Gender?

[nyitora]

This may be a stupid question, but it's kinda been bothering me for a while.  Is Takayama Shinobu male or female?  On Baka-Updates it says that Takayama is male, and there are drawings of a guy in the manga inside comments.  But there are plenty of people that use "she", and the drawings don't really seem like a guy's, (totally stereotyping), so

Comments

[sanada]

I'm pretty sure Takayama is female, since she has all-female assistants and is a member of a yaoi doujinshi circle. A lot of female manga artists choose deliberately masculine or neutral pen names ("Shinobu" can go either way). And most artists do really simple "self-portraits" that aren't much more than a blobby stick figure, or they choose an animal avatar.

[nyitora]

Thanks!

[randomdiversion]

I thought most four-syllable given-names were male. Pen name?

[crystalweaver]

Shinobu is her given name, not Takayama. I've heard from others that it's just her pen name, though.

[nebulia]

When I wrote a paper on Amatsuki, I used "she" (after like three hours of scouring the internet for a source). But I can't remember the source I used. >.>