Doug Murphy <Draxonx@bellsouth.net> wrote:

Anywayz, this fanfic is about Ranma, so anything positive about
masculinity would have to be expressed *by* Ranma.  Be it natural
strength, emotional endurance, or the self enjoyment of being a big
awesome martial artist - *Ranma* would have to be thinking of those
things to make them show through well in the series.

I disagree. All that it would take would be for Ranma to get put in a
situation that the feminine persona he's trying on isn't equipped to
handle.

While the persona Ranma is adopting is fairly femme, it isn't so femme
as to cause him any _new_ problems.

Think about it for a moment, does Ranma enjoy talking about sports,
girls, cars, or any of the other standard `male' topics of conversation?
does he enjoy fighting other people to beat them, or because he's
associated that with most of his pleasant memories? (most of his
memories, admittedly, but )
does he really have anything that he can do as a guy that he can't do as
a girl with a guy's body (modula his desire to do it, of course)?

To my sight, he doesn't stand to lose much.  The only thing I can see
that would make him turn back is Akane's being to straight to cope with
this new Ranma . . .

For example, some threat could show up that he needs his full
agressiveness to be able to out-fight.

The problem with this is that, at least in modern American culture, the
female role has expanded far enough to allow that without breaking role,
while the male role has stayed relatively static.

Ja ne,
	Suika
--
                        wroberts@tvi.cc.nm.us
	``Literature is the lie that tells the truth . . . ''
							--Dorothy Allison
    <A HREF="http://w3.tvi.cc.nm.us/~wroberts/">Suika no pe-ji</A>