How To Genderbend Protagonists

[Arch9CivilReactor]

When I put that poll earlier with one option being a story about a heroine turning into a dude post time regression, I saw some comments talking about how authors tend to forget this aspect in the story. I feel like people get the wrong idea.

Gender-bending the protagonist isn’t just “but what if they were a boy”. I feel like feminist and wokeness kinda misses the point a little when they use this trope to say one side is easier or the other is harder (even though you CAN write that if you want to). It kinda misses the point.

I’ll give an example.

The gender-bend in my “betrayed academy harem heroine regresses into a boy” uses the gener-bend trope, but there is more to it than just experiencing life as a boy. Since she respected the ‘hero’ character from the PoV as a girl, this is the time she experiences his real personality. The one he shows to guys but not usually girls.

It’s like having a secret identity in the past.

The fact relationships have irreversibly changed is what makes the gender-bend always be relevant. And if I don’t want to explore further about gender beyond that, it isn’t really needed for me to add the knotty-gritty beyond that.

No angst about being a dude or superficial complicated feelings. She uses her new ‘identity’ to see the world differently. This would be the same if she was the same person but turned into a male. The important part is the lasting impact.

If you’re writing lighthearted, there is no need to make angst about the whole changing aspect. It is simply a plot device you can use with others to your leisure. There is no ‘right way’ to genderbend a character. Just write what you feel.

However, if them changing their gender doesn’t really have any lasting impact, then there probably isn’t really a NEED to use it. Characters can function as overlords or concubines just fine regardless of what specified gender they are.

…This is the difficult part of the topic.

If you’re just going to do the Charlie’s Angels movie thing of being a bad story overall then blaming readers for not being woke… please don’t. Respect your readers regardless of what gender they are. Catering to one is fine but hating on the other is what causes friction.

That’s basically all I got for this topic. Happy writing and don’t get too stressed over stuff.

Hope you guys have fun.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

The fact relationships have irreversibly changed is what makes the gender-bend always be relevant. And if I don’t want to explore further about gender beyond that, it isn’t really needed for me to add the knotty-gritty beyond that.

No angst about being a dude or superficial complicated feelings. She uses her new ‘identity’ to see the world differently. This would be the same if she was the same person but turned into a male. The important part is the lasting impact.

I think this is the key difference between a "good" genderbend and a "bad" one - a good one focuses first on how this complicates/changes the character's life, and second on how relationships work in this new world.

A bad one focuses on "I now have different bits. Lets play with it/them. OK, that was fun. Now I'm going to be exactly who I was before, despite the remodeled plumbing..."

 

[corruption]

If there is no difference to the character caused by the gender change, then why have it?
It can have a few different ways of working in a good story.
Here are 2 of them:
1) They learn to see things from a different perspective. Goes double if other things are changed about them, or they are raised to believe in firm gender roles. One main issue in society is that men and women are raised and treated differently. Such a character can learn to make things easier for others by helping them understand others
2) They have a breakdown as they try to refuse who they are before coming to accept that they have changed. Goes double if they were assholes to that gender before.

You also have a regression story.
One issue is that if you act on your knowledge of the future then you change it and the knowledge becomes less accurate.
Since you have the gender bent and regression going at the same time, an interesting question would be in the MC went back into their old body which was gender bent, or they went into a new body.
Which then brings the question of if they try to help prevent any problems for the old them or don't in order to avoid paradox.

Lots of ways this can go and be good. More ways it can go bad.

 

[ArlindoFrancisco]

It can't be superficial... deep change needs to happen for it to make sense unless it is a hentai where it doesn't really matter.

 

[LoneQuack]

I don't mess with anything genderbending related stuff at any level. The moment I even get the glimpse of it in a conversation I turn away. I don't even know the differences between a man and a woman, much less write them, much less spin them on their head to create... this. The only reason I read this is because I've read like what? 6? 7? Of your posts and at this point I had to. What the previous 6 or 7 were fine but this is where I draw the line? I am racist towards humans, not comments, threads, or posts.

 

[corruption]

I am racist towards humans, not comments, threads, or posts.

So, Demons and killer robots are fine then. Good to know.

 

[LoneQuack]

So, Demons and killer robots are fine then. Good to know.

Of course they are!

 

[Arch9CivilReactor]

It can't be superficial... deep change needs to happen for it to make sense unless it is a hentai where it doesn't really matter.

I disagree. There are different levels of how a trope is implemented. Like how you can make romance a ‘subplot’ rather than the main plot. It is too restrictive to ask for deep changes when people react differently to the same stimuli. Some might not be that bothered with the gender part of the switch, but more the change in how they are treated.

