The Prankster has elicited the greatest amount of controversy of any story I have submitted. I am honestly surprised by the nature of the controversy. In the Fictionmania message board, someone suggested that someone tackle the gender bathroom controversy, so I took a stab at it. I tried to not make it completely black and white. The principal tries to use immoral tactics to try to catch Ryan, the nurse has her own agenda, some of the girls don't mind it, and some of the girls like Vanessa do. Who's right, who's being intolerant, and who's using shady means to justify the ends? Ryan is an evil protagonist because he's manipulating the system just to troll the system which is hurtful and insensitive towards trans people. He is the extreme conservative fear or argument in this issue. Could someone like Ryan really exist and could the state stop him?
The controversy hasn't been on anything Ryan actually did to mess with the system. No, the controversy has been at the very end. Ryan is rewarded for his antics by becoming the nurse's apprentice. Now, I found that Ryan just being turned into a girl was not a satisfying ending. There had to be more to the story.
The speculation I wanted to draw out was what was the nurse's motivation? She wanted to punish Ryan for his antics. Being trans herself, she was hurt the most by Ryan's behavior. Her anger turned to surprise when Ryan offered to joined her. It is here that I intended to have the reader realize the nurse's loneliness not just in being trans but in being the only one with magical power. They're both villains, one trolling the system while the other using magic to curse a teenager. There is no white and black side here.
If you were the only one of your kind and an annoying adversary offered to join, what would be a reasonable response? Many reviewers put the nurse on the side of good and therefore were mystified why a good person would side with Ryan/Ann who is the villain of the story. I find that interesting because I see the nurse as a villain just from another side. The nurse could have changed Ryan immediately on the spot but decided to drag the controversy out for months perhaps for her own amusement.
I meant the story as a dark comedy with no real heroes. It was meant to bring out the question: is a TG transformation a reward or a punishment?
Comments
The Prankster
I first read your blog then the story. With that info, I think you succeeded; pretty clever. However, I think the nurse was a little clueless and Ryan did stay a nasty shit. Nurse better watch her back in the future!
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
You really want to know why?
https://www.facebook.com/ceridwenalison/posts/10100620113409...
http://www.frc.org/transgender
http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/03/20/15-experts-debun...
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/06/straight-poop-trans-women...
I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D
A mockery
Simply put, Ryan was abusing the system. He claimed he was a girl but there was no professional evidence to support his claim. When he declared himself female, he should have been sent to a professional in that area for an extensive evaluation. Even though his score on the test Miss Campbell showed more feminine than masculine, she is not an expert in that field.
When Ryan started mocking the activities where only girls would have participated, and he told Miss Campbell about being a girl, she decided to punish him by turning him into a girl. But if backfired, he wasn't humiliated as other boys would have been, he still kept his bravado. Instead he sought a way to reverse the change, and got caught in the process.
Miss Campbell had several options in dealing with Ryan being in her house without permission. She thought of killing him, and after s/he threatened to destroy the book, might have had the right to do so. But this would have caused numerous problems, all of which she would have fixed by using magic. And had she missed one little fix, another problem would need fixed. Fixes like she would have done would have really messed up reality. And how long would she have had to continue fixing things?
Instead she listened to a worm crawl on its scared stomach trying to talk its way out of dying. Did she listen because she was lonely and wanted another of her kind for company? That wasn't made clear in the story, but conjecture says it's so.
Whatever her reason, after what Ryan did she should not have let him talk her into making him her apprentice. Based on what he did, and told her, she should have guessed she would abuse her powers. And when she gets out of control? What does Miss Campbell do then? What she first wanted to do? Strip her of her powers? And what if Ann becomes stronger that Miss Campbell?
Miss Campbell has opened one heck of a can of worms. And one of those worms may come back and bite her
Others have feelings too.