didn’t see openly queer and/or trans lead, or even supporting characters in media, now, even if a character is just slightly autistic transmasculine coded, it incites backlash. Our agenda is breaking containment.

Erik of Monster Hunter Wilds, directed by Yuya Tokuda (he/him), is an interesting case of a character who in no way is canonically implied to be trans, but who reads that way to people both in support of, and against, trans representation in media.

He is a prominent supporting character throughout the game, he works as Olivia’s handler, and with the free title update in June of 2025, there is a quest where his character is centered. After this quest is completed, the player can switch to him as their handler as opposed to the default, Alma.

For the uninitiated, Monster Hunter, as the name suggests, is a game where you play as a hunter who kills or captures monsters. Wilds has a more in depth story than most previous games, and in Wilds, the handler follows you as you hunt and assists you.

The dialogue of Erik’s that I sniped for the introduction to this segment is from his quest that ends with you hunting a new monster. As you are traveling towards your mission Erik opens up to you about how he relates more to monsters than people. He hopes to bridge a gap between humans and monsters, helping his fellow humans understand monsters and see them as living beings, not just creatures to hunt, kill, or fear.

To many players, Erik reads as autistic. He gets wrapped up in his studies and passions for monsters and ecosystems, at one point much to his detriment, requiring you to save him. Olivia affectionately refers to him as eccentric and he is shown on multiple occasions to get immediately distracted once something captures his interest. He is also shown to become very talkative the moment a subject that is of special interest to him comes up.

Erik has an androgynous appearance, and in particular, his voice sparked backlash for sounding “too feminine” to many players upset with how “woke Monster Hunter has become”. His voice actor being none other than the prolific Casey Mongillo (they/them) added heat to this fire. The inability for people to conceive that a nonbinary voice actor doesn’t immediately equal trans coding is present.

On the other side of the coin, many players who interpreted Erik as transmasculine were thrilled, a suggestion on a post of mine asking people to list transmasculine representation is actually how I found out about this. For both people against trans representation, and for it, to have a similar interpretation of this character–it begets dissection.

I initially discussed my thoughts on this in my video ( https://youtu.be/Iwg1VlcDIu0 ), but to summarize them here: I understand why Erik is read this way, he likely reminds many of us of an autistic trans man we know. His character traits, appearance, voice, and the deeper aspects of his character such as him not easily relating to other humans, are very strongly reminiscent of the experiences autistic trans people have. I do not necessarily believe that he was intentionally trans coded, but that does not dull the impact. I want us to get to a point where a trans voice actor does not immediately equal trans coding, but I acknowledge that this is a common tactic of coding a character as trans.

It is important to examine the stir a character like Erik causes, even as not explicitly trans, his presence has caused discourse among players. We see comments like this that dismiss this reading but still single him out as not being masculine:

“There's a character called ‘Erik’ and some people think he is a transexual, while in reality, he's litteraly just a very feminine man. If i had to use one Word to describe him, it would litteraly just be ‘twink’” - Apart_Ad_9541, Reddit ( https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunterWilds/comments/1jcts8c/gender_in_monster_hunter_wilds/ )

And furthermore, the treatment of casting a nonbinary voice actor as an act of forcing transness into the game (with a sprinkle of misgendering):

“I saw someone saying this is a trans character. I was immediately suspicious, and I went to look up some English gameplay. Sure enough, the voice in English sounds very feminine. The voice actor is Casey Mongillo, a non-binary who uses they/them pronouns. Based on Casey's voice and appearance, I say this is a biological woman, and she was recruited to voice Erik because of course they have to shove their activism into everything.” - Walrus Beard, Steam Community ( https://steamcommunity.com/app/2246340/discussions/0/596268233570421248/ )

This next comment is criticizing Erik for having “too ugly” of a character design compared to a different androgynous man from a previous game, the standard for androgynous of course being feminine enough to pass for a woman, though, I somehow doubt the reception would be so positive if said character was a trans woman:

“Rise actually had an androgynous character done right: the merchant from the cringe revenge plotline. He embodies the classic Japanese trope of the beautiful man that could pass for a woman with the right dress and make-up.

I have no problem with that character and I find him pleasant to look at even though I'm not gay, because everyone can appreciate beauty (it's an universal value).
But the characters in this game are just hideous, holy s*** they are so stupidly ugly for apparently no reason.” - 2WorldsHunter, gamefaqs ( https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/439903-monster-hunter-wilds/80853734 )

And to cap it out, this comment which mirrors the sentiment of much of what I’ve seen in forums:

“Looks like Capcom bent the knee again.” - Conservative Gamer, Facebook group SweetBaby INC Detection agency Vol 2 ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/1905340589879305/posts/2106096469803715/ )

It is important to note, that despite this negative feedback, and criticism related to the gameplay, Wilds ranks within Capcom’s top ten selling games at 10.7 million sales. (https://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/business/million.html, list of Capcom platinum titles as of September 2025)

Other gameplay decisions and characters that contributed to the game being deemed “too woke” by very respectable people on the internet (I’m sure, I’m sure), such as masculine and feminine armour designs no longer being gender-locked, and the inclusion of muscular women (I still have a hard time understanding why this bothers people). But these same decisions, much like Erik’s character, have gained just as much praise (if not more, sales numbers don’t lie), than they have backlash.

We need to talk about an elephant in the room. As much as I enjoy Wilds and Erik’s character, he does play into a certain stereotype associated with transmasculine people, that being that he is strongly autistic coded.

