Because men can be sailor senshi.
#SARCASM
it wasn’t until finding the SM tumblr community that i learned apparently i had been misunderstanding Stars all these years. i mean, i personally don’t remember anyone in either the anime or manga that explicitly states only women can be senshi. according to everyone else (at least on tumblr) i am sorely, sorely mistaken. since it’s such a commonly held opinion, i’m going to assume i either misread something or just plain missed it entirely. because when i was growing up, my friends and i regarded the starlights as men who transformed into women.
that being said, i think the op meant more that they grew up as i did, believing this to be true, and only learning much later that it was false. but when you have a first impression of a beloved character in your head (even if it’s not true), it can be really hard to let go of it. to you, it was a facet of that character, part of what made them special, and to let go of it can be really difficult. so even though i have accepted that the starlights are not men who just turn into women, it’s hard for me to think of them as anything other than men. that’s what they’ve always been for me.
anyway, my point is i don’t think the op meant it as a blatant disregard of canon; rather i think they meant it as “it’s hard for me to let go of ingrained ideas so i’ll accept the truth but just keep this as my headcanon”.
although that’s probably me just projecting my own feelings haha.
anyway, i’m looking forward to getting to stars in my sailor moon rewatch/reread, so that i can hopefully clear up my remaining doubts and stuff.
