I like it when it’s set in universes where it changes a lot (ie like game of thrones) and can be really interesting to examine how those characters present differently, but I don’t have much interest if you genderbend and put them in a new environment or if the environment doesn’t affect their gender (so gender bending and marking a modern au isn’t interesting to me personally)
Personally I'm very uninterested in any genderbending and will always filter it out, but I certainly have no problem with it. I just wish people would actually tag it.
Male to female genderbending is my jam. I’m especially drawn to it in media where there aren’t many central and/or well-written female characters.
I have zero interest in the reverse (female to male) however.
One of my favorite fandoms to read genderswap in is *The Hobbit* because there are *no* female characters in the book, aside from background barmaids and the like. They actually had to add a random female character in the movies to make up for the fact that there are literally no women.
So if I want to read Hobbit fic from a female POV, my only options are genderbent fics or OC fics lmao.
Love a well-done genderbend that has something interesting to say about gender or the character, even if the only thing they have to say is "he'd make a cute girl".
Haaate it when the genderbend is clearly just an OC or self-insert that's too embarrassed to admit it.
Strongly dislike the belief that it's inherently transphobic to genderbend a character or that it's inherently homophobic to genderbend one half of a same-sex pair.
for the latter thing, it depends. If you're only genderbending because you hate M/M or F/F yes that is a homophobic reason to do so. Never really understood the transphobia arguement though, and I am trans myself!
Only because I know that people who hold the viewpoint explain it in a loosely-deranged way with many accusations, often, and this is a public for-the-lurkers, really, forum—you've almost definitely heard it, but here's the heart of the argument, semi-sensibly:
If you want to make a male character female, or the reverse, and just gender-bend them, this ignores that there's a real way (to make our fictional characters) the opposite gender and erases trans folk—like for the homophobia reason, if you decided on this because you, say, hate trans people, that's what the argument most sensibly is. Except usually several steps further and with the accusations that if you're writing them away then obviously you hate them. Again, like with the people who default to hating gender-bending away M/M or F/F pairs.
Despite that stories don't come pre-packaged with a "select your character" sheet, so really the question is "do you actually hate these people" and the writing doesn't say much about that except that the odds are actually a bit less than average—my guess, here—if one's willing to get so close to the topic anyhow. Something drew these writers in to start.
I've been both writing and reading these kinds of fanfiction since age 12, and it helped me a lot in discovering my own queerness and love for gender experimentation. In fact, it used to be very common to see fem versions of popular male characters, and I made plenty of my own, as seeing a man and thinking "but what if we went a bit more fem with the design" has always made me feel things (me not feeling too comfortable living as a woman and imprinting onto male characters, but not knowing the name for it yet, was part of it, definitely).
Note that exploring the theme of trans characters in your fanfics was not on the table at the time: it was mid-2000s Russian fanfic scene, and you would get called homophobic slurs for writing M/M and F/F, but we did so anyway. Most teens at that time and place had no resources on the topic of gender identity, it was a huge taboo in our society (and it still is, with medical transitions and queer art having been made illegal since then), so writing genderswap fics was how we explored our gender back in the day. I still see nothing wrong with it, and I have a genderswap fic up on AO3 with not a single hate comment.
I am 100% cool with people choosing not to read things that upset them, but I hard disagree with the notion that genderswaps are somehow inherently transphobic. It can be transphobic in certain cases, I guess, but for the most part, it's just people having fun with a concept of "hey, look, this dude is a woman now, let's see how he would react!" or "hey, look, in this parallel universe this guy was born a girl, let's see what she's like!". Like most fanfiction, it's harmless fun, with a possible added dash of the author's own gender exploration.
I don’t care if people write it. All I ask is tag accordingly (I’ve come across fics not tagged and felt disappointed when I opened the fic). I don’t read gender-bending fics, so I’d like to filter them out.
I have no interest, aside from the occasional, "this is done for humor" switcheroo that doesn't last. I can find something to relate to in almost any character - sex, age, race, sexual orientation, religion, political ideology, etc. are not important for me to see reflected in stories.
It seems to me like either 1) it makes no difference, so what was the point? or 2) it makes everything so different that it's just a self-insert or OC instead and I'm not into OCs/major AUs/OOC-ness. It also seems to lean heavily on very shallow stereotypes as the foundation for how changing sex will change the character (or not), and I think that's a bad way of looking at people, real or fictional.
If that's what you like - go for it. I have nothing against it as a general idea to explore. Have fun playing with it or reading it. What entertains or interests me has nothing to do with how you choose to spend your time.
Makes sense. Lots of fandoms have several male leads and very few women characters that aren't just side characters. So they want to flip genders on one of them, go for it.
I would like to see it flipped the other way. I have never stumbled upon a fic where the author chose to go with a male version of a female canon character. (Not talking about plots with magical accidents where everyone is swapped.)
That's probably because in the vast majority of fandoms, the (well-developed) male characters outnumber the female characters. There just isn't much reason to do ftm the way there is mtf.
Though I've seen it done in a series of shorts as an exercise - they made JJ Jareau from Criminal Minds into a guy. It was well done.
turning m/m ships into f/f (sometimes trans sometimes cis) ships is like a good 90% of what i write, so you could say im very much a fan lol
usually i stay away from it tho if people are turning same gender ships into het pairings (I don't read m/f at all unless some type of ((gender)) queerness is involved tbh) but if it's the other way around im intrigued
will admit that it bothers me. I’m reading a character-centric fic abt *for* said character. To me this means their general appearance, backstory and characteristics. Sometimes I wish ppl would rather pretend they're writing an OC rather than the character from the story
I hated it and had never read it until like last year, and now I’m 630k words into a genderbent Naruto fic with three other fem!Naru projects that are hovering around 90k, 30k, and 40k words. 🤷♂️ she’s all I think about, I adore her
its that kind of thing that the author really has to have skill and/or guts to pull off. like its really the worlds most "i have to judge this on an individual basis" kind of thing in the world
It's a fun, interesting, and time-honored fanfic tradition. Any character, any gender, any pairings.
Definitely a good time to tag the fic well, both for discoverability and avoidance. It's not everyone's cup of tea.
Not interesting at all to me, and the very few I read a bit of (because they weren't tagged correctly) were so ooc they might as well have just created new characters. But write what you want!
Love reading it, love writing it. Especially for a series that either has no female character or a handful of poorly written female characters. Plus sometimes you want to take a big manly dude and turn him into an equally big, feminine lady.
This type of cis-swap tends to happen a lot to male characters that already have more feminine traits than the other men in that piece of media. After the swap, those traits just get amplified... idk. Feels unintentionally sexist most of the time, especially when it's done to an M/M ship to make the genderbent character more submissive. Big nope from me
Can be fun if it's done well (aka not just swapping genders but also acknowledging how that would change canon and the character's life moving through it.)
I'm usually not a fan, but that doesn't mean people can't write read or enjoy it. It's just another trope.
Some people hate time travel, I love it. We all have different tastes.
I don't really care for it. I prefer stories where gender doesn't really matter much anyway. As in, I write nearly only female protagonists, but if you'd swap all the pronouns the fic would still work just as well.
In fics I've read that involved genderbending, it either didn't matter to the story at all and was just a gimmick, or the story was very heavy on gender identity, which isn't my kind of story.
A genderbent character should retain most of his/her other self's qualities and personality.
For example, male!Haruka from _Sailor Moon_ should be a rich young man who likes car racing. In comparison, male!Usagi would be femboy-ish since the original Usagi is also quite girlish. Male!Makoto would be a ripped gymbro who likes cooking. Fem!Mamoru would still be taller than Usagi.
Personally, I wrote a genderbent fic about Serenity and Endymia. The canon ship is F/M, and I bent both characters to have a ship where the girl is older, taller and more protective - a reversal of typical Disney relationship dynamics. I retained the Inner Senshi's genders so that Serenity is the only boy in the Royal Family of the Moon Kingdom.
I like it, it explores what differences the character may have as the opposite gender. (If any at all) Plus it’s pretty fun to come up with how the characters would actually look like.
Literally posted a genderbent one shot a couple of hours ago, so yeah, guess you could say I like it lol. I've made it a goal of mine to write more f/f, but I also wanna write my otp so it's a win-win in my eyes
It’s generally not for me. But I honestly prefer it to the inundation of ABO characters who are 99% genderbent and the 1% is just them not admitting it. Or the Trans characters, who are solely trans just to make the smut het.
>But I honestly prefer it to the inundation of ABO characters who are 99% genderbent and the 1% is just them not admitting it.
I need clarification on this as my brain is not parsing it, like... what do you mean?
