Appropriate Punishment
“Hey, Mary, what’s up?”
“I just came across your old boyfriend, Tony. What’s going on with him? He was acting like a fruit, and dressed like a drag queen.”
“Oh, good. It worked.”
“What worked, Sue?
“Just a little reprograming. He’s gonna spend the rest of his life dressing like a whore and acting like one too. He’s even got an addiction to giving men blow jobs.”
“Wait a minute. Are you telling me you did this to him?”
“Yeah, because the bastard cheated on me.”
“My ... God. Are you for real? What’s wrong with you!”
“What do you mean? He’s just getting what he deserves for cheating on me.”
“No, for cheating on you he deserved to lose you to a better man, which I thought you had with Mark. To turn him into a freak ... its sick. I... thought I knew you. “
“But...”
“I think I have to go.”
“Wait!”
“No. I...don’t even know you, Sue. Don’t call me, don’t come over. Goodbye.”
****
“Mark, what are you doing? Why are you packing your things?”
“I just found out what you did to your ex-boyfriend. You think I wanna hang around and see if you try it with me?”
“But he cheated on me, he deserved it!”
“Are you for real? Nobody deserves to be turned into something they’re not, especially not some sick parody of either women or gay men. The fact that you think its okay frightens me, and I’m not sticking around. Oh, in case you get the idea of thinking I deserve the same, I called in a few favors. One of the guys I went to school with is ... well he’s a professional leg-breaker, you could say. If something happens to me, he;s gonna pay you a visit, you get me?”
“But I love you, we were going to get married!”
“Like I would want to marry someone capable of doing that? I’d spent every day we spent together wondering when it was my turn. And you don’t even see what you did that was wrong, do you? Clearly, you need help. And I can’t give it to you, so I’m out of here.”
“Mark, please...”
“No. Stay the heck away from me. Lose my number, forget my name. And get some help.”
****
Days later, in a lonely house.
“I ... don’t understand. People wont take my calls, they turn away when they see me coming. They act like I have a disease, like I was the problem. But I’m not the problem, I’m not! He cheated on me, he deserved it.”
Silence.
“Didn’t he?”
End.
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Comments
Hee!
*BAM!* Right in the trope!
and the trope goes down for the count!
its a knockout! (I hope...)
Thanks for commenting, Anansi
Indeed
I hope so too.
huggles, Steff
All we can do is stuff that shows the other side of these tropes, and hope readers will make a decision to avoid them.
Excellent.
I like realism and this story is just that. I know I have told you you are one of my favorite autors on this site but I must reiterate.
thanks so much
I was going for "realism", and I'm glad you think I succeeded.
Old tropes never die, and they don't fade away either...
Nice story, but don't count on killing that particular trope. Getting science-fictiony, Larry Niven tried to kill the parallel worlds trope with All the Myriad Ways, and it was a brilliant story that put paid to the whole genre - see how well it worked?
I was thinking that someone should have called the police too, but I'm uncertain what crime she committed ;) I guess it would depend on how she changed Tony, but you could probably pin something on her. Nice job.
Titania
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
we probably can't get rid of the trope
But we can do what we can to show the darker side of it.
I hope someone got Tony some help ...
... and if they did, I'm sure he'll take Sue to court and sue her for as much as he can. It would be nice to find out where she got the reprogramming done, or if it was a "do it yourself" project — either way, that stuff needs to be taken out of circulation permanently.
Nice work, Dorothy! *hugs* No need for Stark if the people around the villain just react like ... well, people. *grins*
Randalynn
He deserves a day in court, for sure
I read a forced fem story, and for the first time, I thought, "what if the people around this villain had compassion for the victim, instead of contempt?"
This was what came out...
And I think there's plenty for Stark to do. But maybe there are people out there who would do their part as well...
Indeed there are such people.
We can save humanity from the feminazis if we work together and refuse to put up with their shit.
"you have my gun"
instead of the line from Lord of the rings - "You have my sword".
With a berserker Samurai Cat-person on our side, we cant lose ..
Personally I prefer swords.
More honorable. If it comes down to it though, I will use whatever it takes...
It is funny,
but I'm rereading the stark series, and enjoying very much. I wonder how many woman would really do this if they had the power? Not many I suspect. Still, I reached the conclusion a long time ago that evil truly does exist, so if it was possible it would happen.
sadly, there are evil women in the world
just as there are evil men.
thanks for commenting, Wendy
Counterforce Stories
Brilliant! I always wanted to see this happen. For my taste (and it's really just a matter of taste,
not that such tales are immoral somehow) most FF stories are like daytime soap operas-
populated by people I wouldn't want to know and get kind of nauseous reading about.