The correlation that many perceive between autism and/or ADHD and transmasculinity comes from various factors of association, but it’s worth noting that a very potent contributor to this association was a study by Lisa Littman (she/her) in 2018 that coined the term “Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria”, or ROGD. Here is a quote describing the rate of neurodivergence and traumatic experiences among the predominantly transmasculine subjects:

“The AYAs who were the focus of this study had many comorbidities and vulnerabilities predating the onset of their gender dysphoria, including psychiatric disorders, neurodevelopmental disabilities, trauma, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), and difficulties coping with strong or negative emotions (Table 4). The majority (62.5%) of AYAs had one or more diagnoses of a psychiatric disorder or neurodevelopmental disability preceding the onset of gender dysphoria (range of the number of pre-existing diagnoses 0–7). Many (48.4%) had experienced a traumatic or stressful event prior to the onset of their gender dysphoria.” - Lisa Littman, Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria ( https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6095578/#sec026 )

Important notes to make about this data is that it was collected from the parents, predominantly the mothers, of transgender children, in particular trans boys. These parents were recruited from gender critical websites, and while Littman collects data to prove and assert that these parents were pro gay and trans rights, these parents being on gender critical websites strongly implies that they were questioning their own children’s personal narratives. This study paints young trans boys as manipulating their mothers with suicide baiting, “playing the victim”, and lying to doctors to get access to transition care. It also frames transmasculinity as a “social contagion” and these “young girls” as being socially pressured into it by their peers. The conclusion argues for medical professionals to look to other solutions before transition care and to look at past trauma and mental health before taking young trans boys’ word on their own transness. This study has zero perspective from the trans youth in question.

The most damning thing about this study is its own numbers. With over 80% of the subjects continuing to identify as trans, with only around 5-6% detransitioning, and the rest inconclusive (and we must take into consideration the impact of these trans youth not living in families that accept their trans identity)–Littman asserts that we must more strongly gatekeep transition care for the 5-6% of detransitioners, and yet this data has impacted how people view transmasculine people to this day.

From an article by O. Rose Broderick* debunking Littman’s study:

“Littman suggests that female-assigned kids are more susceptible to the ‘social contagion’ of gender dysphoria because they feel social pressure more acutely than male-assigned kids. But Ehrensaft says nothing in the clinical literature corroborates this assertion. Instead she attributes this discrepancy to shifting cultural factors that influence how children express themselves and explore their identity.” - O. Rose Broderick, Evidence Undermines ‘Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria’ Claims, 2023 ( https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/evidence-undermines-rapid-onset-gender-dysphoria-claims/ )

This article goes on to describe that a potential cause for higher recorded rates of young trans boys in transition care than trans girls, is because there is less social backlash for “young girls exploring their gender” than there is for “young boys”. There is truth to this, but it is nuanced. Young trans boys are often viewed as tomboys, and while the tomboy is accepted, it is only done so under certain conditions. I discussed prior about the expiry date of the tomboy, and Littman’s study plays into that. The moment being a tomboy grows into something beyond an accepted level of childhood boyishness, it is punished and the tomboy, or often the young trans boy, is pressured harder to return to girlhood and grow into a woman.

To offer another interpretation on the collected data from Littman’s study, and coming from a more personal place, the high rates of young trans boys having faced abuse or sexual trauma and being neurodivergent is a reflection on the treatment they face. In terms of being autistic or ADHD, you are often othered as a child, called slurs, and are often unable to relate to other children around you. I never felt quite human, especially as a child, there is an alienness to being neurodivergent that forces you to consider your place in society, including your place in gender roles. Autistic and ADHD children being forced so young to think about the role they are supposed to play, forces them to think about gender more, and how they do or do not relate to their assigned gender, obviously, this is a pipeline in self realising as a trans individual. The rates of abuse and sexual trauma imply that “young girls” who do not fit into the expectations of girlhood are more vulnerable to this sort of violence, but it is easier for the gender critical “feminist” to believe that the reason a “girl wants to be a boy” is because “she was sexually abused” and not that perhaps he was sexually abused as a form of regendering violence.

To share perspective from an autistic trans man, here is a quote from Devin S. Turk’s (they/them) essay, Autism, Transmasculine Identity, And Invisibility:

“Now that I’ve been on testosterone hormone replacement therapy for close to three years now, my voice is deeper, my jaw is squarer, and I even have a bit of facial hair. When I tell people that I was assigned the sex “female” at birth, they often say something to the effect of “I would have never guessed!” This is typically meant as a compliment, but to me, it feels patronizing.

In an eerily parallel way, people react very similarly when I disclose to them that I’m autistic. In both scenarios, the disbelief is caused by the preconceived notions of what it ‘looks like’ to be transgender or autistic.” - Devin S. Turk, Autism, Transmasculine Identity, And Invisibility, 2018 ( https://thinkingautismguide.com/2018/02/autism-transgender-identity-and.html ) 

Erik is likely an unintentional, but wonderful representation of an experience that many relate to autistic trans men. He reminds you of people in your life, or perhaps even yourself. And while I personally very much like him, I do urge a level of caution when employing this sort of stereotype of a trans man. There is no one “look” to a trans man, and there is certainly no one way to “act” autistic. These traits can manifest in a variety of ways, the autistic and/or ADHD trans men in your life can look and sound like anything. if Erik is the beginning, let more nuanced neurodivergent transmasculine portrayals be the continuation.

In many ways, I relate to Erik’s interpersonal struggle. I was born the way I was for a reason, and if that can aid me in bridging a gap in the understanding of trans men’s issues and women’s issues, or the struggles neurodivergent people face to people who simply don’t understand–it is at least a limbo to exist in where I, and many other people like me, can create something positive from.