It’s why I specifically wrote ‘lasting impact’ rather than ‘deep change’ when writing the blog. At least that’s my take. Yours might differ from mine.

 

[greyblob]

I'd like to express my displeasure with this thread

 

[Deleted member 84247]

I don't really mind how people write it. But many novels the genderbending is completely pointless. Once they reincarnated in another world as the other gender it stops mattering after chapter one.

I don't care if people write it like that either, to be clear. But at that point, it's not a genre.

 

[corruption]

Imagine a homophobe that is gender bent. "I'm really a man, and straight, liking women. But if I like women right now they will make me lesbian, which is unnatural. My body instinctively likes guy, but that would make my mind gay! Must avoid all potential sexualization at all cost!"

 

[ArlindoFrancisco]

I disagree. There are different levels of how a trope is implemented. Like how you can make romance a ‘subplot’ rather than the main plot. It is too restrictive to ask for deep changes when people react differently to the same stimuli. Some might not be that bothered with the gender part of the switch, but more the change in how they are treated.

It’s why I specifically wrote ‘lasting impact’ rather than ‘deep change’ when writing the blog. At least that’s my take. Yours might differ from mine.

I understand, but when I said deep change, I would count in the change in mentality because of the changes in the body... not the superficial female parts but the hormones changing their personality little by little without them even realizing it. That is why I don't like the majority of genderbender stories; they are just... now you are a man... but continue to act like a woman for the whole story or the other way around, more like that.

Their personalities won't change, as men and women can have the same personality but they are still different because of their bodies. That would be my take on it.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I understand, but when I said deep change, I would count in the change in mentality because of the changes in the body... not the superficial female parts but the hormones changing their personality little by little without them even realizing it. That is why I don't like the majority of genderbender stories; they are just... now you are a man... but continue to act like a woman for the whole story or the other way around, more like that.

Their personalities won't change, as men and women can have the same personality but they are still different because of their bodies. That would be my take on it.

This was pretty much my logic in "Strange Awakening" - that the personality will adjust to the body with time.

 

[Cipiteca396]

A dumb trope I see a lot in gender bender is "Body alters mind". Please don't do this...

There are so many stories where a character 'settles into' their new body, for no reason. This is one of the 'beginner' gender bender tropes, in my opinion. Someone who knows nothing about it writes this, or sees someone else write it, and thinks, "That's logical, makes sense." This is, funnily enough, worsened by eggs who think, "Anyone would eventually settle in, once they have the body of the 'superior' gender, right?"

Instead, someone who accepts their new gender should already have reasons to like it. Could be social, like getting to wear more interesting clothes; mental, like being able to act more dominantly without being ignored as a wallflower; or even sexual. Yes, the perverts who fondle themselves (or let other people fondle them) are totally reasonable, despite how many people complain about it. (You don't have to read it if you don't want to.)

If they don't have a reason to like it, then do they have a reason to dislike it? If they hate the way they're treated, if they miss their old body, if people look down on them as queer, then they would start to get dysphoria. They would get further and further from 'settling', and become trans. It's not something that you can just 'get used to'.

As an aside to this, the 'no going back' trope, is another beginner GB trope. There's absolutely a way back. Even the ancients had transpeople, back before it was looked down on.

No shade to anyone who writes like this, but that's the type of thread this is.

 

[theInmara]

Someone who is not trans to begin with who just has their body altered is probably going to have a significant amount of physical and/or social dysphoria over having a body that doesn't align with their actual gender. They'll basically become trans.

There may not even be logical reasons for this dysphoria. And there can be a lot of mixed feelings. They might appreciate the new social power of being male, and like the aspect of having clothes they prefer to wear fit better, and not having boobs might be a relief on the back, but that thing down between their legs might also be a total horror show and being called "sir" makes them feel like throwing up. Also, they'll still need to learn how to talk and move differently if they want to not be seen as inherently queer and weird.

When we read a gender bender story and the character just falls into their new gender like it fits like a glove, we assume they were trans to begin with. We also tend to assume that the author is too, and is writing a wish fulfillment fantasy, which is fine. Trans people get to do that, even before we realize we're trans. It's part of figuring things out.

Now. An interesting twist on a gender bender story is if the protagonist has their gender bent by some force of magic, but their body remains the same. So they go from being a cis man to a trans woman pre-transition.

That would probably take a certain kind of person to write it well, though.

 

[corruption]

Just remembered the webcomic Misfile, where the MC is gender swapped. S/he has a bit of trouble adjusting to their new body.
So, imagine a highly skilled fighter or someone who has trained their bodies so they can act without thinking about things at a split seconds notice . . and totally change their body.