Tropes with the Principal Roles Gender-Swapped

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I came upon this article and wanted to know what my MS buddies thought of it.

Ten Gender Reversals We Need in Our Stories ? Mythcreants

Would you like to read/write any of these? I sure would. And I'm actually surprised at how basically nonexistent these gender-swapped tropes are, when I really think about it, given the prevalence of the tropes with the genders in their usual roles.

 

[glutton]

I've done 1 aside from the king being described as beautiful ie. female champion of a country - in fact when she visits another country she saves that one too lol.

I did 5 in my current WIP, the hardened female merchant MC brushes off the male assassin lead's attempt to figure why she is such a cold and unflinching killer lol.

6 has happened repeatedly, although the male 'healer' is usually also a warrior to some degree (generally inferior to the female lead). The female MCs often take massive damage and then get patched up by men, and sometimes women.

Done 7 before.

9 - not the father and brother I don't think, but I've had the heroine rescue her father at least... though actually, in my current WIP the MC is trying to protect her whole family - father, mother and brother.

 

[glutton]

Also if the first reversal doesn't strictly require the beautiful king and is more about the top champion of the country being female, I do that in the majority of my stories lol.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I don't give a fig about tropes whether maintained or gender flipped. If they flow naturally and they work, good. That said, I do a bit of a gender flip in my book 1, but that wasn't an intent, it's just how the story works.

 

[skip.knox]

I have a hard enough time writing a story that hangs together, actually makes sense, and engages a reader. Hell, even two readers! I'm disinclined to shoulder someone else's political burden. I do not for a moment belittle another's agenda. I'm simply confessing my lack of both ability and interest. If someone else wants to take that on, good on them.

 

[ThinkerX]

Robert E Howard created 'Conan' back in the 30's as the archetype (male) barbarian hero, one capable of defeating Lovecraftian abominations. A string of imitators followed. In 1973, a pair of comic book artists created Conan's female counterpart, 'Red Sonja,' a bloodthirsty female barbarian heroine tougher than most men. She, too, spawned imitators: on my shelves I have the 'Raven' series (sexually active female barbarian) and the 'Silverglass' series (ex female soldier paired with aristocratic female magician), both dating from the 80's.

Mercedes Lackey also did a long-running series featuring a female barbarian fighter teamed with a civilized female magic user. Even now, her stories feature female characters who rule nations or embark upon grand adventures.

The principle nation in Andre Norton's 'Witchworld', 'Estcarp,' was a magical matriarchy. Other nations in that world were male dominated, but tended to feature female POV's. This later became a shared world and no few major female fantasy authors got their start writing 'Witchworld' stories.

 

[Steerpike]

I think CL Moore's Jirel of Joiry character goes back to the 30s. She was a cool character from that era of sword and sorcery.

 

[WooHooMan]

I wouldn't be interested in reading any of these. Because I've already read all of these with only superficial differences (that being the characters' gender).

I believe that the heroine's journey looks a good deal different than the hero's journey. The hero's journey and all its associated conventions have a lot of its basis in the psychology of men and their place in culture so a woman counterpart would operate differently, y'know.
You can't just flip the genders and expect it to work as well. At best, it will only ever be a subversion - a novelty.

I'd rather writers create their own conventions then subvert existing ones.

I have a hard enough time writing a story that hangs together, actually makes sense, and engages a reader. Hell, even two readers! I'm disinclined to shoulder someone else's political burden.

Also, this.

 

[ThinkerX]

I think CL Moore's Jirel of Joiry character goes back to the 30s. She was a cool character from that era of sword and sorcery.

I have one of those books and you are right - she is quite the aristocratic savage.

 

[valiant12]

My opinion on those;

1 I don't care about this trope.
2 I love it. I write something similar once, and maybe I’m biased.
3 YES !!!!! However I don’t like the example.
4 Generic.
5 I would read it.
6 I think it would be more original if the two characters are from the same gender.
8 NO Please. There so many normal woman-vampire\werewolf romances already. I honestly think the author put this because she wanted to make a top ten and not a top nine.

 

[Xitra_Blud]

I have beautiful kings, but they're usually evil and no one goes to rescue them. I have one that's a bit similar to the one "A male robot built to give a woman pleasure". Sort of, but he's not a robot and it doesn't end up being any sort of romance or erotica of any sort. He's more of a bio engineered sex robot (think of him as a living sex robot created in a lab). He was built to pleasure the rich, middle aged woman that had him built, but he winds up being a little more intellectual than that, and he sets out on his own to discover his own humanity, what makes someone human, and yadda yadda.

