Unpopular Opinions · 8:29pm Jan 17th, 2018
RGRE (Reverse Gender Rolls Equestria) is just femdom with extra steps. Why don't we call it what it is and be done with it? Why does it need an additional label? Just because you are extending the femdom to everything in life, rather than just the bedroom does not negate the fact that it is still femdom. Are we trying to have femdom while also avoiding that label by slapping a new one on there? Is there some context or layer I'm missing here? Is there something that will make this label less stupid?
I'm genuinely curious. 'Cuz from my perspective right now, it's just dumb, and it's suddenly gotten popular. Why? I mean, I expect a lack of taste when applied to the site's populace in general, but c'mon, there has to be some sort of cause behind this sudden spike in popularity of this niche fetish.
... What?
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That's my response! There are two fics based on this concept in the FB right now and a few others have floated past in the previous week or two.
I was so confused. Now that I know what RGRE is, yeah, it's dumb. Also weirdly convoluted. I don't get it.
Yeah, I'm confused. Equestria is already a matriarchy, so wouldn't a "reverse gender roles" version be one where stallions are in charge?
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THIS
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irk? It doesn't hold water with a pony lense set to it. I mean, I can feel ya, maybe, with an EQG fic...but these have all been pony style!
... are we back in fimfic 2012 again?
So that's what that means. Ugh, yeah that's stupid.
I still dont get what the "add a human in there just for teh lulz!" part is supposed to accomplish, just kills it for me.
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I was also so ridiculously confused by this concept that I tried to track down some of the stories and/or groups to figure out how they were explaining it.
Apparently RGRE means that the biological sex of the characters in canon does not change, but the gender-associated behaviors of males and females have been switched. So in RGRE Equestria, being aggressive, assertive, strong, unemotional, etc., are "feminine" traits and prized in mares and discouraged in stallions; and being gentle, deferential, chaste, emotionally open, etc., are "masculine" traits, prized in stallions and discouraged in mares.*
* And presumably the (canonically all or largely male) Royal Guard is just a giant harem or something.
I could see a legitimate literary use for that, if you want to use the inversion of one but not the other to do some social commentary about society's approach to sex and gender roles. But considering that 17 of the 24 stories in the group's story folder are M, this is probably … mostly not that.
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In the 18th century, these were all traits ascribed to women, whilst men were the loving, caring sex and looked damn good in tights and heels.
Funny how things change.
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Let us not speak of those dark times, when every one seemed to be having the same recurring dreams for five nights in a row and just had to write a smutfic about them. Or the 1000 words on the dot fics about "X character masturbates." Or a dozen other horrible trends.
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Thank you for the research and clarification! I think part of what gets me is the last point, it could be a great way to frame social commentary, but none of them really have. They've stuck to M rated territory, hence my femdom comparison.
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One of my favorite parts from the Canterbury Tales is the older woman talking about how her former(I think) husband looked in tights.
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Even after reading the comments, I guess i just don't get it. Guess there's another tag to just kind of go, 'Huh. Guess I'm not reading that.' when I see a story.
What about an RGRE story where the characters work to break down the gender roles that separate themselves from their callings? Rarity would make dresses, Pinkie Pie would bake cakes...
Quite honestly I have no idea. I think it mostly has to do with the bandwagon effect that occurs after one story pulls something off well-ish. Like when that "Pokemon in Equestria" ficsplosion happened.
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I honestly really like the concept, it just hasn't been given a good showing. I want to see a story where a stallion breaks the mold and shows off far more "feminine" traits (being a normal stallion by our standards) that completely throw the other characters off balance.
He than gets jobs in areas that mares normally do, to the disapproval of others, despite the fact he's more physically able than the mares. This is because most RGREs seem to have it where while the emotional and mental traits of the two genders are switched, the physical traits are not, so stallions are still bigger and stronger than mares. There is then a cultural and societal shift as other stallions start doing those jobs as well.
Hell, it could be the other way around and be about a mare trying to be "masculine" and I would still read it.
Really, it's a shame that the concept has just been used as clop fuel so far. The adding of a human is what I really don't like. If it's set in a reversed gender roles society, have it focus on stallions and mares, not a random human. Like fuzzy said, it's pretty much femdom by then.
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Something something peaches?
Oh, is that what ARR GREE is? <.<
I just keep reading it as some mis-acronym for "angry". :B
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That would make a little sense, I guess? Celestia, in the one in the box right now seems more than a touch rape-y.
Still a crap concept, either way.
As far as I can tell, I'd say that RGRE focuses around deconstructing and exploring gender roles and associated societal constructs. Femdom on the other hand, is of a much narrower scope, since it only really focuses on gender-based dominant behaviour in a sexual context.
If done right, RGRE can be an intriguing concept to explore. Instead of just slapping on the 'modern western society, but a bit friendlier and with magic' sticker on Equestria, it requires thought and worldbuilding on how society would differ if you had a vastly larger female-to-male ratio and two immortal female autocrats leading society. Done properly, RGRE should be about exploring an alien culture, and societal norms that strongly differ (and frequently contradict) from the reader's own. And of course, these fics are nearly universally HiE, since they need an outsider's perspective to properly challenge and explore these changes from our own culture.
That being said, I don't think there are more than a handful of RGRE fics that are actually done well. As always, the abundance of poorly-written self-insert wish-fullfilling fetish-fuel does make it seem like the whole thing is nothing more than a pile of femdom fantasies.