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browngirlSo I've been thinking, not least since I read a post (now flocked) asking why people read and write genderswap, about my reasons, and some discussions I've been in and read recently have brought the topic to mind again. [For the purposes of this discussion I mean stories where a character has the other physical gender from the one they are perceived in canon as having. So far in my writing this has meant a character who is cisgendered and one gender in canon is cisgendered and the other gender in the story. A story about a character who has the same gender identity as in canon but a different physical gender, or the same physical gender but a different gender identity, would be a story about a transgender character -- or at least that would be my intent in writing such a story, and thus I would classify it differently.]
I'm going to start, however, with some reasons ascribed to the reading and writing of genderswap which are not mine when I write, nor have I seen them in the genderswap fics I can recall reading since I joined Star Trek Reboot fandom. These are largely reasons given by people who disapprove of genderswap, which I think contributes to their inaccuracy, but they warrant addressing anyway. Where I could I have quoted actual statements.
I don't think that genderswapped characters are necessarily "really sexist or grossly Mary-Sue in nature", and that's certainly not what I want to promote when I write them or want to find in the stories I read about them. I also find it a troubling statement that changing a character's gender makes them into a Mary Sue -- isn't that a statement that there are things men can do and things women can do, and to give a female character the storyline a male character had, or vice versa, is to necessarily make that character so implausible he or she can only be a Mary Sue? Doesn't that statement draw a bright clear line between what men can do and what women can do with that statement? I think drawing that bright clear line is a mistake.
I don't write "fic that changes one male character to always female pretty much solely so she can be in a het relationship with a male character" even though it does change some of the slash relationships I write to het or even femslash. That change is a side effect, as it were. Many people believe that the primary motivation to write genderswap is that "the "swapping" is a blatant excuse to allow characters to engage in a sexual relationship without all that "icky" gay stuff", but most of the writers I know who write genderswap also write slash and canon het. I certainly do.
I do not believe that I write genderswap because I am incapable of writing male characters, but the final determination on that has to be made by the people who read my fics. I have posted them publicly for a reason.
I don't write genderswap as an excuse to wilfully disregard characterization. It has been stated that "Men and women are wired differently. Therefore, [genderswap] becomes very OOC." I disagree with this; I think that one can speculate intelligently on the differences in someone's personality had they been born a different gender, without ending up with an unrecognizable character.
I don't think that genderswap stories have to crowd out stories about transgender people. It could very well be that they are, and that is a problem that warrants addressing (and at least its own separate post), but... in an ideal world they wouldn't, it doesn't have to be a zero sum game. And I don't think the way to correct this imbalance is to refrain from writing genderswap stories, but to write more stories, including stories about transgender people.
I have written stories about sexual assault where a genderswapped character suffers the assault, but not because I think the genderswapped female version of a male character is "easier/better as a victim of an assault" than her male counterpart. I have, after all, written stories where male characters suffer sexual assault as well. I wrote these stories because I wanted to tell them about these particular characters for reasons related to their fictional lives, including but not only what genders they are.
I don't write genderswap stories, and I don't see anyone else writing genderswap stories, with the intent of being "m/m fans coming and taking over [femslash spaces] with their genderfuck stories". I find the idea kind of laughable, considering how many slash fans despise genderswap, but more importantly, while I don't actually believe the most important categorization of a romantic story is the set of genders of the participants in the romance, I do feel an obligation to accurately convey what it is my story contains. I don't think that a story about women in a romance is necessarily invalidated as femslash because one or more of the women is genderswapped from canon, just as I don't think that story is the same kind of story as a romance involving women who are all female characters in canon.
I don't write genderswap stories because I want to sideline and/or ignore the canon female characters. Every character is slightly different, and every alternate take on a character is slightly different. To use a specific set of examples: a story about Christine Chapel, CMO, would be a different story than a story about Lenore McCoy, CMO, or a story about Christopher Chapel, Head Nurse -- all three alternate universes are slightly different, about different though related characters, and a story about Christine Chapel, CMO, is not a substitute for a story about Lenore McCoy, CMO. That story about Christine Chapel, CMO, is an excellent idea in its own right, but writing a story about Lenore McCoy, CMO, isn't a decision against writing a story about Christine Chapel, CMO. I don't think that shaming an author out of writing the story about Lenore McCoy, CMO, will produce the story about Christine Chapel, CMO; it'll just produce a lack of stories.
