So. This is a rewrite of the first series I posted here on SH, and I'm happy to say that I think it's significantly better than the original. If you've read the original, you know...mostly what to expect, though there have been two rather significant changes that affect the series going forward from when we left off. You'll see what I mean when we get there. If you don't want to read the whole thing again, once this series is caught up I'll post a "what you need to know" chapter in the original so you can jump right in.
To answer some questions I think people might have (minor spoilers for timeline of events), gender-bending happens at chapter 5. Girls love elements are introduced...a fair bit after that, in the 30s. Don't expect heavy making out or an explicit sex scene or anything, on-screen the most you're getting is kissing and flirting, though there are implied things off-screen.
Chapter length varies, at its lowest it's 2,000 words, at the highest almost 5,000 (though that one's a bit of an outlier). Usually I try to aim for 2,500-3,000 words, though.
Anyway, that's...all I have to say, so I hope you enjoy it!
Just saw this while looking for stuff to read. I believe the appropriate reaction would be:
POGGERS
[Smacks with rolled newspaper]
"NO! BAD COMMENTER! LET. IT. DIE."
@Darkakuahebi i did not know what poggers means but now i do and know this just to spite you i will use it.
And he is rigth this is poggers
I would like to give this a try, but I'm worried about the brainwashing tag
Information about said brainwashing, contains spoilers (if you've read the original, this is mostly fine for you to read):
Most brainwashing is either minor (limited to things like removing dysphoria), temporary (1-2 chapters), or does not occur to the 'good guys'. No need to worry about, say, a friend being taken away and becoming an enemy for a long time.
If you want spoilers on the exact details, I've got a list here of instances I can think of off of the top of my head (should cover all major instances of the brainwashing, though), major spoilers within:
Minor:
One character is 'brainwashed' to like a female form more than a male form. Brainwashing is removed later on.
The MC has a skill that makes their family members see each other as family members. This comes into play with an adopted parent and the MC's original parents.
The MC believes they are brainwashed to not have dysphoria. This is not the case.
Temporary:
One character is temporarily brainwashed to be utterly subservient to the MC and happy about it. The MC fixes that within half a chapter to a chapter. This pops up again once later but is fixed.
One character is temporarily brainwashed to be subservient to an antagonist, fixed within ~a chapter.
Against 'antagonists'/'non-main' characters:
One character has been under brainwashing since before the series began. This is later fixed.
A major antagonist (the one doing the brainwashing in the previous section) receives karmic justice when they try to brainwash the MC and their spell backfires. They are left under brainwashing for rehabilitation purposes. This is probably the most major case, since the MC essentially is raising them from scratch again. The implication is that the brainwashing will eventually be removed, but the person's memories are more like...they're from another life.
Said major antagonist has a bunch of people brainwashed and under their control. Control ends up being transferred to the MC after everything goes down, and due to circumstances the people are left in their 'brainwashed' state, with orders to...live completely normally. Or, in other words, live like the brainwashing isn't a thing unless something super important comes up and they're needed
I might have missed one or two, but you should get the gist of how this series handles the brainwashing tag from that. Make your own choice on whether or not to read, I'm not going to judge you either way.
Okay so no hate, but why is all the GL gender bender?
Why can't it just be a cis woman who likes other women and not just a man with a woman's body?
Honestly? Couldn't tell you. I haven't stayed abreast of trends on SH as of late. This was a gender bender story before it was a GL story, that just sort of happened along the way. I prefer people who are gender bent to keep their old orientation, which is why this turned out the way it did. You'll have to ask other people about their stories, though, I can't speak for anyone other than myself.
@Fighterman481 well... I read the previous version and I could say the doble GB nulls them so it's a GL story only...
there's plenty of straight gender bender on other sites, not everywhere has to have an even distribution of everything
@Ato could you give an example, i am quite tired of GL honestly
@aleksa29297 tbh idc about them enough to remember the site names
@Ato fair enough
There's a degree of cowardice here. So you find yourself suddenly in a female body, and rubbing yourself is neat and all, and so to would rubbing yourself against other women, but surely you also have a female brain, so unless you specifically got a lesbian brain, which shouldn't be that likely, statistically speaking, your body would likely also respond well to being d*cked. And yet bisexual GB isn't nearly as common.
@0xFFF1 only story i remember thats bi and GB is Princess of Alfheim (my fav stor, really well written) and im sad i can't find anything but GL that's remotely well written
@0xFFF1 I think cowardice is a very strong word in this instance. You see, the issue with your argument, IMO, is that it's taken in a vacuum. Statistically speaking, women tend to be interested in men, this is true. Receiving a female body should, theoretically, tend to give, more often than not, an attraction to men. But I also find that to be a disingenuous argument that doesn't really take the context of the situation into account.
I find the majority of gender bender stories have the person in question keep their mind in its entirety. And, well, people view sexual orientation as something that is a part of their core identity, something that fundamentally cannot be changed. It's just as much a part of them as their memories, and so having it but nothing else change would be feel...strange. To be honest, I think that if we're going with a 'you are receiving a new brain' route, then that should wipe your memories completely - the brain is complicated and I would find it odd that memories and personality are preserved but something like orientation isn't.
That's not to say that orientation changes or new desires are something bad and to be avoided at all costs. Those can make for interesting stories, and can be enjoyable to read in their own right. Heck, that's not even to call mental alteration in general bad - it's something I've played around with myself.
