#genderswapping

For today’s Fanwork Friday, we’re looking at the zine That But Lesbians.

Following a tweet by hattersarts from 2018, the concept of the anthology proved a popular concept, and the first volume was created a year later.

The anthology takes het ships and reimagines them as femslash pairings, genderswapping the male half of the ship.

There are two volumes that consist mostly of fanart and a little bit of fanfic. This multifandom zine covers a wide array of ships, from TV shows and movies, to classic musicals, to anime and cartoons, and a lot more!

To mention just a few, the anthology has art created for the ships Bella/Edward, Jessie/James, Mulder/Scully, Hinata/Naruto, and many, many more.

Check out the Fanlore page to see the lists of ships featured and where you can find the zine!

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New genderswaps just dropped!

Though I have no idea to keep Chefs last name as hatchet or change it to something differentiate her from the other Chef… any suggestions?

Since Nikki is also pronounced as Nicky, this is what Nicky would look like if he was a girl. 😉

That broken heart is so Class of 09.

So, the other day, I read a Rule 63!Zuko/Katara fic that had the tag “take your favorite ship then make them lesbians” (which somehow was a tag no one else had tagged their fic as, which is a real travesty), and that got me thinking. (The fic, for reference and Science Purposes)

(Rule 63, for those not familiar with the term, is a meme that says  "for every given male character, there is a female version of that character and vice versa”. In a fanfic context, Rule 63 is usually another term for ‘cisswap’/Always a girl Aus, i.e. a story where a character who is one character in canon, was born a different one in the AU. These are not the same as trans fic, though sometimes the lines can blur. The various ‘the Girl Who Lived’ fics that exist out there for Fem!Harry, for instance)

That tag is itself really interesting, and it got me thinking. Because there are het ships of mine that I would totally want to see a Rule 63 lesbian version of (i.e. where the guy was always a girl) but there are also ones that I... just wouldn’t.

So I suppose the question is: What het ships do you guys have that you still would find as interesting, and would want to see in a fic (or even consider writing in a fic) if the male character was Rule 63′d? And why?

For me, the top of the list would probably be Dramione (Harry Potter). One, because on a purely shallow level I have to imagine that femaleDraco would be very pretty (:rofl:) but also because there would be some interesting differences in the way Dacia Malfoy (placeholder name) would behave, compared to Draco. Both vis-a-vis Harry, but also Hermione. Plus, Dacia would be less the ‘bad boy’ and more likely the ‘Alpha Bitch’, which is a somewhat different set of tropes, to say the least. Would Dacia have reached out to Harry in the same way, in first year? Maybe, maybe not. Would she still have had Crabbe and Goyle as her goons, or instead say, Pansy and Millicent Bullstrode? A lot of this would also depend on how you see the gender politics among purebloods in the wizarding world (are sons more favored, or no? Are the genders equal? Are there certain expectations about women and their behavior? etc)

My second choice would be Xander/Cordelia, from BtVS. For one, it would be interesting because we could drill down into Xander’s canon behavior and try to separate what is just Xander being Xander, what is a product of his upbringing, and what is a result of him struggling with performing ideas of toxic masculinity because he believes he’s supposed to (related to the second point). If in a fic, Xandra (placeholder name) still has the same apparently shitty parents, how would it look? We can surmise that Mr. Harris presumably berated Xander about how he’d never be a real man a lot, though I can’t recall if the dream version of him does so in “Restless”. But we also know that Xander fears turning into his dad, a lot. Xendra might fear becoming an alcholic like her dad, but she may more likely fear ending up becoming like her mom - letting herself be abused rather than being the abuser, etc. It would also be interesting because, given how things were in 1997/1998, Cordelia realizing she’s gay/bi (or at least being out even to one person) would be a different dynamic. Especially if she and Xendra get caught at the same time. Or maybe Cordelia is more careful, and Xendra is more willing to be the dirty little secret she makes out with in closets? If caught, would Cordelia ever be willing to commit the possibly even greater social suicide of openly dating a girl in a late 90s High School? Or could she pull it off because she’s just that much Queen of the School? How does Willow’s crush on Xander work in an AU where she’s Xendra? If willow’s crush was about it being on a ‘safe’ and ‘unattainable’ boy (a common experience I’ve seen many cis lesbians talking about with regards to when they were younger and still thought or still tried to convince themselves they were straight), then presumably she wouldn’t have crushed on Xendra? Might she have crushed on Jesse? (or does Xendra end up being how Willow realizes she’s gay sooner?) Would Xendra have crushed on Jesse? Is Xendra gay or bi in this AU? Does she still crush on Buffy? If so, does she handle rejection or the prospect thereof better because she assumes Buffy is straight? Does she even try to ask her out?  I mean, there are others I’d read a Rule 63! Lesbian AU for, or even have, when they exist, but I have to admit I don’t find the potential dynamics inherent to be quite as interesting. And yeah, there are some het ships I ship that I just... wouldn’t find quite as interesting if they were lesbians, or just can’t see happening at all in a recognizeable way.

What do you get when a witch decides to walk into a bar? 

Apparently shenanigans that lead to a variety of potions ending up everywhere and leading to a certain... unfortunate soul dealing with a rather awkward shift.