Asking two questions I always wanted to ask. 1)Do you like racial transformations? If you do, which ones? 2)I think you like “redneck” transformations a lot, but the problem is, people outside US (like me) doesn’t get it very well. Well, of course, I “know” what redneck is, (thanks to the wikipedia!) and I kind of like it, but hard to “feel” what would be like to be “transformed into a redneck”. So my second question is this: could you tell us what elements of redneck intrigue you so much?

*Sigh* and where’s where I try my very best to avoid hypocrisy, and probably fail. Here’s the short answers.

1) I’m not usually a fan of racial TFs. Mostly because they are stereotype driven, and frankly, they’re just insulting for the most part. There are some that are done well, but they usually are just as insulting, but fail in interesting ways.

2) I like redneck TF’s because I like the stereotype, and forcing someone to conform to that stereotype is hot.

Do you see my dilemma?

At the heart, racial transformations and class transformations are the same side of the coin. They involve taking someone from outside of that race/class, and forcing them to conform to the norms of that race/class against their will. Each race and class has it’s own unique visual, mental and historical triggers which people like to see in the stories, and these triggers are generally derived from the stereotypical associations these classes represent. 

Now, if these types of transformations are all of a kind, how in the hell do I defend redneck transformations while saying racial transformations are somehow immoral? After all, no one really lives like the rednecks in my stories–they’re all cliche and horror trope for the most part. They are, in many ways, a class within society which is as downtrodden, disenfranchised, poor, and uneducated as a “ghetto black,” which I have seen in countless racial TF’s. But here, I think, is perhaps the crux of how it works out in my head.

I have no real interest in turning “being a certain race” into someone’s punishment. There is nothing inherently wrong with being black/asian/native american/latino etc. However, in racial TF stories, more often than not, this state of skin change is seen as something inherently negative–and that’s something I just don’t believe is true, or should ever be reinforced. 

However, forcing someone into a class, to me, seems slightly more forgiving. I definitely treat “becoming a redneck” as a punishment, but the punishing aspects aren’t derived from anything intrinsic–it’s all circumstantial and learned behaviors. Racial changes that are framed this way tend to bother me much less, for the record, where the skin change is less crucial, and the crux of the TF lies in making the person have the racial experience of blackness–not because that experience is morally wrong–but because it forces them to experience something they could never have imagined. This nuance, however, is not easy to convey, and even harder to write, and if done poorly just makes you a racist, and so I figure it’s probably safer to:

Not use people of color or racial TFs in my stories, unless specifically requested by a commissioner (and even then, I do my best to dissuade them if I can). As shitty as it is to only use white people in stories (and it is a shit choice, trust me) I’d rather do that than grossly insult someone because I undermine a racial experience I could never understand or fathom.

If you’d like to hate on me, feel free. And if you’d like to show me a better way of looking at it, I’d sure appreciate that, because I get real tired of knowing I have this borderline hypocrisy, lol.