There are likely reasons giving for writing genderswap stories that I haven't addressed here but with which I would disagree, but I wanted to at least address some of the ones I've seen stated.
... not least to get them out of my way as I try to write about why it is I do write genderswap stories.
I'm going to start, however, with some reasons ascribed to the reading and writing of genderswap which are not mine when I write, nor have I seen them in the genderswap fics I can recall reading since I joined Star Trek Reboot fandom. These are largely reasons given by people who disapprove of genderswap, which I think contributes to their inaccuracy, but they warrant addressing anyway. Where I could I have quoted actual statements.
I don't think that genderswapped characters are necessarily "really sexist or grossly Mary-Sue in nature", and that's certainly not what I want to promote when I write them or want to find in the stories I read about them. I also find it a troubling statement that changing a character's gender makes them into a Mary Sue -- isn't that a statement that there are things men can do and things women can do, and to give a female character the storyline a male character had, or vice versa, is to necessarily make that character so implausible he or she can only be a Mary Sue? Doesn't that statement draw a bright clear line between what men can do and what women can do with that statement? I think drawing that bright clear line is a mistake.
I don't write "fic that changes one male character to always female pretty much solely so she can be in a het relationship with a male character" even though it does change some of the slash relationships I write to het or even femslash. That change is a side effect, as it were. Many people believe that the primary motivation to write genderswap is that "the "swapping" is a blatant excuse to allow characters to engage in a sexual relationship without all that "icky" gay stuff", but most of the writers I know who write genderswap also write slash and canon het. I certainly do.
I do not believe that I write genderswap because I am incapable of writing male characters, but the final determination on that has to be made by the people who read my fics. I have posted them publicly for a reason.
I don't write genderswap as an excuse to wilfully disregard characterization. It has been stated that "Men and women are wired differently. Therefore, [genderswap] becomes very OOC." I disagree with this; I think that one can speculate intelligently on the differences in someone's personality had they been born a different gender, without ending up with an unrecognizable character.
I don't think that genderswap stories have to crowd out stories about transgender people. It could very well be that they are, and that is a problem that warrants addressing (and at least its own separate post), but... in an ideal world they wouldn't, it doesn't have to be a zero sum game. And I don't think the way to correct this imbalance is to refrain from writing genderswap stories, but to write more stories, including stories about transgender people.
I have written stories about sexual assault where a genderswapped character suffers the assault, but not because I think the genderswapped female version of a male character is "easier/better as a victim of an assault" than her male counterpart. I have, after all, written stories where male characters suffer sexual assault as well. I wrote these stories because I wanted to tell them about these particular characters for reasons related to their fictional lives, including but not only what genders they are.
I don't write genderswap stories, and I don't see anyone else writing genderswap stories, with the intent of being "m/m fans coming and taking over [femslash spaces] with their genderfuck stories". I find the idea kind of laughable, considering how many slash fans despise genderswap, but more importantly, while I don't actually believe the most important categorization of a romantic story is the set of genders of the participants in the romance, I do feel an obligation to accurately convey what it is my story contains. I don't think that a story about women in a romance is necessarily invalidated as femslash because one or more of the women is genderswapped from canon, just as I don't think that story is the same kind of story as a romance involving women who are all female characters in canon.
I don't write genderswap stories because I want to sideline and/or ignore the canon female characters. Every character is slightly different, and every alternate take on a character is slightly different. To use a specific set of examples: a story about Christine Chapel, CMO, would be a different story than a story about Lenore McCoy, CMO, or a story about Christopher Chapel, Head Nurse -- all three alternate universes are slightly different, about different though related characters, and a story about Christine Chapel, CMO, is not a substitute for a story about Lenore McCoy, CMO. That story about Christine Chapel, CMO, is an excellent idea in its own right, but writing a story about Lenore McCoy, CMO, isn't a decision against writing a story about Christine Chapel, CMO. I don't think that shaming an author out of writing the story about Lenore McCoy, CMO, will produce the story about Christine Chapel, CMO; it'll just produce a lack of stories.
There are likely reasons giving for writing genderswap stories that I haven't addressed here but with which I would disagree, but I wanted to at least address some of the ones I've seen stated.
... not least to get them out of my way as I try to write about why it is I do write genderswap stories.
