"Just My Type" and the Perils of Gender Swapping · 9:59pm Jun 2nd, 2016
Warning: This blog contains frank criticism of erotic fiction from this site. While it contains no quotations, links, or sexual content and I have tried to keep the prose to a level of "work-safety" that would be acceptable for a casual reader, if you're personally squicked by the idea of MLP porn this may not be a post worth reading to the end of. That said, I encourage you to brave the waters, because oh Lord was this particular story worth castigating.
So it's been going on five months now since my last blog post, and of all the things to drag me back it had to be really terrible porn. I have the best motivations for writing, ever.
Let's back up a bit.
MLP's fandom has, more or less since inception, had a thriving sub-group of stories centered around mature content - oft referred to by those in the fandom itself as "clop", which is apparently what horse masturbation sounds like. Strange fandom monikers aside, this means that if you browse the site with your mature filter off for any reason - and I do - you will run into a wide range of pornographic and fetish-driven stories in both the feature box and the popular trending fics on the right side of the screen. I have seen everything from ovipositors to hoofplay to scads and scads of human-on-pastel-horse action show up during my time on this site. I even have first-reader credit on a few of my boyfriend's saucier stories. This is all to say that for better or worse, I'm something of a detached scholar of pornographic stories involving small, pastel equines.
This blog post is not about porn directly, however, and I do not intend to include pornographic content. It is instead about something that tends to show up more often in mature stories on this site than anywhere else: gender swap stories.
I think it should be pretty obvious as to why I would take special interest in any story, regardless of genre, with gender swapping as a focus. For those of you who cannot figure it out, allow me to briefly explain why:
I realize that this may be shocking information for some of my followers. That is a sentence I almost managed to type with a straight face.
So why am I broaching the subject of gender swap stories and pornography now, of all times? The answer lies in the existence of "Just My Type", as of this writing currently bearing the dubious honor of a spot within the FimFiction feature box for those who are not filtering mature content. I do not recommend this story for those who are in the mood either for spank material (the erotic content is somewhat lackluster, and like many such stories I have a sneaking suspicion that both author and audience have a terribly limited field of personal experience) or for romance. It has neither. I will, however, recommend it for those who wish to read instructively bad fiction. The first chapter and a half of "Just My Type" are so mind-numbingly terrible that in the course of reading them I actually found myself feeling personally offended- not just by their disturbing content, but by the fact that there are enough people on this website favoriting such stories as to elevate them to featured status.
The premise of "Just My Type" is simple. Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash are in a relationship, and are planning on consummating it for the first time. Twilight prefers stallions to mares, and so before the sexual activity begins she changes Rainbow Dash into a stallion. Fun is had by all parties.
In theory, this is a comedic sex romp with fantasy elements. In practice, it reads like a horror story made only more disturbing to me by my gender dysphoria.
I do not take immediate umbrage with the unusual premise of Twilight being comfortable in a romantic relationship with another woman, but still preferring male sexual partners. Imperfect as it is, the Kinsey scale is a pretty well-known concept by now and does a decent job of explaining how individual sexualities are often more fluid than binary (or trinary) explanations tend to make them seem. I do, however, find it somewhat disturbing that the lead-up to Twilight granting Rainbow Dash a brand new set of gonads is the establishment of the fact that Dash is Kinsey-6 gay and reacts to the possibility of having a dick not with "that's a bit weird" or "kinky" but "Oh God No".
This is followed by Twilight plaintively begging Dash to try it, for her. While I am sure the author intended this scene to be an adorable "puppy dog eyes" scenario, the stances and reactions of both characters make it seem more like Twilight is pressuring her girlfriend for anal.
Which is, of course, exactly what is happening - the emotional dynamics are the same. Rainbow Dash eventually caves for reasons I find too appalling stupid (and specific) to explain in detail, and the two go on to enjoy a merry round of sex which confirms that our presumably male author has no idea how basic male anatomy functions, much less female. This is par for the course in most erotica found on the internet, however, and not enough to be specifically damning on its own. What is damning is that following this intercourse, Dash falls asleep, and Twilight watches as the rest of her spell begins to take effect.
When Dash awakens the next day, Twilight informs her that the spell she cast is hard to remove, and will require either a counter-potion she didn't bother to prepare or even gather the ingredients for in advance, or for Dash to undergo a more extreme version of the spell that will give her a Y chromosome for a few hours before the magic fades and it's safe to cast Vaginal Polymorph on her. Ignoring the bizarre rules of how transformation magic works in this story, this was the point where I concluded that "Just My Type" is not merely a bad story, it is a perversely evil story. Evil that I am sure was committed in ignorance, but evil nonetheless.
