I didn't write this to convince people to like genderswap, actually. I wrote this to ask people to stop speaking ill of those of us who do.
They don’t have to but they do. I see a ton of genderswap stories. I don’t see many about transgender individuals.
All right. Suppose I stopped writing my genderswap stories and deleted the ones I've written off LJ and AO3. Suppose I never wrote another word of any fic. Would that magically cause stories about transgender characters to appear, whether written by me or by other authors? Will we get more stories about transgender characters by attacking the writing of genderswap?
The thing is -- in your examples of bad genderswap stories and bad het stories -- why don't the bad slash stories also invalidate the good ones? If they don't, how come the bad genderswap and het stories can somehow invalidate the good ones, such that they shouldn't exist? I can't unwrite bad stories, I can just write mine as well as I possibly can, and I am no more responsible for every single bad genderswap story than you are for every single bad slash story.
The thing is men and women are wired differently.
Humans are an incredibly social species; from before birth we are influenced by each other. Are you absolutely certain that the differences between men and women are innate and inflexible? Have you never, for instance, met siblings who are uncannily similar though they're brother and sister? Besides, one of the reasons I'm writing genderswap stories is indeed to explore the differences socialized into us.
just my opinion which I know varies from everyone else’s.
Actually, as I addressed in the post before this one, there are a great many people who agree with you. My post here was an attempt for once to start a discussion of genderswap from the POV of someone who doesn't disapprove of it. Besides, if you're right that I can't write genderswap without having these horrible reasons and invoking these horrible consequences, then it's not just your opinion, it's a reason for me to stop writing, so I have to address it.
Look, you don't have to like genderswap. De gustibus non disputandum and all that. But I don't have to accept the idea that I write it because I'm an idiot or a bad writer or transphobic, either.
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Date: 2011-03-28 11:15 am (UTC)They don’t have to but they do. I see a ton of genderswap stories. I don’t see many about transgender individuals.
All right. Suppose I stopped writing my genderswap stories and deleted the ones I've written off LJ and AO3. Suppose I never wrote another word of any fic. Would that magically cause stories about transgender characters to appear, whether written by me or by other authors? Will we get more stories about transgender characters by attacking the writing of genderswap?
The thing is -- in your examples of bad genderswap stories and bad het stories -- why don't the bad slash stories also invalidate the good ones? If they don't, how come the bad genderswap and het stories can somehow invalidate the good ones, such that they shouldn't exist? I can't unwrite bad stories, I can just write mine as well as I possibly can, and I am no more responsible for every single bad genderswap story than you are for every single bad slash story.
The thing is men and women are wired differently.
Humans are an incredibly social species; from before birth we are influenced by each other. Are you absolutely certain that the differences between men and women are innate and inflexible? Have you never, for instance, met siblings who are uncannily similar though they're brother and sister? Besides, one of the reasons I'm writing genderswap stories is indeed to explore the differences socialized into us.
just my opinion which I know varies from everyone else’s.
Actually, as I addressed in the post before this one, there are a great many people who agree with you. My post here was an attempt for once to start a discussion of genderswap from the POV of someone who doesn't disapprove of it. Besides, if you're right that I can't write genderswap without having these horrible reasons and invoking these horrible consequences, then it's not just your opinion, it's a reason for me to stop writing, so I have to address it.
Look, you don't have to like genderswap. De gustibus non disputandum and all that. But I don't have to accept the idea that I write it because I'm an idiot or a bad writer or transphobic, either.