Complaining about the existence of forced fem doesn't accomplish anything
and makes the complainer look like some kind of anti-free speech asshole,
but writing your own version of scenarios like these- delicious!
This one reminds me of the best of Randalynn's counterforce
stories* (which as you know are very good indeed!)
~~huggles, Veronica
.
*best name I could come up with for this genre
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
that's high praise indeed, Laika
I am a big fan of Randalynn's stories, especially her "Stark" series.
In one word, FANTASTIC!!!!!
In one word, FANTASTIC!!!!! wow!
thanks, Jkoc
I'm blushing.
Wow!
Dorothy,
That was outstanding.
Portia
thanks, Portia
glad you liked it.
Didn't know where you were going...
... with this one, but I'm glad you wrote something so clear and (very much) to the point...... Magic! Great creation of mystery! Thanks, yet again! Love Ginger xx
thanks, Ginger
huggles, and thanks for commenting.
Hmmm..... Funny thing is....
I just finished reading Randalynn's "Stark" series. Even though Sue's being ostracized by the people around her for what she'd done to tony, she still needs to be punished and that punishment needs to teach her about the error in her actions. I'm sure Stark could help both her and poor tony recover. Nicely written Dottie! Loving Hugs Talia (aka Popcorn Lady)
thanks, Taarpa
Its up to Randalynn if she wants to do a "Stark" take on this story. (Although, if she did, I would be so geeking about it, it wouldn't even be funny ...)
Huggles, popcorn lady
Help me.
Would I be right in thinking that the word 'trope' is shorthand for Misanthrope?
Otherwise all the comments are gobbledygook to me.
No, it's from the Greek
It actually derives direct from tropos, which means "turn." A trope is a figure of speech, like a metaphor. As applied to literature, it typically means a common occurrence or set of plot devices.
If you want to waste an awful lot of time (you've been warned,) start here: TV Tropes
Enjoy,
Titania
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
nooo! Dont send her to TV Tropes!
She'll be stuck there for hours if she's anything like me ...
Giggles.
Randomness
This story came up as a random. Once here I decided to take a leap out to TV Trope (Heed the warning. I say again, heed the warning! And again I say, heed the warning!!) where I randomly came across "Shrunken Organ." You can go from there if you want but I decided to back out of the site and go play safely at home well away from there.
And...
The Welsh for 'turn' is 'tro'.
TVtropes
A comment in a Wired article about TVtropes. You visit it, and learn three things:
1. Originality is dead.
2. Nobody misses it.
3. You've just blown six hours.
A saying on TVtropes: "TVtropes will ruin your life."
-- Daphne Xu
Well played
Very nicely done Dorothy, I hate that trope and many others like it. Good to see a realistic reaction to it.
*hugs*
Amethyst
Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3
thanks, Amethyst
When I first was reading trans fiction, I was drawn to the trope, because there is something freeing in having someone else "force" you to be feminine. After all, if it isn't my idea, I dont need to feel guilty. But as I developed in terms of my own transition, I found most of the stories in the troupe to be nasty ...
Thanks for commenting hon.
HOI
i want to see her make it oke ,,,,, and not just with a cry and a hug
maby some pain and suffering
pain and suffering ?
maybe her pain is just beginning ?
thanks for commenting.
Liked
cummupence
An excellent short story!
An excellent short story! Thanks for sharing it.
Hugs,
Erin of Wis <3
thanks for the comment on an old story
always makes my day when my older pieces get some love!
Huggles!
“Didn’t he?”
I read that as having two possible meanings. "Did he really deserve it?" and "Did he really cheat on the protagonist?"
It is quite nice to see a forced-fem punishment story backfire against the feminizer, where important persons in her life realize and recognize that what she did was wrong -- and possibly dangerous to them.
A certain long story I wrote began as an anti-forced-feminizer story, "inspired" by a few BB stories about punishment. (One story, hopefully non-canonical, deserves particular mention: "The Last Laugh" by Jennifer Allison.) Certain choices later, the story expanded beyond all proportion. Would anyone believe that that particular story was meant to be the second story written about the events. The first one would have been done in Peter/Ruth's viewpoint. That was abandoned, and the second story, from the viewpoint of an innocent/ignorant sibling, became the story.
