Gender Bender/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character switches genders through functional magic or Applied Phlebotinum.

  • Straight: Mike is sexist and insulting towards Marcy. She turns Mike into Michelle to teach him a lesson. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Exaggerated: A rift in the space-time continuum causes everyone on Earth to flip genders. Yes, even characters with ambiguous or unusual genders, though what exactly that entails for them is not explained, since there is global hilarity ensuing.
  • Downplayed: Mike does change gender, but is too busy with other things to really notice or care. Alternately, the physical change is (aside from the obvious) rather slight; "Michelle" is technically a girl but a very boyish one, with the same hair, height etc. as before.
  • Justified:
    • A Wizard Did It.
    • Mike belongs to an alien race in which changing gender is a normal part of the aging process.
    • Mike is a clown fish.
  • Inverted:
    • Gender Mode Lock. In a world where people normally switch genders, one person becomes unable to.
    • Everyone in the world changes gender except for Mike.
  • Subverted: Mike looks no different after Marcy zaps him.
  • Double Subverted: "That's because it's a slow spell that works from your internal organs out. You're basically going to have your genitals fall off and go through puberty again, as a girl this time, and compressed into the space of a month. Have fun with the mood swings!"
  • Parodied:
    • Marcy's gender bender spell turns out only to stick Mike in a Wig, Dress, Accent Michelle costume--once he finds the zipper, he can get out.
    • After becoming female, Mike immediately turns into a Valley Girl with no trace of his prior personality. Marcy finds Michelle so annoying that she changes her back into Mike.
  • Deconstructed:
  • Reconstructed: A Wizard Did It! The reality-bending aspect of the transformation smooths over any boring mundane nitpicks, so the writer can get back to the glorious Fetish Fuel.
  • Zig Zagged: The spell is imperfect, so Mike keeps turning into Michelle or back to Mike at random intervals, generally using the Rule of Funny. Whether it affects him physically or mentally as well seems to keep going back and forth--there's evidence for both.
  • Averted: Although there are transformation powers or gadgets in the setting, no one ever changes gender.
  • Enforced: The story was written for a TG fiction site, and wouldn't have been accepted if there weren't gender-bending in there somewhere.
  • Lampshaded: "Huh, an ancient two-faced statue marked with the combined male and female symbols. I don't like where this is headed."
  • Invoked: Marcy specifically studies a spell for just such a purpose.
  • Defied: "Foolish witch! I am carrying the sacred herb moly, which protects me from all transformation magic. Did you really think I didn't see that coming?"
  • Discussed: " 'Turn him into a woman!' That's your answer for everything, isn't it?"
  • Conversed: "How long do you think it will be before the first Gender Bender incident in this new anime sitcom?"
  • Played For Drama: The story focuses on Mike's hatred of his new form and inability to cope with a woman's social role, in a metaphor for real-life gender dysphoria. Michelle faces gender discrimination both subtle and blatant, sexual harrassment, and alienation from her friends and family, who don't accept her as the same person.
  • Played For Laughs: The story focuses on Mike's inability to internalize "female" behavior. Man, I Feel Like a Woman, Gag Boobs, Innocent Fanservice Girl and similar tropes are in full force. In addition, Michelle's love life just got really weird.

Go back to Gender Bender here, sir- I mean ma'am- I mean...just...just go already.

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