Consider the implications. Twilight Sparkle is ready to fully consummate her relationship with her partner. Before they have their first night of sex, however, Twilight admits she just needs to bump uglies with a stallion rather than a mare. This is not simply a fetish, or a fantasy, but apparently a key part of her sexual identity. She has kept this secret from Rainbow Dash up until the moment where they are ready to first have sex. This would be an awkward and mood-killing revelation on its own, but she follows it up with asking Rainbow Dash if she can cast gender-transformation magic on her so that the sex will feel good for Twilight. Dash reacts with immediate disgust and revulsion to the very idea of having male sexual organs.
Twilight, with no regard as to the comfort level of her partner in this situation, begins to emotionally pressure Dash to go through with this. Dash complies. And then the next morning, when she asks to be changed back, Twilight reveals that Dash has been completely misled as to the nature of the magic cast on her. She has deliberately deceived Rainbow Dash and physically transformed her body in a way that Dash is uncomfortable with for the sole purpose of her own sexual gratification.
In any other story with this premise by a competent author, in other words, Twilight Sparkle would be the villain.
What follows can only be described as a sex romp turned truly terrifying as Dash is forced to experience sexual encounter after encounter attached to biological equipment she is disgusted by, and the circle of those exploiting her grows by the chapter. By the end of the story she will no doubt have become subject to a kind of dysphoric stockholm syndrome. There is no longer a Rainbow Dash. There is only the penis.
The moral of the story, children, is that if you are going to write gender-swapping erotica - and please, if you are so inclined, do not let me stop you, a good gender-bending romance can be ridiculously affirming for trans people - for the love of God, think before you write. There are few things more horrifying to me than the idea of spending my entire life trapped with the wrong sexual characteristics and being typecast by them forever. Presenting a story about a woman who is dealing with that very issue as a whimsical sex romp between her and the mare who trapped her in that situation to begin with is possibly the most horrifying thing I have ever read.
After all, the most terrifying realization when reading a horror story is the possibility that the author thought they were writing something else.
I appreciate this blog.
I'm not sure how else to adequately express it. I'm a person with a transgender best friend and more than one transgender ex-lover. I'm invested in related issues and while I've not read the story, it feels like you've hit the nail on the head.
I'm also someone who ends up leaving some very negative feedback, more often than not, after reading featured stories, especially if they were meant to be erotic. I appreciate that aspect of this blog as well.
Thank you for this (I came here because of Chuck's blog post). I do appreciate a good equine erotic story (not just plain porn) when I find it... it's just indeed exceedingly rare and with 95% certainty not going to show up in the featured box, ever.
As for the actual content of your blog post: a neat, spot on analysis. It's unfortunate you can't upvote good blog posts.
3998654
I consider every comment I get on my blog the equivalent of an upvote. Makes me feel like writing more.
Thanks!~
So much clop on this site inadvertantly reveals the grossest attitudes about sex and gender. At least the stuff that's openly offensive displays an understanding of "this is not normally an okay thing to do but fiction is not real." The stuff that really gets to me is the "but this is so funny/romantic/for the character's own good" gross stuff like this.
Just ugh.
A great yet disturbing description of an awful story. To be honest, when I saw the title I figured the blog would be about the extreme popularity of stories where a human male comes to Equestria, is involuntarily turned into a mare, and can never change back. I never understood the popularity of those stories.
3998830 Those I admit I find less disturbing on some level. Maybe it's because I'm a trans woman myself, but I remember I used to do a lot of "this character of mine is totally a man but turned into a woman but they think it's WEIRD and WACKY, HUR HUR HUR" as weird camouflage. That said, several of those stories are written by people who clearly don't understand how GD works, or how to take advantage of the interesting leaps and jumps that happen when a character not only crosses the gender gap but also crosses into a society that's had centuries of not only female rule, but also lacks years of patriarchal bullshit. There's something to be mined there.
Just, you know. Not what most people do.
3998828
As well it should! Much harm has been done under the auspices of "for your own good." It's one thing to do it as literary trope:
but a disturbing amount of the time its done with the tongue rather firmly set away from the cheek.
