What sort of mannerisms or body language does Vox do that you'd consider genderfucky? Honestly this is mostly my way of asking to talk more about Vox's general gender presentation lol. I hadn't thought about it before but it is weird how much fanon makes Vox dislike/be extremely uncomfortable with femininity when in canon, he seems to be fine with it.
I would say Vox's particular brand of genderfuckery is one where you really need the dichotomy to get the full picture. Because if you only saw the mannerisms that are considered feminine, the takeaway might be that wow, he's not very masculine at all, actually. But it's like, no, if there's a "masculine" version of this behavior, he's probably doing that too. Because he's very much not one or the other, he's both.
The "feminine" mannerisms are just more fun to point out, because the fandom is so convinced that he's insecure about his masculinity. And then I'll read a blog post or something that's like, "Masculine Menโข๏ธ do this; doing that will make you look feminine". And comparing with Vox's behavior it's like, ah, he does both of these. With complete confidence.
Take sitting, for example. Supposedly, the Masculineโข๏ธway to sit is with knees apart (either legs open or one propped on the opposite knee), while crossing one's legs is feminine. But Vox will freely adopt either position, and often give off the exact same energy in both. Evil? Smug? Tired and done? Not only does he not care, he will put his whole body into whichever position he's settled in. There is no effort to make his cross-legged posture appear more masculine.
His posture while standing or walking, meanwhile, typically comes off as pretty masculine, because he defaults to holding his hands behind his back when he's not using them. And then every so often he'll stand in a way that's like. I don't know if I'd necessarily call it gendered, but I don't think someone who worries about how masculine he appears is going to be draping himself over chairs or carrying his weight like that.
One thing that does come across as gendered, and feminine, is the way he sometimes holds his hands. I can only describe some of his gesturing as rather elegant, which isn't strictly feminine. But the "limp wrist" is absolutely stereotypically feminine, and stereotypically gay (Cherri even uses it when she asks if Baxter meant he and Pentious were romantic partners). So that's a point against him worrying about how others will perceive his masculinity or his sexuality.
He's even doing it during the bar flashback, which. Considering it was only a few years after he died and Alastor was his first time really getting close to someone, I rather doubt he was comfortable acting that way with many people back then. So there's that.
By and large, Vox comes across to me as someone who like. He doesn't care. He cared in the past, he did his time in the closet, and now he just cannot be bothered. I do think he identifies as a man, and would find it somewhere between weird and off-putting to be addressed as anything else, but it's because that would be misgendering, not because he can't handle being a bit feminine.
Not only can he handle it, he will do it in public. With everyone watching.
