On Magically Changing Genders

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On Magically Changing Genders

Poof! You’ve just magically changed genders. What’s next? Well, what happens next can vary a lot, depending on a number of factors. (For the purposes of this essay, we will only deal with male to female transformations). First, did you want this to happen? If you were a typical guy, and happy being one, this transformation represents the biggest challenge of your life.

The only non-magical equivalent might be losing your male parts suddenly in an accident or due to disease. Suddenly, one of the fundamental ways you defined yourself - as a male, has been changed, and you are left trying to navigate the fallout. Whether you succeed depends a great deal on your resources - both external and internal.

Dealing with the internal resources first, how adaptable a person are you? When faced with great stress, can you keep going? Without this ability, your chances of success drop considerably.

Secondly, what kind of external resources do you have? Do you have family, friends ? Are they able to believe in your transformation, and will they stand by you? Your chances of success increase greatly if you have this kind of support.

On the other hand, you may have wanted this to happen. If you at least fantasized about being a girl or if you always knew you were one, this transformation is the answer to a prayer, right?

Well, not so fast. There are a few other factors to consider.

One of them is your new appearance. In most stories, a transformed person finds themselves beautiful, sexy, and often their own dream-girl come to life. But is that a given?

For example, you could find yourself female, but grossly overweight, or maybe with the face not even a mother could love. Would changing genders under those circumstances be worth it? I suspect that even for a true transsexual, they might hesitate to accept such a trade-off.

Another issue you must face is your identity. Did you acquire female I.D.? Can you get some easily? If the answer is “no”, you are in for a rough ride.

Imagine trying to get a job without a social insurance number, or proving you’re a citizen without a birth certificate, Very suddenly you could become a “non-person”, and have a rough future ahead.

Another problem to deal with will be your wardrobe. If it didn’t change when you did, you will need to replace it, but how? In a lot of stories, a female friend/girlfriend/wife will assist you, but what if you don’t happen to have one handy? And what if you don’t also happen to have a large budget available to purchase a new wardrobe?

You might be stuck for months or even years having to buy one or two items at a time, depending on how much cash you have on hand at the time, and have no one but sales clerks to give you advice on what styles or colors work best for you.

In short, magically changing genders can pose as many hurdles to overcome as changing gender the mundane way. But these difficulties can be met, and overcome, if a person dedicates themselves to the task, and is lucky enough to have help.

Good luck!

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Comments

well go ahead and write it!

have fun! Thanks for the comment, Wren.

Dorothycolleen

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Debra Cadabra: A Genie Story

laika's picture

I told that genie I wanted to change genders and be a woman. He counted this as my first two wishes and so while I got my deepest desire of becoming female I find myself repulsed by this body, since I now identify as male. I'd forgotten about that semantic distinction between sex and gender. Ooops.

I'm gonna have to think real hard before I make my last wish! .... THE END
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Interesting essay Dorothy; You've touched on problems that a lot of the best transformation stories---like Maeryn's MEANT IT FOR EVIL---try to address. Pure wish fulfillment fantasies without conflict make a sweet two page story, but it's hard to maintain interest in them after the tenth shopping trip with the magic billion dollar credit card (or at FM gettin plooked by that tenth football team...)
~~hugs, Ronni

thanks, Ronni

This is one of those pieces that came fast - i started to think of it in the bath, and before I knew it, I had it written. I like your little story, BTW.

Dorothycolleen

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Not the first time

Extravagance's picture

you've been inspired whilst bathing. Gives new meaning to "wet dreams", hmm? = )

Catfolk Pride.PNG

wet dreams?

Okay, that one deserves a groan. Thanks for the comment.

Dorothycolleen

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May All Your Dreams

May all your dreams be wet ones :)

( slogan from my dive shop )

"Dive shop"?

isnt there a slightly dirty meaning to that term? Giggle.

Dorothycolleen

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I must be doing something wrong

I told Jeanie I wanted to change genders and be a woman. She looked at me and said the magic words...

"Yeah, wotever, Mac, whatcha want on yer burger?"

Totally unsatisfactory. Exscuse me, I have to go rub some more lamps.

Wren

rub some for me, will you?

for some reason, oil lamps are rare around here.

Dorothycolleen

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Laika/ Ronni's Comment

littlerocksilver's picture

Would I want to change gender - No. Would I want to change sex - Yes. My next two wishes would be pretty involved. I think I would have to ask the genie a lot of rhetorical questions.

Girl.jpg
Portia

Portia

gender verses sex?

I know me, I'd get them confused at the worst moment when dealing with a genie....

Thanks for the comment, hon. Have I told you how much I enjoy your picture?

Dorothycolleen

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Avoid the confusion.

Say "physically female" or something similar.