Most of these I haven't written at all, genders reversed or not. A lot of them are romance elements, and I hardly have any romance an anything I've written. I sort of detest romance, no matter how it's portrayed. Not an attack at anyone who writes romance, I just find the stuff to be boring and unbearable for the most part.

Would I read anything that's on this list? If it's well written enough. I don't think reversing the genders automatically makes it sound like an interesting read. If anything, it sounds like a gimmick to be original, but if I read the summary or first page or whatever, and there's something in it that grabs me, like any book, I may very well pick it up.

 

[Loric]

Just sounds like someone trying to push some new age 'politically correct' agenda to me. I couldn't care less about any of these tropes, and I don't need any of them in my stories or any that I read. I don't understand any of it. I like traditional gender roles, there is nothing wrong with them.

EDIT: Who would describe a king as beautiful? that is a word suited to describing women, not men. Men are handsome. Again, I don't understand this thinking. Why try to swap descriptive words commonly suited to men and women? what does it achieve? other than being odd.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Just sounds like someone trying to push some new age 'politically correct' agenda to me. I couldn't care less about any of these tropes, and I don't need any of them in my stories or any that I read. I don't understand any of it. I like traditional gender roles, there is nothing wrong with them.

EDIT: Who would describe a king as beautiful? that is a word suited to describing women, not men. Men are handsome. Again, I don't understand this thinking. Why try to swap descriptive words commonly suited to men and women? what does it achieve? other than being odd.

What do you mean by traditional gender roles?

And I don't think it's as much a new age PC conspiracy as just a call to think differently about some tropes we take for granted. Nothing wrong with more variety in the way we construct characters and stories. Characters, like people, don't fall neatly into gender roles. They are who they are.

 

[Ireth]

EDIT: Who would describe a king as beautiful? that is a word suited to describing women, not men. Men are handsome. Again, I don't understand this thinking. Why try to swap descriptive words commonly suited to men and women? what does it achieve? other than being odd.

I would. Often I find it used if the man in question looks androgynous or feminine, but I think masculine men can be called beautiful just the same as any women can. I tend to use it especially when my male characters look ethereal or inhuman, like the Sidhe.

 

[valiant12]

EDIT: Who would describe a king as beautiful? that is a word suited to describing women, not men. Men are handsome. Again, I don't understand this thinking. Why try to swap descriptive words commonly suited to men and women? what does it achieve? other than being odd.

Beautiful is the opposite of ugly. Describing a king (Or any other man) as cute is way more weird.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I would. Often I find it used if the man in question looks androgynous or feminine, but I think masculine men can be called beautiful just the same as any women can. I tend to use it especially when my male characters look ethereal or inhuman, like the Sidhe.

The elves from the LOTR movies could definitely be called that...

 

[Demesnedenoir]

A beautiful man will often be associated with an androgynous or feminine appearance, much like pretty... or better yet, in a movie, "Ain't you a perty one." The ethereal or inhuman also works very well... because beautiful isn't typically attributed to men, and therefore it stands out. It's a good way to use the connotations of a word to give extra meaning.

I would. Often I find it used if the man in question looks androgynous or feminine, but I think masculine men can be called beautiful just the same as any women can. I tend to use it especially when my male characters look ethereal or inhuman, like the Sidhe.

 

[Xitra_Blud]

Just sounds like someone trying to push some new age 'politically correct' agenda to me. I couldn't care less about any of these tropes, and I don't need any of them in my stories or any that I read. I don't understand any of it. I like traditional gender roles, there is nothing wrong with them.

EDIT: Who would describe a king as beautiful? that is a word suited to describing women, not men. Men are handsome. Again, I don't understand this thinking. Why try to swap descriptive words commonly suited to men and women? what does it achieve? other than being odd.

I tend to call males beautiful, but I also tend to favor male beauty over female beauty. For me, the word "beautiful" more of describes majesty, not so much daintiness, but I think beauty is something that can be attributed to both genders. Typically, I use the word "pretty" only to describe and attractive women and the word "handsome" to describe attractive men. But I think the word "beautiful" encompasses everyone, and I can definitely say that I've used to word "beautiful" to describe men more than I've used it to describe women.

But I agree with what you're saying about someone trying to push the PC agenda. I noticed that has become a very popular thing lately. I have no problem with gender swaps if that is what the writer wants to do with his art, but I don't like the idea of swapping genders just to pander to a certain crowd.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I did something semi-related to what's mentioned in the article from the original post in Emma's Story. It's roughly based on the trope: Hero wants to save the kingdom from the evil danger in order to win the love of the princess.
The twist is that it's told from the perspective of the "princess" and how what she really wants is for the "hero" to stop being a reckless idiot who takes stupid risks.

Sort of. There's a bit more detail in the actual story, but that's the gist of it.