Genderbending Beyond the Binary
Mar. 20th, 2021 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithI came across this rant against genderbending as inherently transphobic:
I have yet to see a ‘genderbent’ version of a male character who lacked breasts and a dfab body.
Now, I read a LOT of genderfic, both genderbending and otherwise, and can only surmise that this author reads a verrry different range of literature than I do, because writing fanfic about trans, nonbinary, and otherwise diverse genders is pretty popular. Frex, see the "Alternate Universe - Trans" tag on AO3 with 486 works. I've also seen it in crowdfunding, where readers can ask for whatever they want.
My contribution, Schrodinger's Hulk, is actually based on a premise in psychology that everyone has aspects of more than one gender: a man has an anima (indwelling feminine spirit) while a woman has an animus. Since the Hulk (Bruce's indwelling spirit) is hypermasculine, that would indicate Bruce is actually a woman, passing as a man due to a male body and presentation.
I've even seen some authors positing trans equivalents in other contexts, for example, a character with alpha body but omega personality. Some of the Tolkien fanfic about Dwarven sex/gender dynamics is just brilliant, occasionally spilling over to Hobbits, Elves, etc. See Dwarf Gender Concepts and this entertaining "Explanation on Dwarf Gender."
I've written trans aliens, like Tseep in Feathered Nests, and a transgender starship (neuter ship, feminine personality) Clipper Angeldust R1212 in "Mosaic Identities." And of course, more genders than I can count without literally keeping a record of it. Plus a few odd examples in which someone's sex and/or gender changes due to a template or splice (e.g. male in human form but female in werewolf form, or a centaur with a male top half and female bottom half, or various complex feather/sex/gender dynamics in Fledgling Grace), and no, I'm not the first person to do that either.
Genderbending, like racebending, is a fascinating and powerful tool for exploring what these concepts even mean and how they influence people. These are ways to challenge social expectations, to break rules in relatively safe ways -- even to experiment with things we might like to try out ourselves. I've made more than one thing because my characters had it and I thought it was cool. I've also put extra effort into describing genderflexy things in case someone else wanted to make some.
And oh yes, I'm a genderqueer person who loves genderfic and genderbending. (This applies to many of my genderqueer and other queer friends also.) I basically treat gender like a fidget. Okay, maybe that's why some people get annoyed about genderbending, because lots of people hate fidgets and fidgeting.
Sure, genderbending can be written badly. Anything can be written badly. Almost everything gets written badly before it gets written well! Hell, most people take 20-30 years to figure out how to write a new trait well in the course of identity literature. I never have that kind of patience, I just skip ahead to trait-having heroes. I may not get it right the first time, but at least I'm not wasting decades doing things I know are dumb.
Gender is so much more than the binary, and there are so many stories to tell. It's not a pair of pigeonholes, and you don't have to play with it like it is. Gender is a construct, and you can take it apart for spare parts if you want to. (I've written that too.) Tell ALL the stories!
So, anyone else got favorite examples of genderbending to something other than cisbinary?
I have yet to see a ‘genderbent’ version of a male character who lacked breasts and a dfab body.
Now, I read a LOT of genderfic, both genderbending and otherwise, and can only surmise that this author reads a verrry different range of literature than I do, because writing fanfic about trans, nonbinary, and otherwise diverse genders is pretty popular. Frex, see the "Alternate Universe - Trans" tag on AO3 with 486 works. I've also seen it in crowdfunding, where readers can ask for whatever they want.
My contribution, Schrodinger's Hulk, is actually based on a premise in psychology that everyone has aspects of more than one gender: a man has an anima (indwelling feminine spirit) while a woman has an animus. Since the Hulk (Bruce's indwelling spirit) is hypermasculine, that would indicate Bruce is actually a woman, passing as a man due to a male body and presentation.
I've even seen some authors positing trans equivalents in other contexts, for example, a character with alpha body but omega personality. Some of the Tolkien fanfic about Dwarven sex/gender dynamics is just brilliant, occasionally spilling over to Hobbits, Elves, etc. See Dwarf Gender Concepts and this entertaining "Explanation on Dwarf Gender."
