I mean seriously why do people like gender bender and why is it that most gender bender stories have a guy changing into a girl.  Give me your thoughts on this. 

(Disclamer:- I have nothing against the author's who right gender bender stories just want to know why they always pick a guy to become a girl and why can't they do the reverse of a girl becoming a man and not just dressing up as a man.)

Putting it simply, I think there is a lot more potential for drama if a guy changes to a girl.

As a writer of a genderbend story, it's mainly because I have better understanding of a man's psychology and starting from that point, explored into a territory not many wanted to know. Because such story tended to pokes at sensitive regions most people don't like to tread upon, it's heavily reliant to the author's experience, wisdom, and tolerance.

In such case, male authors will usually write a male character turning into a female character. From there you can surmise that there are more male writers than female writers. You can also calculate how many people would willingly change the sex of someone when you add your own viewpoint in the equation.

Men would be disgusted of fellow men accepting their selves becoming girls, then vice versa.

I'm quite shameless so I don't really mind even if there were lesbians flirting in front of me. Even then, I'm quite sure I haven't fully grasped the subject without asking my own sister of her personal experience as a girl. It just shows how difficult it is to write a genderbend story.

I don't actually think it's true outside of this site that most genderbender stories are male-to-female. My two favourites are both female-to-male: Hana Kimi (manga/live action drama) and 1/2 Prince (light novel/manga).

It's true that authors are likely to write their own gender turning into the other one simply because it is easier to imagine "what if I turned into a guy/girl?" than "what if I were a guy/girl and then turned into my gender?" The second one requires you to think like the opposite gender in the body of your gender, and it's already hard enough to think like the other gender.

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I've read a lot of that sort of story, I wanted to know what was going on with the whole die and reborn to a female thing.
There's usually an element of control involved, it's not just that you get to be surrounded by girls, you have to explore your own existence as a girl. I think the people who like this niche genre probably have some mix of low self-esteem, low contact with actual women, and an idolization of beautiful girls. I've seen people post stuff like "if only I was a girl people would care about me" on certain boards. 
I think that's what drives people to make a gender bender from male to female. For certain stories, I think they tend to do it so they can get a female main character and then give them a male mindset. Often these stories are written by amateurs who are uncomfortable making the main character female in the first place, so they just give them a female body.
I think it's also more prevalent in japan because they have a culture of androgyny where people are so pretty they buck the gender line. It probably has to do with low self worth, as japanese/asian characters are often eccentric and amazing people to impress the viewer that they are worth watching. And to look good.

'Escribo' pid='820537' dateline='1484542348' Wrote: I've read a lot of that sort of story, I wanted to know what was going on with the whole die and reborn to a female thing.
There's usually an element of control involved, it's not just that you get to be surrounded by girls, you have to explore your own existence as a girl. I think the people who like this niche genre probably have some mix of low self-esteem, low contact with actual women, and an idolization of beautiful girls. I've seen people post stuff like "if only I was a girl people would care about me" on certain boards. 
I think that's what drives people to make a gender bender from male to female. For certain stories, I think they tend to do it so they can get a female main character and then give them a male mindset. Often these stories are written by amateurs who are uncomfortable making the main character female in the first place, so they just give them a female body.
I think it's also more prevalent in japan because they have a culture of androgyny where people are so pretty they buck the gender line. It probably has to do with low self worth, as japanese/asian characters are often eccentric and amazing people to impress the viewer that they are worth watching. And to look good.

My thoughts exactly. Another thing I don't like is that in these stories every female character is beautiful and a heavenly goddess who make no mistake

99 % of the times I see the "gender bending" tag, I wholly skip the fiction. Unless it is a straight-up COMEDY. Overused, but because it works.

You want a male protagonist ? You want a female ? You want an IT ? Up to you.
(and if you want a good example of an IT, or a GOOD novel, give this a try : https://royalroadl.com/fiction/1866 )

Gender-bender is not a good base for a thought provoking / soul searching / social scrutiny experience.
It's HOLLOW.
And quite frankly, childish cheap and squallid.

Unless it's for porn purposes ! (just admit it you perverts) Sure, it's a niche. People born with one sex, but mentally feel like the other, yet can be attracted to either depending on the author inclination. Makes a pansexual feel skittish and confused.
Basically the niche of a niche, in a niche.

'zenihzwei' pid='818563' dateline='1480042029' Wrote: As a writer of a genderbend story, it's mainly because I have better understanding of a man's psychology and starting from that point, explored into a territory not many wanted to know. Because such story tended to pokes at sensitive regions most people don't like to tread upon, it's heavily reliant to the author's experience, wisdom, and tolerance.

