Discussion What is the appeal behind gender bender novels

Before I start I want to say that I am not transphobic in anyway whatsoever. What choices people take is entirely up to them.

I have been bored lately and haven't had many things to read so i decided to browse the site scribblehub.com that I hardly visit just to see if they have some good novels. I clicked the trending page and what do I see, almost 80% of the novels in the trending page are harem, smut, yaoi and gender bender novels. This is a trend that I have been noticing a lot. The harem and smut tags I can somewhat understand. Even the yaoi tag I can get you know for the female readers. But I just can't understand the gender bender novels and why they are extremely popular. And this is not the first time I have noticed it. Every novel site I have ever visited for some reason or another the gender bender tag is extremely popular.

Now I have read gender bender novels in the past but I myself never saw the appeal in it. I mainly have 2 issues with these tag myself, for some reason it is always a man turning to a woman never the other way around and if it is a female mc she is just crossdressing. I have never seen a female to male novel aside from 1 that was a yaoi novel. And second mc accepting these changes happens way too fkng fast. For example you could have a 40 year old man that goes into the body of little girl and suddenly the person is blushing left and right acting really cute, wearing skirts and dresses without any problem. It is at such a point that you honestly can't tell it was a 40 year old man aside from the fact that he(she) likes girls (for some reason most of the male to female gender bender novels are yuri).

So for these reason I mostly avoided gender bender novels, but for a long time I honestly thought these novels were for an actual transgender audience, but I guess not.

So I am asking what is the appeal behind gender bender novels. I am not trying to start anything controversial, just asking a honest question.

 

For me, I like that it breaks gender roles and stereotypes. Though you probably looked for the wrong genderbend novels, I'm guessing those badly written japanese novels where the MC immediately starts to act like a girl even tho she(he) was once a man.
In Reborn as My Love Rival’s Wife you can see the many internal conflicts where he turned female. In Dominion’s End you can see how he's struggling between his female and male side, so he ended up being bisexual instead. There are also many more novels that execute the trope well, for example in Crossing to the Future, it’s Not Easy to Be a Man (I recommend) where she's indistinguishable from a man yet still has her soft, feminine side.

 

Genuinely don't know lol, maybe its the same appeal as to buying a mystery pack or something? Drop the pants and you get a 50/50 chance of something being there.

Jokes aside i dare say its a transition phase for some to enter into full yaoi/yuri but aren't really prepared to dive into it but rather slowly enter the depths

 

Gender Bender can be done in many different ways, and that may lead to very different target audiences. I have read a fair bit of it, so let me try breaking it down.

I can say in advance that the target audience for those novels usually aren't transgenders though.

I should also note that there are Female to Male (FtM) Gender Bender novels, though they are admittedly less common than their Male to Female (MtF) counterparts.

Comedy Type: Those are gender bender novels that focus primarily on the main character constantly getting into situations they're not used to in order to get some laughs out of the audience because of an exaggerated reaction from the protagonist. Usually speaking it doesn't take the gender bender aspect very seriously nor does it give said aspect much thought.
The target audience for this is pretty much anyone that enjoys comedy.

Wish-Fulfillment Type: This is the kind of novel that (assuming a MtF protagonist) have the main character enjoy her time while being surrounded by girls, usually a yuri harem of sorts. In this type of novel the MC tends to always view herself as a man and to remain having a clear attraction towards women... Basically, the idea of those is that the protagonist would have an easy way of getting closer to other girls because they became a girl themselves.
The target audience for this are men, primarily those that have a hard time getting closer to girls themselves I'd guess.

Psychological Type: That's the kind that tries diving deeper into the gender bender aspect. The ones that make the protagonist question their own gender as well as their tastes for romance. Personally speaking it's my favorite type of gender bender novel, because I really enjoy seeing the protagonist go through a lot of internal conflicts that I could easily relate to.
I also find this one to be the more realist type of gender bender, as I find it hard to believe that anyone that goes through this won't start questioning anything nor feel the slightest bit of trouble over their bodies... They'll probably need some time to adapt instead, and they'll probably need to try understanding themselves while being confused about their current situation.
I wouldn't say the target audience for this kind of novel are transgenders though. I think the main target audience are people that love some drama in their novels, but I think plenty of transgenders can also enjoy it quite a bit. I know I love those types.


