Horváth seems to have written extensively on this topic, with special attention to the ways in which early descriptions of the people and phenomenon were distorted by their own prejudices and social context. Horváth is careful to try to engage with questions of gender identity in a sensitive fashion without projecting modern categories into the past or onto other cultures, although readers who identify strongly with her subjects as trans men may find her pronoun usage disconcerting.
One of the things I find fascinating about the Balkan "man-woman" social category (this label is a literal translation of what appears to be the most typical of the in-culture names) is that it takes place within the context of an extremely patriarchal and--dare I say--misogyistic culture. For fiction writers, this is an interesting world-building point. One might think that in such a social context the gender barriers would be most impermeable. And yet, the options provided by the man-woman role (considering also its restrictions) enabled some individuals to cross that barrier. Perhaps not fully, but in a socially accepted way.
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