It concerns me, some, especially given the possible age range and -- for lack of a better term -- malleability of the audience here. While I don't personally think fiction to be responsible for a person's actions (people seek the entertainment that fits their personality, not the other way round, I feel), I do think that can people can be influenced in subtle ways over time. It would be exceedingly unfortunate if any fiction reinforced someone's unfortunate view that they need to change people "for their own good."
3998935
I can totally understand and empathize with that view point, but this is also one of the things that gives me hope. Teenagers have always been capable of consuming and believing a lot of bullshit that will eventually crumble when exposed to reality. Their experiences are so limited that, for most of them, it doesn't take much to change their mind or understand the world is bigger than themselves as they mature. (And, teenagers who might read this, I'm not saying you're dumb or wrong, I'm just saying that life is going to expose you to things you literally have never considered, and that will make Future You a different person.)
It would make me very happy to learn that the author and everyone who enjoyed a fic like the one discussed here was sixteen-- that means a lot of them would look back on this in ten years and cringe. The thought that there might be that many people who managed to hold onto these attitudes is way more depressing.
3998957
I'm right there with you. Actually I have to be on some level. Have you seen what my significant other writes sometimes?
I think probably the worst sin of these stories is the fact that the evil isn't even intentional, however. "Just My Type" clearly thinks it's something that it is not. And in so thinking, reading it becomes something like interacting with a member of the Manson family, or trying to have a civil conversation with Fred Phelps. The reality you are aware of begins to tear at the seams as you find your attempts to make contact drowned in wave of delusion after delusion.
An author who played up the evil Twilight commits in this story as an intentional choice could've produced something with... well, merit. It would not have worked as a merry sex romp and the only people to derive any kind of erotic satisfaction would be a niche market to say the least, but a skilled author who was able to see the threads of controlling behavior and abuse coming from Twilight could have built this into a story about a relationship turned toxic and played the horror straight. And there is value in dark fiction. I doubt I would have read that story, but it still would've been a story worth telling.
Or at least, more worth telling than the hours of my life I invested in pure terror.
3998957
That's rather my more potent concern, but
that's a superior way of looking at it. If you don't mind overmuch, I'd like to join you in that particular hope!
-----
On a side note, and I promise I'll try to stop derailing the pointof this blog post after this...
It's always fascinated me, being of sufficient age to look back on my teenage years (and parts of my twenties, to be honest; I didn't magically turn into a fully mature person on the day I reached my majority) and wince, yet understand why I did those things / felt that way.
Shortly before she passed, one of the most influential persons in my life -- a cousin who helped raise me during those awkward early teens -- asked me if I had held on to the imagination and sense of wonder that I had when I was younger. She went on to admonish me to never lose either. It's a promise I hope I've kept, and hope to go on keeping. It's possible to be a mature, productive member of society and still hold on to that.
I would imagine that's part of why some of us, at least, are here. :)
3999046
In most cases, rather happily so, yes.
That's why I harbor some concern. There's always a possibility, however remote, that a person already predisposed towards the unintentional subject matter will, even on a subconscious level, see such content as a validation. Especially a featured story. "If it's popular, surely it must be right..."
I sincerely hope that is a situation that hasn't obtained, and will continue to not obtain; but even so, it's good for well-spoken folks such as yourself to point it out.
It's not so much "showing it for what it is" as it is pointing out the pitfalls. Or, in your own words, the perils.
As a writer of clop, I'm stunned how easy it is for it to shade over into horror. As a writer of horror, I'm not entirely dismayed by this, but I prefer to write horror on purpose!
I've taken up a policy of closed door first drafts so that I can deal with this sort of thing when it comes up, offstage, before anypony impressionable sees it.
4002358 I tend to recommend getting first readers with differing tastes and biases than your own. It's part of why Chuck and I work well together- his tastes run more gritty, mine run more saccharine and stylized, so we tend to catch details in each other's ideas that don't mesh or could be improved.
Plus, in cases like the above sometimes the terrifying thing is that the horror element is invisible to the author. We all write an Edward Cullen once in a while, I think.
This does indeed sound horrible, and also the sort of thing that realistically would leave Rainbow Dash hating Twilight Sparkle, rather than loving her. And if it didn't, it would be because Dashie's self-respect and identity had been shattered probably beyond repair. Which has even more horrifying implications: Twilight Sparkle is willing to do this to someone she deeply loves and sees nothing wrong with this and, oh yes, she has the power of a rising goddess. What happens when she decides to treat the whole Realm of Equestria with the consideration she's just shown her True Love? Or maybe not quite as much ...
