Subject: Re: [FFML] [FanFic] Hello Again
From: Benjamin Franz
Date: 1/5/1997, 7:16 PM
To: fanfic@fanfic.com

On Sun, 5 Jan 1997, Richard Lawson wrote:

Well, Benjamin, there were a couple of nice things about this story. 
The ending was touching, obviously the whole point of the story.

Thank you. You are right. I had the ending long before I had the rest of
the story.

However, I really, really hated your statements that housework and
pacifism are female qualities, and that if Ranma became a woman in mind
as well as body that she would automatically assume these
characteristics.  That is extremely sexist, and flies in the face of
what Ranma 1/2 is all about:  challenging our beliefs on gender roles. 
Your story is big step backwards in that respect, in that being a woman
means you like doing housework and hate violence.  In fact, nothing
could be further from the truth.

Ummm....Try not to confuse the *author's* beliefs with that of their
characters ;-). Since this story was based on an existing anime ('Ranma
declares her womanhood'), the characterization of the female Ranma was
deliberately kept as close as possible to the series itself. What
determines the female Ranma's beliefs about what a woman is the *male*
Ranma's (quite sexist) beliefs about women. This would undoubtedly change
over time as Ranma actually learns what it really means to be a woman
first hand.

Also, how is that this affected Ranma and not Genma?  Since Genam was
cursed at the same time as Ranma and Ryoga, it should have affected him
too.

The head blow brought it into effect sooner. I have a slight tendancy to
leave things unstated, but implied in my stories. 

There were some nice moments in this story.  You could do a good story
based on this premise, if you would only avoid the sexist views on what
gender roles are.

Hmmmm...Just a thought, but it is possible that politics is somewhat
orthoganal to the quality of a story. ;-). In any case, if I choose to
extend this story, you would probably see Ranma's attitudes evolve
somewhat (I'm not going to say Ranma will become a feminist. By western
standards, Japanese males *are* extremely sexist, *none* of Takahashi's
characters are feminists, and lastly, Ranma learned her beliefs about sex
roles as a young Japanese male.) 

All of the above is, of course, just my opinion.

Thank you. Your comments really are appreciated.

-- Benjamin Franz