In such case, male authors will usually write a male character turning into a female character. From there you can surmise that there are more male writers than female writers. You can also calculate how many people would willingly change the sex of someone when you add your own viewpoint in the equation.

Men would be disgusted of fellow men accepting their selves becoming girls, then vice versa.

I'm quite shameless so I don't really mind even if there were lesbians flirting in front of me. Even then, I'm quite sure I haven't fully grasped the subject without asking my own sister of her personal experience as a girl. It just shows how difficult it is to write a genderbend story.

I don't see the big deal. It wouldn't be that hard accepting that. And many of these stories on RRL involve becoming a heavenly goddess with godly powers. If you don't like people throwing stereotypes at you and trying to force you to act a certain way after being transformed, you can just zap them into a pile of ashes.

A good portion of the so called "drama" that I've seen basically involves characters being forced to follow female stereotypes to the letter. There was even one fic where someone's absolute persuasion power failed, because wearing a dress is one of the fundamental laws of the universe or some nonsense for women.

At a certain point, you realise that a good portion of the gender bender content on RRL has a lot of forced drama.

'junek777' pid='822214' dateline='1489174839' Wrote: Actually, I read a really good gender bender story.

"Song of the Lioness" series (published book) by Tamora Pierce has a girl switch places with her male twin so that she can become a knight, instead of a sorcerer. It also had a really good theme about women in society.

I think this genre can be very interesting!

I loved this story when I was a child. Never finished it though.

It's just because it's hard to understand the heart of a girl. For some reason a fellow decided to write a fic with the MC being female BUT they have no idea how to since they don't know how would a girl react to a scenario, so! They decided to have the MC be a Male who got turned into a girl.

Really, just writing the Point of View of a woman is difficult if you don't have experience. Girls and boys will think differently after all.
No matter how much of a tomboy a girl is or how girlish a boy is, hormones and stereotypes will shape your personality.

I blame Ranma 1/2. I think it is about the sexual experience of being the opposite sex. And weirdos think turning into a girl is sexy.

This is a very important topic to me. I generally dislike gender-bending as a story element, but only because it is near-universally terribly done.

I hate to bring up my fan fiction as an example because it's hardly the same thing, but The Glory of Bowsette deals with a character swapping genders on the outside, and then slowly coming to realize their own gender dysphoria as a result. The gender bending aspect is humorous at first, but then basically becomes a story about gender identity crises (which, because it's in the Mario world, is still kinda humorous). 

The reason many gender bender stories fail is because they fail to take into account that gender identity isn't some instantly fluid thing. The "reborn in a fantasy world but I'm a loli" stories typically do that. They play with the idea of a character becoming a different sex, but they don't play with the idea enough!

What I want to see more of is gender bender stories where there is real drama involved in it. A man being inserted into a woman's body, but he's still a man on the inside, so instead of just instantly accepting it, he basically becomes transgender, living as a man inside of female body, wearing binders and doing vocal training and wearing baggy clothing. Vice versa might even be more fun-- a woman in a man's body trying to live as a woman? There's potential here, but this kind of story is really rare as far as I've seen. 

Simply because it is interesting.

My character is a 600 years old cultivator with magnificent beard who turned into a girl.
Some parts of the body change but the level of maturity will affect how the owner views herself. 
Body dysmorphia usually happens more easily to those who are young because they are still getting used to the fact that they are what they are, methinks.
At a certain age you stop caring.
That's why gender bender in movies are usually comedies when it involves middle aged people. 

So, I can peek with girls.

I found the male-to-female ones quite interesting for the first half-dozen I read, but they're kind of a solved problem to me now.  I'm still really interested in other kinds of gender-bender like an adult, non-virgin human is transformed into something with a non-human shape, and casually treated as a sexless second-class being by humanoids.  What happens when this character gets a crush on a particular human?  Or instead, do they get horny and try to search for a bestialist, or some kind of temporary magical transformation, or what?

Because I found it amusing to have my protag learn the consequences of player character creation choices.

It makes reasonable that Chiisutofupuru would make a point about the drama that may result from a male changing into a lady. The societal and individual effects of such a change may provide for interesting storylines. As a creator of gender-bending fiction, zenihzweizenihzwei offers an intriguing viewpoint.     

It appears that male authors favor male-to-female conversions since they have a greater understanding of the male mentality. That is a good idea, and it may help to explain why this cliche is so common.