While I know the bulk of the TG fiction here is MtF as is the general audience is there no FtM's reading here?
Is that part of our community here that rare or do we just not offer anything for them to find here?
It's really hard to tell by comments and stuff and annonimity is great and all but... I'd love to see some of our brothers here both reading, commenting and writing.
Please we need the new perspectives here.
I would also dearly love to see more ethnic bits, but mainstream stuff not like trope type of stuff but like stuff from the TG hearts of PoC and others here. We have precious little of those stories here too.
And lastly I guess...I know we're an open site except for a few things that shouldn't get posted like child porn and incest but are we getting more FF?
I get the theory behind the fantasy of it but for a place where so many are forced to live in lives where they can't be who they really are to see stories that force people to be something they're not and have the tone celebrate it...it's triggering to some.
I know there's a there's tags and don't read it argument and I know it's an old complaint but why do we get that here and not writers of good transmale and transgendered ethnic fiction?
I don't know just something that's been on my mind lately.
Comments
I have to say
Hi Bailey,
As it happens, I am writing a series which is on the whole non-T, but there is a character that is FtM, but is soon to 'revert', having lived her life as a man, to please her father.
Soon there will be a passing mention to some MtFs, and maybe some FtMs, but it will not be a central theme.
As an aside, I would mention that this past Christmas has swallowed 300-odd readers.
Pre-Christmas, my tales were running at approx. 1000 readers.
The two Christmas present stories I posted, and the one since, have run at 'only' 650 to 700.
Should we employ an (FtM?) undercover detective to search for those poor readers and rescue them if it proves necessary?
I love your stories by the way, but nowadays I have to just concentrate on one, I can't handle all the different threads - I don't know how you do it!
Thanks for your work (And I want to be selfish and ask you to concentrate on Jem)
Hugs
Julia
To Be honest.
We do need to add more Ethnic / racial diversity, I am trying to cover the NA First People as this is my experience. I am looking to see more ethnic diversity from people who live in these communities.
Ex I can not truly speak from the black experience even though my Wife was Black I was still an observer not an immersion experiencer.
Female to male I am trying in We Need to talk, I am personally emotionally uncomfortable with the topic. I see this as my lacking but I do have trauma surrounding my life in the male community.
I do not understand if the lacking of others writing taking up the F to M. narrative. I am aware that women communicate there feelings a whole lot more and my experience with the F To M community with my support groups was after the initial movement to receive HRT and the initial transitional surgeries there conversations concerning there emotions dwindled until they left the support group merging into the larger male population. I think the largest proportion of F To M enjoy leaving the touchy feely emotional portion of there lives behind. This is while us M to F continued as a friendly gathering of girls who enjoyed each others company. And I for one love the freedom I have in expressing my emotions and my self, I am not trying to stereotype but to share my observations.
There are clearly a lacking of representation of the spectrum of the Trans community. I love Jamie's dual character in AOH it fits a rounded personality. There are men who are in touch with there emotions [ not female side ] We as humans do share an emotional pallet that spans the gender continuity, and writers like Bailey show case that. I just do not know if the far spectrum male population is willing to express that.
Huggles
Michele
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book
I started one
I have a nearly complete first draft of an FtM story (set in the same world as God Given Face), but more or less dropped it because I noticed a distinct lack of fans of the genre here. It would need very serious rework - even for my first drafts this one was in poor shape. It's a story I kind of liked, though, so I may get back to it some day. I have two others in the pipeline for here before I even look at reviving that one, though.
Titania
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
I would love to see that kind of diversity too
I may see what I can do, if my muse allows.
Female to Male
I have three friends in that position, one only just beginning transition. They are out there. I have also included one character, Jerry Summers, in the 'Border Stories' set, and he has his own little tale in 'Home Match'.
I would also argue that Stevie in 'Sweat and Tears' occupies a lot of that ground, but I aimed that polemic mainly at forced-fem stories.
I had been considering
some FtM stories in my Hyperverse but I'm not sure if people here would enjoy that kind of fiction so I've been waffling on it. If people want me to give it a shot 'll do that, not just for the challenge involved but because I too have noticed the lack of such stories on this site.
As for cultural diversity, I too had noticed that. It's the main reason I decided to have Xia in Twice Removed come from a Chinese background. We really need more diverse characters.
Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3
FTM stories? Just maybe...
I did post one FTM story, it was very short, very strange to write about, and I have another one in my brain.
It covers one night in the life of a transmale who meets some stoners in a park and he's glorying in the whole lowbrow "fuckin' aye!" working class guy culture he'd been denied prior to presenting as a boy, and then things turn weird on him- kind of like BOYS DON'T CRY meets the chase scene in RAISING ARIZONA...
But the brief timeframe means it wouldn't drag on into multiple parts if I started it. I've started it 3 times, and keep stumbling back and forth between having it be a first person narration and third person. I should really give it another go. Maybe a character who's gender situation is the reverse of mine would be something I could write about since my own hopes and dreams in that department are basically dead & too painful to think about...
I'll know within the next few days if this turkey (Tenative title: LOVE AND NAPALM) will take flight.
hugs, Veronica
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
I think it's more...
I think it's more the social stigma of MtF vs FtM. I'm reminded of a quote...
---The Cement Garden, also used in Madonna - What It Feels Like For A Girl.
True or not, FtM seems more acceptable, so the MtF crowd, being more closeted, seeks greater outlets.
I know for myself, I'm generally not a fan of FtM stories unless it's say, a swap or something, where another character is also going MtF.
I think this is mostly because I really can't understand the desire to be male. And while I haven't tried it, I imagine if I came across a forced masculinization story it'd probably be more of a trigger. I can understand the feeling of being stuck in the wrong body but I have no real point of reference for wanting to be male.
I read the stories here for the sense of discovery of the new, and finding out who someone is, be it through magic or surgery or just acceptance.
If a writer, such as yourself Bailey, who I respect, were writing the FtM story I'd probably still give it a try, because I enjoy your writing, but I can't see myself enjoying it as much as I do the MtF content. But I can never be sure, I appreciate good writing pretty damned much. So if you want to write something FtM, you'll have my eyes.
As for ethnic writing, I think that's more a touchy subject, as it can be difficult to portray ethnicity in shorter stories without resorting to perpetuating stereotypes.