Ur heteronormativity, u have shown me it.

[cygna_hime]

So, I like genderbender fic. Both of the always-was variety and the spontaneous-change variety. I like it a lot. It's interesting to explore how gender informs our responses, and making characters switch gender is an interesting thought experiment, which makes it sound much more srs than it has to be. It's not an academic paper...but on the other

Comments

[kisaoda]

Geez... this is a toughie for me. One the one hand, I'm of the staunch belief that what you're born with is what you've got, so if you were born a woman, think yourself a male, I'm still gonna think of you as a female regardless of what you want me to think of you, pre- or post-op.

On the other hand, that will play into my thoughts of a sudden sex switch in your example fiction. If a character was a man to begin with, was magically or inexplicably popped into female form, I'd refer to them as male or 'him'. He started out male, thus male he remains.

That being the case, in regards to his sexuality, in theory (or figuratively) he'd still remain 'heterosexual'. Man <3 Womanz. Literally I would have to admit is a bit more puzzling. I'd say 'homosexual' as 'he' has a womanz body <3ing another womanz.

Gnrr. My head hurts now.

[cygna_hime]

It's one thing to say that you, personally, would think of a trans person or character as their chromosomal sex rather than their gender (or functional sex, if post-op). I disagree, and it would be rude and hurtful to treat a trans person as their chromosomal sex agazinst their wishes, but as far as characters are concerned, everyone thinks differently. It's another for the character to think of themselves that way. I mean, if they thought of themselves as their chromosomal sex, they wouldn't be trans.

And it's yet another thing for a character who has never been either biologically or psychologically female to have the one change and the other follow along. The existence of trans people proves that sex and gender do not work that way.

I would say that his sexuality is still what it was all around. He is a man who likes sex with women; thus, he is heterosexual. Literally, figuratively, whatever. I would warn for homosexual sex, but it wouldn't necessarily make either of the characters homosexual. Genderbender fic is weird that way.

[kisaoda]

Well, yes, it would be quite rude. I won't be ornery and defiant if confronted with a situation of that manner, nor should anyone else be either, though I will be honest if asked of my thoughts directly.

As far as what characters think, if they think of themselves as their 'original' chromosomal sex as opposed to the sex they swapped, would they be trans so long as they're in the swapped body? This is getting complicated... @_@

[euphonious_glow]

I don't typically read gender bender fic, but you make some excellent points here.

I have no transgender icons so have one with crossdressing instead.

[kiraya]

I love genderbender stuff (though as far as I've seen it's not very common in any of my current fandoms outside PWP fic), and you make some really excellent points that, unfortunately, I haven't seen addressed in anything I read but have always wanted to.

(For a while my cowriter and I were bandying back and forth a plotbunny with a character who was a lot like that -- male in canon, born female in that particular AU, ended up living most of his life male due to a spell put on him -- and had the whole bucket of issues to go with it. After reading this, I'm very tempted to revisit it.)

[anonymous]

As is so often the case, SGA fandom is really good at this.

Frex:

The story where John & Rodney are both switched, and since they were both het men they become lesbians.

The very long story where they go to Planet Genderfuck. John, Teyla, and Ronon and *all* switched. They have different cultural concepts/hangups, and pronouns are switched or not accordingly.

Sometimes I really pity other fandoms.

-- anonyMom

[notevenwrong]

MARRY ME.

Nosrsly--not enough attention is paid to this kind of etiquette in fandom. And considering fic writers' penchant[s? -subject/noun agreement failure-] for fooling around with genderstuffs, I declare that inattention LAME.

As to the trans/cis post-switch quandary. Personally*, I'd consider someone trans if and only if they don't identify with their assigned gender--whether that's a female-assigned XXY man or a character that's having a rough time handling a genderswap.

*As a roughly gender neutral, female-assigned XX, that is.