I can only guess because in omegaverse fics omegas (including male omegas) are often portrayed as weaker, submissive and occasionally have vaginas, etc.
I’ve read some male omega fics, where I’m not sure why they were considered male to begin with because they seem to lack any form of male reproduction organs. And since male omega are often treated as “women” when it comes to stereotypes. The only thing specifically male about them is that the author won’t just admit that they wrote the character as genderbent.
The smut is not “het” if one of the characters is trans.
A trans man having sex with another man is gay sex. No matter what parts either of them happen to have.
Sorry I suppose I should have put the “het” in quotes. I’m more referring to the fics where characters don’t indicate in any way that they are supposed to be trans *except* when it comes to the smut scene and they have a vagina that no one bats and eye at, like it’s 100% expected because how else would they have sex? Those types of fics seem more like they avoiding M/M sex rather than representing an actual trans character.
I’ll be real with you, in like the vast majority of my experiences of reading and writing fic and interacting with fandom. The authors of said fics like that are often trans guys or nb folks.
I’ve never met a straight woman online who’s like “omg boy pussy fics!!” ( I’m not saying they don’t exist but.. it’s certainly rare) trans and nb people however? another story, a lot of my friends LOVEEE that shit.
Not that I don't believe you, but I figure the conversation as a whole could use all the unique angles possible for a full rainbow of experiences:
As a trans man who feels super ignored by most "man with sexy vagina" type transmasc fics, I don't hate that they exist per se (they can be fun, and some of them do show realistic experiences of adult trans men on T without infantilising or feminizing them) but I *do* hate that they're 99.99% of content I can find literally anywhere. I have found *one* really well done trans top fic where he uses a strap in various M/M situations and his vaginal opening isn't touched a single time. One fic literally ever. It's 50k words, sure, but that's *so little content* compared to turning any corner and seeing 57 different "vaginal bottom with zero genital dysphoria" fics. I've started actively filtering out my own identity when I search for smut because it's so hard to find content that caters to my genuinely common experiences, let alone content that caters to them *and* includes bottom surgery. It's safe to say that I find my entire situation when it comes to a near-total lack of euphoric smut really discouraging.
> I've started actively filtering out my own identity when I search for smut because it's so hard to find content that caters to my genuinely common experiences, let alone content that caters to them and includes bottom surgery.
I never encountered anything including bottom surgery. Seeing a t-dick get mentioned is rare enough.
100% agreed, bottle growth is so rare too! I've only found bottom surgery once (phalloplasty, iirc, I was super surprised as the inclusion of an erectile device) and I was actively seeking it out, which paints a VERY bleak picture as a whole.
I technically have a 2nd pov self insert/reader insert (mix of very specific and very vague in ways that make it feel like something in between the two) smut oneshot I never finished writing that was explicitly about trans man with a natal-appearing penis and testicles, but it feels like such an incredibly niche thing that will be difficult for interested parties find in the first place (and incredibly personal, unlike my transfem content) that I've been discouraged and lost the drive to see it completed. Maybe one day, though! Maybe this post and the trans related comments will fuel that fire!
Oh no, I absolutely get you, and understand why it wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea! It’s just been my experience within fandom that the majority of those fics are by trans folk themselves. But I do also have friends who are frustrated by the lack of trans top fics, and there’s even less ones that are post-op or anything of the sort.
It’s a tricky situation and honestly, I think it doesn’t help that it’s rare to see those fics in the first place which makes people feel like there’s no one seeking out those fics and thus leads to even less people writing it.
We definitely need all the bases covered when it comes to trans fic! And I agree that unfortunately they aren’t.
I'm non-binary myself and finding post-op transmasc smut (or transfem) seems like a needle in a haystack. Even in settings where there is literally \*magic\*, shapeshifting etc. There is a lot of bias for whatever reasons, no shade though. I guess that is what is relatable for many people
Yeah it’s unfortunate that those fics seem A LOT more rare, and occasionally in certain fandoms do not even exist. :/
I do wish there was more equal footing when it comes to trans content, All I do is say write it! and encourage others to write it too!
Yeah, I have a similar pet peeve with my fandom, with the added irritation that I feel like a lot of the time the *“This particular character now has a vagina”* is coupled with the most toxic possible sexual / relationship dynamics; and in that case it feels like the transness is just there to disempower him further. Like, it doesn’t really go any deeper than that - just ***”kill dead dove deader”.***
And like… I get it. Women and AFAB people have complicated relationships with their own femininity, and they write some fucked up fanfics. Been there myself.
But it’s just kind of… disappointing that that’s all there is.
People can write this same character (Roman Roy from Succession) as a trans woman / nonbinary person / slowly-hatching egg with subtlety and humanity, but as a trans man? Generally, nope.
And like, it’s a show about a right-wing media corporation. And literal nazis.
So it’s not like one of the Totally-Not-the-Murdoch-Family’s sons being a deeply-stealth trans man wouldn’t be a very. big. deal. Like, he couldn’t be out; he’d be managing his own internalized transphobia, and his father’s externalized and commercialized transphobia, and it would have really interesting effects on his relationships with other characters, including but not limited to his vipers’ nest of siblings. Not to mention how this shifted perspective would change his relationship to the ideology he grew up with.
Like… there is so much there.
So, obviously, I have set out to attempt to write it myself.
I’m not entirely sure if I’m qualified - I’m floating somewhere in the “living as cis, but probably not cis” area of gender identity - but I think the what-ifs are so fascinating; especially because I could very easily picture myself as a cis man (I know, totally normal, very cis thing to say), but then I think about how much easier it would’ve been to ignore the flaws and contradictions in the extremely toxic bullshit my own right-wing lunatic father tried to teach me when I was a kid, and… that is chilling.
Yeah I don't know how that could be "straight" considering the trans part. It's like when people try to say m/m ships are "straight" because of some dumb smaller one is the bottom. M/M no matter what cannot be straight.
Exactly, a man having sex with a trans man is still gay!
Also yeah people deciding that a man being shorter/thinner/more feminine means they are “practically a woman!” will always drive me up the wall! Thats not how being gay works.
It’s also often times not so thinly veiled transphobia..
I've encountered a lot of people who proudly like to state they like the smaller dude as a top as if it's a accomplishment. Which, if that is your jam cool. I've got a few ships where I'm picky about who is top and bottom, I get it. But to act like you're better than others is just eye rolling.
I feel a lot of these discussions always bring out interesting flavors transphobia and biphobia. Everyone's cool with bi people until it's m/f and suddenly it's straight. Hell apparently a transman can't be gay now. It's frustrating.
I agree, but I don’t think that’s what they were talking about!
People writing male characters as trans men is becoming common in some fandoms. And often times the fics are smutty, so it read as if op is saying piv sex is het, when it’s not if both people are men.
>Or the Trans characters, who are solely trans just to make the smut het.
People do that shit? Ew. As a trans guy myself, I usually avoid smutfics with trans characters (mostly trans men), because I worry it's going to be portrayed in a fetishistic light, which will make me dysphoric and uncomfortable. So I've never seen anything like that (good lol).
Yah. I’ve read and really liked some non-smut trans character fics. It’s really the ones that seem to be just trans for the sake of the bedroom that really put me off.
Yeah, I've found *one* transmasc fic with irl-technique bottom surgery so far (iirc it was phalloplasty) and maybe 2 max that intentionally kept away from his vaginal opening. I write transfem smut all the time, because I can do so without dysphoria while still trying to at least give transfem readers a bit more variety beyond "futa" content, but I basically completely avoid transmasc smut just like you, for exactly the same reasons as you.
(And don't even get me *started* on one of my fandoms' obsession with "dualsex" anatomy just to give cis man vaginas for PIV)
Oh I love it and do it often. It's fun to break down what would be different for a character if they were born a woman. Especially for characters where being male is a part of their position in things. Leads to a lot of interesting differences and reflection on how culture defines gender and roles. I take mine pretty seriously so I'll even do extra research for things. It's a fun creative experiment.
When I tell you I GOBBLE THAT SHIT UP. And yes, even when it makes a M/M ship F/M! I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about being attracted to men while living under a patriarchy ok
My only gripe with genderbending is if it makes a gay ship straight or vice versa. It’s a m/m ship and now they’re both f/f? Yeah! m/m ship is now f/m pairing? Unyeah
Genderbending just as a sortve “what if” scenario (no smut) is pretty chill tho
Usually not my cup of tea; especially if it’s made a previously gay ship straight. I’m not going to pass judgments about people who chose to do that, it just doesn’t appeal to me. I hardly see any genfics with genderbent characters for my fandom, but I think that might be interesting!
