Poison Study question

Yeah, I'm still a little confused about it. I couldn't understand whether he had a woman's body that he covered up by cutting his hair and what not...

Or was it just gender-recognition where it was the mind of a woman stuck in a male body? I think this might be it because the female side of him can only been seen in dreams of his.

It makes total sense after the third book, when Yelena can see souls.

she was a man in a human body.

i think the 3rd book explains the commander:
(view spoiler)[Ylena speaking to the commander says "I can see two souls within your body. Your mother didn't want to leave you alone when she died so she stayed with you. Her magic lets you see the glow. And it's her fear of discovery that has made you afraid of magic in all its forms." So technically, the commander is really a guy, possessed by his mother's spirit ... (hide spoiler)]

Actually, the Commander was born a boy, but the mother, a magician, died in childbirth. Her soul sort of merged with her son's and he became a girl with a man's soul. The nursemaid swears up and down that he was a boy, but the town's people think she's just in shock or something.

As a transguy myself I chose to interpret the Commander as just trans, even with the magic junk in MS and FS screwing the only representation of my gender up that I've ever seen. Perhaps the nursemaid was just...extra..perceptive. Yes.

I agree with Cayra - the author says that he was born a boy and then transformed into a girl because of his mother's soul so he became a girl with boys soul and I think he killed the tiger to prove that he was a man

Yea I was totally confused by that too in the story. But in another part of one of the books I think it is explained that the commander was a twin. And that his/her/their mother was a magician when she was pregnant with them. And I guess to protect them from being found out. The twins merged or something. I hope this isn't giving away the story too much for people just starting this series. I read the other two and the novellas already. I didn't read the spin-off series though.

A lot of transgendered people believe that because they are the opposite sex stuck in a body they cannot stand, that it is a mutation, that they were meant to be born male or female, but somehow they didn't.
That is what I figure it meant anyway.

wait i thought commander was a woman but had a mans soul and when she killed and ate the tiger thingys heart she sort of turned into a man but somewhere in her soul he is still a woman?!??! im CONFUSED!!:(

*spoiler* male with 2 souls that is able to see the magic in the bat because of his mum