In any case, there is a certain appeal for the transgender audience in most Gender Bender novels solely for the Wish-Fulfillment aspect in all honesty. I can enjoy most MtF novels for the simple fact that I wish I was in the protagonist's shoes for the most part. Even poorly written novels can get quite a bit of enjoyment out of me due to that aspect.

I wouldn't say I'm the target audience for those novels however, because... To begin with, the number of transgenders is fairly small, so we aren't really a good target audience.
Also, the novels are a bit obviously aimed at someone else, as I tried to make clear above, I just so happen to enjoy them because the way I get my quota of Wish-Fulfillment happens to involve reading novels aimed at another audience and that don't really reflect the problems I'd expect to come from the gender change.

 

One-time gender change at the start is often for the same reason as isekai at the start: It's easier for the target audience to relate to the main character and/or easier for the writer to write. It serves as an excuse rather than a plot point... usually. The point is they want to write yuri romance/harem for men, but they don't accept that lesbians are normal, so they say "but the main character was originally a man so it's OK". For the same rationalization, if it's transgender but the romance partner is a man, on syosetsu they tag it "mental/spiritual BL".

There are also plenty of stories where characters change gender and it's important and gives a conflict to be resolved, but I assume you're not asking about those. Just take my word for it, you're judging the entire genre from mediocre examples. That's not wrong, but keep an open mind if a TS novel comes highly recommended by someone who otherwise shares your tastes.

 

Scribble Hub actually inherited a lot of writers from Transgender Story Time when that site fell to pieces, so a large portion of the Gender Bender novels there actually are written by and for trans people.

Personally, my tastes in Gender Bender are very picky and I don't tend to read a lot of what's available anywhere because of it, but I like when it's used to challenge, explore, or even just subvert and mock gender roles.

When I do find a good female to male Gender Bender, I enjoy the sense of escapism and freedom from stifling gender roles you can live through it too.
Like... The idea that you could go and play in a body where people aren't constantly trying to look up your skirt is super appealing.

 

For me personally I simply find it interesting to explore non-stereotypical gender roles, whether it be a fantastical turned into another sex/gender story or about actual transgenderism.
I also happen to like stories that deal with an mc having undergone a more or less permanent transformation and having to adapt to that throughout the story, a lot of MtF and FtM stories just happen to also fit into that category.
I will say though that while I often look for gender bender stories because I actually want to find good ones to read, I typically don't see most of the ones I do find to be good, for various reasons.

 

I haven't read many of these, simply because, like the OP, most of the ones I have seen were Male To Female and the stories were obviously trash smut stories. I have read a webcomic that with high amounts of (mostly temporary) gender bender that's highly-active forum collapsed due to the author turning out to have a fetish for Male-To-Female Transformation, and reacted badly to a Trans Person talking to them about how they're Female-To-Male Trans (which pretty much the entirety of the rest of the community was alright with, but the author's response was apparently "Ew, Gross"). Once it was known, I looked at some of the other information that had been revealed about the world, and do support that the author was just writing his fetish into stories (things like there being a few absolutely Female-Only-Races without any Male-Only-Races, for example). Wish it wasn't the case, but it is.

I posted this just because I felt that I had a point of view that's different from everyone else, that of an outsider's look at an Author of a story with Gender Bending.

 

for da lul of it!
mainly comedy cuz hard blown dive into inner conflict of boy or girl identity is rare, most just surface such
nu! I am a man! no cute cute or fluffy fluffy! then proceeded to be toyed with

 

As a wise man in the internet once says:
Sometimes it take real man to become the perfect woman


Gender bender, if done properly, are quite good. A good gender bender novels must show the MC's inner conflict about their gender in a believeable ways, more often that not this spans a few arcs. Trash gender bender novels are where the MC got gender swaped then accept it in just a few chapter, without any issue/conflict (Why the MC need to be gender swaped in the first place, it makes no sense)

 

There is however a pretty big difference between an mc that accepts a sex change for no good reason and one that actively wanted it to begin with due to gender dysphoria.
Although in the latter case you still would need to show inner conflict, just that the issues would probably be more focused on their life before the change rather than after.

