History Main / FirstLawOfGenderbending

* ''Manga/BokuGirl'' tends to tip the scales in favor of Mizuki's female form, with him spending more time and seemingly getting more fulfilment than he did as a male. [[spoiler:He ultimately decides to stick with the change by the end, as per usual. Loki ''does'' give Mizuki the option to change back if she ever loves the opposite gender to her body, but since she's in love with Takeru now, the scales are still tipped Female. Similarly to ''Kashimashi'' there is strong evidence that Mizuki was a transgender girl even before the change, albeit far more closeted because of his father's influence.]]

* The fake Mashiro in the ''Manga/MyOtome'' manga coincidently takes the appearance of the young, flat-chested loli character. He's rarely out of drag, perhaps to [[StupidSexyFlanders placate fans with generous dissonance]].

** Once Ranma acquires his [[SexShifter gender-changing]] {{curse}}, no attempt at curing it works, at least not permanently. Further, many fans have observed that he seems to attract water (which triggers the change) as easily as fiancées and rivals. However, situations where Ranma could be [[ShapeshifterModeLock rendered permanently female ''also'' are undone, so the Law than StatusQuoIsGod.

* Exception: Makoto in ''Anime/ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld'' gets to stop dressing up as Princess Fatora once the real princess returns.

* This is initially averted in ''Fanfic/DiariesOfAMadman'', with Nav being able to freely switch genders thanks to his artifact. Later on they break, resulting in him being trapped as a female. It doesn't go down well.
* In ''Fanfic/HappyDaze'', Fonzie from ''Series/HappyDays'' becomes a woman named "Francie" because of Mork from Ork. She stays as Francie.
* In ''Fanfic/WhenAPonyCalls'', Soren the male, human protagonist, starts off getting [[FreakyFridayFlip body swapped with Lyra]], a female unicorn, then through an accident on Lyra's part, his human body gets gender bent, and ''then'' [[spoiler: he realizes Equestria's natural magical energy isn't reacting well with his human body, causing it to morph into a ''pony body'' instead.]] While the body swapping is thankfully undone at the end, the gender bending and [[spoiler: species change]] is not, even the sequel, ''Fanfic/TheAlchemistsHeart'', where our [[spoiler: formerly]] human protagonist Soren, [[spoiler: now pegasus Silver Script]] '''does''' discover a way to reliably change a pony's gender she doesn't change back. Though this is justified in that at this point, Soren's[[spoiler: /Silver's]] old life on Earth has been completely ruined with no way to repair it, so instead she decides to just accept her new life in Equestria as a female [[spoiler: pony]].

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2616176/1/Dragon-Lady-of-Macross Dragon Lady of Macross]]'', [[Anime/RanmaOneHalf Ranma Saotome]] elects to play this trope even straighter than the source material did. Due to the requirement of scalding water, Ranma comes to the decision that it would be much easier to just live as a female instead of trying to go back to being a male.

* The ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'':.

* ''OnimaiImNowYourSister'': The story is focused on Mahiro being turned from a college-aged man to a middle school-aged girl, courtesy her TeenGenius sister's mad science. The effects of the drug that transformed him are strictly temporary, however every time they would start to wear off it's at a moment that would be horrifically inconvenient for Mahiro and requires him to take another dose to stay a girl for longer. The first time it happened was when he, his sister Mihari, her friend Kaede, and Kaede's younger sister Momiji, were in a hot spring together.

** Once Ranma acquires his gender-changing {{curse}}, no attempt at curing it works, at least not permanently. Further, many fans have observed that he seems to attract water (which triggers the change) as easily as fiancées and rivals. However, attempts by other characters at making Ranma permanently female ''also'' fail, so this may be less the Law than StatusQuoIsGod, a common trope in author Creator/RumikoTakahashi's works.
*** The only verified, permanent cure for a Cursed Spring curse is to bathe in the water of your original form; so Shampoo would need to bathe in the water of Spring of Drowned Girl (which ironically gave Ranma his curse to begin with). Every other main cursed character would need to bathe in water from Spring of Drowned Man. However, RuleOfFunny means that every time they NEARLY get it, they lose it somehow.

* Averted in ''Manga/ShugoChara'', mostly because [[spoiler:[[WholesomeCrossdresser Nagihiko]] is hiding from Amu that he and Nadeshiko are actually the same person]].

* Averted with the Master in ''Series/DoctorWho''. After introducing a female incarnation for the first time, she is followed by a male one a season after last appearance.

* Inversion: Sailor Starlights from ''Anime/SailorMoon''. They spend significantly more screen time in male identities, to various degrees, with the handwaving that this makes their act of posing as pop idol singers looking for a lost love more convincing. Of course, the show is [[{{shojo}} aimed at girls]]... This is, however, only present in the anime; in the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]], they're just cross-dressing women and pretty much everyone knows it.

* Inversion: Sailor Starlights from ''Anime/SailorMoon''. They spend significantly more screen time in male identities, to various degrees, with the handwaving that this makes their act of posing as pop idol singers looking for a lost love more convincing. Of course, the show is [[{{shojo}} aimed at girls]]...
** This is, however, only present in the anime; in the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]], they're just cross-dressing women and pretty much everyone knows it.

