One of my favorite characters I built (years ago) for D&D years was magically created to be transgender by a devil playing at being a god. She looked like a woman but possessed male genitals and was mainly attracted to women, though she could be flexible. Back then, things were different socially and the character didn’t bother anyone because she was a strong moral person and it wasn’t a sexual thing. I really enjoyed the headspace and exploration for this character as she developed and came to accept her uniqueness.
Fast forward a decade, I’ve begun writing for fun and I’ve been considering going back to this character and resurrecting her. I am concerned that as a CIS male that the very idea of my writing such a character would immediately touch a nerve and set off a firestorm. So, that made me decide to come here and ask this community their thoughts on transgender characters as written by non-trangender authors.
I think that’s the best way. I’ve been watching Ranma 1/2 lately and seeing the blatant sexual stuff, which is sort of a guide for what I don’t want to do. For my character, their sexuality didn’t matter so much as discovering where she came from and who made her. That’s really where the drama comes from.
If you’ve been watching the remake, go out of your way to watch the original anime and read the manga why there is fan service? It does a lot better. It actually dealing with the subject matter it also treats the female characters with a lot more respect than the remake does
Is more fan service but even still. It comes from a time when sexual stuff like that wasn’t seen as taboo as much in the medium. So while the fan service stuff is more egregious when they are being serious, it is far better done.