I've found that an interesting thing to do to a storyline is gender-swap it--make the male characters female and vice versa--in order to gain a different perspective on the work.

With the WIP, I picked the genders of the main characters based on society's standard perception of gender roles and with the knowledge that they're both going to have to buck them to grow. Switching gender there, I feel, only serves to lessen the impact.

I went a step further, though--was my decision a right one? Did the girls of this day and age really need yet another female-centric story about our need to fight past gender constraints in order to make our own decisions and mistakes?



A few days ago, I ended up having an enlightening conversation at Kurokirrocon with two girls in the bathroom. The one girl was upset that her boyfriend wouldn't let her go to the dance. His reasoning? The dance was slutty. Also, he was afraid she'd cheat on him.

For reference, the dance was drum & bass (about 180 BPM), hardcore & HHC (about 200 BPM), and gabber (inching up to around 250 BPM). The air conditioning was off, the con funk was so thick it could almost gag you, and the heat probably made it up to 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit. The people dancing there were not slutty; if anything, they more resembled a nest of ants with glowsticks--if you doused the nest in bleach.


Ever helpful (and more than a little overheated), I tried to explain a very important phrase/idea/way of life to the girl: "Fuck him if he can't handle it."

The girl was still upset.

Her friend tries to make things better: "Well, if you wanna talk about slutty, there's someone selling bras in the dealer's room!"

"Yeah," I said. "That's mine."

I did explain to them that yes, it's a costuming thing, and yes, it makes me happy to not have a naked mannequin--but overall I couldn't even bring myself to be offended. They were both obviously too stupid to be let out on their own let alone understand anything beyond their own little worldviews.

Which happened to hinge on boys & on what's "proper" or "slutty," and in no way shape or form draw focus to their own supposed/stunted independence.




Fuck it, I said--it seems this song needs sung at least a few more times.