Ok, I've mentioned in a comment or two that I've done a fair bit of thinking about characters that change genders in "different" ways. "Hermaphrodites", cycling genders, etc.
And as my story Morgan shows, a few thoughts about intersex like setups.
I'm wondering if anybody would be interested in my takes on how non-magical transformations "ought" to work, and what sorts of mixes are "possible" without bending biology too far out of shape.
Comments
Okay, I'm game (no don't shoot me!)
Yeah, Brooke, that might be useful in a future story, so I'd be interested!
Wren
I'm a believer in "Bring 'em
I'm a believer in "Bring 'em Back Alive". Unless I'm hunting/fishing for food.
But I'm not sure you'd do well in a cage. And we couldn't bear losing your stories. :-)
Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks
Well, yes
Please go on!
If
it will result in more cute boys with boobs, go right ahead! ^_^
Well, it might result in boys
Well, it might result in boys with boobs. Or girls with a "hypertrophied clitoris" (I need to find that image from a medical site that went down years back).
More to the point, it would discuss the likely ways a boy could change into a girl or the other way around. Or either could change into a "real" hermsphrodite or a pseudo hermaphrodite. Or either change into a neuter.
And, of course, the many possible cycles for folks who *keep* changing.
Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks
About hermaphrodites: Well I
About hermaphrodites: Well I don't know. Maybe a half absorbed siamese twin... The problem is that the sexual hormones of one sex tend to either render the sexual organs of the other sex sterile or cancerous. I guess humans just aren't meant to be both sexs at once - it might be possible if one could get the female organs accept testosterone or the male ones ignore the estrogen.
Edit: I forgot to write my opinion...
Helly yes, Post it :D
Now you know why I had
Now you know why I had Morgan's hormone receptors messed up. :-)
He gets the *effects* of estrogen in "convenient" locations without actually having to have more than a normal male has.
But for transformations, we generally need more than "just" hormones (except for things like guevodoches)
Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks
=D
Girls with huge clits? Yummy! =) Well, assuming they're not straight and not Uke... ;)
Transformations
Post it!
May Your Light Forever Shine
Brooke
Go for it!
Ole
We are each exactly as God made us. God does not make mistakes!
Gender rights are the new civil rights!
Rules schmules
Only if you replace that "ought to" with a "might." Once you start saying "this is the way it ought to work," it implies that any story that does it differently is wrong.
I mean "ought" in the sense
I mean "ought" in the sense of "trying to stay consistent with real world biology".
In other words, the difference between hard sf, soft sf, and fantasy.
Breaking "rules" in a story is fine, as long as you *know* that you are breaking them.
Which will sort of be the intent here. Letting folks know which organs should be changing into which others, and something about how/why it might happen if you are trying to be consistent with real biology.
And thus avoiding things like estrogen in post-pubescent males widening the pelvis, or raising their voices.
Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks
In light of present Genetic Science...
I was born intersexed, but apparently had one of the brutishly arrogant Doctors attending and he made me appear male for most of my life, until I finally got what I could fixed. (I don't choose what I think of as old vocabulary because I think it hinders clear thinking, so I was never GID, TG or anything T)
In light of my own reading, there are thousands, or more, genetic variations between "normal" XX and XY, and in fact the Y gene is very unstable and easily subject to damage, and in our polluted and irradiated world, it is being more damaged than ever before. The Y gene is approximately 3.5% of the size of the X gene. So, in a sense, we are all female but with some small mutations in some of the unfortunate, who are seen as males.
I have read (don't ask for sources) that there are females who are partially XY but still able to bear children. I was mostly female, Xy (y meaning that the Y was severely damaged) and fathered two children. One of them, a girl is totally histronic, and borderline, the other is super masculine and a genuinely nice man. One look at me in a bikini and you'd wonder how I ever had a penis attached, and even Doctors marvel at the girls on my narrow chest, thinking that I had implants. LOL
So, I think it would be jolly good if you dragged us all, kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
Gwendolyn
Mind over Matter?
I always thought that genetically it "may" be possible. I know certain fish and amphibious animals can change sex if needed. Now, besides major bending of primary sex characteristics. I've always wondered how powerful the mind really is. Like me, I've grown up being a skinny guy, with slight gynecomastia and very little body hair, but, obviously, I wanted to be a girl, so sometimes I wonder if my desire, particularly at a young age, was so strong that I did somewhat control how I developed. I'm twenty six now, and a lot people feel like I'm waaaay too young to be that. So yeah, I've always wondered about how the mind may work in all of that.