* Inverted in ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'': Haruhi is a {{Bifauxnen}} girl who's required to pretend she's a guy in the host club to WorkOfTheDebt, and has androgynous tastes in clothing anyway, so it's actually quite rare for her to be dressed like a girl.

* Inverted in ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'': the club members conspire to conceal Haruhi's true gender as soon as it's revealed.

** Averted in a gender storyline, where Helen spends a full week of strips male before Dave is turned into a woman, and they switch back simultaneously.
** But once that can of worms was opened, they never could close it again. Dave may not remain a woman permanently, but they transform on many occasions, particularly [[spoiler:after Helen and Dave fall in love and start having sex a lot. Now ''think'' about that for a [[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic/series.php?view=archive&chapter=10333 moment]]]]. It is treated less as a plot point and more as a "thing mad scientists do", along with drugging the coffee and breeding super-gerbils. Also, [[spoiler:Dave gives birth to their child]]. He's even aware beforehand that it's how things will likely come to pass, given that Helen's a mad scientist.

* Subverted in ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' when Adam, a {{transgender}} man already living as a male when introduced, detransitions once before reverting to his male persona within the episode and burning his last remaining girl clothes.

* Male-to-female sex reassignment surgery is easier to perform, and more closely matches the target sex, than female-to-male sex reassignment surgery. From a tissue-manipulation perspective, it's simply easier to make a convincing vagina out of a penis than the other way around. Inverted by by the hormonal side of gender reassignment. While male-to-female hormone replacement results in a softening of the skin, the development of breasts, fat redistribution resulting in a more feminine figure, thinner body hair and sometimes a change in emotional outlook, most of these can be reversed with female-to-male hormones. (Well, except for the breasts. They usually require surgery to remove. Female-to-male hormonal replacement, on the other hand, includes many permanent changes such as beard growth, baldness, development of the adam's apple and deepened voice; similar to the permanent changes a male experiences in puberty. Male-to-female hormonal replacement cannot reverse any of the aforementioned effects.

*** And moving even on FARTHER, the "Squirrel Prophet" storyline has Tedd experience his first ''involuntary'' gender change, when his great godmother decides to try doing him a favour, with unexpected results.
*** Eventually Tedd even gains the unique ability to alter his "base" form, and thus can decide to stay permanent as either gender.

* The fake Mashiro in the ''Manga/MaiOtome'' manga coincidently takes the appearance of the young, flat-chested loli character. He's rarely out of drag, perhaps to [[StupidSexyFlanders placate fans with generous dissonance]].

* Seen progressively in ''Manga/YoureUnderArrest''. In the original season, Aoi is originally discovered to wear falsies and the animators make a point to be careful about what outfits they put her in. In later ones, Aoi wears virtually anything the standard girls can wear; we only get the fact dropped in the season premieres, and the requisite [[OncePerEpisode Once A Season]] episode starring him.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2616176/1/Dragon-Lady-of-Macross Dragon Lady of Macross]]'', [[ForWantOfANail due to needing water just below boiling to go back to male]], [[Anime/RanmaOneHalf Ranma Saotome]] elects to remain as a female instead of trying to live as a male.

* Mizuho in ''VisualNovel/OtomeWaBokuNiKoishiteru'' not only gets to stay at the girls' school after being discovered, but volunteers to do so. Except for an obscured view of his face early on, we never get to see him in a 'male' persona. The manga shows his face in his 'male' persona, and he still IS cute.

* Mister Sinister himself became subject to the First Law later. After trying to bodyswap with Professor Xavier unsuccessfully, the only available body was a female clone of himself. "Miss" Sinister has since had a fling with Wolverine's son Comicbook/{{Daken}}, and is [[AttractiveBentGender disturbingly attractive]] considering her origin. However, this character doesn't share Mister Sinister's memories, so it's debatable whether she is "really" him.

* ''Comicbook/ShadeTheChangingMan'' had to take over the body of a drowning woman in order to stay alive himself. Overnight, it reverted to female form and could not be changed back until he found the person responsible for the woman's death. Even after solving that mystery, his female features would re-emerge from time to time until he abandoned the body to fight death on its own terrain.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'' begins with the evil spirit Shirogane turning Matsuri female just before [[BroughtDownToNormal having most of his power sealed away]]. The only one who can turn Matsuri back is Shirogane himself, and only if his powers are restored. Obviously, Matsuri doesn't want to empower a monster that tried to eat his friend Suzu, especially when [[ItOnlyWorksOnce he can't seal his power away a second time]]. Personally, Matsuri would rather just exorcise Shirogane and accept that he won't change back. Suzu objects, and together they embark on the rather difficult task of reforming Shirogane so he'll willing make Matsuri male and not harm humans any more. Later on, Suzu discovers she could potentially restore him under her own power, but it's far beyond anything she can do now. [[spoiler:Shirogane ends up befriending Suzu relatively quickly, but loses his power [[DePower permanently]] [[YankTheDogsChain right before he may have changed Matsuri back]]. After that, their best bet is for Suzu to learn to RePower Shirogane, with no idea if or when she's be able to.]]