Genderswap

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Tropes and genres
Synonym(s)Rule 63, Genderswitch, Genderbend, Sexswap, Salad, "Always a girl <Character Name>", Cisswap
Related tropes/genresGenderfuck, Bodyswap, Transfic
See alsoGenderswap Casting, Genderswaps in Fanfic - Looking For A Femslash Perspective
Male!Harley Quinn by Zeilyan (2016)
Related articles on Fanlore.

Genderswap is a trope, commonly found in fanfiction and fanart, in which one or more characters switch binary sexes, such as depicting a male character as a cis woman.

Genderswap as a term actually covers several different fandom tropes. Genderswap is a subset of the more general genderfuck type of fanworks, and stories can include several different scenarios. In one, a "swap" of the character's sex is usually carried out by some magical or technological device, making the trope popular in sci-fi/fantasy fanworks. In most genderswap stories, the character is restored to their original sex by the end, although some stories consciously subvert this trope. Alternatively, some genderswap fic and most genderswap art involves depicting a binary-gendered character as a cis person of a different gender.

Genderswap is a fairly common trope, being more popular in some fandoms than others, but most fandoms can boost of at least a few genderswapped fanworks.

Canon Examples

Star Trek: The Original Series had a genderswap (actually a bodyswap, too) in canon in the final episode, "Turnabout Intruder", and in one of the first collections of professionally distributed fiction, The Procrustean Petard in Star Trek: The New Voyages 2 (1978).

Genderswapping is also nearly the entire premise of the manga and anime series Ranma 1/2, in which the main character switches between male and female depending on the temperature of water they're splashed with.

History of the Trope

The history of the genderswap trope in general is a very old one, with many mythologies including stories of gods, demigods, or heroes changing their genders.

When the trope became popular in modern fandom is a little harder to pinpoint. However, some of the earliest fanworks to use the trope may come from the Star Trek: The Original Series fandom, and they were usually focused on Kirk and Spock.

Related Terminology

Genderswap is not the universal fandom term for this trope, and there are a number of terms fans use to describe the trope and its subtropes and related tropes, some of these include:

  • Genderswap - used for two tropes: 1) in-story sudden (magical or sfnal) gender/sex change and 2) always-a-different-gender (see cis swap)
  • Genderbend - sometimes a synonym of genderswap, sometimes a synonym of genderfuck, sometimes refers to miscellaneous gender play not covered by a more specific term
  • Genderfuck - overarching term for fanwork tropes that play with gender
  • Gender Flip - refers to recasting characters as a different gender, for examples: Starbuck in the BSG reboot and Pidge in Voltron: Legendary Defender (see the TV Tropes artilce)
  • Gender Bender - refers to an in-story sudden gender/sex change (see the TV Trope article)
  • Rule 63 - generally meaning "For any given male character, there is a female version of that character", although it has changed some over time (see the Urban Dictionary artilce)

Terminology Criticism

The term 'genderswap' itself, as well as the way it most often plays out in fanworks, has been criticised for falsely assuming that both sex and gender are binaries, and for implying that sex and gender necessarily coincide. Various alternatives have been proposed, such as spectrum slide[1]. genderbending has caught on in the 2010s. See this August 2017 discussion, Archived version for more about the history of terms, usage, and some current issues.

While some assert that genderswap should correctly be called sexswap, since what is being changed are the visible sex characteristics and the social gender only as a consequence of the physical change,[2] the term is established for a number of likely reasons, e.g. what some name the conflation of sex and gender in discourse[3] or the better flow of words.[4]

A similar criticism of both the practice and its name in fanworks don't focus as much on the distinction between sex and gender, because sex is seen as just as socially constructed as gender. Rather, it focuses on the particular way bodies and gender are assumed to be related in these kind of stories; highlighting how genderswaps often erase or oversimplify experiences of trans people with their bodies. Cisswap is a term often used in this context for genderswaps which assume that having a body that society assigns a different gender to would lead to the character actually being that gender, or that reinforces cissexist norms in some other way.[5]

Further pointing to the fact that the gender is not what has been changed, in the large majority of genderswap stories, the character who has been swapped as part of the plot retains their pronouns in the (generally) third person narrative.

Always Been a Girl

A variation on the genderswap trope is "always been a girl" AUs or "Rule 63" fic, where one or more of the canon characters are written as if they have always had a different gender from the one in canon.

These stories tend less towards crackfic and more towards seeing what might have changed in a favored character if this one piece of their life had been changed.

In fandoms where alternate realities exist in canon, these sorts of AUs seem almost inevitable.

In comics fanfic, a 1998 discussion on racmx was transferred to acff and became the XXY: The Marvel Mutant Genderswap Project[6], The challenge was that all mutant characters in the Marvel Universe had their genders "swapped". While few actual full stories were produced, there were a number of character bios, snippets of fic, a timeline and a set of guidelines, all saved by Alara Rogers on her webpage, Crossroads X.

However, in the show Sliders, where the entire premise of the show was based on traveling to alternate realities, they only once encountered a sex-swapped version of one of their team. In fandoms such as Supernatural and SGA, where the main action heroes are all men, the use of the trope to write the universe from the point of view of a cisgender woman is popular. Rewriting female characters (such as Teyla) as men is very rare.