I recall as a child playing a game once with "make a wish of no more than nine words" (where the first two words had to be "I wish"), and others would find creative ways of screwing up your wish. I never said my true wish, but in private I did something similar - it's interesting to try with different numbers of words and see how with longer sentences you can cover problems.

making a loop-hole free wish

I seem to remember a story where the wisher ended up giving a several-page document reviewed by a lawyer to get their wish right.

Dorothycolleen

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Did you really think...

...that I wished for a twelve inch pianist?

Janet

Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
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To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.

Janet

Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
TracyHide.png

To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.

ouch, Janet

that one deserves an "ouch". be a funny image though ....

Thanks for commenting.

Dorothycolleen

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I'm back with another damn dumb Genie Drabble

laika's picture
THE WISHLAWYER: A DRABBLE
by Laika Pupkino
.

"Okay," I told the genie, "my first wish..."

Suddenly an affluent looking man materialized, "Are you nuts? Making wishes without counsel present?"

"Who are you?"

"A wishlawyer. And your best friend. Tragedies befall those who word their wishes poorly!"

"That's from stories."

"So are magic genies. My fee is two wishes."

"Outrageous!"

"Maybe. But your single wish will bring happiness, not some trick."

"Well okay."

"Sign here...... and here....... Now whisper your wish to me."

"Sure, but I just wish this wishing deal wasn't so complicated."

Suddenly it wasn't.

"Cheerio," he smiled. Disappeared.

At least I got to keep the pen.

Gender is betwixt your ears

Gender is betwixt your ears and sex between your legs.

yep, that's the truth

why i can say I'm a male girl - I'm a girl between my ears and a male between my legs.

Thanks for commenting.

Dorothycolleen

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Yes, and... (random comments)

You mentioned the attractiveness issue -- and many females in this country are not particularly healthy or young which tends to make them not incredibly attractive and even often overlooked in social settings. Meanwhile, most magical tg stories seem to have new females being better looking than most existing females. Some tend to have the newly transformed females being outstandingly ugly, though some stories make them "relatively ordinary looking but with some character". But what if the magic originated in a mechanism aimed at making existing females healthy and/or beautiful and/or young? [So it's just you and the dozens of 90 year old ladies that had gone through the same transition?]

You also mentioned internal identity issues, and you mentioned social identity issues, which can both be majorly important. But, also, your family role might also take a hit even if you were personally happy with the change, and even if you somehow managed to deal with your government paperwork. And something similar could happen with your job. Also, depending on the nature of your job and your transformation you might lose (or gain) in your ability to perform your job functions. If the job involves heavy lifting and physical endurance that can lead off in one direction. If the job involves language skills and social interaction that can lead off in a different direction. If the job involves fame of any sort that exposes you to yet another batch of issues.

But that's just for starters. Another issue to ponder is what if the "magic" was something other than a literal wish? Or what if the twist on the wish had nothing to do with english grammar? Or what if the magic had to follow some rules of biology, or of magic, or of philosophy or of justice or of whatever else? These kinds of implications can both restrict the story and give it life. For example, if the magic centers is based on a contagion carried by haploid cells I would expect a completely different kind of story than if the magic was based on a mis-stated wish. Or, for example, let us imagine someone used magic to increase their body's health and levels of testosterone -- and the magic accomplishes this in part by blocking androgen factors, such as conversion to DHT while doing nothing about other factors such as the conversion to estradiol... and how do you measure health? Does health have anything to do with life expectancy? Anyways, things could get complicated, even in a magical scenario.

And another aspect that might be included in a magical transform story could be the reactions of other people that might be wanting something like that transformation for themselves. Let's say that you were transformed, unwillingly -- how do you think that that would make someone else feel -- if they had not been transformed and if they had been yearning and seeking such a thing? Of course, part of that answer depends on their character and personality (and people are not all the same, even when we draw on stereotypes). And another part of that answer depends on the availability of the magic (stories can vary anywhere from "only one transformation which touched only one person" to "everyone transforms" but maybe instead the transformation was repeatable but expensive, difficult, risky or, or... ).

And then there's the "what is gender" issue touched on in some other comments. What if, for example, both your external gender and your internal gender changed? That could be tragic if they had started out in conflict but could be relatively prosaic if they had started out in agreement. But I think other variations on this theme are also possible, because sexual identity has so many facets.

And, also, I do not know about you all, but I am not particularly stable in my feelings. I can feel strongly one way at one point in time and feel quite a bit different at another point in time. And I can easily imagine that someone that went through a magical transition could experience additional wild shifts in feeling, because of the transition itself and because of the issues it calls into question. And I do not just mean crying jags (though yes, those can happen) but apathy and acceptance alternating with manic acceptance and overwhelmed stress, joy, exhaustion, an insane desire to argue with people that just do not get it, or anything described in DSM-IV (but hopefully not too horrid), or whatever else... ("It's just skin and stuff, no big deal..." one minute and "OMG! WTF!!!" another... or whatever other examples...)

