i think there’s a lot of good arguments to make for various sides when talking about max and the possibilities of his future gender expression, at least from where i stand on it; there are tons of ground to different forms of trans headcanons making sense for him as a character, be it a result of inferences or interpretations. but i will always gravitate towards the trans girl or nonbinary max, to me they are just so much more compelling when you look at them within the context of both the themes this show has and the character max already is.
to get the basis of it all out of the way: camp camp as a show not just explores the themes of abuse, but centers them. relationship between david & max is what spins the overall story, and their dynamic essentially boils down to both of them being victims incapable of coping healthily, what’s important to us right now is that the abuse they face and struggle to overcome is patriarchal in nature. for max its the subordination of him due to being an unneeded son, powerless in the face of familial authority, someone who can be easily disregarded and not seen as fully human; his suffering is a result of patriarchal subjugation of him as a child. <- everything else i’ll say requires to keep all of this in mind
while we know very little about max’s family’s situation, which is obviously by design, there’s a conversation to be had about how emotional neglect and ‘letting your child run wild’ is a form of abuse most commonly attributed to boys in classic fiction, whereas a tighter grip, insistence on control and abuse of trust for personal gain is something to be found in daughter characters (this opens up a conversation about david and the abuse he faces at the hands of campbell, which is a topic of discussion for some other time). the idea of a son being more equipped to handle being left to his own devices by having tougher skin is a reoccurring theme in stories centering male protagonists, a group that max falls under. the narrative surrounding max, however, is very set on making a point about how much he suffers from and is shaped due to such a living situation, which, if not subversion, is definitely defining to his character and its connection to his identity as a son from the meta writing angle.
this also leaks into us knowing that max makes an effort to hold himself in a way that doesn’t reflect his actual person; he says and does things that would preserve him, even at the cost of being seen a certain way. the personality that we know he puts on for the sake of protecting himself is also typically associated with masculinity: being emotionally unavailable, independent, having a dominating presence above others and being assertive over those who he sees as less capable. that being said, his facade being masculine in nature is not just passively present in the text, but is also actively acknowledged as such. the show itself makes an effort to compare his behavior to the one of cameron campbell, the most painfully male character of the bunch, who, aside from embodying all that max clearly doesn’t want to be, perpetuates patriarchal power over max’s direct parallel—david. point being, max has obvious ties between being a very unhappy and lonely kid and his masculinity. i cannot say for certain that being a boy child is the crux of his issues, because it very obviously isn’t, but it definitely plays into it, if anything at least subtextually.
and in the world where dadvid is the only denouement i can see as satisfying for these two characters, as their only break away from the patriarchal norm of the family they live under, is max letting go of the part of his identity that was tying him down to his abuse not natural as a conclusion? if there is a life out there for you and the person most precious to you, where you no longer have to fulfill the roles forced upon you socially, would you not be able to finally see the you that you were never allowed to be before? i tend to think of femininity is something freeing, im sure someone that was forced to be too strong for too long may also see it as such. a lot to think about