[ SECRET POST #3064 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3064 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 044 secrets from Secret Submission Post #438.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

But there would have to be some differences, if only in the way people reacted to Harry.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think the Dursleys would like Harry any better, but they would be more cognizant of her appearance (boys can look a little rough, but girls will likely get comments).
I think Snape's reaction would be different.
Harry's flare-ups would probably be seen as more problematic.
The ball would have been a whole different thing.
Et cetera.

Re: But there would have to be some differences, if only in the way people reacted to Harry.

[intrigueing]

If you were going for realism, yes. But that's missing the point. The point of genderswap is not to read a story that's realistic-to-how-our-universe's-society. At all. That would be duller than shit. The point is to be able to read something believable - but not necessarily realistic - where a female character ISN'T treated the way female characters are treated in reality. It hits a spot that no other kind of story can hit.

Re: But there would have to be some differences, if only in the way people reacted to Harry.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I don't think it would necessarily be dull, but whatever.

And if that's what the secret poster and you are after then really all you have to do is take un-genderswapped fics, change out pronouns, change out references to the character's genitalia and chest (if necessary), and voila.

Re: But there would have to be some differences, if only in the way people reacted to Harry.

[intrigueing]

Nah, not quite. For me, some stuff should be changed or else that would also be boring (though it might depend on the fic). But not the stuff that would make the story more stereotypically "this is how female characters are allowed to be written and treated." The unusualness/dissonance is kind of the whole point.

I wouldn't be able to do what the OP did, read the books as if he were a girl without changing anything (nor do I really want to, tbh). But never mind. It's hard to explain.

Re: But there would have to be some differences, if only in the way people reacted to Harry.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, see, the things I mentioned are just things I think would have to at least be mentioned in order for it to be believable, to me anyway.

Harry could wear Dudley's clothes when she was very young, but as time went on, the type of people Petunia and Vernon would try to impress would remark upon Harry wearing boys' clothes and being unkempt.

I think Snape would connect a girl much more strongly to Lily than James and that would affect his treatment - I think he would still be horrible, just maybe less so in some ways and more so in others.

I think Harry's angry outbursts would get talked about more, be seen as more of an issue, on the other hand her depression might be seen as more acceptable. People sometimes just seem to think that different genders have different emotional reactions, whereas I think each gender is taught to express and repress emotional reactions differently.

The ball would have been a whole different thing, mostly because the assumption was that boys ask girls to the ball - yes, she still could have asked Cho, but Harry probably would have been asked by several boys and maybe ended up going with Ron just because she didn't want to go with someone who asked her just because of her notoriety.

Re: But there would have to be some differences, if only in the way people reacted to Harry.

[intrigueing]

Yes. Realistically that all makes sense. But what I'm talking about has absolutely jack-shit to do with realism. Those changes would ruin the whole effect for me, because I don't read genderswap for the sake of seeing a female protagonist, I read genderswap for the sake of seeing a female protagonist written like a male protagonist. It's pure 100% wish fulfillment. We're talking about completely unrelated things.

Re: But there would have to be some differences, if only in the way people reacted to Harry.

[(Anonymous)]

See, reading this I can't help but think it kind of proves the point about gender ideas/beliefs in the secret.

Like, maybe I've spent too much time reading Game of Thrones, but I'm thinking of Arya, who's a little rough for 'girl standards' even before all the shit that happens to her, and spends half the series being mistaken for a boy. She's about the same age Harry was in the first book, and her appearance would be way more acceptable in current times than it would have been in medieval times. Why would there be comment about it? There are underprivileged girls who wear oversized, 'boyish' clothes all the time.

I can't imagine the Dursleys would get any more comments about Harriet being dressed in Dudley's hand-me-downs than they likely got about Harry. At most maybe Petunia would've tried altering one of Dudley's old pants into a skirt or something, but it was already obvious that something was wrong in the home for anyone who cared to ask, and I'm not sure how a girl not wearing a skirt would make someone more likely to ask.

I don't think Snape's reaction would be different. Not if eleven-year-old Harriet could easily pass as eleven-year-old James.

And Harry's flare-ups would be more problematic...why? She'd be going through the exact same PTSD crap, and really, it's more acceptable for boys to rage and throw things and fight people than it is for girls to do it?

I concede the Yule Ball, if only because I think any girl written by JKR would be incapable of not being excited for the ball and 110% invested in dates and her appearance for it. But for argument's sake, I do think it's possible for a girl to not be looking forward to a big school dance, to attend reluctantly and spend most of it sulking with her best friend because the date she wanted attended with someone else.