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But doesn't 'Trap' and 'Femboy' apply to two completely different character tropes in the world of...ahem adult 'manga'/'anime'? I didn't think the two were inherently interchangeable.

Well yeah there is a difference between the two but the problem is that some people didn’t realize this at first. Here let me explain…

The word “trap” applies to a trope usually in anime (Not just 18+ anime) where there’s a character that looks female and is thought to be female but it turns out is biologically a male wearing feminine clothing, giving off the impression that the character was “deceiving” people. I think the whole trope is overused, problematic and was never funny. It became a lot worse when people started using it to describe actual trans people or femboys in real life. (The word “femboy” just applies to anyone who identifies as male but presents more feminine or wears feminine clothing)

Recently though the word trap has kind of been phased out and I’m glad about that because the term implies femboys and trans people are deceptive and trying to trick people.

Anime traps are those who otherwise identify with their biological sex, but happen to look and act very much like the opposite sex. Lots of traps in anime aren't even aware that they are very masculine/feminine and it can be a source of confusion/annoyance for them when they are treated as such. They can crossdress or otherwise be aware of and deliberately attempt to appear as the opposite sex, but that is not strictly required for the archetype.

Femboys may seem similar, but are different in their appeal. Femboys are entirely about the fact that they are boys crossdressing as girls and there's a strong sexual aspect about it that borders on fetishism from the outset. They aren't quite the same as simple crossdressers, and while anime traps can be about the fact that they are boys/girls deliberately appearing as boys/girls, it doesn't necessarily have to be.

Anime traps don't have to be boys as there are a lot of masculine female traps that do the same thing. Thus "femboy" wouldn't be accurate in this context.


Trap in reference to irl trans is an entirely different thing with entirely different cultural and social connotations. It's not necessarily offensive to have jokes playing off the fact that a biological male that identifies as such might pull in heterosexual males on accident and those jokes are usually at the expense of guys that are very afraid of being considered gay and have those overreactions in the first place. It can be considered offensive to do that with people who are actually trans.

It should thus be noted that trap in the anime context and trap in the trans context are two entirely different things that sprung from entirely different contexts and aren't actually related to each other. No, anime or its fans did not coin or make popular the derogatory trap that is used towards trans. And anime traps are not trans or anything related to that.