I've noticed that there is a lot of stories out there about the person who is transitioned being forced into it by someone else.
I recently read "To Alleviate Suffering" and in there the main character is transitioned against his will by a conspiracy between another character and a soon-to-be ex wife. It's done without him knowing about it or cooperating, although there is a suspicion of it happening, which he confronts the other characters with later.
This hit me...
"What if the popularity of forced transition is because it is that the character in the story is being given permission to be who they are?" In other words, the main character (and through proxy, us the reader) by being forced into it is being allowed to be what they are, by an outside agency. I mean, there's some point that each of us wants to transition and needs to transition, and really is trying to transition in fits and spurts, being buried under layers of the sex we present as. But there's also a need to be told it's okay by someone outside of ourselves.
By the story forcing it on the protagonist, it's "letting" them (and thus us) be who we are.
Personally, I never really felt like those kinds of stories were that fantastic. Sure there was a time (like "Vacation week" by Karen Anne) when those kinds of things were really appealing, but I've noticed that now, not so much because it's a hell of a violation to the psyche.
So just throwing that out there.
Comments
I recall reading something a long time ago...
Nancy Friday included in her book Men in Love that the appeal of 'forced femme' for some was that the reader vicariously could feel transformed without the accompanying guilt that many feel; that it was not their 'fault,' after all.
Love, Andrea Lena
"he/she made me do it!"
"please ignore the fact I wanted it, liked it, excreta ...."
Yeah, that's a pretty common reason, I think. I know it worked that way for me for a long time.
Interesting Post
Interesting post.
As someone who's only transitioning here and won't ever have to do it in the real world I hesitate to offer an opinion, but on the whole I find it difficult to argue with those assertions.
Forced transition is a useful literary device for turning a man into a woman. It lets the author get on with exploring the issue I believe is at the heart of all m to f transgender stories, namely how does a person who has been brought up to think of themselves as male respond to a situation which compels them to think of themselves as female?
It can also act as an analogy for the sense of injustice many trans women must feel when the conflict between their subjective and their physiological gender identities becomes too great to ignore.
Breaking a taboo
I use this device quite extensively in my cross dressing stories. To me, it's not so much about being given permission, as being coerced into doing something which is a taboo, instilled into us at some stage in our childhood. Those taboos form our moral values, and mould the people we are. Most are perfectly good values, such as not killing or stealing etc, but they also include things about behaving as a male or female.
So most people will not commit murder unless something drives them to it (this is a good thing), but equally, most men will not contemplate cross dressing (bad thing).
Once my characters are pushed through that barrier, all seem to tremendously enjoy it.
Maid Joy.....
I was a long time lover of forced femme stories in the "petticost discipline" gendre. It took away my guilty feelings of wanting to feel what life was like as a girl-woman. When I decided, at age 64, to investigate those feelings or what I had suggested to a "shrink" 15 years before were fantasies, it took 2 years for me to discouver Ruth and I have been more at peace with my soul than ever before. I had my surgery 18 months ago and life is better than ever.
Ruth
May the sun always shine on your parade
I guess I disagree
I think I disagree.
It is more about dominance and submission, of who controls and who is being controlled. The gender-change is just our particular "flavor," dare I say fetish (pardon if there are disagreeable overtones to that word) in this site. Other stories in more mainstream sites and sources can be about war, about dom-sub relationships, horror stories, war stories, practically any kind of story, and its central attribute that makes these stories attractive to the reader is that they are about being in control, or being controlled. It is a very fundamental thing within the very primitive part of our psyches, to want to control, or to want to be controlled - to domimate or to be dominated. This is part of Freud's ideas about the Id, the Ego and the Super-Ego.
Also, it is perhaps a mistake to imply that forced-fem stories dominate sites like BCTS - true, there are lots, but there are also lots that aren't. The appeal of forced-fem stories is not universal. For example, I do not like almost all forced-fem stories, though there are a few stories that are not heavy-handed with the theme, I think, that manage to finesse the theme enough that the material becomes intelligent, multi-dimensional, tasteful and not blatant, crude or heavy-handed. (Those I like, but there are very few of them.)
Wanting to transition doesn't imply wanting to be forced into it. Actually, most here, I dare say, want to transition under their own terms, volition, and control. The main problem for most, I guess, is that they cannot. But, given a choice, they want to do it under their own terms.
Anyway, that's just my opinion.
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Forced transition can never
truly involve the victim's willingness for said transformation as their free will will balk at the situation. Even leading to some sort of drastic action. It can range from 'petticoat punishment' all the way to partial or even complete surgery via science or magic.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Hmmm, maybe I didn't explain
Hmmm, maybe I didn't explain what I meant clearly enough.
The "forced" is not consensual, that's true. By being forced it's something that the main character doesn't want.
What I mean by giving permission is that if CD is what the main character/Reader (in identification with the main character) wants really down deep inside, but the taboo of doing it because they want to is too strong for the character's psyche, then having someone outside of themselves do it to them allows the main character to do what they want to anyhow because it is no longer their fault.
"Kelly Girl" does a wonderful job of illustrating this, even though the main character doesn't want it deep down. So does "The Reluctant (whatever)" series, "Man Maid", "How I spent my summer vacation" and many others. It starts with the main character being put in a situation where they have to play the other gender because someone else did it to them, and because of that they now have "permission" in their own mind to do what they have been wanting to do anyhow.
I think that's what I was trying to say.
Another angle
There is perhaps another angle here, and I'm reluctant to describe it for two reasons. Firstly, it isn't a subject I know much about and secondly I could be accused of bias. Nevertheless, in the context of this discussion I think it is worrth a try.
I think that the reason why there are so many forced femme stories, including my own, is because of inherent psychological differences between men and women. What I'm talking about are stereotypes of men and women, of course, but I can only go by what I observe around me: most men and women try to fit their stereotypes even when they are aware of them.
Men are said to be "confident" and women, that they lack such confidence, relying on men to provide them with a foundation to work from. Women seem to want men's approval or even direction and will often take it without asking. Some women are perfectly happy to let their partner run their lives for them, only coming unstuck when their partner dies or leaves. It's easier to do such things when someone else is doing the thinking for you. Humanity always was lazy.
Again, these are stereotypes and I'm well aware that there are men and women who don't fit those stereotypes. However, it could be possible that MtF transgenders will automatically prefer the female stereotype, which means that they are willing to have a man - or a strong woman, of course - order them around, even mould them into the kind of woman the subject thinks that they should have been.
Hence the forced femme trope. I think these stories allow the reader to take part in the story in the way in which they imagine a girl or woman would behave in similar circumstances.
Penny
Something along the lines of
Something along the lines of "I'm submissive in general, I have low self esteem and I don't like making decisions or forcing others to give me what I want and deserve, therefore I must be female and fit in as a woman" kind of thing?
That's an interesting thought.