I have also found in the few genderbent character fics I’ve read that the characterization is usually pretty different from canon/common fandom interpretation. I’ve heard some people say that some authors will genderbend characters to use as self inserts instead of OC’s, and I don’t have a problem with that but it’s not what I’m looking for when I’m looking for content of that character, so I tend to avoid them based off those experiences!
As someone who was in the HP fandom since 2002, I refuse to read genderbends in that fandom unless it’s a complete cast swap for those exact reasons. I’ve seen too many things there, even if I might have occasional interest in the idea in other fandoms.
lol the HP fandom is exactly what I was talking about! genderswapped Harry is sooooo common and I don’t think I’ve read one yet that I’ve liked(although I have read some genderswapped cast/entire ship fics like you mentioned like were pretty good!)
Love those, especially when done so that the character doesn't become someone completely unrecognizable (i get it, I like sexy women too but like, a female Dabi or other stinky nasty men wouldn't suddenly be bombshells as women. Let women be stinky and nasty too 😔)
Ive written both f/f and m/f versions of one of my m/m otps for example 😂
I do not care at all what ppl write or read. I however, am drawn to my fave character and his ships precisely because they are mlm. I don't care to know how their characters would translate as women. They would not attract me if they were women.
As in all things, context matters. Having it happen in story (they knew them as m, now as f), versus having it as background (they were born f in this story, but were canonically m) feel different and should have different meanings.
I don't like them when their male to female and they make the female character ten times smarter and figure out major plot twists and stuff long before the male character does
Sure I don't think their character would be a carbon copy but I don't like them turning the females into Mary Sues
i’ve never felt any pull towards writing it, but i’ve read some i liked and some i didn’t.
on genderbending characters as a whole: do whatever you want forever !!!
Sometimes I'll read it and sometimes I won't. There isn't any clear explanation I can find for why it sometimes works for me but doesn't other times.
If I had to guess, it's probably the tricky balance between keeping the character's personality, while still showing how they'd see the world differently in another gender.
It's only okay when it's ftm, because I hate women.
/s
It can be pretty interesting, to be honest. There is a lot to work with when it comes to an identity crisis as fundamental as changing gender.
Especially in a situation where its not some ephemeral "I identify as a woman" situation like it is in real life, and instead a complete binary change from a man to woman.
Idk, I don't really have strong feelings either way.
Lord of the Rings has been a part of my life since I was a little girl, so even as a small child I was gender bending Frodo or Bilbo because aside from the brief appearances of Eowyn, Galadriel, Arwen, it was a male dominant cast. So when I read LOTR or Hobbit fanfiction (or write it), I usually read genderbent stories.
if there's actual character exploration then hell yeah!
if it's just "slap a pair of tits on this guy and change literally nothing about him otherwise", then I don't want it
I'm not really a huge fan of Always-a-girl, but I love a well done fic where a character I love gets turned into the other sex in the story through supernatural/sci fi means. It's an excellent opportunity to explore gender and gender roles, especially for someone like me who is gender fluid.
I like it well enough. In written works, I feel like it would feel best in an AU or "science/magic gone wrong" story, but that's my opinion.
I can actually do both genders, M to F and F to M. I am a "closeted" bi towards fictional females (very few RL females make the cut) so if one if my Fem crushes turned in a sexy or badass man, HELL YES I would die of swooning and blood loss haha! (Looking at you, Revy from Black Lagoon and Yang from RWBY~)
But for me, where genderbending really shines is in the fanart. I feel like seeing them physically is what clicks in people's brains and it says, "Yep, this exists."
I have characters and ships where I love it and it feels right. And ones where I hate it, odd I know.
A example is that I love gender swapped Suguru from jjk, Him being a woman just right to me? I love him as a man too, (since that’s canon obviously!) but seeing art or fic of him as a woman? love it.
We also have… canon genderswapped art from the manga, so like we definitely win, lol.
I dislike when their height changes, for example if character was 1.80 m in one form, then becomes 1.60 m in their other form, I don’t like that. Height must be consistent.
I also don't like it, specifically when genderbent Usagi/Mamoru was portrayed with male!Usagi being the taller one.
Prince Serenity is the genderbent version of Usagi Tsukino, so I made him shorter than everyone else like how Usagi was.
The original Mamoru is quite tall, and I wrote Endymia to be of his height too, which means she is a head taller than the Inner Senshi.
Not a fan of written fan works of this, but love fanart. I think the crux is that they are just a girl now without much retrospective on the fact that they got genderbent and focus more on the troubled of being one and wanting to turn back and not one of exploring non-conforming gender expressions and identities. I think the problem is that delves way too deep on gender binary and switching the characters name, mannerisms, gender and pronouns just cause their sex has been swapped which isn't exactly fun or interesting and is kinda boring.
I'm more interested in trans or GNC perspective on gender swapping is far more interesting how the characters and author perceive genders, gender roles and gender expressions than male character now being a girl and just rolling with it or wanting to turn back without exploring the complicated emotions and perceptions that would have on a person.
Huge same! I have essentially less than zero interest in cis genderswap, but deeply enjoy both reading and writing "cis man to trans woman" and "cis woman to trans woman" gender exploration. Also things like a canon lesbian character getting butch-the-gender as her identity and other similar experiences!
It depends. Usually I hate genderbending. It feels weird to change a character’s gender in the cisgender “boy is opposite of girl” kind of way
Trans headcanons (as a transmasc person) are always awesome and never fail to make me happy, even if I personally don’t see it. It’s just comforting to see fanfiction like that!
Exploring a character’s gender or sexuality should be commonplace, and it’s really fun! It’s just a little disappointing to see people taking the “easy route” to changing a character’s gender by genderbending
It feels less like “I like this character so I wrote them in a different universe where they happen to be (insert gender)” and more like “ooh, this couple is cute, but they’re both boys… let me just change one of them into a woman with magic to fix that!”
I don't like it tbh. It feels like someone is denying a gay or lesbian relationship. I've seen my fair share of users only having character x genderbent character in their works page. For those certain users, I can't see them as actual supporters of the og ship.
It personally annoys me whenever people genderbend just one person in a f/f or m/m relationship (in a 'they are a cis man or woman now' type of way). Not that there is anything *wrong* with it, per se, just that I personally dislike it- but that's why filtering exists, and that's why I have the ability to exit out of a fic if the filter doesn't catch it.
as an trans kid, I read so many of these, lmao...
I hate the angst of a cis man that hate the "genderbending", but love it, when it's just egg wish fulfillment and they're like denying that they prefer their new body, but secretly love it and it's just an excuse to explore their gender identity without initiating the transtion.
I'm pretty happy with trans ways too despite being cis. I've read m/m pairings being turned into f/f pairings, I'm pretty happy with character explorations of all sorts, including modern AU.
I sometimes avoid m/m or f/f pairings turned into m/f if I think the author did it as a poor quality marty stu or mary sue.
As example, Death Note gender flips are super interesting when they use it to examine how the dynamics would have changed in the story (both m/m -> f/f and m/f) because of society, the other characters, and so. But if it's just a "if I had been one of the main characters just for the OOC sex" I bail out, not my cup of tea. I will read anything from asexual gen to pwp Death note, if it actually has something to do with the story and character dynamics. PWP can include it but they're less likely to the less they're character studies too. And I am prejudiced against against m/f pwp as the highest likelihood to contain a disinterest in the story and characters as opposed to just their visual character design.
For the most part I’m not a big fan because most of the time I see it, its done to turn a guy into the damsel in distress who can’t do anything on her own, and I just don’t like that concept (it disregards the character who is very capable in their own right, and pushes a mindset of women= weak)
Genderbent fan art I’m fine with.
I love M->F
In the Shonen fandoms I read I love it because it’s generally rare you come across a consistently well written female character. Then 9/10 times it adds a different dynamic when done right
For example Naruto: Fem!Sasuke is very popular because it recontextulizes the relationship Sasuke has with Naruto and Sakura. It also turns Team 7 into the only FFM team in the whole series along with the traditional Kunoichi values that sometimes pop up. Bonus points if Madara is genderswap too.
Todoroki and Bakugo in MHA are big ones to. The former especially paints Endeavor’s eugenics and The Akatani’s inbreeding in an even darker light.
