Hello, Okay, so I'm writing this story about a wide range of people. And there's this one transfemale whose talking to this cismale who does not yet know that she's transgender. In the description surrounding their conversation, should I use he or she? Thank-you.
So she's a trans woman currently presenting male? Whose perspective is the conversation from, if any?
It's from the cismale's perspective. I wanted to make the school liberal, so everyone could have the choice of skirt or trousers. Therefore there is no 'gender' presentation in terms of the uniforms, just a choice.
I'd say use 'he', as it wouldn't really make sense otherwise, unless the cis man has reason to think otherwise, or is particularly conscious of gender, and deliberately avoids assuming gender before someone specifies theirs. As to the uniform, there's more to presentation than a skirt or trousers, and even if a school lets people assigned male at birth wear skirts, wearing a skirt is bound to make people wonder if someone is really a cis man.
I'd say it depends on whether the trans woman is open or not. Female pronouns if she presents female, is open about being a woman, but no one knows that she's transgender and male pronouns if she's still completely in the closet. Now if you were writing from her perspective, I would've used female pronouns the whole time, no matter who she's out to. I hate when authors switch pronouns. You even see it on book jackets. "Angela knew she was trans. And now she's Grady. Grady wants to find a girl. But will anyone love him?" I hate that shit. Made Parrotfish and other books a painful read.
