She was a role model for the young girls growing up in my household, the girl who was a prince to other girls and boys alike. I was surprised to find her an object of study, whole courses devoted to the genre, and that there were Utena episodes that were not in general circulation most probably because they included overtly lesbian themes and behaviors. This was the early 2000’s.
In the gaze of the other 
I love a woman in uniform,…. Nice gif, I find her breathtaking. The slight head movement evoking power and confidence to me. A testament to the animators.
I adored her when I first found her in 2000 maybe earlier. She is quite beautiful and commanding and her heart true though I recall her seemingly breaking the heart of innocent girls.
I am contemplating now, reversing the gender reference, like when I used to go to a painting critique and the first thing the lady would do is turn my painting upside down to see if it held together. I would say were this a male character the effect would be so less encompassing. Perhaps being a bit polarized to say, the hard wiring of men precludes them from the same kind of acceptance that females are endowed with. Females seem more equipped to some aspect of this form and what it represents to them somehow. It think it is pretty cool that they can. More love there perhaps. But something fundamental about females can be extrapolated from the broad, yet focused appeal of this character. Okay, enough.
Are you saying that you think a woman created the anime figure?
No, not at all. I am saying, that the viewers are young, going by instinctual feelings, a marvel. The girls and boys love this character, she has majesty in her posture and gestures. If she were a male character in this role, viewed at this innocent level, there would not be the same appeal, I don’t know why, but in my earlier statement I tried to clarify a guess. The gender of the artist does not matter, it is the concept in their head of that character that makes it what it is. Sometimes by group decision, which is also something to consider the actual production and approval of the script, funding it to completion. Means it was endorsed at a high level.
Okay, that makes more sense. The conception appears to be gender ambiguous.
Thinking in my most innocent mind, it tells me, oh she can love me as a mother, sister, friend or lover, if it were a man, I could not say that nor would I want him to.
I will say, in a visual sense, her femininity is defined only by her whipping bangs and pony tail. They evoke what I feel I subliminally respond to as female. In this genre the gender of most characters can be defined by their hair, the faces are of similar construct. Watch the hair… It’s cool how it moves, it says a lot me about what the artist intends about the character considering how many frames were drawn to depict that movement.