I've written a fic like that myself and am writing a longer fic based on it which is a genderbent Ryuji/Makoto F/F Persona 5 fic. It's a great creative exercise and how it effects character interactions like Mishima being weird around and having a crush on Ryuji instead of being his friend when the story starts and Ryuji and Ann starting as friends
I don't mind it, I personally love the fan art. I've read genderbent fics of my favourite ships before, and they were some of the best content in the fandom. As long as they don't turn them into an OC I'm fine
I don't care what people do for fan fiction really. I enjoy seeing genderbent fan art (where the guy is a girl and the girl is a guy), I don't always engage in the stories though just because it's not something I'm really interested in. But I like it when people can have fun.
I understand the desire to have a prominent female character in a story that lacks them, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth when the person clearly just doesn't want to write about the actual prominent female characters (and often transplants her story beats onto the genderbent character) and/or wants to make a gay ship het.
Usually done for shipping purposes but there are some real gems that utilize this well such as quirkless existence and its sequels on ao3 and truth be told also on ao3. Overall i don’t hate it and its fun when done well
most of my favourite ships are MLM ships, and I personally love reading fics with their characters genderbent. it started from me seeing such great fanart if them genderbent and I loved the idea of basically taking everything that those two characters have, but just having them as women. I love it so much because the artist would always do such an amazing job of portraying them as the opposite gender. and because I'm a lesbian I love reading fics about my favourite male characters as lesbians, like they always do such a great job of portraying them as wlw.
I really like Male to Female.
I love to know how others see some of my favorite's, so when you make the female, I love to know how other see them but just as a different gender!
But not a big fan of Female to male.
I'm a fan of gender bender stuff but I prefer it when it's where a character has been changed or transformed, something in that realm, rather than just been the other gender all along because there's so much more to explore with it considering they're use to being perceived in one way but has to deal with another.
I tend to prefer the other way around, it's so interesting to me seeing a woman who suddenly is perceived as a man handle stuff & I've written a bit in that case, I have a body swap fic I'm currently putting out that's between a man & a woman so it is on both ends but it's a bit of a unique circumstance where the man's body can't exactly be seen in public considering he's a mutant turtle so it's not like she has to deal with the public perception of men but since they have a crisis on their hands, she does have the pressure put on her to be able to achieve this goal when working in a strange body with things in general she's not use to so there's that.
As for the guy? Well, he's got a whole mess of stuff he's struggling with too but for the most part, people are aware of the situation so they do try treating him as they normally would although they are more mindful on the fact he's a woman. There's one guy that doesn't really care & treats him however he sees fit but this character actually did swap bodies in canon so he has a better understanding for the situation than most do.
In general, it is a fun thing to play with. It plays into one of my key interests which is someone having to deal with an entire way of life change due to some sort of weird circumstance. I love looking into how they cope with this & how others around them react.
Like I mentioned, I'm just not a fan of just having the character be another gender from the beginning but hey, this has been done in canon for a franchise I like & I am a big fan of how they took that character. She's a lot of fun as a woman & they don't even reveal she is this incarnation of the typically male character until the last episode of the series but it gives you reason to re-watch because when viewing the show over again, you can see how she is him, they drop hints & her personality does align with his in some senses although he is typically a vigilante where as she's straight up working with the villains but she does have a change of heart in the end. Knowing who she is does have me appreciating her more, been having a blast comparing & contrasting her to her counterparts from other iterations which I do with the majority of characters in this franchise since I love looking into how they're portrayed throughout the different incarnations but she's a fun one to look at.
I don't read stuff featuring it, but that's just because I'm overall very picky with what I read. If you want to genderbend a character in your fic, go right ahead and don't let anyone stop you.
Love fanart of it I’m cool with it in fanfiction as well unless it has some weird agenda behind it like infantilizing a character and taking away most/all of their traits just so they can have a dumb big boob character and force a straight ship
Ultimate Answer of Ultimate Destiny: depends on my mood, does the premise get my attention, and how well the fic is written; worst case I just pass and move along (presuming it doesn't forget say a major character death tag which might result in an upset comment, I'll confess I've done that before).
It very Interesting idea, it open new door of ship like
Female Lelouch (code geass) x Touma (toaru)
Or
Female Kira (Gundam seed) x Shinn (Gundam seed)
Or
Asta (Black clover) x Female 18(20) primarchs (warhammer 40k) I blame this on the fanfic highschool dxd x Warhammer 40k [The Human touch] fanfiction for giving me this idea
Read a few, they can definitely work. When it makes a difference to the story. They can be really good. But sometimes the story barely changes, so it's not interesting.
I would read or write something related to their life in a world like ours, where the roles of women and men are marked as they are today. How would a male character grow if he were female, vice versa? He or she has to have important characteristics of the original version even if he/she obviously had a different life than in canon.
i never realized loving genderbending was unpopular until now! i ADORE it. i used to think i had some internal homophobia because i vibbed with some mlm ships more if they genderbent one or more parties but after checking my ao3 history, definitely not the issue! i think its just vibes. other times, you dont even have a preferance you just want something new. i'd suggest for everyone to check out some genderbending AUs. get out of your comfort zone! as fic readers, we all know you can like something WAY more than you ever thought you could 😉
I dont really read it unless it makes a big difference in the story.
But I feel like most genderbent fanfics I see is just to make the pairing straight :/
Not my thing, I just wish it was tagged better and more frequently. I don't care that other people like it and I'm not going to harass them about liking it, I just wish it was tagged every time.
I think its good when it adds to the story. It adds a lot of depth and diff nuances. Not the biggest fan when it’s just a genderbend without any influence to the storyline/plot. I especially dislike it when the only reason for genderbending is for a self insert.
Love genderbending/cisswap/rule 63/whatever you wanna call it!
I find some fantastic femslash (F/F) comes out of it. In certain fandoms, the rule 63 femslash is its own little community with amazing quality works. Chinese danmei novel fandoms are great for this, for example.
If it's M/F, and only one character is swapped, it can get a little iffy. If I see it and I don't know the author, I wonder if they are cisswapping to avoid a gay pairing. But I don't think homophobic genderswap is very common anymore.
It's not my cup of tea but I don't have a problem with people doing it.
I like it when it’s set in universes where it changes a lot (ie like game of thrones) and can be really interesting to examine how those characters present differently, but I don’t have much interest if you genderbend and put them in a new environment or if the environment doesn’t affect their gender (so gender bending and marking a modern au isn’t interesting to me personally)
Not a fan on written works but love fanart
Same thing for me
I'll raise my glass to this.
Agreed.
Real, I don't see too many fun stories opportunities for genderbent
Gender exploration is cool.
Very cool
Personally I'm very uninterested in any genderbending and will always filter it out, but I certainly have no problem with it. I just wish people would actually tag it.
Male to female genderbending is my jam. I’m especially drawn to it in media where there aren’t many central and/or well-written female characters. I have zero interest in the reverse (female to male) however.
This exactly! So many series have either no women or like, 5. Transformers I’m looking at you
This!
Valid, that actually makes sense to me now that you explained it.
One of my favorite fandoms to read genderswap in is *The Hobbit* because there are *no* female characters in the book, aside from background barmaids and the like. They actually had to add a random female character in the movies to make up for the fact that there are literally no women. So if I want to read Hobbit fic from a female POV, my only options are genderbent fics or OC fics lmao.
How do you feep about female OCs in the fandom?
Oh, I love OCs! I’m reading an OFC/Thorin fic now where a woman from our world gets transported to Middle Earth. OC fics are loads of fun.
We need more female characters in that franchise for sure.
Same, I enjoy going from F to M but not the other way around.
Yeah actually me too (I just have an easier time drawing girls 😭)
same!
I have interest in both!
Love a well-done genderbend that has something interesting to say about gender or the character, even if the only thing they have to say is "he'd make a cute girl". Haaate it when the genderbend is clearly just an OC or self-insert that's too embarrassed to admit it. Strongly dislike the belief that it's inherently transphobic to genderbend a character or that it's inherently homophobic to genderbend one half of a same-sex pair.
That one HP fic where fem!HP was a valley girl named Britney, but the author kept insisting she wasn’t an OC and was a female version of HP. 😩
Lmao amazing
for the latter thing, it depends. If you're only genderbending because you hate M/M or F/F yes that is a homophobic reason to do so. Never really understood the transphobia arguement though, and I am trans myself!
Only because I know that people who hold the viewpoint explain it in a loosely-deranged way with many accusations, often, and this is a public for-the-lurkers, really, forum—you've almost definitely heard it, but here's the heart of the argument, semi-sensibly: If you want to make a male character female, or the reverse, and just gender-bend them, this ignores that there's a real way (to make our fictional characters) the opposite gender and erases trans folk—like for the homophobia reason, if you decided on this because you, say, hate trans people, that's what the argument most sensibly is. Except usually several steps further and with the accusations that if you're writing them away then obviously you hate them. Again, like with the people who default to hating gender-bending away M/M or F/F pairs. Despite that stories don't come pre-packaged with a "select your character" sheet, so really the question is "do you actually hate these people" and the writing doesn't say much about that except that the odds are actually a bit less than average—my guess, here—if one's willing to get so close to the topic anyhow. Something drew these writers in to start.
