Subject: POLL! Respond if you would please. (was Re: Thy Outward Part)
From: Richard Lawson
Date: 10/28/1996, 11:50 AM
To: Caroline Ann Seawright
CC: Fanfic Mailing List <fanfic@fanfic.com>
Reply-to:
sterman@sprynet.com

WARNING!  Spoiler about my recent story, "Thy Outward Part".  If you
haven't read it, you may want to before responding to this survery.

Caroline Ann Seawright wrote:

Well... hrm ... that's very shoujo to say the least.

What's "shoujo"?

Well written and everything, but you wanted to talk about issues, ne?

:)  Yup... like I said, it's a reactionary fanfic.

Somehow, I don't think it's possible for a person to change preferences
just like that ... I would *never* go for a girl, even if I had the
body of a guy ... It's not a thing you learn, nor a thing that someone
can teach you ... It's just something that is ... Although some people
change preferances, I don't think that it would happen like that.

Personally, I think Ranma has more of a preference for his female form
than you give him credit for... witness his/her speech at the pools of
Jusenkyo in the very last story.

Personally, I'd be turned off by a girl, however good a friend she was,
or however close she was to me ... It just seems really wrong for Ranma,
too ... He HATES being thought of as a homosexual - and now he's just
thrown himself into BEING one ...

Well, that's the thing.  Is a somebody who was a guy until he turned 16,
then became half guy/half girl, then full time girl, homosexual if
he/she goes out with a guy?  The definition of "homosexuality" was never
meant to take this kind of situation into account.  :)
 
Outside looks don't change the inside person. Someone of the same sex
liking you/lusting after you won't make you change, either, however
nice they are towards you ... It's just not something that happens,
in anything that I've encountered or heard of.

Well, how many people do you know have gone through an involuntary sex
reassignment?  :)  This is all hypothetical, of course, since this just
won't ever happen in the real world.  Ranma's change just isn't
physical, it's biochemical, right down to the ability to give birth. 
It's something we can't even begin to imagine.

I sort of wrote it from my perspective, too.  I am heterosexual, very
much so.  Although I have no problems with someone choosing
homosexuality as a lifestyle, personally it's something I could never do
myself.  However, if I was put in Ranma's situation, I *could* imagine
myself making the adjustments he did.  Maybe I'm a weird hentai.  :)

So, basically, I think that the whole story is OOC... for the reactions
of Akane and Genma, too ... It's just not something that they'd do,
just as turning gay, just because he's locked into a girl body, isn't
something that Ranma'd do ...

I've always thought of Genma as being quite sexist (Ranma is, too).  If
the heir to the Saotome School were to become a woman full time, I could
imagine it affecting Genma quite strongly.  

Akane would *not* be able to marry a woman.  Your points above, about
changing sexual preferences, apply to Akane.  She just wouldn't be able
to do it, I think, and their relationship would change.

Just my opinion, of course, which is why I wrote the story.  :)

And you forgot the last option that Ranma could have - have a sex change
operation.

This wouldn't work.  Such changes are only skin deep; he'd still have
two X chromosones underneath.  He'd know the difference between a true
man's body and a woman's body altered to be a man, and the differences
would drive him crazy, IMHO.  It would be a pale imitation at best, and
I think Ranma is intelligent enough to know that.

It's easier to change your body than to change your preferences.

This I disagree with, for the reasons mentioned above... if I were given
that choice, I'd make the choice Ranma makes.  That's just me.  You,
obviously, would choose differently.

Maybe we need to take a poll.

ATTENTION FFML'ers:  If you suddenly found yourself turned into the
opposite sex, down to the level of your chromosones, and such a change
was IRREVERSIBLE, would you:

A)  Keep your body AND your sexual preference;

B)  Keep your body and CHANGE your sexual preference;

C)  Have surgery to return your body to its former gender;

D)  Other (please state);

E)  Bap Lawson for asking you such a stupid question?

Mutliple answers are allowed.  :)  If you want to make comments, I'll
publish them along with the results.

I'll wait until after AWA and post the results.

Kun-chan...

Thanks for the feedback, Kun-chan.  Definitely food for thought.