Types and Styles of Gender Bender

[Malonymous]

For purely research purposes of course, I have analyzed Gender Bender stories across various media and attempted to categorize different types of Gender Bender for fellow 'scholars' out there. I've had this idea for a while, and now with some inspiration from LotsChrono and his blessing (which he may regret) I'm going with his format. Let me know if you have any academic input.

MAIN TYPES/Sub-Genres​

Fantasy Gender Bender (Transformative)
Guys turning into girls or the other way around. Whether it's from a magical spell, a transformation potion, a cursed object, or a supernatural phenomenon, does it really matter? Suddenly, boobs! Let's be real here: that's what gets the clicks.
Common examples include *gestures broadly at like all of them*.

Sci-Fi Gender Bender (Transformative)
Our hapless Main Character gets stuck in a virtual world as their avatar of the opposite sex, an unrealistic medical treatment does the gender bending, or an alien ship crash-lands on MC who gets his/her body reconstructed with some... 'alterations.' Whichever way, some form of extraordinary technology is involved. Or aliens.

Realistic/Soft Gender Bender (Nontransformative)
Usually a more serious take on the genre: the MC or a major character does not change or swap bodies, but rather crossdresses, presents as, or plays a game character as the 'opposite sex' for one reason or another. Most Female-to-Male Gender Benders involving female MCs 'turning into' male characters seem to fall under this category, [The Ballad of] Mulan as perhaps one of the most famous examples.
In most every other case, you can safely assume that a Gender Bender involves a guy turning into a girl. Let's roll with that.

MAIN STYLES​

Involuntary-Convenient Gender Bender
"Uwaaah, I'm a girl now?!? NOOOooo oh wow I have boobs! No wait I'm a guy I have to change back!! *many pages of angst later* Teehee~, actually I wanted to be a girl all along!" The end.
Well, it works.

Involuntary-Expanded Gender Bender
The MC's unwilling Gender Bender experience is a 'fleshed out' journey of self-discovery and acceptance in a new body, or character growth before returning to his/her original body. Also, probably boobs. Just keeping it real.

Voluntary Gender Bender
The protagonist or a major character *chooses* to crossdress, transform into, or present as the 'opposite sex.' This is usually done for some tangible benefit, comedic purpose, or to match their internal gender identity.

SUB TYPES​

Alien Gender Bender
Beyond our humble planet lies the immeasurably vast potential of the universe. That means lots of gender bending, of course! We're talking futanari aliens and off-world body modification technology.

Anomaly Gender Bender
An unexplained or mysterious phenomenon bends the gender. This is a common theme of body-swap Gender Bender: two characters bump heads together, fall on top of each other, or have some other coincidental collision of corpuses. On that note...

Body-Swap Gender Bender
Rather than transforming into a new body, the MC switches bodies with a character of the opposite sex. A famous example in anime is Kimi no Na wa (Your Name).

Body-Share Gender Bender
The MC shares the body of someone of the opposite sex, or vice versa.

Instant Gender Bender
Poof! MC-kun woke up as a girl. Doesn't get any easier than that.

Smut Gender Bender
The genre that leaves no place unexplored and no depths unplumbed! Vicariously live out all your wildest intimate fantasies, or cringe trying.

Deflowering Gender Bender
Alas, a terrible fate has befallen our dear MC-chan. This is Smut Gender Bender gone Grimdark; unspeakable acts of NSFW, copious amounts of inner turmoil, and likely a mind break into a new deviant personality. This type may also feature women turned into futanari.

Futanari Gender Bender
The 'best of both worlds;' traditionally an attractive female-appearing character with both sex organs. In the unlikely event there's no smut involved, you could reasonably expect futanari-chan to be comic relief. Such is life.

Trap Gender Bender
Basically refer to Futanari, minus female sex organs.

Intersex Gender Bender
A more serious take on the experiences of characters having multiple or ambiguous genitalia, if you broaden your definition of the genre to include this.

Medical Gender Bender
Some biological phenomenon has turned the MC into a girl or necessitated unrealistic medical treatment to accomplish that. This is a relatively simple pseudorealistic plot device for some School Life Gender Bender manga to get MC romantically or sexually involved with male classmates. Because, uh, wish fulfillment?

System Gender Bender
Basically a Gender Bender LitRPG where the MC levels up from... sex?

Sissification Gender Bender
Focuses on a [masculine] guy turning into a highly [feminine] promiscuous girl one way or another. No further comment.