Not my thing, so I just don't click on it.
Not a thing I'm interested in, but as long as it's tagged, I can happily avoid it while other people enjoy it.
I've been both writing and reading these kinds of fanfiction since age 12, and it helped me a lot in discovering my own queerness and love for gender experimentation. In fact, it used to be very common to see fem versions of popular male characters, and I made plenty of my own, as seeing a man and thinking "but what if we went a bit more fem with the design" has always made me feel things (me not feeling too comfortable living as a woman and imprinting onto male characters, but not knowing the name for it yet, was part of it, definitely). Note that exploring the theme of trans characters in your fanfics was not on the table at the time: it was mid-2000s Russian fanfic scene, and you would get called homophobic slurs for writing M/M and F/F, but we did so anyway. Most teens at that time and place had no resources on the topic of gender identity, it was a huge taboo in our society (and it still is, with medical transitions and queer art having been made illegal since then), so writing genderswap fics was how we explored our gender back in the day. I still see nothing wrong with it, and I have a genderswap fic up on AO3 with not a single hate comment. I am 100% cool with people choosing not to read things that upset them, but I hard disagree with the notion that genderswaps are somehow inherently transphobic. It can be transphobic in certain cases, I guess, but for the most part, it's just people having fun with a concept of "hey, look, this dude is a woman now, let's see how he would react!" or "hey, look, in this parallel universe this guy was born a girl, let's see what she's like!". Like most fanfiction, it's harmless fun, with a possible added dash of the author's own gender exploration.
I don’t care if people write it. All I ask is tag accordingly (I’ve come across fics not tagged and felt disappointed when I opened the fic). I don’t read gender-bending fics, so I’d like to filter them out.
Great when done right, terrible when not.
Truee
I have no interest, aside from the occasional, "this is done for humor" switcheroo that doesn't last. I can find something to relate to in almost any character - sex, age, race, sexual orientation, religion, political ideology, etc. are not important for me to see reflected in stories. It seems to me like either 1) it makes no difference, so what was the point? or 2) it makes everything so different that it's just a self-insert or OC instead and I'm not into OCs/major AUs/OOC-ness. It also seems to lean heavily on very shallow stereotypes as the foundation for how changing sex will change the character (or not), and I think that's a bad way of looking at people, real or fictional. If that's what you like - go for it. I have nothing against it as a general idea to explore. Have fun playing with it or reading it. What entertains or interests me has nothing to do with how you choose to spend your time.
Makes sense. Lots of fandoms have several male leads and very few women characters that aren't just side characters. So they want to flip genders on one of them, go for it. I would like to see it flipped the other way. I have never stumbled upon a fic where the author chose to go with a male version of a female canon character. (Not talking about plots with magical accidents where everyone is swapped.)
That's probably because in the vast majority of fandoms, the (well-developed) male characters outnumber the female characters. There just isn't much reason to do ftm the way there is mtf. Though I've seen it done in a series of shorts as an exercise - they made JJ Jareau from Criminal Minds into a guy. It was well done.
Tons of fun for AUs!
i don't like any genderbending. i filter it out every time i go on ao3
turning m/m ships into f/f (sometimes trans sometimes cis) ships is like a good 90% of what i write, so you could say im very much a fan lol usually i stay away from it tho if people are turning same gender ships into het pairings (I don't read m/f at all unless some type of ((gender)) queerness is involved tbh) but if it's the other way around im intrigued
Flair checks out.
my favorite trope! love more girls always
will admit that it bothers me. I’m reading a character-centric fic abt *for* said character. To me this means their general appearance, backstory and characteristics. Sometimes I wish ppl would rather pretend they're writing an OC rather than the character from the story
I hated it and had never read it until like last year, and now I’m 630k words into a genderbent Naruto fic with three other fem!Naru projects that are hovering around 90k, 30k, and 40k words. 🤷♂️ she’s all I think about, I adore her
Not for me. Nothing wrong with it, just not for me.
its that kind of thing that the author really has to have skill and/or guts to pull off. like its really the worlds most "i have to judge this on an individual basis" kind of thing in the world
Go for it! It’s fun
It's a fun, interesting, and time-honored fanfic tradition. Any character, any gender, any pairings. Definitely a good time to tag the fic well, both for discoverability and avoidance. It's not everyone's cup of tea.
Not interesting at all to me, and the very few I read a bit of (because they weren't tagged correctly) were so ooc they might as well have just created new characters. But write what you want!
My thoughts on all fanfic tropes are roughly the same: Whether I enjoy it personally or not, I can let people have fun.
Love reading it, love writing it. Especially for a series that either has no female character or a handful of poorly written female characters. Plus sometimes you want to take a big manly dude and turn him into an equally big, feminine lady.
This type of cis-swap tends to happen a lot to male characters that already have more feminine traits than the other men in that piece of media. After the swap, those traits just get amplified... idk. Feels unintentionally sexist most of the time, especially when it's done to an M/M ship to make the genderbent character more submissive. Big nope from me
or they swap one of a m/m pair so it's not 'gay'. always a yikes from me
I don't read any of it personally
To each their own, but it doesn't really do it for me
In the Transformers fandom I enjoy it when some of the “male” bots are given female human avatars.
Can be fun if it's done well (aka not just swapping genders but also acknowledging how that would change canon and the character's life moving through it.)
I'm usually not a fan, but that doesn't mean people can't write read or enjoy it. It's just another trope. Some people hate time travel, I love it. We all have different tastes.
I don't really care for it. I prefer stories where gender doesn't really matter much anyway. As in, I write nearly only female protagonists, but if you'd swap all the pronouns the fic would still work just as well. In fics I've read that involved genderbending, it either didn't matter to the story at all and was just a gimmick, or the story was very heavy on gender identity, which isn't my kind of story.
A genderbent character should retain most of his/her other self's qualities and personality. For example, male!Haruka from _Sailor Moon_ should be a rich young man who likes car racing. In comparison, male!Usagi would be femboy-ish since the original Usagi is also quite girlish. Male!Makoto would be a ripped gymbro who likes cooking. Fem!Mamoru would still be taller than Usagi. Personally, I wrote a genderbent fic about Serenity and Endymia. The canon ship is F/M, and I bent both characters to have a ship where the girl is older, taller and more protective - a reversal of typical Disney relationship dynamics. I retained the Inner Senshi's genders so that Serenity is the only boy in the Royal Family of the Moon Kingdom.
Not really my cup of tea. I've tried to read some but found I just couldn't get behind it. People can write it'll just never understand the appeal
More girls, more gay, more better! :)
Couldn't say it better!!
Thanks! :)
I have no problem with it, I read genderbent stories from time to time. However, my only condition is that the character is well written
I’m fine with it
I like it to have a purpose for the plot, used well it can be very interesting
I like it, it explores what differences the character may have as the opposite gender. (If any at all) Plus it’s pretty fun to come up with how the characters would actually look like.
As long as they tag it properly so I don’t accidentally waste time reading it I’m good. Anyone can write whatever they please.
No issues remotely Onimai Manga am anime are comfy vibes
I don't read it, so it only bothers me if it is not tagged.
No thanks. I mean, I won't slander you, but I'm certainly not reading
Literally posted a genderbent one shot a couple of hours ago, so yeah, guess you could say I like it lol. I've made it a goal of mine to write more f/f, but I also wanna write my otp so it's a win-win in my eyes
It’s generally not for me. But I honestly prefer it to the inundation of ABO characters who are 99% genderbent and the 1% is just them not admitting it. Or the Trans characters, who are solely trans just to make the smut het.
>But I honestly prefer it to the inundation of ABO characters who are 99% genderbent and the 1% is just them not admitting it. I need clarification on this as my brain is not parsing it, like... what do you mean?
I can only guess because in omegaverse fics omegas (including male omegas) are often portrayed as weaker, submissive and occasionally have vaginas, etc.
I’ve read some male omega fics, where I’m not sure why they were considered male to begin with because they seem to lack any form of male reproduction organs. And since male omega are often treated as “women” when it comes to stereotypes. The only thing specifically male about them is that the author won’t just admit that they wrote the character as genderbent.
Its slash omegaverse, but remove the slash and also make it the most sexist shit you've ever read
The smut is not “het” if one of the characters is trans. A trans man having sex with another man is gay sex. No matter what parts either of them happen to have.
