From:        Mr. the Rutsch, jdrutsch@ucdavis.edu

I think the cop-out is that in a show about a character who *physically*
changes genders, the possibility that his id might also change genders is
scarcely considered.  That might be too serious a theme for the anime
(which is basically a slapstick comedy), but I really think it's a cop-out
that fanfic authors don't mention it.  'Specially when you consider
that lust and death, serious themes themselves, are central to two
fanfics outa three. Maybe those subjects aren't so taboo?  

To me, it's just as big a cop-out to automatically assume that the id 
*would* switch. In most of the written SF/Fantasy I've read, this is a 
very open question in gender-switching stories -- heck, in just about any 
transformation/possession/etc. story. Does the form shape the 
personality, or does the personality remain the same? I've seen it 
treated both ways, and as long as it's treated with some thought either 
way, I don't particularly care which way the author pics. And honestly, 
since some of the worst examples I've seen (like Heinlein's _I Will Fear 
No Evil_) blithely assume that when person x's personality is placed in 
body y, person x will automatically assume the nature of body y, I tend 
to view that as the biggest 'cop-out' position.

I think Takahashi did at least an above-average treatment: Ranma thinks 
of himself as a man, but over time we see some ways in which the female 
body has changed him (like the scene at the beginning of the Kodachi 
introduction in the manga, where he notes that the girl body is 'the way 
to go' when shopping for sweets.)



Travis Butler
(The Professor, formerly of Myth and Magick!, Lawrence, KS;
 tbutler@tfs.net, now from the Wandering Powerbook;
 <http://www.tfs.net/personal/tbutler/>;
 Mac page <http://www.tfs.net/business/tbutler/>)

...Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.