After the release of the Star Trek reboot movie in 2009, there was a surge in interest in genderswap fic in which one, or more, of the characters — almost exclusively male[7] — has always been a different sex from what s/he is in canon. Kirk appears to be the character most often portrayed as female, with McCoy, Spock and Chekov trailing well behind with less than half the number of instances.[8] This offshoot of the reboot fandom is popular enough to have launched the LiveJournal community st_genderswap, two months after the movie's release.[9]

Naming and Labeling

These stories are often tagged or labeled with the prefix Girl, and use the ! (bang) such as Girl!Jim/Spock or Girl!John/Girl!Rodney to differentiate them from non-genderswapped versions. Similarly "fem!" and "male!" may be used to label stories that feature a character rewritten as female and male respectively.

There is some controversy in fandom as to whether a pairing is het or femslash if you've made one or both of a popular slash pairing female, either from birth or from some magical change. If a story involves a temporary change, and gender is therefore not altered, most fans will consider the change to have no bearing on the classification. If a story is an always-a-girl, or always-a-boy, opinions vary more widely.

With always-a-girl genderswap fics, the author is essentially creating a new character, and their new character needs a name. Popular choices for "girls'" names include canon references if available, like Meredith McKay or Deana Winchester, or standard feminized versions of the original name, like Johanna or Joan Watson, Harriet Potter, etc. In some cases, writers simply use the original name, either without explanation or as a nickname or short form of a more standard female-sounding name. Rarely is a totally unrelated name chosen, reinforcing the idea that the swapped character is intended to be the same person, not just a child of a different sex born to the same parents.

Controversy and Criticism of the Trope

Trans Issues

More recent genderswap stories, and genderswap stories in newer fandoms are more likely to reference, overtly or not, trans issues as part of the genderswap. See transfic and trans characters in fandom for more information.

Comments

A 2010 comment:

[T]oo often I will see the author switch into new pronouns to match the new body, or depict the character enthusiastically "trying out" their new body, often sexually. I can tell you for sure, suddenly having the wrong body means CRAZY issues. I can't even look at myself undressed. A new body means learning to use it, first of all, and then all the dysphoria that comes with it, and one thing it isn't going to do is turn its owner on. Long story short, most "genderswap" (which should really be called "sexswap", considering the context the term is most often used in) offends me hugely, and manages to avoid all the opportunities to bring trans issues into the mix. [10]

Genderswap is also commonly criticized for focusing on cissexist and often misogynist stereotypes of perceived gender differences, and for having characters immediately adopt a conservative gender performance without question. For example, men having to learn how to shave their legs when their bodies change, even though they could just as easily choose not to, is a common trope in stories where men's bodies are "switched".

Example Fanworks

Fanfiction

Sudden Change

Always a Girl (or Boy)

Fanart

Cosplay

Female Wintersoldier cosplay by Stefnee, photographed by Debbie McCall (2017), Fandom: MCU

A lot of cosplay involves genderswap as cosplayers don't limit themselves to characters of the same sex. Cosplaying a character whose gender is different than one's own is called crossplay. Some differentiate between crossplay and genderswapped cosplay, such as "femme" versions of male characters.[12]

Examples include:

Genderswap Picspam

Part of the trend of recasting picspams, where photos of actors of different races, ethnicities, genders or sex are assembled to "recast" a show.

With the rise of Tumblr, animated gifs as well as still photos can easily be shared between fans. These gifs can be AU gif sets, telling a story, as well as illustrations of genderswapped casting.

Aesthetic Edits

•Mike Hanlon
Part of my Genderswapped Losers AU, Archived version by Derry-DadFandom: ITDate: September 14th 2019Medium: Mood BoardStatus: Complete
Mikayla Hanlon (Aka the sweetest girl on the block) is the most loyal person you will ever find, once you have her, you have her for life.

Example Fanart Gallery

Meta/Further Reading

Other Resources

Rec Lists

Tumblrs

  • spngenderswap (deleted)
  • genderfuck - "dedicated to the art of genderbending. Fanart and cosplay will be posted, with majority of content animanga/video game related."
  • hellyeahgenderswap - "a place for genderswapped casts of films and tv shows."

References

  1. ^ Spectrum Sliding by Allison "Mu" Jones (NSFW) (Accessed September 23, 2014)
  2. ^ August 26th 2008. Sherrold. why ask why? LiveJournal post. Accessed October 3rd 2008.
  3. ^ August 27th 2008. See strangerian's and omnivorously's comments to sherrold's post. Accessed October 3rd 2008.
  4. ^ cf. August 28th 2008 ifyourweremine's comment to sherrold's post. Accessed October 3rd 2008.
  5. ^ August 28th 2015. thedeadflag
  6. ^ Genetic ramifications of Magneto changing gender, Alara Rogers, May 4, 1998 (via acff googlegroup)
  7. ^ Tags for the LJ st_genderswap community record only one instance each of Uhura, Chapel and Saavik as always male, compared to 49 instances of Kirk as always female (as of July 2010).
  8. ^ As of July 2010, st_genderswap showed 25,22 and 10 instances of always-a-girl for McCoy, Spock and Chekov respectively.
  9. ^ st_genderswap had over 170 members, as of July 2010.
  10. ^ iambickilometer. META: Five+ Ways Being Transgender in Fandom Really Sucks, and Why I Stick With It Anyway, posted to Dreamwidth 2010-04-07. (Accessed April 9, 2010)
  11. ^ naadi - WebCite.
  12. ^ Gender-swapped Doctors are our new favorite form of Doctor Who cosplay by Charlie Jane Anders at io9, 23 February 2012. (Accessed 07 January 2018.)
  13. ^ Siilie's art blog.
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