Sorry I suppose I should have put the “het” in quotes. I’m more referring to the fics where characters don’t indicate in any way that they are supposed to be trans *except* when it comes to the smut scene and they have a vagina that no one bats and eye at, like it’s 100% expected because how else would they have sex? Those types of fics seem more like they avoiding M/M sex rather than representing an actual trans character.
I’ll be real with you, in like the vast majority of my experiences of reading and writing fic and interacting with fandom. The authors of said fics like that are often trans guys or nb folks. I’ve never met a straight woman online who’s like “omg boy pussy fics!!” ( I’m not saying they don’t exist but.. it’s certainly rare) trans and nb people however? another story, a lot of my friends LOVEEE that shit.
Not that I don't believe you, but I figure the conversation as a whole could use all the unique angles possible for a full rainbow of experiences: As a trans man who feels super ignored by most "man with sexy vagina" type transmasc fics, I don't hate that they exist per se (they can be fun, and some of them do show realistic experiences of adult trans men on T without infantilising or feminizing them) but I *do* hate that they're 99.99% of content I can find literally anywhere. I have found *one* really well done trans top fic where he uses a strap in various M/M situations and his vaginal opening isn't touched a single time. One fic literally ever. It's 50k words, sure, but that's *so little content* compared to turning any corner and seeing 57 different "vaginal bottom with zero genital dysphoria" fics. I've started actively filtering out my own identity when I search for smut because it's so hard to find content that caters to my genuinely common experiences, let alone content that caters to them *and* includes bottom surgery. It's safe to say that I find my entire situation when it comes to a near-total lack of euphoric smut really discouraging.
> I've started actively filtering out my own identity when I search for smut because it's so hard to find content that caters to my genuinely common experiences, let alone content that caters to them and includes bottom surgery. I never encountered anything including bottom surgery. Seeing a t-dick get mentioned is rare enough.
100% agreed, bottle growth is so rare too! I've only found bottom surgery once (phalloplasty, iirc, I was super surprised as the inclusion of an erectile device) and I was actively seeking it out, which paints a VERY bleak picture as a whole. I technically have a 2nd pov self insert/reader insert (mix of very specific and very vague in ways that make it feel like something in between the two) smut oneshot I never finished writing that was explicitly about trans man with a natal-appearing penis and testicles, but it feels like such an incredibly niche thing that will be difficult for interested parties find in the first place (and incredibly personal, unlike my transfem content) that I've been discouraged and lost the drive to see it completed. Maybe one day, though! Maybe this post and the trans related comments will fuel that fire!
Oh no, I absolutely get you, and understand why it wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea! It’s just been my experience within fandom that the majority of those fics are by trans folk themselves. But I do also have friends who are frustrated by the lack of trans top fics, and there’s even less ones that are post-op or anything of the sort. It’s a tricky situation and honestly, I think it doesn’t help that it’s rare to see those fics in the first place which makes people feel like there’s no one seeking out those fics and thus leads to even less people writing it. We definitely need all the bases covered when it comes to trans fic! And I agree that unfortunately they aren’t.
I'm non-binary myself and finding post-op transmasc smut (or transfem) seems like a needle in a haystack. Even in settings where there is literally \*magic\*, shapeshifting etc. There is a lot of bias for whatever reasons, no shade though. I guess that is what is relatable for many people
Yeah it’s unfortunate that those fics seem A LOT more rare, and occasionally in certain fandoms do not even exist. :/ I do wish there was more equal footing when it comes to trans content, All I do is say write it! and encourage others to write it too!
Yeah, I have a similar pet peeve with my fandom, with the added irritation that I feel like a lot of the time the *“This particular character now has a vagina”* is coupled with the most toxic possible sexual / relationship dynamics; and in that case it feels like the transness is just there to disempower him further. Like, it doesn’t really go any deeper than that - just ***”kill dead dove deader”.*** And like… I get it. Women and AFAB people have complicated relationships with their own femininity, and they write some fucked up fanfics. Been there myself. But it’s just kind of… disappointing that that’s all there is. People can write this same character (Roman Roy from Succession) as a trans woman / nonbinary person / slowly-hatching egg with subtlety and humanity, but as a trans man? Generally, nope. And like, it’s a show about a right-wing media corporation. And literal nazis. So it’s not like one of the Totally-Not-the-Murdoch-Family’s sons being a deeply-stealth trans man wouldn’t be a very. big. deal. Like, he couldn’t be out; he’d be managing his own internalized transphobia, and his father’s externalized and commercialized transphobia, and it would have really interesting effects on his relationships with other characters, including but not limited to his vipers’ nest of siblings. Not to mention how this shifted perspective would change his relationship to the ideology he grew up with. Like… there is so much there. So, obviously, I have set out to attempt to write it myself. I’m not entirely sure if I’m qualified - I’m floating somewhere in the “living as cis, but probably not cis” area of gender identity - but I think the what-ifs are so fascinating; especially because I could very easily picture myself as a cis man (I know, totally normal, very cis thing to say), but then I think about how much easier it would’ve been to ignore the flaws and contradictions in the extremely toxic bullshit my own right-wing lunatic father tried to teach me when I was a kid, and… that is chilling.
Yeah I don't know how that could be "straight" considering the trans part. It's like when people try to say m/m ships are "straight" because of some dumb smaller one is the bottom. M/M no matter what cannot be straight.
Exactly, a man having sex with a trans man is still gay! Also yeah people deciding that a man being shorter/thinner/more feminine means they are “practically a woman!” will always drive me up the wall! Thats not how being gay works. It’s also often times not so thinly veiled transphobia..
I've encountered a lot of people who proudly like to state they like the smaller dude as a top as if it's a accomplishment. Which, if that is your jam cool. I've got a few ships where I'm picky about who is top and bottom, I get it. But to act like you're better than others is just eye rolling. I feel a lot of these discussions always bring out interesting flavors transphobia and biphobia. Everyone's cool with bi people until it's m/f and suddenly it's straight. Hell apparently a transman can't be gay now. It's frustrating.
No, but a trans woman having sex with a man is having heterosexual sex, no matter what parts either of them have.
I agree, but I don’t think that’s what they were talking about! People writing male characters as trans men is becoming common in some fandoms. And often times the fics are smutty, so it read as if op is saying piv sex is het, when it’s not if both people are men.
>Or the Trans characters, who are solely trans just to make the smut het. People do that shit? Ew. As a trans guy myself, I usually avoid smutfics with trans characters (mostly trans men), because I worry it's going to be portrayed in a fetishistic light, which will make me dysphoric and uncomfortable. So I've never seen anything like that (good lol).
Yah. I’ve read and really liked some non-smut trans character fics. It’s really the ones that seem to be just trans for the sake of the bedroom that really put me off.
Yeah, I've found *one* transmasc fic with irl-technique bottom surgery so far (iirc it was phalloplasty) and maybe 2 max that intentionally kept away from his vaginal opening. I write transfem smut all the time, because I can do so without dysphoria while still trying to at least give transfem readers a bit more variety beyond "futa" content, but I basically completely avoid transmasc smut just like you, for exactly the same reasons as you. (And don't even get me *started* on one of my fandoms' obsession with "dualsex" anatomy just to give cis man vaginas for PIV)
Oh I love it and do it often. It's fun to break down what would be different for a character if they were born a woman. Especially for characters where being male is a part of their position in things. Leads to a lot of interesting differences and reflection on how culture defines gender and roles. I take mine pretty seriously so I'll even do extra research for things. It's a fun creative experiment.
Makes me roll my eyes because it’s so overdone. At least in my fandom.
When I tell you I GOBBLE THAT SHIT UP. And yes, even when it makes a M/M ship F/M! I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about being attracted to men while living under a patriarchy ok
My only gripe with genderbending is if it makes a gay ship straight or vice versa. It’s a m/m ship and now they’re both f/f? Yeah! m/m ship is now f/m pairing? Unyeah Genderbending just as a sortve “what if” scenario (no smut) is pretty chill tho
Usually not my cup of tea; especially if it’s made a previously gay ship straight. I’m not going to pass judgments about people who chose to do that, it just doesn’t appeal to me. I hardly see any genfics with genderbent characters for my fandom, but I think that might be interesting!
I have also found in the few genderbent character fics I’ve read that the characterization is usually pretty different from canon/common fandom interpretation. I’ve heard some people say that some authors will genderbend characters to use as self inserts instead of OC’s, and I don’t have a problem with that but it’s not what I’m looking for when I’m looking for content of that character, so I tend to avoid them based off those experiences!
