Metamorphilia Chapter 9 · 10:25pm Nov 22nd, 2020
Some quick thoughts and explanations about the latest Metamorphilia chapter. Feel free to skip to the bottom if you're not interested in behind the scenes queer writing talk or if you want to avoid some minor spoilers for chapter nine.
One thing I always wanted with Metamorphilia (and my writing in general) is to write porn that's comfortable for fellow queer people to read. Obviously, like in most spaces, we're the minority here, but to me that makes it even more important that my stories are accessible to LGBTQ+ folks.
With Metamorphilia, I knew from the start that I'd have to walk that line really carefully. I've said before that I'm non-binary, which is one of the least specific labels money can buy, so let's not generalize here, but basically I don't have any strong preference as far as pronouns go. Call me he, she, they, xe, whatever you want. (Just don't call me late for dinner.) That's very much not the case for most people, and I want to respect that in fiction.
Up until this point, I've used exclusively feminine pronouns for the mane six because, dicks and bat wings aside, they're still the same characters on the inside. Originally, I planned to stick to that. Then I got to Fluttershy's second turn, and the sloppy excuse for a subplot I designed for her made that problematic. In this particular story, she's straight (or mostly straight, but let's not get into that). That means that if I make her unreservedly attracted to anyone else at the table, I'm either invalidating their gender identity or her sexual orientation, and that's not cool at all.
So, my options were to either give Flutters a full-on bisexual awakening (played out, easy street, also four out of the six are bi/pan already, so fuck that) or give one of the others a gender awakening. I decided fuck it, I need to start writing trans characters eventually, and having some guys at the table gives me a bit more flexibility down the road anyway.
In this latest chapter, which hopefully you've read by now, Rarity opts to play a character (Big Mac) and Pinkie Pie decides to try on some male pronouns and a good old fashioned R63 fandom name. Rarity is a consummate professional and thespian extraordinaire, naturally, so she's canonically as much a mare as ever, and the narration is just acknowledging the internal fiction she's acting out—think of it like a drag queen's stage persona. Pinkie, or perhaps I should say Berry, on the other hand, I've made somewhat genderfluid here. I think this fits the character; Pinkie strikes me as a very fluid person in general, able and even wanting to change and adapt depending on circumstances and her mood.
Will this make it slightly harder for me to refer to Pinkie in the narrative? Probably, yes. And I'll probably end up making weird choices about where to use one name or the other in upcoming chapters. Sorry, you'll just have to get used to it. Also, if this is going to be prevent you from enjoying the story, my condolences, the door's right over there. Hope you enjoyed your stay.
I only wrote up this blog post in case anyone wondered about my motivations for this admittedly abrupt change. If you're cisgender and about to comment on this post, by all means do, but keep in mind that your take is probably not as hot as you think it is. Just a friendly reminder. Trans folk, if you're out there, please do let me know how you felt about the chapter. I definitely have room to improve when it comes to inclusive language, so critique away.
Finally, you should all be able to look forward to at least one more Metamorphilia update before the end of the month. Afterwards, we'll have to see. I want to keep up my new NaNoWriMo-inspired writing habits, but I have a feeling that December will throw one thing or another on the tracks to derail me, so don't expect quite the same update frequency.
That's all for me. Thanks for reading, and stay safe!
I thought that Fluttershy's experiences with Discord had made her open to trying all sorts of new things, no "awakening" required.
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There's a difference between "yeah I'll try it" and "this will get me off hands-free" though. Heteroflexibility has its limits.