Responses
(Caveat to my statement about Keiichi not rejecting the uniform: it is, if course, partly because he can also see her stereotyped ideas and feels a bit helpless about trying to go against her, the uniform is definitely more of a negative than a positive for him, I just meant that mixed up with all of that is his recognition that it may be a poor, ignorant and hurtful way of trying to sort him, but it is an attempt just the same - despite her own feelings, she'll present her son to the world in a skirt.)
Among the many things I like about this story, I like the balanced way it addresses Keiichi's mother's attitude. While it shows how her actions and the thoughts behind them are truly ignorant and hurtful to him, it also presents her as a mother struggling to understand and support her son over something she actually has deep-rooted prejudices about. Keiichi recognises this and so, while he is seriously hurt by it, he also sees her pitiful attempt to support him with the uniform and doesn't reject it.
Furthermore, there's that one little part where Meguru reflects on how his mother apparently found the gay magazine in his room and took it away and acted as if everything was normal. He also felt seriously rejected by her over it, but later he noticed she'd been researching it online, and showed her unprejudiced love for him in her interactions with Keiichi much later. It seems to give hope in the story that Keiichi's mother may eventually also move past her current attitude to one with more real understanding an acceptance, although it may take a while.
Anyway, it's something I always appreciate about this story - that it doesn't make excuses for her ignorance and hurtful behaviour (in fact, she has less excuse than most considering her job) and it doesn't have her attitude conveniently improve to tie up the story neatly, but it doesn't write her off as a horrible mother and bad person beyond redemption, either.