-- Daphne Xu
glad you liked it, Daphne
when I first found TG fiction, all I saw for a long time was forced fem. Its one of the reasons I'm grateful for this site, which taught me the possibility of someone who actually wants to be a girl ...
Only Forced Fem
That was an interesting comment about seeing nothing but forced-fem in TG for a long time. My first posted TG story (and only one for well over a decade) was a variation on forced-fem -- probably even worse than forced-fem, because there's no admission that he ever was a boy even. (That was "John's Living Nightmare".) I did portray it as a bad thing -- although admittedly that was because it was from John's viewpoint. (Suppose I wrote it from his mom's viewpoint? Or how about Joyce's, or Bruce's?)
-- Daphne Xu
Thank you
Forced anything irritates me no end. (Seriously, isn't that what society more or less does to trans/alternative individuals?) Glad to see it put in perspective rather than romanticized.
Jenna
forced fem
back before the internet, just about the only stories I could find about trans stuff were forced fem. I am really glad we as authors are evolving beyond that, because as you pointed out, its pretty much the same as what some of us have to endure in real life.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment!
Mhm
Forced fem was certainly the typical back then. Now, though, we've moved past the limitations of those initial forays into individual determination and have acknowledged this amazing spectrum of gender paralleling sexualities within the human condition. I'm all for evolution ^^
Jenna
A different viewpoint
Tropes exist for a reason - because people want them and enjoy them. Forced Fem is no worse than a Stephen King film. And I would put to you that every trans individual is a victim of forced fem. It's not some evil woman but rather the voice inside that says 'I am a woman' and makes them do things that many in society frown upon. A trans individual has no choice just like the poor victim of external forced fem. There's always a part of you that says, why can't I just be a man' it would be so much easier and less painful. Forced fem stories are just external versions of the internal. I get no more angry at a forced fem story than iI do a slasher film or a violent computer game. So Sue gets her comeuppance but for every one that does there's a dozen female versions of Jason running around feminizing men and many shudder but can't stop watching or reading.
Commentator
Visit my Caption Blog: Dawn's Girly Site
Visit my Amazon Page: D R Jehs
i agree, some people like that kind of thing
and some dont, just like some people would avoid a slasher film entirely, and some might like one that kinda pokes a little fun at the tropes like Scream did. I like to try and make as many different types of stories as I can, in the hopes that there will be something for everyone in my story list.
"no worse than a Stephen King film"
Stephen King novel, perhaps. However there's one major difference between a typical horror story and a certain type of forced-fem story. The typical horror story portrays the horror as bad, even as they enjoy the horror. The "certain type" of force-fem story portrays it as good, or something to support, not a horror to fight.
-- Daphne Xu
Interesting perspective
I like what Commentator said about forced fem stories being no worse than slashers and the like. Of course, that doesn't mean that the characters themselves, the people who perpetrate the crime, are any good.
In this story, Sue is a sociopath. She has no conscience. She sees nothing wrong with what she did. She can't understand that disproportionate revenge is so very wrong. She doesn't just fail to understand why it is wrong. She fails to see that it is wrong at all.
She is reaping the rewards for her misdeeds. More importantly, people are justifiably afraid of going near her for fear that they may be the next victim because of some minor slight, or maybe for no reason at all.
In a world of perfect justice, wrongdoers would be rehabilitated instead of punished. Because what is punishment but revenge meted out by some official entity?
Someone who steals can legitimately be forced to return every penny, plus pay for any other damage that might have been caused by the initial theft. But spending time in jail, getting caned, or whatever really serves no purpose but revenge.
But, in a perfect society with perfect justice, what do we do about a sociopath like Sue? Even if the technology exists to grant her a conscience, can we justify doing that without her permission?
But we can't let her run loose victimizing more people.
Again, it depends on technology. Jailing her would be appropriate with current technology, though it should be done humanely.
Of course, many would say that she doesn't deserve for us to be humane. What she did wasn't humane, so why should we be humane to her?
The reason, of course, is that we should treat her humanely because we are good people. It isn't about her. It's about us rising above our baser urges. We are not the psychopaths. She is.
In a world with virtual reality, we could trap her in a virtual world where she could do her evil deeds without actually hurting anyone.
I recall reading a SF story where a psychopath was allowed to run around freely and do what he likes, as long as he doesn't hurt anyone. As soon as he raises a hand against his fellow citizens... BEFORE he raises a hand, he passes out. He simply can't hurt anyone.
It's a lonely existence for him, but the most humane way that that society could come up with to let him live freely.
After all, can a sociopath help but be a sociopath?