I've written trans aliens, like Tseep in Feathered Nests, and a transgender starship (neuter ship, feminine personality) Clipper Angeldust R1212 in "Mosaic Identities." And of course, more genders than I can count without literally keeping a record of it. Plus a few odd examples in which someone's sex and/or gender changes due to a template or splice (e.g. male in human form but female in werewolf form, or a centaur with a male top half and female bottom half, or various complex feather/sex/gender dynamics in Fledgling Grace), and no, I'm not the first person to do that either.
Genderbending, like racebending, is a fascinating and powerful tool for exploring what these concepts even mean and how they influence people. These are ways to challenge social expectations, to break rules in relatively safe ways -- even to experiment with things we might like to try out ourselves. I've made more than one thing because my characters had it and I thought it was cool. I've also put extra effort into describing genderflexy things in case someone else wanted to make some.
And oh yes, I'm a genderqueer person who loves genderfic and genderbending. (This applies to many of my genderqueer and other queer friends also.) I basically treat gender like a fidget. Okay, maybe that's why some people get annoyed about genderbending, because lots of people hate fidgets and fidgeting.
Sure, genderbending can be written badly. Anything can be written badly. Almost everything gets written badly before it gets written well! Hell, most people take 20-30 years to figure out how to write a new trait well in the course of identity literature. I never have that kind of patience, I just skip ahead to trait-having heroes. I may not get it right the first time, but at least I'm not wasting decades doing things I know are dumb.
Gender is so much more than the binary, and there are so many stories to tell. It's not a pair of pigeonholes, and you don't have to play with it like it is. Gender is a construct, and you can take it apart for spare parts if you want to. (I've written that too.) Tell ALL the stories!
So, anyone else got favorite examples of genderbending to something other than cisbinary?
(no subject)
Date: 2021-03-21 03:02 am (UTC)also this body, my body by
Wow!
Date: 2021-03-21 03:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-03-21 07:26 am (UTC)While I cannot weigh in on the microaggression thing, I do think that perhaps the specific sort of genderbending you use is perhaps affected by what kind of story you want to tell.
Although I will also note I am sick of the 'guy turns into a woman and immediately oogles his boobs' plot. It is /very frickin stupid/ and also annoying.
It is also possible that they don't read much fanfic, or are annoyed at the rate of good stuff to boring repetitive plotlines.
Now, story reccomendations!
Most of what I'd suggest are fanfics. I'm not sure if all of these fit the parameters precisely, but I liked the writing and I liked the different ideas. I also looked for ideas you don't see very often, and tried to avoid cisman->ciswoman or vice-versa genderswaps.
Gender specifically:
Aliens choose a gender based on their personality to fit into human society. (I don't think they typically have gender in their own society.) Also, their 'sexuality' tends to focus more on personality than body parts or appearance (justified for a species of shapeshifters who 'have sex' by linking minds.) While no-one switches gender, I found the idea of 'going among humans, which gender like ponies again?' to be very interesting.
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/5216658/1/Masks
Female character raised as male because of weird biology (i.e. no-one realized she was a girl):
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/3718348/1/
Character gendershifts as a survival disguise (after a murder attempt), uses the opportunity to live their dream life, and later identifies as genderqueer.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/4525815/chapters/10297434
Aliens don't have gender, they have modality. But they still have to fake who they are for safety because society is dumb. And transmodal is a thing. Also, linguistics.
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/5357645/1/
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/3896514/1/All-That-You-Can-t-Leave-Behind
Basically the concept of Albanian Sworn Virgin, except the character has to invent it...and outsiders still insist that she's a girl-girl and can't do boy stuff. Also has some women's rights civil lib stuff in there...
https://archiveofourown.org/works/22533205/chapters/53844736
The culture has no concept of different genders, but they need someone to be a woman for politics...
https://archiveofourown.org/works/3075827?view_adult=true
"Oh botheration, I've swapped genders again." [Keeps eating]
Meanwhile, everyone else is...very confused.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/731587/chapters/1359395
Male character wants to learn a traditional women's skill, which ends up shaking up the patriarchy. In the ensuing argument/discussion/debate about gender and gender roles, we get this gem of an argument: Only women do X / Well by that logic you've already taught a woman, was she a bad student?
https://archiveofourown.org/works/26262028/chapters/63928918
Best explanation I've ever heard of why aliens are always he and she is mentioned in the Comments section (the thing with the colors).
https://archiveofourown.org/works/731587/chapters/135939
Different takes on the Mulan legend.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/517136
Alien wrote down The Talk, for interspecies shenanigans (with cussing). He got the humans have sexual dimorphism...but doesn't quite seem to grasp (or possibly care) about the human concept of gender.