Isekai Gender Bender
If gender bending on Earth just isn't enough!

Virtual-Isekai Gender Bender
If the distress of getting stuck in a virtual world by itself just isn't enough!

Monster/Demon Gender Bender
If a 'normal' fantastical human sex change just... isn't enough...

Nonexplicit Gender Bender
Alright, enough of that! No smut or explicit genitalia are allowed. There's more to living life as the opposite sex than just what's between the legs, i.e. the perception from other people in society.

VR/MMO Gender Bender
The MC plays a game as a character of the opposite sex. Examples include 1/2 Prince and Net-juu no Susume (Recovery of an MMO Junkie).

Genderless Gender Bender
The MC or major character starts off as, or turns into, a genderless character in a story that explores some theme of gender roles.

Transgender Gender Bender
I'll just leave Moonpearl's definition from the Genre Explanations (Unofficial) thread here:

'Where the Gender Bender genre and the “Transgender” tag are combined, this typically indicates a novel that uses the traditional transformation element to provide a character with a body whose socially-ascribed gender matches their true gender, regardless of whether they know it at the time that they receive it. For example: Through magical or unrealistically scientific means, a trans woman’s body is changed into the body of a typical cis woman.'​

If you personally have a broader definition of Gender Bender, I would recommend Hourou Musuko (Wandering Son) as the best and only anime I've seen that tries to realistically examine characters struggling with gender identity and dysphoria.

Female-to-Male Gender Bender
This is rare enough to get its own category. Aside from deuteragonists in body-swaps, FtM Gender Bender characters are perhaps more commonly seen with 'Soft/Nontransformative' Gender Bender where the MC keeps their body and crossdresses as a man, often with chest binding.

Crossdressing Gender Bender
Men wearing female clothing or vice versa. At least for this definition here, crossdressing implies the character does not necessarily identify with the gender he/she is presenting as. Usually this is done for some comedic purpose, fan service, or tangible benefit. An example in anime is Maria Holic.

School Life Gender Bender
What better way to make school life exciting than going to school as the opposite sex? Usually features Smut or Slice of Life.

Slice of Life/Pseudorealistic Gender Bender
This features gender bended characters engaging in day-to-day activities with the unique differences in their new body. Commonly part of various School Life Gender Bender manga that do not have a significant magical component, often with the first menstruation experience and otherwise nonexplicit. A single spontaneous body collision may make for an otherwise realistic body-swap story that continues without additional supernatural or futuristic elements.

Yuri Gender Bender
It's like Girl's Love, just a bit more awkward. Just 'a bit.' Harem is likely.

Otome Gender Bender
Okay, this is the best name I came up with for romance between a guy turned into a girl with another guy. It's not exactly Boy's Love, but it's not exactly straight-up romance, you know? Reverse harem is likely.


Conclusion: shitpost, or contribution to knowledge? You decide

 

[PrincessFelicie]

I thought there were only two kinds of gender bender stories. The trans ones, and the bad ones.

 

[Aaky]

All the roads lead to smut...

 

[CL]

MAIN STYLES​

Involuntary-Convenient Gender Bender
"Uwaaah, I'm a girl now?!? NOOOooo oh wow I have boobs! No wait I'm a guy I have to change back!! *many pages of angst later* Teehee~, actually I wanted to be a girl all along!" The end.


Involuntary-Expanded Gender Bender
The MC's unwilling Gender Bender experience is a 'fleshed out' journey of self-discovery and acceptance in a new body, or character growth before returning to his/her original body. Also, probably boobs. Just keeping it real.

Voluntary Gender Bender
The protagonist or a major character *chooses* to crossdress, transform into, or present as the 'opposite sex.' This is usually done for some tangible benefit, comedic purpose, or to match their internal gender identity.

I'm not sure if you are covering every form of media out there or just the popular ones, but there are characters who had absolutely no desire to be the other gender and never changed their mind about it towards their story's very end. I had entered a discussion about one such character (this is from a story called "For a Girl") that had a MtF transformation and who showed clear signs they were not into this sex difference at all. Last mention of that character was that they emotionally snapped and freaked out to the point of self-mutilation (CW: they tried to rip their own breasts off). The author who had pointed this character out had tried to say that wasn't a TG (transgender) case. As for me, I thought it completely was one and said as much: the character transformed into a woman and was trans-masculine.

There were many other stories that included something we have called "Identity Death". This is when the character's mind is warped or replaced to have "killed" that character. Now they would be this new character to fit with their new body. There are TONS of stories like that (unfortunately).

