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Harold faces regular social punishment for being physically weak and unwilling to (or physically unable to) pursue traditional expectations for a teen boy/man. Harold’s reaction to this social punishment, in one instance, is cheating to get Courtney off the island. By punishing Courtney as an extension of Duncan, it can be seen that sexism, as a tool of patriarchy, is both the cause and effect of Harold’s social punishment. It is this forced relationship with masculinity- the social construct of gender as a whole- that is the source of Harold’s mistreatment. Ableism also contributes significantly to that social punishment because he does not fit the expectation of a “typical” body-mind (for example the nose-picking habit, while a social taboo for reasons you may or may not agree with, is still a social taboo Harold chooses to do for whatever reason). Harold is, then, an un-man who is made an example of the consequences of failing to reinforce the status quo.

It would make sense for Harold, in-universe, to be happy as a girl. It would also make narrative sense, as transmisogyny is another tool of bourgeoise/fascist status quo of patriarchy, punishing trans women as women, as “useless women” for a lack of reproductive capacity that men can abuse to treat women as chattel, as “failed men”, as un-men and un-women, and a multitude of other things, all because choosing to be a woman undermines the rationally-presented irrational fascist status quo.