Warning for sex (duh) and cussing.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/341890
Sweet Polly Oliver is actually Peter...but everyone needs a girl-in-disguise, not a trans boy. (It does get peaceably resolved.)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/30962
Not-specifically-gender examples:
Scifi transpecies. Also includes converting to a different species to escape slavery.
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/2698347/1/
Transpecies, culture clash over funerary practices:
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/6090291/1/
Transhumanism-ish : Humans as robot cyborgs who still identify as human.
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/9148600/1/
Shapeshifter Mode Lock comes off...so you get a gender reveal [from a disguise] /and/ a species reveal.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/22643443
(no subject)
Date: 2021-03-21 09:08 am (UTC)You're welcome!
Date: 2021-03-21 09:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-03-21 12:03 pm (UTC)Aside from some (more or less cracky) Harry Potter stories that threw characters unexpectedly into a different gender and them trying to deal, I mostly saw it while looking for slash stories. And more often than not, it started with a note along the lines "I turned X into a female character because gay relationships are disgusting, but I like the pairing" and that turned me off of that trope big time and I can see how it can be quite intolerant.
Outside of Good Omens I haven't really tried any stories including genderfluid/transgender characters, but I know there will come a time when I will because that fandom has wet my appetite for more. Right now I'm just obsessed with a different trope/genre to the exclusion of nearly all other. That will come to pass though and then I'll be out exploring again.
And I'll be checking the recs you get as a starting pointThoughts
Date: 2021-03-22 10:54 am (UTC)That's generally not the best way to find high-quality writing. Slash can be fun, but a lot of it is trashy. (Some people like this, especially when it crosses with crackfic.) Therefore it should not be used to gauge the quality of anything in it.
>>And more often than not, it started with a note along the lines "I turned X into a female character because gay relationships are disgusting, but I like the pairing" and that turned me off of that trope big time and I can see how it can be quite intolerant.<<
Definitely not a good rendition.
>> Outside of Good Omens I haven't really tried any stories including genderfluid/transgender characters, <<
Just look for Loki. Many writers know that Loki is canonically genderfluid per Norse mythology. "Lokigender" is a popular way of putting it.
>> but I know there will come a time when I will because that fandom has wet my appetite for more. Right now I'm just obsessed with a different trope/genre to the exclusion of nearly all other. That will come to pass though and then I'll be out exploring again <<
I hope that you do take another look. There is some very deep thought about what gender is and means and does, and how to play with it, coming through fanfic -- and other literature.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-03-22 12:29 pm (UTC)And in my experience it doesn't matter if a story is slash, het or gen - there are a lot of trashy stories out there. Then again, there was a point when I ventured into the Twilight fandom just for the fun of it, but eventually I reached a point when I just couldn't take it any more.
I certainly plan to give it another go now that I know more about what it could be and it makes me curious how else it could be handled outside of the experience I had 10-20 years ago. I think fandom, society and I have grown a lot since then and I'm curious to see how it is reflected in the stories that are out there now.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-03-23 01:37 am (UTC)Yes ...
Date: 2021-03-23 02:47 am (UTC)Sherlock is also one of the few fandoms with a very large amount of acefic -- probably the largest until Good Omens came along and plenty of folks noticed that angels aren't gendered the same as humans. Just some gorgeous agender, genderfluid, and/or acespec stuff in there; plus a few bits riffing on the time Aziraphale was merged with a female medium.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-03-24 02:52 am (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2021-03-24 03:24 am (UTC)Yeah, me too. I just wanted to point out one of its most glaring factual errors.
>> I will concede that the gender bend terminology or practices what have are binary centric. <<
Sometimes.
>> I'm sorta a multiverse person, but particular creatives only have so many hours to create in. It seems to be arguing either 1) creatives must produce certain kinds of trans works or 2) creatives cannot deviate from canon. <<
I've a seen a lot of shouldism, increasing over time, telling people what they should and shouldn't, can or can't. use or feel or write or do. Fuck it. Tell ALL the stories.
>> If it is the second, how would we know what canon is in the absence of a statement? <<
*chuckle*
This reminds me of the AroAce Database, which uses this format:
How “involved” the representation is.
