Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-25951143-20150101110046/@comment-26939936-20151003022619

DinoTaur wrote: Viviburn, I believe that if you want to get your point across you should answer this question: why should we refer to Alluka by gender as opposed to sex? We can give you a more coherent, relevant answer if you do such. I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand the question. Are you asking why we're discussing gender at all? Or are you asking what started this? Because prior to the changes, Alluka was listed as Gender: Male, and male pronouns were used to refer to Alluka. That has been thankfully removed now though.

Why is gender important, indeed? When someone ID's as a gender, it tells us about them. It tells us how the view themselves and how they need other people to view them. Why is this relevant in fiction? Because it all ties into real life. No one argues that Gon is male, because he uses masculine pronouns, presents as male, and refers to himself as a son. We actually haven't seen his sex displayed, because he's 12 and that's unthinkable/disgusting and it's information we don't need. We haven't even seen Kurapika so much as shirtless, even in side materials such as a picture of the gang at the beach, and while the 1999 anime made some creepy comments about his ambiguity, nearly everyone refers to him as male.

You might want to bring up databook information, but what about all of the other characters beyond that? Amane is clearly a girl - that's her gender. We don't know about her sex (she's most likely cis, but we have no hard evidence of that), and we don't have to, because knowing someone's gender is enough. That's what's more important to understanding their character. Thus, we list her as female and use feminine pronouns.

It's not JUST Alluka who's referred to by their gender and not their sex - we do it on all characters, but it doesn't get called to attention unless their sex doesn't match their gender.