 

[CrusadeAgainstFurries]

I don't even like Gender Bender...why am I even here?

 

[CL]

I don't even like Gender Bender...why am I even here?

I'm guessing here: same reason readers rate stories they never bothered to read (because they can)?

 

[CL]

All the roads lead to smut...

Trust me, they all don't. Just for an example: there are stories out there (and here) that have children protagonists and/or characters involved and they never once touched on a smutty subject.

 

[Moonpearl]

You actually don't need to be stuck in your virtual body for a virtual gender bender.

"1/2 Prince" by Yu Wo is a classic of the virtual reality genre, and also a classic female-to-male gender bender using VR - but the MC is just logging on and off normally.

Likewise, there was a gender bender romance anime a year or more ago about two people playing a normal, non-VR MMORPG as the opposite gender. (I can't find it now, for the life of me, though...)

 

[Malonymous]

I thought there were only two kinds of gender bender stories. The trans ones, and the bad ones.

Sometimes it's worth seeking out that diamond in the rough.

You actually don't need to be stuck in your virtual body for a virtual gender bender.

"1/2 Prince" by Yu Wo is a classic of the virtual reality genre, and also a classic female-to-male gender bender using VR - but the MC is just logging on and off normally.

Likewise, there was a gender bender romance anime a year or more ago about two people playing a normal, non-VR MMORPG as the opposite gender. (I can't find it now, for the life of me, though...)

Good point. I believe Net-juu no Susume (Recovery of an MMO Junkie) is that anime.

 

[Moonpearl]

Good point. I believe Net-juu no Susume (Recovery of an MMO Junkie) is that anime.

That's the one! Thank you. I've been meaning to finish watching it for a long time now.

 

[CL]

On Royal Road, I read a popular story (Super Minion) that has the protagonist being neither gender, but chose a human male (the protagonist explained that in that city's society it had drawn less attention being male than it had as a female). What would characters that never had a gender be considered under the Sub-Type list? Their "sex" never really changed; it was acquired.

 

[Malonymous]

On Royal Road, I read a popular story (Super Minion) that has the protagonist being neither gender, but chose a human male (the protagonist explained that in that city's society it had drawn less attention being male than it had as a female). What would characters that never had a gender be considered under the Sub-Type list? Their "sex" never really changed; it was acquired.

I feel some people might not consider that a 'true' Gender Bender in the traditional sense, but I'll include a Genderless sub type because that does explore themes of gender with societal perception.

 

[Noldere]

I thought there were only two kinds of gender bender stories. The trans ones, and the bad ones.

So only one actual type, then (trash)?

 

[Authn]

I thought there were only two kinds of gender bender stories. The trans ones, and the bad ones.

They're mostly bad, too. For various reasons.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Thanky! This is nice and thorough <3

 

[PrincessFelicie]

They're mostly bad, too. For various reasons.

such as?

 

[Malonymous]

I don't even like Gender Bender...why am I even here?

The pursuit of forbidden knowledge, of course

So only one actual type, then (trash)?

Welcome to SHF! Where's the fun without a little 'shameless trashy?'

Thanky! This is nice and thorough <3

Glad you enjoyed!

 

[CL]

The pursuit of forbidden knowledge, of course

Welcome to SHF! Where's the fun without a little 'shameless trashy?'

Glad you enjoyed!

You are very kind.

 

[Malonymous]

You are very kind.

Hey, gotta have a sense of humor with this topic. Not everyone's gonna like GB (yet!), but that doesn't mean you can't have some fun along the way.

On a related note, I've been working on my own Gender Bender web novel I hope to post soon.

 

[Authn]

such as?

I don't want to go in length about it, so in short:
1) It's mostly nothing more than raw wish-fullfilment – all the the characters are just bland extra (save for the few obligatory 'accepting' characters) and there's barely any plot aside from the usual thing: MC is unhappy -> MC gets genderbent -> MC is happy -> the end.
I mean, it's understandable and that's exactly what you would expect from transgender fiction, but I would like to see more from the stories.
2) Blatant misandry (is that even a proper term?) – especially prevalent in the Girls Love transgender stories. Again, I don't want to go into that, let alone participate in debates about it.
3) Self-hate, body harm and overall depressive tone – 'nuff said. Some nasty things can happen in the stories and the way the authors (and the readers!) treat some things rubs me in the wrong way.