Gender Bending

Gender Bending is a broad category of events that can happen in fanfiction, involving playing with gender. The concept of gender-bending has significantly declined in fandom popularity as it is now seen as transphobic, but it was nonetheless a popular concept earlier in the fandom's history.
==Opposite Gender AU==
Writing an AU in which one or more characters are, and always have been, the opposite gender is an interesting way to explore the effects of gender on a storyline. Would a female Stan Marsh still have the same relationship with family and friends? What if Liane had had a daughter instead of Cartman?
Opposite-gender AUs are, like all AUs, suggested to be plausible and well-written.
==Gender-Switch==
In a gender-switch or gender-swap story, a magical, technological, or utterly random effect flips the genders of one or more characters, and they have to deal with experiencing life on the other side of the gender divide. Stories like this can be anywhere from bizarre to comedic, or even thought-provoking.
==Body-Switch==
Rather than switching genders, a character switches bodies with someone of the opposite gender. This is a variant of Freaky Friday Flip. A body-switch story allows one character to literally walk in another character's shoes.
==Cross-Dressing==
Whether it's a disguise, an erotic activity, a form of entertainment, or just for fun, cross-dressing simply means wearing clothing typical to the other sex. Cross-dressers may attempt to pass as the other gender, or they may deliberately overplay the opposite-gender stereotype (as drag queens/kings do).
In fanfiction, cross-dressing is usually done for the purpose of disguise, but can also be used for comical circumstanced.
==Trans Characters==
A transgender person has a mental gender that does not match the gender assigned to them at birth. They exist both in fanfiction and in real life, though in fanfiction they may be a result of an unwanted gender-switch.
Some guidelines:
*The mental gender, not the assigned gender, is the person's true gender. That means that they are not actually "male trapped in a female body"--they are male; so their body is male even though it is atypical for a male (or vice versa).
*Grammatically, pronouns that match the mental gender make the most sense, whether or not they have made any physical modifications.
*Having someone find out the person they are dating is trans, recoiling in horror, and having the story playing it as funny? Not cool. Not cool at all.
*The opposite of trans is "cis". No need to make up any more words than we have to.
*Transwoman/transman work well if you have to specify, but there's usually no reason not to just refer to them as simply "man" or "woman".
==Genderqueer Characters==
This is another phenomenon that exists both in fanfiction and in real life. There are lots of variations, especially with magic and sci-fi technology involved, but genderqueer people are simply those who don't fit into the usual male/female categories. They may be in-between, switch periodically from one gender to the other, or simply not have a gender. They may be third-gendered. In fiction, entire species of shapeshifters may not even have a concept of gender.
"Genderqueer" refers mostly to people whose species has a relatively firmly-established gender binary that they don't fit into--while shapeshifters or non-gendered robots may be neither male nor female, and be effectively genderqueer, they are not usually called genderqueer.
Unfortunately, English has no good firmly-established gender-neutral pronouns. Those wishing to read more on the matter can start with Wikipedia's article on gender-neutral pronouns.
Category:Terminology