 

This is what i mean, even if the MC want to gender swaped, the MC must feel something about it after the change, an inner conflict, doubt, reliev, etc. it is weird that most gender bender stories ignore what the MC feels after gender swaped.

 

i've read a fair number of genderbender novels and I find one of the most common reasons for this is that there are (male) authors who want to write female protagonists but don't feel that they can properly convey a female voice.

 

I'd say most trans ppl don't really read these a lot or particularly enjoy most of them even. Of course I don't speak for most, but as someone with gender dysphoria.
The vast majority of the MtF that I've noticed are:
*Mostly some male authors wanting to write a female MC, that's the only sole purpose. But because they're not sure if they'll be able to do that good enough so they transition the character from male to female, the purpose here is that because they're not used to writing from female perspective, so could be explained by them having been male in the past, something like that. Most of the characters here have been straight in the past, im not so sure after transition, I don't read these a lot but they could be fun. (This I know from authors notes that they write)

*The second I think are most popular maybe?not sure, maybe more popular in past. The Yuri route, in which a male transitions to female and then have him interact with mostly female characters, having monogamy or polygamy relationships. The character here is vehemently a male character inside and mostly considers himself so after transitioning. Of course not all like that. I guess they do it because they consider it easier to get closer to girls as a girl? I'm not sure on this..

*Sadly this is probably more rare, are ones that wanted to be female, were rebirthed or transmigrated into female body and are attracted to males only. These could be really fun for me.

Some of these go into or discuss gender issues & the struggles of the MC with that, others just brush over it. Same goes with sexual orientation before & after transition, but most I've seen is that it doesn't change.

 

I once thought I'd like this too, but after thinking about it for a while, I ended up realizing that it would probably be basically be a standard shoujo with a gimmick?

I mean, I always enjoy seeing characters that go through similar issues that I go through, but in this kind of narrative, I just don't see much of an appeal... It would essentially be the life of a girl enjoying the fact that she is a girl.

You're basically skipping the part that would have the conflict (the time before the reincarnation) and going directly to the happily ever after (though of course, life isn't only roses just because one has the body that they wish they were born with, but you get my point, I hope), which kind of leaves the story without much to go on.

To me that feels like any other shoujo, but with a wish-fulfillment aspect aimed specifically at the transgender community... And I just don't see much appeal in that by itself. I'd much rather see a gender-bender novel with actual conflict arising at the Main Character because of the gender change, over a novel where all the gender-related conflict has been solved from the getgo.

 

"life isn't only roses just because one has the body that they wish they were born with" that is so true.
Anyway I agree with most of what you said!
"You're basically skipping the part that would have the conflict (the time before the reincarnation)" thing is most gender bender stories just go straight to the transition with only describing what happened in the past in 1/2 chapters.. but yea I would rather see the struggles of the MC before and after regardless, what changed and why.

 

Yeah it kind of seem pointless if the author never bothers to establish what the character was like before the change and how it affects them going forward.

 

Gender bender has yaoi fanservice and mpreg without it being actual yaoi. It creates a conflict between the love interests because the tomgirl is insecure about her femininity and jealous of the other girls, and the boy thinks he may be gay. Another use for it is you can have a girl doing boy things in a historical setting, like going to war or gambling. One of the best benefits is that it nearly gaurantees that the female gender benderer has platonic male friends and isn't going to run around attracting bees and butterflies with every guy with a name in the story, so that's attractive to a lot of readers. It's not really my forte though, even though I haven't seen many gender bender stories that I hate, they usually start going way too fast for me once the bend gets revealed. It's just that heterosexual relationships between single people that are attracted to each other are very easy and simple to get into, and if the author doesn't put a lot there to stop things from happening the destined fl and ml will be married by chapter 5 at the latest.

 

Something that always weirds me out about these ones is that all the women the protagonist meets just happen to be attracted to women. Like it's super common, and they face no rejection. Or even worse, the would-be harem is normally not attracted to women, but because the protagonist is just so hawt they're okay with going the yuri route. Yeah these ones are typically just yuri fantasies but the author is probably trying to either do a self-insert or make it more appealing for male readers? Could be a lot of reasons I suppose, but I often find these ones the least interesting.