It's not explicit for the most part, but what we have here is basically an experiment on how these characters react to each other, with different gender pairings as the variable. Tim isn't merely (well, nothing mere about that) having sex with genderswapped versions of people he loves, he's doing it in ways that are significantly different than how (or even whether) he'd do it with their "baseline" versions.
Here we have both his official girl/boyfriend *and* Dick Grayson (who was, arguably, the most important single target of affection for Tim since at least his late childhood) in variously genderswapped states - Tim's reactions, both in deed and in thought, can't but be informative about his psychological makeup. This fic asks, among other things, What does gender mean to Tim Drake?, and it answers not by giving an explicit answer, but by doing a rather systematic (or at least systematizable) survey of Tim's range of responses. Keep in mind, it's not "how Tim reacts to guys vs. how he reacts to girls," but how he reacts, all other things -affection, job relationship, etc- being the same, and this asked in relation to two of the most, if not the two most, important people in his life.
Wow, either I'm really dumb, or you're being really pretentious. Maybe that's where the fic went for you, but it sure as hell didn't have any of that for me.
Thanks for the Gender 101, but your overly patronising tone wasn't required.
Oops. I apologize. I often write... well, I guess 'pretentious' and 'overly patronising' aren't way off the mark, especially when I'm enthusiastic about something.
Sorry if I came across as a lecturing jerk. As you said, that's just where the fic went for me, no reason for anybody else to read it in that way.
You know, twice now I've seen you say in a comment to Glossing words to the effect of "that was incorrect," someone else say, "well, I agreed with Glossing on this because..." with an explanation, and you respond that they're being patronizing.
But twice is just a line. It's the third time that would make a pattern.
Here we have both his official girl/boyfriend *and* Dick Grayson (who was, arguably, the most important single target of affection for Tim since at least his late childhood) in variously genderswapped states - Tim's reactions, both in deed and in thought, can't but be informative about his psychological makeup. This fic asks, among other things, What does gender mean to Tim Drake?, and it answers not by giving an explicit answer, but by doing a rather systematic (or at least systematizable) survey of Tim's range of responses. Keep in mind, it's not "how Tim reacts to guys vs. how he reacts to girls," but how he reacts, all other things -affection, job relationship, etc- being the same, and this asked in relation to two of the most, if not the two most, important people in his life.
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Thanks for the Gender 101, but your overly patronising tone wasn't required.
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Sorry if I came across as a lecturing jerk. As you said, that's just where the fic went for me, no reason for anybody else to read it in that way.
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But twice is just a line. It's the third time that would make a pattern.
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