Inspired by the revelation in canon that Ferris/Felix Argyle thinks of themselves as a woman when they look in the mirror
The key to knowing this MAY BE inner dialog
Since this has been posted all over the net I won't repeat the links. Google Ferris canonically trans and numerous references come up. She thinks of herself as a girl when she wakes up.
Ferris says this of herself.
Yet knows that biologically she is male. Using words for herself "male in body and spirit' which pre op trans women use in Japan before they have the op. This confuses many because in Japan they conceptualize all this differently AND in the west those who are not trans have the wrong idea about the inner thoughts of those who are. We are not delusional we know what our bodies are they just don't fit with how our minds say they should be.
The whole problem may be that we rarely hear the inner dialog of the character and only see them through the minds eye of the main character. The main characters being like most people see the character like Ruka Urushibara in a purely sexual light. As someone they want to have sex with but are feeling conflicted about perhaps….
Required viewing.
We'll never get that kind of inner dialog from Ruka's perspective. Therefore viewers are free to think that somehow, someway, a character that dresses like a girl in all circumstances is just a guy who likes to dress up and magically looks feminine. We'll never see her trip to the threading salon or the electrologist or to the pharmacy to get hormones…. so it's just magic.
The question I hope we can debate:Is a piece of the characters inner dialog where they state, possibly even using the English word "transgender" , that they feel like the opposite gender the only circumstance where a Otoko no ko (trap) should be translated as trans?