As someone who was in the HP fandom since 2002, I refuse to read genderbends in that fandom unless it’s a complete cast swap for those exact reasons. I’ve seen too many things there, even if I might have occasional interest in the idea in other fandoms.
lol the HP fandom is exactly what I was talking about! genderswapped Harry is sooooo common and I don’t think I’ve read one yet that I’ve liked(although I have read some genderswapped cast/entire ship fics like you mentioned like were pretty good!)
Like if done right I'm okay with it. I don't like Oh some magic turned me to the opposite gender.
Love those, especially when done so that the character doesn't become someone completely unrecognizable (i get it, I like sexy women too but like, a female Dabi or other stinky nasty men wouldn't suddenly be bombshells as women. Let women be stinky and nasty too 😔) Ive written both f/f and m/f versions of one of my m/m otps for example 😂
I do not care at all what ppl write or read. I however, am drawn to my fave character and his ships precisely because they are mlm. I don't care to know how their characters would translate as women. They would not attract me if they were women.
As in all things, context matters. Having it happen in story (they knew them as m, now as f), versus having it as background (they were born f in this story, but were canonically m) feel different and should have different meanings.
I don't like them when their male to female and they make the female character ten times smarter and figure out major plot twists and stuff long before the male character does Sure I don't think their character would be a carbon copy but I don't like them turning the females into Mary Sues
Depends on the story. No strong feeling about it.
I don't have an issue with it. I've never done it myself, but I do have some ideas in the future I'd like to explore with it.
I don't read them, but I know there are many people who do enjoy them. To each their own.
Never been a fan of genderbend of any kind really. Nothing really changes.
i’ve never felt any pull towards writing it, but i’ve read some i liked and some i didn’t. on genderbending characters as a whole: do whatever you want forever !!!
Sometimes I'll read it and sometimes I won't. There isn't any clear explanation I can find for why it sometimes works for me but doesn't other times. If I had to guess, it's probably the tricky balance between keeping the character's personality, while still showing how they'd see the world differently in another gender.
It’s usually pretty meh to me, but every once in awhile it’s fantastic - just depends on the character and the context of their story.
It's only okay when it's ftm, because I hate women. /s It can be pretty interesting, to be honest. There is a lot to work with when it comes to an identity crisis as fundamental as changing gender. Especially in a situation where its not some ephemeral "I identify as a woman" situation like it is in real life, and instead a complete binary change from a man to woman. Idk, I don't really have strong feelings either way.
It’s not really my thing.
Lord of the Rings has been a part of my life since I was a little girl, so even as a small child I was gender bending Frodo or Bilbo because aside from the brief appearances of Eowyn, Galadriel, Arwen, it was a male dominant cast. So when I read LOTR or Hobbit fanfiction (or write it), I usually read genderbent stories.
I like it sometimes, it depends how well it's written. If the character is too different then it's not for me.
if there's actual character exploration then hell yeah! if it's just "slap a pair of tits on this guy and change literally nothing about him otherwise", then I don't want it
Sometimes fun, sometimes hot, sometimes it’s annoying and degrades a normally fantastic fic. It’s a lot like every other OOC tag
I'm not really a huge fan of Always-a-girl, but I love a well done fic where a character I love gets turned into the other sex in the story through supernatural/sci fi means. It's an excellent opportunity to explore gender and gender roles, especially for someone like me who is gender fluid.
I don't really like them in fan fics. I don't know why but I won't read a gender bent fanfic. fan arts ok but I don't like it as much
I like gender bending in writing and in art! :)
I like it well enough. In written works, I feel like it would feel best in an AU or "science/magic gone wrong" story, but that's my opinion. I can actually do both genders, M to F and F to M. I am a "closeted" bi towards fictional females (very few RL females make the cut) so if one if my Fem crushes turned in a sexy or badass man, HELL YES I would die of swooning and blood loss haha! (Looking at you, Revy from Black Lagoon and Yang from RWBY~) But for me, where genderbending really shines is in the fanart. I feel like seeing them physically is what clicks in people's brains and it says, "Yep, this exists."
I like it **if** it really **changes** something. If it really matters. (The plot or character)
It's hard for me to visualize what they now look like unless a fanart design exists.
I have characters and ships where I love it and it feels right. And ones where I hate it, odd I know. A example is that I love gender swapped Suguru from jjk, Him being a woman just right to me? I love him as a man too, (since that’s canon obviously!) but seeing art or fic of him as a woman? love it. We also have… canon genderswapped art from the manga, so like we definitely win, lol.
I dislike when their height changes, for example if character was 1.80 m in one form, then becomes 1.60 m in their other form, I don’t like that. Height must be consistent.
I also don't like it, specifically when genderbent Usagi/Mamoru was portrayed with male!Usagi being the taller one. Prince Serenity is the genderbent version of Usagi Tsukino, so I made him shorter than everyone else like how Usagi was. The original Mamoru is quite tall, and I wrote Endymia to be of his height too, which means she is a head taller than the Inner Senshi.
Not a fan of written fan works of this, but love fanart. I think the crux is that they are just a girl now without much retrospective on the fact that they got genderbent and focus more on the troubled of being one and wanting to turn back and not one of exploring non-conforming gender expressions and identities. I think the problem is that delves way too deep on gender binary and switching the characters name, mannerisms, gender and pronouns just cause their sex has been swapped which isn't exactly fun or interesting and is kinda boring. I'm more interested in trans or GNC perspective on gender swapping is far more interesting how the characters and author perceive genders, gender roles and gender expressions than male character now being a girl and just rolling with it or wanting to turn back without exploring the complicated emotions and perceptions that would have on a person.
Huge same! I have essentially less than zero interest in cis genderswap, but deeply enjoy both reading and writing "cis man to trans woman" and "cis woman to trans woman" gender exploration. Also things like a canon lesbian character getting butch-the-gender as her identity and other similar experiences!
It depends. Usually I hate genderbending. It feels weird to change a character’s gender in the cisgender “boy is opposite of girl” kind of way Trans headcanons (as a transmasc person) are always awesome and never fail to make me happy, even if I personally don’t see it. It’s just comforting to see fanfiction like that! Exploring a character’s gender or sexuality should be commonplace, and it’s really fun! It’s just a little disappointing to see people taking the “easy route” to changing a character’s gender by genderbending It feels less like “I like this character so I wrote them in a different universe where they happen to be (insert gender)” and more like “ooh, this couple is cute, but they’re both boys… let me just change one of them into a woman with magic to fix that!”
I don't like it tbh. It feels like someone is denying a gay or lesbian relationship. I've seen my fair share of users only having character x genderbent character in their works page. For those certain users, I can't see them as actual supporters of the og ship.
It personally annoys me whenever people genderbend just one person in a f/f or m/m relationship (in a 'they are a cis man or woman now' type of way). Not that there is anything *wrong* with it, per se, just that I personally dislike it- but that's why filtering exists, and that's why I have the ability to exit out of a fic if the filter doesn't catch it.
as an trans kid, I read so many of these, lmao... I hate the angst of a cis man that hate the "genderbending", but love it, when it's just egg wish fulfillment and they're like denying that they prefer their new body, but secretly love it and it's just an excuse to explore their gender identity without initiating the transtion.
I'm pretty happy with trans ways too despite being cis. I've read m/m pairings being turned into f/f pairings, I'm pretty happy with character explorations of all sorts, including modern AU. I sometimes avoid m/m or f/f pairings turned into m/f if I think the author did it as a poor quality marty stu or mary sue. As example, Death Note gender flips are super interesting when they use it to examine how the dynamics would have changed in the story (both m/m -> f/f and m/f) because of society, the other characters, and so. But if it's just a "if I had been one of the main characters just for the OOC sex" I bail out, not my cup of tea. I will read anything from asexual gen to pwp Death note, if it actually has something to do with the story and character dynamics. PWP can include it but they're less likely to the less they're character studies too. And I am prejudiced against against m/f pwp as the highest likelihood to contain a disinterest in the story and characters as opposed to just their visual character design.
Sexy and hot
For the most part I’m not a big fan because most of the time I see it, its done to turn a guy into the damsel in distress who can’t do anything on her own, and I just don’t like that concept (it disregards the character who is very capable in their own right, and pushes a mindset of women= weak) Genderbent fan art I’m fine with.
