De-transitioning stories are rare to my knowledge. I have rarely seen them. Such a story could go like this:
Female character wakes up one morning to find that she has grown male sexual organs and has smaller breasts. Her family treats her as a MTF transsexual and regrets her choice to do so. Female character now has the choice to continue with the transition to become female as she was in the past reality or stop transitioning all together and become male which would be the opposite sex to which she was before she woke up. Therefore, "de-transitioning" in this reality is actually transitioning from the female character's POV. Similarly, a male character who wakes up and realizes they have female sexual organs would also decide to "de-transition" or not. Relevant issues are limitations of sex change surgery, fertility, and orientation.
Another story could be one in which a person is abused, humiliated, or forced into changing their sex, escapes from that force, and then "de-transitions" back in triumph. Or perhaps a villain who wants to change sex is punished by having their transition stopped or reversed.
An issue that intrigued me is how to go from romantic partner back to being just good friends. Say, two male friends have an incident in which one becomes a female. The two immediately become lovers as expected. However, the incident reverses itself for some reason thus making them two males once again. How do these two males now interact with each other? Is there awkwardness, embarrassment, shame, anxiety, etc. The question being is can love and orientation truly be separated or forever linked?
Finally, can "de-transition" stories be insensitive or perhaps distressing to readers especially if "de-transitioning" is seen in a positive light. What if a character has TG feelings but completely resists them to the very end?
Comments
While interesting
From a theoretical aspect it may be interesting but from a practical one the audience appeal like FtM stories is probably limited. Like a piece of abstract art that one buys and puts on the wall but doesn't really have any personal feeling or interest in but there merely as a subject of conversation.
Commentator
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FTM stories
There may not be much "audience appeal" for FtM stories here, or at some of the other story sites people here are familiar with. That's because most of the audience comes here for MtF stories.
People who are the target market for FtM stories would likely look around, decide BigCloset is not for them, and move on.
Involuntary Transitions
One category of motives for de-transitioning entails reversing an involuntary sex change. Such cases include sex change as crime against a person, sometimes called "punishment". If one was a former lover or romantic partner, things could get incredibly awkward between the two.
Maybe a boy might have been sent to a boarding school of horrors, one in particular imposing a female identity on the male. The indoctrination or brainwashing may remain intact for a while after he/she leaves, but with luck, something will motivate him/her to "relapse".
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
Re: Involuntary Transitions
It's almost eerie how Daphne, in her comment, echoes my thoughts as I work on the prologue to No Place To Call Home.
This story that I am in the process of beginning will be eerily similar to a boarding school of horror, minus the boarding school. The indoctrination which will occur in that story is intended to be very strong, as the subliminal messaging will be a constant and recurring part of their lives for a long time. I have no idea at this point whether they will be able to de-transition or 'relapse' when the story ends.
The subliminal messaging will, over time, have the effect of imposing a female identity/overlay on each victim. At some time after they have been taken, hormones will induce physical changes in them, but at no time will any victim be surgically changed.
If I can get my butt in gear, I might just be able to get the prologue finished some time tonight.
Thinking
What's the saying? "Strange minds think alike?" :-)
This isn't the first time. I posted an old story here, and the first commenter said that I had just preempted a story she wanted to write. I felt quite sorry for her, and hoped she got to write it anyway. Alas, it wasn't to be.
One way to trigger a relapse: perhaps a decade down the line, someone just happens at random to mess up something, and inadvertently expose the whole thing.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
Re: Thinking
Actually, it's great minds, but in this case, strange fits rather well. I guess, if the proverbial shoe fits, one must wear it. LOL
As for your thought on the relapse, it's possible. Ten years after would be well into the future, as the storyline is the last three years.
I'm going to write the story. I have no idea how long it will take me to write it all, but I need to get it out of my head.
Your Story
Best wishes writing. I hope your writing is faster than mine.
(Still trying to get the first draft of a darn sequel done...2.5 years so far.)
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
Re: Your Story
Thanks. Perhaps I'm a tad faster, it only took me 39 hours of actual work to finish the prologue, roughly 24,250 words.
For the initial post of a story, that's more than half the bare minimum length of a novel.
To be honest, I wasn't expecting it to even be 5k words, but it just kept growing, and growing, and growing.
Re: Your Story
Congratulations! You got it done! 24000 words (two significant figures)? That seems a bit long for a prologue, since it's too long for a short story. What happened? Did it develop a plot tumor or something?
It sounds as if you could make the lion's share the part of the main story, or perhaps a side story, or maybe even a -- dare I say it? -- prequel. You'd leave yourself with a normal-sized prologue. There's always revision. Sometimes, one must cut ruthlessly. What's cut out could be used elsewhere, probably revised.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
I don't know
I mean, it's your story so you can go anywhere you want. Just it might get some criticism is all. Because there really are people who discover they aren't trans and detransition, though a lot of people who detransition do it because they can no longer afford to transition or they cant take the hate you get when you do. I knew a few trans women who detransitioned because the trans misogyny was just too devastating for their mental psyche.
My only problem is the people who find out they aren't trans then suddenly instead of being our allies, preach that everyone isn't trans because they aren't as if the world revolves around them.
Those are the bane of my existence. "I"M NOT SO YOU CANT BE EITHER!"
And I wouldn't be surprised if a great deal of these people ended up simply going back into the closet because of social problems. I aint going to judge them on that, only thing I judge is if they try to preach that I don't need treatment because it's life or death for me.
I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D