And then there's the various facets of losing privilege and/or the ability to reach the top shelf. Males are expected to be blunt. Females are expected to be way better than that and often enough get borderline abuse or scorn for their efforts. And opening pickle jars can be difficult.

So.. I think I agree with you all? This stuff can get messy...

wow...

wow that was a short story within itself! lol :))

foxxe_bc.jpg
>> Foxxe Wilder >>

Well that and

There's always the option to stay the gender you love. If you were born male and turned magickally female, seek out another magickal source to turn back or get diagnosed as an FtM and live as comfortably male as possible IE: Testosterone shots, chest surgery and if it's necessary the bottom surgery which although still pretty bad, is possible and if not that surgery then you could get your uterus and such removed so you don't have to deal with periods every month. I know a few FtMs that opted for that.

I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Bisexual, transsexual, gamer girl, princess, furry that writes horror stories and proud ^^

I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D

going back

to the best of my knowledge, I've never read of a character doing that. But yes, it would be an option.

Thanks for commenting.

Dorothycolleen

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And that honestly confuses

And that honestly confuses me...

I mean since most gender bender stories are TG fiction and the author wants to fullfill the wishes of the audience this is understandable. It doesn't change the fact it is utter hypocrisy.
I don't understand why the macho guy only needs three days to want to be a girl forever. I don't think beeing female is that better than being male, especially when it collides with the personality.

I personally hate stuck as a theme. Some genie/witch/lecherous sorceror/god comes along and turns a guy into a girl. He fights it for about 1000 words, and then he gradually accepts beeing female, starts to love it and lives happy ever after. *puke* Can't he turn back, live as a guy for a month and decide beeing a girl is more fun? Just for once?
Lol I guess I have to write a story like this, but I need a plot ^^

The worst thing is imho when the story needs to fullfill the three laws of gender bender and have a rape attempt. That's the standart for a transformation story. If it was a f2m story the new guy would get beaten up and robbed three times in the story just to fullfill the quota...
I wonder if there aren't more creative thing one can do with the sex-change transformation theme.

Beyogi

being creative

I actually like your idea of a guy going back, and then deciding he actually enjoyed being a girl - it might be very interesting. It would also be interesting if he decided to stay a guy, just with maybe a better understanding of what girls go through.

Dorothycolleen

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some good points made

You made some very excellent points in your outline. All too often I find many stories are male changes to beautiful female and usually a YOUNG one! Well, to me a true transgender knows that not all women are knockouts and most certainly not all are young!

I, in fact, began my journey at the age of 44 back in 2004 and I was under no circumstances fooled into ever thinking I'd be one of the 'lovelies'. Being a late middleaged woman to me takes a lot of social pressure off me though. I don't have to worry so much of being model material.

Again, thanks for your logical views.

foxxe_bc.jpg
>> Foxxe Wilder >>

thanks, Foxxe

Just for the record, you look pretty good to me. I'm pretty much in the same boat - I'm starting my journey at age 45, and have no illusions I'll ever be a knockout, but its still better than staying male ...

Thanks again for commenting.

Dorothycolleen

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I do not know...

Ideas are often easy for me. I'd say that I usually pick them up for a dime a dozen, in fifty bale lots... but honestly I get mine for free.

But characterization, narrative tension, character development, even dialog that paces properly... these are all mysteries, for me.

Poetry, I can attempt. But my heart yearns for prose.

the other issues

Yeah I totally agree. There are a lot of variables people take as a given in this genre.

Take for instance the 'instant longer hair' routine. If your gender suddenly switched over there are some things that just would not change. Hair growth factor being one of them... WHY are so many people magically transformed (or via sci-fi for that matter) ALWAYS get the long hair included? Why not a realistic shift to a female format but with the same weight and hair factors?)

I don't know many girls in real life that have a lot of hair these days (probably a fad), and gender switch does not shift any of that growth to faster or slower.

foxxe_bc.jpg
>> Foxxe Wilder >>

hair

I guess it depends on the way the protagonist/victim is transformed. If it is a totally accidential transformation, it would make sense it doesn't... on the other hand, most science fiction and magic transformations are intentional and would probably include some hair lenghening.
If you rebuild the whole body, you actually need a reason why you don't include the hair - if the whole body regrows, why shouldn't the hair continue to grow?

Worrisome Issues

Daphne Xu's picture

"Imagine trying to get a job without a social insurance number, or proving you’re a citizen without a birth certificate, Very suddenly you could become a “non-person”, and have a rough future ahead." This is such a major worry for me, imagining being caught up in such a situation.

Sometimes, another issue might surpass all others: recognizing and realizing that you did change, remembering that you were a boy. And if you ever do, you just might have an existential crisis: if reality did change suddenly then, how do we know that it hadn't changed earlier?

On the other hand, if you and your BFF remember being changed, but everyone else remembers you two as you are, who are the deluded ones?

-- Daphne Xu

-- Try saying freefloating three times rapidly.