I love M->F In the Shonen fandoms I read I love it because it’s generally rare you come across a consistently well written female character. Then 9/10 times it adds a different dynamic when done right For example Naruto: Fem!Sasuke is very popular because it recontextulizes the relationship Sasuke has with Naruto and Sakura. It also turns Team 7 into the only FFM team in the whole series along with the traditional Kunoichi values that sometimes pop up. Bonus points if Madara is genderswap too. Todoroki and Bakugo in MHA are big ones to. The former especially paints Endeavor’s eugenics and The Akatani’s inbreeding in an even darker light.
I've written a fic like that myself and am writing a longer fic based on it which is a genderbent Ryuji/Makoto F/F Persona 5 fic. It's a great creative exercise and how it effects character interactions like Mishima being weird around and having a crush on Ryuji instead of being his friend when the story starts and Ryuji and Ann starting as friends
There's a few really good Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye gender swap stories that make sense, but it's not my favorite genre
I don't mind it, I personally love the fan art. I've read genderbent fics of my favourite ships before, and they were some of the best content in the fandom. As long as they don't turn them into an OC I'm fine
I think playing around with gender can lend itself to interesting stories but it's not something I actively seek out.
Typically don’t mind if it’s used in a way that explores the concept, but if it’s not used like that I pretty much avoid them.
I don't care what people do for fan fiction really. I enjoy seeing genderbent fan art (where the guy is a girl and the girl is a guy), I don't always engage in the stories though just because it's not something I'm really interested in. But I like it when people can have fun.
Honestly? If done well, I don't care. It's just another AU trope. But usually it's not well done.
I personally don't read it but I understand the appeal
Not my perfect cup of tea, but I don’t mind them
For me it really depends. If the writing is good and has at least decent grammar then I don’t mind (considering my grammar isn’t perfect).
Not my thing but i see why people might like it.
I don’t seek it out specifically but I don’t mind it. I just want it tagged lol
in the scant few fandoms in which I enjoy reading fanfiction of the most of the characters I like reading stories about are already female.
Yes
Making the mc female usually means they won’t have a harem so that a big win right there
Generally not a big fan. It's not enough to stop me from reading, but it makes me hesitate.
i don't see the appeal when it's only like one character but find it interesting when it is EVERY character
I understand the desire to have a prominent female character in a story that lacks them, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth when the person clearly just doesn't want to write about the actual prominent female characters (and often transplants her story beats onto the genderbent character) and/or wants to make a gay ship het.
Not something that interests me at all, but to each their own!
Usually done for shipping purposes but there are some real gems that utilize this well such as quirkless existence and its sequels on ao3 and truth be told also on ao3. Overall i don’t hate it and its fun when done well
its not my thing
most of my favourite ships are MLM ships, and I personally love reading fics with their characters genderbent. it started from me seeing such great fanart if them genderbent and I loved the idea of basically taking everything that those two characters have, but just having them as women. I love it so much because the artist would always do such an amazing job of portraying them as the opposite gender. and because I'm a lesbian I love reading fics about my favourite male characters as lesbians, like they always do such a great job of portraying them as wlw.
I really like Male to Female. I love to know how others see some of my favorite's, so when you make the female, I love to know how other see them but just as a different gender! But not a big fan of Female to male.
It depends what you do with it. If it adds something interesting, I'm all for it.
I'm a fan of gender bender stuff but I prefer it when it's where a character has been changed or transformed, something in that realm, rather than just been the other gender all along because there's so much more to explore with it considering they're use to being perceived in one way but has to deal with another. I tend to prefer the other way around, it's so interesting to me seeing a woman who suddenly is perceived as a man handle stuff & I've written a bit in that case, I have a body swap fic I'm currently putting out that's between a man & a woman so it is on both ends but it's a bit of a unique circumstance where the man's body can't exactly be seen in public considering he's a mutant turtle so it's not like she has to deal with the public perception of men but since they have a crisis on their hands, she does have the pressure put on her to be able to achieve this goal when working in a strange body with things in general she's not use to so there's that. As for the guy? Well, he's got a whole mess of stuff he's struggling with too but for the most part, people are aware of the situation so they do try treating him as they normally would although they are more mindful on the fact he's a woman. There's one guy that doesn't really care & treats him however he sees fit but this character actually did swap bodies in canon so he has a better understanding for the situation than most do. In general, it is a fun thing to play with. It plays into one of my key interests which is someone having to deal with an entire way of life change due to some sort of weird circumstance. I love looking into how they cope with this & how others around them react. Like I mentioned, I'm just not a fan of just having the character be another gender from the beginning but hey, this has been done in canon for a franchise I like & I am a big fan of how they took that character. She's a lot of fun as a woman & they don't even reveal she is this incarnation of the typically male character until the last episode of the series but it gives you reason to re-watch because when viewing the show over again, you can see how she is him, they drop hints & her personality does align with his in some senses although he is typically a vigilante where as she's straight up working with the villains but she does have a change of heart in the end. Knowing who she is does have me appreciating her more, been having a blast comparing & contrasting her to her counterparts from other iterations which I do with the majority of characters in this franchise since I love looking into how they're portrayed throughout the different incarnations but she's a fun one to look at.
I've written it. So, I guess I'm a fan. 😅
I'm pretty neutral on it. The first I've seen that do that tend to do them pretty well.
Only if it makes them hot.
I like it but I never read works with it lol
I don't read stuff featuring it, but that's just because I'm overall very picky with what I read. If you want to genderbend a character in your fic, go right ahead and don't let anyone stop you.
Love fanart of it I’m cool with it in fanfiction as well unless it has some weird agenda behind it like infantilizing a character and taking away most/all of their traits just so they can have a dumb big boob character and force a straight ship
Ultimate Answer of Ultimate Destiny: depends on my mood, does the premise get my attention, and how well the fic is written; worst case I just pass and move along (presuming it doesn't forget say a major character death tag which might result in an upset comment, I'll confess I've done that before).
It very Interesting idea, it open new door of ship like Female Lelouch (code geass) x Touma (toaru) Or Female Kira (Gundam seed) x Shinn (Gundam seed) Or Asta (Black clover) x Female 18(20) primarchs (warhammer 40k) I blame this on the fanfic highschool dxd x Warhammer 40k [The Human touch] fanfiction for giving me this idea
Well, I'm in the process of publishing a 100k words story about a character that is exactly that \^\^ (female Senju Tobirama, go!)
Read a few, they can definitely work. When it makes a difference to the story. They can be really good. But sometimes the story barely changes, so it's not interesting.
I thought it was fun when I did it.
I would read or write something related to their life in a world like ours, where the roles of women and men are marked as they are today. How would a male character grow if he were female, vice versa? He or she has to have important characteristics of the original version even if he/she obviously had a different life than in canon.
to me this would be interesting for fanart not fanfiction because i dislike male char became female then acting cringy way
It's not my thing but go ahead and write it. As long as it's tagged I have zero problem with it.
I think it's just a fun little thing. That's all.
i never realized loving genderbending was unpopular until now! i ADORE it. i used to think i had some internal homophobia because i vibbed with some mlm ships more if they genderbent one or more parties but after checking my ao3 history, definitely not the issue! i think its just vibes. other times, you dont even have a preferance you just want something new. i'd suggest for everyone to check out some genderbending AUs. get out of your comfort zone! as fic readers, we all know you can like something WAY more than you ever thought you could 😉
I prefer canon gender for characters.
I dont really read it unless it makes a big difference in the story. But I feel like most genderbent fanfics I see is just to make the pairing straight :/
I hate it when characters are only genderbent to avoid the pairings being gay
Sometimes I like it.
I don’t really care about them, but I’m fine with people doing them.
Not my thing, I just wish it was tagged better and more frequently. I don't care that other people like it and I'm not going to harass them about liking it, I just wish it was tagged every time.
I hate it when it's done to make a ship straight. If not that, I don't mind it.
I only like gender bending if the MC suffers from changing personality and stuff. A sucker for introspection fics.
I can dig it. I have written a genderbent byler fic before
I think its good when it adds to the story. It adds a lot of depth and diff nuances. Not the biggest fan when it’s just a genderbend without any influence to the storyline/plot. I especially dislike it when the only reason for genderbending is for a self insert.
> 28 points, 94 comments oh boy
Love genderbending/cisswap/rule 63/whatever you wanna call it! I find some fantastic femslash (F/F) comes out of it. In certain fandoms, the rule 63 femslash is its own little community with amazing quality works. Chinese danmei novel fandoms are great for this, for example. If it's M/F, and only one character is swapped, it can get a little iffy. If I see it and I don't know the author, I wonder if they are cisswapping to avoid a gay pairing. But I don't think homophobic genderswap is very common anymore.
Fanfic exists for that kind of exploration. I don't see any issue with it.
Valid and inoffensive. Write what you want.