"The future should be filled with magic / dreams and wishes brought to life / but the days ahead are dark and tragic ..."
Indeed.
I remember reading the story long ago and not finding it to be good (I quit reading after chapter 1 - always a bad sign, though pretty standard for shitty clopfics, which is why I never read very many), but honestly, I've long since decided that complaining about the morality of pornographic materials - and pornographic fantasies - to be not only valueless, but of negative value. Pornography is almost uniformly awful. Reading or viewing 99.9% of pornography as if it is supposed to be about real people is an exercise in masochism, because the purpose of porn is for people to wank off to it, and most porngraphy, as far as I can tell, is written for people who struggle to mentally construct even fairly basic pornographic fantasies - because if they were better at it, they would not enjoy most porn.
Some people have a fetish for gender swap porn. It is not my thing, but it is something that some people enjoy, judging by how much of it I see in furry porn and around the site. It is probably going to be gross for some people. You sound like one of them.
But given that there are literally fetishes that center around rape, people killing each other, and cannibalism, forgive me if I find complaining about how shitty gender swap porn is morally offensive to be a bit silly.
Almost all pornography is "morally offensive" from this point of view. So is almost all mainstream "romantic literature". Complaining about how someone's low-quality whackoff fantasy is amoral and disgusting and disturbing is just going to make you miserable. Ultimately, I don't think it really matters much - if everyone who consumed pornography took it seriously, the world would be a far more fucked up place than it is. Given that I knew people who consumed mainstream pornography and were not, in fact, fucked-up, amoral people, I have to conclude that it is harmless, by and large.
Yeah, it is not a well-written story. But getting morally offended by it is probably just going to make you unhappy. It is an unrealistic fantasy fetish.
4014660 I don't think you read the reason I was offended right.
I'm not offended by the concept of gender swap. I'm offended that what Twilight did was literally stick Rainbow Dash in the horrible mental situation I live in, and then the story continued on as if it were a cutesy romp. This isn't just moral offense. This is idiotically bad tonal control of a story. I haven't had this much tonal whiplash since Life and Times decided that what its '90s-sex-comedy tone needed was a good old fashioned attempted honor killing. That one was bad, but at least it was bad in a very bizarre, out there way. This is bad because this is a cute little fantasy right up until you explicitly show that one of the two characters is definitely not into what's happening. Most good genderswap focuses on the positives of the new sensations, the sudden rush of new stimulus, the exhilaration of the experience. Alternatively you could emphasize the horror of your body suddenly shifting into a form you can't control and no longer identify with. This story tried for both and tonally attempted to take Twilight's side in the matter.
Like, even most rapefics acknowledge that the rapist is an asshole. And that's literally all i ask for. The existence of tonal control that works with what the story is presenting rather than against it. There's getting off to nonconsent and then there's nonconsent that thinks it isn't.
4014925
So basically, Rainbow Dash is freaking out over being turned into a stallion (temporarily or otherwise) and Twilight and the story are proceeding onwards as if nothing happened?
4015706
Yep. Everyone ignores the fact that Dash is freaking out, or treats it as an afterthought. Well, when they aren't having sex with her. Because you know, the best way to react to your friend who's freaking out is sex.
Additionally - and mind, I made it three chapters in before I just dropped it and wrote this post - the most anyone seems to react to Twilight with is "ooh, Rainbow Dash has a penis now! BLOWJOB TIME". Nobody questions whether or not what she just did was at all okay. The story presents the forced and unwelcome addition of appendages to another being's body as being completely unworthy of comment or response beyond "let me help you with that hard on."
Like. Do people, erm. think?
4015731
To be fair, in a fetish story, no one caring would make sense if Rainbow Dash wasn't being presented as freaking out - it is just, you know, fetish fuel. Have dick, will bang.
The weird part is presenting the freakout and then having everyone act like it is a normal fetish story.
4015958
That's exactly the point I was making. If you read the post, I outright said I'm straight up into this stuff. It's not like I don't have or accept fantasies. What I specifically objected to was that "Just My Type" through incompetence treads into degenerate territory, by having Rainbow Dash be completely uncomfortable with everything happening to her followed by nobody around her reacting appropriately and the tone of the story attempting to fixate on sexual release and satisfaction.
I really don't know how else to explain it.