Word of God
The character’s sexuality is not explicit on page, but the author has confirmed it
On page
The character’s sexuality is explicitly demonstrated within the text. It should be showed or discussed to an extent that makes it clear to the readers.
Word used
The identity is stated using the actual word (usually also On Page)
And here we must also clarify the difference between a canon (typically written by one person, or by a team using a guidebook, so it remains consistent) and a cycle (typically written by many people over time, about the same or similar characters and setting, but not expected to stay consistent). This is something that a lot of folks don't know -- including, unfortunately, most people in charge of big projects. Take the Marvelverse. It is obviously a cycle by literary standards, but the people doing it mostly are not lit majors and have probably never heard of a cycle, so they call it a canon, which confuses people.
If you're writing something that is widely considered a cycle, like the Arthurian Cycle, then you can do anything you want with it as long as it remains recognizable. Furry King Arthur? Disney did that one, LOL. Musical Robin Hood? Men in Tights. In which case, genderbending and racebending are pretty typical techniques too.
Of course, looping back to the trans issue ... nobody can know somebody else's gender for sure. They might be lying to you. They might be questioning. They might not know their own gender because they have been told lies and haven't sorted out the mess yet, or their culture may not have a name for what they are.
So what we have is typically:
* presentation, almost always M/F binary
* spoken or written pronouns and other dialog terminology
* rarely, what the author says
I'm unusual in that I make character sheets for many characters that list their traits as far as I know. So there are some with a less-than-obvious sex/gender, orientation, race, etc. Even if it's not featured explicitly in writing, it's there in the background influencing that character's actions. And in fact, a lot of my gender-variant characters seem to subsume into their chosen roles. Butches and tomboys who dress masculine but retain feminine pronouns are fairly easy to clock. But a butch or transman who looks masculine, wears masculine clothes, and uses masculine pronouns probably will not seem any different than a cismale doing those things.
Basically, if I haven't pinned it down, don't assume it's the usual; and even if details have been specified, the character might discover something that changes them.
Because I don't tend to make solid assumptions about characters, this gives me more leeway to spot things that people may have written without realizing, like hypermasculine Hulk implying that Bruce is actually a woman. Viewing entertainment without the mainstream preconceptions can make it a lot more interesting. ;)
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-03-24 04:51 am (UTC)I've written a cross-gendered character and my AU Steve is, well, still very Steve even with a new configuration.
Oh, I read a very interesting Frederick Pohl short, Day Million. Sorta related.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-03-24 04:57 am (UTC)I agree.
You always have to think about how to interpret Hulk because there are so many options. I generally favor Hulk as a gentle giant, but one of the movies had a very surly Bruce who reminded me of how abusers sometimes dissociate and feel like a monster takes over. That one is a lot more plausible with "I'm always angry" than the one in the Avengers movie, who seems so fragile and fatalistic.
>> I lean into underpinning him with 'looking like his father' and I wrote some of his Thunderbolt Ross related (I don't even have words for that).<<
Interesting.
>>I've written a cross-gendered character and my AU Steve is, well, still very Steve even with a new configuration.<<
Go you!
>>Oh, I read a very interesting Frederick Pohl short, Day Million. Sorta related.<<
I'm familiar with the author but not that story.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-03-24 07:06 pm (UTC)Back when Avengers was Original Six, I really wanted a bit more gender parity. And having by that time watched MCU's Iron Man origins, yeah, no. For the humans, that meant Steve. "Yay know, somehow I thought the future would have more women in charge." Sgt. James B. Barnes (retired) That I happen to have some research knowledge of immigration/labor history and the finer points of cold water flats versus full service cogeneration...
I read the omnibus for early 616 Hulk, and along with other iterations I like, that seemed to be the kernel of BruceNHulk. Hulk may be Hypermale but he's also somewhat toddler. As in, this is all the fight that Bruce couldn't bring to bear against his father before he witnessed his mother's murder. Since MCU has made The Other Guy serum-adjacent, well, see Steve, Bucky, and The Red Skull.
I have only seen the fandom curated portions of Hulk (aka Betty Ross, pizza delivery, etc); I take "I'm always angry" much as Steve couldn't run away from a fight. Thunderbolt is a bully; Betty knows where his handles are.Poisson is the story that delves that journey.
MCU tends to roam regarding character integrity; it's why every fan work is a repair mission. ;^)