Thread by @bogiperson

🖋️ Worldbuilding thread! 🖋️

Some pitfalls related to shapeshifting, gender, and trans people.

As usual for my worldbuilding threads, this is not to subtweet any specific story, but rather to point out larger trends / common issues.

(I read a lot of trans-related fiction and currently edit a trans anthology series, Transcendent: The Year's Best Transgender SFF.)

My previous trans-themed worldbuilding thread was here:

https://twitter.com/bogiperson/status/968236068507193344

What I see frequently in shapeshifting stories, both in fantasy and science fiction (and science fantasy) is

a conflation of
* gender
* genitals
* pronouns.

These are three separate things, though they can be often correlated.

But you can have:
* any gender
* with any genitals
* and any pronouns.

If a character's body shape changes in any way, the character's gender and pronouns do not necessarily change.

Often in trans SFF stories by cis authors, if the character's body shape changes, immediately the pronouns are changed to match.

This is especially an issue if the body shape change is involuntary.

Of course, one can write a genderfluid character who is also a voluntary shapeshifter, and can immediately, if they feel like a specific gender, change to that kind of shape and presentation.

But even that evades the fact that this might not be always feasible for the character.

(For example, it might not be socially appropriate to change one's shape in that moment. Or the character might not have the right clothes and their clothes do not change shape with them. Etc.)

But in general what I see is not subtle. It is much more simple:

Character changes shape to one binary sex to another.

This is either involuntary or in any case not accompanied by any change in gender identification.

Character is immediately labeled with different pronoun.

Which presents multiple issues.

First, sex is different from gender.

Sex is also not just genitals. There is genital sex, chromosomal sex, hormonal sex etc. and these can also differ from each other in the SAME person (in the case of intersex variations)

In speculative fiction that is not explicitly erotic, usually the genitals are not necessarily shown, but heavily implied.

The character's "gender" changes because their body changes, the whole body, involving also presumably the genitals.

Often another character makes an off-color joke related to genitals, and that is how we know that these genital changes are definitely involved.

(This is all terrible, please do not do this)

Or there is a "naked reveal scene" where the other characters see the genitals and are shocked, but the reader does not see the genitals, only by implication.

(Please do not do a naked reveal scene)

Now what is really important here is:

The genitals are usually irrelevant to anything in a non-erotic SFF story. Even if your character has genital sex, the specific bits do not need to be revealed (Read erotica BY trans authors if you would like to learn the craft of this.)

Body shape can be relevant to gender presentation.

Body shape is *not* the same as gender (though, again, often correlated). But it can greatly change how the character is read.

You do not need to say anything about genitals.

In our world, a lot of trans people often transition socially, medically, etc. but do not have bottom surgery.

You will not know. (Unless they tell you, which they probably won't? It is a very invasive question, so please don't ask people about that.)

Next: even if the character's body shape changes, their gender still probably doesn't change, especially if this change was involuntary.

Would your feelings of your own gender change if you suddenly had a different body?

Maybe with time / maybe not.

Definitely not right away.

There are real-world parallels to this.

People can definitely have bodily changes that affect their external appearance. Endocrine stuff, medication side effects, etc.

Still their gender *usually* does not change and they tend not to like / desire these bodily changes.

(Of course there are exceptions, please be mindful of exceptions. + Intersex trans people also exist.)

Gender is in your head and what matters is how you feel about it.

Of course, in a world with voluntary shapeshifting - again, people can optimize their shape to their gender if they feel a mismatch.

A lot of trans people would love that, which brings me to another point...

If your world has voluntary shapeshifting, trans people WILL take advantage of that in-universe. Oh very much so.

If this doesn't come up even very briefly in your book (especially if it's a book, not just a short story), that can come across as erasure.

Of course, even if there is voluntary shapeshifting in your world, that does NOT mean that all people can just quickly transition.

It might need a special magic. Might be expensive. Socially frowned upon. Only for people of a certain age. Etc. Etc. Many possible reasons :)

As I usually say in these threads, trans readers will notice and appreciate even a small mention if it is thoughtful. A little goes a long way!

(Same for not equating gender / sex / genitals / pronouns with "male and female" with no other options.)

Finally, pronouns. Anyone can have any pronouns.

A character can use one set of gendered pronouns and have a different gender! It is totally possible.

It is also possible that they have a set of pronouns but are not *out* about it.

The narrative needs to respect the character.

Yes, there are stories where a character explicitly names their pronouns and the narrative itself still uses different pronouns.

This can be especially bad in third person omniscient viewpoints.

Again, respect your characters when you write them.

You can also get away with writing an entire story (usually not longer than a short story) without mentioning the character's pronouns!

Though please be mindful that reviewers will make guesses. Sometimes without realizing they are guessing based on their own biases.

This point is especially true for stories written from the first person. (Though even in that case, characters can be gendered by other people. - Not necessarily correctly!)

If you have a character use a set of gendered pronouns that differs from their gender, that is very possible! (But you will probably need to explain it, or you might confuse readers.)

So to summarize:

Gender, pronouns, sex, genitals are often related, but not the same.

One of these factors can change without the others changing.

I think this is it for now! Thank you very much for listening.

If you learned something from this thread, here are some ways you can show support:

https://twitter.com/bogiperson/status/839852724313284608

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I am at $9 now! Thank you :)

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Here is the previous one:

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