Mulan won the war and got the guy and then went back home to live as a woman. I encountered dozens of these stories before I had ever heard of being transgender, and in most of them, the character in question returned to their assigned gender presentation after achieving the goal at hand. From Mulan to Twelfth Night, the concept of someone taking on a different identity in order to achieve their goals fascinated me while I was growing up. I’ve always been drawn to stories that use gender and gender performance as a plot device.
Trigger warning: mentions of rape, sexual harassment, and assault