But to call keeping old orientation cowardly because you would have a 'new brain' is something I find baffling. If we're wholesale keeping memories and personality, that already involves a fair few changes in brain chemistry and structure, essentially tailor-making a new brain for you. IMO, it's not even close to a leap to assume that extends to orientation.
Now, there are other reasons to call this novel cowardly, i_dont_wanna brings up one that is more justified, the 'guy in a girl's body' thing, but this specifically is not one I can, personally, agree with. If a transformation involves preserving the brain wholesale, then that should extend to everything, including orientation, unless it is specifically a component of the transformation in question. As a feature, not a side-effect, so to speak. As such, it's the way I've chosen to write my novels.
But I understand that this is unlikely to change anyone's opinions on anything - that's not something people do easily, and certainly not something often found in posts on the internet. Still, I hope it at least gives some perspective on my side of things.
TL;DR - I view orientation as a part of a person's personality and identity, and unless a transformation is specifically messing with orientation, it should be left as is, 'new brain' or no, as the rest of that is usually preserved with a 'new brain' anyway.
@Fighterman481 Switching to a female body would require completely rebuilding the brain from scratch, including copying over their memories and sense of self. But female brains need to do things that differ from male brains, at least on the base level to manage the different organs, and also hormonally. For example, female attraction works differently to male attraction. Males have a few things that can get them horny, iirc, boobs, butts, feet, and, penises, oddly. But what's important about that is that it's a logical OR between them, any of these in any combination can cause arousal. In females however, the arousal game is much more meta and mental, rather than purely visual, and arousal depends on multiple factors combining before they get horny. Just from this example, someone with the ego and memories of a male but now in a female body would be operating under different rules, including the above rules governing how they get aroused. They'll have different motivations, and those drives will pull them over time into a new identity that includes dealing with the new desires their new brain is throwing at them, somehow. (whether that involved resisting vs accepting or healthy vs unhealthy coping is up to the character, but they invariably will have to deal with their new situation regardless) In this way, there's no such thing as being able to cling on to your old identity, since it's transient and changes with your situation, as in Buddist philosophy.
The main reason for my fascination with the Gender-bender plot device is that it's universally a built-in subplot generator. While the main plot deals with the story's Hero's Journey, what else could be a bigger journey than being forced to deal with the other half of the human condition? Part of me pushing for bisexual GB protags is because it means you've still got your attraction to women, at least intellectually, due to your memories as a man, but your new female brain is pushing an attraction to men, and that's one's of the biggest blows you can deal to the male ego (unless they were gay beforehand). Shattering a character's ego for plot is one of the basics of storytelling.
@0xFFF1 honestly, i think you're reading way too much into things considering it's web novels. I'm with @Fighterman481 on this. Unless the author sets out to have the orientation changing as a "core" plot part, having sexual orientation change just because of a gender change does not add up. Adding it because "this is what i think should happen in all GB stories" is high on the scale of "stupid opinions people have presented as facts".
Aside from all that, if you're looking for stories where, honestly IMO, that sort of self-brainwashing occurs this is not the place to look. The number of mental gay protag stories on here is likely very, very, very minuscule.
@Sabruness yup, fully agree with you and @Fiighterman481 here
@0xFFF1 Lets also not forget that about half of the GB stories on Scribble hub are by and for trans people (or at least contain the transgender tag) and in my opinion it would be rather strange to ask these authors to change their protagonists sexuality based on speculations on how the "female brain" should work.
Which brings me to my second point. Trans people do exist. We can observe at least how hormonal changes influence sexual attraction. As far as i know while some of the things you said seem to hold true, it seems to be a common story in the trans community that the cause of arrousal (i.e. Body parts vs something more emotional involved) correlates with hormones, Sexual orientation rarely seems to change. Of course it is not unheard off, some trans people do report a change in what gender they are attracted to, but even in those cases we can't exclude a more socially based explanation like internalized bi- or homophobia and compulsive heterosexuality. So i don't agree that a "female brain" necessitates a change in sexual orientation.
Lastly i would like to say, i don't think "your new female brain is pushing an attraction to men, and that's one's of the biggest blows you can deal to the male ego (unless they were gay beforehand)." is a particularly universal thing, many heterosexual men don't seem to find their heterosexuality that important. I do agree that finding out something you thought core to your being changed can be quite disturbing but puting it in such specific and universal terms does not seem to hold true.
@0xFFF1 cope
@0xFFF1 cope
@0xFFF1 Hi, I'm from 2023 replying to a 2021 comment but the discussion is just something that I had think about before. It is also something I find amusing a long time ago. The new brain thing you say is kinda right IMO, but you're forgetting about how complex a human mind is. Limiting orientation to instincts would offend a lot of people out there. There are a lot of people who changes their orientation so many times before they settled in one and sometimes they thought it won't change anymore but still changes after some time. The new brain is something I like since authors can play with it. There are a lot of possibilities if the MC would posses a non-human body since they can dictate how that species work which I think would do wonders into the plot.
The possession of old memories after reincarnation is a lot more ridiculous since the only thing I can think of that satisfy my overthinking syndrome is the soul carrying it to the new brain or another supreme being transferring it.
I am a person that accept all concepts as long as it makes sense and I like it when it's explained, not too much info dumps but more like a hint, especially if it involves new worlds. As long as it creates a great story then nothing is wrong. It's the world of the author after all.