Trans thougths...
You could say I've become a bit more trans-aware in the past year or so (i.e. less trans-stupid), and re-reading old fic and rethinking old thoughts it occurs to me that maybe we should discuss MR from this point of view?
In MR, the characters have many different reasons for taking up male life. We have those for whom it's a simple practical choice (Lofty, Tonker, Polly), those who want it for career advancement reasons (Igorina and you could argue Clogston, though we don't know her reasoning), those who apparently just wanted the life of a soldier (Mal and Froc, perhaps), etc.
The end of the novel says clearly enough (to me at least) that Jackrum is now a (trans) man, despite having once been a girl, as the author switches back to using the male pronoun after a brief nostalgic visit of the female pronoun. However, Maladict, despite having no other reason for donning male garb except that she wanted to be a male vampire rather than a female one, is referred to as "she" after she says "It's actually Maladicta". I'd say the novel isn't saying Mal is a trans man, though based on all this the interpretation could certainly be argued. I've sort of been thinking of her as a female-identified transvestite. Sort of thing.
What do you think? What genders do these characters identify with in your head, or where would you place them in the gender spectrum? Do you think they think about it at all? Do you think making fun of Wrigglesworth throughout the book was in questionable taste? Is it too confusing to call a pre-enlistment Jackrum/William get and a post-enlistment one slash?